Day: April 8, 2022

About 30 Sudanese citizens living in Europe demonstrated Friday outside the International Criminal Court in The Hague, demanding that Sudanese officials surrender more individuals accused of committing atrocities in Darfur.

The ICC’s trial of suspected Janjaweed militia leader Ali Kushayb got underway this week, with Kushayb pleading not guilty to 31 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including rape, torture, pillaging and murder.

Darfur human rights activist Amaat Sefeldin, who traveled from Germany to The Hague to attend the protest, told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus that she wanted Sudanese officials to turn over former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who was in power during the campaign that killed more than 200,000 people in Darfur nearly 20 years ago.

“We are demanding the handover of all criminals, especially Bashir, the president, and Abel-Raheem Muhammad Hussein, and Ahmad Muhammad Harun and others,” she told VOA. “And we would also demand for the court to try the other criminals, because the genocide in Darfur and the crimes committed in Sudan are not done by those few people. It’s a long list of people who committed crimes. They have committed war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity in Darfur since 2003.”

In 2012, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Abdel Raheem Muhammad Hussein, former minister of defense and Bashir’s special representative in Darfur. In 2007, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Ahmad Muhammad Harun, former Sudan minister of state for the interior.

The protesters praised the ICC for putting Kushayb on trial. It’s the first trial for anyone accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with the Darfur conflict, which began in 2003 with a rebellion by armed groups against Bashir’s government.

Kushayb was a reputed leader of pro-government Janjaweed militia members who attacked and burned numerous villages in Darfur as part of attempts to crush the rebel groups.

Call for others’ trials

“Sudanese are in support of the trial and accountability for crimes committed in Darfur, but in general for crimes committed in Sudan,” said another protester, Neimat Ahmadi, president of the Darfur Women Action Group. “They also want to raise concern about the ongoing violence against protesters and the escalation of violence in areas like Darfur, South Kordofan, the Blue Nile.”

“Our message is also to the international community that it is important to try Kushayb, but it is more important to pursue others who have been indicted by the International Criminal Court and be brought to face the court,” Neimat told VOA.

Maisa Altayib, a member of the Sudanese diaspora who also attended the protest, said she wanted to see the “real criminals” brought to justice in The Hague.

“Not only Kushayb — he only executed orders given to him. The real criminals are in Khartoum and we will not be satisfied until they are brought here to the ICC. So Kushayb is only the beginning of achieving justice,” Altayib told VOA.

South Darfur-based human rights lawyer Abdulbasit Al Haj said the Kushayb trial should lead prosecutors to more evidence of crimes committed by former officials.

“This trial also should identify individuals who have been involved in funding and supplying the Janjaweed militia with the logistic process in Darfur,” Al Haj told South Sudan in Focus, adding “they are crimes that have touched the humanity around the world.”

However, another Sudanese human rights expert, who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals from security operatives, said she did not think the government was willing to hand over others accused of war crimes because they include current top officials who took power in last year’s military coup.

“I don’t think they will hand them [over],” the expert said. “I don’t think they will hand [over] anyone. Now, after the coup that took place, I don’t see it happening at all.”

Army ties seen protecting Bashir

Sudanese political analyst and researcher Jihad Mashamoun told South Sudan in Focus he believed military leaders running Sudan would never turn over Bashir.

“I doubt it,” he said. “Omar Bashir, he hails from the army, so handing him over to a foreign judiciary, that tarnishes the image or integrity of the armed forces.”

The ICC indicted Bashir in 2009 over alleged atrocities committed by his government. He remains imprisoned in Khartoum after being found guilty on corruption charges.

The U.S. State Department also praised the opening of Kushayb’s ICC trial, noting it was the first against “any senior leader for crimes committed by the Bashir regime and government-supported forces following the genocide and other atrocities in Darfur.” The statement added, “This trial is a signal to those responsible for human rights violations and abuses in Darfur that impunity will not last in the face of the determination for justice to prevail.

Source: Voice of America

The United States expressed concern Friday about reports of ethnically motivated atrocities in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.

“We note with the utmost alarm that thousands of Ethiopians of Tigrayan ethnicity reportedly continue to be detained arbitrarily in life-threatening conditions in western Tigray,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.

He said the United States was “deeply troubled” by the recent findings of a joint report by two leading human rights groups, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, which had found the violence in the region amounted to ethnic cleansing.

The report chronicles abuse by forces from the Amhara region, aided by government troops and militia groups. It said hundreds of civilians in western Tigray had been forced from their homes through threats, sexual violence, denial of aid and unlawful killings.

It also found evidence of deaths in detention facilities across western Tigray and gang rape by security forces.

Researchers said they based their findings on interviews with more than 400 residents of western Tigray.

Ethiopia’s government, while saying it would carefully examine the report, also criticized it for being one-sided.

Began in 2020

The conflict in Tigray began in late 2020 between the Ethiopian federal government and a local military force, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, and has since exploded into a civil war that has forced 2 million people from their homes. Ethnic tensions between the region’s Amhara and Tigray communities have spanned decades.

The United States urged the immediate release of people detained arbitrarily in western Tigray and demanded international monitors be granted access to all detention facilities, according to Price.

It is the U.S. position that there be “credible investigations into and accountability for atrocities committed by any party to the conflict,” Price said.

Aid agencies have struggled to gain access to the millions in need of humanitarian assistance in Tigray because of restrictions by the government and militia groups.

The United Nations and humanitarian partners have not been able to move any further aid into Tigray by road since April 2, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said Friday. The April convoy’s arrival was the first time U.N. supplies had entered Tigray by road since mid-December, he added.

Dujarric said food had reached only 1.2 million out of a target of 5.2 million people who should be receiving food aid in the region every six weeks.

Source: Voice of America

Russia suspended from UN Human Rights Council over war

In a rare move, the U.N. General Assembly voted 93-24 on Thursday to suspend Russia’s membership on the U.N. Human Rights Council over Moscow’s “gross and systematic violations of human rights” and violations of international law committed against Ukraine. Russia said after the vote that it was withdrawing from the body on its own. Its three-year term was due to expire December 31, 2023.

Russia Suspended from UN Human Rights Body

VOA spoke to U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield right after the vote. Watch the full interview here:

Ukrainian president scolds UN Security Council for inaction

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy admonished the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday for its inaction in stopping Russia’s war against his country and called for Moscow to face accountability for crimes it has carried out there. “We are dealing with a state that is turning the U.N. Security Council veto into the right to die,” Zelenskyy said of Russia, which has used its veto to block any action in the council.

Ukraine’s Zelenskyy Chides UN Security Council for Lack of Action

UN gathering evidence of possible war crimes in Bucha

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said Tuesday that it was gathering evidence of possible war crimes committed by Russian forces in the Ukrainian town of Bucha. Shocking images of civilians lying dead on the town’s streets emerged after Russia troops withdrew from the area last weekend. Under international law, the deliberate killing of civilians is a war crime.

UN Rights Office Gathering Evidence of Possible War Crimes in Bucha, Ukraine

UN seeks access to Mali massacre site

The head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali, El-Ghassim Wane, told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday he welcomed the Malian authorities’ opening of an investigation into an alleged massacre of hundreds of civilians by government troops and suspected Russian mercenaries in the village of Moura in late March, but that the U.N. mission, MINUSMA, must also have access to the site. Human rights groups have called for an independent investigation.

Rights Groups Call for Investigation into Mali Killings

In brief

— The International Committee of the Red Cross said Wednesday that it had successfully led a convoy of buses and private cars carrying more than 500 people who fled from the besieged southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol to the safer location of Zaporizhzhia. Thousands more civilians remain trapped in Mariupol. The mayor said this week that at least 5,000 civilians had been killed during the Russian siege of the city.

— The United Nations warned Friday that as many as 6 million Somalis could face the risk of famine if the rainy season failed as expected and global food prices continued to rise. Three poor consecutive rainy seasons have deepened the country’s drought, plunging millions of people to crisis levels of food insecurity.

— U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed news Wednesday that a convoy carrying food aid and fuel had reached northern Ethiopia’s Tigray and Afar regions following the declaration of a humanitarian truce. But on Friday, the U.N. said it had not been able to get any further aid into Tigray. The International Committee of the Red Cross also was able to get a convoy carrying medical assistance, food and water treatment supplies into Afar last Saturday. It was the group’s first road convoy to reach the region in six months.

— The World Health Organization said Thursday that the number of COVID-19 cases in Africa could be 97% higher than confirmed reported cases. WHO regional director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said two-thirds of Africans might have been infected. WHO has confirmed 11.6 million cases of COVID-19 on the continent, including more than 250,000 deaths. The new data suggests the actual numbers are much higher.

Some good news

The first nationwide truce in Yemen in six years went into effect on Saturday and appeared to be largely holding. U.N. envoy Hans Grundberg said Thursday that there had been a “significant reduction of violence,” but pockets of fighting continued, particularly around the contested city of Marib. The Yemeni government also released several fuel ships to dock in Houthi-held Hodeida port, which will help ease fuel shortages. Preparations were also underway for the first commercial flight to take off from Houthi-controlled Sanaa airport. The truce can be renewed beyond the initial two-month period if parties agree.

Quote of note

“Ukraine needs peace. We need peace. Europe needs peace. The world needs peace.”

— Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, appealing to the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to stop the war in his country

Source: Voice of America

As Ivory Coast beefs up its border security with Burkina Faso, ethnic Fulanis say they are being labeled as supporters of Islamist militants and persecuted by security forces. Rights groups warn the heavy-handed tactics could backfire, providing fertile recruiting ground for the insurgents.

Since armed groups attacked military targets near the border with Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast’s government has been sending large numbers of troops to the north over the past two years.

In the town of Kong, near where many of the attacks took place, Boubacar Koueta was among many men arrested by recently arrived Ivorian government forces. Koueta was one of three ethnic Fulani men who described how army troops beat them and their relatives and held them for 11 days to two months without charge because of their ethnicity.

Koueta said he was outside one day with several other people, including women. Two large vehicles pulled up, he said, and soldiers detained them and another group of people before firing into the air and beating them. Koueta and the others were tied up, beaten and left in the afternoon sun.

Throughout the Sahel, there is a common misconception that ethnic Fulanis are behind attacks linked to the Islamic State and al-Qaida groups that have ravaged neighboring Burkina Faso and Mali.

Relations had been cordial

A community leader for the Fulanis in Kong, Amadou Sidibé, said they had good relations with security forces before new soldiers arrived two years ago.

Amadou Sidibé said that before the arrival of the new military personnel, everything was fine. He said there were no problems with the authorities or security forces. But since their arrival, he added, the Fulani are often arrested and branded as terrorists.

Officials with Human Rights Watch said the persecution of Fulanis in Burkina Faso and Mali is a major catalyst for recruitment by terror groups, who exploit resentment toward the state.

Jihadist groups rely on long-standing tensions between farmers and herder communities like the Fulanis to stoke violent conflict, analysts say.

Ethnic fracture

Lassina Diara, an analyst with the Timbuktu Institute, said he thinks that beyond the religious rhetoric, terror groups are exploiting social fractures and ethnicity. He said there is a fracture between the Fulani communities and the region’s other communities.

A farmer near the northern city of Korhogo, who asked that his name be withheld for safety reasons, said he resented having to erect fencing because herders allow cattle to graze cashew crops. He said the farmers bear the costs of protecting their plantations while herders do nothing because they want to see their cattle well fed.

Lassina Sele, who runs an NGO that aims to resolve disputes between farmers and herders, says local militiamen called dozos add to tensions. Sele says that when dozos arrest a thief who is Fulani, they are treated worse than those of another ethnic group.

Diara, the analyst, said he did not think the government was doing enough to relieve tensions between herder and farmer communities.

Ministers in charge of security and social cohesion did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Source: Voice of America