Saturday 1 March 2014
US to withdraw military aid to S. Sudan as tension escalates
February 28, 2014 (JUBA) - The United States has reportedly taken a
decision to withhold its military aid to war-torn South Sudan, despite
officials in the new nation saying it had not been notified about the
new development.
- A U.S. Special Forces trainer supervises a military assault drill for a SPLA unit conducted in Nzara on the outskirts of Yambio November 29, 2013. (Photo Reuters/Andreea Campeanu)
The
spokesperson of South Sudan’s foreign affairs ministry told Sudan
Tribune on Friday that it has not received any official communication
from the US or its affiliated financial institution about reports that
the latter had decided to withhold military aid to the conflict-ridden
East African nation.
"There is no official communication that I
know from the government of the United States notifying the government
of the Republic of South Sudan about its decision to withhold any
assistance," said Mawien Makol.
The official was reacting to
reports that President Barak Obama’s administration had decided to
withhold military aid to the new nation and transfer some of that money
to the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in support of
the ceasefire monitoring efforts.
Several officials and activists
as well as experts on South Sudan and Sudan testified on Wednesday
before the congress that the current developing political and security
situation in the two countries require immediate attentions and actions
through strong engagements.
Ambassador Donald Booth declared in
testimony to a House of Representatives panel that "business as usual"
must cease in the case of strife-torn South Sudan.
"As one sign of
this", he said, “I would note that our security assistance to South
Sudan is not going forward at this time, and that some of it is being
re-programmed to support the regional verification mission."
The
top US envoy did not, however, specify the amount of US funding being
transferred to the ceasefire monitoring and verification initiative
being carried out by IGAD, a regional bloc that consists of Sudan,
Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Djibouti and Somalia as its seven founding
members. Eritrea was admitted in 1993, but was suspended in 2007.
South
Sudan, which seceded from Sudan in 2011, became an IGAD member the same
year it joined the United Nations and African Union bodies.
The
envoy also did not indicate how much funding for South Sudan’s army and
police is being withheld by the US, though the research arm of the US
Congress notes that aid to South Sudan’s security sector has totaled
more than $300 million during the past 10 years.
In his remarks on
Wednesday, Ambassador Booth criticised the performance of South Sudan
government, pointing out authorities in Juba "attempted to contain
inter-communal violence without fully committing to the hard work of
addressing its causes, which include trauma from decades of war,
economic disparity, historical grievances between communities, human
rights abuses, and political grievances due to real or perceived
under-representation."
"On top of this", Booth noted, "the
government had also progressively reduced the space for political
competition, within and outside the ruling party, and for independent
media and civil society voices to be heard.”
He endorsed the
efforts by IIGAD, which is presently mediating the talks between the
government and the rebels, who defected in mid-December, to try to
resolve the conflict in the youngest nation.
"Their premise, one
with which I agree, is that the government must not be given the space
to return to business as usual with a quick fix and political
accommodations for the main protagonists, for the simple reason that
this will not bring about a sustainable peace".
Meanwhile, John
Prendergast, a leading US human and civil rights activist, also
testified before the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global
Human Rights, and International Organizations on the developing
situation Sudan and South Sudan.
Prendergast is a Co-founder of
the Enough Project, an advocacy group which aims to prevent, war and
crimes against humanity as well as genocide. He told the hearing that
mass atrocities, war crimes and crimes against humanity are being
committed in both countries under the cover of war.
"Although the
headlines for the last two months have been dominated by conflagration
in South Sudan, conditions in Sudan’s Darfur region have deteriorated,
and the [Sudanese] government’s bombing campaigns have intensified in
the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile", he said.
"The potential for a
complete interruption in oil production threatens economies in both
countries with implosion and bankruptcy. Conflict has interrupted the
planting season, and with the rainy season fast approaching,
humanitarian crises are spiraling out of control in both countries,"
added the activist.
Prendergast argued the US government to
consider targeted sanctions as one instrument to create some
accountability for the commission of war crimes and undermining of peace
efforts.
"The African Union has already put targeted sanctions on
the table for South Sudan, and the US should do so as well. If the UN
Security Council is not amenable to utilizing this tool, the US should
work with interested countries to deploy them in coalition with others”,
he said.
Prendergast visited the South Sudanese capital, Juba and
Bor one of the areas most affected by the conflict at the beginning of
February.
(ST)
US rights activist Prendergast in South Sudan ===============================
Friday 28 February 2014
Turkey seeking strategic relations with Sudan: official
February 27, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – The deputy Prime Minister of Turkey
Emrullah Isler announced on Thursday that his Ankara is moving towards
the establishment of strategic relationships with Sudan in the coming
months and pledged his country’s full support for all efforts aimed at
achieving peace and stability in the East African nation.
- Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey Emrullah Isler (Turkish Govt website)
Isler
said , in a speech at a ceremony in Khartoum to celebrate the official
inauguration of a Turkish-funded hospital in South Darfur capital city
of Nyala that Ankara attaches great importance to the achievement of
peace and prosperity in Sudan.
He noted that Turkey is positively
monitoring peace and supporting negotiations in Sudan adding that his
country used to undertake an isolationist policy in the past but is now
pursuing a policy of openness with all world countries especially Africa
.
The Turkish official underscored the continuation of their
support to Sudan in economic, agricultural, trade and cultural fields.
Sudan’s
2nd Vice President of Sudan Hassabo Mohammed Abdul-Rahman for his part
emphasized the presidency ’s commitment to remove all obstacles facing
investments between Sudan and Turkey on the basis of Khartoum’s keenness
to establish external relations for mutual benefits with other
countries.
"We seek to work a strategic relationship with the
state of Turkey, especially in the field of investments in diverse
natural resources in Sudan ," Abdul-Rahman said.
He disclosed that
they will soon sign new agreements with Turkey in the fields of
economic, agricultural, social security and voluntary work .
The
VP also praised the work of the Joint Ministerial Commission in
enforcing the agreements signed, valuing the exchange of expertise
between the two sides.
The Turkey-based Anadolu Agency said that
the 11,000-square-meter Sudan-Turkey Training and Research Hospital
funded by the Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA) contains
31 polyclinics.
The hospital also has biochemistry, microbiology and pathology laboratories, as well as a blood bank and radiology center.
The
radiology center is equipped with advanced imaging devices, including
two conventional MR machines –one for mammography and one for tomography
– and five for ultrasound treatment.
The ministries of health in
both countries inked an operations deal last year to run the hospital
jointly for five years. It will also provide training for 50 Sudanese
health workers each year.
Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan
was supposed to visit Sudan since 2012 to inaugurate the hospital but
his trip kept getting postponed for unknown reasons.
(ST)
===============================
Israel begins deporting Sudanese, Eritrean asylum seekers: reports
February 25, 2014 (KAMPALA) - Israel has begun deporting African
asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea to Uganda, according to reports by
an Israeli news outlet.
- Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants from Africa protested in Tel Aviv in January, calling for changes to Israel’s policies on asylum seekers (Photo: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)
Quoting senior government officials, Haaretz reported that over the past months dozens asylum seekers had either left or agreed to leave Israel for Uganda.
The
state does not forcefully deport citizens of Eritrea due to the danger
they face in their repressive home country known as the North Korea of
Africa, and in the absence of diplomatic relations with Sudan the
country is also unable to facilitate deportations of Sudanese nationals
there.
However, the government has upped its monetary incentive to
Africans to leave under its “voluntary departure” scheme from $1,500 to
$3,500.
Eritreans Sudanese are among the largest migrant group, accounting for 80% of the 53,646 asylum seekers from Africa in Israel.
Last
June, it emerged Israel’s High Court of Justice had reached an
arrangement with an unnamed third country that would agree to accept
asylum seekers from Africa.
At the time, the state refused to
discuss the arrangement, while the Ugandan government denied the
existence of such an agreement.
The UK’s Guardian newspaper said Uganda agreed to the deal in exchange for agricultural technology and arms.
HUMAN RIGHTS CONCERNS
Israel
has been reluctant to grant asylum-seekers legal standing within its
borders amid fears it would spark a fresh exodus of migrants. The
government continues to exert strong pressure on migrants to leave
voluntarily by either stalling their claims or keeping them in
indefinite detention.
Human rights and advocacy groups say Israel’s actions represent a clear violation of international refugee conventions.
The director of the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, Reut Michaeli, told Haartz
last week that as far as her organisation is aware, asylum seekers sent
to Uganda will not receive legal status or be issued with documents
allowing them to leave if they want to.
However, ongoing
uncertainty about their future and the hard conditions at Saharonim and
the Holot detention facility, where many asylum seekers are incarcerated
means many are electing to leave.
According to government
figures, 2,612 migrants from Africa left Israel in 2013 as part of its
voluntary departure process. Of those, 1,955 were from Eritrea and
Sudan.
MASS PROTESTS
There is growing
disquiet among asylum seekers themselves in Israel. Earlier this year,
hundreds of asylum seekers began a protest march from the Holot
detention centre in the desert to Tel Aviv, calling for the release of
all the detainees and asking that their asylum applications be
processed.
That was followed by a mass rallies in Tel Aviv, in
which tens of thousands of African asylum seekers went on strike in
protest against Israel’s migration policies, causing widespread
disruption to businesses.
In a rare public statement issued during
the protests, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) criticised Israel’s policy
on African migrants, calling on the government to seek alternatives to
its current system of “warehousing” asylum seekers in detention
facilities.
The agency also singled out the partial, temporary
protection orders granted to asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea for
particular criticism, saying the refugee recognition rates of nationals
from both countries stood at 70% in other countries.
Israel has
granted refugee status to just over 200 applicants since the country was
founded in 1948. From 2009 and 2012, when the government took over the
assessment of asylum claims from the UN, only 20 claims were approved
from the 10,800 submitted. In 2013, Israel examined just 250 out of
1,800 asylum requests and approved none, according to Haaretz.
Meanwhile,
Israel’s interior ministry announcedin January that dozens of
asylum-seekers, mainly from Sudan and Eritrea, had been voluntarily
transferred to Sweden, although it later emerged the arrangement was in
fact struck following a special request by the UNHCR.
NO REFUGE
Over
the years thousands of African migrants have arrived in Israel on foot
after fleeing persecution and oppression in their homeland. Many
Eritrean asylum seekers are victims of rape and torture and have
survived harrowing ordeals having been trafficked from Sudan to Egypt
before escaping to Israel across the Sinai desert.
However, the
influx of African migrants has sparked tensions in Israel, with locals
blaming them for rising crime levels and altering the Jewish identity of
some areas.
A five-metre-high fence constructed by Israel to curb
the flow of African migrants was completed in December and has reduced
the number of people crossing illegally from 10,000 in 2012 to fewer
than 45 last year.
There are reports that the Israeli Defence
Forces (IDF) cross into the Sinai to deteralso potential asylum seekers
before they even reach the border.
(ST)
=====================
UN gunships strike Ugandan Muslim rebels in DR Congo
March 1st 2014 at 6.36 p.m.
1 hour ago
.
This photo taken on May 29, 2013, shows a United
Nations peacekeeping mission helicopter flying over a UN basecamp in
Goma (AF
View photo
Kinshasa (AFP) - UN gunships
targeted a base of the Ugandan Muslim rebel group ADF-Nalu in the
eastern DR Congo for the first time Saturday, the UN force said.
The
Congolese army had in recent weeks taken the lead in the drive to root
out ADF-Nalu, one of the oldest but lesser known armed organisations in
the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A
statement from MONUSCO, the UN mission in the country, said two attack
helicopters struck an ADF base northeast of Beni at 1255 GMT.
Beni is a remote town in North Kivu, a restive resource-rich province that borders Rwanda and Uganda.
"This
operation, conducted with great precision, helps achieve a clear goal:
bringing an end to ADF's recent attacks against the civilian
population," said MONUSCO chief Martin Kobler, quoted in the statement.
The
FARDC regular army launched its offensive against ADF-Nalu on January
16 and announced in mid-February that it had inflicted severe losses on
the rebels.
Backed by a
newly-formed UN intervention brigade with an unprecedented offensive
mandate, the Congolese army notched up a rare military victory against
the M-23 Tutsi rebel group.
The ADF-Nalu was next on the list.
MONUSCO
has vowed to help Kinshasa rid the region of the myriad rebel groups
running amok in one of the continent's most impenetrable regions.
ADF-Nalu
stands for Allied Democratic Forces-National Army for the Liberation of
Uganda. It is one of the oldest but lesser known rebellions based in
North-Kivu and is considered the only Islamist organisation in the
region.
The Brussels-based
think tank International Crisis Group said in a report last year the
rebel group had "shown remarkable resilience attributable to its
geostrategic position, its successful integration into the cross-border
economy and corruption in the security forces".
ADF-Nalu
is led by Jamil Mukulu, a Christian convert to Islam, and has never
really managed to take its fight against Yoweri Museveni's regime to
Uganda.
Some observers have voiced concern that it could become a link in the growing network of radical Islamist groups in East Africa.
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