Day: September 21, 2021

A coup attempt thwarted in Sudan Tuesday was planned by military and civilian operatives associated with former President Omar al-Bashir, the country’s prime minister said in a televised statement.

“What happened [was] an orchestrated coup by factions inside and outside the armed forces and this is an extension of the attempts by remnants since the fall of the former regime to abort the civilian democratic transition,” Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said.

“This attempt was preceded by extensive preparations represented by lawlessness in the cities and the exploitation of the situation in the east of the country, [to] close national roads and ports and block oil production,” Hamdok added.

The alleged coup attempt highlighted the challenges Sudan faces as it undergoes a democratic transition, more than two years after the military’s overthrow of Bashir during mounting public opposition to his three-decade rule.

A military official said an unspecified number of troops from the armored corps tried to seize military headquarters and state television.

The official also said more than three dozen troops that included high-ranking officers have been arrested in connection with Tuesday’s events.

Speaking on the state-owned television station, Sudan’s information minister and government spokesperson Hamza Balul confirmed security forces arrested a number of top military officers and political leaders. He said all of the detained individuals are Bashir supporters and are being interrogated.

Balul sought to assure Sudanese citizens that conditions are safe in the capital.

“The situation is now under full control after the arrest of the military and civilian leaders of the failed coup attempt, who were captured in Shajarh military base in Khartoum and they are now under investigation,” he said. “The concerned authorities are on search for the remaining individuals from the supporters of the former administration who participated in the failed coup attempt.”

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the coup attempt and warned it could delay the country’s transition to democracy, according to his spokesman Stéphane Dujarric.

“Any effort to undermine Sudan’s political transition will jeopardize the hard-earned progress made on the political and economic fronts,” Dujarric said in a statement.

“The secretary-general calls on all parties to remain committed to the transition and the realization of the aspirations of the Sudanese people for an inclusive, peaceful, stable, and democratic future,” Dujarric added.

The Sudanese military ousted Bashir in April 2019. Since then, Sudan has been governed by the Sovereign Council under a precarious power-sharing agreement between military and civilian officials.

Balul says the government will continue to defend the 2019 revolution through the support of its citizens and will not allow anyone to, in his words, “spoil this journey.”

He assured the Sudanese people that the transitional government is committed to implementing all reforms enshrined in last year’s peace deal with former rebel groups.

“We in the civil government institutions assure that we will not neglect the gains of the Sudanese people,” he said.

Transitional government authorities have accused factions loyal to Bashir of previous coup attempts.

Since Bashir’s ouster, Sudan’s government has taken steps toward normalizing relations with the West. The U.S. removed Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism in December 2020.

Hamdok’s government has also undertaken a series of tough economic reforms to qualify for debt relief from the International Monetary Fund. The steps, which include a slashing of state subsidies, are seen by many Sudanese as too harsh.

Sudan is expected to hold elections in 2024.

Source: Voice of America

The U.S. government is urging the Ethiopian government, rebel group Tigray People’s Liberation Front, and other warring factions to end the conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region and allow humanitarian aid to reach millions in need of assistance. Unless the conflict stops, key officials could be facing U.S. travel and financial sanctions.

Speaking at an online press briefing Monday, Bryan Hunt, the acting deputy assistant secretary for East Africa, said the U.S. government wants to see an end to the 10-month conflict in Tigray.

“If the government of Ethiopia and the TPLF take meaningful steps to enter into talks for a negotiated cease-fire and allow for unhindered humanitarian access, a different path is possible, and the United States is ready to help mobilize assistance for Ethiopia to recover and revitalize its economy. Those meaningful steps include accepting African Union-led mediation efforts, designating negotiation teams, agreeing to negotiations without preconditions, and accepting an invitation to initial talks,” he said.

Hunt also said the parties should allow convoys of trucks carrying humanitarian aid to reach Tigray and restore essential services to the region.

On Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order that paves the way for sanctions on Ethiopian government officials, Eritrea and other groups involved in the Tigray conflict.

Hunt said other tools to press for a peaceful resolution to the conflict have failed.

“This conflict has already sparked one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world today, with more than five million people requiring assistance, of which over 900,000 are already living in famine conditions. For far too long, the parties to this conflict have ignored international calls to initiate discussions to achieve a negotiated cease-fire and the human rights and humanitarian situations have worsened,” he said.

The U.S. government said the sanctions program will not affect personal remittances to non-sanctioned persons, humanitarian assistance, and international and local organizations’ activities.

Ethiopian army troops invaded Tigray last November, following months of rising tension between the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Tigray’s ruling party, the TPLF.

Erik Woodhouse, deputy assistant secretary for the U.S. State Department’s Counter Threat Finance and Sanctions Bureau, said the sanctions aim to warn sides to find a solution to the conflict rather than using the military.

“Sanctions are a tool that seek to change the behavior of the targets. These measures impose tangible costs on human rights abusers and perpetrators of conflict. By imposing such costs, the United States seeks to send a signal that such actions are not without consequence,” he said.

Professor Chacha Nyaigotti Chacha, a specialist in diplomacy and international relations at the University of Nairobi, said sanctions are not always effective.

“Some of the leadership, when such sanctions are threatened to be applied, they don’t care. So, sanctions may not work because the idea of a sanctioning, the idea of stopping opportunities from a flowing country which you are sanctioning is to make them feel the pinch then change their trend. But sometimes they don’t care,” said Chacha.

In a letter to Biden, Prime minister Abiy defended his actions in Tigray, saying his government has stabilized the region and addressed humanitarian needs amid a hostile environment created by the TPLF.

Source: Voice of America

For this year’s U.N. World Peace Day (September 21), thousands of Cameroonians have called for a cease-fire between the military and separatists. People who marched in several cities and towns said they were tired of burying civilians caught up in the fighting. But the conflict is not likely to end soon.

The song, “We want peace,” by Cameroonian performer Salatiel blasted through speakers in Yaounde, capital of the central African country, on 2021 World Peace Day.

In the music, Salatiel says Cameroon needs immediate peace without which the entire country will sink into ruins.

Esther Njomo Omam, director of the non-governmental organization Reach Out Cameroon, organized the rally. She says Cameroonians should give peace a chance.

“It is our collective responsibility to be peace mediators wherever we find ourselves in our various communities, and we are calling on our government to receive the message, the call for peace with an open heart. Same as we are saying that please, the non-state armed groups receive our call for peace with an open heart. This is the time for appeasement,” Omam said.

Similar peace walks took place in Buea, Bamenda and Kumba, all cities in western regions, where armed separatist groups are active, and the northern towns of Maroua, Garoua and Ngaoundere, all close to Cameroon’s border with Nigeria, the site of many incursions by the militant group Boko Haram.

Omam pleaded with jihadist groups, government troops and separatist groups to declare a cease-fire. She said silencing the guns is the only way the lives of civilians, government troops, jihadist and separatist fighters can be spared from either wounds or dying.

The government said a majority of people who took part at the peace walks were women affected by the crises. Some of them said they lost family members in the crises.

Marie-Therese Abena Ondoa, Cameroon’s minister of women’s empowerment and the family, says the military ordered by the government to protect civilians cannot drop weapons.

“I am begging that our children, our young brothers, our sisters who are in the bush exerting or preparing to come and exert violence should give up violence, leave the bush because we have all become beggars of peace. So I am pleading for all of us to do all that is within our reach so that our beloved country can become a land of peace,” Ondoa said.

Rose Mary Etakah of the Cameroon Civil Society took part in the peace walk in Yaounde. She said the armed conflicts in Cameroon will not end unless there is a cease-fire.

“Within five years, we have had guns, we have had an increase in weapons entering the country and we do not know who are carrying these weapons. We don’t know the number of people that are armed, so I think it is better to stop it now, so that by the time we retrieve the guns, maybe it will be less than if we allow it to go further,” Etakah said.

The United Nations General Assembly declared the annual observance of International Day of Peace in 1981. The day is devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, through observing 24 hours of cease-fire and non-violence.

Source: Voice of America

The Nigerian aid group Center for Civilians in Conflict is marking this year’s U.N. International Day of Peace with a photo exhibit on the conflict in the country’s northeast. The photographs depict some of the millions of civilians caught up in the 12-year conflict started by militant group Boko Haram.

The photo exhibit opened Tuesday morning at the Thought Pyramid Art Center in Abuja. Around 150 visitors arrived in batches to see images taken from scenes of the Boko Haram insurgency and the communities affected by it.

Art lover Hillary Essien, who attended the exhibit, says the photos tell a story of pain and survival.

“They’re actual people, being here and seeing that these people are out there away from their homes, families, fearing for their lives, it’s just really touching to be honest,” she said.

Nigerian photojournalist Damilola Onafuwa took the photos for nonprofit Center for Civilians in Conflict, and says he’s happy about the effect the pictures are having on viewers.

“When I create these works, I only create them because I want people to know,” he said. “I want to share the stories of people that I’m photographing. When people see it and I see how much impact it has on them, that makes me very happy.”

Nigeria has been battling the Boko Haram insurgency for 12 years. The fighting has claimed an estimated 350,000 lives, according to the United Nations Development Program, and displaced millions of others.

But Boko Haram is not the only group threatening the northeast. Armed criminal groups are becoming more active, often kidnapping people for ransom. Communal clashes over grazing lands are leading to raids and burnings of villages.

The Center for Civilians in Conflict says the exhibit aims to raise awareness about these issues with the view of addressing them.

“The exhibition tries to chronicle the lives of ordinary Nigerians who are trying everything possible to maintain the peace,” said Beson Olugbuo, a director at the center. “The idea is to use photographs as a means of advocacy and also to remind the federal government that they have a primary responsibility to maintain law and order, to protect lives and property and ensure that peace reigns.”

The International Day of Peace is observed every year on September 21.

Source: Voice of America