Africa

By Paul Brandus

January 13, 2017 (WASHINGTON) - Pleased with the Sudanese government's efforts in fighting terrorism, President Barack Obama - with just days left in his administration- is moving to loosen economic sanctions against it.

The president signed an executive order Friday easing - but not eliminating -sanctions, which would permit greater trade and investment between the two nations.

But the timing of Mr. Obama's move pushes any final approval onto the incoming administration of Donald Trump, who takes office on January 20.

In announcing the move here Friday, the president, in a letter to Republican leaders in Congress, said "I have determined that the situation that gave rise to the actions taken in those orders related to the policies and actions of the government of Sudan has been altered by Sudan's positive actions over the past six months.”

The lifting of sanctions would be delayed by 180 days, however. The delay is seen as a way of further encouraging the Sudanese government to continue its anti-terror fight—and to improve its record on human rights. The six month delay means that by July 12, U.S. government groups will confirm to the White House—which by then will be controlled by Trump—that Sudan has continued to be cooperative on both fronts.

The United States first imposed sanctions on Sudan in 1997, during the presidency of Bill Clinton. Those sanctions included a trade embargo and freezing of government's assets, for what the U.S. called human rights violations and terrorism concerns. Additional sanctions were imposed in 2006, during the presidency of George W Bush, what the U.S. called complicity in violence that was occurring in the Darfur region of Sudan.

The move is not seen as unexpected, and follows a warming of relations between the two nations. But the U.S. will continue to label Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism, the White House emphasized.

Attention now shifts to the Trump administration. Neither the president-elect or any members of his staff have commented on their Sudanese views. One Trump official who asked not to be identified said that the issue of sanctions “is something that we are looking at,” adding that it is “too early to make any sort of determination about our future relationship.”

One U.S. official said the Obama administration has been pleased with Sudanese efforts to curb travel by members of the so called Islamic Sate (ISIS) through Sudan, and Khartoum's crackdown on alleged shipments of Iranian weapons to anti-Israeli groups.

Friday's White House announcement emphasized that sanctions being eased could easily be re-applied as needed in the future, if the Khartoum government's actions deem such a reversal necessary.

One U.S. official compared Friday's move to other American efforts to reach out to nations with him it has had bad—or nonexistent relations with, such as Iran, Cuba, and Myanmar.

(ST)

Ivory Coast's government has come to an agreement with mutinous soldiers despite renewed gunfire.

One man's journey from Mogadishu to Toronto and Parliament Hill.

The Government of the Central African Republic (CAR) and the United Nations humanitarian country team today launched the nearly $400 million response plan for the 2017-2019 period to meet the basic needs of 2.2 million Central Africans.

Briefing the Security Council on the situation in West Africa and the Sahel region, a senior United Nations official cited a “rising tide of democracy” throughout the continent, noting that a number of countries had recently held elections which largely complied with electoral norms and standards, upholding their status a model in the region and beyond.

Goat farming in Zambia is set to grow in importance with huge demand from Saudi Arabia.

A Somali town tries limits the cost of weddings, saying married young men are less likely to migrate.

Learn about the hosts Gabon, the players to watch and the potential winners ahead of the start of the Nations Cup on Saturday.

A selection of the best photos from across Africa this week.

January 13, 2017 (JUBA) - The Governor of Latjor state in South Sudan has appointed nine county commissioners after a series of consultations.

The map of Upper Nile state

Peter Lam Both, according to the January 11 2017 order, named John Jock Thoar as the new Nasir county commissioner with Nasir town as its administrative headquarters.

Moses Ruon Wech was appointed as the new Ulang county commissioner, Paul Biel Chuol as Maiwut county commissioner at Maiwut, Dok Tuach Bithou as Longechuk county commissioner with Mathiang as its administrative headquarter.

Gatkuoth Biem Nyoak as Thior County commissioner at Yomding, John Wiyual Rutkoch as Thorow County commissioner at Mading.

Others are Gatwech Jock Deng as Malou county commissioner at Kieckuon, Puok as Thuch Deang-Jekou county at Pagak, the headquarters of armed opposition as its administrative headquarters, Keach Pal Gach as Kaijak county commissioner with Udier as its administrative headquarter.

(ST)

Dortmund striker Aubameyang may command a multi-million pound price tag, but he is not Gabon's most lucrative export.

January 12, 2017 (JUBA) – A forum of South Sudanese youth issued a statement on Thursday, calling on national unity government to recognize the existence of the armed opposition in the country.

Section of participants during the Youth peace and reconciliation workshop in Wau on 5, November, 2016 (ST Photo)

“The South Sudan Youth leaders forum calls upon the TGoNU [Transitional Government of National Unity] to recognize that there are armed groups engaged in hostilities across the country and urge the TGoNU to peacefully engage these groups in order to end was and usher in an era of reconciliation and healing”, partly reads the resolution derived at end of a two-day conference held in Kenya.

50 youth from different states of South Sudan, who used the opportunity to examine the situation facing the country through shared ideas about how this can be improved in-order to move the nation from the devastating conflict, attended the event.

Sponsored by International Growth center, United States agency for international development and the World Bank, the conference which was mainly graced by government supporters underlined the importance of the national dialogue which they see as the only means through which disputes could be resolved in the country.

It called on armed actors to declare an unconditional ceasefire and recommended that a credible, impartial and acceptable national dialogue be led by the faith based organizations, particularly South Sudan Council of Churches with the help of African council of churches and the world council of churches.

South Sudan national union chairperson, Albino Bol Dhieu and other government affiliated groups, including members and leaders of a deeply-divided Red army foundation, took part in the consultative dialogue.

(ST)

January 12, 2017 (KHARTOUM) - A prominent human rights defender said on Thursday that Khartoum airport security agents prevented him flying to Egypt and told him he was banned from travel.

Amin Mekki Medani, top lawyer and rights defender, speaks during an interview with the AP in his house, Khartoum, on April 13, 2015 (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)

Amin Mekki Medani, Chairman of Civil Society Initiative group told Sudan Tribune he and his family members were banned from travel to Cairo where he would undergo a surgery.

"The Khartoum airport authorities seized our passports me and the family after we completed the immigration process, they informed me that I am temporarily banned from traveling and asked me to go to the office of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS)," he said.

He added that his wife and daughter were travelling with him as he would undergo a surgery in Cairo.

His travel ban coincides with a meeting the opposition Sudan Call plan to hold in France next week.

In the past, Madani had been arrested on 6 December 2014 for four months by the security service for his participation in a meeting establishing the opposition Sudan Call alliance. He was released on 9 April 2015 together with Farouq Abu Eissa the chairman of the opposition National Consensus Forces.

(ST)

January 12, 2017 (JUBA) – The acting head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), Moustapha Soumaré said he met with the South Sudanese Minister for Cabinet Affairs, Martin Lumoro during which the latter said his government's position remains unchanged on the deployment of regional protection forces.

S. Sudan cabinet minister Martin Elia Lomoro (Photo KT Press)

The UN official had requested clarification on various press reports, which cited senior government officials saying government had changed its position on the deployment of the protection force.

Lomoro said government's position was in line with the relevant Security Council resolutions that government would continue to facilitate the deployment of the regional force.

The Security Council, in its Resolution 2304, decided that UNMISS force levels be increased to a ceiling of 17,000 troops, including 4,000 for a regional protection force. UNMISS also confirmed that in preparation for the arrival of the protection force, it continues to be engaged in discussions with the Transitional Government of National Unity as to the various modalities for the new force, including where they will be deployed in Juba.

Last week, the South Sudanese presidential advisor on security affairs, Tut Gatluak was quoted saying Juba would not accept the deployment of regional protection forces, claiming the country's security situation had greatly improved.

In an interview with Sudan Tribune, the presidential advisor on security affairs, questioned whether it was still necessity to send regional protection forces.

“They were talking about security but now security situation has improved. Juba is safe and everyone is the witness. The Christmas and New Year celebrations went well, now you can move freely because security situation has improved. The national dialogue has been launched and the agreement is being implemented," said Gatluak.

The cantonment sites for SPLA-IO forces have been agreed and directives have been given for them to move into these area. Everything is moving well”, he added.

South Sudan's defence minister, Kuol Manyang Juuk also dismissed claims that fighting still existed in Juba hence the need to justify deployment of the force.

“We acknowledge that there are problems in South Sudan and it is our duty as government to resolve these challenges," Juuk told a gathering held in Juba.

He accused the U.N of compiling reports from individuals in order to justify calls for the deployment of the regional protection force to back up other voices.

(ST)

The Africa-France Summit, taking place Friday and Saturday in Bamako, Mali, offers an important moment for African countries and France to stand with victims of grave international crimes by voicing their support for the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Withdrawals from the ICC, announced by South Africa, Gambia, and Burundi, pose unprecedented challenges for the court in Africa and could impede access to justice for victims of heinous crimes when their own country’s courts are not an option.
 

While the ICC is not on the official summit agenda, those attending can still find time to discuss how to best counter unwarranted attacks on the court in Africa.

A number of African countries, including Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, have said that they will not join the withdrawals, some even announcing this at the ICC’s annual member meeting in November 2016. But more robust, coordinated backing of the court is needed, particularly ahead of the next African Union (AU) summit, which will take place in Ethiopia from January 22 to 31, 2017.

Benin lawyer Francis Dako said it well in Jeune Afrique this week:

The major gathering of senior African and French representatives in Africa – in Bamako on January 13 and 14 [is] a unique opportunity to reiterate their public support for the International Criminal Court…. It is equally crucial for this summit to encourage in-depth exchanges between the African Union and the ICC to find solutions to shared concerns.

Activists in Mali issued a press release with a similar call.
 

Related Content

• Mali civil society letter on the Africa-France summit

Like other courts, the ICC has its problems, but it is not targeting Africa over other regions as some critics claim. The majority of its investigations in Africa came about from a request by the affected African country. The cases it has pursued – including for crimes committed in Mali, Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Central African Republic – help to bring justice for African victims.

Hundreds of activists across Africa, working with Human Rights Watch and other groups, have called for their governments to support and strengthen the ICC. African countries can do so through a more coordinated, public stance on the issue. 

(Washington, DC) – The rise of populist leaders in the United States and Europe poses a dangerous threat to basic rights protections while encouraging abuse by autocrats around the world, Human Rights Watch said today in launching its World Report 2017. Donald Trump’s election as US president after a campaign fomenting hatred and intolerance, and the rising influence of political parties in Europe that reject universal rights, have put the postwar human rights system at risk. Expand

World Report 2017. Cover: Men carrying babies make their way through the rubble of destroyed buildings after an airstrike on the rebel-held Salihin neighborhood of Syria’s northern city of Aleppo, September 2016.

© 2016 Ameer Alhalbi/Agence France Presse/Getty Images

Meanwhile, strongman leaders in Russia, Turkey, the Philippines, and China have substituted their own authority, rather than accountable government and the rule of law, as a guarantor of prosperity and security. These converging trends, bolstered by propaganda operations that denigrate legal standards and disdain factual analysis, directly challenge the laws and institutions that promote dignity, tolerance, and equality, Human Rights Watch said.

In the 687-page World Report, its 27th edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in more than 90 countries. In his introductory essay, Executive Director Kenneth Roth writes that a new generation of authoritarian populists seeks to overturn the concept of human rights protections, treating rights not as an essential check on official power but as an impediment to the majority will.

“The rise of populism poses a profound threat to human rights,” Roth said. “Trump and various politicians in Europe seek power through appeals to racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and nativism. They all claim that the public accepts violations of human rights as supposedly necessary to secure jobs, avoid cultural change, or prevent terrorist attacks. In fact, disregard for human rights offers the likeliest route to tyranny.”

Roth cited Trump’s presidential campaign in the US as a vivid illustration of the politics of intolerance. He said that Trump responded to those discontented with their economic situation and an increasingly multicultural society with rhetoric that rejected basic principles of dignity and equality. His campaign floated proposals that would harm millions of people, including plans to engage in massive deportations of immigrants, to curtail women’s rights and media freedoms, and to use torture. Unless Trump repudiates these proposals, his administration risks committing massive rights violations in the US and shirking a longstanding, bipartisan belief, however imperfectly applied, in a rights-based foreign policy agenda.

The rise of populist leaders in the United States and Europe poses a dangerous threat to basic rights protections while encouraging abuse by autocrats around the world.

In Europe, a similar populism sought to blame economic dislocation on migration. The campaign for Brexit was perhaps the most prominent illustration, Roth said.

Instead of scapegoating those fleeing persecution, torture, and war, governments should invest to help immigrant communities integrate and fully participate in society, Roth said. Public officials also have a duty to reject the hatred and intolerance of the populists while supporting independent and impartial courts as a bulwark against the targeting of vulnerable minorities, Roth said.

The populist-fueled passions of the moment tend to obscure the longer-term dangers to a society of strongman rule, Roth said. In Russia, Vladimir Putin responded to popular discontent in 2011 with a repressive agenda, including draconian restrictions on free speech and assembly, unprecedented sanctions for online dissent, and laws severely restricting independent groups. China’s leader, Xi Jinping, concerned about the slowdown in economic growth, has embarked on the most intense crackdown on dissent since the Tiananmen era.

In Syria, President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah, has honed a war-crime strategy of targeting civilians in opposition areas, flouting the most fundamental requirements of the laws of war. Forces of the self-proclaimed Islamic State, also known as ISIS, have also routinely attacked civilians and executed people in custody while encouraging and carrying out attacks on civilian populations around the globe.

More than 5 million Syrians fleeing the conflict have faced daunting obstacles in finding safety. Jordan, Turkey, and Lebanon are hosting millions of Syrian refugees but have largely closed their borders to new arrivals. European Union leaders have failed to share responsibility fairly for asylum seekers or to create safe routes for refugees. Despite years of US leadership on refugee resettlement, the US resettled only 12,000 Syrian refugees last year, and Trump has threatened to end the program.

2016 in Numbers

In Africa, a disconcerting number of leaders have removed or extended term limits – the “constitutional coup” – to stay in office, while others have used violent crackdowns to suppress protests over unfair elections or corrupt or predatory rule. Several African leaders, feeling vulnerable to prosecution, harshly criticized the International Criminal Court and three countries announced their withdrawal.

This global attack needs a vigorous reaffirmation and defense of the human rights values underpinning the system, Roth said. Yet too many public officials seem to have their heads in the sand, hoping the winds of populism will blow over. Others emulate the populists, hoping to pre-empt their message but instead reinforcing it, Roth said. Governments ostensibly committed to human rights should defend these principles far more vigorously and consistently, Roth said, including democracies in Latin America, Africa, and Asia that support broad initiatives at the United Nations but rarely take the lead in responding to particular countries in crisis.

Ultimately, responsibility lies with the public, Roth said. Demagogues build popular support by proffering false explanations and cheap solutions to genuine ills. The antidote is for voters to demand a politics based on truth and the values on which rights-respecting democracy is built. A strong popular reaction, using every means available – civic groups, political parties, traditional and social media – is the best defense of the values that so many still cherish.

“We forget at our peril the demagogues of the past: the fascists, communists, and their ilk who claimed privileged insight into the majority’s interest but ended up crushing the individual,” Roth said. “When populists treat rights as obstacles to their vision of the majority will, it is only a matter of time before they turn on those who disagree with their agenda.”

Gambia's President-elect, Adama Barrow, urges the incumbent, Yahya Jammeh, to engage in direct talks.

January 11, 2017 (BOR) - Jonglei state lawmakers are investigating processes that led to an unauthorized loan of up to 27 million SSP.

South Sudanese pounds being exchanged (UN)

The deputy speaker of the state assembly, Alier Maler, said money was withdrawn from the state treasury, without parliament knowing.

Jonglei's workforce consists of an estimated 5,000 employees. Salaries meant to cover these staff are above 6m pound, monthly.

According to Maler, to cover up the gap, the ministry of finance allegedly claimed to have borrowed loan of 6 million from the commercial bank without approval from the assembly in August.

The minister was thus summoned to appear on Thursday last week.

“We summoned the minister to tell us the purpose for which the money was borrowed. He said the money was used to top up the salaries for the employees”, explained the deputy speaker.

Members of parliament were, however, not convinced with what new finance minister, James Akech presented, and was rescheduled to appear again before MPs within the month to answer questions.

Apart from the 6million that parliament heard about, the lawmakers were also informed about the total liability that the government had accumulated over time, which had amounted to about 27 million.

No single approval was granted by the parliament, as the law requires.

“If there is a lot of money that needs to be borrowed from another institution, like the commercial bank, there must be approval from the assembly, but this was not done, we don't know about it. We also asked to see if there was approval from the council of ministers, we want to know this huge money was approved by whom?” he asked.

He added, “There is no single person that can approval this money, it is a lot of money for the state. And where will the state get money to pay it [loan] back?”.

During the questioning session of the minister, the bank overdraft and the loan appeared confusing to members of the state parliament.

“Loan and overdraft were contradicting, so it was not clear. We want to have credit advice about the money that comes from Juba, we don't know if it is not enough as they claim, but we have not reach that stage, we are still on the process”, said Maler.

“This 27 million, how does it come? So we asked the ministry to put it in details, we are not sure about the liabilities which they said, what are they? What happened till they sum up to 27 million? So the assembly needed more clarification from the ministry of finance”, added.

(ST)

January 12, 2017 (KHARTOUM) - The African Union and the United Nations Thursday appointed a South African diplomat as new head of the hybrid peacekeeping mission in western Sudan region of Darfur.

Jeremiah Nyamane Kingsley Mamabolo (UN Photo)

"United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and African Union Commission Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma announced today the appointment of Jeremiah Nyamane Kingsley Mamabolo of South Africa as Acting Joint Special Representative for Darfur and Head of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID)".

Mamabolo replaces Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi of Nigeria who left the mission last week, one year after his appointment.

Since March 2016, he has been serving UNAMID as the Deputy Joint Special Representative, overseeing political, human rights, and legal aspects of the Mission's activities.

He also served as Permanent Representative of South Africa to the United Nations from 2013 to 2016.

It is not clear if Mamabolo's responsibilities including those of African Union-United Nations Joint Chief Mediator.

Uhomoibhi had a very limited role since his competences had been transferred to the head of the African Union High level Implementation Panel (AUHIP).

(ST)

January 12, 2017 (JUBA) - The governor of the newly created Wau state in South Sudan has issued an order sacking his deputy, less than six months since the appointment was made.

Wau state governor Andrea Mayar Acho (ST Photo)

Governor Andrea Mayar Achor, according to a January 11th order, removed Pasquale Joseph Ayan from his position as the deputy governor.

The order did not give ex-deputy another assignment and did not explain the reason for such an abrupt change in the administration.

Ayan served as Bazilia county commissioner when his status was elevated to the position of deputy governor and became a minister of local government.

(ST)