Thursday 26-Sep-2024 {HMC} Türkiye is exploring new investment projects in Somalia’s central state of Galmudug, according to a statement by the Turkish envoy to the country on Tuesday.

After arriving in Dusmareb, the capital of Galmudug, a delegation led by Türkiye’s ambassador to Somalia, Alper Aktaş, held talks with Ahmed Abdi Karie, the state’s president, along with his Cabinet.

They discussed establishing infrastructure projects in the Galmudug state and the role of Turkish investments.

“We held productive consultations on steps that could be taken for the establishment of the infrastructure needed for the development of Galmudug and the role of potential Turkish investments in this process,” Aktaş said in a statement issued by the Turkish Embassy in Mogadishu.

Türkiye, a longtime close ally of Somalia, has invested in its education, infrastructure and health sectors, as well as provided extensive humanitarian aid.

Türkiye also has its largest overseas military facility in the capital, Mogadishu, to train the Somali National Army.

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Thursday 26 Sep 2024 {HMC} Sudan’s former autocratic President Omar al-Bashir, who ruled for 30 years before he was toppled in a popular uprising and then jailed by the country’s military rulers, has been transferred to a medical facility in northern Sudan, his lawyer said Wednesday.

Since war broke out in April last year between the Sudanese military and its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the 80-year-old al-Bashir has been held at a military facility on the outskirts of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

His lawyer, Mohamed al-Hassan al-Amin, told The Associated Press that al-Bashir was transferred on Tuesday and would get proper care at a better-equipped hospital in the town of Merowe, about 330 kilometers north of Khartoum.

Al-Bashir’s health had deteriorated recently, the lawyer said, adding that the former strongman suffers from age-related complications and high blood pressure.

“He needs regular checks and follow-ups,” al-Amin said over the phone, “but his condition is not critical.”

Al-Amin said that Sudan’s former Defense Minister Abdel-Rahim Muhammad Hussein — who was also arrested soon after al-Bashir — also was transferred to the same facility. He suffers from heart-related problems, the lawyer said.

The office of Sudan’s military spokesman declined to comment when contacted by the AP.

Al-Bashir ruled Sudan for three decades, despite wars and sanctions, before he was overthrown during a popular uprising in 2019. He is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for genocide and other crimes committed during the conflict in Sudan’s western Darfur region in the 2000s.

The ICC has indicted both al-Bashir and Hussein on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Darfur, where the government’s campaign was marked by mass killings, rape, torture and persecution. Some 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million were driven from their homes.

Sudan’s military rulers — now themselves fighting to stay in power in a bitter conflict with the rival RSF — declined ICC requests that al-Bashir and others wanted by the world court be handed over for trial.

Al-Bashir, Hussein and others were held in a Khartoum prison before being taken to a fortified military base after the prison was attacked by the RSF in April last year. Another former official, Ahmed Harun, who is also wanted by the ICC, walked away after the prison was attacked. His whereabouts are unknown.

The latest war in Sudan has devastated Khartoum and many other urban areas and also has been marked by atrocities, such as mass rape and ethnically motivated killings. The United Nations and international rights groups say these acts also amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially in Darfur, which has been facing a bitter onslaught by the RSF.

The war has killed at least 20,000 people and left tens of thousands wounded, according to the United Nations. Rights groups and activists say the toll is much higher.

The conflict has also forced some 10 million people to flee their homes in Sudan — about a quarter of the country’s population, according to the International Organization for Migration. Of them, more than 2 million have been driven abroad, mostly to neighboring Chad, South Sudan and Egypt, the IOM said.

SOURCE VOA

Thursday 26-Sep-2024 {HMC} President Joe Biden is turning to Africa in the sunset of his presidency. In the space of one day, in front of world leaders, he elevated Sudan’s conflict to a priority, announced he would travel to Angola and endorsed adding two seats for African countries to the U.N. Security Council.

In his valedictory speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, Biden made several brief overtures to the African continent — reminding world leaders of the evils of South Africa’s apartheid regime, calling for an end to Sudan’s grueling conflict and citing urgency in combating an mpox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

But these two short lines may have the most weight:

“The U.N. needs to adapt to bring in new voices and new perspectives,” he said. “That’s why we support reforming and expanding the membership of the U.N. Security Council.”

For years, African leaders have called for a seat at this table. But critics point out that Washington does not support a critical privilege enjoyed by the current permanent members of the Security Council: veto power.

Cameron Hudson, a senior fellow in the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says African nations are puzzled by Biden’s position.

“This is really, I think, an unfinished project of his, probably more words than reality,” he told VOA. The fact that Biden supported council membership for them but not veto power “has left Africans scratching their heads.”

John Fortier, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said it mattered that Biden used this platform to call for an end to Sudan’s raging 17-month conflict, but he doubted whether that call would provoke action.

Trying to elevate issue

“This is one of the conflicts that is serious but has not been getting world attention, and I think his pointing to it is really to elevate it in world consciousness but not yet to really know how we’re going to see an end to this,” Fortier said.

This conflict has displaced millions of people and sparked a near-famine. And so, analysts say, it matters that the American president is putting pressure on the warring parties.

“I think Biden genuinely wants to alleviate the humanitarian crisis and resolve the conflict in Sudan,” said Daniel Volman, director of the African Security Research Project, in an email to VOA. “But I think he is reluctant to press countries like Egypt and the [United Arab] Emirates that are arming the generals, because they are key allies during the Gaza war.

“Also, Biden is being driven by pressure from some members of Congress to take stronger and more effective action. I think he will take some limited action, like the new funds for humanitarian aid just announced, but I don’t think this will yield significant results.”

And finally, Biden’s off-camera announcement that he will visit Angola next month allows him to keep his promise to visit the continent. But again, Hudson wondered how this long-delayed visit would land.

“Coming, as it does, at the very tail end of his administration, without much to, I think, really celebrate in terms of his involvement in Africa, I think the visit will ring rather hollow,” Hudson said.

Biden has four months left in his presidency.

SOURCE VOA

Arbaco 25-Sep-2024 {HMC} Ethiopia’s foreign minister has warned that ammunition supplied to Somalia could exacerbate conflict and be diverted to terrorists, Ethiopia’s state news agency reported on Tuesday.

His statement came a day after an Egyptian warship unloaded heavy weaponry in the capital Mogadishu, the second arms shipment in the space of a month following the inking of a joint security pact by Egypt and Somalia in August.

Landlocked Ethiopia, which has thousands of troops stationed in neighbouring Somalia to fight al Qaeda-linked Islamist insurgents, has fallen out with the Mogadishu government over its plans to build a port in the breakaway region of Somaliland.

The spat has drawn Somalia closer to Egypt, which has quarrelled with Ethiopia for years over Addis Ababa’s construction of a vast hydro dam on the headwaters of the Nile River.

Ethiopia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Taye Astke Selassie said he was concerned that the supply of ammunition by “external forces would further exacerbate the fragile security and would end up in the hands of terrorists in Somalia,” Ethiopia News Agency reported.

There was no immediate response from Somalia’s government to Taye’s remarks.

“The potential for weapons landing in the wrong hands is high. Al Shabaab is a major beneficiary and in 2023 harvested massive quantities of weapons by conducting raids on enemy (bases),” said Rashid Abdi, an analyst with the Sahan Research think-tank.

The UN Security Council lifted its arms embargo in December, more than 30 years after it was first imposed as Somalia plunged into civil war.

In January, Ethiopia agreed to lease 20km (12 miles) of coastline from Somaliland – a part of Somalia which claims independence and has operated with effective autonomy since 1991 – in exchange for possible recognition of its sovereignty.

In response, Somalia threatened to expel by the end of the year Ethiopia’s troops, who are there as part of the peacekeeping mission and under bilateral agreements, if the port deal was not scrapped.

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