Day: September 21, 2021

A coup attempt thwarted in Sudan Tuesday was planned by military and civilian operatives associated with former President Omar al-Bashir, the country’s prime minister said in a televised statement.

“What happened [was] an orchestrated coup by factions inside and outside the armed forces and this is an extension of the attempts by remnants since the fall of the former regime to abort the civilian democratic transition,” Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said.

“This attempt was preceded by extensive preparations represented by lawlessness in the cities and the exploitation of the situation in the east of the country, [to] close national roads and ports and block oil production,” Hamdok added.

The alleged coup attempt highlighted the challenges Sudan faces as it undergoes a democratic transition, more than two years after the military’s overthrow of Bashir during mounting public opposition to his three-decade rule.

A military official said an unspecified number of troops from the armored corps tried to seize military headquarters and state television.

The official also said more than three dozen troops that included high-ranking officers have been arrested in connection with Tuesday’s events.

Speaking on the state-owned television station, Sudan’s information minister and government spokesperson Hamza Balul confirmed security forces arrested a number of top military officers and political leaders. He said all of the detained individuals are Bashir supporters and are being interrogated.

Balul sought to assure Sudanese citizens that conditions are safe in the capital.

“The situation is now under full control after the arrest of the military and civilian leaders of the failed coup attempt, who were captured in Shajarh military base in Khartoum and they are now under investigation,” he said. “The concerned authorities are on search for the remaining individuals from the supporters of the former administration who participated in the failed coup attempt.”

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the coup attempt and warned it could delay the country’s transition to democracy, according to his spokesman Stéphane Dujarric.

“Any effort to undermine Sudan’s political transition will jeopardize the hard-earned progress made on the political and economic fronts,” Dujarric said in a statement.

“The secretary-general calls on all parties to remain committed to the transition and the realization of the aspirations of the Sudanese people for an inclusive, peaceful, stable, and democratic future,” Dujarric added.

The Sudanese military ousted Bashir in April 2019. Since then, Sudan has been governed by the Sovereign Council under a precarious power-sharing agreement between military and civilian officials.

Balul says the government will continue to defend the 2019 revolution through the support of its citizens and will not allow anyone to, in his words, “spoil this journey.”

He assured the Sudanese people that the transitional government is committed to implementing all reforms enshrined in last year’s peace deal with former rebel groups.

“We in the civil government institutions assure that we will not neglect the gains of the Sudanese people,” he said.

Transitional government authorities have accused factions loyal to Bashir of previous coup attempts.

Since Bashir’s ouster, Sudan’s government has taken steps toward normalizing relations with the West. The U.S. removed Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism in December 2020.

Hamdok’s government has also undertaken a series of tough economic reforms to qualify for debt relief from the International Monetary Fund. The steps, which include a slashing of state subsidies, are seen by many Sudanese as too harsh.

Sudan is expected to hold elections in 2024.

Source: Voice of America

For this year’s U.N. World Peace Day (September 21), thousands of Cameroonians have called for a cease-fire between the military and separatists. People who marched in several cities and towns said they were tired of burying civilians caught up in the fighting. But the conflict is not likely to end soon.

The song, “We want peace,” by Cameroonian performer Salatiel blasted through speakers in Yaounde, capital of the central African country, on 2021 World Peace Day.

In the music, Salatiel says Cameroon needs immediate peace without which the entire country will sink into ruins.

Esther Njomo Omam, director of the non-governmental organization Reach Out Cameroon, organized the rally. She says Cameroonians should give peace a chance.

“It is our collective responsibility to be peace mediators wherever we find ourselves in our various communities, and we are calling on our government to receive the message, the call for peace with an open heart. Same as we are saying that please, the non-state armed groups receive our call for peace with an open heart. This is the time for appeasement,” Omam said.

Similar peace walks took place in Buea, Bamenda and Kumba, all cities in western regions, where armed separatist groups are active, and the northern towns of Maroua, Garoua and Ngaoundere, all close to Cameroon’s border with Nigeria, the site of many incursions by the militant group Boko Haram.

Omam pleaded with jihadist groups, government troops and separatist groups to declare a cease-fire. She said silencing the guns is the only way the lives of civilians, government troops, jihadist and separatist fighters can be spared from either wounds or dying.

The government said a majority of people who took part at the peace walks were women affected by the crises. Some of them said they lost family members in the crises.

Marie-Therese Abena Ondoa, Cameroon’s minister of women’s empowerment and the family, says the military ordered by the government to protect civilians cannot drop weapons.

“I am begging that our children, our young brothers, our sisters who are in the bush exerting or preparing to come and exert violence should give up violence, leave the bush because we have all become beggars of peace. So I am pleading for all of us to do all that is within our reach so that our beloved country can become a land of peace,” Ondoa said.

Rose Mary Etakah of the Cameroon Civil Society took part in the peace walk in Yaounde. She said the armed conflicts in Cameroon will not end unless there is a cease-fire.

“Within five years, we have had guns, we have had an increase in weapons entering the country and we do not know who are carrying these weapons. We don’t know the number of people that are armed, so I think it is better to stop it now, so that by the time we retrieve the guns, maybe it will be less than if we allow it to go further,” Etakah said.

The United Nations General Assembly declared the annual observance of International Day of Peace in 1981. The day is devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, through observing 24 hours of cease-fire and non-violence.

Source: Voice of America

The Nigerian aid group Center for Civilians in Conflict is marking this year’s U.N. International Day of Peace with a photo exhibit on the conflict in the country’s northeast. The photographs depict some of the millions of civilians caught up in the 12-year conflict started by militant group Boko Haram.

The photo exhibit opened Tuesday morning at the Thought Pyramid Art Center in Abuja. Around 150 visitors arrived in batches to see images taken from scenes of the Boko Haram insurgency and the communities affected by it.

Art lover Hillary Essien, who attended the exhibit, says the photos tell a story of pain and survival.

“They’re actual people, being here and seeing that these people are out there away from their homes, families, fearing for their lives, it’s just really touching to be honest,” she said.

Nigerian photojournalist Damilola Onafuwa took the photos for nonprofit Center for Civilians in Conflict, and says he’s happy about the effect the pictures are having on viewers.

“When I create these works, I only create them because I want people to know,” he said. “I want to share the stories of people that I’m photographing. When people see it and I see how much impact it has on them, that makes me very happy.”

Nigeria has been battling the Boko Haram insurgency for 12 years. The fighting has claimed an estimated 350,000 lives, according to the United Nations Development Program, and displaced millions of others.

But Boko Haram is not the only group threatening the northeast. Armed criminal groups are becoming more active, often kidnapping people for ransom. Communal clashes over grazing lands are leading to raids and burnings of villages.

The Center for Civilians in Conflict says the exhibit aims to raise awareness about these issues with the view of addressing them.

“The exhibition tries to chronicle the lives of ordinary Nigerians who are trying everything possible to maintain the peace,” said Beson Olugbuo, a director at the center. “The idea is to use photographs as a means of advocacy and also to remind the federal government that they have a primary responsibility to maintain law and order, to protect lives and property and ensure that peace reigns.”

The International Day of Peace is observed every year on September 21.

Source: Voice of America

Ethiopia: U.S. Sanctions Threat Attempts to Change the Equation The impact of the Biden administration’s threat to impose sanctions on certain individuals involved in the Tigray conflict in Ethiopia is likely to be limited. ~~~~~~~~~~~ * Troops in Eritrean uniforms are seen on top of a truck near the town of Adigrat, Ethiopia on March 14, 2021. Baz Ratner/Reuters ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Blog Post by Michelle Gavin September 21, 2021 3:42 pm (EST) Last week, the Biden administration rolled out a new executive order authorizing targeted financial sanctions on those found to be responsible for, or complicit in, exacerbating the conflict in and around the Tigray region of Ethiopia, hindering humanitarian assistance in the region, or undermining Ethiopia’s democracy or territorial integrity. In its announcement, the White House was explicit in putting all of the parties to the conflict on notice, underscoring that the sanctions could apply to those in the Ethiopian government, the Eritrean government, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), and the Amhara region’s government and forces. The unsurprising determination, which was months in the making, follows a series of steps aimed at shifting belligerents’ cost-benefit calculations away from escalating military conflict. But the reaction from Ethiopia illustrates just how hard it will be for the United States to effect meaningful change on the ground—in part because leaders have wholeheartedly embraced jingoistic, uncompromising narratives that foreclose the possibility of negotiated solutions. In an open letter to President Biden posted on Twitter, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed bemoans Washington’s failure to see his campaign in Tigray as an extension of the global war on terror and posits that U.S. policy is rooted in “an orchestrated distortion of events and facts on the ground” and “policymakers and policy influencers’ friendships with belligerent terrorist groups like the TPLF.” In his telling, Ethiopia’s problem in Washington is not the millions of Ethiopians in desperate crisis, the metastasizing conflict, the crimes against humanity, or the ominous ethnic profiling, but rather that the United States is getting the story—used to justify or dismiss these realities—all wrong. Abiy seems unaware of how badly his credibility has been eroded by the gulf between some of his public statements and demonstrable facts on the ground. Meanwhile, TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda was telling journalists that Tigrayan leaders welcome dialogue and will agree to investigations into credible allegations that their forces have committed grave abuses. But when they had wind in the sails of their military campaign in July, the Tigrayan forces had a long list of preconditions for any ceasefire. With their push beyond Tigray’s borders, outreach to other armed opponents of the government, and hardline social media partisans, they have fueled alarm and speculation about the scope of their ambitions. The United States hopes that influential Ethiopians aware of the difference between self-serving propaganda and the catastrophic consequences of worsening conflict will begin to puncture the alternate reality that partisans have constructed and energetically reinforced since November. But it is not readily apparent who remains respected enough to be heard and courageous enough to try to challenge the competing narratives. Notably, when a number of Ethiopian civil society organizations came together earlier this month to call for peace and reconciliation in the country, they requested a cessation of not just hostilities but also “war propaganda.” When prominent African intellectuals called for more involvement from the African Union and political rather than military solutions to the conflict, they made it clear that many Ethiopian colleagues had expressed agreement in principal but fear retaliation if they publicly join the effort. The best that international pressure can do is clarify some of the economic and reputational stakes and the opportunity costs of continued conflict for those willing to reckon with the complex realities of the country’s crisis. An actual change in course will only happen when Ethiopians themselves insist on it. CouncilOnForeignRelation.org

Source: Dehai Eritrea Online