War-displaced people flee towards the city of Goma, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on November 15, 2022. The M23 rebel group has retaken the village of Kishishe in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where it is accused of having committed a massacre late last year, local sources said Tuesday. The rebels, who are backed by Rwanda according to numerous sources, had withdrawn from the village at the beginning of April, at the same time as they left other localities in the North Kivu Province, which they had seized the previous year. But after six months of relative calm, violent fighting resumed in early October between the rebels and the army, allied with so-called "patriot" armed groups. Since then, the M23 appears to have gradually reoccupied positions they had vacated. Kishishe has been largely deserted by its inhabitants, but fighting nonetheless took place there for two days, before the army stepped in, according to sources interviewed by telephone from Goma, the provincial capital. "The invaders launched large-scale attacks," said an officer speaking on condition of anonymity, claiming that the rebels had received reinforcements from the Rwandan army. "These are Rwandans attacking us", he said. "Kishishe has been controlled by the M23" since late Monday afternoon, said a local civil society representative, information confirmed by two security sources. "The M23 is in Kishishe. The population has fled to (the neighbouring localities of) Kirima, Mutanda, Kanyabayonga, Kibirizi", said a village official. "There's a lot of tension in Kibirizi, where displaced people are arriving in droves", said one resident. He added that FDLR militiamen "in civilian clothes" are also arriving in the town. The hills around Kishishe are historic strongholds of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a militia created by Rwandan Hutu leaders who carried out the 1994 Tutsi genocide in Rwanda. In November 2022, M23 rebels killed 171 people in Kishishe, according to the UN, mainly boys and men they accused of being militiamen. The M23 denies having committed such a massacre. The Tutsi-led M23 rebels ("March 23 Movement") was defeated in 2013, but took up arms again in November 2021 in North Kivu, bordering Rwanda and Uganda. The East African

General al-Burhan shakes hands with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in Addis Ababa on Nov 15, 2023 Sudan’s Sovereign Council Chairman Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan travelled to Ethiopia on Tuesday to discuss the ongoing crisis in his country with Ethiopian Prime Minister Ahmed Abiy and African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki. Al-Burhan’s visit to Addis Ababa follows his recent trip to Nairobi, where he met with Kenyan President William Ruto, who is also the Chairman of the IGAD Quartet Committee on the Sudanese crisis. The two leaders agreed to hold a summit of IGAD leaders to address the situation in Sudan. In a statement after his return from Addis Ababa, Sudan’s Sovereign Council said that Al-Burhan and Abiy discussed the repercussions of the conflict between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, which erupted last April. “The Chairman of the Sovereign Council briefed the Ethiopian Prime Minister on the efforts made by the Sudanese government to cease fire, end the war and bring peace to Sudan,” the statement said. “He further reiterated the government’s cooperation with all initiatives to find solutions to this crisis that Sudan is going through.” In a brief statement on Twitter, Abiy said he welcomed al-Burhan’s visit “for discussions on key current issues” without providing further details. Al-Burhan was accompanied by Darfur Governor Minni Minawi and the head of Sudan’s General Intelligence Service. This marks the second time that Minawi has travelled with al-Burhan to meet with African leaders to discuss the Sudanese crisis, which has recently been marred by violence in Darfur. During his meeting with Faki, al-Burhan discussed the situation in Sudan and the efforts being made to resolve the crisis, according to the Sovereign Council statement. The statement added that al-Burhan briefed Faki on the situation in Sudan and emphasized the government’s determination and cooperation with all initiatives proposed to address the issue. The African Union is working with IGAD to launch an inclusive process to resolve Sudan’s crisis once a durable ceasefire agreement is reached under the Jeddah platform. Al-Burhan’s visits to Nairobi and Addis Ababa have been met with positive reactions from many Sudanese, who see them as a sign of progress towards ending the war. In a commentary published on Sudan Tribune, a leading figure of the Forces for Freedom and Change Yasir Arman urged al-Burhan to work with African leaders to unite the various initiatives to end the war, address the country’s humanitarian crises and gross human rights violations, and rebuild Sudan on democratic foundations, including establishing a single professional army. Power should then be handed over to a civilian transitional government, he stressed. Arman also warned al-Burhan against using these visits to buy time and continue the war, saying, “This will only lead to adding a new record of failure to its previous failure in the coup (of October 25, 2012) and war.” Copyright @ 2021 | Sudan Tribune. All rights reserved.

The EU has accused the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary of carrying out an 'ethnic cleansing campaign' in DarfurImage: Hussein Malla/AP/picture alliance The European Union on Sunday condemned an escalation of violence in Sudan's western Darfur region. It warned of the danger of "another genocide" in Darfur. The region has been destabilized since April due to a conflict between Sudan's regular army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary. What did the EU say about violence in Darfur? The EU's top diplomat Josep Borrell condemned atrocities against Darfur's Masalit people and spoke of an "ethnic cleansing campaign." [Genocide Watch does not endorse the use of the phrase "ethnic cleansing"] "These latest atrocities are seemingly part of a wider ethnic cleansing campaign conducted by the RSF with the aim to eradicate the non-Arab Masalit community from West Darfur, and comes on top of the first wave of large violence in June," Borrell said. "The international community cannot turn a blind eye on what is happening in Darfur and allow another genocide to happen in this region," he said. The Masalit are an ethnic group who reside mainly in Chad and Darfur in Sudan. Between 2003 and 2008, Khartoum supported the Janjaweed Arab militias to put down rebel groups in Darfur, whose members included Masalits, leading to widespread abuses against civilians. Around 300,000 people were killed and over 2 million were displaced in the region in this time period. The RSF grew in large part out of the Janjaweed militias. The statement said that there was "credible eyewitness reports (that) more than a thousand members of the Masalit community were killed in Ardamta, West Darfur, in just over two days, during major attacks carried out by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its affiliated militias." What is the situation in Sudan? Since April, forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who is Sudan's de facto head of state, have been at war with the RSF commanded by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. Last week, the RSF said it had taken control of the army headquarters in West Darfur's capital, El Geneina. The city has a majority Masalit population, while most of Sudan is predominantly Arab. The Reuters news agency reported that the RSF and allied Arab militias conducted weeks of systemic attacks on Masalit people between April and June 2023. On Friday, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, said: "What is happening [in Darfur] is verging on pure evil," referring to reports of rapes and other atrocities. She voiced fears of a repeat of the Darfur genocide committed in the 2000s. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said that 100 shelters in a displaced persons' camp in Ardamta had been razed. sdi/msh (Reuters, AFP) © 2023 Deutsche Welle

Credit...William Keo/Magnum Photos What We Get Wrong About Israel and Gaza The New York Times Nov. 15, 2023 By Nicholas Kristof With the bilateral slaughter in the Middle East unleashing poisons that are worsening hatred worldwide, let me outline what I see as three myths inflaming the debate: The first myth is that in the conflict in the Middle East there is right on one side and wrong on the other (even if people disagree about which is which). Life isn’t that neat. The tragedy of the Middle East is that this is a clash of right versus right. That does not excuse Hamas’s massacre and savagery or Israel’s leveling of entire neighborhoods in Gaza, but underlying the conflict are certain legitimate aspirations that deserve to be fulfilled. Israelis deserve their country, forged by refugees in the shadow of the Holocaust, and they have built a high-tech economy that largely empowers women and respects gay people, while giving its Palestinian citizens more rights than most Arab nations give their citizens. Israel’s courts, media freedom and civil society are models for the region, and there is something of a double standard: Critics pounce on Israeli abuses while often ignoring prolonged brutality against Muslims from Yemen to Syria, Western Sahara to Xinjiang. Likewise, Palestinians deserve a country, freedom and dignity — and they shouldn’t be subjected to collective punishment. We’ve reached a searing milestone: In just five weeks of war, half of 1 percent of Gaza’s population has been killed. To put it in perspective, that’s more than the share of the American population that was killed in all of World War II — over the course of four years. A great majority of those killed have been women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Health Ministry, and one gauge of the ferocity and indiscriminate nature of some airstrikes is that more than 100 United Nations staffers have been killed, which the U.N. says is more than in any conflict since its founding. Perhaps that’s because, as an Israeli military spokesman put it early in the conflict, “the emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy.” “We are normal people, trying to live,” an engineer in Gaza told me by phone. He despises Hamas and would like to see it removed from power, but he says that Hamas fighters are safe in tunnels while he and his children are the ones most at risk: “We’re the civilians paying the price.” Whichever side you are more inclined toward, remember that the other includes desperate human beings merely hoping that their children can live freely and thrive in their own nation. The second myth is that Palestinians can be put off indefinitely, strung along by Israel, the United States and other countries. That was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strategy, his way of avoiding a Palestinian state, and it worked for a time — the way a pressure cooker works, until it explodes. It’s difficult to know the counterfactual, whether a Palestinian state would have been better for Israeli security. But Palestinian statelessness in retrospect has not made Israel safe, and risks may increase if the Palestinian Authority collapses from corruption, ineffectiveness and lack of legitimacy. Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, said that one of the Hamas attackers on Oct. 7 was carrying instructions for releasing chemical weapons, and that’s a reminder of the risk that terrorism experts have worried about for years of extremist groups turning to biological and chemical agents. Israel has a right to feel anxious in any case, but I suspect that the best way to ensure its security may be not to defer Palestinian aspirations but to honor them with a two-state solution. This is not just a concession to Arabs but a pragmatic acknowledgment of Israel’s own interests — and the world’s. The third myth is found on both sides of the conflict and is approximately: It’s too bad we have to engage in this bloodshed, but the people on the other side understand only violence. I hear that from friends who support the war in Gaza and regard me as well-meaning but misguided, as a naif who fails to comprehend the sad reality that the only way to keep Israel safe is to pulverize Gaza and uproot Hamas at whatever human cost. Hamas indeed understands only violence, and it has been brutal to Israelis and Palestinians alike — but Hamas and Palestinians are not the same, just as violent settlers in the West Bank do not represent all Israelis. I’m all for surgical strikes against Hamas and I would be delighted if Israel managed to end extremism in Gaza. But so far, I’m afraid that the ferocity and lack of precision in Israel’s attack have fulfilled Hamas’s goal of escalating the Palestinian issue and changing the Middle East dynamic (and Hamas is indifferent to Palestinian casualties). Five weeks into this war, I don’t see evidence that Israel’s military has degraded Hamas in a significant way, but it has killed vast numbers of civilians, put the Palestinian struggle on top of the global agenda, dissipated the initial torrent of sympathy for Israel, prompted people around the globe to march for Palestine, distracted attention from kidnapped Israelis and ruptured any possibility soon of Israel’s normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia. My friend Roy Grow, an international relations specialist at Carleton College who died in 2013, used to say that a crucial goal of terror organizations was getting the adversary to overreact. He compared this to jujitsu, with terrorist organizations using their opponents’ weight against them — and that is what Hamas has done. Each side has dehumanized the other, but people are complex and neither side is monolithic — and remember that wars are not about populations but about people. These are people like Mohammed Alshannat, a doctoral student in Gaza, who has been sending desperate messages to friends who shared them with me; he agreed to allow me to publish them as a glimpse into Gazan life. “There was heavy bombing in our area,” he wrote in English in one message. “We run for our lives and I lost two of my children in the dark. Me and my wife stayed all night searching for them amidst hundreds of airstrikes. We miraculously survived an airstrike and found them fainted in the morning. Please pray for us. The situation is beyond description.” “I see death a hundred times a day,” he wrote another time. “We defecate in the open and my children defecate on themselves and there is no water to clean them.” If he survives the war, what will we Americans say to him and his children? How will we explain that we supplied bombs for this war, that we were complicit in his family’s terror and degradation? If there is a path forward toward peace — whether in two states or one state — it will begin with all of us moving beyond stereotypes. Israelis are not the same as Netanyahu, and Palestinians are not the same as Hamas. Seeking humanity in each side means demanding the release of Israeli hostages and calling out the dehumanization that leads people to pull down posters for kidnapped Israelis. It also means renouncing what Netanyahu called “mighty vengeance” that transforms entire neighborhoods of Gaza into rubble, with bodies buried underneath. I’m exasperated by people whose hearts bleed for only one side, or who say about the toll on the other: “It’s tragic, but ….” No “buts.” Unless you believe in human rights for Jews and for Palestinians, you don’t actually believe in human rights. If you weep only for Israeli children, or only for Palestinian children, you have a problem that goes beyond your tear ducts. Children on both sides have been slaughtered quite recklessly, and fixing this crisis starts with acknowledging a principle so basic that it shouldn’t need mentioning: All children’s lives have equal value, and good people come in all nationalities. More by Nicholas Kristof on Israel and Gaza Opinion | Nicholas Kristof and William Keo ‘I’m Crying for All the Victims That Are Going to Suffer’ Oct. 25, 2023 Opinion | Nicholas Kristof We Must Not Kill Gazan Children to Try to Protect Israel’s Children Oct. 21, 2023 Nicholas Kristof joined The New York Times in 1984 and has been a columnist since 2001. He has won two Pulitzer Prizes, for his coverage of China and of the genocide in Darfur. You can follow him on Instagram, Facebook and Threads. His forthcoming memoir is “Chasing Hope: A Reporter’s Life.” @NickKristof A version of this article appears in print on Nov. 16, 2023, Section A, Page 22 of the New York edition with the headline: Three Myths of the Middle East. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe Copyright 2023 The New York Times Company

The violent death of Jesús Ociel Baena and suggestions by the authorities that it was a domestic killing have angered advocates who are demanding a thorough investigation. Jesús Ociel Baena in May, when they became one of the few people to receive a nonbinary passport issued by the Mexican government.[Credit: Mexican Foreign Affairs Ministry] Simon Romero & Emiliano Rodríguez Mega November 14, 2023 Jesús Ociel Baena made history a year ago when they were sworn in as the first openly nonbinary person to assume a judicial post in Mexico. On Monday, Mx. Baena, who used they/them pronouns, and their partner were found dead inside their home, stirring calls from Mexico’s L.G.B.T.Q. community to determine if the magistrate had been targeted for promoting the rights of nonbinary people. The authorities in the state of Aguascalientes, where Mx. Baena, 38, was a magistrate on the electoral court, have said that their 37-year-old partner, Dorian Herrera, appeared to have killed them with a razor blade before dying by suicide. But L.G.B.T.Q. leaders in Mexico are questioning whether such a swift assessment fits what they say is a pattern by the authorities of effectively dismissing grisly killings involving L.G.B.T.Q. people as crimes of passion. Mx. Baena, often clad in skirts and heels while wearing makeup, said they had received death threats as a result of their prominence as one of Mexico’s most visible L.G.B.T.Q. figures. “Yesterday it felt like the whole community was in shock,” said Alex Orué, a nonbinary activist in Mérida, the capital of the state of Yucatán. Marches were organized across Mexico on Monday night to demand that the authorities conduct a thorough investigation. “We make community in the face of tragedies,” said Mx. Orué, who attended a gathering in Mérida. Any attack or hate crime against members of the L.G.B.T.Q. community shakes people and instills fear, Mx. Orué added. But the deaths of Mx. Baena and their partner were even more painful. “If someone with that level of visibility, with that public position being a magistrate, and also with the protection of the state because they were living under threat, has this happen to them, what can the rest of us expect?” Mx. Orué said. Jesús Figueroa Ortega, the attorney general of Aguascalientes, said in an interview with a radio program on Tuesday morning that an investigation so far suggested that Mx. Baena and their partner started fighting in an upstairs bedroom, where investigators found blood stains and drips that led downstairs. According to Mr. Figueroa Ortega, investigators found 20 wounds on Mx. Baena’s body caused by a razor blade. A video from a camera shows the couple stepping into their house around 1 a.m. on Sunday. Nobody else was seen entering afterward. Mr. Figueroa Ortega said that Mx. Baena’s partner, Mr. Herrera, might have then used another razor blade to inflict a wide and fatal wound on the neck. “We could say that this is the conclusion we have with the expert information up to this moment,” Mr. Figueroa Ortega said, though he noted that the investigation was ongoing. Cristian González Cabrera, an L.G.B.T.Q. rights researcher who focuses on Latin America for Human Rights Watch, said it was “disappointingly common” in Mexico for prosecutors to share information before a probe is finished. “It’s dangerous in the sense that it begins to shape the narrative around the case without all the facts,” he said. Mexico ranks second behind Brazil in Latin America for the highest number of hate crimes against the L.G.B.T.Q. community, according to advocates. Mx. Baena was a pioneering nonbinary figure who influenced changes in Mexican society, including the way many people in the country describe themselves in official documents, and speak and write in Spanish. This year Mx. Baena was among the first people in Mexico to be issued passports describing them as nonbinary. And in May, when they succeeded in being described as nonbinary on their birth certificate, Mx. Baena said it was the first time someone had done so in their home state of Coahuila. “Deal with it!” they posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Mx. Baena insisted on being referred to in Spanish with the gender-neutral title “le magistrade” instead of “el magistrado,” underscoring efforts to loosen rules in a Romance language in which nouns are often categorized as masculine or feminine. Several weeks ago, Mx. Baena was also the first person in Mexico to receive the gender-neutral title of “maestre” (instead of “maestro”) in electoral law. “If anything positive could come out of this horrible incident, an expansion of gender identity recognition across Mexico would be a very important outcome and definitely honor their legacy,” Mr. González Cabrera said. Mx. Orué added that Mx. Baena seemingly lived without fear despite the number of threats and insults they received. “Ociel always sought to listen, to have dialogues,” Mx. Orué said. “Their intention was always to seek to get to that point of equity for everyone, but in particular for the nonbinary community.” © 2023 The New York Times

14 November 2023 Journalist Abdoul Aziz Djibrilla of Naata Radio was attacked and killed by unidentified gunmen on 7 November on the Gao- Ansongo road in northern Mali. Two other journalists were kidnapped. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins its affiliate, l’ Union Nationale des Journalistes du Mali (UNAJOM) in condemning this barbaric attack meted out to journalists who pose no danger to anyone. Credit: IFJ. Abdoul Aziz Djibrilla, a presenter for Naata Radio in Labbezanga was on his way to a training session in Gao with other colleagues when the car was stopped on the road by unidentified gunmen. Djibrilla was killed while journalists, Saleck Ag Jiddou and Moustapha Kone were kidnapped and a third journalist, Harouna Attino, was wounded. The Gao- Ansongo route is considered to be one of the most dangerous routes in northern Mali, as it is often frequented by fighters of the Islamic State of the Sahel (ISIS) who operate within the region. Kidnapping of journalists in Mali has become a serious cause for concern. Birama Toure, a reporter from Le Sphnix, an investigative Weekly, has been missing since 2016 while journalists Hamadoun Nialibouly and Moussa Bana Dicko (Radio Dande Haire) were kidnapped in the Mopti region in 2020. Following the killing of Abdoul Aziz Djibrilla and the kidnapping of Saleck Ag Jiddou and Moustapha Kone, radio stations in the Gao region organised ‘A Day-without-Radio protest’ and deliberately went off air on Wednesday 8 November to protest against the killing and kidnapping of their colleagues. IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger warned that the warring factions in Mali and the militias, like in all troubled spots in Africa, pose a serious threat to journalists and media workers. "We are extremely saddened by the death of Abdoul Aziz Djibrilla and demand the immediate release of Saleck Ag Jiddou and Moustapha Kone . We call for a swift investigation into these unacceptable acts. Government security officers, and militia factions must understand that journalists pose no threat to them and should be allowed to do their work without any form of intimidation or harassment. Government security officers or members of the militias who perpetrated crimes against journalists must be held accountable for their actions and be brought to justice." The IFJ joins UNAJOM in extending its sincere condolences to the family of journalist Abdoul Aziz Djibrilla. Copyright © 2023. IFJ - International Federation of Journalists.

Alain Guillaume Bunyoni faces 7 charges including threatening the life of President Evariste Ndayishimiye By James Tasamba Anadolu Ajansı Public prosecutors in Burundi asked a court to sentence the country’s former Prime Minister Alain Guillaume Bunyoni to life in prison as his trial concluded Thursday. Bunyoni has been on trial before the Supreme Court since September, sitting in session at a prison in the capital Gitega, where he is being detained. He faces seven charges including threatening the life of President Evariste Ndayishimiye, attempting to topple the government, undermining national security and illegal possession of weapons. “I request that Alain-Guillaume Bunyoni be punished with a sentence of penal servitude for life,” prosecutor Jean-Bosco Bucumi told the court. The prosecutor is also seeking 30 years in prison for Bunyoni’s six co-defendants, who include an intelligence official and a police officer. Bunyoni pleaded not guilty to all the charges and asked the court to acquit him, saying there was no implicating evidence in the allegations against him. The verdict will be read within the next 30 days. President Ndayishimiye sacked Bunyoni in September last year following allegations of a possible coup against him. Bunyoni, a former police chief who had long been a senior figure in the ruling National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) party, was arrested in April this year. Anadolu Ajansı © 2021

Names of murdered Colombian human rights defenders. Credit: Justice for Colombia the government must guarantee their protection By Amnesty INternational In the last five years, the Colombian state has inadequately responded to the dangers faced by human rights defenders in the country, Amnesty International said today upon publishing a new report, Hope at risk: The lack of a safe space to defend human rights in Colombia continues. In light of the crisis, Amnesty International urges the authorities to ensure that human rights defenders can carry out their work in suitable, safe conditions. “Amnesty International has received countless reports of human rights defenders in Colombia being threatened and attacked because of their work. Between 2020 and 2023 we witnessed how the authorities failed to adopt state measures to guarantee the collective protection of human rights defenders, particularly those defending the land, territory and environment in various parts of the country. In light of this crisis, our research makes clear the need for a strong, integrated and coordinated institutional response,” said Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International. In 2023, the Ombudsperson’s Office of Colombia noted that the number of killings of human rights defenders in the country was sustained over that period and was gradually increasing. According to the Somos Defensores programme, 199 defenders were killed in 2020, 139 in 2021 and 197 in 2022. As of September 2023, the Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (INDEPAZ) had already recorded the killings of 127 civil society leaders and human rights defenders, a provisional but alarming statistic. Amnesty International has received countless reports of human rights defenders in Colombia being threatened and attacked because of their work. Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International Hope at risk recounts five cases where threats and attacks were made against human rights defenders in four regions of Colombia. Amnesty International has worked on three of the cases since 2020 and this report features updates on their situation. The other two cases fall under the remit of human rights organizations located in Magdalena Medio, a region profoundly affected by armed violence where defending human rights is a high-risk activity. The Federation of Santander Fishers for Tourism and Environment (FEDEPESAN) protects bodies of water in Magdalena Medio and the way of life of the fishers in the wetlands surrounding Barrancabermeja. FEDEPESAN has brought together seven organizations of fishers and continues to protect the environment against a backdrop of threats and attacks. Yuly Velásquez, the president, has been attacked at least three times by armed individuals in the past few years. The Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS) has created a network of human rights defenders, also in Magdalena Medio, that has been the target of threats and attacks for decades. Since 1987, CREDHOS has defended human rights in the region, endangering itself in the face of attacks that, over the years, have resulted in members of the organization being killed and have forced some of its members into exile or internal displacement. Today, CREDHOS is recognized as a collective victim of internal armed conflict and it continues its work defending human rights. The Association for the Integral and Sustainable Development of the Amazonian Pearl (ADISPA) defends the Amazon rainforest and the way of life of campesinos (rural farmworkers) in Putumayo. The organization’s goal, shaped by campesino families, is to manage the Amazonian Pearl Campesino Reserve Zone. Jani Silva and other members of ADISPA have been threatened and attacked on numerous occasions over the past five years, especially because of their environmental conservation work and their monitoring of the water and biodiversity in the region. The Indigenous community of ASEIMPOME, after more than 30 years of violence and attacks, has endured and remains in their ancestral territory in the Meta region. Upon returning to their land in 2015, the community has faced harassment and attacks to prevent them from settling in the area. Attacks have included encroaching into land belonging to the community, setting fire to their properties and threatening their traditional authorities. The Committee for Social Integration in Catatumbo (CISCA) promotes rights relating to the land belonging to the campesino communities of Catatumbo in the face of violence, exclusion and poverty. The campesino families of Catatumbo have historically been marginalised and have disproportionately suffered from the impact of armed conflict and the forced eradication of coca crops. At present, though the violence has abated, the campesino communities that CISCA works alongside are facing a socioeconomic crisis that seriously threatens their access to social and economic rights. The Colombian authorities must adopt collective protection measures in order to address the structural causes of the dangers faced by defenders and their communities, especially in the cases of those defending the land, territory and environment. Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International In addition to these specific cases, the report provides a general analysis of the collective protection of defenders of the land, territory and environment in Colombia. Amnesty International has analysed the last two years of President Iván Duque’s government and the first year of President Gustavo Petro’s government. At the end of Iván Duque’s presidency, despite multiple warnings and recommendations made by human rights organizations, platforms and international organizations – including Amnesty International – the government insisted on adopting measures that were counterproductive to the protection of defenders, such as creating mechanisms parallel to existing ones via the Plan for Timely Action, and it has not fulfilled the promises that were made in the Peace Agreement of 2016, such as ensuring that the National Commission on Security Guarantees is operational. Gustavo Petro’s government started out with declarations of intent to change the situation, the adoption of an emergency plan for protecting defenders and efforts to come up with medium- and long-term solutions. Despite this change in course, Amnesty International was able to verify that violence against human rights defenders has continued during his term of office, both in terms of general statistics and with respect to several of the cases documented in the report. “The Colombian authorities must adopt collective protection measures in order to address the structural causes of the dangers faced by defenders and their communities, especially in the cases of those defending the land, territory and environment. These measures must seek to completely mitigate the root causes of this violence by means of an integrated, intersectional approach,” said Ana Piquer. “Upon mitigating the structural causes, not only will they be protected but their other rights will be guaranteed. We welcome the government’s announcement to strengthen the strategy to adopt collective protection plans in recent months, but we ask that state intervention be complete, comprehensive and coordinated.” The appropriate approach to address and mitigate the structural causes of violence against human rights defenders is that of collective protection, supplementary to individual protection and based on an intersectional approach that adequately gauges the particular risks and needs of women, Indigenous peoples, Afro-descendant and campesino communities, children, LGBTQI+ people, rural communities and other groups that historically have been marginalised or discriminated against. Amnesty International calls for the Colombian government to maintain its momentum in adopting measures with this approach and, ultimately, protect people, groups and communities that defend human rights in the best possible way. © 2023 Amnesty International

The New York Times Nov. 10, 2023, Bombed out area in northern Gaza. Credit: PBS News Hour We Still Have Time to Stop the Worst By Omer Bartov Israeli military operations have created an untenable humanitarian crisis, which will only worsen over time. But are Israel’s actions — as the nation’s opponents argue — verging on ethnic cleansing or, most explosively, genocide? As a historian of genocide, I believe that there is no proof that genocide is currently taking place in Gaza, although it is very likely that war crimes, and even crimes against humanity, are happening. That means two important things: First, we need to define what it is that we are seeing, and second, we have the chance to stop the situation before it gets worse. We know from history that it is crucial to warn of the potential for genocide before it occurs, rather than belatedly condemn it after it has taken place. I think we still have that time. It is clear that the daily violence being unleashed on Gaza is both unbearable and untenable. Since the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas — itself a war crime and a crime against humanity — Israel’s military air and ground assault on Gaza has killed more than 10,500 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, a number that includes thousands of children. That’s well over five times as many people as the more than 1,400 people in Israel murdered by Hamas. In justifying the assault, Israeli leaders and generals have made terrifying pronouncements that indicate a genocidal intent. Still, the collective horror of what we are watching does not mean that a genocide, according to the international legal definition of the term, is already underway. Because genocide, sometimes called “the crime of all crimes,” is perceived by many to be the most extreme of all crimes, there is often an impulse to describe any instance of mass murder and massacre as genocide. But this urge to label all atrocious events as genocide tends to obfuscate reality rather than explain it. International humanitarian law identifies several grave crimes in armed conflict. War crimes are defined in the 1949 Geneva Conventions and subsequent protocols as serious violations of the laws and customs of war in international armed conflict against both combatants and civilians. The Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court, defines crimes against humanity as extermination of, or other mass crimes against, any civilian population. The crime of genocide was defined in 1948 by the United Nations as “the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such.” So in order to prove that genocide is taking place, we need to show both that there is the intent to destroy and that destructive action is taking place against a particular group. Genocide as a legal concept differs from ethnic cleansing in that the latter, which has not been recognized as its own crime under international law, aims to remove a population from a territory, often violently, whereas genocide aims at destroying that population wherever it is. In reality, any of these situations — and especially ethnic cleansing — may escalate into genocide, as happened in the Holocaust, which began with an intention to remove the Jews from German-controlled territories and transformed into the intention of their physical extermination. My greatest concern watching the Israel-Gaza war unfold is that there is genocidal intent, which can easily tip into genocidal action. On Oct. 7, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Gazans would pay a “huge price” for the actions of Hamas and that the Israel Defense Forces, or I.D.F., would turn parts of Gaza’s densely populated urban centers “into rubble.” On Oct. 28, he added, citing Deuteronomy, “You must remember what Amalek did to you.” As many Israelis know, in revenge for the attack by Amalek, the Bible calls to “kill alike men and women, infants and sucklings.” The deeply alarming language does not end there. On Oct. 9, Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said, “We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly,” a statement indicating dehumanization, which has genocidal echoes. The next day, the head of the Israeli Army’s coordinator of government activities in the territories, Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, addressed the population of Gaza in Arabic: “Human animals must be treated as such,” he said, adding: “There will be no electricity and no water. There will only be destruction. You wanted hell, you will get hell.” The same day, retired Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland wrote in the daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, “The State of Israel has no choice but to turn Gaza into a place that is temporarily or permanently impossible to live in.” He added, “Creating a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza is a necessary means to achieving the goal.” In another article, he wrote that “Gaza will become a place where no human being can exist.” Apparently, no army representative or politician denounced this statement. I could quote many more. Taken together, these statements could easily be construed as indicating a genocidal intent. But is genocide actually occurring? Israeli military commanders insist that they are trying to limit civilian casualties, and they attribute the large numbers of dead and wounded Palestinians to Hamas tactics of using civilians as human shields and placing their command centers under humanitarian structures like hospitals. But on Oct. 13, the Israeli Ministry of Intelligence reportedly issued a proposal to move the entire population of the Gaza Strip to the Egyptian-ruled Sinai Peninsula (Mr. Netanyahu’s office said it was a “concept paper”). Extreme right-wing elements in the government — also represented in the I.D.F. — celebrate the war as an opportunity to be rid of Palestinians altogether. This month, a videotape emerged on social media of Capt. Amichai Friedman, a rabbi in the Nahal Brigade, saying to a group of soldiers that it was now clear that “this land is ours, the whole land, including Gaza, including Lebanon.” The troops cheered enthusiastically; the military said that his conduct “does not align” with its values and directives. And so, while we cannot say that the military is explicitly targeting Palestinian civilians, functionally and rhetorically we may be watching an ethnic cleansing operation that could quickly devolve into genocide, as has happened more than once in the past. None of this happened in a vacuum. Over the past several months I have agonized greatly over the unfolding of events in Israel. On Aug. 4, several colleagues and I circulated a petition warning that the attempted judicial coup by the Netanyahu government was intended to perpetuate the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. It was signed by close to 2,500 scholars, clergy members and public figures who were disgusted with the racist rhetoric of members of the government, its anti-democratic efforts and the growing violence by settlers, seemingly supported by the I.D.F., against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. What we had warned about — that it would be impossible to ignore the occupation and oppression of millions for 56 years, and the siege of Gaza for 16 years, without consequences — exploded in our faces on Oct. 7. Following Hamas’s massacre of innocent Jewish civilians, our same group issued a second petition denouncing the crimes committed by Hamas and calling upon the Israeli government to desist from perpetrating mass violence and killings upon innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza in response to the crisis. We wrote that the only way to put an end to these cycles of violence is to seek a political compromise with the Palestinians and end the occupation. It is time for leaders and senior scholars of institutions dedicated to researching and commemorating the Holocaust to publicly warn against the rage- and vengeance-filled rhetoric that dehumanizes the population of Gaza and calls for its extinction. It is time to speak out against the escalating violence on the West Bank, perpetrated by Israeli settlers and I.D.F. troops, which now appears to also be sliding toward ethnic cleansing under the cover of war in Gaza; several Palestinian villages have reportedly self-evacuated under threats from settlers. I urge such venerable institutions as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and Yad Vashem in Jerusalem to step in now and stand at the forefront of those warning against war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and the crime of all crimes, genocide. If we truly believe that the Holocaust taught us a lesson about the need — or really, the duty — to preserve our own humanity and dignity by protecting those of others, this is the time to stand up and raise our voices, before Israel’s leadership plunges it and its neighbors into the abyss. There is still time to stop Israel from letting its actions become a genocide. We cannot wait a moment longer. Mr. Bartov is a professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University. Copyright 2023 Omer Bartov and the New York Times Company

Sudan Tribune Sudan Liberation Movement leader Hadi Idris, removed from Transitional Sovereign Council credit:Sudan Tribune The Sudan Liberation Movement Transitional Council (SLM-TC) has issued a call for the guarantors of the Juba Peace Agreement to swiftly intervene and halt the flagrant and severe violations of the agreement by the Head of the Sovereign Council and Army Commander-in-Chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. In a letter seen by Sudan Tribune, addressed to the chief mediator, guarantor states, and witnesses, the SLM-TC Supreme Leadership Council conveyed that al-Burhan had unlawfully removed the group leader, al-Hadi Idris, from his position as a Member of the Transitional Sovereign Council, in clear violation of the peace pact. “As mediators, guarantors, and witnesses to this agreement, we humbly request you to urgently intervene and stop such blatant and serious violations committed by the Army Commander General al-Burhan to avoid the complete collapse of the agreement,” stated the Leadership Council. The letter cautioned that any attempt to dismiss Idriss Yahya from the collegial transitional presidency “will certainly lead to the collapse of the whole agreement.” On November 3, al-Burhan issued a presidential decree relieving Idris from his position and requested the nomination of a replacement without providing a rationale for his decision. The former rebel group contended that this action constituted a grave violation of the Juba Peace Agreement, which specifies that the signatories to the agreement have the exclusive right to appoint and/or replace their representatives in the Transitional Sovereign Council. They further highlighted that Article 14 of the Constitutional Declaration of Sudan Transitional Authority explicitly states that the dismissal of a Council member cannot be executed by decree from the Chair of the Council or any other authority. The guarantors of the Juba peace agreement include South Sudan, Chad, and the UAE. The witnesses encompass The United Nations, the European Union, the United States of America, the State of Qatar, the Egyptian Arab Republic, the African Union, the League of Arab States, and Troika countries. Copyright @ 2021 | Sudan Tribune. All rights reserved.

Presidents al-Sisi and Kiir speak to the press in Cairo on Monday November 6, 2023 (Photo Egyptian presidency) Egypt and South Sudan voiced their request to involve them in talks aimed at resolving the Sudanese crisis, asserting their unique understanding of the conflict and its tribal dynamics. President Salva Kiir ended a two-day visit to Cairo on Monday, where he held a joint press conference with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Al-Sisi told reporters they discussed the Sudanese crisis and its impact on the region and neighbouring countries, particularly Egypt and South Sudan. “We underscored the centrality of Egypt and South Sudan’s roles in the Sudanese crisis, affirming the importance of not neglecting this in any initiatives or efforts proposed to settle the crisis, particularly since the two countries are the most understanding of the nature of the crisis and its tribal complexities,” he stressed. The Egyptian president added that they agreed to advise the conflicting parties in Sudan to prioritize national interests “over any individual interests or foreign interventions, that would only deepen the problem.” The reference to foreign intervention in the Sudanese conflict is a growing concern, amid reports of a Chad-UAE alliance to support the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in its war against the Sudanese army. The alleged involvement of N’djamena alongside the paramilitary forces in Sudan undermines the initiative of the neighbouring countries launched by Egypt last July. Observers noted that al-Burhan, who visited several neighbouring countries since last August, carefully avoid Chad. Nonetheless, al-Sisi added they emphasized the importance of the neighbouring countries’ track and the results emanating from their meetings to settle the crisis. At the beginning of his speech, Kiir echoed al-Sisi’s remarks, adding that they had effectively discussed bilateral and regional issues. “On the regional level, we exchanged views about the ongoing conflict in Sudan especially the worsening humanitarian crisis. President Sisi and I see dialogue as the only path to bring this conflict to an end,” further said the South Sudanese president. He expressed hope that they could make progress on the issues discussed in their meeting but did not provide further details. Al-Sisi said they agreed to make direct contact with the warring parties. “We agreed to step up efforts and contacts between us and the relevant parties inside Sudan, in order to find urgent solutions to the crisis and spare the Sudanese people further destruction and displacement.” The meeting between the two neighbours of Sudan took place as US-Saudi brokered ceasefire talks are continuing in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Recently, an Ethiopian diplomat joined the talks as a representative for the IGAD and the African Union alike. It is the second time the leaders with direct border and historical relations with Sudan have come out to voice unified support to end the conflict through peaceful dialogue. It remains unclear whether the mediation will consider the demand of the two countries to join the Jeddah process, which is perceived as the only valid option even for a future political process, as the military-led government in Sudan contests any leadership role to the AU and the IGAD. Copyright @ 2021 | Sudan Tribune. All rights reserved.