Africa

Four transit centers in Rwanda

July 26, 2016 (JUBA) – The former chief negotiator for South Sudan's armed opposition, Taban Deng Gai was on Tuesday sworn-in as First Vice President, replacing Riek Machar who fled the nation following the recent clashes between rival forces in the capital, Juba.

Head of the rebel delegation, Taban Deng Gai, attends the opening ceremony of South Sudan's negotiation in Addis Ababa, January 4, 2014. (Photo Reuters/Tiksa Negeri)

Gai, appointed on Monday by President Salva Kiir in a decree, vowed to work with the former to restore ,, address economic crisis and ensure return of civilians displaced by the conflict to their homes.

He said ending the war required cooperation with the international community.

“To achieve this [peace] Mr. President, we must cooperate with the international community provided that they respect this country,” said a rather emotional Gai.

In what appears to be a shift from the provisions of the peace agreement that requires two armies for a period of 18 months, Gai suggested that this provision be scrapped.

“This country has a constitution, this country have a president and have a law to be followed. Your Excellence Mr. President, as I said, you are my commander in chief. The country cannot have two armies,” he said.

Gai was nominated by armed opposition faction (SPLM-IO) in Juba over the weekend as replacement for Machar, who is the chairman of the SPLM-IO. President Kiir formally appointed Gai as First Vice President in a decree announced on Monday.

Kiir, however, said he did not influence the decision to replace Machar with Gai.

“Comrade Taban Deng Gai was selected by the SPLM/A IO to replace Dr. Riek Machar whose whereabouts are not known to all of us,” said the South Sudanese leader.

“I have been appealing to him [First Vice President Riek Machar] to come back to Juba so that we continue with the implementation of the agreement. Of course this agreement cannot be personalized that if X is away, the agreement can be shelved until when that person comes. That cannot happen,” he added.

Machar has said he would only return to the capital, Juba when a third force proposed by regional countries and approved by the African Union is deployed in the young nation.

(ST)

July 26, 2016 (NEW YORK) – The United Nations (UN) has warned the leadership of the war-ravaged South Sudan over its recent decision to replace Riek Machar, with Taban Deng Gai, as First Vice President, saying this was a violation to the peace agreement.

Ban Ki-moon (Photo UN)

Machar, who has continued to command the political and military leaderships of the armed opposition faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement SPLM-IO, was decreed out by President Salva Kiir and replaced with Gai.

Gai said he was endorsed by the SPLM-IO leadership currently in Juba. But this was dismissed by Machar's officials because only five members of the leadership reportedly endorsed him in violation of the peace agreement.

"Any political appointments need to be consistent with the provisions outlined in the peace agreement," said Farhan Haq, UN's spokesperson at a briefing to reporters in New York on Tuesday.

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which mediated the peace agreement signed in August 2015, has not publicly reacted to the events in Juba, owing to more planned measures against the leadership in South Sudan, observers said.

"We call on all parties to ensure that the ceasefire is maintained and that any divisions within the opposition or between the parties be dealt with peacefully through dialogue," UN spokesperson Haq added.

Taban Deng Gai, was sworn in on Tuesday as First Vice President, and vowed to fully cooperate with president Kiir including scrapping many provisions in the peace deal.

ONE ARMY

Gai declared his willingness to cancel one of the major provisions in the peace deal, which he himself negotiated for two years, Gai said there is no need for two armies in one country and told the President that the SPLA-IO army will immediately be reintegrated into President Kiir's army, the SPLA.

This would imply that the security arrangements needed for at least 18 months and implementation of the security sector reform would no longer be needed to reunify the two armies as required by the peace agreement.

However, officials of the opposition faction led by Machar dismissed Gai's assertions, saying he said it because he knew he had no army to stay separate. They dismissed Gai's comment as coming from someone who has no say over the SPLA-IO army.

The top leadership of the SPLA-IO including its chief of general staff, General Simon Gatwech Daul, and his deputies are currently with Machar and have confirmed firm support behind him.

Also, SPLM-IO's governor of Unity state, General Kuol Ruai and SPLA-IO's military sector commander in Gai's home state of Unity state, General Simon Maguek, have come out with statements, dismissing Gai's statements that he was in contact with the commanders, saying Gai had no army or any support in the SPLA-IO forces.

MAINTAIN CEASEFIRE

Meanwhile, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon has called on South Sudan's rival parties to ensure that the ceasefire is maintained and that any divisions within the opposition, or between the parties are dealt with peacefully through dialogue.

The UN, a spokesperson said, will continue working with the Transitional Government of National Unity and all stakeholders in support of the implementation of the peace agreement for the benefit of South Sudanese, as mandated by the Security Council.

The changes, analysts say, contravenes the peace agreement signed by both Kiir and Machar.

(ST)

A protest in New Delhi following the savage gang rape of a 23 year old woman in December 2012 which shocked the entire country. Photo by NARINDER NANU/AFP/Getty Images

By Siddharth Chatterjee
NEW DELHI, India, Jul 27 2016 (IPS)

India, a country best-known for its rising economic might, is the worst place to be a woman.

On Sunday, 25 July 2016, an Israeli woman was gang raped in Manali, India.

The incident is a gruesome reminder of the uncomfortable truth that India is not prepared to deal with the deluge of crimes perpetrated against women daily – a woman is raped every 22 minutes.

Consider this. Reports emerged this month that a young woman was gang-raped by the same men who had raped her three years earlier in Rohtak, Haryana in North India. Frankly law enforcement authorities should be ashamed of themselves. That the criminals were free all along and had the temerity to repeat the crime on the same victim can only point to the abysmal failure by Indian law enforcers to deal with rape crimes.

Clearly, the attackers’ decision to track the victim and repeat the crime was meant to thumb their noses at her family and authorities, fully aware that they would get away with it again.

There have been other equally disturbing cases. A mother and daughter in Kerala whose complaints of stalking were disregarded by police until the daughter was raped, mutilated and murdered. Or the father whose pleas for investigation into his teenage daughters’ disappearance were ignored by police only for the girls to be found hanging from trees after being gang-raped.

Women in India have been let down by the very institutions that should protect them against crimes like rape, and it is not surprising that that the country is now known as the rape capital of the world.

Despite societal outrage and widespread media spotlight on the crimes, law-enforcement institutions have been slow to act, and at times lethargic. When will the state machinery wake up? What more needs to happen before the police react to crimes against women promptly?

To the credit of the authorities, significant steps have been made in reviewing outmoded laws regarding violence against women. However, these statutes must be accompanied by the will and resources for implementation on the ground. While legal reforms must be upheld, especially to speed up and assure prosecution of offenders, even more urgent is to change the attitude of Indian men towards women.

From a Trotsky perspective ‘the police is after all a copy of society and suffers from all its diseases’. The patriarchal, misogynistic Indian culture invariably condones, covertly or explicitly, violent acts like rape. Then there is the legacy question of class – the law and society favour the wealthy over the poor. Victims from lower castes and poor backgrounds are routinely threatened by families and allies of the accused from higher castes.

In fact, the victim in the most recent case in Rohtak was forced to move after the first attack due to threats and pressure ostensibly because of her status as a Dalit (lower caste). The victim in Kerala was also of a lower caste. Numerous victims have reported that if the family of the accused is of a higher caste or is wealthy, police go out of their way to avoid filing a First Information Report (FIR) which compels them to investigate.

Where a woman, against many odds, manages to file a complaint of rape or harassment, the law enforcement machinery is often shockingly apathetic towards the victim and her family, often displaying a unique eagerness to protect the accused and to disbelieve the victim. When they are not being discouraged, they suffer a double miscarriage of justice by being held somehow responsible for the rape. This cannot be allowed to go on.

India’s police is in urgent need for radical reform. The police must hire more women and ensure that female officers are present during reporting of rape crimes, samples are properly collected, kits secured and cases filed and investigated promptly. Assurance of speedy trials and prosecutions will deter criminals more than the harshest punishments that are never meted out.

Currently, because of low arrest and conviction rates, lack of confidentiality and fear they won’t be believed, only a tiny percentage of women report rape to the police.

Even with sensitivity training for the police force, there will still be need for engaging the wider community for civic policing. Resourceful individuals such as military veterans could be co-opted in this campaign, as they are respected by communities. These veterans or ex-servicemen, acting as citizen wardens, can be a powerful deterrent and role models.

The journey towards changing social attitudes, increasing the probability of punishment, improving reporting and taking better preventive measures will be a long one, but it is one that must be undertaken with urgency. For starters, from an early age, boys must be taught to desist from behaviour that objectify women, irrespective of their social standing. This must become mandatory learning in schools and communities.

A country whose women are oppressed is unlikely to progress. If India wants to be the next global economic power, the equality, dignity and safety of all women must be at the very top of its national priorities.

Siddharth Chatterjee is Kenya representative for the UN Population Fund. These are his personal views. Follow @sidchat1 on Twitter.

July 26, 2016 (WAU) – Hundreds of citizens and school pupils joined civil society activists for a peaceful demonstration aimed at rejecting the African Union's recent proposal to deploy additional troops to boost United Nations peacekeepers in South Sudan.

The protestors march against foreign troops in Wau on 26, July 2016 (ST)

The protestors marched from Wau Molid playground, through the main market to the state governors' office to present their petition to be forward to the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) office in Wau.

“No to deployment of foreign regional forces in the country,” they chanted.

In the petition, the protestors accused the Troika nations who are members of the UN, of disrespecting South Sudan's sovereignty.

A representative of the civil society, Santino Madut Uchalla said much as they recognise the positive roles played by UN peacekeepers, South Sudan needed to be respected as a nation.

The civil society fraternity, in the petition, said foreign troops may only be interested in South Sudan's natural resources, such as oil.

“The UN should know that the government of South Sudan is capable to solve its own problems as leadership of this country ordered cessation of hostilities, general amnesty and establishment of military court martial which is functioning now in dealing with any crime committed during the past violence in the country,” partly reads the civil society petition forwarded to the UN office in Wau.

“We strongly rejected, condemned and denounce the foreign troop's intervention and proposed sanction on the sovereign South Sudan,” it further read.

Members of the civil society warned that South Sudan should not encounter what happened in Iraq, Libya, Somalia and Afghanistan. These countries, they said, have no stability, despite UN intervention.

The groups urged UN to support South Sudan in implementing the peace deal rather than deploying additional foreign troops.

The state Governor, Andrea Mayar Acho assured the protestors that their petition would reach the UN and president's office as demanded.

(ST)

Land degradation - Sustainable land management: do nothing and you will be poorer. Credit: UNEP

By Baher Kamal
ROME, Jul 27 2016 (IPS)

Climate change and related extreme weather events have devastated the lives and livelihoods of tens of millions of most vulnerable people worldwide– by far exceeding the total of all the unfortunate and unjustifiable victims of all terrorist attacks combined. However, the unstoppable climate crisis receives just a tiny fraction of mainstream media attention. See these dramatic facts.

“Every second, one person is displaced by disaster,” the Oslo-based Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) reports. “In 2015 only, more than 19.2 million people fled disasters in 113 countries. “Disasters displace three to ten times more people than conflict and war worldwide.”

As climate change continues, it will likely lead to more frequent and severe natural hazards; the impact will be heavy, warns this independent humanitarian organisation providing aid and assistance to people forced to flee.

“On average, 26 million people are displaced by disasters such as floods and storms every year. That’s one person forced to flee every second.”

“Climate change is our generation’s greatest challenge,” says Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, which counts with over 5,000 humanitarian workers across more than 25 countries.

An estimated 83,100 people remain displaced and in need of humanitarian assistance in Wau, South Sudan. Credit: OIM

The climate refugees and migrants add to the on-going humanitarian emergency. “Not since World War II have more people needed our help,” warned the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council Jan Egeland, who held the post of UN undersecretary general for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief (2003-2006).

Egeland –who was one of the most active, outspoken participants in the World Humanitarian Summit (Istanbul May 23-24)– also stressed that the humanitarian sector is failing to protect civilians.

“I hope that world leaders can ask themselves if they can at least stop giving arms, giving money to those armed groups that are systematically violating the humanitarian law, and bombing hospitals and schools, abusing women and children,” he said to IPS during the World Humanitarian Summit.

For its part, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) forecasts 200 million environmental migrants by 2050, moving either within their countries or across borders, on a permanent or temporary basis. Many of them would be coastal population.

On this, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) warns that coastal populations are at particular risk as a global rise in temperature of between 1.1 and 3.1 degrees C would increase the mean sea level by 0.36 to 0.73 meters by 2100, adversely impacting low-lying areas with submergence, flooding, erosion, and saltwater intrusion.

FAO and UNHCR prepared a handbook that will help mitigate the impact of displaced people on forest resources. The handbook aims to help displaced people access fuel for cooking food while reducing environmental damage and conflicts with local communities. Credit: FAO/UNHCR

In a recent interview with IPS Nairobi correspondent Manipadma Jena, the director general of the International Organisation for Migration, William Lacy Swing, said that coastal migration is starting already but it is very hard to be exact as there is no good data to be able to forecast accurately.

“We do not know. But it is clearly going to figure heavily in the future. And it’s going to happen both in the low-lying islands in the Pacific and the Caribbean, and in those countries where people build houses very close to the shore and have floods every year as in Bangladesh.”

“It is quite clear that we will have more and more conflicts over shortages of food and water that are going to be exacerbated by climate change,” Lacy Swing warned.

Political crises and natural disasters are the other major drivers of migration today, he said to IPS in the interview.

Lacy Swing confirmed the fact that climate victims now add to record 60 million people who are fleeing war and persecution.

“We have never had so many complex and protracted humanitarian emergencies now happening simultaneously from West Africa all the way to Asia, with very few spots in between which do not have some issue. We have today 40 million forcibly displaced people and 20 million refugees, the greatest number of uprooted people since the Second World War.”

On 25 July, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution approving an agreement to make the International Organisation for Migration part of the UN system.

Founded in the wake of the World War II to resettle refugees from Europe, OIM celebrates its 65th anniversary in December of this year.

Land degradation – Sustainable land management: do nothing and you will be poorer. Credit: UNEP

“Migration is at the heart of the new global political landscape and its social and economic dynamics. At a time of growing levels of migration within and across borders, a closer legal and working relationship between the United Nations and IOM is needed more than ever,” said the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a statement welcoming the Assembly’s decision.

IOM, which assisted an estimated 20 million migrants in 2015, is an intergovernmental organisation with more than 9,500 staff and 450 offices worldwide

“We are living in a time of much tragedy and uncertainty. This agreement shows Member States’ commitment to more humane and orderly migration that benefits all, where we celebrate the human beings behind the numbers,” IOM Director General William Lacy said.

Through the agreement, the UN recognises IOM as an “indispensable actor in the field of human mobility.” IOM added that this includes protection of migrants and displaced people in migration-affected communities, as well as in areas of refugee resettlement and voluntary returns, and incorporates migration in country development plans.

The agreement paves the way for the agreement to be signed by Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon and Swing at the UN Summit for refugees and migrants on 19 September, which will bring together UN member states to address large movements of refugees and migrants for more humane and coordinated approach.

July 26, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Turkish ambassador to Sudan Tuesday said his country would discuss with the Sudanese government the closure of private schools and charity groups of Gulen Movement in Sudan.

Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan (Reuters)

Turkish government accuses the U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen of being behind the July 15 coup attempt in which at least 246 people were killed. But, the exiled Islamic opponent denies any involvement in the aborted putsch.

Turkey "plans to hold discussions with the Sudanese government on the closure of schools and institutions of the organization of Parallel Entity in Sudan," Ambassador, Jamaluddin Aydin.

The Parallel Entity is a term used by the Turkish authorities to refer to Gulen Movement which is critical to the government to of President Tayyip Erdogan.

Aydin made his remark in a debate held in Khartoum Tuesday about the July 15 coup attempt. He was asked about whether his government plans to ask Khartoum to shut down Gulen schools.

On Saturday 23 July, the government in Ankara ordered the closure of thousands of private schools and charities in a decree issued by President Erdogan after the imposition of the state of emergency in the country.

Gulen Islamic schools, which are private institutions, have been recently implemented in Sudan and several African countries as Somalia, Mozambique and Guinea.

(ST)

July 26, 2016 (JUBA) – South Sudanese forces loyal to President Salva Kiir have been accused of carrying out fresh attacks against forces of the Sudan People's Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO) led by the former First Vice President, Riek Machar.

A batch of the SPLA-IO forces after arrival in Juba, 1 April, 2016 (ST Photo)

Machar was replaced on Monday with his ex-minister of Mining, Taban Deng Gai, in a process described as illegal by his officials but accepted by President Kiir, who appointed Gai as acting First Vice President.

President Kiir said he did not know where Machar has been hiding and could not respond to his 48 hours ultimatum. His former deputy has been demanding deployment of third party force in order to guarantee his safety in Juba following fighting two weeks ago which forced him to flee from the capital.

The former first deputy has however remained in charge of the SPLA-IO forces across the country as well as continuing to lead over 95% of the political leadership, according to his officials.

While President Kiir has called on Machar to return to Juba despite being replaced with Gai, his spokesperson said forces loyal to President Kiir have instead gone on offensive to hunt for his former deputy in the bushes, south and west of the capital, Juba.

“Their forces have been on offensive since last week, and our forces have been repulsing them in self-defence. There maybe escalation of fighting due to this violation of the July 11 cessation of hostilities declared by the two leaders,” Machar's spokesperson, James Gatdet Dak, said on Tuesday.

“Even today [Tuesday] they have continued to dispatch troops from Juba and from other locations such as Maridi to go into the bushes to hunt for our Chairman and Commander-in-Chief, Dr. Riek Machar,” he added.

He said hundreds of President Kiir's forces are believed to have been killed in the forests, saying “it is unfortunate to continue to waste lives of soldiers.”

He also added that helicopter gunships belonging to the faction loyal to President Kiir have been bombing forests randomly trying to locate and harm Machar and his forces.

Dak however said Machar is together with his troops and will continue to fight back in self-defence, or “even pursue President Kiir's forces” if the attacks will continue.

He said he has been in contact with Machar whom he described as well protected by his forces.

The opposition leader's spokesperson said the leadership of the SPLA-IO forces are not however interested in further escalating the fighting. He called on President Kiir to stop his forces from carrying out the attacks in search for Machar.

(ST)

July 26, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir on Tuesday has travelled to Morocco to hold discussions with the Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

King Salman receives Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir, on 30 June 2016 (SPA Photo)

The Saudi monarch is spending his annual vacation in the Moroccan port city of Tangier, where he arrived on Thursday.

Al-Bashir flew to Tangier from the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott after he attended the 27th Arab League summit.

According to the Saudi Press Agency SPA, King Salman received al-Bashir at his place of residence where the two leaders discussed the “fraternal relations between the two brotherly countries and a number of issues of mutual interest”.

It added that al-Bashir was also treated to a luncheon attended by senior officials from both nations.

Sudanese-Saudi relations have witnessed a thaw in recent months after years of tensions over Khartoum's close ties with Tehran that saw Iranian warships dock several times in Port Sudan.

(ST)

July 26, 2016 (BENTIU) – South Sudan's armed opposition (SPLM-IO) sector commander in oil-rich Unity state, Lt. Gen Simon Maguek Gai has dismissed Gen. Taban Deng Gai's claims of having army support.

SPLM-IO Chief Negotiator, Taban Deng Gai, speaking to journalists at Juba airport upon his return from Pagak with his team, 22 January 2016 (ST Photo)

Deng Gai, now the country's first vice president having replaced Riek Machar, was dismissed from the armed opposition movement last Friday.

But, Maguek, in a statement said Gai never communicated with field commanders and that his recent utterance was a mere fabrication.

“This is a great lie released by Taban that he communicated with field commanders was a white lie. We are informing the general public of South Sudan that all our field commanders are firm in their support to Riek Machar Teny,” he said in the statement.

The rebel commander further accused Gai of internal struggles by eyeing at first vice presidency post as alternative counter revenge after he was not appointed as the Petroleum Minister by Machar.

“We the people of Unity state completely rejected and condemned that attempt by Salva Kiir through Jieng Council of Elders puppet Taban Deng in Juba - this is a violation of the peace agreement signed in August 2015 and it will not happen to accept such aimless decision and whoever supports this evil notion is an anti-peace lover in Republic of South Sudan,” stressed Maguek.

Meanwhile, the armed opposition governor of Unity state, Ruai Kuol Jal equally dismissed Gai's claims of having support after being removed from the armed opposition leadership by Machar.

“The world must know that what is going on in Juba is a clear violation of the agreement. As per now, they will not blame us anymore because this is what the supporters of Kiir were looking to derail the peace,” he told Sudan Tribune Tuesday.

Kuol says the SPLM-IO militarily commands around the country still stand behind Machar, claiming that Gai was simply being misled by the Jieng Council of Elders who back his elevation to the new post.

The advocacy group, The Enough Project, warned of possibilities of full-scale war in South Sudan following President's Salva Kiir's removal of Machar from the vice-presidency.

(ST)

July 26, 2016 (RUMBEK) – 1,500 police officers graduated in Rumbek, the capital of South Sudan's Western Lakes state on Monday.

New police recruits during a parade in Yambio June 27, 2016 (ST)

The graduates were tasked to combat insecurity and highway robberies.

Speaking at the occasion, South Sudan's Inspector General of Police, Makur Marol Aduol, urged police personnel to disengage from politics and to promote rule of law without any compromise.

“Your duty is to impose the law, distance yourself from politics because police's duty is to protect the law. Police is the backbone of the country and you are tasked to combat crime,” said Aduol.

According to the police official, insecurity is rampant in Greater Lakes state, Gok state, Eastern Lakes state as well as Rumbek town.

“You must work to reduce all cycle of crime and this is your first assignment to undergone,” said the Inspector General of Police.

“There is cattle raiding here, road ambushes here, there are people who are saying police is not doing their duty to reduce those crimes. Now do your duties to reduce them by all means,” stressed Aduol.

The Governor of Western Lakes state, Abraham Makoi Bol Kodi, urged the police to be faithful to law and order, reminding the graduates that fighting crime in the public was the duty of police.

“Discharge your duties correctly, fight crime and be faithful to law and order,” said Makoi, who donated five bulls to the new graduates.

(ST)

Narrow national interests are threatening to derail an upcoming UN summit which aims to bring countries together to find a more humane and coordinated approach to large movements of refugees and migrants. The existing system, which was established after World War II, is struggling to cope with record numbers of displaced persons, Peter Sutherland, the UN Special […]

July 26, 2016 (EL-FASHER) - The United States special envoy to Sudan and South Sudan, Donald Booth on Tuesday has started a visit to North Darfur state to assess the security and humanitarian situation on the ground particularly in Jebel Marra area.

Sudanese Presidential Assistant Ibrahim Mahmoud, (L) shakes hands with U.S. Special Envoy Donald Booth at his office in Khartoum on July 29, 2016 (ST Photo)

On Tuesday, Booth has discussed with North Darfur's deputy governor Mohamed Braima Hassab el-Nabi and senior military and security officials in El-Fasher several issues including IDPs conditions and government efforts to achieve security and stability in the state.

In press statements following the meeting, Hassab el-Nabi said they briefed the American envoy and his accompanying delegation on the situation in the state, pointing “we asked them to play their role with credibility”.

He added they underscored that the security situation in the state is stable, saying we told the delegation that field commanders from rebel groups, which he didn't name, would soon join the peace process.

For his part, Booth hailed government efforts to achieve reconciliation and conflict resolution, pointing that his country would continue to support peace and stability in Darfur.

He demanded the government to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to the IDPs in Sortoni area, saying the government officials explained that there were no difficulties in delivering relief to the IDPs and mentioned efforts made to that effect.

Since the start of hostilities between the Sudanese army and the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM-AW) led by Abdel-Wahid al-Nur in Jebel Marra in January 2016, Sortoni is hosting over 90,000 displaced persons.

Sortoni camp, which is located near a UNAMID site in North Darfur, has become the main refuge for the IDPs who fled the recent fighting in Jebel Marra area between the government forces and SLM-AW fighters.

The Sudanese army says its troops have retaken all the rebel controlled areas in Jebel Marra, following a four-month campaign on the rebel position in the areas.

The American envoy intends to visit Jebel Marra to assess the humanitarian situation on the ground.

UN agencies estimate that over 300,000 people were killed in Darfur conflict since 2003, and over 2.5 million were displaced.

(ST)

South Sudanese supermodel’s quest to build bridges between two worlds.

In our series of letters from African journalists, Ghanaian writer Elizabeth Ohene considers a dilemma over possible malaria prevention.

Migrants arrive daily at New Delhi railway stations from across India fleeing floods and a debilitating drought. Credit: Neeta Lal/IPS

By Neeta Lal
NEW DELHI, Jul 26 2016 (IPS)

Deepa Kumari, a 36-year-old farmer from Pithoragarh district in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, lives in a one-room tenement in south Delhi’s Mongolpuri slum with her three children. Fleeing devastating floods which killed her husband last year, the widow landed up in the national capital city last week after selling off her farm and two cows at cut-rate prices.

“I was tired of putting back life’s pieces again and again after massive floods in the region each year,” a disenchanted Kumari told IPS. “Many of my relatives have shifted to Delhi and are now living and working here. Reorganising life won’t be easy with three young kids and no husband to support me, but I’m determined not to go back.”Of Uttarakhand's 16,793 villages, 1,053 have no inhabitants and another 405 have less than 10 residents.

As flash floods and incessant rain engulf Uttarakhand year after year, with casualties running into thousands this year, burying hundreds under the debris of collapsing houses and wrecking property worth millions, many people like Kumari are abandoning their hilly homes to seek succour in the plains.

The problem, as acknowledged by Uttaranchal Chief Minister Harish Rawat recently, is acute. “Instances of landslips caused by heavy rains are increasing day by day. It is an issue that is of great concern,” he said.

Displacement for populations due to erratic and extreme weather, a fallout of climate change, has become a scary reality for millions of people across swathes of India. Flooding in Jammu and Kashmir last year, in Uttarakhand in 2013 and in Assam in 2012 displaced 1.5 million people.

Cyclone Phailin, which swamped the coastal Indian state of Orissa in October 2013, triggered large-scale migration of fishing communities. Researchers in the eastern Indian state of Assam and in Bangladesh have estimated that around a million people have been rendered homeless due to erosion in the Brahmaputra river basin over the last three decades.

With no homes to call their own, migrants displaced by flooding and drought live in unhygienic shanties upon arriving in Delhi. Credit: Neeta Lal/IPS

Daunting challenges

Research done by Michael Werz at the Center for American Progress forecasts that South Asia will continue to be hard hit by climate change, leading to significant migration away from drought-impacted regions and disruptions caused by severe weather. Higher temperatures, rising sea levels, more intense and frequent cyclonic activity in the Bay of Bengal, coupled with high population density levels will also create challenges for governments.

Experts say challenges for India will be particularly daunting as it is the seventh largest country in the world with a diversity of landscapes and regions, each with its own needs to adapt to and tackle the impacts of climate change.

Several regions across India are already witnessing large-scale migration to cities. Drought-impacted Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh are seeing a wave of migration as crops fail. Many people have been forced to leave their parched fields for India’s cities in search of work. Drought has affected about a quarter of India’s 1.3 billion people, according to a submission to the Supreme Court by the central government in April.

Rural people have especially been forced to “migrate en masse”, according to a recent paper published by a group of NGOs. Evidence of mass migration is obvious in villages that are emptying out. In Uttaranchal, nine per cent of its villages are virtually uninhabited. As per Census 2011, of Uttarakhand’s 16,793 villages, 1,053 have no inhabitants and another 405 have less than 10 residents. The number of such phantom villages has surged particularly after the earthquake and flash floods of 2013.

The intersection of climate change, migration and governance will present new challenges for India, says Dr. Ranjana Kumari, director of the Center for Policy Research, a New Delhi-based think tank which does rehabilitation work in many flood- and drought-affected Indian states. “Both rural and urban areas need help dealing with climate change. Emerging urban areas which are witnessing inward migration, and where most of the urban population growth is taking place, are coming under severe strain.”

Tardy rescue and rehabilitation

Apparently, the Indian government is still struggling to come to terms with climate change-induced calamities. Rescue and rehabilitation has been tardy in Uttaranchal this year too with no long-term measures in place to minimise damage to life and property. In April, a group of more than 150 leading economists, activists, and academics wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling the government’s response “listless, lacking in both urgency and compassion”.

The government has also come under fire for allocating a meagre 52.8 million dollars for climate change adaptation over the next two financial years, a sum which environmental experts say is woefully inadequate given the size of the country and the challenges it faces.

Experts say climate migration hasn’t been high on India’s policy agenda due to more pressing challenges like poverty alleviation, population growth, and urbanisation. However, Shashank Shekhar, an assistant professor from the Department of Geology at the University of Delhi, asserts that given the current protracted agrarian and weather-related crises across the country, a cohesive reconstruction and rehabilitation policy for migrants becomes imperative. “Without it, we’re staring at a large-scale humanitarian crisis,” predicts the academician.

According to Kumari, climate change-related migration is not only disorienting entire families but also altering social dynamics. “Our studies indicate that it’s mostly men who migrate from the villages to towns or cities for livelihoods, leaving women behind to grapple with not only households, but also kids, the elderly, farms and the cattle. This brings in not only livelihood challenges but also socio-cultural ones.”

Geetika Singh of the Centre for Science and Environment, who has travelled extensively in the drought-stricken southern states of Maharashtra as well as Bundelhkand district in northern Uttar Pradesh, says the situation is dire.

“We’ve seen tiny packets of water in polythene bags being sold for Rs 10 across Bundelkhand,” Singh said. “People are deserting their homes, livestock and fields and fleeing towards towns and cities. This migration is also putting a severe strain on the urban population intensifying the crunch for precious resources like water and land.”

A study titled “Drinking Water Salinity and Maternal Health in Coastal Bangladesh: Implications of Climate Change” 2011 has highlighted the perils of drinking water from natural sources in coastal Bangladesh. The water, which has been contaminated by saltwater intrusion from rising sea levels, cyclone and storm surges, is creating hypertension, maternal health and pregnancy issues among the populace.

Singh, who travelled extensively in Bangladesh’s Sunderbans region says health issues like urinary infections among women due to lack of sanitation are pretty common. “High salinity of water is also causing conception problems among women,” she says.

Until the problem is addressed on a war footing, factoring in the needs of all stakeholders, hapless people like Deepa will continue to be uprooted from their beloved homes and forced to inhabit alien lands.

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By Brian Adeba

The replacement of South Sudan's First Vice President Riek Machar with Taban Deng is a well-tested policy that dates back to the 1980s that the ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) party has employed to purchase the loyalty of groups opposed to it. Following a shoot-out between the bodyguards of President Salva Kiir and Machar earlier this month, relations between both men worsened, culminating in an attack on the latter's residence in the capital Juba. Machar fled the city and said he would only return if regional peacekeeping troops were allowed in the country to act as a buffer between the two forces.

The power vacuum created by Machar's exit encouraged a few of his colleagues in the SPLM-IO to orchestrate the installment of Taban Deng as leader, ostensibly on a temporary basis until Machar returned. As the de facto leader of the SPLM-IO in the center of power in Juba, the choice of selecting Deng as first vice president was left to President Kiir.

The backdrop to Deng's appointment is an acrimonious relationship between the government and the SPLM-IO over the slow implementation of the August 2015 peace deal, as each side sought to maximize outcomes in their favor.

It is possible that some quarters within government viewed Machar as an obstacle and welcomed the move by the SPLM-IO leadership in Juba to nominate Deng as his replacement. Nevertheless, Kiir's endorsement of Deng as first vice president, amounts to purchasing the loyalty of the SPLM-IO.

Buying the loyalty of rival groups is an activity that various powers in South Sudan, be they colonial or otherwise, have had to exercise over the course of history in order to win over groups that threatened their monopoly on power. The SPLM, therefore, is following a well-trodden path of neutralizing rivals by purchasing their loyalty.

At its inception in 1983, the SPLM's “New Sudan” ideology, which sought to establish a secular and united Sudan, ran contrary to the secessionist stance adopted by the rival Anyanya Two rebellion which preceded the SPLM revolt. A series of armed confrontations ensued between both groups as each tried to assert its authority in South Sudan. But it was not through military prowess that the SPLM managed to entirely subdue the Anyanya Two. Rather, it was through a buy-out process in which the Anyanya Two top brass and foot soldiers were absorbed into the SPLA. In exchange for loyalty, the Anyanya Two received military positions and authority in their benefactor's organizational structure.

In 1991, the SPLM splintered into two main factions initially, led by John Garang and Machar respectively. Sensing an opportunity to weaken the rebellion in the south, Khartoum wasted little time in offering support to the Machar faction. Through this process, Khartoum not only retained dominance over the Machar faction but also maintained control over crucial oil fields in the territory he controlled. Subsequently, Machar's faction suffered serious fractures, leading to the birth of several groups that also challenged his authority in his own home turf. Khartoum, wary of a dominant Machar faction in the oil fields, bought the loyalty of these groups by distributing material support, dispensing political power and other logistical support. Not only were these factions used to undermine Machar but there were also used as a cheap counter-insurgency insurance policy against the Garang faction.

In the aftermath of the peace deal that ended the larger North-South war in 2005, an autonomous transitional government in Juba led by Salva Kiir and Bashir's National Congress Party all sought to bag the loyalty of the armed groups, which were predominantly Nuer in ethnicity. For Kiir, the stakes were even much higher as these factions not only threatened access to the oilfields but also threatened to derail the Southern Sudan referendum.

A contest to buy the loyalty of these groups ensued between Juba and Khartoum. In this duel, Kiir outbid Bashir and bought the loyalty of these factions through his “big tent” policy announced in early 2006. Buy-outs were assessed on the threat potential of the armed rivals. In other words, it was centered on their ability to marshal resources and their capacity to rally constituencies behind them. This process was kick-started through a shrewd “general amnesty” followed by the integration of these factions into the SPLA. In this way, Kiir managed to neutralize a potential foe and succeeded in realizing a peaceful referendum in 2010.

The inadvertent consequence of this buy-out policy, however, was that it incentivized other factions to rebel in order to negotiate themselves into the power structure at a much higher level than previously. In this sense, while buy-outs can neutralize rivals, they create a false sense of security. Subsequently, for the better part of the time it has spent in power, the SPLM has been in perpetual “negotiation mode” with armed rival groups in order to buy their loyalty. The appointment of Deng as first vice president should be viewed in this light and is the first step in closing the buy-out deal. However, the usefulness of this buy-out process, like others before it, will be solely premised on what Deng can bring to the table in terms of rallying the SPLM-IO constituency behind him and retain their loyalty. If President Kiir's action to remove Machar and replace him with Deng proves to be an elite pact without grassroots support in the SPLM-IO constituency, it could undermine the peace agreement. It is imperative that South Sudan's leaders stick to implementing the peace agreement and ensure that their inner-circle power plays do not foster more violence and destabilization.

Brian Adeba is Associate Director of Policy at the Enough Project, focusing on the Sudans and the Horn of Africa. He can be reached on Twitter @kalamashaka

Tapantí National Park lies east from the capital San José covering more than 50.000 hectares of forest, which in turn provides valuable watershed protection. Picture: Diego Arguedas Ortiz / IPS

By Diego Arguedas Ortiz
SAN JOSE, Jul 26 2016 (IPS)

While Latin America keeps expanding its agricultural frontier by converting large areas of forest, one country, Costa Rica, has taken a different path and is now a role model for a peaceful coexistence between food production and sustainable forestry.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) flagship publication The State of the World’s Forests revealed that commercial agriculture was responsible for 70 percent of forest conversion in Latin America between 2000 and 2010.

“What FAO mentions about the rest of Latin America, clearing forests for agriculture or livestock, happened in Costa Rica during the 1970s and 1980s,” Jorge Mario Rodríguez, the director of Costa Rica’s National Fund for Forestry Finance (Fonafifo), told IPS.“Agricultural development doesn’t necessarily require the expansion of croplands; rather, it demands the coexistence with the forest and the intensification of production by improving national farmers’ productivity and competitiveness" -- Octavio Ramírez.

At its worst moment, during the 1980s, Costa Rica’s forest cover was limited to 21 to 25 percent of its land area. Now, forests account for 53 percent of the country’s 51,000 square kilometers, with almost five million inhabitants.

The country has managed to hold and even push back the advance of the agricultural frontier while strengthening its food security, according to FAO, which says that Costa Rica’s malnutrition rate is under 5 percent, something the organisation accounts as “zero hunger”.

“Here’s a learned lesson: there’s no need to chop down forests to produce more crops,” FAO Costa Rica director Octavio Ramírez told IPS.

Despite the increase in forest cover, FAO states the average value of food production per person increased by 26 percent in the period 1990–1992 to 2011–2013.

FAO attributes this change “to structural changes in the economy and the priority given to forest conservation and sustainable management” which were seized upon by Costa Rican authorities in a specific context.

“It has to do with the livestock crisis during the 1980s but also the priority given by Costa Rica to forest management,” said Ramírez, born in Nicaragua but Costa Rican by naturalisation.

In The State of the World’s Forests report, launched on July 18, FAO explains that Costa Rican forests were regarded as “land banks” that could be converted as necessary to meet agricultural needs.

“To keep the forest intact was looked upon as a synonym of laziness and unwillingness to work,” Ramírez explained.

But there were two key elements during the 1980s that led to better forest protection, the environmental economist Juan Robalino told IPS.

José Alberto Chacón weeds between bean plants on his small farm in Pacayas, on the slopes of the Irazú volcano, in Costa Rica. The terraces help control water run-off that would otherwise cause soil erosion. Picture: Diego Arguedas Ortiz/IPS

Meat prices plummeted while eco-tourism became a leading economic activity in the country, explained the specialist from Universidad de Costa Rica and the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center.

“This paved the way for very interesting policy-making, like the creation of the Payments for Environmental Services (PES) program,” said Robalino, one of the top experts in Costa Rican forest cover.

FAO states that a big part of Costa Rica’s success comes from PES, a financial incentive that acknowledges those ecosystem services resulting from forest conservation and management, reforestation, natural regeneration and agroforestry systems.

The program, established in 1997 and ran by Fonafifo, has a simple logic at its core: the Costa Rican state pays landowners who protect forest cover as they provide an ecosystem service.

From its launch until 2015, a total of 318 million dollars were invested in forest-related PES projects.  64 percent of the funding came from fossil fuel tax, 22 percent from World Bank credits and the remainder from other sources.

After studying PES impacts for years, Robalino explains the challenge for 2016 is to look for landowners with less incentives to protect their forests and bring them on board with the financial argument.

“The goal is to always look for those who’ll change their behavior because of the program,” Robalino stated.

Because of budget limitations, the program must decide which properties to work with, as applications exceed its capacity fivefold, according to Fonafifo director Rodríguez.

Priorities for PES funding include ecosystem services like watershed protection, carbon capture, scenic beauty and biodiversity conservation.

“Costa Rica learned that forests are worth more for their environmental services than because of their timber,” Rodríguez pointed out.

Fonafifo is now looking for new partnerships with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock to launch a new program focused on small landowners who require more technical support, a road also favoured by FAO.

“Agricultural development doesn’t necessarily require the expansion of croplands; rather, it demands the coexistence with the forest and the intensification of production by improving national farmers’ productivity and competitiveness,” said Ramírez, FAO’s local representative.

Both FAO and local experts interviewed by IPS agreed that PES seized upon a national and international crossroads to launch a program that despite its success, is not the only cause for Costa Rica’s recovery.

“Costa Rica’s success cannot be exclusively attributed to PES since other policies, like the creation of the National Protected Areas System and its education system, also played a major role,” Rodríguez explained.

Beyond this program, the country has a longstanding environmental tradition: close to a quarter of its territory is under some type of protection, the forestry law bans forest conversion, and sports hunting, open-air metallic mining and oil exploitation are all illegal.

The country’s Constitution declares citizens’ right to a healthy environment in its article 50.

“I remember my school teacher telling us students that we had to protect the forest,” Robalino recalled.

However, Costa Rica’s forest recovery didn’t reach all ecosystems in the country and left mangroves behind. Their area has diminished in the past decades.

According to the country’s 2014 report to the Convention on Biological Diversity, mangrove coverage fell from 64.452 hectares in 1979 to 37.420 hectares in 2013, a 42 percent loss.

This ecosystem is particularly vulnerable to large monoculture plantations on the Pacific coast, where the local Environmental Administrative Tribunal denounced the disappearance of 400 hectares between 2010 and 2014, due to human-induced fire, logging and invasion.

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By Ahmed H. Adam and Ashley D. Robinson

In the European Union's struggle to manage its refugee crisis, is it sidestepping human rights standards by funneling funding to war criminals through the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa? The high-level dialogue between Sudan and the EU started in November 2015 during the EU and African summit on migration, when Sudanese Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour met with European top officials in Valletta. The EU pledged $2.2 billion (€2 billion) for the trust fund for the African countries to resettle Europe's unwanted migrants.

The EU perceives the immigration to Europe from Africa and the Mediterranean as an existential threat. However, Europe's migration crisis cannot be resolved by collaborating with genocidal and repressive regimes like that of Omar al-Bashir of Sudan.

Despite decades of aid funding, economic and diplomatic sanctions, the United Nations Human Rights Council's “technical assistance and capacity building,” and warrants for the arrest of al-Bashir, his regime continues to terrorize the Sudanese people with impunity. His own policies and practices are the root causes of the situation of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and the flow of refugees and trafficked persons through Sudan. Behind Syria, Colombia, and Iraq, Sudan has the world's largest number of IDPs, at 3.1 million. Sudan is also a major migratory route for refugees fleeing the continent through Libya.

On Feb. 16, 2016, Ghandour met with his EU counterpart, Mogherini, for the Brussels dialogue on migration. The EU described the visit as “the first step to set the direction for future EU/Sudan cooperation.” In itsstatement on Ghandour's visit, the EU praised Sudan's "constructive role" in the region. The next day, the European Commission announced a $110 million (€100 million) Special Measure package for Sudan that will be dedicated to addressing the root causes of Sudan's ongoing conflicts under the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa. Sudan will receive an additional $44 million (€40 million) to improve the capacity of countries along the Eastern Migratory Route, along with surveillance equipment and training.

During the inaugural U.K.-Sudan Dialogue in March this year, the British Foreign Office's Africa Director, Neil Wigan, expressed his country's intent to work with the Sudanese government on issues of trafficking, migration, and extremism, among others. The U.K.'s Ambassador to Sudan stated he was looking forward to the “ongoing dialogue between the two nations.” This marked a major shift in the U.K.'s position on Sudan. These developments should be considered in light of the fact that the U.K is currently the chair of the EU Horn of Africa Migration Initiative (the Khartoum Process), and while it could use its role to expand EU-Sudan cooperation, the country's recent vote to exit the EU calls into question its future influence on regional bodies.

In April, the European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, Neven Mimica visited Khartoum to meet with top al-Bashir aids on the topic of migration, including the first vice president. Despite this ongoing dialogue and the EU's multi-million euro pledges, there is no clear plan for how this money will be spent and what role the Sudanese government will play.

All this funding is made possible through the Cotonou Agreement. The Cotonou Agreement was signed between the EU and African, Caribbean, and Pacific states, and entered into force in 2003. It aims to eradicate poverty and aid the signatories by integrating them into the world economy. Sudan withdrew from the Cotonou Agreement in 2009, after it was revised to include in its objectives the fighting of impunity and promotion of criminal justice through the International Criminal Court. Al-Bashir has been wanted by the ICC for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, also since 2009.

Documents leaked in Der Spiegel and reports on German television showReport Mainz state that the EU identified several funding risks: “Smuggling and trafficking networks in the region are highly organized and sophisticated, often with the complicity of officials … Corruption is reported to be widespread in almost every beneficiary country, facilitating illegal migration and trafficking through the complicity of ticket bureaus, check-in-desks, immigration officials, border patrols, etc.” Those involved in administering the EU Emergency Trust Fund have long been aware of these persistent problems.

The EU's rapprochement with Sudan is based on al-Bashir's good faith and lacks scrutiny of the regime's track record. For many in Sudan, smuggling and trafficking have become a lucrative business. Leading officers from the National Intelligence and Security Service have beeninvolved in human trafficking and smuggling for personal gain.

As recently as 2014, Human Rights Watch reported finding “evidence that government aircraft deliberately bombed hospitals and other humanitarian facilities.” Putting surveillance equipment and expertise in the hands of this government will only strengthen its ability to target the most vulnerable populations and directly endanger the lives of humanitarians.

This collaboration is undermining the EU's human rights standards. Aside from the ethical argument that giving funds to war criminals goes beyond complacency to complicity, there are practical reasons why the EU should not provide such funding. While it may temporarily ebb the flow of refugees through Libya, it is not a long-term solution. Youth in Sudan are protesting for their rights, and several movements within the country show that the old ethnic divides, which allowed al-Bashir to keep Sudan in war, are fading. The people of Sudan will eventually succeed in bringing a new democracy to the nation, but the misguided policies of the EU merely hamper their efforts and prolong suffering. When will the international community learn to stop rewarding dictators for acts of unspeakable violence?

Ahmed H Adam is a visiting fellow at Cornell University's Institute for African Development and a research fellow at the Department of Public Policy and Administration at the American University in Cairo.

Ashley D Robinson is a Public Policy and Human Rights Expert; she obtained her masters from Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs.

Musician Koffi Olomide is in custody in DR Congo, days after he was deported from Kenya for allegedly kicking one of his dancers.