Politics

Thousands of Sudanese celebrate 3 years of al-Bashir fall, protest against Fattah al-Burhan reign

Published

2 years ago

April 7, 2022

Thousands of Sudanese on Wednesday, dared the weather, police tear gas, and hunger from their Ramadan fast for a protest march in the capital Khartoum and more towns across the country to mark the third anniversary of the fall of former President Omar al-Bashir and against the current military reign of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

Security forces fired tear gas at protesters in the capital Khartoum, its twin city Omdurman, and Wad Madani in the south of the country.

Reuters reports that many were injured in the mass action and that a 19-year-old protester was shot and killed by security forces in the Sharg al-Nil area of Bahri, across the Nile from Khartoum.

Sudan is currently led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan after coming to power through a coup on 25 October 2021, thus disrupting a period of political transition and damaging the economy of one of the world’s poorest countries.

Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has however promised that the army will leave politics after elections that are scheduled for 2023 but that seems a long wait for Sudanese who also protested against the military rule.

“We came out despite the heat and despite fasting to regain our civilian government and bring down the coup,” said protester Mayada Kheiry.

The Northeast African country has a long history of military coups and unrest that dates back to 1957. More recently, the country experienced a coup in 2019 that ousted the military junta of Omar-al-Bashir which had been in power for over 30 years. There was also a report of an aborted coup in September 2021 and a “self-coup” later in October of the same year that brought in Head Sovereignty Council, Lieutenant-General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan.

Related Topics:al-Burhan Featured Omar al-Bashir Sudan

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Politics

Burkina Faso investigating reports of northern killings

Published

10 hours ago

April 28, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

A government spokesman has revealed that Burkina Faso is looking into reports that 223 people were killed by the Burkinabe army in two villages in the north in February.

The killing was first reported by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), causing a rift between the junta-led West African state and some foreign media that published the report. The HRW report released on Thursday said that the military had executed residents of Nodin and Soro, including at least 56 children, as part of a campaign against civilians suspected of working with jihadist terrorists. The report was based on interviews with witnesses, members of civil society, and other groups.

Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, a spokesman for the government, said that HRW’s claims were “peremptory” and that the junta was not unwilling to look into the claimed crimes.

“An investigation has been launched into the killings in Nodin and Soro,” Ouedraogo said in a late-evening statement, quoting a statement from a regional prosecutor on March 1.

Since Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger’s militaries took over in a series of coups from 2020 to 2023, violence in the area has gotten worse. This is because of the ten-year fight with Islamist groups related to Al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Attacks on Burkina Faso got much worse in 2023, with more than 8,000 people killed, according to the U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group ACLED.

Politics

S’Africa lengthens troop deployment in Mozambique, Congo DR

Published

3 days ago

April 26, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a speech that South Africa’s military would keep sending troops to Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which are both in the middle of wars.

The extension will leave 1,198 members of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) in eastern Congo for an unknown amount of time. They are there as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force helping Congo fight rebel groups.

The statement also said that 1,495 members of the SANDF would keep working in Mozambique, where they have been since 2021 helping the government fight dangerous extremism in the north.

After two SANDF troops were killed and three were hurt by a mortar bomb in Congo in February, South Africa’s military operations abroad have been looked at more closely at home this year.

Meanwhile, the major opposition party in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance, said that Ramaphosa sent troops into a war zone without being ready.
Under the supervision of the UN, the SANDF has taken on many dangerous and difficult peacekeeping tasks over the years to help war-torn African countries stay stable and peaceful.

In 2003, South Africa was one of the first countries to send troops to Burundi to help the peace process. During the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) peacekeeping mission in 2000, the SANDF led attempts to stabilize the country’s politics, rebuild and improve infrastructure, and train DRC troops.