Eritrea Wire

The Sudanese general who seized power in a coup this week said the military he heads will appoint a technocrat prime minister to rule alongside it within a week.

In an interview with Russia’s state-owned Sputnik news agency published Friday, Abdel-Fattah Burhan said the new premier will form a cabinet that will share leadership of the country with the armed forces.

“We have a patriotic duty to lead the people and help them in the transition period until elections are held,” Burhan said in the interview.

On Monday, Burhan dissolved the transitional government and detained Prime Minister Abddalla Hamdok, many government officials and political leaders in a coup condemned by the U.S. and the West. The military allowed Hamdok to return home under guard the following day after international pressure.

The generals have not yet produced a list of candidates for the premiership, Burhan said. The decision to appoint such a premier follows earlier calls by the generals for a nonpartisan technocrat Cabinet.

The military takeover came after weeks of mounting tensions between military and civilian leaders over the course and pace of Sudan’s transition to democracy. It threatened to derail that process, which has progressed in fits and starts since the overthrow of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir in a popular uprising two years ago.

Burhan has said military forces were compelled to take over because of quarrels between political parties that he claimed could lead to civil war. However, the coup also comes just weeks before Burhan would have had to hand over the leadership of the Sovereign Council, the ultimate decision-maker in Sudan, to a civilian, in a step that would reduce the military’s hold on the country.

The coup has elicited a storm of street protests demanding the restoration of a civilian government. At least nine people have been killed by security forces’ gunfire, according to the Sudan Doctors’ Committee and activists. At least 170 others were wounded, according to the UN. Pro-democracy activist groups have called for `million-person’ marches on Saturday to bring the coup to a halt.

Burhan said earlier this week that he had installed himself as head of a military council that will rule Sudan until elections in July 2023.

Source: Voice of America

Editor’s note: Here is a fast take on what has been atop the international community’s agenda this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch.

Military seizes control in Sudan:

In a year of coups and attempted coups, Sudan is the latest country to see a military takeover. Thousands of protesters demonstrated in the streets following Lt. General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan’s announcement Monday that Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and other officials of the formerly ruling Sovereign Council had been arrested and a state of emergency declared. Latest on the situation here:

Climate summit opens Sunday in Glasgow:

The international community will meet in Glasgow, Scotland, for the next two weeks to try to stop the countdown to what U.N. chief Antonio Guterres warns is a “climate catastrophe.” Watch here:

The United Nations took a creative approach to raising the climate alarm, producing a short, special effects-filled video starring “Frankie the Dino” urging people to climate action so they won’t become “extinct” like him. Watch it here:

Africa faces a syringe shortage threatening COVID-19 vaccinations:

The World Health Organization says only 6% of Africa’s 1.2 billion people are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. Now, as vaccine shipments are increasing, the continent faces a new complication: a shortage of syringes to inject the vaccine.

News in brief

The U.N. Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran said Monday the death penalty continues “to be implemented at an alarming rate” in that country. Javaid Rehman told the U.N. General Assembly committee that deals with human rights issues that Tehran executed more than 250 people last year, and more than 230 so far this year. “I urge the government to initiate reforms in this area, starting most urgently with a moratorium on the death penalty against child offenders,” he said.

The United Nations said Wednesday that worldwide, 28 of its civilian staff died in 2020 and the first half of 2021 because of “acts of violence and safety-related incidents.” There also was an alarming rise in the number of staff who were abducted – 17 in 2020 – compared with six in 2019.

Good news:

Thousands of refugees return home:

The U.N. refugee agency reports it has restarted a voluntary repatriation operation for thousands of refugees from the Central African Republic who were living in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Quote of note:

“Many of the women I have spoken to as I have been out across the country in Mazar, Herat, areas of Kabul, tell me they haven’t eaten in days as they spare what they have for their children. I had women falling at my feet crying for food.” Mary-Ellen McGroarty, World Food Program Representative and Country Director in Afghanistan, to reporters Tuesday on the severe hunger conditions affecting millions in that country.

What we are watching next week:

An important report from the U.N. Human Rights Office and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) on their joint investigation into alleged human rights violations committed by all parties in the conflict in the northern Tigray region will be launched Wednesday by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet.

The COP26 climate summit gets underway Sunday in Glasgow, Scotland. The U.N. secretary-general says it may be the last chance for leaders to make ambitious and meaningful commitments to lower carbon emissions in order to keep global warming this century to below 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Did you know?

The United Nations loves acronyms. COP stands for “Conference of the Parties.” The Glasgow meeting on climate is the 26th session, hence COP26. There is another COP on biodiversity, which takes place every two years — COP15 — which met this month in China. And next year, there will be a COP on desertification, which – this is where it gets tricky – also will be a COP15.

Source: Voice of America

A court in Zimbabwe Friday ordered the release of about 40 veterans of the nation’s 1970s independence war, four days after they tried to petition President Emmerson Mnangagwa about their low monthly pension.

Their lawyers accuse the government of infringing on citizens’ right to demonstrate, particularly those who opposed President Mnangagwa’s rule.

War veterans chatted outside the courtroom Friday after Magistrate Barbra Mateko ordered their release on about $40 bail. They were arrested Monday while trying to go to Mnangagwa’s office to ask for a review of their less than $100 monthly pension.

Paidamoyo Saurombe, from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, spoke to VOA after he secured the war veterans’ release on bail.

“It’s not a crime to demonstrate in Zimbabwe, it’s not a crime to petition. It’s actually provided for by the constitution,” Saurombe said. “So in anything that has to be done, it has to be done in those ambits of the constitution or in those constitutional provisions. And our clients were following constitutional provisions, so to say they committed a crime it would rather be absurd.”

The veterans are expected to go on trial next month. The offense of “breaching the peace,” which they face, has an option of a fine if they are convicted.

Addressing senior members of the ruling ZANU-PF party Friday in Bindura, about 80 kilometers north of Harare, President Mnangagwa said the war veterans had broken protocol.

“Various initiatives have been implemented to improve the dignity, welfare and economic empowerment of veterans of the liberation struggle and dependence of the heroes,” Mnangagwa said. “But I urge the war veterans to use procedures in the party, not outside the party.Their rich ideological grounding should galvanize the principle of patriotism in the hearts and minds of cadres and embolden them in their efforts to ensure that ZANU-PF remains the party of choice which wholeheartedly serves the people.”

At the court, one of the war veterans, who identified himself as Cde Tendai, said he was relieved his colleagues had been granted bail because some of them have chronic conditions.

“We were concerned by their health,” Tendai said. “We feared that some of them may have died because most war veterans are stressed by so many things. We were surprised by their arrests. We were not violent, we respect the rule of law and our government. The only issue was: we want to petition since we are getting very little money considering how life is difficult.”

Zimbabwe’s war of liberation from the white minority-led rule of Ian Smith lasted for 16 years, from 1964 to 1980.The government still pays monthly pensions to about 30,000 veterans of the war.

Source: Voice of America

New violence has wracked northwestern Cameroon, where the military said it killed some 40 separatist fighters over the past two weeks. The Catholic Church said some of those killed were civilians, and witnesses said many houses were burned to the ground.

Cameroon’s government is expressing frustration with the separatists but vows it will not allow the breakup of the country.

External Relations Minister Lejeune Mbella Mbella summoned ambassadors to a meeting Thursday where he laid out the government’s position on the separatist crisis.

Mbella Mbella said the separatists are again causing untold suffering in the English-speaking western towns and villages of the majority French-speaking nation.

He said Cameroon is surprised fighters continue to commit atrocities when much has been done to satisfy the needs of the minority English speakers who feel marginalized.

“The government of Cameroon has undertaken the most expensive and extensive structural and administrative reforms in its recent history,” Mbella Mbella said. “As a key recommendation of the major national dialogue, the government tabled the bill to institute the special status. His excellency Paul Biya has also granted a general full amnesty to combatants who voluntarily drop their weapons.”

None of the heads of diplomatic missions invited to the meeting would comment when contacted by VOA.

By “special status,” the minister is referring to political reforms that gave the largely English-speaking northwest and southwestern regions greater autonomy. The reforms were passed after Cameroon organized what it called a major national dialogue to solve the separatist crisis in 2019.

Mbella Mbella also declared the government will not allow any part of the country to secede.

The separatists have a different point of view. This week, an official from what the separatists call the Ambazonia Interim Government said on Facebook that their forces will never surrender, and that the English speakers will fight until freedom is achieved.

They also accuse government forces of being responsible for many killings and much of the destruction in the western regions.

Separatists blame the government for torching houses during recent operations in the northwestern town of Kumbo and areas nearby. The government said separatist forces were to blame.

The military also said about 40 fighters have been killed in raids on separatist camps in the past two weeks.

However, the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon’s Catholic Bishops — a neutral party in the conflict — said some of those killed were civilians.

Kumbo Mayor Venatius Mborong said several hundred civilians had fled the renewed fighting.

“They left Kumbo because they have been kidnapped a couple of times and they have paid ransom and now they are frankless [poor],” Mborong said. “People have sold houses, they have sold their lands, and so they cannot continue staying there.”

The United Nations says the separatist war has forced more than 500,000 people to flee their homes since the conflict erupted in late 2017.

Source: Voice of America

The United States urged the military leaders of Sudan’s coup to refrain from “any and all violence” against peaceful protesters who are planning major demonstrations on Saturday.

The appeal to Sudan’s military leaders came from a senior State Department official who was briefing reporters on condition of anonymity.

“Tomorrow is going to be a real indication of what the military intentions are,” the official said.

Since Monday’s military takeover, protesters have taken to the streets of Sudan to demand the restoration of a civilian government. A group of neighborhood committees and other activists are planning a “march of millions” on Saturday under the slogan “Leave!”

Security forces have killed at least nine people by gunfire and wounded at least 170 others during the protests, according to the Sudan Doctors Committee.

Saturday’s planned protests have some residents fearing a full-blown clampdown, Reuters reported.

“Confronting peaceful protesters with gunfire is something that should not be tolerated,” said Haitham Mohamed in Khartoum. “It will not make us back down; it only strengthens our resolve.”

The military takeover occurred after weeks of escalating tensions between military and civilian leaders over Sudan’s transition to democracy. The coup threatens to derail the process, which has slowly progressed since the army ousted longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir, ending a popular uprising in 2019.

Sudanese military chief General Abdel-Fattah Burhan said Tuesday that the army’s overthrow of the country’s transitional government was necessary to avoid a civil war.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement Friday, “I urge the military to show restraint and not to create any more victims. People must be allowed to demonstrate peacefully. And this is essential.”

Source: Voice of America

Ethiopia’s media authority on Friday ordered a local radio and TV broadcaster to cease sharing foreign news reports.

A letter from the Ethiopian Media Authority, issued to Ahadu Radio and TV (Ahadu RTV), said the station could no longer air coverage provided by international news agencies via satellite.

Ahadu RTV is an affiliate of Voice of America, which is the predominant source for its international coverage.

The letter, written in Amharic and viewed by VOA’s Africa Division, provided no specific reason for the ban or a timeframe for how long it would stay in place, saying only that the “station was acting outside its goals of establishment.”

Several other stations received the same order, according to Eskinder Frew, a journalist in Addis Ababa who contributes to VOA.

Ethiopia has issued orders or suspended licenses for various media groups and expelled at least one foreign journalist in the past year, often on accusations that the news outlets were legitimizing terrorist groups, a reference to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.

Ethiopian federal forces and the TPLF have been fighting in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region since November 2020.

In July, the media regulator suspended the license of the Addis Standard, which led to the news outlet’s suspension of operations.

The regulator said it was investigating complaints that the Addis Standard was publishing content that posed a threat to national security, the Committee to Protect Journalists said at the time.

That same month, authorities arrested about 20 journalists from two independent broadcasters.

Media analysts including Reporters Without Borders told VOA in July that the arrests were likely connected to the media coverage of the federal government and the conflict in Tigray.

VOA sent requests for comment late Friday to Ethiopia’s embassy in Washington and to the Ethiopian Media Authority. As of publication, neither had responded.

The media regulator said in its letter Friday that broadcasters must operate “according to the terms and obligations they agreed upon … to inform, educate and entertain the public.”

Ahadu RTV however, “has been rebroadcasting the Voice of America contents via satellite link, abandoning its objective.”

VOA expressed disappointment at the order Friday and called on the Ethiopian Media Authority to reconsider its decision.

“The Voice of America strictly adheres to the principles of accurate, balanced and comprehensive journalism. Our content addresses issues important to the people of Ethiopia,” acting director Yolanda L?pez said in a statement.

“The order restricts the free flow of information to the citizens of Ethiopia and undermines press freedom. It sends a chilling message to all journalists in the country.”

Source: Voice of America