Africa

Just a few weeks ago, Abiy Ahmed was feted across Africa but deadly attacks threatens his reforms.

Fake accounts trying to capitalise on social media campaigns are rife on the photo-sharing platform.

Chief Mkwawa died 16 years before WW1 began but his skull was mentioned in the treaty that ended the conflict.

The discussion with villagers starts early in the morning. Volunteers are invited to draw a map of their village on the ground with chalk. One woman’s sketch shows 17 families – a total of 65 people – living in 11 red clay houses. She explains they share the three latrines that have been there for some time.

The looting and destruction of UN food relief agency premises and property in Sudan, has prompted the UN-African Union mission in Darfur (UNAMID) and UN Country Team, to condemn the assault as a “blatant violation of international humanitarian law”.

The international community must not take the generosity of Africans for granted, UN refugee chief, Filippo Grandi, told an informal meeting of Security Council members at UN Headquarters in New York on Monday.

More than 80 per cent of schools in the English-speaking North-West and South-West regions of Cameroon are closed, as the security situation and living conditions continue to deteriorate due to the three-year conflict between the Government and armed groups, the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, reported on Friday.

Cracking down on Catholic Church activities, arbitrary arrest and imprisonment of Orthodox and other Christian congregation members in Eritrea, prompted a call from a UN independent rights expert on Friday for the Government to respect citizens' freedom of religion and to “release those who have been imprisoned for their religious beliefs”.

Although the Government of the Central African Republic (CAR), armed groups and civil society representatives are all taking part in the process that followed the signing of a deal signed in February, civilians continue to suffer daily acts of violence, the top UN official in the country told the Security Council on Thursday. 

The UN Security Council must “seize this moment” presented by the current turmoil in Sudan, to provide justice at long last for the victims of violence in Darfur, and those who have suffered at the hands of the brutal military crackdown earlier this month.  

More than 300,000 people have been forced to flee resurgent inter-ethnic violence in north-east Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) just this month, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Tuesday.

The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, on Sunday condemned an attack that took place on Saturday in Wajir County, Kenya, in which at least eight police officers were killed when their car struck an improvised explosive device (IED), as well as a car bomb attack in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in which at least eight people were killed. 

The joint African Union-UN Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), is suspending the handover of any more camps for displaced civilians to the Sudanese military, against a backdrop of worsening violence and insecurity across the country.

Record numbers in South Sudan – some seven million people – face acute food shortages, while more than 20,000 are close to famine, the World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Friday.

Following recent reports of attacks and rape by security forces and paramilitaries against the pro-democracy protesters in Sudan who have been holding a sit-in outside army headquarters in the capital, Khartoum, the United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, expressed “grave concern” on Thursday and called for an “immediate and complete” end to the violence.

Together with Uganda, UN humanitarian agencies are racing to contain deadly Ebola virus disease (EVD) there, after the announcement that it has claimed a second victim.

June 12, 2019 (JUBA) - South Sudan President Salva Kiir Wednesday unexpectedly relieved his Oil Minister Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth who served for nearly three years in this position.

Gatkuoth was appointed as oil minister on 2 August 2016; following the defection from the SPLM-IO of a faction led by First Vice President Taban Deng who joined the government of President Salva Kiir.

Government officials declined to comment on the sack of the former oil minister but some others hinted that he was appointed under the proposition of the leader of his party.

In another separate decree, the South Sudanese leader appointed Awow Daniel Chuang, who was the director general at the petroleum ministry, as the new minister.

It has been admitted that Gatkuoth worked hard to increase oil production as it is the only source of revenue to the country.

However, he was seen as an ambitious politician, seeking to promote people from his clan in the party's sections particularly in Latjor State.

last February, South Sudanese Water Resources and Irrigation Sophia Pal Gai accused Gatkuoth of interfering in the activities of her ministry and supplying water facilities to in various areas of Juba, Northern Liech and Ruweng states without coordination with her ministry.

Nonetheless, the former minister at the time refuted the accusations.

Also, on Wednesday, Kiir also relieved Jonglei government Philip Aguer the former SPLA spokesperson.

(ST)

Addressing the Security Council at UN Headquarters in New York on Wednesday, the head of the UN Mission in Mali, MINUSMA, said that amid ongoing violence, including scores of civilian deaths and deadly attacks on UN peacekeepers, a critical phase of the peace process had now been reached.

June 11, 2019 (KHARTOUM) - The United Nations Security Tuesday strongly condemned the attacks on civilians by the militiamen of the Rapid Support forces nine days ago.

A UN Security Council meeting (Photo: UN/Paulo Filgueiras)

Despite the important number of victims which has reached over 100 peaceful protesters, China and Russia had blocked a bid at the Security Council by Germany and United Kingdom on 5 June to condemn the killing of civilians on 3 June.

However, after the decision of the African Union's Peace and Security Council to suspend Sudan's membership the two countries had to pretext to veto the condemnation of the flagrant violation of human rights.

“The Members of the Council strongly condemned the recent violence in the Republic of the Sudan and expressed their regret for the loss of lives and injuries amongst civilians,” reads the statement which was unanimously adopted.

The (…) Council encouraged the Secretary-General to continue to support regional and international efforts, in particular, those led by the African Union, to facilitate and agree on a national transitional process for the benefit of the people of Sudan, and without prejudice to future agreements of Sudanese stakeholders and, as stated by the African Union, without external interference,” further stressed the statement.

The ruling military council on Monday acknowledged that some of its military elements were involved in the attack on the pro-democracy sit-in, and pledged to release the findings of its investigations.

Several texts released on the social media claims that the bloody attack was planned by Islamist in the security apparatus who used the militia of the former ruling National Congress Party.

However, activists who were at the protest site asserted that the was carried out by the RSF forces from Darfur region.

(ST)

June 11, 2019 (KHARTOUM) - The ruling Transitional Military Council (TMC) and the opposition Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) have agreed to resume talks on the Sovereign Council and to cease escalation, said the Ethiopian mediator Mohamoud Dirir on Tuesday.

Opposition officials leaked that the TMC in its meetings with Dirir agreed to give the presidency of the collegial presidential body to the civilians together with the majority of seats, after refusing during the past weeks.

In a press conference held on Tuesday, the special envoy of the Ethiopian Prime Minister said he held separate discussions with the TMC head Ahmed al-Burhan and the FFC leaders to facilitate the resumption of talks on the remaining sticking points.

In addition, he said the two sides agreed to "refrain from inflammatory statements" and create a conducive environment before the resumption of talks.

The TMC "agreed to take confidence-building measures including the release of Political Prisoners" and the FFC "agreed to call-off the Civil-Disobedience," he added.

Following the attack on the main site of protest on 3 June and the killing of over 100 people, the opposition suspended sine die the talks and declared open-ended general protest to force the army to leave power.

On Monday, the military council admitted that some military personnel have been involved in the bloody attack on the sit-in of pro-democracy protesters and pledged to release the finding of its investigation committee within 72 hours.

For its part, the FFC announced the temporary suspension of the general strike starting from Wednesday but called on its neighbourhood committees to continue the mobilisations for the resumption of the strike.

The three-day strike was largely followed by the Sudanese and allowed the opposition to show its strong popular support.

In their previous discussions, the two sides agreed that during the three-year transitional period the county will be ruled by a collegial presidency, and a government of technocrats to achieve democratic and economic reforms and an appointed parliament with a majority of 67% to the FFC.

(ST)