The head of the United Nations in Sudan reiterated his call for the Sudanese warring parties to stop fighting and engage in a genuine dialogue. Efforts are being made to engage representatives of the military and the rapid support forces to meet for the first time in a third country.

Volker Perthes, who leads the United Nations Integrated Transitional Assistance Mission in Sudan, or UNITAMS, said a genuine dialogue is the only way resolve any grievances that led to the ongoing fighting.

“Up to this moment, there is no direct talks going on, but we are at the preparation stage for talks between the two parties,” Perthes said. “Some regional and international countries are engaging the two sides for these talks. We fully support these efforts, and I personally are in  [and] continue direct communication with the two sides.”

More than 500 civilians and fighters have been killed and over 4,000 others injured since the fighting erupted more than two weeks ago.

The warring parties have announced a series of cease-fires, but none held for long.

The humanitarian situation in the country continues to deteriorate as more than two-thirds of hospitals in areas of active fighting are shut down due to attacks and a lack of medical supplies, staff, water and electricity.

Perthes insisted any cease-fire must be observed by both sides.

“We need to step in and help the situation out,” he said. “Citizens need to come out of their homes and hospitals are in need of medical supplies. In order to realize all these, we need a true and effective cease-fire, not only making [the] announcement.”

Most humanitarian aid agencies and organizations suspended their operations in Khartoum and evacuated their staff outside of Sudan.

Perthes said he and other diplomatic missions have relocated “temporarily” to Port Sudan in hopes that some semblance of normalcy returns to the capital.

“Most of them have left the country temporarily,” he said. “And I insist on the word “temporarily” because we would like to go back to Khartoum when the security situation allows us to do so.”

The Rapid Support Forces announced Sunday evening yet another 72-hour cease-fire in response to the regional and international calls.

The Civil Aviation Authority in Sudan has issued a Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) that extends the closure of Sudanese airspace to all air traffic until May 13, with exception of humanitarian aid flights and evacuation flights for foreign nationals.

Those flights require a permit from the civil aviation authority and the approval of the Sudanese armed forces.
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The warring sides in the Sudan conflict bowed to international pressure and said Sunday that the cease-fire agreement that was set to expire at midnight would be extended for another 72 hours.  

A truce was already in place but was widely ignored by both sides. It was established by the two warring factions to allow people safe passage and to open up a means for the country to receive humanitarian aid, but the violence continued. Each side blamed the other for the infractions.   

Britain’s government announced Sunday that it was offering an additional evacuation flight for its nationals in war-torn Sudan.   

A late Saturday flight out of Wadi Seidna Airport had been set to be the last flight out of the African country for British nationals. Sunday, however, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office announced a flight leaving Monday from the airport in Port Sudan would instead be the last one.    

The conflict between Sudan’s military and a paramilitary group broke out on April 15. Tens of thousands have fled the country because of the intense fighting between the military forces headed up by General Abdel Fattah Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group led by General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo. Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands have been injured since the fighting started.  

Fighting has been particularly intense in Khartoum, the capital. 

Finding basic necessities, like food and water, has become almost impossible. The medical workers who remain in the country do not have proper supplies. The first shipment of medical supplies has arrived in Khartoum, however, workers have not been able to deliver it to hospitals because of the fighting. 

SEE ALSO: A related video by VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias

Martin Griffiths, the U.N. humanitarian chief, said in a statement, “The scale and speed of what is unfolding in Sudan is unprecedented.”  
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Sudan’s army and its rival paramilitary said Sunday they will extend a humanitarian cease-fire a further 72 hours. The decision follows international pressure to allow the safe passage of civilians and aid, but the shaky truce has not so far stopped the clashes. 

In statements, both sides accused the other of violations. The agreement has deescalated the fighting in some areas, but violence continues to push civilians to flee. Aid groups have also struggled to get badly needed supplies into the country. 

The conflict erupted on April 15 between the nation’s army and its paramilitary force and threatens to thrust Sudan into a raging civil war. The U.N. warned on Sunday that the humanitarian crisis in Sudan was at “a breaking point.” 

“The scale and speed of what is unfolding in Sudan is unprecedented,” U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said in a statement. 

He said water and food are becoming increasingly hard to find in the country’s cities, especially the capital, Khartoum, and that the lack of basic medical care means many could die of preventable causes. Griffiths said that “massive looting” of aid supplies has hindered efforts to help civilians. 

SEE ALSO: A related video by VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias

Earlier Sunday, an aircraft carrying eight tons of emergency medical aid landed in Sudan to resupply hospitals devastated by the fighting, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which organized the shipment. It arrived as the civilian death toll from the countrywide violence topped 400 and aid groups warned that the humanitarian situation was becoming increasingly dire. 

More than two-thirds of hospitals in areas with active fighting are out of service, a national doctors’ association has said, citing a shortage of medical supplies, health workers, water and electricity. 

The air-lifted supplies, including anesthetics, dressings, sutures and other surgical material, are enough to treat more than 1,000 people wounded in the conflict, the ICRC said. The aircraft took off earlier in the day from Jordan and safely landed in the city of Port Sudan, it said. 

“The hope is to get this material to some of the most critically busy hospitals in the capital” of Khartoum and other hot spots, said Patrick Youssef, ICRC’s regional director for Africa. 

The Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate, which monitors casualties, said Sunday that over the past two weeks, 425 civilians were killed and 2,091 wounded. The Sudanese Health Ministry on Saturday put the overall death toll, including fighters, at 528, with 4,500 wounded. 

Some of the deadliest battles have raged across Khartoum. The fighting pits the army chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, against Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces. 

The generals, both with powerful foreign backers, were allies in an October 2021 military coup that halted Sudan’s fitful transition to democracy, but they have since turned on each other. 

Ordinary Sudanese have been caught in the crossfire. Tens of thousands have fled to neighboring countries, including Chad and Egypt, while others remain pinned down with dwindling supplies. Thousands of foreigners have been evacuated in airlifts and land convoys. 

On Sunday, fighting continued in different parts of the capital where residents hiding in their homes reported hearing artillery fire. There have been lulls in fighting, but never a fully observed cease-fire, despite repeated attempts by international mediators. 

Over the weekend, residents reported that shops were reopening and normalcy gradually returning in some areas of Khartoum as the scale of fighting dwindled after yet another shaky truce. But in other areas, terrified residents reported explosions thundering around them and fighters ransacking houses. 

Youssef, the ICRC official, said the agency has been in contact with the top command of both sides to ensure that medical assistance could reach hospitals safely. 

“With this news today, we are really hoping that this becomes part of a steady coordination mechanism to allow other flights to come in,” he said. 

Youssef said more medical aid was ready to be flown into Khartoum pending necessary clearances and security guarantees. 

Sudan’s healthcare system is near collapse with dozens of hospitals out of service. Multiple aid agencies have had to suspend operations and evacuated employees. 

On Sunday, a second U.S.-government organized convoy arrived in Port Sudan, said State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller. He said the U.S. is assisting American citizens and “others who are eligible” to leave for Saudi Arabia where U.S. personnel are located. There were no details on how many people were in the convoy or specific assistance the U.S. provided. 

Most of the estimated 16,000 Americans believed to be in Sudan right now are dual U.S.-Sudanese nationals. The Defense Department said in a statement on Saturday it was moving naval assets toward Sudan’s coast to support further evacuations. 

Meanwhile, Britain has announced that an extra evacuation flight will depart from Port Sudan on Monday, extending what it called the largest evacuation effort of any Western country from Sudan. 

The government asked British nationals who wish to leave Sudan to travel to the British Evacuation Handling Centre at Port Sudan International Airport before 12 p.m. Sudan time. The flight comes after an evacuation operation from Wadi Saeedna near Khartoum, involving 2,122 people on 23 flights. 
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Eight farmers were killed Sunday in an attack blamed on a militant group targeting three villages in northeast DR Congo, a local official said.

Members of CODECO, or Cooperative for the Development of the Congo, attacked the villages of Duvire, Njalo and Bengi at around 5 a.m. (0300 GMT), Adubango Kivia told AFP from the district of Djugu in the Ituri province.

“We found eight bodies, including a woman. They’re farmers. They were shot dead and then chopped up by machete,” he added, accusing the militiamen of setting fire to scores of homes and plundering livestock.

Adubango Kivia said the militiamen “operated calmy” and called on Congolese soldiers to deploy “to secure the population and bring an end to massacres” in the area around 100 kilometers north of the provincial capital Bunia.

CODECO says it is protecting the Lendu community from another ethnic group, the Hema, as well as the DRC army.

The Hema are defended by the Zaire militia — while the province is also targeted by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) linked to the Islamic State jihadi group.

Eastern Congo is plagued by dozens of armed groups, many of which are a legacy of regional wars that flared in the 1990s and 2000s.

Ituri province is one of the violent hot spots, where attacks claiming dozens of lives are routine.

The last attack blamed on CODECO killed more than 40 people April 14 in villages around 60 kilometers (40 miles) from the provincial capital of Bunia.
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Former Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok is calling on the international community to keep pressure on the warring sides in the Sudan conflict. Hamdok says the kind of engagement that enabled evacuations of foreigners could help bring a lasting truce. He spoke during the 2023 Mo Ibrahim Governance weekend in Kenya.

Answering questions from Mo Ibrahim, the founder of the Ibrahim Foundation, Hamdok said a strong, unified approach by the international community would help end the military fighting in Sudan, which he terms senseless.

According to the former prime minister, it is crucial to put clearly defined roles upon the military, which he said must stay away from politics. 

Hamdok was ousted in an October 2021 coup and he contends the current configuration is not to be trusted.

This week, U.N. Sudan envoy Volker Perthes called on the rival military factions to fully adhere to the agreed upon cease-fire. He said Sudan military commander Gen. Abdel Fattah al Burhan and Rapid Support Forces leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo appear to be “closer to negotiations” than they have been,” though Burhan informed the media he “would not sit down at the same table as the leader of the ‘rebellion.’”

Both military factions have defended their stance. Sudan’s military maintains the deployment of RSF troops in parts of the country are unlawful. In a statement Saturday, Dagalo said the RSF remains committed to a cease-fire and is working to open corridors for Sudanese residents and non-residents.

Citizens complained on social media, though, that Dagalo’s Rapid Support Forces had raided their homes and stolen money, gold and other possessions. VOA could not independently confirm the claims. 

More than 500 people have been killed and upwards of 4,000 have been wounded, according to the United Nations, in the conflict between Sudan’s military and the country’s paramilitary force that is entering its third week.
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The first international cargo shipment with medical supplies landed Sunday in Port Sudan. It’s a glimmer of hope in the country, where a conflict between the armed forces and a paramilitary group has put thousands of innocent civilians at risk, including children, who are already severely malnourished. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias has the report. Video editor: Marcus Harton.
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A U.S.-sponsored youth festival opened Saturday in Ethiopia with the theme “Be Inspired, Own Your Future.” The two-day festival is being held just months after a bloody two-year civil war ended in Ethiopia’s Tigray region and as peace talks begin with the rebel Oromo Liberation Army (OLA).

Nearly 20,000 youth from around the country are expected to take part over two days.

U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia Tracey Ann Jacobson spoke about the importance of the festival during her opening remarks.

“The point of it is to provide job opportunities, to provide access to loans, to provide better opportunities for leadership and health care for young people throughout Ethiopia,” she said, “and I have seen it grow from a tiny seed that we started in March to this amazing program that we have today.”

Ethiopian Minister for Women and Social Affairs Ergoge Tesfaye spoke at the event about addressing the vulnerabilities of young people.

“Government and non-governmental institutions, other members of the community, as well as the youth themselves, need to understand that they are exposed to a variety of problems along with this untapped potential and providing necessary solutions and steps is expected from all of us,” she said.

Last week, the Ethiopian government started talks with representatives of the OLA in Tanzania after years of protracted communal conflict in Ethiopia’s Oromia region.

Entrepreneurs and creative individuals from across 17 cities in Ethiopia are showcasing their work at the Addis Ababa festival, but the event did not have representatives from the Tigray region because of the war’s impact.

Boni Bekele, from the Oromia region, had a booth for a clothing design shop at the market fair within the festival.

He said that he used to be able to work across the country in previous years but not anymore.

The government has made millions of young people lose hope, he said. But their strengths should be used, he said, and not just as soldiers, because that won’t transform a country. It’s philosophy, science and skills that can change a country, he said, adding that this must be a priority.

The youth festival also featured a tech village and an art gallery.

One of the artists presenting her work was 23-year-old Melat Shiferaw, who came from Dire Dawa in the eastern part of Ethiopia.

For her, though the current environment in the country is not encouraging, she hopes things will soon fall into place.

As humans, she said, we live not just thinking about today, but what we hope for tomorrow, hoping tomorrow will be better.

The festival, supported by USAID for five years, is expected to include participants from Tigray in coming years, as organizers finalize a post-conflict assessment in the region.
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Residents and survivors of a massacre in a Burkina Faso village said Saturday 136 people including women and infants were killed, blaming the country’s security forces for the April 20 attack.

A prosecutor last week launched a probe into the massacre that took place in the northern village of Karma and surrounding areas, following reports that people wearing the uniforms of the Burkinabe armed forces had killed around 60 civilians.

The attack, one of the worst on civilians as the country battles armed militants linked to al Qaida and the Islamic State, has prompted condemnations and calls for an investigation by the United Nations Human Rights Office.

Burkina Faso is one of several West African nations struggling with a violent Islamist insurgency that has spread from neighboring Mali over the past decade, killing thousands and displacing more than 2 million.

The country’s military government has launched a large-scale offensive that it says is aimed at reclaiming swathes of territory controlled by armed insurgents.

Joy shattered

The government condemned the attack on Karma in an April 27 statement but gave no details on casualties.

Since then, more details have emerged.

A statement issued by the residents and survivors Saturday said the village was surrounded early in the morning April 20 by heavily armed men in Burkinabe military uniforms, on motorcycles, pick-up trucks and armored vehicles.

“The villagers initially rejoiced at their arrival, but their joy was quickly shattered by gunfire,” the statement said, adding they have counted 136 civilians killed and nine injured.

Neither Burkina Faso’s army nor the government responded to Reuters’ request for comment Saturday.

‘We are not fooled’

A representative of the residents and survivors, speaking at a news conference in Ouahigouya, the provincial capital around 15 km (9.32 miles) from Karma village, said the government’s statement bordered on indifference and contempt for the residents of Karma.

The statement sows confusion about the responsibility of security and defense forces for the massacre, he said.

“We, population and survivors of the events of Karma and [its] surroundings, have no doubt that it is the security and defense forces that are responsible for this carnage,” the statement said. “We are not fooled, we know our security and defense forces well.”
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An accountant working on a high-profile corruption case was killed along with his son by unknown gunmen while traveling on one of South Africa’s main highways. A government health department employee who warned of illegal dealings worth nearly $50 million was shot 12 times in the driveway of her home. 

The slayings and other cases have anti-corruption groups urging South African authorities to provide far better protection for whistleblowers. They also have fueled outrage over widespread graft linked to government contracts, which has plagued Africa’s most developed economy for years but appears to continue unabated. 

The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime counted a total of 1,971 assassination cases in South Africa between 2000 and 2021, with whistleblowers accounting for many of the targeted individuals. 

The specialist accountant and liquidator, 57-year-old Cloete Murray, was working on the financial accounts of a company that was heavily implicated in allegedly bribing government ministers and others to win huge state contracts. 

The company, previously known as Bosasa and now named African Global Holdings, was one of the most prominent subjects of the Zondo Commission a judicial inquiry into government and other high-level corruption during the 2008-2019 presidency of Jacob Zuma, who is on trial on separate corruption allegations. 

Murray was shot in the head while driving with his son in an SUV on the N1 highway just outside Johannesburg in March. He died in the hospital. His son, Thomas Murray, who worked with his father, was declared dead at the scene. No one has been arrested in the killings, which police said had the hallmarks of a professional hit. 

South African anti-corruption organization Corruption Watch said the killings of the Murrays was further evidence that the country faced “a crisis in terms of the rule of law.” 

“Levels of public confidence in our law enforcement capabilities, not to mention the political will to hold criminals and the corrupt accountable, have dropped to an all-time low,” Corruption Watch executive director Karam Singh said. “As the most recent example, the brazen murder of Cloete Murray and his son sends a chilling and intimidating message to anyone seeking to end impunity for corruption and crime. This must represent a turning of the tide for our country.” 

The death of Babita Deokaran, an employee of the health department in Gauteng province, already underlined the dangers for whistleblowers in South Africa. Her August 2021 slaying was described as an assassination. Six men have been charged with murder in her killing. 

Deokaran had spoken up about potentially corrupt payments to more than 200 companies by the health department and was a key witness in a probe by the country’s anti-corruption Special Investigating Unit into contracts worth more than $45 million. 

She was shot multiple times inside her car soon after dropping her daughter off at school and her story has become a rallying call. 

Deokaran’s killing spurred another corruption whistleblower, Athol Williams, to leave the country, he said. Williams testified before the Zondo Commission implicating about 39 parties in corrupt activities at the country’s tax authority, the South African Revenue Service. Williams is a former partner at consultancy firm Bain & Co, which he also accused of in his allegations regarding the tax authority. 

He said he testified out of a sense of civic duty but was not offered any protection despite the important evidence he provided and will not return to his home country unless his safety is guaranteed. 

“Without any assurance for my safety from our government, combined with the fact that none of the parties I implicated have been prosecuted, it is unlikely that I can return. This breaks my heart,” Williams said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It is the lowest form of unethical behavior to ask a citizen to risk their life for our country and then not offer them protection when they face retaliation.” 

South Africa’s Department of Justice did not respond to messages seeking comment on Williams’ experience and the general policy on protection for whistleblowers. But in his State of the Nation Address this year, President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged shortcomings and the need to strengthen the witness protection unit. 

This week, the former head of the state-owned electricity utility, a company brought to its knees by mismanagement and corruption, appeared at a parliamentary hearing virtually from an “undisclosed location” because of fears for his safety, he said. 

Andre de Ruyter has spoken of corruption linked to the government and others at the utility and said Wednesday that unnamed sources who provided him with information feared for their lives. 

He has also claimed he survived an attempt on his life when his coffee was laced with cyanide. 

“The alleged criminal and unlawful activities … involve elements that are best characterized as organized crime,” de Ruyter said. 
…

Warring sides in Sudan are more open to negotiations and have accepted the conflict that erupted two weeks ago cannot continue, a U.N. official told Reuters on Saturday, a possible flicker of hope even as fighting continued.

Volker Perthes, U.N. special representative in Sudan, said the sides had nominated representatives for talks, which had been suggested for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, or Juba in South Sudan, though he said there was a practical question over whether they could get there to “actually sit together.”

He said no timeline had been set for talks.

The prospects of negotiations between the leaders of the two sides have so far seemed bleak. On Friday, army leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said in an interview he would never sit down with the RSF’s “rebel” leader, referring to General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who said he would only talk after the army ceased hostilities.

Hundreds of people have been killed since April 15 when a long-simmering power struggle between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) boiled over into conflict.

Perthes noted that he had told the Security Council both sides thought they could win the conflict, most recently in a briefing a couple of days ago, but he also said attitudes were changing.

“They both think they will win, but they are both sort of more open to negotiations, the word ‘negotiations’ or ‘talks’ was not there in their discourse in the first week or so,” he said.

While the sides had made statements that the other side had to “surrender or die,” Perthes said, they were also saying, “okay, we accept … some form of talks.”

“They have both accepted that this war cannot continue,” he added.

While the army has conducted daily air strikes and says it has maintained control of vital installations, residents say the RSF has a strong presence on the ground in Khartoum.

Fighting between the forces has damaged electricity, water, and telecommunications infrastructure, and looting has destroyed businesses and homes. Tens of thousands of Sudanese have fled fighting either to other towns or to neighboring countries.

The immediate task, Perthes said, was to develop a monitoring mechanism for cease-fires, which have been agreed to several times but have failed to stop the fighting.

Jeddah had been offered as a venue for “military-technical” talks while Juba had been offered as part of a regional proposal by East African states for political talks.

Perthes said that signs of the impending conflict had been visible in early April as international and local mediators scrambled to ease tensions, but they had thought a “temporary de-escalation” had been achieved the night before fighting began.
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Warplanes on bombing raids drew heavy anti-aircraft fire over Khartoum on Saturday as fierce fighting between Sudan’s army and paramilitaries entered a third week, despite a renewed truce.

Sudan has plunged into chaos and lawlessness since the fighting erupted on April 15 between forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his No. 2, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Burhan and Daglo have agreed to multiple truces since the start of the conflict, but none has effectively taken hold, with each side blaming the other for breaching them.

The latest three-day cease-fire was agreed Thursday after mediation led by the United States, Saudi Arabia, the African Union and the United Nations aimed at securing a more lasting truce.

“We woke up once again to the sound of fighter jets and anti-aircraft weapons blasting all over our neighborhood,” a witness in southern Khartoum told AFP.

Another witness said fighting had been ongoing since the early morning, especially around the state broadcaster’s headquarters in the capital’s twin city of Omdurman.

Residents across Khartoum — home to five million people — have largely sheltered at home despite supplies of food and water dwindling to dangerously low levels, and a lack of electricity.

Some managed to sneak out only during brief lulls in fighting to buy desperately needed supplies.

Trading blame

As battles raged on the ground, the two rival generals took aim at each other in the media, with Burhan branding the RSF a militia that aims “to destroy Sudan,” in an interview with US-based TV channel Alhurra.

He also claimed “mercenaries” were pouring over the border from Chad, Central African Republic and Niger to exploit the chaos.

Daglo denounced the army chief in an interview with the BBC, saying he was “not trustworthy” and a “traitor.”

The clashes have so far killed at least 512 people and wounded 4,193, according to the health ministry, with the death toll feared to be much higher.

Some 75,000 have been internally displaced by the fighting in Khartoum and the states of Blue Nile, North Kordofan, as well as the restive western region of Darfur, the U.N. said.

Tens of thousands of Sudanese have fled into neighboring countries including Egypt, Ethiopia, Chad and South Sudan, while foreign countries have carried out mass evacuations of their nationals.

Britain said it would end evacuation flights for its citizens and their relatives Saturday, after airlifting more than 1,500 people this week.

The United Nations said on Friday that its last international staff had been evacuated from Darfur.

The World Food Program has said the violence could plunge millions more into hunger in a country where 15 million people — one-third of the population — already need aid to stave off famine.

‘Alarming’ conditions in Darfur

In West Darfur state, at least 96 people were reported to have been killed in the city of Geneina since Monday, according to U.N. human rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani.

The United Nations described the situation in Darfur as “alarming” while Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said there were reports of widespread looting, destruction, and burning of property, including at camps for displaced people.

“The current fighting has forced us to stop almost all of our activities in West Darfur,” said Sylvain Perron, MSF’s deputy operations manager for Sudan.

“We are incredibly worried about the impact this violence is having on people who have already lived through waves of violence in the previous years.”

Darfur is still reeling from its devastating 2003 war, when then hardline president Omar al-Bashir unleashed the Janjaweed militia, mainly recruited from Arab pastoralist tribes, to crush ethnic minority rebels.

The notorious Janjaweed — accused by rights groups of committing atrocities in Darfur — later evolved into the RSF, which was formally created in 2013.

The scorched-earth campaign left at least 300,000 people dead and close to 2.5 million displaced, according to U.N. figures, and saw Bashir charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide by the International Criminal Court.

Burhan and Daglo — commonly known as Hemeti — seized power in a 2021 coup that derailed Sudan’s transition to democracy, established after Bashir was ousted following mass protests in 2019.

But the two generals later fell out, most recently over the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army.
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The Kenyan government has evacuated citizens from troubled Sudan, but with a shaky cease-fire set to expire at midnight Sunday, the parents of Kenyan students who are stuck are appealing to Nairobi to speed up the departure process. Ahmed Hussein reports from Wajir County where more of the students are from.
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Strikes by air, tanks and artillery rocked Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, and the adjacent city of Bahri on Friday, witnesses said, mocking a 72-hour truce extension announced by the army and a rival paramilitary force. 

Hundreds have been killed and tens of thousands have fled for their lives in a power struggle between the army and Rapid Support Forces that erupted on April 15 and disabled an internationally backed transition toward democratic elections.  

The fighting has also reawakened a two-decade-old conflict in the western Darfur region where scores have died this week.  

In the Khartoum area, heavy gunfire and detonations rattled residential neighborhoods. Plumes of smoke rose above Bahri.  

“We hear the sounds of planes and explosions. We don’t know when this hell will end,” said Bahri resident Mahasin al-Awad, 65. “We’re in a constant state of fear.” 

The army has been deploying jets or drones on RSF forces in neighborhoods across the capital. Many residents are pinned down by urban warfare with scant food, fuel, water and power. 

At least 512 people have been killed and close to 4,200 wounded, according to the United Nations, which believes the actual toll is much higher. The Sudan Doctors Union said at least 387 civilians had been killed.  

The RSF accused the army of violating an internationally brokered cease-fire with airstrikes on its bases in Omdurman, Khartoum’s sister city at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile rivers, and Mount Awliya. 

The army blamed the RSF for violations. 

The cease-fire is supposed to last until Sunday at midnight. 

The violence has sent tens of thousands of refugees across Sudan’s borders and threatens to compound instability across a volatile swath of Africa between the Sahel and the Red Sea.  

“From the warplanes to the tanks and rockets, we had no other option than to leave,” said Motaz Ahmed, a Sudanese man who arrived in Egypt’s capital, Cairo, after a five-day trip. “We left behind our homes, our work, our belongings, our vehicles, everything, so we can take our children and parents to safety.” 

Foreign governments airlifted diplomats and citizens to safety over the past week. Britain said its evacuations would end on Saturday as demand for spots on planes had declined.  

The U.S. said several hundred Americans had departed Sudan by land, sea or air. A convoy of buses carrying 300 Americans left Khartoum late on Friday on a 525-mile trip to the Red Sea in the first U.S.-organized evacuation effort for citizens, The New York Times reported.  

Darfur deaths 

In Darfur, at least 96 people have died since Monday in intercommunal violence rekindled by the army-RSF conflict, U.N. human rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said. 

Releases and escapes from at least eight jails, including five in Khartoum and two in Darfur, were compounding chaos, she added.  

In El Geneina, capital of West Darfur, a major hospital supported by medical charity MSF was looted over the past two days, the group said.  

“Many people are trapped in the midst of this deadly violence. They fear risking their safety and lives trying to reach the rare health facilities that are still functional and open,” said Sylvain Perron, MSF’s deputy operations manager for Sudan. 

The United Nations said its offices in Khartoum, El Geneina and Nyala were also ransacked. “This is unacceptable — and prohibited under international humanitarian law. Attacks on humanitarian assets must stop,” U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths posted on Twitter. 

Relief agencies have been largely unable to distribute food to the needy in Africa’s third-largest country, where a third of its 46 million people were already reliant on donations.  

Among Sudan’s neighbors, Egypt said it had taken in 16,000 people, while 20,000 had entered Chad. The U.N. refugee agency said more than 14,000 had crossed into South Sudan, which won independence from Khartoum in 2011 after decades of civil war. 

Some had walked from Khartoum to South Sudan’s border, a distance of over 400 km (250 miles), a spokesperson for the U.N. refugee agency said.

Despite global appeals for talks, army chief General Abdel Fattah Burhan told U.S.-based Arabic language broadcaster Al Hurra it was unacceptable to sit down with RSF head Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, whom he called “the leader of the rebellion.” 

Dagalo, better known as Hemedti, told the BBC that the RSF would not hold talks until fighting ends. Saying the armed forces were “relentlessly” bombing his fighters, he blamed Burhan for the violence. 

“Cease hostilities. After that we can have negotiations,” Dagalo said.
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Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch.

Violence intensifies in Sudan, UN relocates staff 

As violence intensified this week in Sudan, the United Nations relocated hundreds of international and national staff from the capital, Khartoum, and the western Darfur region to Port Sudan in the east where the situation is safer and they are continuing to work. France helped the U.N. evacuate more than 350 personnel and their families from Port Sudan to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday night, and in a second evacuation on Thursday, the French air force flew more than 70 U.N. and affiliated personnel from El Fasher in North Darfur to Chad’s capital, N’Djamena. Before the fighting erupted on April 15, the U.N. had about 800 international staff in Sudan, many accompanied by their families in Khartoum, as well as about 3,200 Sudanese nationals.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres continued to call for an immediate halt to fighting and worked with the United States and regional organizations to extend a 72-hour cease-fire that went into effect at midnight on Monday. It was renewed Thursday for another three days, but reports of fighting continue.

Fleeing Sudan’s Conflict: On a Bus Ride From Khartoum 

The crisis also has the potential to create a massive refugee situation. The U.N. refugee agency estimates that 270,000 people could flee into South Sudan and Chad alone. 

Security Council demands Taliban reverse bans on women 

The U.N. Security Council demanded unanimously on Thursday that Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders swiftly reverse their restrictions on women’s access to education and work, and it condemned a recent ban on local female staff working for the United Nations. The resolution was co-sponsored by 90 nations. 

Security Council to Taliban: Reverse Restrictions on Afghan Women, Girls 

Haiti’s intensifies its appeal for help to break grip of armed gangs

Haiti’s foreign minister intensified his government’s appeal to the international community Wednesday to help break the grip of armed gangs that are terrorizing the capital and large areas of the island nation. “Haiti is in danger, and it urgently needs the assistance of the United Nations family to make it through this turbulence,” Foreign Minister Jean Victor Geneus told the Security Council. It has been more than six months since the government asked for an international specialized armed force to assist the National Police in addressing the spiraling insecurity, but so far, its call has gone unanswered, and the situation has worsened.

At UN, Haitian Foreign Minister Pleads for International Help 

Russia’s Lavrov makes second visit to UN since invasion of Ukraine

The severe divisions between Western nations and Russia over its invasion of Ukraine overshadowed a U.N. Security Council meeting Monday presided over by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Russia holds the rotating presidency of the 15-nation council for April. Moscow chose the theme of “effective multilateralism through the defense of the principles of the U.N. Charter” for its signature event, and Western nations denounced it as hypocritical. The United States also took the opportunity to bring the sister of American Paul Whelan, who is detained in Russia, to the U.N. where she spoke to the press and sat in the gallery during the council session.

Accusations, Divisions Overshadow Russian-led Security Council Meeting 

In brief

— Guterres was in Washington this week, where he met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken. They discussed subjects including the war in Ukraine and the need to continue the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which faces another renewal in mid-May; fighting in Sudan and efforts to achieve a cease-fire; and Taliban-imposed restrictions on women and girls in Afghanistan. The secretary-general’s spokesperson said he also raised the importance of reforms of international multilateral institutions, notably the United Nations, International Monetary Fund and World Bank. And he raised a number of issues related to the Host Country Agreement, including visa issues.

— Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has severely disrupted education. UNESCO and UNICEF in partnership with Ukraine’s education ministry are launching a program to provide children and teachers with equipment and tools for remote learning, psychosocial support, teacher training and education sector planning. The Global Partnership for Education, Google, Microsoft and UNESCO are providing more than $51 million for the program.

— Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed will represent the U.N. chief at the coronation of King Charles III in London on May 6.

Next week

Guterres will host a private meeting of special envoys on Afghanistan from several countries in Doha, Qatar, on Monday and Tuesday to discuss what should be done in the aftermath of the intensifying Taliban crackdown on women. Taliban chief Hibatullah Akhundzada has repeatedly dismissed international calls for reversing restrictions on women and girls, saying he will not allow any external interference in his Islamic governance. Taliban officials have not been invited. 
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Millions of Sudanese face acute hunger, increased health risks, and death from recoverable injuries because United Nations agencies have been forced to suspend their lifesaving activities in Sudan, where fighting has it made it too dangerous for them to operate.

Sudan and its neighbors had suffered decades of deprivation, hardship and conflict. Before fighting broke out between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Response Forces two weeks ago, Sudan already hosted more than 4 million forcibly displaced people.

Heavy fighting and insecurity have driven tens of thousands to flee in search of safety and protection, with many people scattered throughout the country and in neighboring states.

“It is very, very worrying,” said Axel Bisschop, U.N. refugee agency representative in Sudan. “It has already caused a devastating impact on the population, including refugees and all displaced people who already are on the margins of society.”

Bisschop said some areas are worse off than others and the UNHCR has had to temporarily pause most aid programs in Khartoum, the Darfurs, and North Kordofan because of dangers to its staff.

“The biggest challenge we have is Darfur” because it has already faced significant intercommunal conflict and displacement, he said, speaking by phone from Port Sudan.

“Now with this added crisis, the situation will be very, very difficult,” he said. “We also are concerned that intercommunal violence is going to increase and that we might have some situations, which will repeat in relation to what we had a couple of years ago.”

That is a reference to tribal clashes that erupted in Sudan’s West Darfur in April 2021. The U.N. office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs, OCHA, said that violence killed 56 people, injured scores of others, and sent thousands fleeing for their lives into neighboring Chad.

Given the constraints on its ability to assist the many people in desperate need, Bisschop said the UNHCR was working closely with the World Food Program, UNICEF and other U.N. and non-governmental agencies to provide basic aid, especially for the newly displaced.

WFP suspends operations

While the will is there, the ability to operate under present conditions remains extremely limited.

The WFP said security concerns have forced it to temporarily suspend its humanitarian operations in Sudan, where one third of the population — around 15 million people — face hunger.

Before the eruption of violence, the WFP had planned to assist 7.6 million Sudanese this year. But those plans have been shelved because the environment is too insecure.

The Sudanese Ministry of Health says 512 people have been killed, a figure U.N. agencies believe is grossly underestimated. The World Health Organization has also verified 25 attacks on health care facilities causing the death of eight people and injuring 18 others.

Brenda Kariuki, the WFP senior regional communication officer in Eastern Africa, said humanitarian operations in the country were virtually impossible, given the intensity of the fighting in many parts of the country.

“As the fighting rages on in parts of Sudan…at a time when a third of the country is in desperate need of assistance,” she said, “we are hearing of acute shortages of food, water, fuel, medicines and access to health care. With this crisis, we are afraid that millions more will plunge into hunger.”

Thousands flee

Thousands of Sudanese and South Sudanese refugees have fled to neighboring countries to escape the escalating violence in Sudan.

The United Nations reports some 20,000 people have fled to Chad and at least 4,000 South Sudanese refugees have arrived in five northern states bordering Sudan in hopes of returning to their homes of origin.

The WFP said those numbers are expected to increase as the crisis escalates. It warns that the consequences, which will be severe and long term, already are being felt.

The agency says that the cost of a food basket already has risen by up to 28 percent across South Sudan’s northern border states since the outbreak of fighting and that “this will further push people into hunger and increase needs in South Sudan.”

Kariuki adds the WFP will be unable to provide aid to needy people inside Sudan while the current situation of insecurity persists.

“WFP’s staff, offices and vehicles and equipment and food stocks have come in the direct line of fire and looting of our warehouses continues,” she said. “To date, we know up to 4,000 metric tons of food meant for vulnerable people has been looted from our warehouses and at least 10 vehicles and six trucks, which transport food, have been stolen.”

She calls that unacceptable “as it takes away humanitarian aid meant for the most vulnerable Sudanese and refugees who desperately need this lifesaving food.”

Children deprived of aid

Among those who will be deprived of essential aid, she said, are the hundreds of thousands of refugees sheltering in Sudan, schoolchildren who will miss their daily meal, malnourished infants, many at risk of dying without treatment, and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers.

U.N. agencies are appealing to the warring parties to take immediate steps to stop the fighting and enable humanitarian workers to safely carry out their lifesaving operations.
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A popular cartoonist in Uganda has launched a social media campaign to highlight the poor state of the country’s healthcare system. #UgandaHealthExhibition on Twitter is telling stories about the poor conditions in hospitals and clinics. Uganda’s Ministry of Health has disputed the allegations.

Pictures of Ugandan doctors treating patients on the floors of hospitals, because of a lack of beds, have this week been circulating on social media.

One photo showed a doctor and health worker stitching a patient’s head injury on a floor mat.

Another photo showed a doctor wearing gloves as protective shoes before surgery.

These are just some of the images critical of Uganda’s healthcare system – part of an online campaign by popular cartoonist Jimmy Spire Ssentongo.

“Just that they ignore and maybe in ignoring things grow beyond what they can even comprehend, or they get to understand that this is happening in their aloof world. But that if this is cast out there and maybe there’s some little sense of shame left, they would feel bad about it,” said Ssentongo. “It was clear that they didn’t want this voice to come out. For it to have come out that strongly was a triumph on our side.”

Ssentongo’s campaign, under the hashtag #UgandaHealthExhibition, has also revealed allegations of under staffing and absenteeism, theft of drugs, abuse of patients, extortion, and bribery.

Ssentongo has more than 175,000 followers on Twitter and the campaign has gained supporters, including those working in medical care, who joined the critical tweeting.

Dr. Jacob Otile is a general practitioner.

“We are talking about a system that is already crumbling. And then we look at the after effect of COVID-19,” said Otile. “If we are to make sure we move the next step, the budgetary allocation to health has to significantly go high.

Mismanagement of the little that we have. It ends up in people’s pockets and corruption is one of the biggest problems.”Uganda’s Ministry of Health responded to the twitter campaign by tweeting photos of clean hospital buildings with good medical facilities and blocking Ssentongo’s tweets. 

But the campaign led lawmakers like Joan Alobo on Wednesday to discuss the health sector in parliament and share stories of problems from their constituents.

“A woman was taken for caesarian section, but because the mother did not have money, three days after the operation, the woman started oozing out pus. When taken back to theater, there were particles left in the stomach,” Alobo said.

Uganda’s Ministry of Health spokesman Emmanuel Ainebyoona acknowledged to VOA there are problems in the healthcare system and blamed a lack of funding.

“We are not collecting as much revenue. So, we are able to use the available resources to fix the urgent issues,” said Ainebyoona. “And also, for them they are focusing on the curative side. But also, we need to take interest and embrace the preventive message. Things like sleeping under the mosquito net, handwashing, doing physical activity.”

Ssentongo and other activists are calling for an increase in the healthcare budget and better management of available funds.

The Ugandan cartoonist launched another Twitter campaign earlier this month to fix the capital’s poor roads under the hashtag #KampalaPotholeexhibition.

It gained enough traction that authorities carried out road inspections, which led President Yoweri Museveni to order $1.6 million to fix the roads.
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Snake experts in South Africa say an energy crisis is partly to blame for a shortage of antivenom in sub-Saharan Africa that has left at least three people dead in the past three weeks. South Africa supplies antivenom to the region, but frequent power cuts have made it harder to store the refrigerated supplies. Vicky Stark reports from Cape Town, South Africa.
Camera: Shadley Lombard 
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Sudanese fighter jets pounded paramilitary positions in Khartoum on Thursday while deadly fighting and looting flared in Darfur, despite the army and a rival force agreeing to extend a ceasefire deal.

In the final hours of a repeatedly broken three-day cease-fire, due to end at midnight (2200 GMT), the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced a 72-hour extension following pressure from Saudi Arabia and the United States.

There have been multiple truce efforts since fighting broke out on April 15 between Sudan’s army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary RSF commanded by his deputy-turned-rival, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. All have failed.

Foreign representatives involved in seeking to quell the fighting welcomed the extended cease-fire deal and urged full implementation.

In a joint statement, the African Union, the United Nations, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Britain and the United States applauded the two sides’ “readiness to engage in dialogue toward establishing a more durable cessation of hostilities and ensuring unimpeded humanitarian access.”

Doing so, they said, could be followed by a deescalation plan mapped out in an April 20 blueprint for peace.

“We welcome the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces’ announcement extending the ceasefire in Sudan by an additional 72 hours,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken posted on Twitter.

‘Intense shelling outside’

On Thursday, warplanes flew over the capital’s northern suburbs as fighters on the ground exchanged artillery and heavy machine gun fire, witnesses said.

“I hear intense shelling outside my home,” a Khartoum resident told AFP on Thursday evening, asking not to be named.

At least 512 people have been killed and 4,193 wounded in the fighting, according to health ministry figures, although the real death toll is likely much higher.

Hospitals have been shelled and more than two-thirds are out of service, the doctors’ union said, reporting at least eight civilians killed in Khartoum alone Wednesday.

The World Food Program has said the violence could plunge millions more into hunger in a country where 15 million people — one-third of the population — need aid.

Abdou Dieng, U.N. aid chief in Sudan, speaking from Port Sudan on Thursday, said he was “extremely worried about the situation,” with food supplies a huge concern.

Violence beyond Khartoum

Fighting has also flared in the provinces, particularly in the war-torn western region of Darfur.

Witnesses said clashes raged for a second day in the West Darfur capital, El Geneina, with pro-democracy medics reporting a doctor shot dead.

“We are locked up at home and too afraid to go out, so we can’t assess the scale of the damage,” said a resident who asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons.

The U.N. humanitarian agency said the fighting in West Darfur had disrupted food to “an estimated 50,000 acutely malnourished children.”

The violence has trapped many civilians in their homes, where they have endured severe food, water and electricity shortages.

Those who can afford to have taken the long and risky journey to flee the country.

Egypt said Thursday that at least 14,000 Sudanese refugees had crossed the border since fighting erupted, as well as 2,000 people from 50 other countries.

“End the war,” 50-year-old refugee Ashraf told the warring generals after entering Egypt. “This is your own conflict, not that of the Sudanese people.”

At least 20,000 people have escaped into Chad, 4,000 into South Sudan, 3,500 into Ethiopia and 3,000 into the Central African Republic, according to the UN, which has warned if fighting continues as many as 270,000 people could flee.

War crimes suspect escapes

Foreign governments have scrambled to get thousands of their citizens out, and British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly urged Britons to leave while they can.

The latest Saudi evacuation ship docked in the Red Sea port of Jeddah on Thursday to take the total evacuated by Riyadh to 2,744, only 119 of them Saudis, the foreign ministry said.

As lawlessness has gripped Sudan, there have been several jailbreaks, including from the high-security Kober prison where top aides of ousted dictator Omar al-Bashir were held.

Among the escapees is Ahmed Harun, wanted by the International Criminal Court to face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

Harun’s escape sparked fears of the involvement of Bashir loyalists in the ongoing fighting.

The army said 79-year-old Bashir was in a military hospital and moved before the fighting erupted.

Daglo’s RSF emerged from the Janjaweed militia, accused of carrying out atrocities during Bashir’s brutal suppression of ethnic-minority rebels in Darfur in the mid-2000s.

Bashir was toppled by the military in April 2019 following civilian mass protests that raised hopes for a transition to democracy.

The two generals seized power together in a 2021 coup, but later fell out, most recently over the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army.
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Reports emerged this week that the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group could be supplying weapons to one of the warring parties in the conflict in Sudan. Salem Solomon has the story with Patsy Widakuswara contributing.
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Mali and its neighbor Algeria on Thursday said they wished to revive a 2015 peace deal between Bamako and northern Malian rebels that today lies in limbo, raising fears of renewed violence. 

The pact aimed at easing tensions in a region that exploded into violence in 2012 when ethnic Tuaregs mounted an insurgency against the central government.

Jihadists joined the revolt and later took their campaign into central Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, killing thousands of people across the region and forcing millions to flee their homes. 

The 2015 agreement brought together the Tuareg rebels and the state in an accord that offered more local autonomy and the chance to integrate fighters into a state-run “reconstituted” army that would operate in the region. 

But the agreement has only been partially implemented and the rebels have angrily declared they are suspending participation in it. 

In a joint statement on Thursday, Mali and Algeria said they wanted to relaunch the deal.

“We have carried out a very precise, very rigorous examination of what is needed to ensure the effective and productive relaunch, via a political process protected from short-term turbulence,” Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf said after talks with junta leader Colonel Assimi Goita.

His visit came after former Malian rebels went to Algeria in February for talks on how to end the impasse.

A leading rebel group that signed the 2015 agreement reacted caustically to prospects of getting the accord back on track.

“They have to stop sliding further into denial [and] acknowledge the situation is spiraling out of control,” Ag Mohamed Almou, a spokesman for the Coordination of Azawad Movements, told AFP on Wednesday.

The Islamic State in the Great Sahara group has been gaining ground in northern Mali against a disparate constellation of rivals – the al-Qaida-linked Support Group for Islam and Muslims, government troops and local Tuareg-dominated armed groups.
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One month since rebels closed in on Drodro village in eastern Congo, the once-bustling wards of its hospital are empty and Dr. James Semire strolls the darkened corridors, wondering when patients will dare to return. 

The community is one of many in Ituri province’s Djugu territory that has seen a surge in attacks by the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo armed group (CODECO), with around 550,000 people forced to flee their homes between January and March, according to U.N. data. 

Semire said members of the Hema herding community started to abandon Drodro in mid-March ahead of a rumored advance by CODECO. The group, which claims to defend the interests of Lendu farmers, who have long been in conflict with Hema herders, is one of dozens of militias that have destabilized eastern DRC since the 1990s.  

Most Hema locals had left by March 22, when CODECO fighters took up positions on the hillside by Drodro in broad daylight, the doctor recalled on April 18. 

“Suddenly, someone came to tell me that there were gunshots outside,” said Semire, who also fled his home but still works in the hospital in case any people come in needing treatment. 

“There are repeated attacks – this delays the return of people here, because it creates doubts,” he said. 

The CODECO raids have worsened a long-standing humanitarian crisis in Ituri province, where 3 million people desperately need aid, according to the U.N. humanitarian agency. 

Displaced shelter in camp 

Driven from their sources of livelihood, Ituri’s displaced people have gathered in areas of perceived safety such as Rhoe, a camp of ramshackle huts near a U.N. peacekeeping base north of Drodro. Its population has nearly doubled to 65,000 since the beginning of 2023, according to camp representative Samuel Kpadjanga.  

Needs in the camp are acute. Some dwellings are little more than ragged lengths of canvas stretched over sticks. Meanwhile, many residents are traumatized, after losing their homes and possessions and suffering physical or sexual violence, said Grace Mugisalonga, a mental health expert at Rhoe for medical charity Doctors Without Borders. 

The road between Rhoe and the provincial capital, Bunia, around 70 kilometers (45 miles) to the southwest, is dotted with CODECO checkpoints, squeezing the camp’s supplies. The presence of fighters in the forests and fields around the camp makes attacks on those who venture out a regular occurrence, Kpadjanga said. 

One resident, who asked not to be named, said a day earlier she had been held at gunpoint by three men in a nearby field. 

“They argued. One said they should kill me, another said no. My life is safe, but they took everything from me, my scythe, my money,” she lamented back in a hut at Rhoe camp, as a toddler peeked at her from the doorway.
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An attack by suspected jihadists killed 33 soldiers in eastern Burkina Faso on Thursday, the army said.

A contingent of troops came across “a complex, large-scale attack” in the east region, which also left 12 soldiers wounded, according to an army statement.

The soldiers “neutralized at least 40 terrorists before the arrival of reinforcements” during the “particularly intense fighting,” it added.

The wounded troops were evacuated and were being treated by the health services, the army said.

Burkina Faso has been grappling with a bloody jihadist insurgency since 2015, when unrest spilled over from neighboring Mali.

Fighting between the security forces and groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group has left thousands dead and forced millions of people to flee their homes.

Anger within the military at the government’s failure to stem the jihadist attacks sparked two coups in 2022. Around 40 percent of the country’s territory lies outside state control.

Captain Ibrahim Traore, who has led the West African nation since seizing power last September, this month signed a decree for a yearlong “general mobilization” to give the state “all necessary means” to counter the militants. 
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Peace talks between Ethiopia’s federal government and the rebel Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) have started in Tanzania’s semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar.

The talks, which began April 24, 2023, and are being mediated by Kenya and Norway, come at a critical time for Ethiopia, which has experienced a rise in ethnic tensions and violence in recent years.

The discussions are receiving a generally positive reception, with many expressing hope they will ultimately bring an end to the prolonged period of conflict and instability in Ethiopia.

Many analysts, including Abbas Mwalimu, a lecturer at the Tanzania Center for Foreign Relations, are closely monitoring the situation. Mwalimu has been following the conflict and said the talks are a step in the right direction, but more needs to be done to achieve lasting peace and stability in Ethiopia.

There will be a chance for success, Mwalimu said, but even greater success can be achieved if the two sides choose to revisit the Constitution and revise it to unify Ethiopia. He said the current Constitution, which allows for regions to have their own governance, is what fuels the desire for separatism among the people.

As tensions rise over the incorporation of regional military fighters into the national army, Ibrahim Rahbi, a regional analyst, has suggested the Ethiopian government must carefully manage the process to prevent further conflicts. 

Rahbi said the Ethiopian government’s move to integrate regional fighters into the national army has created a lot of tension, as each of the country’s 11 regions has its own fully governed representatives, including armed forces. He added that the government will need to find a way to work together by removing weapons from all regions at once.

When asked for a comment, Charles Hillary, the chief spokesperson of the Zanzibar government, stated that the peace talks between the Ethiopian government and OLA are being conducted behind closed doors, and they do not have any information about the ongoing meetings. He further clarified that Zanzibar is only providing a venue for the talks and is not part of the negotiations.

The Ethiopian government’s efforts to negotiate peace with the Oromo Liberation Army have received a mixed reaction. While some applaud the talks as a step toward resolving the conflict, others, such as the American-Ethiopian Public Affairs Committee (AEPAC), have called for a guaranteed cessation of violence by OLA-Shene before meaningful negotiations can take place.

In a statement Wednesday, the AEPAC said, “Negotiations cannot meaningfully take place, while the population and many communities in Ethiopia still face the risk of attack by such forces. Primarily, there must be a guaranteed cessation of all hostile acts by OLA-Shene, which has constantly committed crimes against humanity and engaged in the massacre of innocent unarmed civilians.” 

In recent years, the OLA has grown in numbers, but some experts assert it lacks the organization and weaponry to pose a serious threat to the Ethiopian government. 

The Oromo region has experienced ethnic violence, and while the government has accused the OLA of involvement, the group denies responsibility. The government’s heavy-handed response to the conflict has only fueled bitterness among the Oromo people.

Meanwhile, the talks are expected to continue for several days, and both sides have expressed a commitment to finding a peaceful resolution to the conflict. 
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