Africa

Dozens killed near Sudan’s capital as UN warns of soaring displacement

Published

1 week ago

June 8, 2024

Dozens killed near Sudan’s capital as UN warns of soaring displacement

Pro-democracy activists in Sudan say about 40 people have been killed in “violent artillery fire” by paramilitary forces in the twin city of the Sudanese capital Khartoum, as fighting and displacement intensify across the war-ravaged country.

The Karari Resistance Committee, one of hundreds of grassroots organisations that coordinate aid across Sudan, said on Friday that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) group was behind the deadly attack on Omdurman a day earlier.

“So far, the death toll is estimated at 40 civilians and there are more than 50 injured, some seriously,” the Karari Resistance Committee said in a statement posted on social media.

“There is still no precise count of the number of victims,” it said, adding that bodies were received by Al Nao university hospital and other private health facilities or were buried by relatives.

The report has come just days after an RSF attack on a village in Sudan’s central Gezira state killed at least 100 people, according to local activists.

War erupted in Sudan in mid-April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary RSF, creating the world’s largest displacement crisis and leaving at least 15,500 people dead, according to United Nations estimates.

The deadly assault on the village of Wad al-Noura on Wednesday drew widespread condemnation this week, including from UNICEF’s Executive Director Catherine Russell, who said at least 35 children were reported killed and more than 20 others injured.

READ ALSO:

“This is yet another grim reminder of how the children of Sudan are paying the price for the brutal violence,” Russell said in a statement on Thursday.

“Over the past year, thousands of children have been killed and injured. Children have been recruited, abducted and subjected to rape and other forms of sexual violence. Over five million children have been forced from their homes.”

Fighting continues daily, including in the capital of Khartoum, with both sides accused of war crimes including the deliberate targeting of civilians, indiscriminate shelling of residential areas and blocking humanitarian aid.

Another flashpoint is the city of el-Fasher in Sudan’s North Darfur region, where RSF paramilitary forces recently launched a deadly assault.

More than 800,000 civilians are trapped in el-Fasher as violence rages, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), and healthcare and other services have collapsed.

“Crucial roads out of el-Fasher are blocked, preventing civilians from reaching safer areas, while at the same time limiting the amount of food and other humanitarian aid coming into the city,” Othman Belbeisi, IOM’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said on Thursday.

The IOM also warned that internal displacement across Sudan could soon top 10 million.

The agency said 9.9 million people were internally displaced across the country’s 18 states; more than half of those displaced are women and more than a quarter are children under age five.

“Imagine a city the size of London being displaced. That’s what it’s like, but it’s happening with the constant threat of crossfire, with famine, disease and brutal ethnic and gender-based violence,” said IOM Director General Amy Pope.

Dozens killed near Sudan’s capital as UN warns of soaring displacement

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

Africa

Funeral convoy of Malawi VP kills 4 mourners, injures 12

Published

5 hours ago

June 18, 2024

Trends Admin

Funeral convoy of Malawi VP kills 4 mourners

Funeral convoy of Malawi VP kills 4 mourners, injures 12

A vehicle in the convoy of Malawi’s late vice president’s funeral procession rammed into mourners at a village on Sunday night, killing four people and injuring 12, police said.

It was part of a motorcade transporting the body of Saulos Chilima, who died in a plane crash earlier this week.

The vehicle plunged into a crowd in Ntcheu a village in central Malawi.

The car, along with other military, police, and civilian vehicles, was headed to Nsipe, Chilima’s home village, 180 kilometres (110 miles) south of the capital Lilongwe, ahead of his burial on Monday — which has been declared a public holiday.

“Due to the impact the two female and two male pedestrians sustained severe head injuries and multiple fractures and died whilst receiving treatment” said a police statement.

READ ALSO:

Police spokesman Peter Kalaya told AFP 12 more people had been injured.

Thousands of people had lined up in the streets to catch a glimpse of the vice president’s coffin.

An eyewitness told AFP that the vehicle plunged into the group as it attempted to manuever away from the volatile crowd.

Felix Njawala, spokesman for Chilima’s party, said there was some tension along the route as mourners demanded the procession stop so they could see the coffin.

“In Dedza, people blocked the road and demanded to see the coffin” he told AFP, “only when the convoy stopped were people pacified and the convoy was able to proceed” adding that in some instances people threw stones at the convoy.

While he acknowledged that party supporters had questions, he called on them to maintain peace.

Funeral convoy of Malawi VP kills 4 mourners, injures 12

Africa

Kenyan policeman shoots magistrate in open court

Published

3 days ago

June 15, 2024

Trends Admin

Kenyan policeman shoots magistrate in open court

A police officer shot and injured magistrate Monica Kivuti at the Makadara Law Courts in Nairobi on Thursday, June 13 after she denied bail for his wife.

The officer was then killed in a shootout with other officers. Kivuti and three officers injured in the incident are stable and receiving treatment, according to a local news report.

READ ALSO:

Chief Justice Martha Koome confirmed the shooter intended to kill the magistrate and ordered increased security at all courts.

The policeman’s wife had pleaded guilty to obtaining 2.9 million Kenyan shillings ($22,700) by false pretences.

The officer entered the court through the magistrate’s door and shot Kivuti in the chest and hip before being fatally shot by another officer.

Kenyan policeman shoots magistrate in open court

Africa

South Africa’s Ramaphosa elected president

Published

3 days ago

June 15, 2024

Trends Admin

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa

South Africa’s Ramaphosa elected president

Cape Town, South Africa – Late-night negotiations and an eleventh-hour agreement led to the formation of South Africa’s first-ever coalition government on Friday, with President Cyril Ramaphosa at its head.

The multiparty coalition signed its agreement only on Friday, as members of parliament were sworn in after marathon negotiations and back-and-forth calls between Ramaphosa and leaders of other parties.

Late Friday night, Ramaphosa was elected as the country’s president in parliament. Under the unprecedented coalition agreement, the Democratic Alliance (DA) – the African National Congress’s (ANC) official opposition until now – and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) voted for an ANC president for the first time.

The multiparty coalition was prompted after the ANC suffered its worst electoral decline in 30 years. The party holds 159 of 400 seats in parliament – short of the 201 seats needed to have a majority – after winning 40 percent of the vote in the country’s May 29 election.

After days of internal talks within the ANC, Ramaphosa announced last week that the party would seek a “government of national unity”. But the left-leaning Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and former President Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK Party) – which was created months before the election and ate into the ANC’s traditional voter support – refused to join the government, especially with the DA a part of it. The MK Party had also demanded Ramaphosa’s removal from the presidency.

The right-leaning DA, with 21 percent of the seats in parliament, will now be the ANC’s main partner in government with the support of the nationalist IFP. The parties agreed to an eight-page framework that will govern their unity government, including a clause stating that a decision could only be made if “sufficient consensus” was reached.

READ ALSO:

This means that Ramaphosa and the ANC will not be able to make decisions without buy-in from coalition partners. The parties agreed to 10 fundamental principles, which included respect for the constitution, and positions against racism and sexism.

In the agreement signed, the parties agreed that “rapid, inclusive and sustainable economic growth” would be the coalition government’s apex priority.

The ‘hard part’ starts now

Former DA leader and negotiating team member Tony Leon said that he had never imagined a world where the ANC and the DA would co-govern.

“The last time I negotiated with the ANC around the new constitution was in 1996, and they had 62 percent support,” he told Al Jazeera.

Leon described the talks since the May 29 vote as “very hard”, but said the president’s election was the “easy part”.

“The next five years are going to be difficult,” he said, adding that trust would make the coalition government functional.

Leon said talks were still incomplete five minutes before parliament’s sitting began on Friday at 10am local time (08:00 GMT).

“We agreed to outline a modality of how you get through today and some signals and signposts of the future. It is about some broad principles and important provisions; at the end of the day, this will not just depend on goodwill. It will depend on trust between the parties,” he said.

The agreement signed on Friday morning did not include details on which parties will occupy what positions in government. Ramaphosa has until Wednesday to determine that. He will be sworn in by the country’s chief justice next Wednesday.

According to the agreement signed, while Ramaphosa has the prerogative to appoint ministers and deputy ministers, he needs to consult leaders of other parties in the coalition before he does so.

Pierre de Vos, professor of constitutional law at the University of Cape Town, said he was wary about what a coalition government might mean for the country’s governance.

“It is difficult to be confident in what’s to come,” he said.

De Vos said that while a coalition government was “good on paper,” South Africa had a fractious society that the ANC kept together for three decades. “When it comes to difficult issues like inequality and racism, the two parties are polar opposite sides,” he said.

The DA has fought against race-based transformation policies, which the ANC has pushed for three decades.

Other analysts said they believe the coalition government would force ideological parties to the centre.

“This coalition agreement is a good thing. It will force the ANC away from the left to the centre and the DA away from the extreme right,” said political analyst JP Landman.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA