UK government must do more to prevent ‘unfolding genocide’ in Sudan, politicians warn

The UN’s Human Rights Office said the bodies of at least 87 people, including women and children, were found at a mass burial site in Darfur, where violence is escalating and a humanitarian crisis is unfolding. (Reuters)
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Updated 15 July 2023
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UK government must do more to prevent ‘unfolding genocide’ in Sudan, politicians warn

  • David Alton, a member of the House of Lords, said ‘the international community is doing nothing’ and in particular criticized the ‘lamentable’ response from British political leaders
  • Andrew Mitchell, minister of state for development and Africa, said the immediate objective ‘is to stop the violence and atrocities,’ protect civilians and ensure humanitarian aid gets through

LONDON: The British government has been urged to step up its efforts to prevent the further escalation of violence in Sudan, amid concerns about an “unfolding genocide.” It came after a mass grave was discovered in West Darfur on Thursday.

The UN’s Human Rights Office said the bodies of at least 87 people, including women and children, were found at the burial site. It added that it has obtained credible information that suggests the victims were killed by the Rapid Support Forces, a militia has been engaged in a conflict with former ally the Sudanese Armed Forces since April.

David Alton, a crossbench peer in the House of Lords, the upper chamber of the UK parliament, and a member of its Human Rights Committee, told The Independent newspaper on Friday that he had spoken to politicians about the situation in Sudan.

“There is an unfolding genocide happening in Darfur and the international community is doing nothing,” he added.

Lord Alton in particular criticized what he described as the “lamentable” response from the British government.

“Mass graves are synonymous with 20 years ago,” he said. “It is an appalling indictment of the abysmal failure of the international community that two decades later, a commitment of ‘never again’ has been allowed to happen all over again.

“There is no end to the suffering which the people of Darfur have had to endure, we should hang our heads in shame.

“What started then has been a slow-burn genocide that never ended. The perpetrators were never held to account … and surprise, surprise, it is now happening again on a shocking scale.”

Vicky Ford, the Conservative MP for Chelmsford, who chairs an all-party parliamentary group on Sudan and South Sudan, said that more than 2 million people have been forced to flee their homes in Sudan since the current fighting began, and 25 million people are in need of humanitarian aid.

She told The Independent the British government is aware of the situation and is engaged in discussions with international partners. She added that Andrew Mitchell, the minister of state for development and Africa, “absolutely understands the critical nature of this situation and the risk of it spreading.”

Ford continued: “There are more questions about other potential steps the UK government could take, and I hope they … take them as soon as possible.”

Mitchell said in a statement that the UK has provided more than £250 million ($327.3 million) in humanitarian aid to Sudan over the past five years, with a further £21.7 million to come, and has set up a £5 million fund to help those forced to flee the country.

“The UK’s immediate objective in Sudan is to stop the violence and atrocities being committed, ensure civilians are protected, and push for immediate, safe and unfettered access for humanitarian organizations,” he said.



“The UK continues to support local peace-building activities in Darfur, working with international nongovernmental organizations and civil society actors to end the conflict as soon as possible and support efforts to sustain a ceasefire.”


Lebanon to hold parliament session on January 9 to elect president

Updated 13 sec ago
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Lebanon to hold parliament session on January 9 to elect president

  • State news agency: ‘Speaker Nabih Berri called a parliament session to elect a president of the republic on January 9’
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s parliament will hold a session in January to elect a new president, official media reported on Thursday, a day after an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire began and following more than two years of presidential vacuum.
“Speaker Nabih Berri called a parliament session to elect a president of the republic on January 9,” the official National News Agency reported.

Israeli tank fires at 3 south Lebanese towns

Updated 10 min 2 sec ago
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Israeli tank fires at 3 south Lebanese towns

  • Lebanese security sources and state media report tank fire struck Markaba, Wazzani and Kfarchouba

BEIRUT: Israeli tank fire hit three towns along Lebanon’s southeast border with Israel on Thursday, Lebanese security sources and state media said, a day after a ceasefire barring “offensive military operations” came into force.

Tank fire struck Markaba, Wazzani and Kfarchouba, all of which lie within two kilometers of the Blue Line demarcating the border between Lebanon and Israel. One of the security sources said two people were wounded in Markaba.

A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah took effect on Wednesday under a deal brokered by the US and France, intended to allow people in both countries to start returning to homes in border areas shattered by 14 months of fighting.

But managing the returns have been complicated. Israeli troops remain stationed within Lebanese territory in towns along the border, and on Thursday morning the Israeli military urged residents of towns along the border strip not to return yet for their own safety.

The three towns hit on Thursday morning lie within that strip.

There was no immediate comment on the tank rounds from Hezbollah or Israel, who had been fighting for over a year in parallel with the Gaza war.

The agreement, a rare diplomatic feat in a region racked by conflict, ended the deadliest confrontation between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group in years. But Israel is still fighting its other arch foe, the Palestinian militant group Hamas, in the Gaza Strip.

Under the ceasefire terms, Israeli forces can take up to 60 days to withdraw from southern Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had instructed the military not to allow residents back to villages near the border.

Lebanon’s speaker of parliament Nabih Berri, the top interlocutor for Lebanon in negotiating the deal, had said on Wednesday that residents could return home.


Syria war monitor says more than 130 dead in army-militant clashes in north

Updated 41 min 15 sec ago
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Syria war monitor says more than 130 dead in army-militant clashes in north

  • Clashes followed “an operation launched by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said
  • The air forces of both Syria and its ally Russia struck the attacking militants

BEIRUT: A monitor of Syria’s war said on Thursday that more than 130 combatants had been killed in clashes between the army and militant groups in the country’s north, as the government also reported fierce fighting.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the toll in the clashes which began a day earlier after the militants launched an attack “has risen to 132, including 65 fighters” from Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, 18 from allied factions “and 49 members of the regime forces.”


Palestinian leader Abbas lays ground for succession

Updated 28 November 2024
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Palestinian leader Abbas lays ground for succession

  • Abbas, 89, still rules despite his term as head of the Palestinian Authority ending in 2009, and has resisted pressure to appoint a successor or a vice president

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Wednesday announced who would replace him in an interim period when the post becomes vacant, effectively removing the Islamist movement Hamas from any involvement in a future transition.
Abbas, 89, still rules despite his term as head of the Palestinian Authority ending in 2009, and has resisted pressure to appoint a successor or a vice president.
Under current Palestinian law, the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) takes over the Palestinian Authority in the event of a power vacuum.
But the PLC, where Hamas had a majority, no longer exists since Abbas officially dissolved it in 2018 after more than a decade of tensions between his secular party, Fatah, and Hamas, which ousted the Palestinian Authority from power in the Gaza Strip in 2007.
In a decree, Abbas said the Palestinian National Council chairman, Rawhi Fattuh, would be his temporary replacement should the position should become vacant.
“If the position of the president of the national authority becomes vacant in the absence of the legislative council, the Palestinian National Council president shall assume the duties... temporarily,” it said.
The decree added that following the transition period, elections must be held within 90 days. This deadline can be extended in the event of a “force majeure,” it said.
The PNC is the parliament of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which has over 700 members from the Palestinian territories and abroad.
Hamas, which does not belong to the PLO, has no representation on the council. The PNC deputies are not elected, but appointed.
The decree refers to the “delicate stage in the history of the homeland and the Palestinian cause” as war rages in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, after the latter’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel in October last year.
There are also persistent divisions between Hamas and Fatah.
The decree comes on the same day that a ceasefire entered into force in Lebanon after an agreement between Israel and Hamas’s ally, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
The Palestinian Authority appears weaker than ever, unable to pay its civil servants and threatened by Israeli far-right ministers’ calls to annex all or part of the occupied West Bank, an ambition increasingly less hidden by the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.


Israeli military says it downed drone smuggling weapons from Egypt

Updated 27 November 2024
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Israeli military says it downed drone smuggling weapons from Egypt

CAIRO: The Israeli military said on Wednesday it shot down a drone that was carrying weapons and crossed from Egypt to Israel.
When asked about the latest drone incident, Egyptian security sources said they had no knowledge of such an incident.
In two separate incidents in October, Israel also said it downed two drones smuggling weapons from Egyptian territory.
Israeli officials have said during the war in Gaza that Palestinian militant group Hamas used tunnels running under the border into Egypt’s Sinai region to smuggle arms.
However, Egypt says it destroyed tunnel networks leading to Gaza years ago and created a buffer zone and border fortifications that prevent smuggling.