Both prosecutors and the government accuse the HDP of ties to the militant Kurdistan Workers Party [Getty] Turkey's justice minister warned the country's main pro-Kurdish DEM party on Wednesday that it would face the risk of legal action, and even a closure case like its predecessor, if it did not distance itself from Kurdish militants. DEM, parliament's third largest party, was established last year as a successor to the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which is facing the prospect of closure over alleged militant links in a court case following a years-long crackdown. "In the past, closure cases were opened against parties for supporting terrorism," Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc told reporters in Ankara, noting that some parties had been banned and that other cases were ongoing. "Therefore, we say that if the DEM Party follows the same path, then it will face the same treatment," he said. "We say keep your distance from terrorism if you do not want to face such a legal process." Another court had been expected to announce a verdict this month in a case trying jailed former HDP leaders and officials over 2014 protests triggered by an Islamic State group attack on the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani. That verdict was postponed. "They should not wag their fingers at us. I repeat, the policy of closure, blackmail and threats is over," DEM Party co-chair Tuncer Bakirhan said on Wednesday in the wake of a call from a government ally to ban the DEM Party. Critics say Turkish courts are under the influence of the government and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which he and his AK Party (AKP) deny. Both prosecutors and the government accuse the HDP of ties to the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is deemed a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union. The HDP denies having any connections with terrorism. The PKK launched an insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984 and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict. A peace process between Ankara and the PKK fell apart in 2015 and in a subsequent crackdown on the HDP thousands of its officials and members have been arrested and jailed. © The New Arab 2024

Azerbaijan occupied areas of Armenia credit: ANCA.org Genocide Warning: Azerbaijan's Invasion of Armenia Originally issued: October 2023, Updated April 2024 By Ani Tonoyan For over 2000 years, Armenians have inhabited Syunik in southern Armenia. Now, Azerbaijan is claiming this region as its historical land. Azerbaijan delegitimized the Armenian historical and legal claim to Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh). It is now using the same tactics on Armenia proper. In recent years, the irredentist political concept of “Western Azerbaijan” has emerged, which is now turning into calculated military action. In October 2023, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken warned lawmakers about Azerbaijan’s planned invasion of Armenia proper, which has now begun. Like Turkey, Azerbaijan seeks to expel Armenians from the region. International experts highlight Azerbaijan’s territorial expansionism. Stefan Meister, head of the Centre for Order and Governance in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia at the German Council on Foreign Relations, explained. “It’s part of this maximalist approach: you’re hungry so you never stop eating if no one draws a red line.” Meister urged Western governments to impose sanctions on Baku. Lack of consequences has led Aliyev to become so emboldened by his ahistorical, expansionist ideology that he announced a “Great Return Program” in which 140,000 Azerbaijanis will live in Syunik and Artsakh. Syunik is home to the Zangezur corridor in Armenia, through which Azerbaijan seeks to build an oil pipeline to Turkey. Azerbaijan and Turkey will reap the economic benefits from controlling Syunik. But their true intention is to “connect the Turkic world,” according to the Azerbaijani ambassador to Turkey, Rashad Mammadov. Mammadov’s words reek of Pan-Turkism, the ideology behind the Armenian Genocide. As seen in Artsakh, attempts to create a New Ottoman Empire will cost thousands of Armenian lives. On September 20, 2023, Azerbaijan attacked Armenia proper during its genocidal campaign to take over Artsakh. Azerbaijani Armed Forces fired in the direction of Armenian positions in the Gegharkunik region of Armenia itself. This attack followed Azerbaijan’s bombardment and firing on the remaining Armenian populated areas of Artsakh. Attacking a country’s sovereign borders violates the UN Charter and international law. Since 2020, Azerbaijan has made several incursions into Armenian territory, resulting in Azerbaijan controlling 215 square km. of Armenian land. Azerbaijan faced no consequences for those incursions, nor for its war crimes in 2020. As a result, Azerbaijan was emboldened to seize Artsakh and to forcibly displace its residents without any repercussions. Without effective sanctions, the Turkish and Azerbaijani aggression will continue unchecked. Despite the denial of Azerbaijan’s intentions, the terror unleashed on Artsakh is not over. Armenian civilians and leaders were forcibly deported as they tried to escape the genocidal attacks. Now the world watches Azerbaijani show trials of Artsakh’s defenders as they are tried and convicted of “crimes against Azerbaijan.” The purpose of international law is to defend world order. But international law is not being enforced to prevent this Azerbaijani aggression. The world must act to defend Armenia. Genocide Watch considers Azerbaijan to be at Stage 4: Dehumanization, Stage 7: Preparation, Stage 8: Persecution, and Stage 10: Denial. Genocide Watch recommendations: To demonstrate that Azerbaijan’s genocidal actions will not be tolerated, EU leaders must pull out of their deal with Azerbaijan to double gas imports by 2027. The U.S. Congress must repeal the Freedom Support Act section 907 waiver authority and stop all military and economic assistance to the Azerbaijani government. The U.S. and E.U. should impose Magnitsky sanctions on Azerbaijani leaders. Global oil corporations should boycott Azerbaijan as they have boycotted Russia. The U.S. and France should provide military aid to Armenia to deter invasion and attack. Following reports by Caucasus Heritage Watch and the Center for Truth and Justice, UNESCO must protect Armenian cultural centers at risk of destruction by Azerbaijan.

World Central Kitchen (WCK) founder José Andrés has accused Israeli forces in Gaza of targeting his aid workers "systematically, car by car". Monday's strike which killed seven members of his staff was not a mistake, he said, repeating that Israeli forces had been told of their movements. WCK workers from Australia, Canada, Poland, the UK and the US were killed as well as their Palestinian colleague. Israel says the strike was a "grave mistake" and has apologised. It has also promised an independent investigation. According to the charity, the aid convoy was hit while leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse, "where the team had unloaded more than 100 tonnes of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route". The convoy was made up of three vehicles, including two that were armoured, which clearly displayed the charity's logo. All three were hit during the strike. Speaking to Reuters news agency on Wednesday, the Spanish-American celebrity chef said this was not a "bad luck situation where, 'oops,' we dropped the bomb in the wrong place". In a separate interview with Israel's Channel 12 news, Mr Andrés said "it was really a direct attack on clearly marked vehicles whose movements were known by everybody at the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]". WCK released pictures of the victims...Source: World Central Kitchen The bodies of six of the dead WCK workers have since been taken from Gaza into Egypt to be repatriated. Their Palestinian colleague was buried in his hometown in Rafah, southern Gaza, on Tuesday. Humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip is in doubt after WCK - a key provider of aid to the territory - suspended operations. The UN announced it was pausing movements at night for at least 48 hours to evaluate the security situation. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described the strike as unintentional. "It happens in war, we check it to the end, we are in contact with the governments, and we will do everything so that this thing does not happen again," Mr Netanyahu said on Tuesday. IDF Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi called the incident a "grave mistake" and said "it shouldn't have happened," blaming the strike on misidentification. US President Joe Biden has condemned the strike, accusing Israel of not doing enough to protect aid workers. "The United States has repeatedly urged Israel to deconflict their military operations against Hamas with humanitarian operations, in order to avoid civilian casualties," Mr Biden said. Three of the killed aid workers were British nationals. A Polish national, an Australian, a Palestinian and a dual US-Canadian citizen were also killed. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke to Mr Netanyahu on Tuesday. On the call, he described the situation in Gaza as "increasingly intolerable" and "demanded a thorough and transparent independent investigation" into the killing of the aid workers. Mr Sunak added that Israel needed to end restrictions on humanitarian aid and protect civilians, according to a Downing Street statement. In other reaction: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had "expressed Australia's anger and concern" in a long phone call with Mr Netanyahu, and that he expected a "full and proper explanation for how this has occurred" Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said he had demanded an independent investigation from Israel Katz, his Israeli counterpart Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said "full accountability" was needed, adding that it was "absolutely unacceptable for aid workers to be killed" by the IDF Four days ago, WCK said that it had distributed 42 million meals in the Gaza Strip - dispatching more than 1,700 food trucks and also sending close to 435,000 meals by sea. According to Cogat, the Israeli defence ministry body in charge of civilian policy in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, WCK is responsible for 60% of the non-governmental aid getting into the territory. A second charity, the American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera), which was working closely with WCK, told the BBC it was also freezing its operations in Gaza. More than 196 aid workers have been killed in Gaza since October, according to the US-funded Aid Worker Security Database, which records major incidents of violence against aid personnel. Not all have been killed in the line of duty. Much of the Gaza Strip has been devastated during the Israeli military operations that began after Hamas gunmen attacked southern Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages. About 130 of the hostages remain in captivity, at least 34 of whom are presumed dead. More than 32,916 people have been killed in Gaza since then, the Hamas-run health ministry says. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved.

Iranian women walk on a street amid the implementation of the new hijab surveillance in Tehran, Iran, April 15, 2023. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS/File Photo DUBAI, April 23 (Reuters) - The same day Iran launched its first ever direct attack on Israel it embarked on a less-noticed confrontation at home, ordering police in several cities to take to the streets to arrest women accused of flouting its strict Islamic dress code. Iranian authorities insist that their so-called Nour (Light) campaign targets businesses and individuals who defy the hijab law, aiming to respond to demands from devout citizens who are angry about the growing number of unveiled women in public. But activists and some politicians say the campaign appears aimed not only at enforcing mandatory hijab-wearing, but also at discouraging any wider dissent at a vulnerable moment for the clerical rulers. Under Iran's sharia, or Islamic law, women are obliged to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes. Offenders face public rebuke, fines or arrest. The laws have become a political flashpoint since protests over the death of a young woman in the custody of the country's "morality police" in 2022 spiralled into the worst political turmoil since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In a show of civil disobedience, unveiled women have frequently appeared in public since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. Security forces violently put down the subsequent revolt, which called for the government's downfall. As Iran's drone and missile assault unfolded on April 13, Tehran Police chief Abbasali Mohammadian went on state TV to announce the new campaign. ARRESTS "Starting today, Police in Tehran and other cities will carry out measures against those who violate the hijab law," he said, while hundreds of police swept onto the streets of the capital and other cities. Social media users posted pictures of a heavy morality police presence in Tehran and videos of police violently arresting women they alleged were improperly dressed, including plainclothes security forces dragging young women into police vans. Morality police vans had largely vanished from the streets since last year. The campaign rapidly drew public expressions of unease. Concerned about what they say could be a deepening rift between the establishment and society at large, some politicians have criticised the intensified crackdown. "... right at a time when national solidarity is more crucial than ever, the same ugly scenes (witnessed during the protests) are intensifying with more violence against Iranian women and girls! What kind of policy is this?," reformist politician Azar Mansouri posted on social media platform X. Former Labour minister Ali Rabeie posted on his X account: "I really don't understand when Iranian people feel good and are proud about confronting Israel, suddenly a group (of decision makers) push the society towards confrontation with the establishment?." Some others suspect the campaign had a political motive. A human rights activist in Tehran said the move was aimed at "injecting fear into society to prevent any anti-war protests and quell domestic dissent when the rulers are at war with Israel". TOUGHER STANCE "It is no coincidence that on the very day of the attack on Israel, police flooded the streets. They were concerned about the resurgence of unrest," said the activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity. The prospect of a war with Israel, after a series of tit-for-tat retaliation between the arch foes, has alarmed many ordinary Iranians already facing an array of problems, ranging from economic misery to tightening social and political controls after the nationwide unrest in 2022-23. A former moderate government official said the clerical rulers had adopted a tougher stance against voices calling for political and social changes, fearing that such views could gain traction at a time when Iran is under external pressure. "That is part of the rulers' strategy to consolidate their grip on power when the country faces threats from its arch enemy Israel," said the former official. An Iranian politician, a former lawmaker, said "it is not just about cracking down on women who violate the dress code. In the past days, we have witnessed a clear crackdown on any sign of dissent". Journalists, lawyers, activists, human rights advocates and students have been arrested, summoned or faced other measures in the past days, according to opposition news websites. Those websites said the primary charge against those arrested was "inciting public opinion". On April 14, the intelligence unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned against any pro-Israeli posts by social media users, state media reported. © 2024 Reuters. All rights reserved

Nigerian Soldiers Kill Three Student Protesters at University Near Jos Truth Nigeria April 23, 2024 By Masara Kim Plateau State University at Bokkos (PLASU) at its Eastern arch after bloody confrontation on April 19. credit: Masara Kim. VIDEO: https://twitter.com/truthnigeria123/status/1782856512198635768?s=12&t=Eb0wFtzWqeZaFDfXXWc4Iw Jos—The mood at Plateau State University is thick with fear, anger and uncertainty about who’s to blame for the death of three unarmed students protesting military inaction when local villages were invaded by terrorist groups, and the arrest of Christian self-defense group members seeking to repel the armed invaders last week. Scattered sandbags, blood stains, and ashes from burned tires now mark the entrance of the once bustling Plateau State University Bokkos, (  9°22’9.36″N  8°57’21.82″E) 42 miles south of the metropolis of Jos, four days after soldiers belonging to Special Task Force 5 commanded by Col. Cyril O. Ofurumazi, opened fire on student protesters, killing three, according to media reports. Person of Interest: Col. Cyril O. Ofurumazi, Special Task Force 5, Nigerian Army, accused of ordering the shooting of university students and enabling terrorist attacks on local villages in Bokkos LGA. Courtesy of Facebook. The escalating violence in Plateau state is an ongoing example Nigeria’s long-running, complex insurgency pitting Islamist extremists against the Nigerian military and civilian farmers in Nigeria’s fertile and mineral-rich Middle Belt of states. During the last year, Plateau State has seen hundreds of massacres of unarmed villagers by armed, motorcycle-riding Fulani Islamist terrorists, including the massive Christmas eve 2023 coordinated attack by thousands of Islamists that resulted in hundreds killed. For months, swarms of armed, radicalized Muslim terrorists have laid siege to 151 villages and small towns in a bid to take over and control the land, according to Barrister Solomon Dalyop, who heads a large, majority-Christian indigenous tribal association. “The root cause of these mass attacks is that Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang has begun plans to resettle those whose lands have been taken over by the Fulani jihadists,” according to Bokkos native Rev. Akila Yusuf, a resident pastor of House of the Rock Church in Jos. “They are now reinforcing their numbers and attacks to frustrate and block any such efforts,” Yusuf added. The students were in Bokkos protesting military involvement in the  killing of their colleague 600 meters from the military post near the university entrance. The outraged students reportedly set fire to the checkpoint shelter staffed by soldiers from the special military Special Task Force 5 dubbed “Operation Safe Haven.”  By all accounts, the soldiers first fired into the air, then opened fire on the crowd, killing three and wounding several, according to Daily Post. There are conflicting reports as to how many civilian bystanders and students were killed and wounded. The military acknowledges students were shot by security forces, but they say the victims were hit by “stray bullets.”  Citizen videos shot as students were hugging the ground say, “Jesus, they are shooting at us! our own soldiers.” The university has been shuttered until May 2nd in the wake of the violent incident on April 19th, condemned as extrajudicial killings by a federal lawmaker. Map of Plateau State University at Bokkos on 19 April 2024. Map by Jerry Makeri for TruthNigeria. Over 1,000 students had marched to demand justice following the April 18 killing by invading Fulani Islamists of five local residents, including Dadin James Jordan, a 30-year-old 200-level student of Computer Science at Plateau State University, witnesses told TruthNigeria. Eyewitnesses allege that soldiers located just 600 meters away from their checkpoint on campus failed to respond to the terrorist attacks April 18 in three nearby villages, leaving civilian residents to struggle for hours to repel back large numbers of armed invaders using only some homemade weapons against assault rifles. More infuriating, according to witnesses, was that the soldiers disarmed 15 civilian guards who were trying to defend their settlements with homemade pipe guns. The student marchers on Friday, April 19, placed the corpse of Jordan in front of soldiers stationed at a prominent checkpoint near the university’s eastern entrance, according to witnesses However, during the two-hour protests, soldiers, led by Col. C.Y. Ofurumazi, the commander of the military Task Force 5 in Bokkos, opened fire on them, leading to three deaths. Release International, a UK-based nonprofit, has called for a thorough public investigation into the incident amidst a deafening silence from Nigerian authorities, who have failed to address escalating allegations of human rights violations by soldiers in the region. Alleged extrajudicial killings by soldiers started a week before the campus clash, however.  In all, at least six Christian villagers defending their villages from invading Islamists reportedly were killed by soldiers in the Bokkos area alone between April 13 and April 22, according to witnesses speaking to TruthNigeria. In addition to those killed, more than 30 civilian volunteer guards allegedly were detained without charges by the military in the days leading up to the protest. The military authorities have claimed they aim to enforce law and order in the region plagued by relentless attacks targeting local Christian communities, according to Governor Caleb Mutfwang. Yet, attacks have persisted, with TruthNigeria’s investigations documenting 50 deaths in the area during April alone. Multiple videos depicting the violence, shared by various sources at the scene, capture chaotic scenes of scattered crowds fleeing amidst the sound of gunfire. Some videos even show military trucks with soldiers aiming their rifles, suggesting their involvement in the incident. Amid controversy regarding the authorities’ handling of the protest on campus and conflicting narratives about the death toll, civil and military authorities in Jos have been slow to make public statements regarding the incident. Release International cites university authorities claiming two student deaths, whereas the Plateau State University student union official informed TruthNigeria of four student injured by soldiers, with no fatalities. However, the student leader asserted that two students were killed between April 18 and 19 by terrorists with military collaboration, with at least two others missing. Multiple witnesses interviewed by TruthNigeria claimed as many as three students were killed, including a 200-level Sociology student identified as Godwin Mayor. “Given these disturbing and conflicting accounts, the role of the military in these allegations must be investigated in full,” says Paul Robinson of Release International. “This is the first time we have heard that soldiers have opened fire on those they should be protecting,’ says Robinson in a statement shared with TruthNigeria. “An inquiry must also investigate the wider question: why, despite a military presence, are the attacks by Fulani militia continuing – even when the military is given due warning? Release International has repeatedly reported the failure of Nigerian military to protect Christian villagers, even when they have been warned in advance of attacks. More – much more – must be done to protect Nigeria’s vulnerable Christian communities,” says Robinson. Senator Diket Plang, a member of President Bola Tinubu’s political party, has defended the soldiers against the allegations, suggesting they may have acted in self-defense. “An angry man is an emotional person,” stated Plang in an interview with TruthNigeria. “While I’ve seen videos of running crowds, it’s unclear if the students, driven by emotions, violently confronted the soldiers,” he added, representing Plateau central district in the Nigerian Senate. Acknowledging the loss of lives, including students, Plang emphasized the need for a comprehensive approach to address all underlying issues. “How many soldiers do we have in Nigeria? How equipped are they to confront these terrorists?” Plang questioned, highlighting the challenges of combating extremists who are willing to die for their beliefs with limited manpower and resources. However, if proven, the soldiers could face charges for extrajudicial killings, according to Mr. James Lalu, who represents Bokkos at the House of Representatives. Responding to TruthNigeria’s inquiry regarding the shooting potentially constituting crimes against humanity, Lalu affirmed, “Yes, it is a case of extrajudicial killing,” without specifying his course of action. —Masara Kim is an award-winning conflict reporter and serves at the senior editor of TruthNigeria. Copyright 2024 TruthNigeria

Speech At UN Security Council Open Debate On Conflict-Related Sexual Violence A Call For Urgent Actions For the People of Darfur and Sudan President, Excellencies, civil society colleagues, Thank you for the opportunity to address the Security Council today on conflict-related sexual violence. My name is Niemat Ahmadi, and I am the president and founder of Darfur Women Action Group. As a survivor of the Darfur genocide, I founded this organization in 2009 to empower survivors, both in Sudan and in the diaspora, and to prevent future atrocities. Today, I would like to recognize the resilience of the women of Sudan—their stories of unspeakable suffering are only surpassed by accounts of their courage and determination. It has been more than one year since Sudan was engulfed in vicious violence. While the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are still occupying and looting civilian homes, using sexual violence, including rape and sexual slavery, as a tactic of war, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) are launching heavy artillery shelling, air strikes, and indiscriminate attacks mainly targeting civilian homes, markets, bridges, essential public services, and evacuation routes with no respect for human life. The cycle of violence in Sudan exhibits a total disregard for international law, and may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The conflict has so far killed between 10,000 to 15,000 people in El Geneina alone, left over 10 million displaced, and condemned 18 million—over one third of Sudan's population—to starvation, with the UN warning that Sudan will soon become the "world's worst hunger crisis." These statistics are just the tip of the iceberg—the number of casualties is sadly underreported as it has been unsafe to collect data in the middle of the crisis. The conflict has ravaged Darfur, Khartoum, and the Kordofan states. The recent violent takeover of central Sudan and assault in El Fasher risk devastating consequences for civilians and could lead to deadly mass atrocities. The war has had devastating consequences for women. Thousands of women have been killed. Of the 25 million people facing a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, women are particularly impacted. Women also comprise up to 70 percent of internally displaced people (IDPs). Rape and other forms of gender-based violence are a defining feature of the current war in Sudan. In January, the UN Panel of Experts on Sudan reported widespread and escalating conflict-related sexual violence in Darfur, including kidnapping, rape, and sexual exploitation of women and girls. The report underlined sexual violence committed by members of the RSF and allied militias in all areas under their control and the targeting of women due to their Masalit ethnicity. This report has only confirmed the horrific accounts of sexual violence we have been hearing about for months against women from the Masalit, Fur, and Zagawa tribes, particularly in IDP camps. Some women have been told by their attackers that they should be happy that now "they will have an Arab child". These atrocities, combined with incidents such as the recent massacre in Ardamata, West Darfur, indicate a clear pattern of ethnic targeting of the Masalit people and other African tribes. Excellencies, I am haunted by the horrific reports of sexual violence that I hear every day. One that shattered my heart and shocked me to the core was that of Noura, who endured gang rape at only 12 years old, leaving her in critical condition. Her family, struggling to survive, had to make an impossible decision: either to seek treatment for her or to feed her youngest sibling. Hearing this, Noura looked up in tears, and told her mother she no longer wanted to live. These are choices that no family should ever have to make, and no child should ever have to endure. Noura’s story is one of too many. Women and girls have been raped multiple times, sometimes in front of their fathers, husbands, and sons in an effort to break their will and destroy their dignity. These women and girls have no protection, no access to humanitarian or medical assistance, and nowhere to turn for help. Attacks on medical facilities, restrictions on communications and deliberate obstruction of humanitarian aid delivery by the warring parties are making it even more challenging for survivors to access life-saving services, including sexual and reproductive health services. We hear that there are less than a dozen obstetricians and gynecologists left working in Khartoum. Further, the fear of retaliation for speaking up has made it impossible for many survivors to come forward. Yet despite these risks, grassroots and women-led organizations continue to be the lifeline for their people. They are helping their communities, documenting atrocities, and ensuring that the international community keeps its eyes on Sudan. It is indeed their bravery that draws the bold line between hope and despair. But they cannot do it much longer without your help. Excellencies, this Council must not remain silent as the inhuman acts I have just described continue with total impunity. It is worth noting that without the spread of weapons, the levels of sexual violence we are currently seeing in Sudan would never have occurred. As the Panel of Experts reported to you, the warring parties in Sudan and their external sponsors have continued to violate the Security Council’s arms embargo on Darfur. And as Under-Secretary-General DiCarlo told you on Friday, this is illegal, immoral, and it must stop. Yet, the Security Council has thus far failed to explicitly condemn these violations, or taken any action to stop the actors abusing it. Unless the Security Council calls out those who undermine the measures it has put in place, you are signaling to perpetrators that they can continue to violate international law without consequences. Ending impunity in Sudan for past and present crimes, including crimes against women, must be a priority for the Security Council if we are ever to achieve sustainable peace in Sudan. I urge the Security Council to: • Demand that all parties commit to an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, stop the targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure, and enable full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access, in accordance with international humanitarian law. • Demand that all parties immediately cease all acts of sexual and gender-based violence, and hold perpetrators accountable. • Prioritize the creation of a new, well equipped and stronger UN presence on the ground for assuring civilian protection and humanitarian operations across Sudan and documenting violations of international law. • Ensure that women’s rights are central to all criminal accountability processes. Make violation of women’s rights, and all forms of sexual and gender-based violence, an explicit criterion for imposing sanctions. • Maintain and enforce the current arms embargo in Darfur and expand it to the whole of Sudan and to all parties to the conflict. • Demand and support the full, equal, safe and meaningful participation of Sudanese women in all de-escalation, peacebuilding, humanitarian and justice and accountability efforts, and all political processes regarding the future of Sudan. Excellencies, Two decades ago, when this Council first began to grapple with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, you did what was right. You mobilized humanitarian assistance, referred the situation to the International Criminal Court, set up a peacekeeping mission to protect the vulnerable, created a sanctions regime to designate and hold responsible those who violate international law, and imposed an arms embargo where it was needed. Now, there is no UN mission left in the country, no new individuals have been listed under the sanctions regime and your arms embargo is both limited and being flouted with impunity. In this current context, we see little solidarity with the people of Sudan. For more than 23 years, we have heard your promises to uphold women’s rights and to end conflict-related sexual violence. Regrettably these promises have yet to be realized. I reiterate today: all violations of women’s rights, regardless of perpetrator and wherever they occur, deserve your condemnation and warrant action and accountability. Be it in Gaza or in Israel, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Myanmar, in Afghanistan or in the many other conflicts, women pay the price of war. The international community’s failure to act in my country, Sudan, and in all these other contexts should be a stain on our collective conscience. Only you have the power to change this. Please act now. Thank you. Sincerely, Niemat Ahmadi, Founder and President, and the Darfur Women Action Group Team

Myanmar Tatmadaw troops on patrol in Rakhine state, Myanmar UN HCHR Türk warns of new atrocities against Rohingya in Rakhine. Myanmar 19 April 2024 UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk today warned that intensified fighting in Rakhine State between the military and the Arakan Army, alongside tensions being fuelled between the Rohingya and ethnic Rakhine communities, pose a grave threat to the civilian population. He warned of a grave risk that past atrocities will be repeated. Since the year-long informal ceasefire between the two sides broke down last November, 15 of Rakhine’s 17 townships have been affected by fighting, resulting in hundreds of deaths and injuries, and taking the number of displaced to well over 300,000. “Rakhine State has once again become a battleground involving multiple actors, and civilians are paying a heavy price, with Rohingya at particular risk,” the High Commissioner said. “What is particularly disturbing is that whereas in 2017, the Rohingya were targeted by one group, they are now trapped between two armed factions who have a track record of killing them. We must not allow the Rohingya to be targeted again.” The military has been fast losing ground to the Arakan Army (AA) throughout northern and central Rakhine. This has led to intensified fighting in the townships of Buthidaung and Maungdaw, ahead of an expected battle for the Rakhine State capital, Sittwe. The two townships are home to large Rohingya populations, putting them at grave risk. “Facing defeat, the military has outrageously started to forcibly conscript, bribe and coerce Rohingya into joining their ranks. It is unconscionable that they should be targeted in this way, given the appalling events of six years ago, and the ongoing extreme discrimination against the Rohingya including the denial of citizenship,” Türk said. Some reports say the military is forcing the Rohingya recruits or villagers to burn ethnic Rakhine homes, buildings or villages. Ethnic Rakhine villagers have allegedly responded in kind by burning Rohingya villages. The UN Human Rights Office is trying to verify all reports received, a task complicated by a communications blackout throughout the State. Türk said disinformation and propaganda are also rife, pointing to claims that “Islamic terrorists” have taken Hindus and Buddhists hostage. “This was the same kind of hateful narrative that fuelled communal violence in 2012 and the horrendous attacks against the Rohingya in 2017,” he said. Since the start of the year, the AA has positioned itself in and around Rohingya villages effectively inviting military attacks on Rohingya civilians. On 15 April, the Médecins Sans Frontières office and pharmacy were torched in Buthidaung, along with some 200 homes. Hundreds have fled and are reported to be taking refuge in a high school, the grounds of the former hospital, and along roads in Buthidaung town. With both the Maungdaw and Buthidaung hospitals having been shut by the military in March and with the conflict intensifying, there is effectively no medical treatment in northern Rakhine. “The alarm bells are ringing, and we must not allow there to be a repeat of the past,” Türk said. “Countries with influence on the Myanmar military and armed groups involved must act now to protect all civilians in Rakhine State and prevent another episode of horrendous persecution of the Rohingya.” For more information and media requests, please contact: In Geneva: Ravina Shamdasani - + 41 22 917 9169 / ravina.shamdasani@un.org Jeremy Laurence - +41 22 917 9383 / jeremy.laurence@un.org Marta Hurtado - + 41 22 917 9466 / marta.hurtadogomez@un.org

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Seratu Dauda credit...Taiwo Aina for The New York Timesei She Was Kidnapped a Decade Ago With 275 Girls. Finally, She Escaped The New York Times April 14, 2024 By Ismail Alfa and Ruth Maclean Saratu Dauda had been kidnapped. It was 2014, she was 16, and she was in a truck packed with her classmates heading into the bush in northeastern Nigeria, a member of the terrorist group Boko Haram at the wheel. The girls’ boarding school in Chibok, miles behind them, had been set on fire. Then she noticed that some girls were jumping off the back of the truck, she said, some alone, others in pairs, holding hands. They ran and hid in the scrub as the truck trundled on. But before Ms. Dauda could jump, she said, one girl raised the alarm, shouting that others were “dropping and running.” Their abductors stopped, secured the truck and continued toward what, for Ms. Dauda, would prove a life-changing nine years in captivity. “If she hadn’t shouted that, we would have all escaped,” Ms. Dauda said in a series of interviews this past week in the city of Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram’s violent insurgency. Kidnapped from their dormitory exactly 10 years ago, the 276 captives known as the Chibok Girls were catapulted to fame by Michelle Obama, by churches that took up the mostly Christian students’ cause and by campaigners using the slogan “Bring Back Our Girls.” “The only crime of these girls was to go to school,” said Allen Manasseh, a youth leader from Chibok who has spent years pushing for their release. A still image from a 2014 video that showed the kidnapped Nigerian girls.Credit...via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Their lives have taken wildly different turns since the abduction. Some escaped almost immediately; 103 were released a few years later after negotiations. A dozen or so now live abroad, including in the United States. As many as 82 are still missing, perhaps killed or still held hostage. Chibok was the first mass kidnapping from a school in Nigeria — but far from the last. Today, kidnapping — including of large groups of children — has become a business across the West African country, with ransom payments the main motivation. “The tragedy of Chibok plays over and over every week,” said Pat Griffiths, a spokesman with the International Committee of the Red Cross in Maiduguri. The Chibok Girls are only the most prominent victims of a 15-year conflict with Islamist militants which, despite the hundreds of thousands of people killed and millions uprooted, has largely been forgotten amid other wars. More than 23,000 people in northeastern Nigeria are registered as missing with the Red Cross — globally, its second biggest caseload after Iraq. But that is a vast underestimate, Mr. Griffiths said. The burned-out school in Chibok, Nigeria, where Boko Haram fighters seized 276 girls. The group’s name means “Western education is forbidden.”Credit...Sunday Aghaeze/Agence France-Presse — Getty Before she was abducted, Ms. Dauda said, she was a happy teenager in a large, close-knit Christian family. She loved playing with dolls and dreamed of becoming a fashion designer. She was her father’s pet and adored her mother. For months after being captured, Ms. Dauda said, the girls slept outside in the Sambisa forest, Boko Haram’s hide-out, listened to a steady stream of Islamic preachers and fought over limited water supplies. When two girls tried to escape, she said, they were whipped in front of the others. Then, she said, they were given a choice: Get married or become a slave who could be summoned for housework or sex. Kidnapped as Schoolgirls by Boko Haram: Looking Back (Published 2018) The New York Times met and photographed dozens of the students abducted by Boko Haram. Now at a university, they say they are the lucky ones. But their celebrity has a price. Ms. Dauda chose marriage, converted to Islam and changed her first name to Aisha. She was presented with a man in his late 20s whose job was to shoot video of Boko Haram’s battles. Hours after they met, they were married. He was not cruel to her, she said, but after a few months, he came home one day and found her playing with a doll she had fashioned out of clay and made a dress for. “You’re playing with idols? You want to cause me problems?” she remembered him saying. She got angry and left their home, staying with another girl from Chibok. When he realized she was not returning, she said, he divorced her. She soon married another Boko Haram fighter, Mohamed Musa, a welder who made weapons, and over time they had three children. Although she was still a hostage of Boko Haram’s murderous leader, Abubakar Shekau, and his henchmen, she said that they were given everything they needed, surrounded by people “who cared about each other like a family,” and that she was happy. The Chibok Girls were treated far better than other kidnap victims, other escapees have said. Her husband said in an interview last week that Ms. Dauda refused to join the cohort of Chibok Girls freed in 2017 after government negotiations. “There were many of them that refused to be taken home simply because they feared that their family would force them out of Islam,” said Mr. Musa, or that “they might be stigmatized.” But as the years went by, Ms. Dauda kept track of the friends from Chibok who died. Sixteen in air raids and bomb attacks. Two in childbirth. One as a suicide bomber, coerced by Boko Haram. One of sickness, and one of snakebite. She noticed that it was mostly women and children dying in the air raids and wondered when it would be her turn. Actors including Harrison Ford, Wesley Snipes, Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone highlighted the students’ plight at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014.Credit...Stephane Cardinale/Corbis, via Getty And life became harder. When Boko Haram’s leader died and its powerful offshoot, Islamic State West Africa Province, took over in the Sambisa forest, Ms. Dauda and her husband found themselves on the wrong side, she said, and under suspicion. They worried they would be made slaves. Late at night, in whispers, they talked about escape. But Ms. Dauda wanted to act faster than her husband and decided to go ahead. He refused to let her take the children, saying he would follow with them later. One night at 3 a.m. she made a little bundle of food, looked at the faces of her sleeping daughters and said a short prayer for their protection. She ducked out of their home. She waited under a tree, checking that nobody had seen her. Then she walked for days through the bush, going from village to village, telling people she was on her way to visit friends and always leaving during morning prayer, when the men would be in the mosque and not see her going. Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, in a video released in 2018.Credit...via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images She met up with other fleeing women on the way, and last May, they handed themselves over to the military together. She had heard on the radio that the Chibok Girls had become a cause célèbre, and finally she experienced it. “Is this a Chibok Girl?” she remembered a soldier marveling, when he learned her identity. “We are thanking God.” It had been six years since the last negotiated release, and many families had given up hope. Mr. Manasseh said he despaired over the years as three governments failed to bring all the girls home and mostly stopped talking to the families. “Silence,” he said. “It’s a giant government failure.” Since Chibok, Nigerian schools have become a hunting ground for kidnappers of all stripes. In just one of many such instances, last month dozens — or possibly hundreds — of children were kidnapped in Kaduna State, hundreds of miles from territory controlled by Boko Haram and its Islamic State offshoot. A few days earlier, hundreds of women and children were kidnapped in the northeast while foraging for firewood. After surrendering, Ms. Dauda was taken to Maiduguri and enrolled in the government rehabilitation program, for counseling and deradicalization. A few months later, she got word that her husband had escaped with their three daughters, and they were all reunited. Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State in Nigeria, where 10 years ago the schoolgirls were captured by Boko Haram militants.Credit...Taiwo Aina for The New York Times She said she had dreamed of seeing her parents again, holding them, feeling their warmth. One day, she was allowed out of the government facility with her children, to visit them in their village, Mbalala. She hugged her father and her mother. “She was crying, and I was crying,” Ms. Dauda said. Her father offered her and her husband a place to stay if they became Christians, she said. But she refused, saying she had become a Muslim freely and wanted to stay one, even if many people thought that she and other escapees were victims of Boko Haram’s indoctrination. “I was not brainwashed,” she said. “I was convinced by what was explained to me.” Two of her daughters are named for her friends from Chibok. Zannira, 7, was named for a girl who escaped. Five-year-old Sa’adatu is named for one still in captivity. Recently, she said, her husband gave their girls a doll. While in captivity, Saratu Dauda converted to Islam and changed her first name to Aisha, the name of the Prophet Muhammad’s third wife.Credit...Taiwo Aina for The New York Times Ismail Alfa reported from Maiduguri, Nigeria, and Ruth Maclean from Dakar, Senegal. Ruth Maclean is the West Africa bureau chief for The Times, covering 25 countries including Nigeria, Congo, the countries in the Sahel region as well as Central Africa. More about Ruth Maclean A version of this article appears in print on April 15, 2024, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Kidnapped With 275 Girls, She Finally Escaped. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/14/world/africa/nigeria-chibok-girls-kidnapping-boko-haram.html Copyright 2024 The New York Times Company

Dr. Maung Zarni Northern Irish Nobel Laureate Nominates Burmese Activist for 2024 Peace Prize FORSEA and FRC April 16, 2016 The renowned Northern Irish peace activist Mairead Corrigan Maguire (herself recipient of the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize) has nominated the UK-exiled Burmese human rights activist and genocide scholar Dr Maung Zarni for the Nobel Peace Prize. On the eve of the Burmese traditional New Year this week, the Forces of Renewal Southeast Asia (FORSEA) and the Free Rohingya Coalition (FRC) jointly announced Maguire’s nomination, based on Zarni’s “impactful and tireless activism for peace and harmony among human communities over three decades”. Maguire’s nomination letter to the Nobel committee highlighted Zarni’s activism both for democracy in Myanmar and for “non-violence campaigners for peace and freedom from Tibet, East Timor (now Timor Leste), Nigeria, India, Thailand, Palestine and the Jewish diaspora”. While Zarni says that the Nobel prize “has been deeply tarnished” by some awards, “of which the late Henry Kissinger was only the most infamous”, he adds, that “as a radical anti-imperialist, I am most proud to be Maguire’s choice”. Marilyn Langlois, fellow member of Johan Galtung’s TRANSCEND network wrote: “Zarni became part of our family when he came to the US in 1988, and drew my daughter and me into his pioneering activism with the Free Burma Coalition, opposing military dictatorship in his home country, a few years later. Ever since then, he has been a teacher and role model for me in advocacy for positive peace–not just the absence of war but affirming the dignity and self-determination of all people suffering the ravages of oppression and structural violence.” Dr Helen Jarvis (Cambodia), Vice-President of the Permanent People’s Tribunal, and recipient of the 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Association of Genocide Scholars says: “Forthright and unabashed straightforwardness mixed with compassion were the characteristics that first struck me, when in 2013 in Bremen, Germany, I worked with Zarni as a fellow judge on the Second People’s Tribunal on Sri Lanka. Over the past decade I have been proud to work alongside him in many different campaigns, witnessing his continued principled commitment to stand the oppressed of this earth in the fight for freedom and justice.” For more information contact info@freerohingyacoalition.org or info@forsea.co Biographical background Maung Zarni (or Zarni, as the Burmese have only one given names) (60) is co-founder and coordinator of several international activist networks and platforms, including the Free Burma Coalition (1995-2004), the FORSEA (2018 – present) and the Free Rohingya Coalition (2018-present). Zarni now serves as an adviser to Burma’s oldest ethnic resistance organization, the Karen National Union (founded in 1947). Zarni is a member of the Board of Advisors of Genocide Watch, The Alliance Against Genocide, the world's first international anti-genocide coalition. Zarni was born and raised in Mandalay (Burma) in an extended military family to an educator mother and socially conscious businessman father under General Ne Win’s “socialist” military dictatorship. As a young teenager, he learned community organizing from his parents who led self-help communal initiatives for their residential neighbourhood. In July 1988, on the eve of the nationwide uprisings known as 8.8.88 (after the uprising date 8 August 1988), Zarni left his native Myanmar for California, USA where he enrolled as a foreign student on a Non-resident Tuition Scholarship offered by the Graduate Division of the University of California at Davis. During his 17-years as an asylee in the US, Zarni held a tenure-track assistant professorship in educational foundations at National-Louis University in Chicago, a position he gave up to be a full-time activist based in Berkeley, California. He was married to Annie Leonard, a renowned American environmentalist and the acclaimed author of “The Story of Stuff”. Together they have a daughter Dewi (24), an activist legal researcher who specializes in prisoners’ rights in California. In 2005, Zarni relocated to the United Kingdom as a visiting research fellow in the Department of International Development at Oxford University, in hopes of resuming his academic career. He subsequently worked as an associate professor of Asian Studies at the Universiti Brunei Darussalem, but resigned over censorship of his public engagement on the Burmese genocide of Rohingya. Post-resignation, he also declined an offer of a Scholars-at-risk fellowship at the London School of Economics in 2014 to do anti-genocide activism full-time. He married a fellow British scholar Dr Natalie Brinham, a senior research associate with the Migration Mobilities Bristol, a specialist research institute at the University of Bristol. Together, they co-authored a groundbreaking 3-year study “The Slow-Burning Genocide of Myanmar’s Rohingya” published by the University of Washington School of Law in 2014. The couple live in Kent, with their daughter Nilah (14), where both pursue their scholarship and activism on genocides, including Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and the continuing genocidal conditions of Rohingya in Myanmar. https://forsea.co/northern-irish-nobel-laureate-nominates-burmese-activist-for-2024-peace-prize/

Darfur women mourn family members murdered by RSF in El Geneina massacre credit: Washington Post/Reuters. To watch video click on image. To sign the petition: click here: https://www.refugeesinternational.org/actions/speak-out-on-sudan/?mkt_tok=NTcwLVZQRC05MjUAAAGSbHDJ-UOuSdAjR_8R1jOb7XsDFcDjs7pmCW97wSJ4-uWU0up_xdtQh1OrYOK9S5-wEi4Qs9sNiKIMk24V4ms8fy9Hg2IFj5HmCRPwvafS To join the rally, click here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/united-for-sudan-tickets-840185356017?mkt_tok=NTcwLVZQRC05MjUAAAGSbHDJ-dhVqn8S9XTD-S50nyPCdcEs-0IgC90xlyxb47-MBCgeHG831gksTslw1bTYJEtQDr4BA5OYG_qNpOtbxudzi1k1lHH7cRYEsg0k Remarks by former Congressman Frank Wolf: