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US to pressure Security Council to facilitate aid into Sudan from Chad

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If the Sudanese armed forces do not restore full access to aid in the troubled country, the United States has warned that it will press the UN Security Council to take action to get aid to starving people in Sudan, possibly by authorizing cross-border deliveries from Chad.

The US Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield stated that the warring parties had both compromised aid operations and disregarded a Security Council resolution calling for an immediate end to hostilities, ahead of the conflict’s first anniversary in Sudan.

“The situation in Sudan remains catastrophic and it is only getting worse,” she told reporters. “People are starving.”

War erupted in Sudan on April 15, 2023, between the Sudanese Army ( SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). More than a million people have fled to neighbouring countries since the brutal conflict in Sudan started in April 2023. Among them are about 378,000 Sudanese refugees and about 48,000 Chadians who were forced to return to eastern Chad.

Thomas-Greenfield accused the SAF of impeding aid from Chad into Sudan’s Darfur region – controlled by the rival RSF – and describing it as “literally a matter of life and death.”

“At the Zamzam camp in North Darfur, a child dies every two hours. Experts warn that in the coming weeks and months, over 200,000 more children could starve to death,” she said, calling on the SAF to immediately fully reopen the border.

“Should they not, the Security Council must take swift action to ensure life-saving aid is delivered and distributed, including – if necessary – through a cross-border mechanism,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

Such an operation has previously been approved by the Security Council; for nine years, it permitted the distribution of humanitarian aid to millions of people, mostly in areas of Syria controlled by the opposition. According to the US, the parties involved in the conflict in Sudan have committed war crimes.

According to US Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello, Washington is considering resuming peace negotiations on Sudan on April 18 in Saudi Arabia

According to UN estimates, 8 million people have fled their homes and nearly 25 million people, or half of Sudan’s population, need aid. The United States claims that the warring parties have committed war crimes.

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Musings From Abroad

Prince Harry, Meghan treated to street-style dances in Nigeria as their trip winds down

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On Sunday, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan were treated to street-style dances in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, where they announced a partnership between their Archewell Foundation and the non-profit Giants of Africa, which utilizes sports to empower young people.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are making their first visit to Nigeria, where they were welcomed by the country’s chief of defence staff. The couple watched basketball practice at Ilupeju Senior Grammar School on Lagos Mainland, where Harry participated in ball-bouncing drills and shot a hoop.

“What you guys are doing here at Giants of Africa is truly amazing,” he said. “The power of sport can change lives. It brings people together and creates community and there are no barriers, which is the most important thing.”

The couple watched basketball practice at Ilupeju Senior Grammar School on Lagos Mainland, and Harry stepped on the court for some ball-bouncing drills and to shoot a hoop.

Former Toronto Raptors star Masai Ujiri, president of Giants of Africa, wished Meghan a happy Mother’s Day and said his organization was uniting communities and uplifting young people through sport, especially. Archewell Foundation and Giants of Africa will construct a basketball court in Nigeria’s capital Abuja.

“Talk about full circle again – never did I think we would be able to be here all those years later supporting the expansion of this incredible organization,” she said.
Harry and Meghan were set to round off their Lagos trip by attending a reception for a local charity. The couple live in the United States with their two children after Harry gave up working as a member of the royal family in 2020.

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Musings From Abroad

Binance accuses Nigeria of setting dangerous precedent with detention of its executives

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After its executives were invited to Nigeria and subsequently arrested as part of a crackdown on cryptocurrencies, the CEO of cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, warned that the African nation was creating a dangerous precedent.

The largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, Binance, and two of its executives are being tried separately for tax evasion and money laundering, charges that the business is contesting.

CEO Richard Teng declared in a statement that it was time to voice opposition to the imprisonment of a US citizen and head of financial crime compliance at Binance, Tigran Gambaryan.

Former executive, Nadeem Anjarwalla, a British Kenyan who works as a regional manager for Africa, escaped detention in Nigeria last month. While in Nigeria, Anjarwalla and Gambaryan were arrested by the country’s anti-corruption body, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), after arriving on February 26, after which the country banned several websites that traded cryptocurrencies.

In a follow-up meeting on February 26, he stated that the authorities had declared the Binance concerns to be matters of national security and that they wanted the exchange to remove the naira from its site and disclose “granular-level” information on every Nigerian user. After that, Gambaryan and Anjarwalla were taken into custody.

“To invite a company’s mid-level employees for collaborative policy meetings, only to detain them, has set a dangerous new precedent for all companies worldwide,” Teng said, in his strongest comments yet since the case started in February.

“For spurious reasons,” Teng said that Gambaryan had been detained in Nigeria for almost two months. Early in March, Binance declared that it will no longer be accepting any new naira transactions.

“Our hope when we took this drastic step was that our colleagues would be released and Binance could continue to work with the Nigerian government to resolve any further concerns. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen,” said Ten.

He stated that Gambaryan ought to be permitted to return home while Binance and the Nigerian government work out any kinks. “We will continue engagement with Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on resolving potential historic tax liabilities,” he said.

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