Musings From Abroad

Sudan: UN chief Guterres ‘gravely alarmed’ by RSF attack on al-Fashir

Published

2 months ago

September 22, 2024

A United Nations spokesperson has said that Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, is “gravely alarmed” by reports of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launching a full-scale offensive on al-Fashir and has ordered its leader to stop it.

The spokesperson said Guterres warned further escalation might expand the crisis across western Darfur.

“He calls on Lt. General Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemedti’ Dagalo to act responsibly and immediately order a halt to the RSF attack,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement. “It is unconscionable that the warring parties have repeatedly ignored calls for a cessation of hostilities.”

Last April, the Sudanese army and RSF went to war, causing the world’s worst displacement crisis. The rising violence near al-Fashir risks inter-communal conflict, according to U.N. authorities.

The United States national security advisor Jake Sullivan said on Saturday that President Joe Biden and UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan will discuss the issue on Monday.

“We are concerned about several countries and the steps they are taking to perpetuate rather than resolve the conflict,” Sullivan told reporters. “Our ultimate objective is to get the entire conflict with Sudan on a different track than the tragic and horrific track it is on right now. And I think that requires some intense but sensitive diplomatic conversations with several players.”

In June, the U.N. Security Council urged that the RSF stop sieging al-Fashir, a metropolis of 1.8 million people in Sudan’s North Darfur region, and that fighting halt.

The resolution also ordered the departure of all fighters who endanger residents in al-Fashir, the last major city in Darfur not under RSF authority.

U.N. estimates 300,000 people were killed in Darfur in the early 2000s when “Janjaweed” militias, from which the RSF evolved, helped the army quell a non-Arab insurrection. The ICC wants Sudanese leaders for genocide and crimes against humanity.
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Related Topics:al-Fashir Featured RSF Sudan

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Musings From Abroad

EU withdraws Niger diplomat after junta accuses it of mismanaging aid

Published

7 hours ago

November 24, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The European External Action Service (EEAS) has announced that the European Union would return its ambassador from Niger after the governing military in the nation questioned how an EU team handled humanitarian supplies intended for flood victims.

In a statement released on Friday, the junta in Niger accused the EU ambassador in the West African nation of distributing a 1.3 million euro flood relief grant to many foreign nongovernmental organisations in an opaque way and without working with the government.

Consequently, it mandated an audit of the fund’s administration.

“The European Union expresses its profound disagreement with the allegations and justifications put forward by the transitional authorities,” the EEAS said.

“Consequently, the EU has decided to recall its ambassador from Niamey for consultations in Brussels.”

Niger has been under military rule since the junta seized power in a 2023 coup.

Musings From Abroad

Mpox remains health emergency, WHO insists

Published

8 hours ago

November 24, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has insisted that the Mpox epidemic remains a public health emergency.

WHO first declared an emergency when a new strain of mpox spread from the severely affected Democratic Republic of the Congo to neighbouring countries in August.

The WHO Director-General has decided that the increase in mpox still qualifies as a public health emergency of worldwide significance after the WHO called a meeting of its Emergency Committee and followed its recommendations.

According to WHO, the decision was made in light of the growing number and ongoing geographic dispersion of cases, field operating difficulties, and the requirement to establish and maintain a coordinated response across nations and partners.

Mpox is a virus that is spread by close contact and usually manifests as pus-filled lesions and flu-like symptoms. Although it is typically minor, it can be fatal.

More than 1,000 suspected deaths and more than 46,000 suspected cases have been reported this year throughout Africa, primarily in Congo.

The WHO’s highest level of warning, known as a “public health emergency of international concern,” was previously used to describe a worldwide epidemic of a different type of mpox in 2022–2023.

This year’s notice was issued in response to the transmission of a novel viral variation known as clade Ib. Among other nations, cases of this variation have been verified in the UK, Germany, Sweden, and India.

Following criticism for moving too slowly on vaccinations, WHO approved Bavarian Nordic’s mpox vaccine in September and listed Japan’s KM Biologics vaccine for emergency use earlier this month.