Sudan is the Origin of Humanity, Says Oxford Study

ACCORDING to the two articles copied here below, everybody alive today came from one African country, Sudan. Note that an excerpt from World History says: "Kush was a kingdom in northern Africa in the region corresponding to modern-day Sudan. The larger region around Kush (later referred to as Nubia) was inhabited c. 8,000 BCE but The Kingdom of Kush rose much later."

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Article from Sudanow Magazine

Dated 02 January 2023 - full copy:

Sudan is the Origin of Humanity, Says Oxford Study

Everybody alive today came from one African country

Everybody alive today came from one African country 

(The Independent) Ariana Baio

Khartoum, Jan 1, 2023 (Sudanow) - It is well known that all humans alive today can be traced back to a common ancestor but a study may have found where that ancestor originates.

Researchers at the University of Oxford’s Big Data Institute mapped the entirety of genetic relationships among humans to create the largest human family tree ever.

By combining modern and ancient human genomes data from eight different databases, the researchers were able to create a massive family tree.

This allowed them to see how a person’s genetic sequence relates to another using the points of the genome.

Everybody alive today came from one African country

Everybody alive today came from Sudan, according to study

“Essentially, we are reconstructing the genomes of our ancestors and using them to form a vast network of relationships,” Lead author Dr Anthony Wilder Wohns said.

 

“We can then estimate when and where these ancestors lived.”

Where they lived? Sudan, Africa.

All humans may have originated in modern-day Sudan, according to a study. Google Maps

Dr Wohns told Reuters, "The very earliest ancestors we identify trace back in time to a geographic location that is in modern Sudan.

“These ancestors lived up to and over 1 million years ago—which is much older than current estimates for the age of Homo sapiens—250,000 to 300,000 years ago. So bits of our genome have been inherited from individuals who we wouldn’t recognize as modern humans," Dr Wohns said.

Researchers used 3,609 individual genome sequences from 215 populations and samples that ranged from 1,000s to over 100,000 years.

By using a new method to compile the data, algorithms were able to predict where common ancestors were in evolutionary trees to explain some patterns of genetic variation.

The results were a network of almost 27 million ancestors.

“The power of our approach is that it makes very few assumptions about the underlying data and can also include both modern and ancient DNA samples,” Dr Wohns says.

View source: https://www.sudanow-magazine.net/page.php

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Related

Article from UNILAD

By Callum Jones

UNILAD Journalist at LADbible Group 

Dated 17:37 28 Dec 2022 GMT- full copy:

Everybody alive today came from one African country, study says

A study from earlier this year has revealed the one African country where everybody alive today originated from

Tracing humans back to a common ancestor is nothing new and is something that has been done for many years.

But a study from February 2022 may have made a major breakthrough by finding out where that ancestor originates from.

Researchers from the University of Oxford's Big Data Institute ended up mapping out the largest ever human family tree ever by using the genetic relationships among humans.

They did this by combining modern and genomes data from eight different databases.

In a press release, Dr Yan Wong, an evolutionary geneticist at the Big Data Institute, and one of the co-authors of the study, said: "We have basically built a huge family tree, a genealogy for all of humanity that models as exactly as we can the history that generated all the genetic variation we find in humans today.

Firoze Edassery / Alamy Stock Photo

"This genealogy allows us to see how every person’s genetic sequence relates to every other, along all the points of the genome."

The study says that the individual genomic regions are only inherited from one parent, either the mother or the father.

They described each point on the genome as a tree, with a set of trees known as a 'tree sequence'.

This links genetic regions back through to time to ancestors, which is where the genetic variation first popped up.

Other lead author Dr Anthony Wilder Wohns said: "Essentially, we are reconstructing the genomes of our ancestors and using them to form a vast network of relationships.

"We can then estimate when and where these ancestors lived.

"The power of our approach is that it makes very few assumptions about the underlying data and can also include both modern and ancient DNA samples."

So from estimates that the researchers came up with, the ancestors apparently lived in Sudan, Africa.

Alan Collins / Alamy Stock Photo

Dr Wohns told Reuters: "The very earliest ancestors we identify trace back in time to a geographic location that is in modern Sudan.

"These ancestors lived up to and over 1 million years ago—which is much older than current estimates for the age of Homo sapiens—250,000 to 300,000 years ago.

"So bits of our genome have been inherited from individuals who we wouldn’t recognize as modern humans."

Researchers got the data from 3,609 individual genome sequences from 215 populations.

These samples ranged from 1,000s of years ago to over 100,000 years in the midst of time.

Featured Image Credit: MJ Photography / Alamy Stock Photo/Timothy Hodgkinson / Alamy Stock Photo

View original: https://www.unilad.com/news/everybody-alive-today-african-608374-20221228

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UPDATE by Sudan Watch Editor 08 Jan 2025 16:07 GMT: 

Added UNILAD article to above post dated 08 Jan 2025.
- - -

Here is a link to evolutionary geneticist Dr Yan Wong 

cited in the UNILAD article:
https://www.bdi.ox.ac.uk/Team/yan-wong
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Plus Dr Wong's paper cited in the UNILAD article:

A unified genealogy of modern and ancient genomes
WONG HY., KELLEHER J., McVean G.
TYPE
Journal article
JOURNAL
Science
PUBLICATION DATE
27/01/2022
https://www.bdi.ox.ac.uk/publications/1234422
- - -

And X/Twitter account and website of Big Data Institute Oxford:

The Big Data Institute | University of Oxford |
Tweets about health, our research and impact.
Oxford, England
https://www.bdi.ox.ac.uk
Big Data Institute
@bdi_oxford
- - -

End

Sudan fighting spreads to World Heritage Site

TERRORISTS are running amok in Sudan. Many of them are not Sudanese. They're flaunting their heinous crimes because no one is stopping them.

From Agence France-Presse (AFP)
Dated Wednesday, 17 January 2024, 1:42 AM GMT - here is a copy in full:

Sudan fighting spreads to World Heritage Site

Fighting in Sudan has spread to the ancient sites of the Kingdom of Kush (ASHRAF SHAZLY)

Sudan's devastating nine-month war between two rival generals is spreading to a UNESCO World Heritage Site, an NGO reported late Tuesday, sounding the alarm for the remains of the ancient Kingdom of Kush.

The Regional Network for Cultural Rights said it "strongly condemns the incursion by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF)", the paramilitary forces of general Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, "on the sites of Naqa and Musawwarat es-Sufra".

RSF forces have been fighting against troops loyal to Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan since April last year.

The NGO said the incident, which took place on Sunday, marked the second time since December that fighting had broken out at the religious sites, located in the northern River Nile state.

State authorities also reported "an incursion by the RSF, repulsed by the air force", claiming that "calm has returned" without mentioning whether the sites suffered any damage.

The cultural rights group said it had consulted "reliable sources, images and videos posted on social networks showing fighting between the army and the RSF, which probably exposed the sites to vandalism, destruction, looting and theft".

According to UNESCO, the archaeological sites of the Island of Meroe, located about 220 kilometres (137 miles) from Khartoum, was "the heartland of the Kingdom of Kush" and is home to pyramids, temples and dwellings dating back thousands of years.

The ancient civilisations of Sudan built more pyramids than those of Egypt, but remain largely unknown.

The Island of Meroe, which lies between the Nile and Atbara rivers, is a World Heritage Site whose ancient civilisation borrowed cultural traits from Pharaonic Egypt, Greece and Rome.

More than 13,000 people have been killed since the war began in April, according to a conservative estimate by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, and the United Nations says more than seven million people have been displaced.   bur/sbh/pz/dhw/tym

View original: https://news.yahoo.com/sudan-fighting-spreads-world-heritage-014252698.html

ENDS

UK sanctions Wagner leaders & front companies responsible for violence and instability across Africa

Press release

UK sanctions Wagner Group leaders and front companies responsible for violence and instability across Africa

English

العربيَّة

Thirteen new UK sanctions announced targeting individuals and businesses linked to the actions of Wagner Group in Africa.

From:

Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and The Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP

Published

20 July 2023

• new UK sanctions target 13 individuals and businesses linked to the actions of the Russian Wagner Group, including executions and torture in Mali and the Central African Republic and threats to peace and security in Sudan
• this includes 3 designations for the mercenary group’s top officials in Mali and Central African Republic (CAR), including the ‘right hand man’ of Yevgeny Prigozhin, who have deliberately targeted civilians in their operations
• a further 5 businesses and individuals involved in threatening peace and stability in Sudan, including through disinformation campaigns and providing military equipment, have been targeted

The UK government has today (Thursday 20 July) announced a wave of sanctions against individuals and businesses involved with the Wagner Group in Mali, Central African Republic (CAR) and Sudan. These measures will limit their financial freedom by preventing UK citizens, companies and banks from dealing with them, alongside freezing any assets held in the UK and travel bans.

The Russian mercenary Wagner Group has operated in Mali, CAR and Sudan for several years, aggressively pursuing Russian foreign policy interests in the region and providing military support to counter-terrorism operations which have seen hundreds of civilians killed. The UK has already sanctioned the Wagner Group, its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, and several of his key commanders who have participated in Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.

The head of the Wagner Group in Mali, Ivan Aleksandrovitch Maslov, is one of those targeted today. Wagner mercenaries, alongside Malian forces, massacred at least 500 people in Moura in March 2022, including summary executions as well as rape and torture.

The head of the Wagner Group in CAR, Vitalii Viktorovitch Perfilev, and the Wagner Group’s head of operations in the country, Konstantin Aleksandrovitch Pikalov, are sanctioned for deliberately targeting civilians.

Pikalov, known as the Wagner Group founder and CEO Yevgeny Prigozhin’s ‘right hand man’, is the operational head of Wagner in CAR. Pikalov is responsible for the Wagner Group’s torture and targeted killings of civilians.

Wagner Group has also provided weapons and military equipment to Sudan. Three businesses, which act as fronts for the Wagner Group and operate in the country, have been included in the new measures, due to the continued risk they pose to peace and stability. These include M-Invest, and its subsidiary Meroe Gold. These build on recent sanctions against companies funding the conflict.

Andrew Mitchell, Minister for Development and Africa, said:

The Wagner Group is committing atrocities in Ukraine, as well as acting with impunity in countries like Mali, Central African Republic and Sudan. Wherever Wagner operates, it has a catastrophic effect on communities, worsens existing conflicts and damages the reputations of countries that host them.

These sanctions expose despicable individuals who have commissioned violations of international humanitarian law, holding them to account for the severe harm they are inflicting on innocent civilians for financial gain.

The UK announced a package of sanctions linked to Sudan last week, targeting 6 companies providing funding and military equipment to the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Through diplomatic engagement and aid programmes, the UK continues to support local, national and international efforts to promote long-term prosperity and stability in Mali, CAR and Sudan.

The UK remains deeply concerned by the destabilising role Wagner plays in this region. Wagner mercenaries operating in Africa have long been reported as being responsible for multiple breaches of international humanitarian law and abuses of human rights, including numerous reports of indiscriminate killings of unarmed civilians. The group’s presence in Africa is self-serving as demonstrated by their grip on the security and economic environments as well as their continued exploitation of natural resources.

The individuals and businesses sanctioned today are:

Mali

• Ivan Aleksandrovitch Maslov, the head of the Wagner Group’s operations in Mali, who oversaw the group’s involvement in the Moura Massacre and has been involved in the commission of violations of international humanitarian law, in particular, the deliberate targeting of civilians

Central African Republic

• Alexander Alexandrovich Ivanov, the Wagner Group’s unofficial spokesperson in CAR, for his association with the Group which has committed violations of international humanitarian law, deliberately targeting civilians
• Aleksandr Grigorievitch Maloletko, a military instructor for the Wagner Group and a close associate of Yevgeny Prigozhin, for his association with the Group which has committed violations of international humanitarian law
• Dimitri Sytii, an individual associated with the Wagner Group in CAR which has violated international humanitarian law, deliberately targeting civilians
• Konstantin Aleksandrovitch Pikalov, a close advisor of Yevgeny Prigozhin, for his involvement in the commission of violations of international humanitarian law in CAR, in particular the deliberate targeting of civilians
• mining company Lobaye Invest Sarlu for involvement in activities which threaten the peace, stability and security of the CAR, including through acts that undermine efforts to resolve armed conflicts, such as funding the training of CAR army recruits by Russian mercenaries
• Sewa Security Services, a CAR-based security company (and subsidiary of Lobaye Invest Sarlu) for its involvement in activities which undermine or threaten the peace, stability and security of the CAR, including by providing support for and/or promoting the actions of the Wagner Group in CAR
• Vitalii Viktorovitch Perfilev, the head of Wagner Group operations in CAR, for violating international humanitarian law by deliberately targeting civilians

Sudan

• Andrei Sergeevich Mandel, Director General of M-Invest which in itself is responsible for action which threatens the peace, stability and security of Sudan
• M-Invest, a company serving as a front for the Wagner Group, for threatening the peace and security of Sudan. M-invest has previously advised the Sudanese government on disinformation campaigns to discredit pro-civilian government protestors
• Meroe Gold, a mining subsidiary of M-Invest, for threatening the peace, stability and security of Sudan. Meroe Gold has imported equipment to Sudan including weapons, helicopters and military trucks
• Mikhail Potepkin, Regional Director of M-Invest and Director of Meroe Gold, for threatening the peace and stability in Sudan. Potepkin is associated with the Wagner Group. He worked to ensure planes hired by Meroe Gold could continue operate domestically and internationally whilst being undetected by commercial aviation radars
• Al-Solag Mining, for threatening the peace, stability and security of Sudan by its association with Meroe Gold (and for its attempts to avoid existing Western sanctions and Sudanese regulations)

View the full UK Sanctions List.

Media enquiries

Email newsdesk@fcdo.gov.uk

Telephone 020 7008 3100

Contact the FCDO Communication Team via email (monitored 24 hours a day) in the first instance, and we will respond as soon as possible.

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Published 20 July 2023

View original: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-sanctions-wagner-group-leaders-and-front-companies-responsible-for-violence-and-instability-across-africa

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