Showing posts with label collapsed state. Show all posts
Showing posts with label collapsed state. Show all posts

Sunday, January 21, 2024

Sudanese Journalists Syndicate says RSF abducted journalist Aqueel Ahmed from his home in Khartoum

From LinkedIn post
News Editor, Internews 
Dated Friday, 19 January 2024 - here is a full copy:

According to the Sudanese #journalists Syndicate,  #RSF unit abducted journalist Aqeel Ahmed from his home in Al-gaili area north of #Khartoum yesterday, Thursday, and took him to an unknown location.

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NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: Abductions happened during the Bashir era, civilians forcibly taken without warning to secret locations where they were imprisoned and tortured. It is difficult to know what is going on in Sudan. Out of curiosity, after some online searches, I found the following info on the difference between a failed state and a collapsed state. Now I am interested in finding out who makes the call and what happens next. 

  • A state is generally considered to have "failed" when it is no longer able to consistently and legitimately enforce its laws or provide its citizens with basic goods and services.
  • A collapsed state is a term used to describe a situation where a sovereign state undergoes a sudden dissolution of its institutions and authority. It is often used to describe extreme situations in which state institutions dissolve rapidly. When a new regime moves in, often led by the military, civil society typically fails to rally around the central government, and societal actors fend for themselves at the local level. The term is often used interchangeably with “failed state” and “fragile state” According to foreign policy experts such as Charles T. Call, a collapsed state is defined as “countries whose state apparatus ceases to exist for a period of several months”.
Apologies for not citing sources, I lost track in my search for the info.

ENDS

Saturday, January 20, 2024

IGAD gives Sudan’s warring factions 2 weeks to meet

SEEMS the following demands made at today's (Saturday) IGAD meeting in Kampala, Uganda occurred after Sudan suspended its membership of IGAD:

"In a communique, read by Djibouti’s Foreign Affairs Minister Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, the heads of states, including Presidents William Ruto of Kenya and Salva Kiir of South Sudan, along with representatives of the European Union, African Union and the United Nations, outlined their demands to the warring factions.

According to the communique, the conflict must be resolved by the Sudanese without any external interference. The IGAD leaders condemned the ongoing conflict that has caused suffering, with people losing hope and the state about to collapse". Read more.


From Observer Uganda

Written by VOA (Voice of America)

Dated Saturday, 20 January 2024 - here is a copy in full:


IGAD gives Sudan’s warring factions two weeks to meet

South Sudan President Salva Kiir at IGAD meeting


East Africa’s Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has given Sudan’s warring factions two weeks to meet face-to-face to de-escalate the situation.


The meeting, which also discussed the tension between Ethiopia and Somalia, made it clear that Somalia’s integrity must be respected. The IGAD meeting in Kampala described the conflict and political tension in the Horn of Africa and Sudan as a disturbing, senseless and devastating development.


Djibouti President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh, also the IGAD chairperson, said the group’s heads of state met with a sense of urgency as the region grapples with challenging times. The conflict in Sudan broke out in April between the national army, led by Gen Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and Gen Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo of the Rapid Support Forces. Since then, 7 million people have been displaced and 12,000 have been killed.


Sudan suspended its participation in the Kampala IGAD summit, accusing the regional body of violating its sovereignty and setting a dangerous precedent.


In a communique, read by Djibouti’s Foreign Affairs Minister Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, the heads of states, including Presidents William Ruto of Kenya and Salva Kiir of South Sudan, along with representatives of the European Union, African Union and the United Nations, outlined their demands to the warring factions.


According to the communique, the conflict must be resolved by the Sudanese without any external interference. The IGAD leaders condemned the ongoing conflict that has caused suffering, with people losing hope and the state about to collapse.


The Rapid Support Forces has specifically been accused of mass killings and use of rape as a weapon of war, especially in Darfur. Both parties have been accused of war crimes. Meanwhile, IGAD expressed concern about relations between Ethiopia and Somalia.


Early this month, Ethiopia signed a memorandum of understanding with Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia, giving Ethiopia access to the sea. In return, Ethiopia would consider recognizing Somaliland as an independent country. IGAD reaffirmed that any such agreement should be with Somalia.


Mike Hammer, the US special envoy for the Horn of Africa, said the US is particularly concerned that the agreement could disrupt the fight that Somalis, Africa and regional partners are waging against the terrorist group al-Shabaab.


"We have already seen troubling indications that al-Shabab is using the MOU to generate new recruits," he said. "We urge both sides to avoid precipitous actions including related to existing Ethiopian force deployment to Somalia that could create opportunities for al-Shabab to expand its reach within Somalia and into Ethiopia."


The African Union Commission chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat urged both Somalia and Ethiopia to engage without delay, saying the tension compounds an already difficult time for the region.


View original: https://observer.ug/news/headlines/80338-igad-gives-sudan-s-warring-factions-two-weeks-to-meet


ENDS

Monday, December 25, 2023

Panic grips Sudan as terrorists move toward south. Civilians flee Sudan register at UNHC in Renk S.Sudan

In Tambul, halfway between Khartoum and Wad Madani, witnesses said RSF members rampaged through one of the state's main markets, shooting into the air at random. And many who tried to flee the onslaught were unable to. Activists, who risk their lives to document the horrors, said the RSF had set up checkpoints across the state, stopping civilians as they tried to flee and ordering them to turn back. Read more.


Report from Daily Sabah
By Agence France-Presse - AFP
Al-Jazira State, Sudan
Dated Monday, 25 December 2023 5:54 PM GMT+3 - here is a copy in full:

Panic grips war-hit Sudan as paramilitaries move toward south

Civilians fleeing conflict in Sudan wait for asylum registration procedures at the U.N. High Commissioner, in Renk, South Sudan, Dec. 18, 2023. 
(AFP Photo)

The war-hit Sudan has plunged into a state of panic as reports emerged that the country's notorious paramilitary forces were moving south in their war against the army.


On a countryside road in battle-ravaged Sudan, the hum of a passing vehicle turns villagers' blood cold, fearing their arrival.


"They've created a state of total panic," said Rabab, who lives in a village north of Wad Madani, the Al-Jazira state capital and the latest site of fierce battles between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).


Like others AFP spoke to, she requested to be identified by first name only out of fear of retaliation from fighters who have consistently targeted civilians during more than eight months of war.


On Saturday at least eight people were killed by RSF fighters in a village in Al-Jazira state, witnesses told AFP, saying they had been shot after trying to stop their looting.


Just south of Khartoum, more than half a million people had sought shelter in Al-Jazira after the fighting overwhelmed the Sudanese capital.


This month, however, paramilitaries pressed deeper into the state and shattered one of the country's few remaining sanctuaries, forcing more than 300,000 people to flee once again, the United Nations said.


Those who remain – unable or unwilling to leave – have found themselves in what the Red Cross has called "another death trap."


Since April 15, Sudan has been gripped by a war pitting army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.


By the end of November, at least 12,190 people had been killed in the fighting, according to a conservative estimate from the Armed Conflict and Location Event Data project.


The United Nations says more than 7 million people have been displaced by the war. At least 85,000 had sought refuge in Wad Madani.


In the village of Aykura, 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Wad Madani, one resident told AFP by phone that "the RSF has taken everything – the cars, the trucks, the tractors."


He, too, stressed the need for anonymity to protect him from paramilitary violence.


'At war with us?'


Before the war, Al-Jazira was a key agricultural hub.


However, as the RSF has moved southwards from Khartoum it has taken over swathes of agricultural land and terrorised the farmers that till it.


By Saturday, RSF fighters were seen north of Sennar, about 140 kilometers south of Wad Madani, according to witnesses.


The RSF has become notorious for looting property, with civilians who fled watching in horror as fighters posted videos of themselves on social media taking joyrides in stolen cars and vandalizing homes.


In the market of Hasaheisa, a town 50 kilometers north of Wad Madani, an AFP correspondent saw shop doors flung open with the merchandise looters had not wanted strewn on the ground.


Omar Hussein, 42, stood in the wreckage of his family business.


Every store and vehicle they owned was destroyed. "Is the RSF at war with the army or with us?" he said.


On Saturday, fellow Hasaheisa resident Abdin found "seven men in RSF uniform carrying machine guns" at his door.


They questioned him about the car in his driveway, "and took it at gunpoint."


When Rabab was robbed, she did not receive the courtesy of a knock.


"They fired their guns in front of the house, stormed in and left no room unsearched," she said.


Free rein


Home invasions have been a hallmark of RSF takeovers – as have sexual assaults.


According to Sudan's Combating Violence Against Women Unit, most sexual violence occurs "inside homes, when gunmen – whom survivors describe as wearing RSF uniforms – break in and assault women and girls."


Both the RSF and the army have been accused of a range of systematic violations including indiscriminate shelling of residential neighborhoods, arbitrary detention of civilians and torture.


In Tambul, halfway between Khartoum and Wad Madani, witnesses said RSF members rampaged through one of the state's main markets, shooting into the air at random.


And many who tried to flee the onslaught were unable to.


Activists, who risk their lives to document the horrors, said the RSF had set up checkpoints across the state, stopping civilians as they tried to flee and ordering them to turn back.


Three days into the RSF's assault on Wad Madani, the army said it opened an investigation into "the retreat of forces from their positions" in the city.


Burhan warned every "negligent and complacent person" would be held to account after the RSF – accused of committing atrocities in the Darfur war where it fought on behalf of the army – had free rein.


View original: https://www.dailysabah.com/world/africa/panic-grips-war-hit-sudan-as-paramilitaries-move-toward-south


ENDS