Africa

By Eric Reeves

We are left to wonder—twelve days after Amnesty International's compelling report on the Khartoum regime's devastating assault on the Jebel Marra region of Darfur this year—whether the international community is prepared to move beyond the few brief moments of condemnation that followed release of the report (“Scorched Earth, Poisoned Air: Sudanese Government Forces Ravage Jebel Marra, Darfur,” Amnesty International | 109 pages; released September 29, 2016).

Much of the report was given over to the use of chemical weapons in Khartoum's military offensive, directed overwhelmingly against civilians. Given the massive evidence assembled there can be no reasonable doubting the use of chemical weapons—certainly not in light of the professional analysis by experts in non-conventional weapons and the scores of photographs that reveal destruction of human flesh, internal organs, and illnesses that cannot be accounted for my any known human pathogen. We lack physical evidence in the sense that we don't have soil or bomb fragments samples, or blood samples. But there is simply no other reasonable explanation for what is revealed in these gruesome photographs, or in the remarkably consistent accounts that came from widely separated areas of the Jebel Marra massif.
Moreover, Khartoum's previous use of chemical weapons has been frequently reported by highly reliable sources, including Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (see http://sudanreeves.org/2016/09/29/7469/). We may well conclude that what brief round of condemnation we have heard will exhaust international concern, and reflects how little comprehension there has been of the larger conclusion of the Amnesty report: as a means of crushing the rebellion in Darfur once and for all, the Jebel Marra redoubt of the Sudan Liberation Army/Abdel Wahid (SLA/AW) has been laid waste. Civilians were overwhelmingly the targets of Khartoum's military offensive, and many times more victims died, were wounded, or displaced by conventional weapons than by chemical weapons. The attacks included indiscriminate assaults by military aircraft on civilian villages with no military presence. Looting, village destruction, rape, murder, and a general destruction of civilian life were the primary goals of the offensive—again, typically in areas with no rebel presence. Amnesty estimates that 250,000 civilians were displaced by the violence.

In short, the counter-insurgency in Darfur remains genocidal in character: those targeted in Jebel Marra were overwhelming members of the Fur tribe, non-Arab/African and perceived as the civilian base of support for the SLA/AW. Destruction of civilian life in Jebel Marra, by ethnically-targeting the Fur population as a means of waging war, leaves no room for skepticism about the relevance of the various genocidal acts delineated in Article 2 of the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

WILL THERE BE AN INVESTIGATION?

Obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention

Chemical weapons, as hideous as they are, are simply targeting the civilian destruction by other means. They are, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has declared (speaking of chemical weapons use in Syria), a “moral obscenity” (notably, Kerry has offered no similar expression of outrage in the case of Amnesty's crushingly persuasive evidence about what has occurred in Jebel Marra). But the use of such weapons must be investigated—they are banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC—see Article 10); and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has a clear mandate to investigate credible allegations of chemical weapons use. Indeed, the OPCW “Mission Statement” could hardly be clearer:

The mission of the OPCW is to implement the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in order to achieve the OPCW's vision of a world that is free of chemical weapons and of the threat of their use, and in which cooperation in chemistry for peaceful purposes for all is fostered. In doing this, our ultimate aim is to contribute to international security and stability, to general and complete disarmament, and to global economic development.

To this end, the Secretariat proposes policies for the implementation of the CWC to the Member States of the OPCW, and develops and delivers programmes with and for them. These programmes have four broad aims:
to ensure a credible and transparent regime for verifying the destruction of chemical weapons and to prevent their re-emergence, while protecting legitimate national security and proprietary interests;

Member states of the OPCW represent approximately 98 percent of the world's population, and Sudan is a signatory to both the CWC and the OPCW. The United States has an elaborate Web page given over the CWC (http://www.cwc.gov/).

Realistic Assessment of prospects for an investigation

Of course, there will be no investigation of Khartoum's use of chemical weapons in Jebel Marra. The regime will never permit such an investigation, and international acquiescence will again follow such obduracy. Moreover, as the West dithers, the obstacles to investigation grow greater. As Sudan Tribune reports today, Khartoum's génocidaires are now receiving help from the hopelessly ineffective and morally compromised UN/African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID):

Sudan's Foreign Ministry has said that the head of the hybrid peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) Martin Uhomoibhi stressed that his mission didn't receive any piece of information that chemical weapons have been used in Darfur….

In a press statement extended to Sudan Tribune on Sunday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Gharib Allah Khidir said Uhomoibhi told [Foreign Minister Ibrahim] Ghandour that in spite of the almost 20,000 UNAMID personnel on the ground in Darfur, none of them has seen any Darfuri with the impact of the use of chemical weapons as described by Amnesty International's report.

He added the UNAMID chief informed Ghandour that not one displaced person meeting such description has shown up at any UNAMID Team Site clinics where they would have naturally gone for help.

Perhaps we may leave aside the habitual mendacity of Ghandour, given the fact that Nigerian Martin Uhomoibhi has proved as feckless and ineffective as the disingenuous and corrupt previous heads of UNAMID, most notably Rodolphe Adada and Ibrahim Gambari. He is all too likely to have said what Ghandour has attributed to him. Uhomoibhi is simply untrustworthy and has proved himself a tool of Khartoum on too many occasions—nowhere more conspicuously than in these comments.

It should be noted first that it has been years since UNAMID has had any real access to Jebel Marra, in particular to the areas where chemical weapons are reported by Amnesty. It is telling that Uhomoibhi does not explain why his force of 20,000 personnel doesn't gather evidence disconfirming Amnesty's findings. The reason is simple: the Mission can't gain access to the areas specified in Amnesty's report.

As a reporting source, no one seriously engaged in assessing realities in Darfur regards UNAMID reporting as anything but a failing Mission trying to do what it can to disguise that failure. To be sure, we can't know whether UNAMID has indeed failed so miserably as to have heard none of what Amnesty reports on the basis of more than 250 interviews that serve as the evidentiary backbone of its report, along with the searing photographs of chemically ravaged flesh—or whether there is lying or concealment of evidence at some level in whatever passes for a “reporting chain of command” in this deeply demoralized and impotent force. It is difficult to know which of these failings is greater, given the history of UNAMID over the past nine years (as of January 1, 2017).

The international community, then, has a stark choice:

[1] Believe UNAMID chief Uhomoibhi—and Ibrahim Ghandour, who represents a regime that has lied and abrogated treaty obligations on countless occasions, including continuously denying access in Darfur to UNAMID, despite having signed the Status of Forces Agreement of January 2008, which explicitly guarantees unfettered access to the Mission;

[2] Even in accepting that Khartoum will refuse to allow an investigation under the auspices of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, demand that such an investigation be conducted, thereby compelling Khartoum to violate again, and conspicuously, its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention.

The head of the UN's Department of Peacekeeping operations, Hervé Ladsous, has a dismal record on Darfur, but was cited by the UN News Center, several days after the release of the Amnesty report:

Regarding allegations that the Government had used chemical weapons in Jebel Marra, Mr. Ladsous said that the UN had not come across any evidence to support such claims. He pointed out, however, that UNAMID had consistently been denied access to conflict zones in Jebel Marra, and that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) had stated, in an initial assessment, that it was not possible to draw any conclusions without further information and evidence being made available. (UN News Centre, October 4, 2016)

In fact, Ladsous seriously misrepresents here what OPCW has said to date; it does not include language supporting Ladsous' claim that OPCW had declared “it was not possible to draw any conclusions without further information and evidence being made available.” Here, in its entirety, is all that OPCW has reported on its website:

OPCW Examining NGO Report on Allegations of Chemical Weapons Use in Sudan

Thursday, 29 September 2016

In response to questions regarding the Amnesty International report, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is aware that Amnesty International issued the report, “Scorched Earth, Poisoned Air: Sudanese Government Forces Ravage Jebel Marra, Darfur,” which includes some allegations of the use of chemical weapons in the Darfur region of Sudan. OPCW shall certainly examine the reports and all other available relevant information.

Such disingenuous construal of the OPCW statement does little to encourage belief that the UN will take any meaningful part in at least forcefully demanding an investigation, even as it is the only way in which Amnesty's conclusions can be confirmed or disconfirmed on the basis of physical forensic analysis. In the end, Khartoum's view of things as represented at the UN by the regime's representative, Omer Dahab Fadl Mohamed, will prevail by default:

Sudan's UN Ambassador Omer Dahab Fadl Mohamed responded in a statement calling the Amnesty report “baseless and fabricated” and denying that his country had any chemical weapons. (Associated Press, October 1, 2016 | New York)
It is hardly headline news, but the Parliament of the European Union has demanded an investigation of Khartoum's chemical weapons use; but, conveniently for the countries nominally represented, the Parliament has negligible power or influence within the EU. In another quarter, France, Britain, the UK, and the U.S. have been mooted as possible initiators of a petition for investigation by the OPCW; but every day that passes makes this look less likely. The “moral obscenity” of chemical weapons use, as John Kerry would have it when it was expedient to say as much, is but another obscenity in an unfathomably grim and destructive genocidal counter-insurgency, now very nearly fourteen years in duration.

Eric Reeves has written extensively on Sudan for almost two decades; he is a Senior Fellow at Harvard University's François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights

October 10, 2016 (JUBA) - Several passengers traveling from the Ugandan capital, Kampala, across the border to Juba in South Sudan, are feared dead when three passengers' buses came under attack on the road on Monday by unknown gunmen.

General view of Juba Nimule road leading to Nimule Park and neighbouring Uganda (Pinterest photo)

The buses, according to eyewitnesses' accounts, were bombed at Jebel-Lein, about 40 kms from Juba on the road to Nimule, a South Sudanese border town to neighboring Uganda. One bus, belonging to Eco Bus company is burnt and two buses belonging to Friendship and Gateway Companies, respectively, were stopped at gunpoint by armed men, masked with black clothes. The passengers were abducted, one survivor told Sudan Tribune on Monday.

"When I passed the buses at Jebel-Lein, Eco Bus was burning. One can see human remains in the bus and blood all over the place. Two other passengers were empty," said Jobn, a traveler from Nimule who preferred to be identified by only first name.

John said he also helped in lifting survivors on to his vehicle and were carried to Juba teaching hospital. One survivor said she escaped from the gunmen who took several others hostage.

"The armed men fired at the first bus and it blocked the road. People started to jump down from the other buses but we were all held at gun point," said Mary, a woman in her 30s. Mary said she managed to escape and returned to the main road where she and two others met John.

John said his car was escorted by soldiers who have responded to the attack. The buses were traveling to Uganda and most of the passengers are South Sudanese and Ugandans. It is not clear how many people were onboard.

Juba-Nimule highway connects to neighboring Uganda, an important route which supplies the South Sudanese capital, Juba. But attacks on passenger buses and other commercial trucks have increased since fighting erupted in July between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and soldiers loyal to Riek Machar, the leader of the armed SPLM In Opposition (SPLM-IO) and former First Vice President in the Transitional Government of National Unity, who was ousted in a controversial process following the violence.

Machar fled Juba and remains in Khartoum, Sudan. He is replaced by his former chief peace negotiator, Taban Deng Gai, in a move criticized by his supporters as illegal. Gai, who has pledged to end the war, seems to lack military support among the SPLM-IO commanders.

Highway attacks, including killing of over 20 civilians on Juba-Yei road on Sunday have surged and appeared to be targeting the Dinka ethnic group, the tribe of President Kiir. Survivors of the attack on Yei road said they were singled out after being identified as Dinka and summarily executed, claims Sudan Tribune could not verify.

Two weeks ago, a car carrying Dinka Bor cattle keepers was attacked near Juba on Kajo-Keji road, killing over 10 people. No arrest has been made.

(ST)

African Union United Nations Mission in Darfur

Though the region of Darfur is relatively peaceful at this time, a small portion of Jebel Marra within Darfur continues to be intermittently volatile.

As the UN Secretary-General has always stressed, there can be no military solution to the conflict in the region. The challenge is: how can UNAMID best assist the Government of Sudan and the armed/non-signatory movements to stop fighting and engage in genuine political dialogue towards sustainable peace.

I welcome the unilateral declarations of cessation of hostilities in Darfur and call for the maintenance of these.

I welcome and support the on-going discussion on a cessation of hostilities document under the auspices of the African Union High Level Implementation Panel.

I met with Abdul Wahid in Paris, where he resides on July 11; upon my request he agreed to hold a meeting of the Sudan Liberation Army leadership cadres in mid-September of this year to consider joining the peace process. He asked for UNAMID's assistance. I agreed to assist but asked for a formal written letter to process the request. He agreed to write immediately but till date, has failed to do so in spite of my writing two reminders.

I would like to use this opportunity to call on all members of the United Nations and respective Special Envoys of influential countries to exert necessary pressure on the Sudan Liberation Army/Abdul Wahid, to join the peace process.

A major plank of UNAMID's mandate from the Security Council is to protect civilians in Darfur. UNAMID has encountered some challenges in implementing this responsibility in a small portion of Darfur.

Both sides in the conflict in Jebel Marra continue to hamper or deny access to the remaining enclave of the concerned armed movement in Darfur. UNAMID is not an interposition force. It is a peacekeeping force and needs collaboration of both sides in the conflict to protect all civilians.

I call on the International Community as well as all Special Envoys of countries concerned to exercise influence and ensure UNAMID has unrestricted access all over Jebel Marra.

However, UNAMID's request for humanitarian access for protection of civilians purposes has no link with the recent Amnesty International's claims on chemical weapons since the mandate to investigate use of chemical weapons belongs to a different organisation. Even with full access as agreed in the Status of Forces Agreement, UNAMID lacks mandate to investigate on use of chemical weapons.

Nonetheless, UNAMID has been requested to shed light on the claims in the Amnesty International's report and the facts are as follows:

In spite of the almost 20,000 UNAMID personnel on the ground in Darfur, none of them has seen any Darfuri with the impact of the use of chemical weapons as described by Amnesty International's report;

Not one displaced person meeting such description has shown up at any UNAMID Team Site clinics where they would have naturally gone for help.

Amnesty International claimed to have made calls into Jebel Marra but did not for once call any of the almost 20,000 UN personnel all over Darfur, including in places like Sortony and Nertiti within a stone throw from the places where chemical weapons were reported to have been used.

Not one among the leadership of the Armed Movements in Darfur discussed use of chemical weapons with me or my Deputy during several meetings spanning January, April, May, July, August and September this year.

9 October 2016

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

October 10, 2016 (ADDIS ABABA) – The Ethiopian government has declared a state of emergency in the wake of continued anti-government protests across its Oromia region.

Demonstrators chant slogans while flashing the Oromo protest gesture during Irreecha, the thanksgiving festival of the Oromo people, in Bishoftu town, Oromia region, Ethiopia, October 2, 2016 (Reuters Photo)

The state of emergency, passed by the Council of Ministers, was announced on Sunday by Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn for the next six months.

"The state of emergency was declared following a thorough discussion by the Council of Ministers on the loss of lives and property damages occurring in the country”, Desalegn said in a televised address to the nation.

According to the government, the state of emergency was declared in order to restore order and contain violent protests expanding to many parts of the Oromya region.

Renewed protests erupted earlier this month when a religious festival taking place in Oromia's Bishoftu town turned into a violet anti-government protests, claiming the lives of 55 in a stampede that was triggered after police fired tear gas to disperse protesters.

Following the deadly incident, the protests spread to many areas of the Oromia region.

Multiples sources told Sudan Tribune that protesters have so far attacked 11 factories, destroyed public and government properties since attacks in the region began.

They have also continued to block roads linking the region with the capital, Addis Ababa, and burned down many trucks and passenger buses among others.

"We put our citizens' safety first. Besides, we want to put an end to the damage that is being carried out against infrastructure projects, health centers, administration and justice buildings," said Desalegn, urging people to stand by government to restore order.

The state of emergency, which become effective from Saturday, 8 October, seeks to reverse the danger posed by forces working in collaboration with foreign enemies to undermine the safety of the people and security and stability of the country.

The Oromos initially staged demonstrations in late 2015 in protest to government plans to expand the capital's territory to parts of the Oromia region.

However, protesters are now calling for regime change alleging that the Ethiopian government has failed to respect political and economic rights of Oromo people.

Human Rights Watch said up to 500 people were killed in protests within the region.

Meanwhile internet access remained impossible in almost all parts of Addis Ababa.

Government blocked access to fixed line internet service and mobile data nearly a week ago, without any official explanations for the shutdown, although the move appears aimed at suppressing the protests since social media has played a huge role.

Access to internet was allowed Monday afternoon, but turned off after about an hour.

This is the second time since August for Ethiopia to block internet access. However, blocking internet access in the capital for nearly a week is unprecedented in the Horn of Africa nation.

(ST)

October 10, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir on Monday has declared the extension of the unilateral cessation of hostilities in war zones for two months disclosing that a national mechanism would be established to draft a permanent constitution for the country.

Al-Bashir, who addressed the closing session of the National Dialogue Conference on Monday in the presence of the presidents of Egypt, Chad, Mauritania and Uganda, vowed to take the necessary measures to implement the national document, saying he would continue to consult with all political and societal forces to follow up on the implementation of the national dialogue's recommendations.

The national document, which was approved by the political and armed forces participating in the dialogue conference, is expected to be the basis for drafting the permanent constitution.

The Sudanese president also announced the formation of a national mechanism to draft the permanent constitution on the basis of the national document in order to achieve political stability in the country, pledging to develop a national strategy to carry out the state reform in accordance with the dialogue's recommendations.

Al-Bashir renewed the call to the opposition groups to join the dialogue “in order not to miss the historic opportunity” of being part of the unprecedented national consensus that has been achieved through the national dialogue.

He said the national document would remain open for the holdout opposition groups who decide to join it in the future, declaring the extension of the ceasefire until the end of the year in order to create climate conducive for dialogue and peace.

Last June, al-Bashir declared a four-month unilateral cessation of hostilities in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan states where the Sudanese army has been fighting the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/North (SPLM-N) rebels since June 2011.

In January 2014, al-Bashir called on political parties and armed groups to engage in a national dialogue to discuss four issues, including ending the civil war, allowing political freedoms, fighting against poverty and revitalizing national identity.

However, the political and armed opposition refuse to join the process, saying a genuine dialogue must start by stopping the war, delivering humanitarian assistance, allowing freedoms and releasing political detainees and convicts and then coming together in a forum that is not controlled by any party.

For his part, the Chadian President Idriss Deby called for the implementation of the dialogue's recommendations, demanding the opposition to join the process in order to resolve the country's problems peacefully.

The Egyptian President Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi described the national dialogue as “important milestone in the history of Sudan”, praising al-Bashir's bravery for making fateful decisions to maintain his country's sovereignty.

Mauritania's leader Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, for his part, said the national dialogue would give strong boost to peace and development efforts in Sudan.

Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, also hailed as “great and important achievement for the political class in the country” the consensus that has been achieved by the national dialogue.

He pointed that Sudan missed a lot of opportunities in education and development during 60 years since independence, vowing that Kampala would exert every possible effort to help achieve peace in Sudan.

(ST)

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Students and police clash at Johannesburg's University of Witwatersrand after protests are held over increased tuition fees.

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Lupita Nyong'o talks about her role in the Queen of Katwe, which depicts the life of the Ugandan Chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi.

Ethiopia's information minister says Eritrea and Egypt are contributing to the unrest, which has led to a six-month state of emergency.

Zambia president Edgar Lungu tells the country's football association to employ a local coach to take chare of the national team.

October 4, 2016

Mr. Alpha Condé
President of the Republic of Guinea
Conakry, Guinea

RE: Request for accountability for human rights violations and abuses committed during the 2015 Guinean presidential elections

Dear Mr. President,

As the anniversary of Guinea’s October 11, 2015 presidential elections approaches, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International write to urge you and your government to urgently take concrete and meaningful steps to ensure accountability for the serious human rights violations and abuses committed in the run up to and aftermath of these elections.

As independent and impartial international non-governmental organizations, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International monitor and report on human rights in over 160 countries. We have documented violations and abuses and advocated for redress for victims in Guinea for several decades.

During several research missions to Guinea in 2015, our organizations documented numerous serious human rights violations and abuses allegedly perpetrated by members of the security forces and mobs affiliated with both the ruling party and opposition groups. The violations and abuses were committed between April and October 2015.  

Those involving the security forces included arbitrary and excessive use of lethal force, resulting in the deaths in 2015 of some 10 people during demonstrations; torture and other ill-treatment of detainees; one case of rape; numerous acts of extortion, theft; and the looting of several markets.

We also documented the following incidents: the deaths of two men and rape of one woman by mobs associated with members of the opposition; the sexual abuse of a child by several men believed to be ruling party supporters; and the extensive looting and destruction of property in markets by mobs associated with the ruling party, often in complicity with the security forces.

These violations and crimes have elicited next to no judicial response, neither when reported by our human rights organizations, local human rights groups or the press, nor when victims have filed judicial complaints. Indeed, despite threats and obstacles, including financial hardship, at least nine victims or their family members have filed complaints to the judiciary for the loss or injury of their loves ones. A collective of some 400 victims filed a judicial complaint for the loss of property during the looting and pillage of their businesses between April and October 2015.

Disturbingly, however, the victims and some members of the criminal justice system interviewed told us that none of these cases have been the subject of in-depth investigations, none of the suspected perpetrators have been brought to justice, and none of the victims have received effective remedies and reparations. The wives and family members of several men killed during demonstrations spoke to our researchers about facing not only the grief from their loss, but also a period of intense financial hardship as they struggled to care for their families without any state support.

Human rights abuses committed during the run-up to the 2013 parliamentary elections were similarly unaddressed, including some 60 deaths, of which the majority were allegedly caused by members of the security services. This fuels what we believe is a dangerous cycle of violations and abuses and impunity.

Under international and regional human rights law, victims of human rights violations and their families have a right to an effective remedy and full reparations. As noted by the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, “The failure of the State to properly investigate cases of death following the use of force is a violation of the right to life itself.”

Related Content

• en_annex_for_president_-_guinea_ai_and_hrw_10-4-16.pdf

We have sent to Guinea’s Prosecutor General an updated annex with details of several cases from the 2015 election period that we urged him to investigate, including several complaints filed by family members and their lawyers. We include below a brief description of several of these cases, all of which were investigated by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. These cases are by no means an exhaustive list of serious violations and abuses committed in 2015.

Excessive use of force and firearms by members of the security forces against protesters:

• On April 13, 2015, a gendarme armed with a pistol allegedly shot and killed 30-year-old Thierno Souleymane Bah in the Hamdallaye neighborhood of Conakry. Witnesses said there was neither an imminent threat to the gendarme nor a threat to others. The prosecutor sent the file to the Bureau des Investigations Judiciaires with the autopsy report in April 2016. Since then, there is no information available about the progress of the investigation.

• On May 7, 2015, Thierno Sadou Diallo, a 34 year-old welder, was allegedly killed by gendarmes patrolling near his home in Hamdallaye. On May 8, his family filed a complaint to the Tribunal de Dixinn. The prosecution referred the case to the Bureau des Investigations Judiciaires, but there is no information available about the progress of the investigation.  His 25 year-old wife has had to care for her three young children on her own.

• On October 10, 2015, Boubacar Bah, a 24 year-old driver, was shot dead in Sonfonia Gare II on his way to his brother’s house by security forces removing blockades erected by demonstrators. Four other men were injured in the same incident. His family filed a complaint to the Tribunal de Dixinn on 16 October 2015. The case was referred to the Bureau des Investigations Judiciaires, but there is no information available about the progress of the investigation.

Killings by mobs:

• On October 8, 2015, Koumandjan Keita, 35, a refrigerator repair man, was pulled off his motorcycle and beaten to death by a mob of opposition supporters who were clashing with ruling party supporters near the Kankan-Coura Market in Conakry.

• On October 9, 2015, businessman Djibril Hassan Sylla, 61, was pulled from his car after mobs supporting the political opposition stopped him at the T-8 junction in the Cimenterie neighborhood of Conakry. He was brutally beaten and clubbed to death with rocks, wood spiked with nails and machetes.

Sexual Assault:

• On April 14, 2015, a 26-year-old woman was detained by gendarmes, forced onto their vehicle, taken into a building, blindfolded, and raped by at least two men. She filed a judicial complaint shortly thereafter but has never been contacted by the judiciary or the police to provide additional evidence.

• On October 9, 2015, a young woman was raped after being stopped at a checkpoint manned by members of the political opposition armed with machetes in the Ansoumanya Plateau neighborhood of Conakry.  

Looting and Pillage:

• In April and May 2015, during and after street protests, policemen and to a lesser extent gendarmes operating in Bambeto, Hamdallaye, Koloma, Matam, and Wanindara stole cell phones, cash, household items and merchandise; smashed windshields of cars in auto-repair shops; and set fire to or destroyed several market stalls and small businesses.  

• On May 7, 2015, a mob of hundreds of opposition supporters destroyed, looted and burned the home, bar and video center owned by a man living in the Cimenterie-Sonfonia neighborhood.

• On October 8 and 9, 2015, mobs largely supporting the ruling party, and in numerous cases accompanied by members of the security forces, looted and in a few cases burned or destroyed scores of shops in Madina, Matoto, Anta, Kissosso, Dixinn and Centre Commerical Koumi. The losses impacting hundreds of primarily Peuhl businessmen is estimated to be in the billions of Guinean Francs. Some 400 victims filed a judicial complaint in December 2015 with the court of first instance of Mafanco.  

• On 8 October, 2015, a mob of men many wearing tee-shirts from the opposition attacked and burned several shops, cars and motorcycles within the Marche de Casse, a market of spare auto parts.

We fully recognize the meaningful steps your administration has taken thus far to ensure better discipline within the security forces and break from Guinea’s history of violence and abuse, including giving instructions to ensure the army is not deployed to police demonstrations in Conakry. We also recognize the striking deficiencies within the judiciary that your administration has inherited and the numerous pressing challenges your government continues to face.

However, these challenges must not be used to justify inaction. We firmly believe that strengthening the criminal justice system and rule of law and ensuring justice for violations and abuses, including those committed in 2015, should be top of your government’s priorities as you enter into the second year of your mandate.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International therefore urge you and your government to ensure that these violations and crimes are promptly, thoroughly, transparently and impartially investigated, that suspected perpetrators are brought to justice in fair trials, and that victims have access to an effective remedy and receive full reparations.

Ensuring accountability for these human rights violations and abuses by all sides is vital not only for victims and their families, but also to reassure the population of Guinea that the cycle of violence, fear, and impunity can and will come to an end. All the victims and their families deserve nothing less.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International stand ready to support the efforts of your government to strengthen the criminal justice system, rule of law and ensure accountability for human rights violations and abuses.

Sincerely,

Corinne Dufka
Associate Director, Africa Division
Human Rights Watch

Alioune Tine
Director, West and Central Africa Regional Office
Amnesty International

CC:
Mamady Youla, Prime Minister
Cheick Sako, Minister of Justice
Kalifa Gassama Diaby, Minister of National Unity and Citizenship
Abdoul Kabele Camara, Minister of Security and Civilian Protection 
Mamady Kaba, President of the National Independent Institution for Human Rights

ANNEX: Letter to Prosecutor and Chart of Abuses

Expand

A security officer stands in the Madina market in Conakry, Guinea, following clashes between rival political party supporters on October 9, 2015.

© 2015 Reuters

(Dakar) – Authorities in Guinea should take concrete and immediate steps to ensure justice for the victims and the families of those who were shot, raped, or beaten to death during the 2015 presidential election period, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today in a joint letter to President Alpha Condé.

Guinea’s authorities should ensure that members of the security forces and mobs linked to both the ruling party and opposition groups are held accountable for the killing of 12 people, several rapes, and the looting of several markets in Conakry, the capital, during the election period. To date, no one has been brought to justice in relation to these crimes.

“A year of inaction is far too long for families who have seen their loved ones taken from them. Victims of last year’s electoral violence deserve justice for the harm inflicted upon them, and the authorities should not make them wait any longer,” said Francois Patuel, West Africa researcher at Amnesty International.

Presidential elections were held on October 11, 2015. The result was a first-round victory for Alpha Conde, the incumbent, who received 58 percent of the vote. The country will hold local elections in the coming months.

During the period around the 2015 elections, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch documented several incidents involving the security forces that resulted in the deaths of at least 10 people during demonstrations, most in Conakry. In addition, dozens of people were arbitrarily arrested and tortured.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have separately and jointly documented other violations and abuses committed during the election period, including the beating to death of two men and the rape of a woman by mobs linked to the opposition, the sexual abuse of a child by several ruling party supporters, and the extensive looting and destruction of property in markets by mobs associated with the ruling party, at times allegedly in complicity with the security forces.

Despite threats and financial hardship, many victims filed complaints to the judiciary about the killings, injuries, and property loss. However, the government has neither investigated any of these cases in depth, nor brought any suspects to justice, nor provided effective remedies to the victims, including full reparations.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch sent Guinea’s prosecutor general the details of several cases from the 2015 election period and urged the government to investigate the cases, including several complaints filed by family members and their lawyers.

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Human rights violations and abuses committed during the run-up to the 2013 parliamentary elections remain similarly unaddressed, including some 60 deaths. The majority were allegedly caused by members of the security services.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch consider that the continuing failure of the authorities to properly investigate deaths following the use of excessive force is a violation of the right to life itself.

The organizations urge authorities in Guinea to ensure that all violations and crimes are promptly, thoroughly, transparently, and impartially investigated, that those responsible for abuses are brought to justice in fair trials, and that victims have access to effective remedies, including full reparations.

“Unless there is truth and justice, electoral violence in Guinea will continue,” said Corinne Dufka, associate Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Investigating these crimes will signify a major step forward in ending the cycle of abuse and impunity that has long undermined respect for rights in Guinea.”

October 9, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Opposition's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), led by Mayada Soar al-Dahab, announced on Sunday its withdrawal from the heterogeneous alliance of Future Forces for Change (FFC) just hours after the latter signed an agreement with the national dialogue mechanism, accordingly it accepted to participate in the national dialogue conference.

Presidential Assistant Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid and FFC Deputy Chairman Abdel Gadir Ibrahim Ali Saturday signed a framework agreement titled "Areas for an agreement on cooperation and solidarity'' providing they will discuss "joint political initiatives to promote the dialogue, especially those relating to the participation of any other political force".

Also, to advertise for the political event the dialogue body released banners and posters with pictures of the participants in Monday's conference. The CCF leader Ghazi Salah al-Din appears in these banners besides political figures from the ruling party and other participants.

In a statement extended to Sudan Tribune Sunday, the LDP reiterated its rejection for any dialogue with the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) that does not pave the way for political inclusiveness, stop war and ensure freedoms. Also, it refused to take part in the current national dialogue.

The social democratic group, LDP, has vowed to work with all political forces that seek "to meet Sudanese's people aspirations for democratic reforms" .

"The National Dialogue General Assembly is held at a time where is missing the minimum of requirements that serve Sudanese people. Also it does not achieve the minimum of possible demands such as ending the ongoing war in Darfur region, South Kordofan and Blue Nile states," said the LDP.

The statement stressed that the party's leadership decided to withdraw from the FFC in line with the General Convention of the party which mandates the leadership to decide what it believes appropriate regarding the political alliances.

Ii went further to say that since its general convention, the LDP has kept calling for change with all peaceful means.

The liberal party pointed to its adherence to the confidence building measures included in the African Union plan for peace in Sudan and accepted by all the opposition parties as prerequisite to create conducive environment before to participate in the dialogue process.

It further said that it would join the national dialogue when the regime implements these measures by stopping war, allowing humanitarian access, ensuring freedoms and transitional justice and establishing a comprehensive dialogue.

"Any dialogue that is not based on the accountability of perpetrators of (human rights) violations during the rule of this regime can not be credible,” further added the opposition group.

The FFC, which gathers NCP splinter Islamist groups, liberal or left parties, held a series of meetings facilitated by the African Union mediation to prepare them to join a holistic process. At the same time, the coalition agreed with the opposition Sudan Call to coordinate efforts for an inclusive dialogue within the framework of the African Union roadmap.

October 9, 2016 (JUBA) – The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby has appointed the bishop of Kajo-Keji Diocese in South Sudan, Rt. Rev. Anthony Poggo as his new adviser for Anglican Communion affairs.

Kajo-Keji Diocese Bishop Rt. Rev. Anthony Poggo (ENS photo)

“I am absolutely delighted that Bishop Anthony is joining the team at Lambeth,” Welby told Episcopal News Service (ENS).

“He brings the experience of his ministry in one of the most challenging provinces in the Anglican Communion where he has faithfully served the church as a pastor and teacher,” he added.

Throughout his ministry, Poggo has reportedly been engaged with the profound issues, which many parts of the Communion face, where famine, war, and violent ethnic tensions destabilise society and leave whole communities living in poverty.

“He is well known and respected throughout the Communion and I am most grateful to Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul for releasing Bishop Anthony as a gift to the wider church. His appointment provides a necessary voice and perspective from the global south in the team at Lambeth. I look forward to working with Bishop Anthony to strengthen our relationships around the Provinces at a significant time in the life of the Communion,” Welby stressed.

On 4 October, according to ENS, Deng Bul joined Poggo in the Diocese of Kajo-Keji where the news of the appointment was given.

His appointment comes following an extensive selection process which attracted applications from across the Anglican Communion.

Meanwhile Poggo said he was delighted to accept Welby's invitation and appointment to join the team at Lambeth Palace.

“I look forward to working together with colleagues at Lambeth to support the Archbishop of Canterbury in his ministry,” he told ENS.

He further added, “I appreciate the support from Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul in releasing me from our current role in Kajo-Keji so as to make a contribution in the global Anglican Communion. Jane, Joy and I are excited at this next phase of our ministry.”

Before his ordination in 1995, Bishop Poggo worked with Scripture Union. From 2002, however, he served with ACROSS, becoming its executive director in 2004. He was elected bishop of the Diocese of Kajo-Keji in the Episcopal Church of South Sudan in 2007.

In 2012, Poggo was awarded an honorary doctorate for his role in the mobilizing the church in service of the community. He holds a Master of Arts in biblical studies from Nairobi International School of Theology, now called International Leadership University, and a Master of Business Administration from Oxford Brookes University.

(ST)

October 9, 2016 (JUBA) – The Swiss-based coffee maker Nespresso has announced a temporary halt in coffee operations in war-torn South Sudan.

A woman handpicking Arabica cofee (restorethebean)

"We had to temporarily suspend our operations in the country. It is the third time this happened since we started working there," Nespresso spokeswoman, Jacquelyn Campo told Reuters.

"The situation has deteriorated and is very difficult at the moment," she added.

The U.S. aid arm (USAID) has injected $3.18 million over the next three years to train smallholder farmers to boost production in South Sudan's coffee sector. The funding is reportedly part of a public-private partnership with Nespresso and international development consultancy TechnoServe.

Last year, Nespresso shipped its first volumes of coffee production from South Sudan, marking the first non-oil exports out of the country in over a generation.

Since it started revive coffee production in the war-torn nation in 2011, around 1,000 smallholder farmers have reportedly been trained in agribusiness techniques and about three-quarters of them now commercially-engaged.

At least six coffee cooperatives have since been established, in addition to having in place the first wet mill processing unit in the world's youngest nation.

According to Nespresso, the company's investment of over US$ 2.5 million in reviving the production of high-quality South Sudanese coffee since 2011 demonstrates the potential for commercial coffee production in the country.

As part of the expansion of its sustainably quality program in Africa, Nespresso says it aims to ensure it has invested over US$ 3.4 million in the project by end of 2016.

Although South Sudan has vast and largely untapped natural resources, beyond a few oil enclaves, it remains relatively undeveloped, characterized by a subsistence economy. South Sudan is the most oil-dependent country in the world, with oil accounting for almost the totality of exports, and around 60% of its gross domestic product. On current reserve estimates, oil production is expected to reduce steadily in future years and become negligible by 2035.

According to the World Bank, livelihoods in South Sudan are mainly concentrated in low productive, unpaid agriculture and pastoralists work, accounting for around 15% of GDP.

“In fact 85% of the working population in South Sudan is engaged in non-wage work, chiefly in agriculture,” it says.

The South Sudanese conflict had a significant financial impact on the country as increase in military expenditure greatly reduced availability of resources for service delivery and capital spending on the much-needed infrastructure.

According to South Sudan's Petroleum ministry, oil prices decreased by 40% from $29.75 per barrel in December 2015 to $18 per barrel in January 2016. Production also significantly declined over the same period, cutting gross oil revenue by more than half from $29.7 million in December to $10.8 million in January.

The decline in oil revenue has reportedly also had a negative impact on macro-budgetary indicators, requiring austere fiscal adjustments in South Sudan's economy.

Investing in coffee offers a unique chance to diversify South Sudan's oil-dependent economy, build peace and offer a glimmer of hope for the country.

(ST)

October 9, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan's Foreign Ministry has said that the head of the hybrid peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) Martin Uhomoibhi stressed that his mission didn't receive any piece of information that chemical weapons have been used in Darfur.

Late last month, Amnesty International reported that over 200 people had been killed in Darfur Jebel Marra area by banned chemical weapons since January 2016. But the government denied the claims.

The group published pictures and accounts of 56 witnesses of the alleged chemical attack who spoke about "poisonous smoke" vomit blood, struggle to breathe and watch as their skin falls off.

The Sudanese government dismissed Amnesty's allegations as “fabricated and unfounded accusations”, pointing that it aims to obstruct “the pioneering efforts” to achieve peace and stability and to promote reconciliation in Sudan.

The U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous Tuesday said the United Nations had no evidence on the use of chemical weapons by the Sudanese government in Darfur, and called on Khartoum to cooperate with future investigations by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

On Sunday, Sudan's Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour has discussed with Uhomoibhi the recent developments in Darfur besides his contacts with the non-signatory groups of the Doha peace document.

In a press statement extended to Sudan Tribune on Sunday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Gharib Allah Khidir said Uhomoibhi told Ghandour that in spite of the almost 20,000 UNAMID personnel on the ground in Darfur, none of them has seen any Darfuri with the impact of the use of chemical weapons as described by Amnesty International's report.

He added the UNAMID chief informed Ghandour that not one displaced person meeting such description has shown up at any UNAMID Team Site clinics where they would have naturally gone for help.

The statement pointed that Uhomoibhi said not one among the leadership of the Armed Movements in Darfur discussed use of chemical weapons with him or his deputy during several meetings spanning January, April, May, July, August and September this year.

(ST)

October 9, 2016 (JUBA) – South Sudanese SPLM-In Opposition has criticized the United States (U.S.) for renewing military support to the government under the leadership of President Salva Kiir, saying it was a “wrong decision” to support an army that allegedly “rapes, tortures and kills” civilians in the country.

A U.S. Special Forces trainer supervises a military assault drill for a unit within the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) conducted in Nzara on the outskirts of Yambio November 29, 2013. (Photo Reuters/Andreea Campeanu)

The opposition group also said the support would help the government to afford the ongoing civil war and encourage it to continue with the military offensives against the opposition forces under the leadership of the ousted former First Vice President, Riek Machar.

On Friday, President Barack Obama issued a decision to continue U.S. military assistance to the troubled South Sudan despite the use of child soldiers in the troubled country and against the suggestion by the international community to impose arms embargo on the nation.

The waiver also circumvents the 2008 Child Soldiers Prevention Act, which is meant to block military assistance to countries recruiting children in their armies.

While the South Sudanese government has welcomed what it described as a positive policy shift by the U.S. and the “right thing to do,” the opposition faction l, said this showed how the outgoing U.S. administration had “confused” on how to approach the situation in South Sudan.

“This is a very unfortunate wrong decision to support the regime's army which has committed documented civilian massacres, war crimes and crimes against humanity for the past three years,” said opposition leader's spokesman, James Gatdet Dak, in reaction to the U.S. military assistance to Juba.

“The outgoing U.S. administration should not reward with military assistance an army known for killing and torturing ordinary citizens, and for raping women, including United States citizens, as recently occurred at Terrain Hotel in Juba. The United States should not reward the undisciplined army of the leadership whose soldiers shot at American diplomats within the vicinity of the Republican Palace in Juba. And why would the United States government support the factional army which has renewed the civil war in the country by violating the August 2015 peace agreement and has been on offensive against opposition forces in escalating the war,” Dak further inquired.

He suggested that the opposition faction would have expected the U.S. government to rather push for imposition of arms embargo on South Sudan's government instead of supporting the government's “war machinery” in the country.

Dak claimed that President Kiir's government has not been directing the security sector budgets to security sector reforms but has been rather purchasing weapons to fight internal wars which he keeps on creating in order to maintain his dictatorial rule and give no chance for peace and democratic processes.

He challenged that supporting with military aid President Kiir's army which is also commanded by some of the U.N. and U.S. sanctioned senior officers is a “great confusion” on the part of the “outgoing” U.S. administration on how to approach the situation in the country.

(ST)

October 9, 2016 (JUBA) - South Sudanese President, Salva Kiir, has dispatched a high-level delegation to Yei state over the rising insecurity in the area south of the national capital, Juba, where roads have been blocked by armed local forces allied to the SPLM-In Opposition.

President Salva Kiir addresses the nation from the State House on September 15, 2015, in Juba (Photo AFP/Charles Atiki Lomodong)

The delegation which flew into Yei by air on Saturday is tasked to find out the causes of the rising insecurity in the state and to come out with a way through which the situation can be addressed.

President Kiir, according to multiple presidential aides, has mandated the delegation led by former governor of Central Equatoria state, Clement Wani Konga, who is the current presidential advisor for special affairs with Daniel Awet Akot, presidential advisor on political affairs, to assess the security situation in the area, particularly the causes behind the targeted killings and massive displacement of civilians in the state, which has been blamed on government forces.

Also the area's members of council of states, national parliament and security organs are among the delegates.

The delegation arrived Yei town, the administrative headquarters of the new state, on Saturday afternoon by air, just hours after commercial vehicles fell into ambush by gunmen, resulting in the death of up to 21 people. Several others fled into the bush while many others sustained injuries.

The identity of the group responsible for the attacks remains unclear. Government accuses dissident armed youth from the area allied to the former First Vice President Riek Machar of allegedly being responsible for the attacks and called for regional designation of the group as “terrorists.”

Yei State Information Minister, Stephen Lado Onesmo, confirmed the arrival of the delegation and said they are expected to hold a public rally on Monday after meeting with security organs, members of state parliament, religious leaders, and traditional leaders in Yei.

He said the purpose of the visit of the delegation to the area is to investigate the root causes of the ongoing violent conflict in order to find amicable approaches to the problem in the state and to take the grievances of the people of Yei to President Kiir.

The state government under the leadership of the former Yei County Commissioner, turned governor, David Lokonga Moses, said it prioritizes peaceful dialogue as a viable means to resolving the conflict.

They have been clashes between rival forces in Yei state with the opposition forces threatening to close all the roads in the state and attack towns.

(ST)