Musings From Abroad

UN Sec Council to demand vote on siege of Sudanese city

Published

2 weeks ago

June 13, 2024

According to diplomats on Wednesday, the UN Security Council is expected to vote on a resolution sponsored by the British that calls for an end to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) blockade of al-Fashir in Sudan’s North Darfur area on Thursday.

De-escalation in and around the city, an immediate end to hostilities, and the evacuation of all fighters who pose a threat to civilian safety and security are all demanded in the draft text.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Britain requested that the 15-member council have a vote on the draft. For a resolution to be passed, it must receive nine votes in favour and not be vetoed by China, Russia, the US, the UK, or France.

The worst displacement crisis in history was caused by a war that broke out in April of last year in Sudan between the Sudanese Army (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The final significant city outside of the RSF’s dominion in the vast western Darfur region is Al-Fashir. After storming through four more Darfur state capitals last year, the RSF and its supporters were held accountable for a wave of abuses and racially motivated killings in West Darfur against non-Arab populations.

About 800,000 people in al-Fashir are in “extreme and immediate danger,” according to top U.N. officials who warned the Security Council in April, as the violence escalates and poses a threat to “unleash bloody intercommunal strife throughout Darfur.”

The draft Security Council resolution “demands that all parties to the conflict ensure the protection of civilians, including by allowing civilians wishing to move within and out of Al-Fashir to safer areas to do so.”

It also calls on countries “to refrain from external interference which seeks to foment conflict and instability and instead to support efforts for a durable peace and reminds all parties to the conflict and member states who facilitate the transfers of arms and military material to Darfur of their obligations to comply with the arms embargo measures.”

The United States claims that in addition to the fighting parties, the RSF and its allies have perpetrated crimes against humanity and ethnic genocide. According to the U.N., half of Sudan’s population—nearly 25 million people—need humanitarian assistance, and eight million have abandoned their homes as hunger levels are rising.

According to a U.N. sanctions monitoring assessment seen by Reuters in January, between 10,000 and 15,000 people were killed in one city alone in Sudan’s West Darfur area last year in ethnic violence by the RSF and associated Arab militia.

The Security Council will vote on a draft resolution that “calls on the parties to the conflict to seek an immediate cessation of hostilities, leading to a sustainable resolution to the conflict, through dialogue.”

Musings From Abroad

Kenya: US condemns violence as Ruto reverses tax law

Published

1 day ago

June 27, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The violence in Kenya, where doctors reported that 23 people had died this week following violent battles between protesters and police, has been condemned by the United States.

William Ruto, the President of Kenya, backed down on Wednesday from his plans to raise taxes in response to protesters who had invaded parliament, started nationwide rallies, and threatened to take further action this week.

In the most critical crisis of Ruto’s two-year administration, the move will be viewed as a huge success for a week-old, youth-led protest movement that evolved from online condemnations of tax rises into large-scale marches seeking a political overhaul.

On social media, however, some protestors said that they would still go ahead with Thursday’s march despite Ruto’s backpedalling, with many of them restating their demands that he step down.

A day after violence between police and protestors at the assembly and across the country left at least 23 people dead and several others wounded, according to medics, Ruto declared he would not sign a finance measure that included the tax increases.

“The United States is deeply concerned about and we condemn the reported violence in all its forms,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

Shortly after MPs passed the tax proposals on Tuesday, police opened fire on crowds who had gathered around parliament and then broke into the assembly’s enclosure.

“The United States has been in touch with the Kenyan government to urge appropriate use of force by the police, to respect human rights … and we will continue to push for calm to prevail,” said Kirby.

Musings From Abroad

US intelligence warns of escalating insurgencies in West Africa following withdrawal from Niger

Published

1 day ago

June 27, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

American officials are cautioning that it is getting harder to keep an eye on the escalating insurgencies in West Africa as the United States military gathers what remains of its supplies and counterterrorism forces in Niger.

The military authorities of Niger have given the United States until September 15th to withdraw its forces from the nation. This includes closing a $100 million drone base close to Agadez in central Niger, which served as a vital source of intelligence regarding organizations associated with the Islamic State and al Qaeda.

“Our ability to monitor the threat is degraded because of the loss of Agadez,” one U.S. official told Reuters in an interview, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The expansion of the Islamic State and the al Qaeda affiliate Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) are of special worry to U.S. officials.

The main difficulty facing Michael Langley, the four-star Marine general in charge of American forces in Africa, is predicting when extremist organizations would develop to the point where they could pose a threat to the US or Europe.

“It has the potential (to become a threat to the United States) as they grow in numbers. But we want to be able to monitor … to see if it metastasizes into increased capability,” Langley said, speaking on the sidelines of a conference of African chiefs of defence in Botswana.

Experts warn that it won’t be simple, and some compare it to Afghanistan, where information about the Islamic State and al Qaeda is collected at a far lower level than it was prior to the withdrawal of the United States and the Taliban takeover in 2021.

“When we leave an area like the Sahel and Afghanistan, we not only cannot (act on) an immediate threat with military and intelligence forces, we don’t know about the plotting of an attack because of our reduced (intelligence) collection capabilities,” said Mick Mulroy, a former senior Pentagon official and CIA officer.