By Adrian Blomfield To be born an English speaker in a world where the language remains the lingua franca of trade and diplomacy is normally to draw first prize in the linguistic lottery of life. But in one corner of Africa, having English as a mother tongue has proved a curse thanks to a colonial anomaly that left a seething Anglophone underclass in a slither of overwhelmingly French-speaking Cameroon. For the past four months, the two English-speaking regions of western Cameroon have risen up against a perceived decades-long assault by the Francophone elite on their language and British traditions, staging a campaign of general strikes, demonstrations and the occasional riot. A ruthless response by the government, characterized by the killing of protesters and a two-month internet shutdown in English-speaking regions, has hardened antagonisms, pitching the West African country into deep crisis and raising questions about its survival as a unified state. Amid growing secessionists mutterings, Britain has become more active in recent days in attempting to defuse the confrontation. Last week Brian Olley, the British High Commissioner to Cameroon, met Paul Biya, the country’s 84-year-old president, and is understood to have called on him to end the use of force against protesters. “We have raised our concerns with the government of Cameroon and will continue to raise these issues, including allowing access to the internet,” a Foreign Office spokeswoman said. But such quiet diplomacy has also angered some Anglophone activists, who accuse Britain of abandoning its responsibilities in the former British Southern Cameroons, which united with the much larger French Cameroons in 1961. “Britain made us what we are and now most people in Britain don’t even know we exist,” an activist involved in the demonstrations said. Despite the anger, Anglophone Cameroonians, who make up less than a fifth of the county’s 23m people, remain stubbornly loyal to their colonial traditions. To the bewilderment and often the derision of French speakers, they insist on forming orderly queues, referring to bars as “off-licences” and dressing up their judges and lawyers in powdered wigs. Both British common law and the GCE O-and-A-level syllabus remain deeply cherished. It is a loyalty that has rarely been reciprocated by Britain. The British Cameroons were made famous by the writings of naturalist Gerald Durrell, who visited in the Forties to search for the elusive hairy toad. He was memorably assisted by an uproarious Anglophone king, the Fon of Bafut, a gin-and-bitters-swilling pidgin speaker with a large retinue of drum-playing, bosom-jiggling wives whom Durrell taught the Conga. But Britain generally wanted little to do with the place. William Gladstone turned down a plea for annexation from local kings in 1884, allowing Bismark to take it for Germany. After the First World War, Britain turned over five-sixths of the territory to France, agreeing to an arbitrary border line drawn up by Francois Georges-Picot, the French diplomat jointly responsible for the Middle East’s controversial modern boundaries. Heartbroken local kings, like the Sultan of Bamum, protested in vain. “I wish to follow the King of England and to be his servant, together with my country, so that we may be freshened with dew,” the sultan wrote in a letter to George V “who puts the evil men to flight and the troublesome to prison.” After independence in 1960, the British Cameroons were wooed into union with the much larger French Cameroons by a promise that they would be equal members of a federal, bilingual state — a pledge broken when the federal constitution was abandoned in 1972. Since then, English speakers say they have been shut out of jobs, denied fair political representation and deprived of revenues from oil, much of which is extracted from former British territory. Matters came to a head in November when a group of lawyers staged a small protest outside the courthouse in Bamenda, Cameroon’s largest Anglophone city, to demand the withdrawal of judges who spoke no English and had no understanding of British common law. The protest was broken up with tear gas. The authorities must have assumed that, as in the past, the protests would peter out. Instead, the movement grew, drawing in Anglophone teachers, angered by state attempts to replace them with French speakers with knowledge of neither English nor the GCE syllabus. Students joined in too, only to see their halls of residence raided and female students beaten and sexually abused by the police, according to activists. The government admits to six protester deaths, though activists say the true toll is much higher. With force alone appearing to fail, Mr Biya has since January attempted to seal off Anglophone Cameroon from the outside world by cutting off internet access to the two regions. An absolutist gerontocrat who has clung to power through a series of controversial elections, there are signs that even French-speakers are finally losing patience with a leader who spends so much time in Europe his people view him as an absentee landlord. Last October a Cameroonian stood outside the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva, where the president is said to have spent most of the Summer, and hurled insults at Mr Biya through a loud-hailer. Since then the president has shown signs of increasing paranoia. He was mocked by even French speakers after the present Miss Cameroon was stripped of her crown in January, allegedly for calling on the government to listen to Anglophone concerns. So far, however, there is little sign that Mr Biya will relent. Most of the leaders of the protest movement have been arrested in recent weeks and charged with “terrorism, hostility against the fatherland, secession, revolution, contempt of the president… group rebellion, civil war and dissemination of fake news.” Facing the death penalty, their trial before a military tribunal has shown Cameroon’s problems in microcosm. Bewigged defence lawyers, seated across the room from bare-headed Francophone prosecutors, struggled to follow proceedings conducted in French. When an interpreter was eventually provided the translation was so poor that few were any the wiser. It is a sign, Anglophone Cameroonians say, that they will never be understood or accepted by the French speaking majority. “The Anglophones are a people,” Henry Ngale Monono, a barrister, wrote recently in a Cameroonian newsletter. “We have a common culture, a common language. The Francophones want is to think like them behave like them, act like them — which is not possible.” (C) 2017 The Telegraph

UNSC postpones Sudan complaint against UAE per UK request By Al Mayadeen English April 30, 2024   The Sudanese ambassador claims that the UAE was not happy with the Sudanese complaint, which the UAE denies, and pressured the UNSC members to postpone the meeting. Sudanese Children suffering from malnutrition are treated at an MSF clinic in Metche Camp, Chad, near the Sudanese border, April 6, 2024. (AP) It has been reported that the UN Security Council has delayed negotiations on Sudan’s complaint against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) until next month May, at the request of the UK.  The meeting was supposed to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, arms flow, and Sudan’s accusations of UAE aggression through alleged support for paramilitary forces against the Sudanese army. Speaking to Sudanese state television, Sudan’s Ambassador, Al-Harith Idriss, argued that it was due to a procedural reason after a missing English translation of the complaint, noting that the delay “won’t prevent the UAE from being condemned,” and that it would move to Mozambique’s presidency in May. However, Idriss called out the British intervention, the penholder for Sudan (the country currently responsible for drafting resolutions on Sudan), saying it was “arbitrary and lacking neutrality.” AFP  cited a diplomatic source saying: "Yesterday, our permanent representative to the United Nations [Al-Harith Idriss] submitted a request for an urgent session of the Security Council to discuss the UAE's aggression against the Sudanese people and the provision of weapons and equipment to the terrorist militia". Sudan accuses UAE of supporting RSF militants The original session was planned to have non-member states invited but the meeting format was changed to closed consultations, thus making participation by non-member states like Sudan no longer allowed. It is worth noting that the Sudanese ambassador claimed that the UAE was not happy with the complaint and pressured the UNSC members to postpone the meeting, which further comes after a Sunday report in  The Times  paper indicating that the UAE canceled ministerial meetings with the UK as a result of lack of support for the UN accusations against their country. The UAE constantly denied having anything to do with the conflict in Sudan, calling the allegations “baseless” in a letter to the Security Council, which their representative, Lana Nusseibeh, claims are a distraction from the country's humanitarian crisis. Last August, the UAE denied a report that claimed  weapons were discovered in aid  shipments sent to Sudanese war refugees, asserting that it remains neutral in the conflict. In response to inquiries from  The Wall Street Journal , the government of the UAE stated that it supports a peaceful resolution to the situation in Sudan and "seeks to provide all forms of support to alleviate humanitarian suffering." [Genocide Watch comment: This is a diplomatic lie by the UAE.] The UAE claimed  it had built a field hospital  in the neighboring country of Chad and provided some 2,000 metric tons of humanitarian goods, including food and medical supplies, to those afflicted by the fighting. The fighting in Sudan broke out in April last year between the regular army, headed by its leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo [Hemedti]. Amid a pending RSF attack against the city of al-Fasher in North Darfur, which threatens the lives of thousands of sheltering people, the Security Council expressed "deep concern" and called for the de-escalation of the crisis and hostilities to curb the worsening humanitarian crisis.  Copyright 2023 Al Mayadeen English To watch video click on image.

By Geoff Hill Fiji outraged rights groups on Friday by forcing an Iranian refugee back to Papua New Guinea where he had spent more than three years under Australia’s tough asylum seeker policies and where he said he feared persecution. Loghaman Sawari’s plight shines a spotlight on the human suffering behind Australia’s harsh policy of banishing asylum seekers to remote Pacific islands at a time the United States considers giving hundreds of them homes. Sawari, 21, flew to Fiji last week to apply for a protection visa but was deported before he could lodge that application with Fijian immigration officials at the capital Suva, said lawyer Aman Ravindra-Singh, who was with Sawari when he was arrested outside Suva. “He’s scared of ending up in Manus in a hell hole,” Ravindra-Singh said, referring to Manus Island where Papua New Guinea’s mosquito-infested immigration camp is located. The Fijian government said Sawari had been legally obliged to apply for political asylum without delay, but he had failed to do so during his 10 days in Fiji. Sawari would have become the first asylum seeker to apply for protection from a country where Australia has been banishing refugees for more than more than three years despite United Nations objections. His plight has prompted rights groups to call on Australia to accept hundreds of refugees who are languishing on Manus Island and on the Pacific atoll of Nauru. Australia refuses to accept asylum seekers who try to reach its shores by boat and pays the two impoverished Pacific islands nations to keep them. The United States had agreed to resettle an undisclosed number of refugees among more than 1,200 asylum seekers - mostly Muslims from Africa, the Middle East and Asia - on Manus and Nauru. Another 370 asylum seekers who were brought to Australia for medical treatment then took court action to prevent their return to the remote islands would also be eligible for resettlement to the United States under the deal struck between Australia and the Obama administration. But the deal has been condemned by President Donald Trump and now appears to be in doubt. Australia sent Sawari to the men-only camp on Manus as a 17-year-old in August 2013. He was accepted as a refugee and had lived in Papua New Guinea outside the camp. But he complained he had been physically attacked by locals, threatened, harassed and had lived for a period in poverty on the street. He pleaded for international help and protection for asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus in a video posted on social media from Fiji. “Australia took me in 2013 to PNG by force and I don’t want to settle in PNG,” he said, referring to Papua New Guinea. “We need just freedom. Please, we are not slaves, we are human beings.” Sawari had arrived at Port Moresby on an Air Niugini flight on Friday afternoon and was being interviewed by Papua New Guinea immigration officials, a police statement said. Ravindra-Singh said he had arranged on Tuesday a meeting in Suva on Friday for Sawari to claim asylum. The pair where in their way to that meeting when their car was intercepted by six police and four immigration officers who took Sawari to an airport, the lawyer said. “The Fijian government shows no respect for human rights or international law or even its own laws,” Ravindra-Singh said. Fijian Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said Sawari had broken local laws by arriving in Fiji on a Papua New Guinea passport “obtained by fraudulent means.” Sayed-Khaiyum did not elaborate. Amnesty International said it had grave concerns for Sawari’s welling being and called on Australia to take responsibility for him. Fiji’s Humans Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission director Ashwin Raj said Sawari’s deportation could expose him to “inhuman and degrading treatment.” A coalition of 69 Australian organizations and community groups on Friday released a statement demanding that Australia evacuate the Pacific camps to end a humanitarian crisis. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 The Washingtin Times

Seven-day talks conducted under auspices of UN and ICRC to address humanitarian crisis surrounding prisoners https://tribune.com.pk/story/2477438/yemen-prisoner-exchange-talks-conclude-without-full-agreement July 7 2024: YEMEN: The latest round of prisoner exchange negotiations between the Yemeni government and the Houthi group concluded Saturday in Muscat, Oman, without reaching a comprehensive agreement, according to officials from both sides. The seven-day talks were conducted under the auspices of the United Nations (UN) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), aiming to address the ongoing humanitarian crisis surrounding prisoners in the conflict-ridden nation. Majid Fadail, the official spokesman for the Yemeni government delegation, told the state-run Saba News Agency that while no final agreement was reached, the talks "achieved some breakthroughs in the issue of abductees and forcibly disappeared persons." The Houthi delegation, led by Abdul-Qadir Murtada, confirmed that some points of agreement were reached, including resolving the case of Mohamed Qahtan, a Yemeni pro-government politician who has been held by the Houthis for nine years. Murtada also noted that both parties agreed to exchange some prisoner lists. Both sides have expressed commitment to continuing dialogue, with the next round of talks scheduled to take place after a two-month preparation period. During this time, the parties are expected to focus on completing and approving detainee lists, laying the groundwork for potential breakthroughs in future negotiations. The United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg on Wednesday announced that negotiations between the Yemeni government and the Houthi group have achieved significant progress regarding the release of conflict-related detainees, including a prominent Yemeni politician. The current round follows a series of UN-sponsored talks between the Yemeni government and Houthis over the years. The most recent discussions, held in Amman in June 2023, ended without an agreement. However, a previous round in Switzerland in March 2023 led to a successful prisoner exchange in April 2023, resulting in the release of over 800 prisoners and detainees from both warring Yemeni sides.  © 2024 The Express Tribune.

Kurdistan 24 Digital Media 2024/07/15 12:57 Syrians elect new members of the Parliament in Damascus on July 15, 2024. (Photo: AFP) ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdish National Council in Syria (ENKS) has released a statement denouncing the Syrian general elections as illegitimate, asserting that the results are skewed in favor of the ruling party. "The Syrian regime continues to exert its authority by force through these elections, disregarding UN resolutions aimed at resolving the civil war and political issues in Syria," the ENKS statement declared. The statement emphasized that, according to UN Resolution 2254, elections must be conducted smoothly and inclusively across all of Syria. However, with many Syrians currently refugees or displaced, the ENKS argues that the current elections are illegal and violate United Nations resolutions. The ENKS highlighted that the election outcomes clearly favor the Ba'ath Party and its allies. Today, Syrians in government-controlled areas are voting in the fourth parliamentary elections since the civil war began in 2011. The polls are expected to maintain the Ba'ath Party's dominance, which has been in power since 1963, with its secular left-wing and Arab nationalist allies facing minimal opposition. As reported by Syria's Supreme Judicial Elections Committee, over 1,500 candidates are competing for 250 seats in the largely symbolic parliament following the recent withdrawal of approximately 7,400 candidates. "We must elect capable individuals and avoid repeating past mistakes by voting for old names who cannot bring change," stated Bodoor Abu Ghazaleh, a 49-year-old health ministry employee, at a Damascus polling station. Under Syria's quota system, 127 seats are reserved for workers and farmers, while the remaining 123 seats are open to candidates from other professions. The Ba'ath Party is anticipated to secure the majority of the seats in this legislative ballot, which occurs every four years. With support from key allies Iran and Russia, Damascus has regained significant territory lost during the early years of Syria's 13-year civil war. The conflict, which began with the suppression of anti-government protests, has evolved into a complex war involving foreign armies and jihadist groups, resulting in over 500,000 deaths and the displacement of millions. In government-controlled areas, Syrians aged 18 and over with an identity card are eligible to vote at approximately 8,150 polling stations. Syrians in the Kurdish-controlled northeast, in regions held by Turkish-backed rebels along the northern border, and in the jihadist-dominated Idlib area in the northwest are effectively excluded from voting. Candidates are vying for seats in these regions, but only those residing in government-held areas can cast ballots at designated polling stations. In Damascus, posters for candidates from Idlib and Raqqa, a former stronghold of Islamic State jihadists now controlled by Kurdish-led authorities, are prominently displayed. Polling stations will remain open until 7:00 PM (1600 GMT). Millions of Syrians who have sought refuge abroad during the conflict are also unable to vote. Last week, Syria's exiled opposition condemned the elections as "absurd," asserting that government-organized polls "only represent the ruling authority" in the absence of a political resolution to the conflict. United Nations-backed efforts to achieve a political settlement have repeatedly failed, and talks since 2019 on revising the country's constitution have stalled. Kurdistan24 ©Copyright 2021

We see the silhouette of a Congolese Tutsi woman who said she was targeted by the Nyatura militia, as she stands by the entrance of a tent at the Nkamira transit centre in western Rwanda. Andrei Popoviciu/TNH By Andrei Popoviciu & Emmet Livingstone GOMA, Democratic Republic of the Congo & NKAMIRA TRANSIT CAMP, Rwanda The war between the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s military and the Tutsi-led M23 armed group is having a harmful impact on the country’s Rwandophone Tutsi communities, some of whom have been unfairly typecast as rebel collaborators. Interviews with nearly a dozen Tutsi civilians underscore the diverse ways their communities have been affected by the war, which began in late 2021 and has seen the M23 seize large chunks of eastern DRC with the military backing of neighbouring Rwanda. “People started to point the finger and say we were Rwandans, to say we were complicit in this war,” said Providence Muhorakeye, speaking from a tarpaulin tent at a displacement camp in Goma, eastern DRC’s largest city. “But we didn’t contribute. We don’t know anything about it.” Muhorakeye, a 36-year-old Tutsi woman, said armed men wearing military fatigues killed two of her uncles in late 2022, prompting her to flee her village for Goma. She said her mother was also attacked and later succumbed to her wounds. The M23 began its insurgency because it felt the Congolese government had failed to implement a 2013 peace accord with the group. Yet the rebels are now using the abuse against Tutsi as a justification for the ongoing rebellion. The M23 has received massive backing from Rwanda, which has up to 4,000 troops on the ground and de facto control over the group,  according to UN experts . Kigali sees eastern DRC as its backyard and wants to claw back influence there from regional rivals. Analysts say the combat  increasingly resembles a regional conflict , with the Rwandan soldiers fighting next to the M23, and southern African troops – from Malawi, South Africa, and Tanzania – as well as Burundian soldiers, fighting with Congolese government forces against them. Nearly two million people have been displaced by the conflict, according to the UN, with an estimated 700,000 camping in  dire conditions around Goma . Thousands more have fled to neighbouring Uganda or Rwanda.  The Congolese presidency has warned against discrimination targeting Rwandophone communities, yet Tutsi who spoke to The New Humanitarian described facing extreme violence, verbal abuse, and the theft or killing of their livestock. Some interviewees said they were targeted by people in their villages, while others blamed their abuse on a poorly controlled coalition of local militias that have been supporting the Congolese army in its floundering counter-insurgency campaign. Charles, a displaced person living in a camp sheltering Congolese Tutsi in Rwanda, told The New Humanitarian he just wants the war to stop. “Children are not going to school and we cannot afford them an education now,” he said. “I want to go back to DRC.” ‘We didn’t agree to create this group’ Congolese Tutsi are a small minority but have long faced discrimination. Members of the group have lived in DRC for many generations, yet their citizenship was increasingly questioned by politicians in the decades after independence in 1960. Large numbers joined Rwandan-led rebellions against the Congolese government, initially launched after Hutu genocidaires fled from Rwanda to eastern DRC in the 1990s. This alliance hardened negative feelings towards Tutsi by other communities. Discrimination did drive some Tutsi to join the M23 and its predecessor groups, and it has increasingly been wielded as a justification for the current insurgency, according to public statements by the rebels and their Rwandan backers. The M23 and Rwanda are especially critical of the Congolese army’s collaboration with Nyatura, a Hutu-dominated militia, and the FDLR, a rebel group founded in DRC by the exiled Hutu extremists behind the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda. However, independent researchers point out that these collaborations were activated by the army to combat the M23 insurgency, and were not its proximate trigger. They  also point out that anti-Tutsi abuse has soared as a direct result of the rebellion. It is unclear how many Tutsi have experienced abuse and violence over the past two years, and Tutsi communities are not alone in feeling they have been profiled and targeted by the conflict parties. Still, thousands of Tutsi have arrived in camps in Goma and Rwanda, and UN officials and rights groups have drawn attention to  public lynchings and hate speech against Kinyarwanda speakers, which includes both Tutsi and Hutu communities.  Prominent Tutsi leaders from North Kivu – the main province where the M23 is active – have also been arrested by Congolese authorities, or have fled because they fear persecution, according  to information gathered by independent UN experts . “We have lots of members of our families who have disappeared. Others have been massacred unjustly,” said David Karambi, president of the Isoko Mutuality, a Tutsi association in North Kivu. Karambi said leaders of Tutsi communities have tried to make clear that they should not be associated automatically with the M23. But he said these efforts have often felt like “preaching in the desert”. Karambi added that the M23 is partly right to say that it is fighting to protect Tutsi, because the “FDLR is very active”. “It is not really just out of kindness that they say they want to defend the members of the community,” Karambi said. Other displaced Tutsi expressed deep scepticism of the M23. “We didn’t agree to create this group,” said Emmanuel Nsengiyumva, a community leader at the Acogenoki camp. “We didn’t consent. For everything they are doing, we are also victims.” Killings, cattle theft, and continued abuse The New Humanitarian interviewed five displaced Tutsi civilians in Acogenoki and four in the Nkamira transit camp in western Rwanda. Interviews were also carried out with leaders of Tutsi communities like Karambi, and several independent researchers. Thousands of refugees have taken shelter at the Nkamira transit camp in western Rwanda since the M23 conflict erupted. The refugees have been arriving with bullet wounds and severe mental health issues. Andrei Popoviciu/TNH Interviewees described facing a low-level of discrimination in their villages and towns before the current conflict. However, they said the abuse then increased significantly in scale and severity once the M23 began its insurgency. One interviewee mentioned seeing violent anti-Tutsi rhetoric on social media, while six described experiencing discrimination in their villages. One said their children were attacked by other pupils in school last year. Of those describing physical attacks, six said their cattle were stolen or killed by militias; two described women and girls who had been raped by militias; and seven said they had seen family members or neighbours killed over the past two years. A 49-year-old Tutsi woman called Mukanoheri said she fled her Congolese village last year after Nyatura fighters carried out violent acts, including hanging the head of a Tutsi woman in the village square. Mukanoheri is now living in the Nkamira transit centre, which is set among western Rwanda’s lush green hills. The camp has seen more than 15,000 mostly Congolese Tutsi pass through it since last year. “It was a massacre,” said Mukanoheri, who gave only her first name for fear of reprisals, recalling last year’s attack. “This group was telling us there were no Tutsi allowed to live in Congo.” Akim Rwubusisi Ezayi said his family moved to the Nkamira camp last year after seven people in his village were attacked by Nyatura and FDLR fighters. He said his village was mixed but that “only the Tutsi were targeted” by the militiamen. At the Acogenoki camp in Goma, displaced Tutsi fled fighting between the M23 and opposing forces, as well as specific targeted threats, said camp president Alice Maombi. “They started coming to our houses to kill us. We saw many murders,” Maombi said, referring to militia groups without naming any specifically. “That is why we came here to find shelter.” “There are people who are putting our camp on social media, saying that there are Tutsi here. Others say that we will be stoned, or the camp burned down. It scares us and we don’t feel secure.” Justin Mugabo, another resident of Acogenoki, which houses around 10,000 people, said militia fighters killed two of his brothers and several other people close to him “before my eyes”. Mugabo said he was grateful for being provided a safe haven in Acogenoki, which is under police protection. Still, he said he is afraid of leaving the camp for a nearby market because people outside have accused residents of being rebels.  Maombi, the camp president, shared similar fears. “There are people who are putting our camp on social media, saying that there are Tutsi here,” she said. “Others say that we will be stoned, or the camp burned down. It scares us and we don’t feel secure.” The Tutsi refugees living in Rwanda’s Nkamira transit centre face fewer security risks but poor humanitarian conditions, camp director David Rwanyonga told The New Humanitarian. Rwanyonga said refugees have been arriving with bullet wounds and severe mental health issues, and that survivors of rape – including girls as young as 14 – have come to the camp alone, pregnant, and infected with HIV. He added that medical services are strained in the camp due to budget cuts by the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, which funds the site almost entirely. Feeling trapped While critical of the government collaborating with militias like the FDLR and Nyatura, several Tutsi interviewees said the Congolese government had made some efforts to protect them, such as setting up the camp in Goma.  President Félix Tshisekedi has said publicly that Tutsi are just as Congolese as other communities, and the presidency  has warned that hate speech against Rwandophones will only lend support to the M23. In interviews with The New Humanitarian, some members of government-aligned militias expressed nuanced views about the conflict and the involvement of Tutsi communities. “We are not fighting the Tutsi, we are fighting the M23,” said Janvier Ngoa, a commander in the APCLS, one of the largest pro-government armed groups, with its roots in North Kivu’s Hunde communities.  Mistaken popular prejudice against Tutsi exists because of the community’s long history of being involved in rebellions, Ngoa explained, blaming this on Rwandan meddling. Still, most Tutsi interviewees said they feel trapped and wary about the future. Mukanoheri, the woman in the Nkamira centre, said her daughter was killed while fleeing to Rwanda, and she now has to care for her surviving two grandchildren. “We didn’t belong there, but we don’t belong here either,” said Mukanoheri. “In Congo, I couldn’t sleep well. I was scared I’d be killed in my sleep,” she added. “At least here, we sleep peacefully.” Providence Muhorakeye, in Acogenoki, said that her neighbours had killed her mother. “How can I live with someone who killed my mother?” she said. “I wouldn’t be able to go back home even if peace were declared.” Refugees interviewed in Rwanda were selected by UNHCR, which also provided translation support. Edited by Philip Kleinfeld.

‘When the war stopped, a new one started on women.’ Women demonstrating against sexual violence in the Tigrayan city of Mekelle earlier this year. Courtesy of Birhan Gebrekirstos and Wagahta Facts By Maya Misikir Earlier this year, hundreds of women took to the streets of the northern Tigrayan city of Mekelle to protest the growing violence women are facing across the region – two years after the end of the civil war. The spark was the murder in March of 16-year-old Mahlet Teklay, who was kidnapped and then killed in the city after her abductors didn’t get the ransom they had demanded – a victim of the  epidemic of kidnappings Ethiopia is struggling with.  Birhan Gebrekirstos, an activist and lecturer at Mekelle University, said Mahlet’s killing was the final straw that triggered the women’s march. Placards and flags in hand, the demonstrators converged on the headquarters of the regional government demanding protection and justice.  Among them were women former fighters of the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). One placard read: “We chased the enemy; we won’t be killed now by our brothers”. Protesters also carried photographs of Zewdu Haftu, who was  bundled into a car in broad daylight in August last year and then killed. Her death took the toll of women murdered in the city over the previous year to 12, with 80 reported cases of rape, according to the region’s police commissioner. “After all that women have endured during the war, we no longer have the capacity to take any more,” Birhan told The New Humanitarian. “I think this is what drove the protest.” ‘Being raped by one person is starting to be perceived as trivial’ “When the war stopped, a new one started on women,” said Birhan. “We have heard repeated stories about women being gang raped; being raped by one person is starting to be perceived as trivial. The indication is that, as a community, we’re getting used to these stories – it’s scary.”  Violence has always been a fact of life for many women in what is a highly patriarchal society, where issues of gender discrimination and sexual violence  are often minimised . But during the war, rape became almost standardised, used deliberately to terrorise.  Sexual violence in Tigray was conducted by both federal forces and their Eritrean allies. The purpose was to inflict “lasting physical and psychological damage on women and girls in Tigray”, according to a report by  Amnesty International .  “On top of their suffering and trauma, survivors have been left without adequate support,” the report noted. “They must be able to access the services they need and are entitled to – including medical treatment, livelihood assistance, mental healthcare and psychosocial support – which are essential aspects of a survivor-centred response.” The TPLF also committed atrocities against women during their occupation of parts of neighbouring Amhara. In addition to  gang rapes – and rapes in front of their victims’ children – TPLF soldiers inflicted beatings and torture. Multiple conflicts, multiple abuses Violence against women continues to be a feature of  several other conflicts currently underway in Ethiopia. In Amhara, the government has been battling a year-old insurgency, with the country’s  rights body warning there is evidence of “sexual and gender-based violence perpetrated by government security forces”. With so many conflict areas unsafe and off-limits to monitoring, rights groups struggle to relay fully the extent of the violence being done to women. “It’s very hard to do first hand documentation in the Amhara region,” explained Rigbe Gebrehawaria, the federal commissioner for the rights of women, children, older persons, and people with disabilities. “The population and the needs are not in line with our capacity and what we are able to do.” But she is certain that the trend of violence against women is worsening “as conflicts gain momentum” – even though most cases go unreported. Women can be double victims. An entrenched cultural idea of a woman’s “purity” often stigmatises survivors – forcing them into silence. They are left alone to bear the burden of what they have been forced to endure as communities become desensitised to the horror.  Women’s rights are being eroded in more indirect ways. Traditional practices like female genital mutilation (a criminal act) are reestablishing themselves in parts of the country as government attention shifts, and as its authority wanes.  Early marriages are also on the rise in conflict and drought-hit areas as hungry families – forced to make difficult economic decisions – increasingly choose to withdraw their girl children from school.   In the  Oromia region of Guji, where another anti-government insurgency has caused serious rights violations, some families force women to marry their rapist who also provide financial reparations – a socially acceptable way for the perpetrator to pay for his crime.  Speaking out Isolated by their community when they do speak out about what happened to them, some sexual violence survivors have chosen to leave their hometowns and relocate to where they cannot be recognised. Yet despite the harsh consequences they face in sharing their stories, women have become more outspoken about the violence they have experienced, said Maria Yusuf, who runs women’s shelters across the country. “The violence women face used to be kept as a family secret,” she explained, “but I’ve seen this changing over the years.” Her NGO, the Association for Women's Sanctuary and Development, has been creating safe spaces for women for the past two decades. When the Tigray war broke out in 2021, the association opened two temporary shelters in the border towns of Weldiya and Kobo in northeastern Amhara. “It’s important to document women’s stories from the recent conflicts before their trauma gets buried by further trauma, as these conflicts expand.” Sehin Teferra, runs Setaweet, a feminist organisation “We were not able to go into the region, so we set up camp in a place where we would reach those that were escaping,” said Maria. “We help women and children who had survived – who had survived gang rape and other unspeakable acts.” They worked through women in the community as a bridge to reach survivors, who, fearing the stigma, were wary of acknowledging what had happened. Some organisations are taking aim at that culture of silence that further victimises women in the name of family “honour”. Setaweet, a feminist organisation, has made the documentary Misikir – the Amharic word for witness – to capture the stories of sexual violence survivors in Afar, Amhara, Benishangul-Gumuz, and Tigray – regions that have all experienced conflict. “It’s important to document women’s stories from the recent conflicts before their trauma gets buried by further trauma, as these conflicts expand,” Sehin Teferra, who runs Setaweet, told The New Humanitarian. Truth, told transparently, will be key to more authentic and meaningful peace settlements when the wars finally end, she said.   Laws are not enough The widespread cases of gender-based violence in Ethiopia are not for the lack of legal frameworks supposed to protect women. Ethiopia has ratified international legal instruments like the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, better known as the Maputo Protocol.  But without a consolidated law against gender-based violence, and due to other gaps within the scattered protections – the Ethiopian criminal code for instance doesn’t recognise marital rape – many offenders escape serious penalties.  Women who report their cases can even be ridiculed. “One women in our network was told she should consider herself lucky by a police after she reported a rape case,” said Fikirte Shumet, a project manager at the Ethiopian Women with Disabilities National Association. The first step in tackling gender-based violence is recognising the pain women have to deal with and the knock-on-effects this has on families and our society, said Birhan. “Rape is seen as any other crime here, but there needs to be laws that clearly differentiate the varied forms of violence women are facing,” she noted. “We need to also work on empowering women – there are many women who don’t know their rights – especially in rural areas. Women need to understand that they have rights so they can fight for them,” Birhan said. © The New Humanitarian. All rights reserved 2024

By Habib Siddiqui Every day I receive dozens of emails. Most of these emails (at least 30) are about Myanmar’s inhuman treatment of the minorities. It is simply depressing to read the sad stories of their extermination, aptly termed the slow-burning genocide by Dr. Maung Zarni, a fellow human rights activist. Who would have thought that in a Buddhist country, run by Suu Kyi, a winner of the Nobel Prize for peace, these unfortunate minorities – mostly Muslims – will continue to be victimized for total annihilation simply because of their different religious and ethnic identity? Obviously, the non-violent messages of Siddhartha Gautam Buddha have miserably failed to humanize the Buddhists of Myanmar. They remain mortgaged to their savage past of extreme intolerance that had terrorized their neighbors for centuries. I am aware that in the post-9/11 era, some world leaders are willing to look the other ways or excuse the inexcusable crimes of Suu Kyi’s government to stopping genocide of the Muslim minorities. But genocide is a serious matter that deserves our serious attention. It would be utterly irresponsible to overlook this grievous crime simply because the country is now run by an elected, popular lady, a practicing Buddhist who was the poster lady for democracy, and not a hated military junta that she successfully replaced. The United Nations in 1948 defined genocide to mean any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, including: (a) killing members of the group (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group (e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. As I have repeatedly mentioned since the mid-2000s, what is happening with the minority Muslims in general, and particularly the Rohingyas of Myanmar who mostly live in the Rakhine state (formerly Arakan) bordering Bangladesh, is nothing short of genocide. The overwhelming verdict of the subject matter experts, since at least 2012, is also the same. The destruction of the Rohingya – politically, culturally and economically – is a complete one that is carried out both by Buddhist civilians backed by the state and perpetrated directly by state actors and state institutions. I have been calling it a national project that is scripted and directed by the state since the days of General Ne Win enjoying the full cooperation, collaboration, contribution from, and execution by the Buddhist majority – monks, mobs and the military. As noted by Dr. Maung Zarni and Alice Cowley in their seminal work “The slow-burning genocide of Myanmar’s Rohingya”, both the State in Myanmar and the local community have committed four out of five acts of genocide as spelled out by the 1948 Convention on the Punishment and Prevention of the Crime of Genocide. What is so disturbing with the on-going genocide of the Rohingya and Muslim minorities in Myanmar is that it is happening in our time, some 69 years after the UN Convention. For the sake of argument, one may find some excuses for the major perpetrators of genocidal crimes of the pre-1948 era saying that they did not know better (this is not to excuse their horrendous crimes!) but what’s the excuse for Suu Kyi and her predecessors within the military? Our human history has repeatedly been tarnished by genocidal crimes of the few. But rarely do we see genocide as a national project with full participation of the all to annihilate the ‘other’ people. And yet, such is the reality in today’s Myanmar. After all, how can we explain the crimes of the Buddhist people and government of Myanmar? For such crimes, I need neither go to the history of ethnic cleansing drives of the 1930s and 1940s of the British era nor even those of the newly independent Burma. Just the current events in the past week are sufficient to understand the monumental crimes of the Buddhist Myanmar against the minority Muslims. An old Rohingya man was brutally killed by Rakhine extremists, aided by Myanmar security forces, inside the premises of the Sittwe University on Saturday, August 5, 2017 at around 9:30 a.m. The victim was identified as Mohammad Abul, son of U Ali Ahmad of Kone Dagar (Konka Fara) Rohingya IDP camp, Sittwe (formerly Akyab). Commenting on the brutal murder, a Rohingya rights activist lamented the fact that under Suu Kyi’s watch and tacit encouragement the “Rakhine extremist are trying to eradicate all Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar systematically. The Buddhist community’s mission is ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya minority.” In the early hours of Thursday, August 3, a group of about 30 Buddhists armed with sticks and swords attacked the Muslim-majority Sakya Nwe Sin neighborhood in the former royal capital, Mandalay. A local administrator said two young Muslim men were injured. Mandalay residents told Reuters the incident had stirred fears of a repeat of deadly communal violence that hit the same neighborhood in 2014. Mandalay and other central towns have seen sporadic outbreaks of hate crimes against the minority Muslims since Myanmar's transition from full military rule began in 2011. On Wednesday, August 2, small groups of Buddhist monks with dozens of lay supporters set up two “boycott camps” close to country’s most important Buddhist site, the Shwedagon pagoda, and at a Mandalay pagoda just blocks from scene of the mob attack later that night. Behind banners accusing Suu Kyi’s administration of failing to protect Buddhism, the monks upturned their alms bowls - a traditional symbol of defiance against the country’s rulers. Since Tuesday, August 1, the minority Rohingya community – comprising of some 650 people - living in the village of ‘Zaydi Pyin’ in Rathedaung Township remains surrounded by State-backed Rakhine extremists. Their access to food and to roads, forests and rivers are cut off with barbed wire fences erected by the government-backed extremists, thereby restricting their movement and forcing starvation on them. Unless the blockade is removed immediately many Rohingyas may die. A human rights activist said, “The main reason behind such a blockade is to make them starve and die; and eventually force them to leave their homes once and for all. So, the Myanmar government can tell the world that the Rohingyas are leaving their homes on their own.” Nearly 1000 Rohingyas died and tens of thousands were displaced in 2012 in Rakhine state. Genocidal violence against the Rohingya people escalated there last year after attacks on border posts allegedly by Rohingya militants. The military operation sent an estimated 75,000 people across the nearby border to Bangladesh, where many gave accounts of serious abuses. A United Nations report issued earlier this year said Myanmar's security forces had committed mass killings and gang rapes against Rohingya during their campaign against the insurgents, which may amount to crimes against humanity. The European Union has similarly proposed the investigation after the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said the army's operation in the northern part of Rakhine State - where most people are Rohingyas - likely included crimes against humanity. Reuters was among international media escorted to the area last week in a tour closely overseen by security forces. Rohingya women told reporters of husbands and sons arbitrarily detained, and of killings and arson by security forces that broadly match the accounts from refugees in Bangladesh. Typical of genocide deniers, Suu Kyi’s government continues to deny such accusations and says most are fabricated. In several recent cases, local officials have bowed to nationalist pressure to shut down Muslim buildings that they say are operating without official approval. Two madrassas were shuttered in May in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon. Local media reported the closure of a mosque and another Islamic school in Oatkan, on Yangon’s outskirts, this week. Authorities in Kyaukpadaung, central Myanmar - famed for not accepting non-Buddhist residents - last month agreed to demolish a structure that was falsely suspected of being a mosque. In a letter to Suu Kyi on Thursday, August 3, twenty groups working on human rights in Myanmar said the government needed to do more to protect Muslims, who make up 4.3 percent of the population. "The Burma government must not appease the ultra-nationalists who are utilizing hate speech, intimidation, and violence to promote fear in Muslim communities across the country," said the letter. "It is extremely alarming to see how anti-Muslim sentiment has spread beyond Rakhine state, where the Rohingya Muslim minority has been harshly persecuted and isolated, even to major cities like Yangon." In Myanmar, Rohingyas face extinction. They are denied all the fundamental rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Myanmar's nationality law, approved in 1982, denies Rohingya citizenship. Rohingyas are not recognized among the 134 official ethnicities in Myanmar because authorities see them as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh. They are subjected to forced labor, have no land rights and are heavily restricted by the government. They have no permission to leave the camps built for them, have no source of income and must rely on the World Food Program to survive, which is often restricted to them. The local Buddhists are forbidden to supply food or do any business with them. Adolf Hitler’s instruction to his Army commanders on August 22, 1939 read: "Thus for the time being I have sent to the East only my 'Death's Head Units' with the orders to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of Polish race or language. Only in such a way will we win the vital space that we need.” We falsely assumed that after the fall of Nazism we shall never again see a repeat of such grievous crimes. The fact, however, is Suu Kyi’s government, like her predecessors, has perfected such criminal policies to wipe out the Rohingya and minority Muslims. Despite growing evidence of genocide, the international community has so far avoided calling this large scale human suffering genocide because no powerful member states of the UN Security Council have any appetite to forego their commercial and strategic interests in Myanmar to address the slow-burning Rohingya genocide. Dr. Zarni quotes Terith Chy, a Khmer Criminologist, “The world is watching and does nothing to end the sufferings of the Rohingya. This is much like what happened in Cambodia and Rwanda. The world stands by. It keeps on watching, watching, watching . . .” [(Genocide) Documentation Center of Cambodia] I wonder how long shall we just watch and watch, and do nothing to stop the genocidal crimes of the Myanmar government! _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Asian Tribune

Addis Abeba – The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), jointly with Ethiopia’s Refugees and Returnees Service (RRS), has established a new refugee site in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, which has received nearly 3,000 Sudanese refugees following the closure of the Kumer and Awlala camps due to security concerns. According to UNHCR , the new site, named Aftit, is located in the Amhara region and is designed to accommodate up to 12,500 individuals. The agency noted that security measures at the site have been enhanced in coordination with local authorities and the host community. “Following the closure of the Kumer and Awlala sites, the efficient coordination with Ethiopian authorities and partners allowed us to swiftly identify the new site and begin the work of setting up essential services,” said Andrew Mbogori, UNHCR Representative in Ethiopia. “This will allow refugees to find stability and rebuild their lives in a safer environment, with the generous support from the host community.” UNHCR indicates that despite heavy rains complicating movements in the region, development of the Aftit site continues. The agency, along with Ethiopia’s Refugees and Returnees Service (RRS) and other partners, is working to ensure basic services are available for refugee families. This relocation follows a series of challenges faced by Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia. In May 2024 , UNHCR reported that nearly 1,000 refugees left the Kumer and Awlala sites due to security concerns and inadequate services. UNHCR notes that Ethiopia currently hosts approximately 1.1 million refugees and asylum seekers, primarily from South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, and Sudan. © Copyright 2024, All Rights Reserved, Addis Standard

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. credit United Nations Myanmar: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Türk deplores attacks on civilians fleeing Rakhine, fears repeat of 2017 atrocities against Rohingya GENEVA (23 August 2024) – UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk today expressed grave alarm and raised profound concerns about the sharply deteriorating situation across Myanmar, particularly in Rakhine State where hundreds of civilians have reportedly been killed while trying to flee the fighting.   Over the past four months, tens of thousands of people, many of whom are Rohingya, have fled a major offensive by the Arakan Army to take control of Buthidaung and Maungdaw towns from the military. In one of the deadliest attacks along the Naf River bordering Bangladesh on 5 August, dozens were reportedly killed, including by armed drones. It remains unclear which party to the conflict was responsible.   “Thousands of Rohingya have been forced to flee on foot, with the Arakan Army herding them repeatedly into locations that offer scant safe haven,” Türk said. “As the border crossings to Bangladesh remain closed, members of the Rohingya community are finding themselves trapped between the military and its allies and the Arakan Army, with no path to safety.”   Despite repeated warnings and calls for action, the ongoing violence underscores the prevailing sense of impunity and the persistent challenges in ensuring protection of civilians in accordance with international law, the High Commissioner said.   “This month marks seven years since the military operations which drove 700,000 across the border into Bangladesh. Despite the world saying “never again” we are once more witnessing killings, destruction and displacement in Rakhine. Parties to the armed conflict are issuing statements denying responsibility for attacks against the Rohingya and others, acting as though they are powerless to protect them. This stretches the bounds of credulity,” said Türk.   According to information documented by the UN Human Rights Office, both the military and the Arakan Army, which now controls most of the townships in Rakhine, have committed serious human rights violations and abuses against the Rohingya, including extrajudicial killings, some involving beheadings, abductions, forced recruitment, indiscriminate bombardments of towns and villages using drones and artillery, and arson attacks. Such attacks stand in sharp contrast to obligations of all parties under international humanitarian law and to the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice to protect the Rohingya against risk of further harm.   Credible sources have described increasing numbers of Rohingya, nearly half of whom are children, seeking assistance for conflict-related injuries. There have also been reports of people dying of diarrhoea, due to lack of access to clean water and grossly inadequate living conditions. Food warehouses holding vitally important supplies for civilians have been attacked, ransacked and burnt. Buthidaung and Maungdaw hospitals have been closed due to the violence, further aggravating an already disastrous humanitarian crisis compounded by an extensive telecommunications shutdown.    “Both the military and the Arakan Army bear direct responsibility for the human tragedy that is unfolding in Rakhine,” said Turk. “Both parties must immediately cease attacks against civilians, protect those fleeing the conflict, and ensure their unimpeded access to life-saving humanitarian assistance.”   “These atrocities demand an unequivocal response - those responsible must be held accountable, and justice must be pursued relentlessly,” said Türk. “Recurrence of the crimes and horrors of the past must be prevented as a moral duty and a legal necessity. It is the responsibility of the international community, with ASEAN at the forefront, to take all necessary measures to protect the Rohingya and other civilian victims of this cruel conflict.”   For more information and media requests, please contact: In Geneva Liz Throssell - + 41 22 917 9296 /  elizabeth.throssell@un.org  or Thameen Al-Kheetan - + 41 76 223 77 62 /  thameen.alkheetan@un.org X  @UNHumanRights Facebook  unitednationshumanrights Instagram  @unitednationshumanrights

Opinion Guest Essay by Afyare A. Elmi and Yusuf Hassan Trouble has horns to hold but not tails. This Somali proverb, suggesting that disaster can be prevented but not easily controlled, feels very apt for East Africa right now. Trouble has certainly arrived. Thanks to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia’s expansionist ambitions and reckless designs, the Horn of Africa is on the cusp of a war that would imperil the region and rebound against the rest of the world. It must be stopped before it’s too late. The catalyst for the conflict is Mr. Abiy’s obsession with making Ethiopia a coastal state. Last year, he declared that Ethiopia could not stay landlocked and must have access to the sea, either by negotiation or by force. Somalia, the weakest of the five coastal countries that border Ethiopia, was the obvious target. On Jan. 1, Mr. Abiy duly signed a memorandum of understanding with the president of Somaliland, a self-declared breakaway republic in northwestern Somalia. In exchange for officially recognizing Somaliland, Ethiopia would gain a 12-mile naval base on the Gulf of Aden. Mr. Abiy would have his coast. This was a clear violation of Somalia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, recalling Ethiopia’s destructive history of meddling in the country. Somalia immediately rejected the memorandum and mounted a diplomatic offensive, explaining to regional states and international powers that Ethiopia was seeking control of Somali territory through illegal means. The United Nations, the African Union, the United States and the European Union all backed Somalia’s position, emphasizing the necessity of respecting established boundaries and national sovereignty. Yet despite international pressure, particularly from the Biden administration, Mr. Abiy has remained resolute. He seems to believe that now is the right moment to carry out his plan, as Somalia grapples with an extremist insurgency and the American government is distracted by elections and embroiled in conflicts in the Middle East and Europe. A possible victory for Donald Trump, who Mr. Abiy apparently hopes will either support or be indifferent to his actions, is another boon. Tensions, bubbling away all year, have escalated in recent weeks. In a display of power, Ethiopia sent its troops to Somalia twice in June, setting off complaints from Somalia to the United Nations Security Council. In July, a local militia in Somalia looted two truckloads of weapons and ammunition sent from Ethiopia, suggesting that arms have made their way into the country, too. Somalia, for its part, threatened to expel Ethiopian troops from the African peacekeeping forces in the country and, in a bold move, approved a defense pact with Egypt in July — adding to one it signed earlier in the year with Turkey. Ankara has stepped in to mediate but has been unable to find a solution. With both sides at loggerheads, the region is sitting on a time bomb. War would be devastating. Involving rival and well-armed nations, ethnic communities, religious groups and international backers, conflict would bring bloodshed and disaster to both countries. Somalia, slowly recovering from a devastating three-decade civil war, would scarcely be able to bear it. Ethiopia is already mired in multiple conflicts within its borders — in its Tigray, Amhara and Oromia regions — and is facing conflict on its Eritrean and Sudanese borders. Another front, stretching thousands of miles, could bring the country to collapse. The region, already racked by the war in Sudan , would become even more unstable. Conflict could draw in Red Sea states such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Yemen, Sudan, Djibouti and Eritrea, all of which consider the body of water essential for their national security. The United States, China and some European nations already have a military presence in the Red Sea; countries like Turkey, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Russia have lately entered the fray. The region could quickly become a dangerous battlefield for global and regional powers. For all its precariousness, East Africa is vital for international commerce and security. The Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea connect Asia to Europe and the Americas, while the Horn serves as Asia’s gateway to the whole African continent. By disrupting key maritime routes, war in the area would endanger global trade. Equally worrying, it would also revive Islamic extremist groups such as Al-Shabaab, which has already claimed to have recruited thousands of young Somalis to fight the Ethiopians. An unstable East Africa poses a risk to the entire world. Time is short: Another effort at mediation failed this month. To prevent the region from descending into catastrophic conflict, the world — led by the United States — must communicate to Mr. Abiy that his expansionist ambitions won’t be tolerated. Ethiopia, like any other landlocked state, should seek commercial access to the sea through cooperation and economic integration, not deals with secessionists. Washington, which has invested greatly in the region, must also exert pressure on the leaders of East African countries to promote dialogue, as well as try to reconcile Somalia and Somaliland. It won’t be easy. But the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden are too important to become another war zone, and East Africa is too fragile for reckless adventures. The world must hold this trouble by the horns. Because once it takes off, there will be no tail to restrain it by. © 2024 The New York Times Company

The government of President Daniel Ortega revoked the legal status of hundreds of evangelical groups as part of its crackdown on institutions that do not bow to its authority.   Frances Robles , 19 AUG 2024 The government led by President Daniel Ortega, right, and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, has cracked down on civic and religious groups. (Alfredo Zuniga/Associated Press) The Nicaraguan government on Monday canceled the legal status of 1,500 nonprofit organizations — many of them evangelical religious groups — in the authoritarian government’s continued effort to quash people and institutions that are not allied with the government. More than 5,000 nonprofit organizations, including church groups,  have been shut down in Nicaragua since 2018. Monday’s sweep of 1,500 civic and religious groups was by far the largest in a single day. The measure came just days after the government banished from the country two Catholic priests who had been detained earlier this month. Monday’s decision was notable because President Daniel Ortega’s government had until now focused its ire on the Roman Catholic Church, particularly in regions where high-profile bishops and priests had spoken out against human rights abuses. Evangelical pastors had largely stayed out of the political fray. But the elimination of hundreds of their churches on Monday shows the Ortega administration is expanding its effort to silence religious leaders and close off any independent space not affiliated with the government, said Martha Patricia Molina, a Nicaraguan lawyer who tracks attacks against churches and clergy. “All of their properties are going to be confiscated,” said Ms. Molina, who fled Nicaragua in 2021 and now lives in Texas. “This is an attack against religious freedom.” Mr. Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, have presided over an increasingly autocratic regime that has seen them take control over virtually all government institutions, including the legislature, courts and elections. In 2018, hundreds of thousands of people throughout the country protested against cuts to social security and eroding democracy in a quest to topple the government, but the pair responded with a tough crackdown. Hundreds of people were killed, imprisoned or forced out of the country. Ms. Murillo, who serves as spokeswoman for the government, did not respond to a request for comment. Since that uprising, nearly 250 priests, nuns, bishops and other members of the Catholic church were forced out of the country, according to a report that Ms. Molina released Friday. Some of them fled, but three bishops and 136 priests were expelled. The region of Matagalpa traditionally had around 71 priests but now just 13 remain, she said. A Jesuit university was shut down and taken over by the government last year, and in June this year, 20 Protestant churches were slammed with unexplained exorbitant fines. The Nicaraguan Ministry of Interior closed the organizations this week, saying they had  failed to meet their  legal obligations to report their finances, according to a notice published in the Nicaraguan government’s legal register. The notice listed the 1,500 organizations, which included hundreds of small faith groups, many of them affiliated with Pentecostal and Baptist churches. The government uses a repressive legal framework to persecute Catholic and Protestant communities through arrest, imprisonment and the seizure of property,   according to a June report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a U.S. government commission that monitors the universal right to freedom of religion or belief abroad. Laws ostensibly meant to combat terrorism and money laundering are instead used to arbitrarily cancel the legal status and seize the property of such groups, the report said. The government-controlled legislature passed several laws that created onerous financial reporting requirements for nonprofit organizations, making it difficult for them to comply. Even Catholic charity groups have found themselves faced with money laundering charges. The June report by the U.S. commission said the government has engaged in increasingly repressive actions against Protestant communities. Members of the Evangelical Church and the Moravian Church were threatened, and their services were either prohibited or conspicuously monitored, the report said. “I think that the church in Nicaragua has always been on the side of the truth,” said Félix Navarrete, a Nicaraguan lawyer and Catholic church activist who fled shortly after the 2018 uprising and is now the Hispanic ministry coordinator for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. “One of the government’s biggest fears is that through religious leaders, the people of Nicaragua can have change,” he said.  “They are trying to avoid that at all costs.” © 2024 The New York Times Company .