Month: May 2024

More than two weeks of fighting between Sudan’s military and a notorious paramilitary group over a major city in the western Darfur region killed at least 123 people, an international aid group said Sunday.

The fighting in el-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur province, also wounded more than 930 people in the same period, Doctors Without Borders said.

“This is a sign of the violent intensity of the fighting,” the group said. “We urge the warring parties to do more to protect civilians.”

Clashes between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces escalated earlier this month in the city, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes, according to the United Nations.

El-Fasher has become the centre of the conflict between the military and the RSF, which is aided by Arab militias commonly known as janjaweed. The city is the last stronghold that is still held by the military in the sprawling Darfur region.

Sudan’s conflict began in April last year when soaring tensions between the leaders of the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country.

The conflict killed more than 14,000 people and wounded thousands more amid reports of widespread sexual violence and other atrocities that rights groups say amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

It also pushed the country’s population to the brink of famine. The U.N. food agency warned the warring parties earlier this month that there is a serious risk of widespread starvation and death in Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan if they don’t allow humanitarian aid into the vast western region.

The RSF has built up forces in recent months seeking to wrest control of el-Fasher. Along with its Arab militia allies, the RSF besieged the city and launched a major attack on its southern and eastern parts earlier this month.

The clashes renewed on Thursday in the Abu Shouk camp for displaced people in the Salam neighbourhood in the city’s northern part, as well as its southern western parts, the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration reported.

On Saturday, a shell hit the house of a Doctors Without Borders aid worker close to the city’s main market, killing the worker, the charity said.

The U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan Clementine Nkweta-Salami blasted the “tragic” killing. The aid worker was not identified.

Nkweta-Salami urged warring parties to stop fighting in the city where “hundreds of thousands of women, men, and children in North Darfur are once again caught in the crossfire of war.”

“A human tragedy of epic proportions is on the horizon, but it can, and must, be prevented,” she said.

Iran interred its late President Ebrahim Raisi at the holiest Shiite shrine in the nation on Thursday, days after a fatal helicopter crash killed him, the country’s foreign minister, and six others.

Raisi was placed inside a tomb at the Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad, where Shiite Islam’s eighth imam is buried.

The death of the president and the foreign minister comes at a politically sensitive moment for Iran, both at home and abroad.

There is growing dissent within the country over a range of political, social, and economic issues. And it’s clerical rulers are facing increasing international pressure over Tehran’s disputed nuclear programme.

As the five days of official mourning near their end, interim President Mohammad Mokhber vowed Raisi’s death would not interrupt government operations.

Foad Izadi, a professor of international relations at Tehran University, believes what happens next with Iran’s domestic and international policies, depends on the results of presidential elections due to take place on 28 June.

“We have some candidates that belong to the reformist camp. If they win the presidency, then I think they would want to go back to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal] and resolve some of the difficulties Iran has had with Western governments,” he said.

“In terms of domestic policies, there are differences among different political parties on how to manage the economy, what to do with inflation, other issues. And so we just have to wait and see who becomes president in the next 50 days or so,” he said.

Iranian state media reported that candidates are to be registered from 30 May to 3 June. Recent elections in Iran have been marked by the exclusion by the oversight body of moderate and pro-reform rivals.

United States President Joe Biden and his wife Jill honoured visiting Kenyan President William Ruto at a glittering state dinner at the White House on Thursday.

The hundreds of guests were treated to stunning views of Washington, a knockout menu, and a healthy dose of celebrities.

This included actor LeVar Burton of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” fame, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, and former President Bill Clinton.

Another ex-president, Barack Obama, popped into the dining pavilion early in the evening but did not stay for the dinner.

During his toast to Ruto, Biden joked that attendees included “many members of the African diaspora, one who just left, Barack.”

It was the sixth and largest state dinner thrown by Biden as his administration tries to rebuild ties with African businesses and governments.

“There is a bright light at the White House tonight with our guests. They have been impressive and, and accommodating. And, you know, Jill and I are honoured to have you here,” said Biden.

Ruto is on a three-day state visit to the US that comes as Kenya prepares to deploy troops to Haiti, part of a United Nations-led effort to try quell gang violence there.

In his toast, the Kenyan president said, “we proudly take a firm stance, shoulder to shoulder, for democracy in a world where troubles have shaken the faith of many”.

Biden failed to keep a promise to visit Africa last year, but this week told Ruto he intended to visit the continent “in February, after I’m re-elected” — a show of optimism about his prospects in November’s election.

11 workers of a sugar factory have been killed following an explosion at the factory which is located in Tanzania. The victims included three foreign nationals, police said.

the explosion which occurred on Thursday, May 23 was a result of an electrical fault that caused a steam pipe to burst as a technical team was readying machines to start production for the day at the privately owned Mtibwa Sugar Factory in the Morogoro region in eastern Tanzania, regional police chief Alex Mkama told the media.

The three foreigners were from neighbouring Kenya, Brazil and India. Two other workers were injured in the blast and were treated at the Morogoro hospital. The doctor in charge there, David Ruchamisa, said they were later rushed to the capital, Dodoma, for further treatment.

Mtibwa is one of the country’s major sugar producing factories, producing at least 70,000 metric tons of sugar annually, according to government data.

A Tunisian court on Wednesday May 22 sentenced two TV and radio journalists to one year in prison for criticizing the government on their programs and on social networks.

Borhane Bsaïs and Mourad Zeghidi were each given six months’ imprisonment for disseminating “fake news” and an additional six months for “making false statements with the aim of defaming others,” in reference to Tunisian President Kaïs Saied, court spokesperson Mohamed Zitouna said.

The sentences come less than two weeks after both were arrested. They are among a broader group of journalists, activists and lawyers charged under Decree 54, a law criminalizing the dissemination of “fake news” aimed at harming public safety or national defense.

The law, passed in 2022 to fight cybercrime, has been widely criticized by rights advocates who say the offenses are vaguely defined and are being used to crack down on the president’s critics.

Both Bsaïs and Zeghidi denied the allegations. In court, they referred to laws protecting freedom of expression that Tunisia enshrined after its 2011 revolution, when it became the first country in the Middle East and North Africa to topple a longtime dictator. Both said they were simply doing their jobs, analyzing and commenting on political and economic developments in Tunisia.

“I am neither for nor against the president. Sometimes I support his choices, sometimes I criticize them. It’s part of my job,” Zeghidi said.

Bsaïs, host of the radio show “Emission Impossible” (“Impossible Program” in English) was accused of undermining the president on the air and in Facebook posts made between 2019 and 2022. It’s unclear why authorities targeted old posts like his as they pursue a growing number of Saied’s political critics.

He defended his opinions and in court objected to being brusquely arrested last week “like a dangerous criminal.”

The trial has drawn international condemnation and sparked criticism in Tunisia, where many journalists gathered in front of the court in a show of support.

“We are all on provisional release because any journalistic work can give rise to prosecution,” Zied Dabbar, president of Tunisia’s National Journalists Syndicate, said of Decree 54. He said 39 journalists have been prosecuted under the law this year.

Saied has faced criticism for suspending parliament and rewriting the constitution to consolidate his own power three years ago. Critics have spoken out against the government’s approach to politics, the economy and migration in the Mediterranean in the years since.

Thailand’s National Museum hosted a welcome-home ceremony Tuesday for two ancient statues that were illegally trafficked from the country by a British collector of antiquities.

The objects — a tall bronze figure called the Standing Shiva or Golden Boy and a smaller sculpture called Kneeling Female — are thought to be around 1,000 years old.

They were returned from the collection of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This most recent repatriation of artwork comes as many museums in the U.S. and Europe reckon with collections that contain objects looted from Asia, Africa and other places during centuries of colonialism or in times of upheaval.

The Metropolitan Museum had announced last December that it would return more than a dozen artifacts to Thailand and Cambodia after they were linked to the late Douglas Latchford, an art dealer and collector accused of running a huge antiquities trafficking network out of Southeast Asia.

He was indicted in the United States in 2019 for allegedly orchestrating a long-running scheme to sell looted Cambodian antiquities on the international art market. Latchford, who died the following year, had denied any involvement in smuggling.

Speaking at Tuesday’s ceremony, the Metropolitan’s curator of Asian and Southeast Asian art, John Guy, called the returned works “unrivalled masterpieces“ of their period and said the handover was “a very meaningful moment to recognize the importance of the art of Thailand in world culture.”

“The Met initiated the return of these two objects after reviewing information and established that the works rightly belonged to the Kingdom of Thailand,” he said.

“This return followed the launch of the Metropolitan’s Cultural Property Initiative last year, an initiative driven by the Met’s commitment to the responsible collecting of antiquities and to the shared stewardship of the world’s cultural heritage,” Guy told his audience in Bangkok.

Thai Culture Minister Sudawan Wangsuphakijkosol expressed her country’s gratitude for the return of the items.

“These artifacts that Thailand has received from the Met are the national assets of all Thais,” she said.

Last month, the Metropolitan Museum signed a memorandum of understanding in New York with Thailand “formalizing a shared commitment to collaborate on exchanges of art, expertise, and the display and study of Thai art.”

The statement also explained that the museum had recently tackled the controversial issue of cultural property and how it was obtained.

It said its measures include “a focused review of works in the collection; hiring provenance researchers to join the many researchers and curators already doing this work at the Museum; further engaging staff and trustees; and using The Met’s platform to support and contribute to public discourse on this topic.”