Sudanese refugees in Adré Chad on June 18, 2023 (Chadian presidency photo) There is a major increase in the number of people arriving in eastern Chad following increased fighting in El Geneina in Sudan’s West Darfur, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said in a statement. 36 wounded people, it stated, were received over the past weekend alone. According to the medical charity, the refugees coming from Sudan are mainly women and children, and recount stories of large-scale violence against civilians. “In the first three days of November, we have seen more new arrivals of Sudanese refugees than during the whole previous month: about 7,000 people crossed the border,” said Stephanie Hoffmann, MSF outreach coordinator in Adré. He added, “We have seen mothers and children who had to leave Sudan with nothing, as their homes were being destroyed.” MSF teams are providing medical services to the newly arrived refugees by vaccinating children against measles, screening for malnutrition, and referring those in need of urgent specialized healthcare directly to Adré hospital, where they are being treated by MSF and staff from the Chadian Ministry of Health. Also on offer is mental health support to people in distress at the crossing and a water tank installed to provide safe drinking water after the grueling journey. In the statement, MSF further provided horrifying testimonies from various people who fled the conflict in Sudan into neighbouring Chad in recent months. “El Geneina experienced a nightmarish escalation of violence last June, and it pushed a large proportion of the city’s inhabitants to flee to Chad, despite the many dangers and attacks that awaited them on the road. The city then experienced a relative lull and even hosted displaced people from other locations,” says Alkassoum Abdourahamane, MSF project coordinator for El Geneina, adding “Now, the blasts and the fear have once again taken over.” MSF said it donated 3.5 m3 of medical equipment to the emergency unit of the El Geneina Teaching Hospital of which supplies have helped to treat 120 patients. The stories of the latest arrivals echo those of the massive numbers of refugees who reached Adré in June, when the population of the small town tripled, it said. “Despite the collective efforts of local communities, authorities and humanitarian organizations, the humanitarian response doesn’t yet match the magnitude of the crisis in eastern Chad, which is also putting a strain on vulnerable host communities,” explains Claire Nicolet, head of MSF emergency response for Chad and Sudan. She added, “Many people are living in makeshift camps where conditions remain dire. Meanwhile the latest increase in refugee arrivals is another indication that needs are continuing to grow and that the conflict fuelling them is far from over. We continue to call for an immediate scale-up of humanitarian aid to help the most vulnerable, both refugees and Chadians, and to ensure access to basic services such as water, healthcare, shelter and food.” Since the onset of its emergency response in eastern Chad, MSF has reportedly provided over 96,000 consultations, hospitalized 8,492 patients, treated 7,155 for malnutrition and 31,955 for malaria, performed 1,634 surgeries and assisted in 1,043 deliveries. Since the war in Sudan started in mid-April, millions of people have been forced to flee the country, leaving behind their homes and livelihoods. While most are still in Sudan, an estimated 1.1 million people have crossed the border into neighbouring countries. Copyright @ 2021 | Sudan Tribune. All rights reserved.

People displaced by the conflict in neighbouring Sudan (CNN photo) An unimaginable humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Sudan, as several people are displaced by relentless fighting, the United Nations said. The war that erupted without warning turned previously peaceful Sudanese homes into cemeteries, the UN refugee agency said amid concerns that the fighting is growing in scope and brutality, affecting the people of Sudan, and the world is scandalously silent. Parties to the conflict are also violating international humanitarian law with impunity. “It is shameful that the atrocities committed 20 years ago in Darfur can be happening again today with such little attention. As a result, almost six million people have been forced from their homes; more than a million have fled to neighbouring and often fragile countries – and some of them have already moved on,” UNHCR said in a statement. Within Sudan, the agency further noted, 4.5 million people have been internally displaced since April, when the war began, while 1.2 million have fled to neighbouring countries like Chad, Egypt, South Sudan, Ethiopia and the Central African Republic. The overwhelming majority of the refugees displaced from war are women and children. Recent fighting in the Darfur region has caused even more displacement with thousands of people struggling to find shelter and many sleeping under trees by the roadside, UNHCR said. “We are very concerned about them not having access to food, shelter, clean drinking water or other basic essentials,” it stressed. Last week, the UNHCR Director for External Relations, Dominique Hyde visited Sudan’s White Nile State, where over 433,000 internally displaced persons are estimated to be living. Before the conflict in Sudan erupted in mid-April, the country’s White Nile State was already hosting nearly 300,000 mostly South Sudanese refugees in 10 refugee camps. School children have equally been affected with the education of millions now at risk. “More than 1,200 children under 5 have died in White Nile State between mid-May and mid-September alone, due to a measles outbreak combined with high levels of malnutrition. At least four children are still dying every week in White Nile State, as essential medicines, personnel, and supplies are lacking,” noted UNHCR. The exodus of Sudanese refugees to neighbouring countries, meanwhile, is increasing dramatically. In Chad, new arrivals are reportedly coming at a rate of some 700 per day. In recent days, Renk on the border between Sudan and South Sudan has seen a sharp increase in refugee arrivals with over 20,000 people said to have crossed last week. Meanwhile the widespread cases of rape and sexual violence prompted UN calls for an immediate end to all gender-based violence, including sexual violence as a tactic of war. “There must be accountability for these crimes, as well as medical and psychosocial support for survivors,” it stressed, adding “The parties must put in place mechanisms to prevent recurrence of such violence”. The UN refugee agency says it requires $2.6 billion to reach 18 million people in Sudan. Copyright @ 2021 | Sudan Tribune. All rights reserved.

President Salva Kiir waves to First Vice President Riek Machar before departing to Addis Ababa, August 7, 2023 (PPU) South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir is in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to participate in the Saudi and African leaders summit due on Friday this week. The summit seeks to find an amicable peaceful solution to the raging conflict in Sudan. A South Sudanese official accompanying Kiir told Sudan Tribune Thursday that the event would address two important issues within the context of Sudan’s peace process. “You don’t know the diplomacy. It is not a straight line. Neither is it a curve line. It is an art of unique ways through which important messages are conveyed in the relations of the two countries”, said the South Sudanese diplomat. He added, “On the surface, you see it designed and displayed in an appealing way: a Saudi-African leaders summit. But the reality is that it is a summit called by the Americans and Saudi Arabia to gauge African perspectives and views on how the conflict in Sudan could be amicably settled”. South Sudan’s Foreign Affairs minister, James Pitia Morgan said the event would be an opportunity for Kiir and other African leaders to listen to a full briefing from the mediation team and officials from Saudi Arabia on the process of the peace process on Sudan. The summit, he noted, offers a unified and coordinated approach to end Sudan’s war. “It is important in the sense that it presents an opportunity for the leaders to address fundamental matters relating to peace, security, bilateral relations and to share perspectives on global trends”, stressed Morgan. A statement from the office of the president reinforced the minister’s comment, saying Kiir would participate in the inaugural summit of the Saudi African leaders on Friday. The event, according to the statement extended to Sudan Tribune, would allow Saudi officials to reflect on the kingdom’s keenness to consolidate its relations with the African continent, which is one of the most important axes for the future of the global economy. “It comes as an extension of the kingdom’s efforts to enhance economic cooperation and coordination and benefit from the available investment opportunities. The summit also aimed at consolidating the foundations of the Saudi, Arab and African partnership in several economic and investment aspects, such as achieving food security, strengthening agricultural, industrial, mining, and commercial partnerships, and concluding new alliances between African and Saudi entities”, noted the statement. Kiir was seen off at Juba International Airport by the First Vice President Riek Machar with a line of cabinet ministers, defense, police, and security officials. He is expected to hold sideline talks with Saudi Arabia officials to solicit financial and humanitarian aid in a country receiving an influx of returnees and refugees from neighbouring Sudan. Copyright @ 2021 | Sudan Tribune. All rights reserved.

By Andrew Higgins Election posters for Law and Justice near the church in Drozdowo, eastern Poland. Most villages and small towns voted heavily for nationalist forces.Credit...Maciek Nabrdalik for The New York Times Three years apart in age, the brother and sister grew up in a tiny village in eastern Poland, helping out on the family farm and going to church each Sunday under pressure from their parents. Today, the siblings, Monika Zochowska, 38, and her brother, Szymon, 41, are separated by a wide gulf opened by politics and outlook — examples of the many chasms cleaving Poland as it wrestles with the results of a recent general election that handed a narrow majority in Parliament to opponents of the nationalist governing party. Monika and Szymon stand on opposite sides of perhaps the deepest of those divides: the gap between villages and small towns, which voted heavily for nationalist forces, and urban centers, which gave overwhelming support to their more centrist and liberal opponents, notably Civic Coalition, the main opposition party. Drozdowo, the village where the siblings grew up but which Monika left as a teenager, gave 66 percent of its vote to the conservative ruling party, Law and Justice, and a second, more radical right-wing group, Confederation. In Mokotow, the high-end district of Warsaw where Monika, a successful entrepreneur and supporter of Civic Coalition, now lives, the two right-wing parties totaled only 25 percent. Monika Zochowska, a supporter of Civic Coalition, at her office in Warsaw.Credit...Maciek Nabrdalik for The New York Times. “She left. I stayed. Maybe that is why we see things differently,” Szymon, who voted for Confederation, said during a lunch last week in Drozdowo with his parents and his visiting sister. The urban-rural divide is reinforced by a generational gap that also helped shape the outcome of the Oct. 15 election. For the first time, Poles under 29 — who often move to cities and are leading what the Roman Catholic Church in Poland recently bemoaned as the country’s “galloping” secularization — voted in larger numbers than people over 60, many of whom still go to church and tend to tilt conservative. With overall turnout at a record 74 percent, women also voted in larger numbers than before, though exit polls indicated that they split their vote fairly evenly between Law and Justice and Civic Coalition. The New Left, the only party that put gender equality and abortion rights at the center of its campaign, fared poorly. On whatever side they stand in these geographic, gender and generational divides, however, many voters yearn for a less polarized country after a brutal campaign in which Law and Justice and Civic Coalition assailed each other as a mortal threat to Poland’s future. Posters for Civic Coalition and Law and Justice in Warsaw. The urban-rural divide in Poland is reinforced by a generational gap.Credit...Maciek Nabrdalik for The New York Times That may be a tall order. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the Law and Justice chairman and Poland’s de facto leader for the past eight years, has cast Donald Tusk, the leader of Civic Coalition, as the “personification of pure evil” bent on undermining faith and selling out his country to German interests. Piotr Zochowski, Monika and Szymon’s younger brother, said he was disgusted by both main parties and cast his ballot for Third Way, a centrist alliance that finished third on promises to calm Poland’s ill-tempered divisions. “They are the least dangerous,” he said. The demonization of Mr. Tusk as a traitor by the governing party and the public broadcasting system it controls helped rally core supporters to Law and Justice. But it alienated others in a country that is ever more secular, connected to the outside world and increasingly resistant to divisive nationalist messaging. Leszek Zochowski, left, with his son Piotr; his wife, Elzbieta; and his grandson Franek preparing for lunch in Drozdovo. Some of the family’s differing opinions mirror broader divides in Poland.Credit...Maciek Nabrdalik for The New York Times The father of old-school nationalism is Roman Dmowski, an early-20th-century politician who, after railing for years against Jews and Germany, died in Drozdowo in 1939. He is commemorated in a village museum displaying his death mask. The museum has been renovated and expanded with money from Law and Justice, which during the election campaign transferred many of Dmowski’s phobias, particularly his claims of internal enemies conniving with Germany, onto Mr. Tusk. “Tusk, Tusk, Tusk. That is all they talk about. I can’t take it anymore,” said the siblings’ father, Leszek Zochowski. A conservative but open-minded farmer, he cast his vote for Third Way to support one of its components, the Polish People’s Party, a stolid center-right fixture of Polish politics since the 19th century Monika left Drozdowo as a teenager to study, first in Warsaw and then in the United States and Spain. She now runs her own beauty product company, Glov, in Warsaw, where she lives with her partner and their 3-year-old child. Her company’s main product is a patented fiber cloth she developed for removing makeup. Pregnant with a second child, she had worried about another victory for Law and Justice, which in 2020 pushed through a near-total ban on abortion that forced doctors to put the life of unborn fetuses ahead of mothers’ health. “I’m not young. I don’t feel safe having a child here,” she said. “They are fighting for fetuses, not me.” But the main reason she voted for Civic Coalition, she said, was that “it focuses on the future, instead of always focusing on the past” — meaning Poland’s painful history of occupation and dismemberment by outside powers and the trauma-fed grievances those events have left. “If you tell people all the time they are victims, they don’t see opportunities, only enemies,” she said. Szymon Zochowski, who voted for Confederation, a right-wing party, acknowledged that he and his sister disagreed on politics. “She left. I stayed. Maybe that is why we see things differently,” he said. Credit...Maciek Nabrdalik for The New York Times Szymon also moved to Warsaw for a time but then returned to Drozdowo to grow leeks on the family farm. The farm is successful but it put him in a different world from that of his sister, who was recently featured in “The Wives of Warsaw,” a Polish version of an American reality television show. Szymon lives with his wife and their three children in a house next to a yard the family uses to store farm equipment. He attends Mass regularly. His main political concern is protecting Polish farmers, which is why he voted for Confederation, an unruly right-wing alliance that thundered against Ukrainian grain imports, even though he had run in earlier local elections for Law and Justice. Law and Justice banned the import of Ukrainian grain in September, but Szymon said it should have acted sooner instead of waiting until the last month of the campaign. The farm is not a big grain producer but what it did produce this year is sitting unsold in a barn because the market price has been driven down by Ukrainian imports, he said. Szymon is also wary of the European Union. He said he stayed away from stores like the German-owned Lidl and France’s Carrefour because “I prefer Polish products.” His sister, who sells her goods in dozens of countries, has no problem shopping at foreign supermarkets. Posters in Nowy Sacz, a conservative stronghold in southern Poland. The country as a whole is becoming ever more secular, connected to the outside world and increasingly resistant to divisive nationalist messaging.Credit...Maciek Nabrdalik for The New York Times Despite the political differences, Monika tries to see and stay on good terms with her family. She visits Drozdowo regularly, convinced that one of Poland’s biggest problems is that large parts of the population stopped talking to one another. “I am super proud of where I come from,” she said, “I want to show people that a girl from a small village in eastern Poland can achieve something big in an ethical and hard-working way.” One of the main reasons Law and Justice managed to win the two previous elections, she said, was that the liberal opposition, centered on Warsaw, showed “huge arrogance” toward conservative voters. In a gaffe similar to Hillary Clinton’s description of Trump voters as a “basket of deplorables,” Mr. Tusk offended millions of Poles in 2005 by dismissing conservatives as a “mohair coalition” — a reference to the mohair berets many older women wear to church. Mr. Tusk apologized but struggled for years to shake off an image of haughty contempt for much of the population. The resentment lingers among some in Drozdowo. Monika and Szymon’s cousin, Magda Zakrzewska, 42, married a local resident and lives across the road from the village church with their three children. She said she would never vote for Mr. Tusk or his allies because “they can’t be trusted” and “look down on people like us.” She and her husband, Sylwester, 45, voted for Law and Justice. Sylwester said he understood why Monika supported the opposition and its promises to repair frayed relations with Brussels. “Everyone is just looking after their own interests,” he said. Monika’s father and her mother, Elzbieta, 62, disagree with their daughter’s politics but are very proud of her success in Warsaw. Seeing little they like in Law and Justice, despite sharing many of its conservative views, they say Poland would be a much healthier democracy if people accepted their differences instead of turning politics into an existential struggle between good and evil. “As you can see,” Leszek said, “there is no party discipline in this family.” Magda Zakrzewska and her husband, Sylwester, outside their home in Drozdowo. She said she would never vote for Donald Tusk or his Civic Coalition allies because “they can’t be trusted” and “look down on people like us.”Credit...Maciek Nabrdalik for The New York Times © 2023 The New York Times Company

Soldiers of the FARDC, the Democratic Republic of Congo governmental troops gets ready By ALAIN WANDIMOYI/AFP The United States and United Kingdom’s diplomatic missions on Tuesday issued a warning to their respective nationals about going to big events, especially religious services. Ahead of Thursday’s widely attended Nyege Nyege festival, they also advised against attending music and cultural events. Additionally, the UK government has advised its citizens not to visit Queen Elizabeth National Park or Semuliki National Park, where last month a British and South African couple, along with their Ugandan guide, were killed by a militant group known as the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). Then, the UK issued a warning to its people not to visit the well-known park. Recently, there has been an increase in insecurity in Uganda. Officials reported that they had stopped the ADF from attacking churches twice in September and October. One of the deadliest ADF attacks in the nation occurred in June when militants from the ADF massacred 42 people at a school in western Uganda. Copyright © africanews

Ikram Nurmehmet, a director known for his Uyghur protagonists, is facing charges related to ‘separatism’ and ‘terrorism’ Ikram Nurmehmet says he was held in a dark room and tortured for 20 days. Photograph: handout Jessie Lau November 8, 2023 A Uyghur film-maker has alleged he was tortured and forced to give a false confession during detention in Xinjiang province. Ikram Nurmehmet, 32, appeared on trial at Ürümqi people’s intermediary court on 27 October and is accused of organising “terrorist” activities and participating in an “East Turkestan separatist” group, sources close to him told the Guardian. Chinese authorities blame the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which once advocated independence in Xinjiang, for a series of terrorist attacks in the late 1990s and see similar groups as a separatist threat. Nurmehmet denied the allegations and no verdict was announced. Known for portraying Uyghur protagonists in his work, Nurmehmet spent six years studying film-making in Turkey, which his supporters said made him a target of state scrutiny. “I was held in a dark room for 20 days and physically tortured,” Nurmehmet reportedly said during the trial, adding that he had been made to give false confessions under duress while in detention. “I never joined any terrorist group or any political activities while I was in Turkey,” he said. The trial was attended by Nurmehmet’s wife, mother and father, who have not been able to meet him since he was arrested at his home in Beijing and flown to Xinjiang in May. Nurmehmet has been denied his choice of legal counsel and is being represented by a state-appointed lawyer, according to sources close to him. The lawyer told family members to expect a sentence of more than eight years in prison, and that the verdict may be announced any time from “a week or years” later. “I kept feeling that he can be released suddenly. It’s always in my mind,” a source close to him told the Guardian. “That’s why I was so disappointed to hear that he [might face] at least eight years in prison.” Maya Wang, an associate director in Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, called the use of torture “routine” in cases where the accused is facing political charges, especially in Xinjiang. While Chinese law has an exclusionary clause stipulating that any confessions extracted under torture should be excluded in trial, the rule “does not actually function in practice”, she said. Under Chinese law, the term “terrorism” has a broad definition that can cover anything from producing a politically sensitive film to meeting any overseas Uyghur or human rights activist (who are all considered terrorists by the Chinese state), according to William Nee, a research and advocacy coordinator at Chinese Human Rights Defenders. In politically sensitive cases where the state would want to control the outcome, authorities will frequently deny families the right to appoint their own legal counsel, Nee added. Nurmehmet’s supporters are working on submitting a petition to the UN’s working group on arbitrary detention to request more information and continue advocating on his behalf. In the past year, the working group has issued opinions on three cases involving Uyghurs, all of whom were deemed to be victims of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance under international law. Peter Irwin, an associate director for research and advocacy at the Uyghur Human Rights Project, said the persecution of Uyghur intellectuals and cultural elites may be more widespread than reported cases suggested. In Nurmehmet’s case, it is difficult to know whether he was targeted for having studied in Turkey or for his status as a cultural figure, he said. “There are a lot of people being sentenced who went to Turkey. In some ways, what this film-maker was doing through his work – the humanisation of Uyghurs and [facilitating] communication between Uyghurs and Chinese people – I think the government is suspicious and worries about this kind of stuff.” The Chinese state launched its Strike Hard anti-terrorism campaign in Xinjiang in 2014, after several terrorist attacks reportedly orchestrated by Uyghur separatists. An estimated half a million people are believed to have been imprisoned during a crackdown that escalated in 2017. More than 300 intellectuals and members of its cultural elites are currently held in some form of extralegal detention after having disappeared between 2016 and 2021, according to a database by the Uyghur Human Rights Project. © 2023 The Guardian

by Enrique Vera on 3 November 2023 | Translated by Sarah Engel Deforestation for illegal drug production is on the rise in and around Otishi National Park, Asháninka Communal Reserve and Machiguenga Communal Reserve in the Peruvian Amazon. During aerial reconnaissance, Mongabay Latam reporters observed clearings, trails and unauthorized airstrips in the park and Indigenous reserves. The NGO Global Conservation is beginning work to train members of Indigenous communities to monitor and enforce forest protection regulations. AYACUCHO, Peru — From the sky, cleared areas periodically interrupted the green grasslands and steep mountains of the Asháninka Communal Reserve and Otishi National Park in Peru. Wide expanses of deforested land lay scattered between mountain peaks. Via helicopter, Mongabay Latam reporters observed an immense mosaic of trees, pastures and agriculture, but crops couldn’t be identified from the air. Operated by the Peruvian Armed Forces, the helicopter began its flight at the southern ends of the reserves before following coordinates to several areas identified by Peru’s National Service of Natural Protected Areas (SERNANP) as showing signs of deforestation. Whenever the cloud cover relented, the pilot flew close to deforested areas. On this particular afternoon in May 2023, there were no signs of illegal loggers, but a wide path winding along one side of the forest was the most likely evidence of human activity. For more than two hours, the military helicopter flew over similar scenes: extensive jungle pockmarked by scattered scars of forest destruction. The helicopter also hovered over two long stretches of rocky, rectangular cleared land in the middle of the rainforest. “[These] are unauthorized airstrips and it appears they are inactive,” said Jeff Morgan, the executive director of Global Conservation, an international organization working to protect endangered ecosystems. An airstrip inside Otishi National Park, which allows planes to transport illicit cargo in and out of the park. Image by Planet Labs via Global Forest Watch. A Mongabay Latam analysis of satellite imagery captured by Planet Lab found evidence of deforestation for both agriculture and unauthorized airstrips in the reserve. This evaluation was the starting point for Mongabay Latam, Global Conservation and the Special Command of the Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro River Valley (VRAEM) to conduct the flyover. Otishi National Park, the Asháninka Communal Reserve and the Machiguenga Communal Reserve form the Vilcabamba‐Amboro Conservation Corridor, which straddles Cusco and Junín provinces. The communal reserves are located on either side of Otishi National Park. Founded in 2003 and covering an area of 305,973 hectares (about 756,076 acres), Otishi National Park is an extremely biodiverse ecosystem that is home to the headwaters of three Amazonian rivers (Ene, Tambo and Urubamba). Twenty–four indigenous communities live in Otishi National Park’s buffer zone. It’s also home to several threatened species, including the spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus) and the taruca (Hippocamelus antisensis) and the Andean cock-of-the-rock. Scientists have even recently found a new snake species in this park and named it after actor Harrison Ford, noting “there’s so much left to discover here.” In addition to natural wonders, the VRAEM contains the most extensive cultivated area of coca crops in Peru (almost 36,000 hectares, or 88,958 acres, according to government data), along with several remote drug-trafficking routes. Because of this the region is considered one of the most dangerous territories in Peru. Satellite data show forest loss around and within Otishi National Park and the surrounding Indigenous reserves. “The mafias plan their routes. Some enter the natural protected areas because there, almost nobody bothers them there, and because they have a greater chance of bringing drugs through the city,” said a leader of the Asháninka Communal Reserve, who requested anonymity for safety reasons. During a previous flyover in November 2022, the Indigenous leader photographed an airstrip in Otishi National Park. They also identified a similar strip inside Asháninka Communal Reserve, which, according to them, had already been destroyed by Peru’s military. Investigations around the airstrips show that groups of “mochileros” (“backpackers”) carry processed drugs here from where it is grown in neighboring Indigenous communities. Authorities told Mongabay Latam that on more than one occasion they encountered mochileros walking discreetly to drop off their supplies. Mochileros, or “backpackers,” walk along trails like this one to transport processed drugs in and around Otishi National Park and the Asháninka reserve. Image by Max Cabello. Protected areas under pressure Drug traffickers commonly grow and process coca into cocaine in Indigenous communities adjacent to the Asháninka Communal Reserve and Otishi National Park, according to the anonymous source. They say this is because coca plants do not grow above 1,500 meters (about 4,921 feet). Because of this, the source is most concerned about infiltration into the protected areas’ buffer zones. A person in a leadership position at Otishi National Park, who also requested anonymity due to safety concerns, told Mongabay that clearing for illicit crops is advancing within Otishi National Park. Satellite data and imagery from Global Forest Watch show clearings concentrated along the Cutivireni River. Satellite imagery captured September 2023 shows several clearings along the Cutivireni River inside Otishi National Park. Image by Planet Labs. “They are the spots where the agricultural frontier for coca has spread significantly,” they say, specifically pointing to the communities of Gran Shinongari and Pitirinquini. He says that non-Indigenous people migrated to these Asháninka communities, rented land, and now no longer want to leave. “As an institution, we are not prepared to intervene in the control of these activities. This is a high-risk issue,” they added. Coca overload Of the 95,008 hectares (about 234,770 acres) of coca crops in Peru, 38 percent are within the VRAEM, according to the latest report by the National Commission for Development and Life Without Drugs (DEVIDA). This trend increases every year: between 2018 and 2022, the region saw an increase of 11,597 hectares (about 28,657 acres) of coca. As a result, Asháninka Communal Reserve’s buffer zone now has 1,592 hectares ( 3,934 acres) of coca crops, according to data from DEVIDA. The amount has nearly tripled since 2020. The Gran Shinongari community has 902 hectares (about 2,229 acres) and Pitirinquini has 501 hectares (1,238 acres). “These communities sold almost all their timber and started renting out land,” said Virgilio Pizarro, the president of the Asháninka Machiguenga Organization of the Apurímac River (OARA), which helps govern the 29 Indigenous communities nestled in the VRAEM. Virgilio Pizarro speaks at a community gathering. Image by Max Cabello. “The biggest problem is that the colonos(non-Indigenous residents who have settled in Indigenous communities) plant coca closer and closer to the Asháninka reserve,” said Jeff Morgan, the executive director of Global Conservation. “All of this is very critical.” The Special Command of the VRAEM, the group of military units that operates throughout the coca-filled valley, has implemented a Global Park Defense Program in Otishi National Park. To better enforce regulations, they plan to train members of five Indigenous communities in the Asháninka Communal Reserve’s buffer zone. Communities on alert The community of Marontoari is made up of 25 families that grow coffee, annatto and cacao on the western side of the Asháninka Communal Reserve. Spanning 4,865 hectares (about 12,022 acres) the village sits on an enormous hill. From the edge of the dirt road that runs through Marontoari, the community’s former leader, Julián Tivito, pointed to some walnut and cedar forests in the distance, forming a green blanket near the Asháninka Communal Reserve. Tivito said that, so far, they have seen no indications of drug trafficking, but they are remaining vigilant given what is happening in other Asháninka communities. “We have a young population [that is] also dedicated to cultivating fruits and conserving our timber,” said Tivito, who is also vice president of the OARA. Global Conservation recently selected Marontoari as one of the five Indigenous communities that the organization will instruct in drone and GPS management this year. “The goal is to have a technical team in each community [that was] chosen to take care of their territory and, thus, to protect Otishi National Park,” said Teddy Cairuna, a forest monitor from Global Conservation. The community members of Marontoari will be the first to be trained by Global Conservation to monitor their forests and nearby natural areas. Image by Max Cabello. As a part of their training efforts, individuals from the communities will gain knowledge about forest control and surveillance, according to Global Conservation. The NGO will also provide up-to-date tech. “They will know where their community begins and ends. If loggers enter, they will be able to know from where [they arrived] and how the deforestation is advancing to alert the authorities,” an Indigenous visitor, Cairuna, told about 20 Asháninka residents who had gathered for a meeting in Marontoari. Cairuna is the former leader of the Shipibo-Conibo community of Nueva Saposoa, which is located at the entrance to Sierra del Divisor National Park. Global Conservation is working in Marontoari to replicate the successful work already done in the buffer zone of Sierra del Divisor National Park, which involved work with Indigenous residents like Cairuna. From his training, Cairuna learned cartography and forest monitoring technology. He said that, over time, he saw the threat of deforestation lessen. He eventually became the coordinator for all communities residing in the buffer zone. Now, according to Cairuna, those who underwent the training are transitioning from being communal park rangers to official park rangers. This means that they now can accompany SERNANP staff into the park for inspections. “That is what we want to achieve for Otishi National Park. The Asháninka want to protect their territory and prevent invasions,” Morgan said. As a preliminary step, a team from the Special Command of the VRAEM recently installed equipment for internet access in Marontoari. They did the same in Sankiroshi, a neighboring Asháninka community. “We take care of our community because we know that the invaders and coca farmers could come here,” said Ronald Damián Sánchez, the head of the Self-Defense Committee of Sankiroshi. Global Conservation is also training community members in Comitarincani, Paveni and Pitirinquini. The NGO plans to expand to other Asháninka communities over the next five years. This is a translated and adapted version of a story that was first reported by Mongabay’s Latam team and published here on our Latam site on September 4, 2023 © 2023 Copyright Conservation news

© UNHCR/Ala Kheir| Displaced people arrive in South Sudan from Sudan through the Joda boarder crossing. “The war that erupted without warning turned previously peaceful Sudanese homes into cemeteries,” said Dominique Hyde, Director of External Relations at UNHCR. She visited the country last week, and witnessed a surge in human suffering. “Away from the eyes of the world and the news headlines, the conflict in Sudan continues to rage. Across the country, an unimaginable humanitarian crisis is unfolding, as more and more people are displaced by the relentless fighting,” Ms. Hyde added. Within Sudan, 4.5 million people have been internally displaced since April, when the war began, while a further 1.2 million – mostly women and girls – fled to neighbouring countries, including Chad. Repeat of atrocities in Darfur The UNHCR official highlighted the situation in the volatile Darfur region, where fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has caused even more displacement with thousands struggling to find shelter and many sleeping under trees by the roadside. “We are very concerned about them not having access to food, shelter, clean drinking water or other basic essentials,” she said. “It is shameful that the atrocities committed 20 years ago in Darfur can be happening again today with such little attention.” In July, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) launched an investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the region, following the discovery of mass graves of some 87 members of the ethnic Masalit community, allegedly killed by the RSF and affiliated militia. Situation in White Nile state Ms. Hyde also addressed the situation in the White Nile state, where over 433,000 internally displaced (IDPs) are estimated to be living, adding to nearly 300,000 mostly South Sudanese refugees sheltering in some 10 camps there since before the war. She said the surge in displacement has “overwhelmed” essential services in the refugee camps, noting also that like in the rest of Sudan, schools have been shut for the last seven months as displaced people find temporary shelter inside the classrooms. The health situation is also particularly alarming, with over 1,200 children under five having died in the province between mid-May and mid-September due to a measles outbreak combined with high levels of malnutrition, and at least four children are dying every week, as essential medicines, personnel, and supplies are lacking. “In front of one of the refugee camps, you can see mounds of earth and they are just little burial grounds for the children that have died,” Ms. Hyde said. Exodus into Chad The crisis in Sudan has also driven an exodus of refugees into neighbouring countries, including Chad, where about 450,000 Sudanese are sheltering since April, adding to those already displaced there from Sudan and other countries. Despite being one of the poorest countries and confronting grave humanitarian challenges, Chad is hosting nearly a million refugees. Earlier this year, humanitarians launched a $921 million humanitarian response plan targeting 5.2 million most vulnerable for assistance. However, with barely eight weeks left in the year, it is only 26 per cent funded. Wage peace, not war: UNFPA chief Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), who just returned to New York from Chad, briefed reporters at UN Headquarters on Tuesday. The head of the UN’s reproductive rights agency highlighted her meetings with women leaders and survivors of sexual and gender-based violence and those supporting them, reiterating the importance of empowering women and their allies in building a just, peaceful and prosperous future for Chad. “And at this fraught moment in human history, it is clear that the fate of humanity does not belong in the hands of men wielding bombs, indeed it rests with women and allies standing together waging peace,” she said. Copyright © United Nations

FILE - A picture taken June 16, 2023, shows covered bodies strewn near houses in the West Darfur capital El Geneina, amid ongoing fighting in war-torn Sudan. A senior U.N. refugee official Tuesday warned that "an unimaginable humanitarian crisis" was unfolding in Sudan, with millions of people being forcibly displaced from their homes by an increasingly vicious conflict. "What I saw was despair, was unimaginable humanitarian needs and fear in so many people's eyes," said Dominique Hyde, UNHCR Director of External Relations. "This is a war that erupted without warning and turned previously peaceful Sudanese homes into cemeteries." Hyde has just returned from a week-long visit to Sudan's White Nile State as well as border and other areas in South Sudan. She said the fighting was growing in scope and brutality while the world remained "scandalously silent, though violations of international humanitarian law persist with impunity." Since fighting erupted April 15 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, the UNHCR reports 4.5 million people have been displaced inside Sudan, while 1.2 million have fled to neighboring countries, including Chad, Egypt, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and the Central African Republic. Children cross the border on their donkeys from Sudan to Chad, Nov. 7, 2023. Recent fighting in Sudan's Darfur region has caused even more displacement, with thousands of people struggling to find shelter and many sleeping under trees by the roadside, said Hyde, adding that most of the refugees are women and children. "We are very concerned about them not having access to food, shelter, clean drinking water or other basic essentials," she said. "It is shameful the atrocities that were committed 20 years ago in Darfur can still be happening again today with such little attention," she added, referring to shocking accounts of widespread rape and sexual violence in Darfur, Khartoum, and other parts of Sudan. "The U.N. calls for an immediate end to all gender-based violence, including sexual violence as a tactic of war to terrorize people," said Hyde. "There must be accountability for these crimes, as well as medical and psychosocial support for survivors. The parties must put in place mechanisms to prevent recurrence of such violence." But that is hard to do without money, the U.N official said, explaining that only 39% of the $1 billion needed to provide humanitarian assistance for Sudanese refugees in five countries has been received, and that only one third of a separate $2.6 billion appeal to help 18.1 million people inside Sudan has been funded. The funding shortage is harming humanitarian operations both inside and outside Sudan. When Hyde visited Sudan's White Nile State last week, she said she saw how the surge of people displaced by the fighting had overwhelmed essential services in the camps. "Like in the rest of Sudan, schools have been shut for the last seven months as displaced people find temporary shelter inside the classrooms. The health situation is disastrous," she said. "More than 1,200 children under five have died in White Nile State between mid-May and mid-September alone, due to a measles outbreak combined with high levels of malnutrition. "Thanks to MSF, to UNICEF, to WHO, and UNHCR, we have been able to curb somewhat these deaths. We are now at five a week but still unacceptable in 2023." The World Food Program reports intensifying conflict in Sudan is forcing more and more people to flee, plunging the economy deeper into crisis, and "pushing hunger to record levels with over 20 million people now facing severe hunger." Among them are some 2.5 million malnourished children, including 700,000 suffering from severe acute malnutrition, which can lead to death. WFP warns the climate crisis is driving malnutrition to unprecedented levels in South Sudan, with more than 1.6 million children under age five expected to suffer from this condition in 2024. Hyde said in the week she was in the border area, she saw an estimated 20,000 people crossing into South Sudan from Sudan, which was an "incredible increase" from the previous weeks. She said most of the people were Sudanese refugees, not South Sudanese returning home from years of exile in Sudan. "In the first months what we were seeing was a large number of South Sudanese returnees going into South Sudan, but that has flipped," she said. "And I think the week I was there, we were at 70 to 80% of Sudanese coming and crossing that border." Because of underfunding, she said, UNHCR and partners are not able to create a new transit center to accommodate this huge flow of people into the country, nor can they build appropriate water and sanitation centers to prevent possible outbreaks of diseases, nor provide adequate medical services. At the end of each year, she said, U.N. officials are usually hopeful of receiving any remaining funds left over for such an emergency. But, she added, "because of what is happening in Gaza … the funds that were intended or that could have gone to Africa or Afghanistan or to any of the many other humanitarian crises" are now being redirected to the Middle East. © Voice of America

Analysis by Ishaan Tharoor Women from the city of Al-Junina receive news about the death of their relatives, who they were waiting for in Chad on Tuesday. (El Tayeb Siddig/Reuters) It’s not just Gaza where there is no cease-fire. A week of Saudi-brokered talks between Sudan’s warring parties ended Tuesday, yielding vague commitments to opening up deliveries of humanitarian aid — but no truce for a conflict that has raged in the heart of Africa since April. In the months thereafter, the two sides, Sudan’s military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), agreed to cease-fires that they summarily violated. Their battles garnered global attention for a few weeks as foreigners in the Sudanese capital Khartoum scrambled to get out, but the war ground to a brutal, bloody stalemate and receded from international attention. Now, a new tipping point seems to have been reached, as my colleague Katharine Houreld reported. In recent weeks, the RSF and allied militias seized what appears to be de facto control of the western region of Darfur, driving their rivals out of a host of regional capitals and scattering their forces into the desert in what Houreld explained “is the most significant military breakthrough” by the RSF since the conflict began in April. The gains of RSF have also come with a new wave of alleged mass killings. Houreld spoke to a number of eyewitnesses who described how the paramilitary group and its allies, predominantly ethnic Arab, carried out slaughters of non-Arabs after they seized the army headquarters in the West Darfur capital of Geneina. Representatives of international organizations documented reports of massacres of whole families, rape, sexual assault and widespread looting. “Ahmed Sharif, 31, said Wednesday he had personally collected 102 bodies and laid tents over them after an attack over the weekend on Ardamata, a satellite settlement of Geneina that has an army base and a large camp for displaced families,” Houreld wrote. “The road to the border was strewn with dozens more bodies, he said, and leaders from the camp who had fled to Chad had collected the names of hundreds more people reported dead by family members and witnesses.” Away from the killing fields, U.N. officials warned of a disaster of a vast scale taking place in Sudan. Some 4.5 million people — close to a tenth of the country’s overall population — have been internally displaced during the conflict. More than a million others have fled the country, with some half a million people, primarily from Darfur, sheltering in squalid camps in neighboring Chad. In a statement released Sunday, Dominique Hyde, director of external relations for the U.N.’s refugee agency, warned that relief agencies are overwhelmed and struggling to deliver essential services to those in need. Malnutrition and disease stalk the land. In White Nile State, where Hyde visited along the border with South Sudan, more than 1,200 children under the age of 5 have died in a measles outbreak worsened by food shortages. Hyde added that water and sanitation conditions make the country “ripe for an outbreak of cholera.” “What I saw was despair, was unimaginable humanitarian needs and fear in so many people’s eyes,” Hyde said during a news conference. “This is a war that erupted without warning and turned previously peaceful Sudanese homes into cemeteries.” In a separate interview with Canada’s Globe and Mail, Hyde pointed to the resumption of a full-scale ethnic conflict in Darfur, which was ravaged two decades ago by pro-government armed groups that carried out what has now been recognized as genocidal crimes. They later became what’s now the RSF. “It’s shameful that the atrocities that were committed 20 years ago in Darfur can still be happening today with such little attention,” she said. “People are looking away. They’re forgetting Sudan.” The global silence speaks volumes and has dire implications. “Sudan’s population is more than three times that of the combined number of people living in Israel and the Palestinian territories,” Vox’s Bryan Walsh noted. “When a crisis like this civil war comes to a country of this size, one where an estimated 35 percent of people are living on less than $2.15 a day, the humanitarian consequences are proportionately terrible.” U.N. officials have pleaded for months with the international community to muster more aid for beleaguered Sudan. Those entreaties have fallen flat. A nearly billion-dollar humanitarian response plan, aiming to meet the needs of Sudan’s 5.2 million most vulnerable people, has only been 26 percent funded with less than eight weeks left in the year. Onlookers are urging Western governments to do more. “With so many other global crises demanding the Biden administration’s and the world’s attention, it might be tempting to write off Sudan and Niger as hopeless cases, defying easy resolution,” a Washington Post editorial noted, referring also to the challenging state of affairs in West Africa’s poorest nation that is now in the grips of a coup-plotting junta. “That would be a mistake. Even a small change, the product of consistent sustained attention and diplomacy, could save lives.” The political process, such as it is, has failed to stymie the conflict. The rival warlords — Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan of Sudan’s military and RSF chief Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, universally known by his sobriquet Hemedti — appear entrenched in their strongholds and bent on consolidating what monopoly they can over the country’s resources. “The military controls most of the agricultural lands to the east, and the oil terminal in Port Sudan,” Houreld explained. “The RSF controls the gold fields of the west, and the porous desert borders leading to refugee camps in Chad and the arms bazaars of Libya and the Central African Republic.” The military, too, is accused of carrying out indiscriminate violence, including its relentless bombing of areas of the capital Khartoum held by the RSF. All the while, the suffering of ordinary Sudanese civilians and refugees across the country’s borders is mounting. “We need support, and we need it now,” Pierre Honnorat, the head of the World Food Program in Chad, told the BBC. “We do need to secure a meal a day to them all. They have nothing.” washingtonpost.com © 1996-2023 The Washington Post

Tensions between religious groups in Australia have risen since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. By Natasha Frost Posters, towels and flip-flops intended to raise awareness of the hostages in Gaza were displayed by members of the Australian Jewish community at Bondi Beach in Sydney last week.Credit...Dean Lewins/AAP, via Reuters Posters plastered across Sydney portraying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel as Adolf Hitler in disguise. A record increase in reports of Islamophobia, including threats to Muslim community organizations. Antisemitic chants at a pro-Palestinian rally and charges that Nazi salutes were performed outside a Jewish museum. Australia has experienced a flurry of incidents targeting Muslims and Jews, making it one of many countries reporting a rise in such cases since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. Reports to the Islamophobia Register Australia, an independent organization that tracks anti-Muslim sentiment, have increased tenfold since the start of the war, Sharara Attai, the executive director of the group, told an Australian news service, adding that many more incidents have likely gone unreported. Interfaith relations have become strained, with at least two Australian rabbis resigning last month from the Jewish Muslim Christian Association, a group that works to promote religious harmony, after some faith leaders failed to condemn the Hamas attacks, which killed some 1,400 people in Israel. Members of the country’s roughly 100,000-strong Jewish community have been left feeling isolated, representatives said, over a perceived absence of sympathy for the suffering caused by the attacks. Lee Kofman, a writer in Melbourne, organized an open letter that was signed by hundreds of Australian Jewish scholars, journalists and workers in creative industries who said they felt unsafe in their workplaces and abandoned by colleagues. “It really shook us to the core of our identity,” Ms. Kofman said. “We belong to this progressive tribe, but the progressive tribe doesn’t seem to have very progressive values when it comes to us Jews.” Signatories of the letter expressed “our dismay and shock at the lack of public understanding and empathy shown towards Jewish people,” as well as what they described as little acknowledgment of the suffering the attacks in Israel have caused. Australia has the highest concentration of Holocaust survivors of any nation outside Israel, and many Australian Jews have deep and longstanding ties with Israel. A poll in June of the Australian Jewish community found that 77 percent of respondents identified as Zionist, and 88 percent said they felt a “high level of personal connectedness” with Israel. Shows of support for Palestinians, including from elected representatives, have been criticized by some in the Jewish community over what they said was a lack of understanding of Hamas, which has stated that it wants to destroy Israel. Tens of thousands of Australians have marched at rallies in cities including Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney in support of the Palestinians. Protesters called for a cease-fire, denounced deadly Israeli strikes on civilians in Gaza as “genocide” and chanted, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — a popular pro-Palestinian slogan that some view as a call for Israel’s destruction. On Monday, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, an umbrella organization for hundreds of Australian Jewish groups, condemned a decision by 11 national lawmakers from the Australian Green Party to walk out of Parliament because the Labor government had not called for a cease-fire in Gaza. A spokesman for the organization said the lawmakers’ stance “endangered Australian Jews and our society.” Natasha Frost writes the Europe Morning Briefing and reports on Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific from Melbourne, Australia. More about Natasha Frost © 2023 The New York Times Company

By Rédaction Africanews Last updated: November 7th - 17:21 Fighters of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), oil during the - Copyright © africanews SOULEYMANE Several civilians, including children, were killed Tuesday in strikes attributed to the Malian army in Kidal, a possible foreshadowing of the battle to come for this bastion of the Tuareg rebellion and a major sovereignty issue for the central state. The Permanent Strategic Framework (CSP), an alliance of predominantly Tuareg armed groups, reported in a press release 14 deaths, including eight children gathered in front of a school and six notables, killed according to the CSP by Turkish-made drones from the Malian army. Residents and witnesses, speaking mostly on condition of anonymity for their safety, spoke of six, seven or nine deaths, without having an overview of each of them. “Six people including children were killed by airstrikes by the Malian army. In the hospital, we have wounded,” said a health worker. A video consulted by AFP shows six remains lying next to each other. No reaction was initially obtained from the Malian authorities. The army indicated on social networks on Saturday that it had "neutralized" the day before with its air assets a certain number of targets which were preparing operations inside the camp recently evacuated by the UN mission (Minusma). Tuesday's acts of war, the first murderers in Kidal itself since the Tuareg rebellion resumed hostilities with the State in August, confirm fears of a confrontation in which the several tens of thousands of inhabitants of the city, historic center of independence insurgencies and a crossroads on the road to Algeria, has been brewing for some time. The insubordination of Kidal and its region, where the army suffered humiliating defeats between 2012 and 2014, is an old source of irritation in Bamako. The colonels who took charge of the country by force in 2020 have made the restoration of territorial sovereignty their mantra. However, Kidal is controlled by rebels who, after rising in 2012, agreed to cease fire in 2014, but have just taken up arms again. The independence uprising of 2012 coincided with the entry into action of radical Islamist groups. The jihadists have never stopped fighting the central state and any foreign presence, plunging Mali into a security, political and human crisis which has spread to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger. Call to Turkey Since August, the north has once again been the scene of an escalation between the actors present (regular army, rebels, jihadists). The withdrawal of the UN Mission, pushed out by the junta, triggered a race for control of the territory, with the central authorities demanding the restitution of the camps, the rebels opposing it and the jihadists trying to do so. take advantage of this to strengthen their hold. The evacuation by Minusma of its Kidal camp promised to be the most flammable. Anticipating the departure of Minusma, a large army convoy left on October 2 towards Kidal. But the UN mission, constrained by the deterioration in security, accelerated its withdrawal and left its Kidal camp last week. The separatist rebellion immediately took control, ahead of the army. The haste in the disengagement of Minusma irritated the junta, which wanted to make this departure coincide with the arrival of the army. The obstacles put by the junta on the evacuation forced Minusma to destroy part of its equipment because it was unable to remove it, the mission said. But she also left some behind. A resident who worked for Minusma indicated that Tuesday's victims included residents who had gathered in front of the camp to collect equipment. The CSP assured for its part that one of the drone strikes had hit a group of children in front of a school near the camp. The CSP said it was asking the Turkish authorities “to review their policy of selling drones to the junta” and to the Russian paramilitary group Wagner with which it cooperates according to the CSP. Minusma, whose numbers numbered around 15,000 soldiers and police and more than 180 members of whom were killed in hostile acts, is supposed to have left by December 31. Since July, it has withdrawn nearly 6,000 civilian and uniformed personnel from Mali. Copyright © Africanews