Africa

On Saturday, West Darfur witnessed the signing of agreements to stop hostilities between Arab and Masalit tribes in El Geneina locality, and the Rizeigat and Iringa tribes in Sirba locality, in the presence of Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo ‘Hemeti’, Deputy Chairman of the Sovereignty Council and Commander-in-Chief of the Rapid Support Forces. The Darfur Bar Association has dismissed the conference as “mere political demonstrations that encourage impunity in the absence of the Rule of Law”.

In June 2018, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali told Parliament that the post-1991 government used torture and killing to terrorise its people. Perpetrated in police detention centres, dungeons and prisons across the country, the state-sanctioned violence recounted by the prime minister amounts to crimes against humanity in international criminal law. That is, a widespread or systematic attack directed against the civilian population.

The Darfur Bar Association (DBA) has confirmed the presence of Russian ‘Wagner’* mercenaries in South Darfur, which it claims to have documented ‘since last year’. The mercenaries are specifically accused of attacks on artisanal gold miners in Um Dafug locality, close to the border with the Central African Republic (CAR).

Gabon and Togo joined the Commonwealth on Saturday, becoming the latest nations with no historic ties to Britain to enter the English-speaking club headed by Queen Elizabeth II.

The 54-nation group of mostly former British colonies accepted Togo and Gabon’s application for membership on the final day of its leadership summit in Rwanda.

Hundreds of Sudanese women, dressed in white Toub, women’s national dress, Saturday took to the street in Omdurman city calling for an end to excessive violence against protesters and the restoration of a civil rule.

Resistance committees and various political and professional opposition groups continue their preparations for the launch of the June 30 Marches of the Millions, calling for the overthrow of the military rulers of the country. Protests calling for the implementation of the 2022 revised salary schedule continue in Red Sea state.

Slightly over two weeks after President Uhuru Kenyatta’s proposal to deploy the East African Standby Force (EASF) to the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, there are no boots on the ground.

Moussa Tolofidie didn’t think twice when nearly 100 jihadis on motorbikes gathered in his village in central Mali last week.

A peace agreement signed last year between some armed groups and the community in the Bankass area had largely held, even if the gunmen would sometimes enter the town to preach Shariah to the villagers. But on this Sunday in June, everything changed — the jihadis began killing people.

On June 8, Algeria suspended its Friendship and Neighborliness Treaty with Spain, in response to Madrid’s recent alignment with Morocco on the Western Sahara conflict. While the suspension of the treaty so far excludes contracts for gas, of which Algeria is Spain’s biggest supplier, it could jeopardize relations with the European Union. But with the change in Madrid’s position, Algeria felt it had to act to send a message, even if it comes at considerable cost.