Kherson, Ukraine: Life under Russian occupation

Towns and villages in the Kherson region, under occupation by Russian troops since the first days of the war, have been completely isolated. The behavior of the Russian soldiers has left many citizens puzzled.

Despite the occupation, people across the Kherson region have been coming out to protest the presence of Russian troops

"We are not giving up, we are part of Ukraine!"

This defiant phrase rings out daily in the streets of towns and villages of the Kherson region. The area in southern Ukraine has effectively been under Russian occupation since the first days of the war against Ukraine. But people in the city of Kherson, and in Nova Kakhovka, Kakhovka, Hola Prystan, Skadovsk, Oleshky, Henichesk, Novotroitske and Chaplynka, have been peacefully protesting against the presence of Russian troops, saying they weren't invited and should just leave.

"We had another rally yesterday. More than 5,000 people came, all carrying blue and yellow flags," said Yevhen Ryshchuk, the mayor of Oleshky. "People sang the anthem and signed appeals to the US president and European heads of state, asking them to close the airspace over Ukraine."

Isolated from rest of the country

The situation is similar in all these towns and villages. They've been encircled by Russian troops who, for the most part, control the roads in and out but stay outside. The only exception is Nova Kakhovka, which stretches along both banks of the Dnieper River and is home to a hydroelectric power plant. There, Russian troops can be seen on the streets of the city center.

The Ukrainian flag continues to fly in every municipality, where the authorities are still taking care of local concerns.

"We have electricity, gas, water, the communal services are working," said Oleksandr Yakovlev, mayor of Skadovsk. "People and volunteers have organized themselves into associations to prevent looting. We can only contact the central state power authorities by phone. But how can they help us now?".

"There are big problems with logistics. People can't pick up their pensions at the post office, because no money has been delivered."

Skadovsk is located some 30 kilometers (about 18 miles) from the administrative border with Russian-occupied Crimea, and 100 kilometers from Kherson. Unlike other parts of the country, Skadovsk hasn't really seen any fighting. It was besieged in the first hours after the initial attack on February 24 by Russian troops, who immediately set up checkpoints everywhere, said Yakovlev.

"People are being let through, but their cars and identity papers are checked. Civilian vehicles have also come under fire, and there have been victims. Yesterday, they shot at an ambulance, but there were no casualties," said the mayor. On the morning of March 9, Russian armored vehicles drove directly into the city and positioned themselves in front of the city hall, but did nothing else.
'There is no one to talk to'

Both mayors said they hadn't been contacted by the Russian military, which had not made any demands. They suspected that the soldiers themselves did not know what to do with the occupied territories. In any case, said the mayors, the Russian troops had not been received with flowers by the locals, as Russia's top leaders had expected.

Volodymyr Kovalenko, the mayor of Nova Kakhovka, has set up a temporary office in a municipal utility building because the town hall has been occupied by the Russians, who are using it as their headquarters. Kovalenko said they had appointed an administrator, and imposed a curfew.

"The town is under the control of the Russian army. I make sure that life goes on somehow," said Kovalenko. He said he only makes contact with the occupiers through his deputy — and only when he needs help with a problem he can't solve himself, such as making a trip along the road over the power plant dam, which is also under Russian control. He added he was trying to get food delivered to residential districts.

Other mayors have no contact at all with the Russians, including Mayor Ryshchuk in Oleshky. He said there were more than 100 bodies lying on a bridge over the Dnieper River, which connects his town with the city of Kherson. No one has been allowed to go recover the bodies of the civilians and Ukrainian soldiers killed in the fierce fighting, not even priests or volunteers.

"There is no one to talk to," said Ryshchuk. "People are constantly changing at the checkpoints. Who is there to negotiate with?"

Enough supplies to last another 10 days

Agriculture is one of the region's industries, meaning the locals still have access to food staples. Farmers from the surrounding areas have brought vegetables and meat into the cities. Defunct mills are being repaired so that they can supply bakeries with flour and oil.

But fuel and medicine, especially for cancer patients, is scarce. "The food in our warehouses will last for another 10 days. But we have no extra supplies of medicine, fuel and lubricants. What we have will only last for one or two more days," said Kovalenko.

In Kherson and other towns in the regions, volunteers have been providing food for locals

The mayors set aside fuel reserves for municipal vehicles and ambulances. But when these run out, life in these towns and villages will likely be completely paralyzed — and no one knows what will happen next.

'People here are very pro-Ukraine'

Parts of the region no longer have mobile phone coverage. But people still have access to Ukrainian television broadcasts, even though the transmitter tower in Kherson has been occupied by Russian troops. Many people also have satellite dishes, and others are able to get information via the internet.

"People here are very pro-Ukraine. This staged show, with Russian humanitarian aid being distributed in front of Russian TV cameras, doesn't work with the people here," said Anton*, an activist from Henichesk, adding that pro-Ukraine rallies with thousands of participants would show the Russians that they're not welcome.

Locals have said Russia staged a delivery of humanitarian aid in front of Russian TV cameras

"The Russian soldiers told us they had not come as conquerors. But in the meantime, they have threatened us by saying if they're provoked, they'll raze the town to the ground," said Anton. He said many residents wondered why such a large part of Kherson region had gone to the Russian army without a fight. But they hoped Ukraine would soon regain control over its territory.

Meanwhile, according to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, units of the Russian National Guard have been deployed to the region, and more than 400 Ukrainian citizens were arrested in the region on Wednesday.

This article was originally published in Ukrainian

*DW has changed the activist's name to protect his identity

UKRAINIAN SPORTS STARS WHO HAVE TAKEN UP ARMS

Dmytro Pidruchnyi (Biathlon)

After his return from the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, Dmytro Pidruchnyi enrolled in the Ukrainian National Guard to fight after Russia’s invasion of his country. The 30-year-old is a former European champion biathlete and has been to two Olympic Games.

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FORGIVE THE DEBT

Argentina lawmakers approve deal with IMF to repay vast debt


Argentina's debt has led to protests 

(AFP/ALEJANDRO PAGNI) 

Fri, March 11, 2022

Lawmakers in Argentina on Friday approved a deal with the International Monetary Fund to restructure a ruinous $45 billion debt ahead of a vote in the upper house.

With 204 votes in favor, 37 against and 11 abstentions, the package obtained "an affirmative result and will be communicated to the honorable Senate," chamber president Sergio Massa said.

The details of the deal were ironed out between Argentine officials and IMF staff after an in-principle agreement in January.

"This is the best refinancing agreement that could be achieved," lawmaker Carlos Heller from the pro-government Frente de Todos (Everyone's Front) said.

A rejection of the package "would lead us into serious problems that we must avoid at all costs," he added ahead of the session that lasted until early Friday morning.

In 2018, under the government of conservative President Mauricio Macri, the IMF approved its biggest-ever loan of $57 billion to Argentina. The country received $44 billion of that amount.

Macri's successor Alberto Fernandez refused to accept the rest, seeking also to renegotiate repayment terms. Payments of $19 billion and $20 billion were due this year -- a timeline the government considered impossible.

Argentina is just emerging from three years of economic recession and battling rising inflation and a high poverty rate.

Under the new deal, repayments will be made from 2026 to 2034 after a grace period.

- Protests and violence -

As well as going through the Senate, the package must also be ratified by the IMF board of directors before it comes into force.

Despite reluctance from a sector of Frente de Todos and the opposition coalition Juntos por el Cambio (Together for Change), the lawmakers passed the refinancing deal, but many have questioned the economic program that will accompany it.

"This is not the time for opportunism," said Juntos por el Cambio MP Facundo Manes.

"The opposition must give (the government) the chance to restructure the debt, but we cannot take responsibility for the program that the government negotiated with the IMF."

As expected, minority figures on the left and on the libertarian right were opposed to the agreement.

Pro-government MP German Martinez said the deal gave "time that allows us to consolidate, boost a process of economic recovery".

"That will allow us to be in better shape in four-and-a-half years to start facing the payments, and we are going to make them without adjustment," he said.

Argentina hopes to reduce its fiscal deficit from 3.0 percent of GDP today to 0.9 percent by 2024.

There were protests against the deal outside parliament, with some demonstrators burning rubbish and throwing stones towards the building entrance.

A police officer was hit by a Molotov cocktail and some windows were hit with stones, including those at the offices of the Senate president and Vice President Cristina Kirchner.

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NASA opens sample taken from the Moon 50 years on

A sample of moon rock collected during the Apollo 17 mission is opened by NASA 50 years on (AFP/Robert MARKOWITZ) (Robert MARKOWITZ)


Thu, March 10, 2022

The Apollo missions to the Moon brought a total of 2,196 rock samples to Earth. But NASA has only just started opening one of the last ones, collected 50 years ago.

For all that time, some tubes were kept sealed so that they could be studied years later, with the help of the latest technical breakthroughs.

NASA knew "science and technology would evolve and allow scientists to study the material in new ways to address new questions in the future," Lori Glaze, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters, said in a statement.

Dubbed 73001, the sample in question was collected by astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt in December 1972, during the Apollo 17 mission -- the last of the program.

The tube, 35 cm long and 4 cm (13.8 inches by 1.6 inches) wide, had been hammered into the ground of the Moon's Taurus-Littrow valley to collect the rocks.

Of the only two samples to have been vacuum sealed on the Moon, this is the first to be opened.

It could as such contain gases or volatile substances (water, carbon dioxide, etc.)

And the aim is to extract these gases, which are probably only present in very small quantities, to be able to analyze them using spectrometry techniques that have become extremely precise in recent years.

In early February, the outer protective tube was first removed.

It was not itself revealed to contain any lunar gas, indicating that the sample it contained remained sealed.

Then on February 23, scientists began a weeks-long process aimed at piercing the main tube and harvesting the gas contained inside.

In the spring, the rock will then be carefully extracted and broken up so that it can be studied by different scientific teams.

The extraction site of this sample is particularly interesting because it is the site of a landslide.

"Now we don't have rain on the Moon," said Juliane Gross, deputy Apollo curator. "And so we don't quite understand how landslides happen on the Moon."

Gross said researchers hope to study the sample to understand what causes landslides.

After 73001, there will be only three lunar samples still sealed. When will they in turn be opened?

"I doubt we'll wait another 50 years," said senior curator Ryan Zeigler.

"Particularly once they get Artemis samples back, it might be nice to do a direct comparison in real time between whatever's coming back from Artemis, and with one of these remaining unopened core, sealed cores," he said.

Artemis is NASA's next moon mission; the agency wants to send humans back to the Moon in 2025.

Large amounts of gas should then be collected, and the experiment currently being conducted helps to better prepare for it.

la-vgr/mdl/md

New giant tortoise species found in Ecuador after DNA study

A new species of giant tortoise has been discovered in the Galapagos after DNA testing found animals living on one island had not yet been recorded, Ecuador’s environment ministry said

.

© Provided by The South African

AFP 

Researchers compared the genetic material of tortoises currently living on San Cristobal with bones and shells collected in 1906 from a cave in the island’s highlands and found them to be different.

ALSO READ: Critically endangered bat not seen in decades found in Rwanda

FOUND TORTOISE SPECIES IS ‘ALMOST CERTAINLY EXTINCT’

The 20th-century explorers never reached the lowlands northeast of the island, where the animals live today, and as a result, almost 8 000 tortoises correspond to a different lineage to what was previously thought.

“The species of giant tortoise that inhabits San Cristobal Island, until now known scientifically as Chelonoidis chathamensis, genetically matches a different species,” the ministry said Thursday on Twitter.

Galapagos Conservancy said in a newsletter that the Chelonoidis chathamensis species is “almost certainly extinct” and that the island had in fact been home to two different varieties of tortoise, one living in the highlands and another in the lowlands.

THERE WERE ORIGINALLY 15 SPECIES OF GIANT TORTOISE IN SAN CRISTOBAL

Located in the Pacific about 1 000 kilometres off the coast of Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands are a protected wildlife area and home to unique species of flora and fauna.

The archipelago was made famous by British geologist and naturalist Charles Darwin’s observations on evolution there.

There were originally 15 species of giant tortoise on the islands, three of which became extinct centuries ago, according to the Galapagos National Park.

A NEW NAME FOR TORTOISES LIVING ON SAN CRISTOBAL

In 2019, a specimen of Chelonoidis phantastica was found on Fernandina Island more than 100 years after the species was considered extinct.

The study by researchers from Newcastle University in Britain, Yale in the United States, the American NGO Galapagos Conservancy and other institutions was published in the scientific journal Heredity.

They will continue to recover more DNA from the bones and shells to determine whether the tortoises living on San Cristobal, which is 557 kilometres long, should be given a new name.

Four endangered American crocodiles are born in Peru

A 45 day-old American crocodile hatchling inside a plastic container is weighed at the 

Huachipa Zoo, Peru, on March 10, 2022.

A Lima zoo announced Thursday the birth in captivity of four American crocodiles, an endangered species, after a successful artificial incubation.

The crocodile hatchlings were born in mid-January after 78 days of incubation from the eggs of a pair of adult crocodiles that live in the Huachipa Zoological Park, east of Lima.

"We have now shown these crocodile pups that were just born 45 days ago at the zoo," Jose Flores, head of the zoo's reptile area, told AFP.

"Any birth of any species that is threatened and (in) danger of extinction must be considered an achievement," he stressed.

The hatchlings live in a special fish tank, measure 26 centimeters (10.2 inches) and weigh between 70 and 90 grams (0.15 to 0.19 lbs) each.

They have the traditional olive green color of the species and protruding eyes. They feed on small pieces of chicken and fish.

In Peru, they are known as "Tumbes crocodiles" because their natural habitat is the mangroves of Tumbes, on the border with Ecuador.

"This species, in Peru, is in danger of extinction mainly due to the destruction of its natural habitat," explained Flores, 39.

The small reptiles belong to the Crocodylus Acutus species and are the only ones that survived from the 25 eggs that the mother incubated.

A 45-day-old American crocodile hatchling is measured during its periodic control at the 

Huachipa Zoo, Peru, on March 10, 2022. The zoo announced the birth in captivity of four

 American crocodiles, an endangered species, after a successful period of 78 days of 

artificial incubation from the eggs of a pair of adult crocodiles that live in the park.

At 195 kilograms (430 lbs), the father crocodile is five meters (yards) long while the mother is 2.5 meters long and weighs 85 kilos. They are both 20 years old.

This species is found in the southern United States, Mexico and Venezuela, but in countries such as Peru and Ecuador it is critically endangered.

Relentless hunting for their skins reduced numbers dramatically in the 1960s. There are now restrictions controlling the trade in crocodiles and their skins.

Rare crocodile eggs hatched at Cambodian conservation center

© 2022 AFP

UN holds biodiversity talks on deal to stave off mass extinction

by Laure Fillon

Experts fear Earth is facing an era of mass extinction.

Global efforts to cut plastic and agricultural pollution, protect a third of wild spaces, and ultimately live "in harmony with nature" will dominate UN biodiversity negotiations starting Monday, held in person after a two-year pandemic delay.

Almost 200 countries are due to adopt a global framework this year to safeguard nature by mid-century from the destruction wrought by humanity, with a key milestone of 30 percent protected by 2030.

The aim is also to safeguard the "services" nature supplies: the air we breathe, the water we drink, the soil that yields the food we eat.

The meeting in Geneva will set the stage for a crucial UN biodiversity summit, initially due to be held in China in 2020 and postponed several times. It is now expected to take place at the end of August.

Geneva is a chance to strengthen a draft global biodiversity agreement "that many observers feel currently lacks the teeth needed to meaningfully address interconnected biodiversity and climate crises that cannot be solved in isolation", according to the Nature Conservancy.

Campaigners have for years called for a deal on halting biodiversity loss similar to what the Paris Agreement outlined for the climate.

Previous efforts to halt this devastation have fallen short, with countries failing, for example, to meet almost all the biodiversity targets set in 2010.

But despite often being overshadowed by the efforts to combat climate change, the plight of the natural world is no less catastrophic.

Intensive agriculture is depleting the soil and fouled waterways, oceans are overfished, plastics and other pollutants are invading ecosystems and threatening our health.

And now climate change is a growing threat that could compound all of these problems.

Last month, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that nine percent of all the world's species will likely be "at high risk" of extinction even if warming is capped at the ambitious Paris target of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

In 2019, a report by UN biodiversity experts said one million species could disappear in the coming decades, raising fears that the world is entering its sixth era of mass extinction in the last half-billion years.

"We only know of about 10 percent of the species that exist on Earth. Some disappear without even having been described, nor ever seen by any human being," Anne Larigauderie, executive secretary of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), told AFP.

Ambition

The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is aiming to reverse that trend with its global framework.

This round of negotiations began in Rome in February 2020 and was swiftly brought to a halt by the Covid-19 pandemic, though online sessions continued and a draft text was finished in 2021.

It is hoped the in-person meeting in Geneva will move the process closer to a global deal at the UN's COP15 summit in China.

"Will we be able to settle everything? That's the big question," Basile van Havre, one of the two co-chairs of the negotiations, told AFP.

The draft outlines some twenty targets for 2030, including the high-profile ambition to protect at least 30 percent of the Earth's land and water habitats.

It also outlines objectives on reducing the amount of fertilisers and pesticides discharged into the environment and cutting at least $500 billion per year of subsidies harmful to Nature and ecosystems.

But as it stands, Guido Broekhoven of WWF said, the text is "not ambitious and comprehensive enough to address the current biodiversity crisis".

Observers will judge whether the mechanisms put in place—such as monitoring and enforcement—correspond to the targets set, said Sebastien Treyer, director general of the IDDRI think tank.

There will also be significant attention on the "mobilisation of financial resources", which are of particular importance to the Global South, he said.

Even the goal of the so-called High Ambition Coalition to protect 30 percent of the planet by 2030 might not be enough, observers said.

"If we do not tackle the indirect causes (of biodiversity loss), in particular production and consumption, there will always be strong erosion," said Juliette Landry, a researcher at IDDRI.More protected areas won't save biodiversity, warn experts

© 2022 AFP

Druze pop star seeks to bridge Palestinian and Israeli divide

"Yalla, yalla, raise your hands!" Israeli Druze singer Mike Sharif shouts in Arabic to the Palestinian crowd swaying to a Hebrew hit at a wedding in the occupied West Bank.

 

© JALAA MAREY Israeli Druze singer Mike Sharif

AFP 1 day ago

The scene, all the more unusual as it took place in Yatta, a Palestinian village near Hebron and site of frequent friction with the Israeli army and Jewish settlers, created a buzz on social networks and local media.

"I had prepared three hours of performance in Arabic only. After half an hour, everyone -- the families of the bride and groom, the guests -- asked me to sing in Hebrew," Sharif, interviewed in the northern Israeli Druze town of Daliat al-Carmel, told AFP.

The Druze, an Arabic-speaking minority offshoot of Shiite Islam, number around 140,000 in Israel and the occupied Golan Heights.

Nicknamed "the Druze prodigy" after winning a TV competition aged 12, Sharif -- now in his 40s -- rose to fame with his Mizrahi (Eastern) pop songs in the 1990s in Israel, but also in the West Bank, Gaza and Arab countries.

"I have always belonged to everyone," says the self-proclaimed "ambassador of peace" between Israelis and Palestinians.

- 'Hebrew in Hebron, Arabic in Tel Aviv'-

From the inception of Mizrahi pop, influenced by the Jewish cultures of the Middle East and North Africa, reciprocal influences were established with the music of neighbouring Arab territories.

Today, the popularity of artists like Israel's most popular singer Eyal Golan or the younger Eden Ben Zaken reaches well into Palestinian society.

At the same time, the big names in Arabic music -- Oum Kalsoum, Fairuz or Farid al-Atrash -- have long been popular among Israeli Jews.

To Sharif, this musical proximity should make it possible "to unite everyone" and contribute to ending conflicts.

"I sing in Hebrew in Hebron, in Arabic in Tel Aviv and Herzliya. I sing in both languages and everyone sings on both sides," he said.

"Music can contribute to peace. Politics does not bring people together this way."

His Yatta show, however, brought waves of criticism and even threats from both sides, with some Palestinians and Israelis calling him a "traitor" -- the former for singing in Hebrew in the West Bank, the latter for performing at a Palestinian marriage.

And after having said he wanted to be "the first Israeli singer to perform in the Gaza Strip", the territory controlled by Hamas Islamists that Israelis may not enter, he abandoned the idea "due to tensions", Sharif said.

- 'Emotional experience' -

Oded Erez, a popular music expert at Bar-Ilan university near Tel Aviv, links the notion of music as a bridge between Israelis and Palestinians to the "Oslo years" of the early 1990s following the signing of interim peace accords.

Jewish singers like Zehava Ben or Sarit Hadad performed songs by Umm Kulthum in Palestinian cities in Arabic, he recalled, but according to the musicologist, this phenomenon collapsed along with the political failure of the Oslo accords.

"This shared investment in shared music and style and sound is not a platform for political change or political reconciliation per se, you would need to politicise it explicitly, to mobilise it politically, for it to become that," he said of current cultural musical exchanges.

Today, the musical affinity between Palestinians and Israelis is reduced to the essential: "more physical and emotional than intellectual", he said.

The request of the Palestinian revellers at the Yatta wedding was "not a demand for Hebrew per se" but rather for Sharif's "hits" from the 80s and 90s, when "his music was circulating" and some songs entered the wedding "canon", Erez said.

The same goes for the title "The sound of gunpowder", written in 2018 in honour of a Palestinian armed gang leader from a refugee camp near Nablus in the West Bank that is played repeatedly at Israeli weddings, Erez said.

"When there is music, people disconnect from all the wars, from politics, from differences of opinion," Sharif said.

"They forget everything, they just focus on the music."

dms/cgo/gl-jjm/hc/jfx

HERESIOLOGY

Druze - Wikipedia

Druze (/ˈdruːz/;^[20] Arabic: درزي darzī or durzī, plural دروز durūz) are members of an Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group^[21][22] originating in Western Asia. They practice Druzism, an Abrahamic,^[23][24] monotheistic, syncretic, and ethnic religion based on the teachings of Hamza ibn Ali ibn Ahmad and the sixth Fatimid caliph, al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, and ancient Greek philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, and Zeno of Citium.^[25][26] Adherents of the Druze religion are called The People of Monotheism (Al-Muwaḥḥidūn).^[27]

The Epistles of Wisdom is the foundational and central text of the Druze faith.^[28] The Druze faith incorporates elements of Isma'ilism,^[29] Christianity, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism,^[30][31] Zoroastrianism,^[32][33] Buddhism,^[34][35] Hinduism, Pythagoreanism,^[36][37] and other philosophies and beliefs, creating a distinct and secretive theology based on an esoteric interpretation of scripture, which emphasizes the role of the mind and truthfulness.^[27][37] Druze believe in theophany and reincarnation.^[38] Druze believe that at the end of the cycle of rebirth, which is achieved through successive reincarnations, the soul is united with the Cosmic Mind (al-ʻaql al-kullī).^[39]

Video clips from the archive of Israel Channel 2 Israeli News Company showing Israeli Druze men in traditional clothing. The flags shown are Druze flags.

Druze believe there were seven prophets at different periods in history: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, and Muhammad ibn Isma'il ad-Darazi.^[40][41][42] Druze tradition also honors and reveres Salman the Persian,^[43] al-Khidr (who identify as Elijah and reborn as John the Baptist and Saint George),^[44] Job, Luke the Evangelist, and others as "mentors" and "prophets."^[45] They also have a special affinity with Shuaib, or Jethro.^[46]

Even though the faith originally developed out of Isma'ilism, Druze do not identify as Muslims.^[47] The Druze faith is one of the major religious groups in the Levant, with between 800,000 and a million adherents. They are found primarily in Lebanon, Syria, and Israel, with small communities in Jordan. They make up 5.5% of the population of Lebanon, 3% of Syria and 1.6% of Israel. The oldest and most densely-populated Druze communities exist in Mount Lebanon and in the south of Syria around Jabal al-Druze (literally the "Mountain of the Druze").^[48]

The Druze community played a critically important role in shaping the history of the Levant, where it continues to play a significant political role. As a religious minority in every country in which they are found, they have frequently experienced persecution by different Muslim regimes, including contemporary Islamic extremism.

Russia ramps up ties with Sudan as Ukraine war rages


Experts say Moscow is boosting relations with its longtime

 African ally Sudan, eyeing its gold wealth and strategic location 

(AFP/-) (-)

Abdelmoneim Abu Idris Ali
Thu, March 10, 2022,

As much of the West seeks to isolate Russia after it invaded Ukraine, experts say Moscow is boosting relations with its longtime African ally Sudan, eyeing its gold wealth and strategic location.

Khartoum has lost crucial Western support since army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan led a military coup last October, a move that triggered broad condemnation and punitive measures, including a suspension of $700 million in US aid.

On February 23, the day before Russia invaded its neighbour, a Sudanese delegation headed by powerful paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo arrived in Moscow for an eight-day visit.

The two sides discussed "diplomatic, political and economic topics", as well as "Russian-Sudanese national security... joint cooperation and counterterrorism", said Daglo, commonly known as Hemeti, at a news conference upon his return.


Sudan relied militarily on Russia under strongman Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted in 2019 following three decades in power marked by international isolation and crippling US sanctions.

Russian private companies have reportedly benefited from Sudan's gold mines by ramping up ties with the military and Daglo's powerful Rapid Support Forces, which emerged from the Janjaweed militias accused of atrocities during the Darfur conflict that erupted in 2003.

"Moscow has been following a clear and coherent policy... to serve its interests" in Sudan and in Africa more broadly, analyst Khaled al-Tijani said.

"Russian investments in Sudan, especially in gold, and ties with security forces have remained shrouded in ambiguity," he added.

- Wagner, RSF -

Researcher Ahmed Hussein said that Daglo likely discussed in Moscow arrangements between his forces and "Russian (security) apparatuses with links in Sudan and Africa, especially Wagner Group".

Wagner, a Russian private military contractor with links to the Kremlin, has faced accusations of involvement in turmoil in Sudan's neighbours the Central African Republic and Libya, while French President Emmanuel Macron last month warned of the shadowy group's "predatory intentions" in Mali.

The European Council on Foreign Relations has said Wagner personnel were deployed in Sudan "to mining exploration sites" following a 2017 meeting between Bashir and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who agreed gold mining deals and negotiated the construction of a Russian naval base on Sudan's Red Sea coast.

Wagner personnel subsequently provided "a range of political and military assistance" to Bashir's regime, according to the ECFR.

Also in 2017, Russian mining firm M Invest gained preferential access to Sudan's gold reserves, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Three years later, the US imposed sanctions on Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has links to M Invest and is believed to own Wagner, for "exploiting Sudan's natural resources for personal gain and spreading malign influence around the globe".

The ECFR said Wagner had formed "a triangle of Russian influence linking Sudan, the Central African Republic and Libya", reflecting "Moscow's strategic interest in expanding its Africa footprint".

Daglo's RSF has itself been involved in the conflicts in Libya and Yemen.

- Threats 'matter little' -

As for the planned naval base in the strategic city of Port Sudan, "the Russians need to get to warm-water ports, and the Red Sea is an integral part of that ambition," Hussein said.

In December 2020, Russia announced a 25-year deal with Sudan to build and operate the base, which would host nuclear-powered vessels and up to 300 military and civilian personnel.

The same month, Washington removed Khartoum's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, a listing that had long crippled its economy.

In 2021, Sudanese military officials said the naval base deal was under "review" after certain clauses were found to be "somewhat harmful".

Daglo said the base was not on the agenda in Moscow but that Sudan was ready to cooperate "with any country, provided it is in our interests and does not threaten our national security".

Following Sudan's October coup, Russia told a UN Security Council meeting that General Burhan was needed to maintain stability, one diplomat had said on condition of anonymity.

Last week, Sudan joined 35 countries in abstaining from a UN General Assembly vote condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

For researcher Hussein, Russia's growing interest in Africa "puts Khartoum in the eye of the storm -- turning it into a battlefield for an international conflict that goes far beyond its borders".

Many fear that Western opposition to the coup is pushing Khartoum further towards Moscow.

"We're basically offering Sudan to the Russians on a silver platter," one Western diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"The generals sustained themselves under the Bashir-era embargo, which is why threats of isolation matter little today."

ab/sbh/bha/mz/lg/dv/j

Russia's reengagement with Africa pays off

Russia has been aggressively expanding its influence in Africa in recent years. As numerous African nations remain silent on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the strategy seems to be a winning one.


Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the 2019 Russia-Africa summit

On March 2, the UN General Assembly in New York was asked to vote on a resolution calling for Russian troops to withdraw from Ukraine "immediately, completely and unconditionally."

One hundred and forty-one of the UN's 193 members voted in favor of the resolution — a strong signal of the international community's condemnation of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The vote, however, made clear Africa's division on the issue.

While 28 out of 54 African countries sided with Ukraine, the rest, bar Eritrea which voted against the resolution, either abstained or chose not to turn up to vote.

Cameroon, Ethiopia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Burkina Faso, Togo, Eswatini and Morocco were absent.

Algeria, Uganda, Burundi, Central African Republic, Mali, Senegal, Equatorial Guinea, Congo Brazzaville, Sudan, South Sudan, Madagascar, Mozambique, Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa abstained.

South-Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa, seen here with Putin in 2019, says he is taking a neutral stance on Russia's war on Ukraine

On the wrong side of history?

This has generated fierce criticism, especially from intellectuals, diplomats and opposition politicians in South Africa.

"The refusal to condemn this war puts South Africa on the wrong side of history," said Herman Mashaba of the newly formed opposition party, ActionSA.

Mashaba says it is obvious that Russia's invasion of Ukraine is a "violation of international principles of law" and accuses South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) of refusing to cut ties with Russia, a historical ally.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has since defended his government's decision to abstain from voting on the UN resolution.

In a statement released on Monday, Ramaphosa said that the resolution failed to emphasize the role of peaceful dialogue in stopping the war, which is why his country couldn't support it.

Angolan political scientist Olivio N'kilumbu says many in the ANC are still loyal to Russia.

"Some are of the opinion that the former liberation movement still owes the Russians a lot since the days of the Cold War, and now we Africans have to shut up about the Russian invasion," he told DW.

Russian propaganda aims to "revive the old connections between the Soviet Union and liberation movements" in many African countries, including South Africa, he said.
Battle of words on Twitter

One example of this is a tweet from Russia's Embassy in South Africa, which thanked South Africans who had expressed their solidarity with Russia's fight against what the tweet refered to as "Nazism in Ukraine".

Germany's embassy in South Africa quickly responded with a tweet of its own.

"Sorry, but we can't keep silent on this one, it's just far too cynical. What Russia is doing in Ukraine is slaughtering innocent children, women and men, for its own gain. It's definitely not 'fighting Nazism'. Shame on anyone who's falling for it," says the German reaction, which ends with a statement in brackets: "Sadly, we're kinda experts on Nazism."

But Germany's response provoked some heavy criticisms from South African Twitter users.

Some pointed to the Soviet Union's support for South Africa's apartheid liberation struggle while others sided with Russia's justification for the invasion of Ukraine or were critical of Germany's colonial history in southern Africa.

One user writes: "Russia is only opposing NATO's advance into Ukrainian territory. The consequences of this expansion were clear and NATO decided to ignore them. This war was foreseeable and avoidable."

Another user asks: "What did Germany do in Namibia?"
Africa's historic connection to the Soviet Union

Political scientist N'Kilumbu says that Russia's propaganda is also directed at other African countries, especially in the south of the continent, whose liberation movements had political and military support from the former Soviet Union.

By abstaining from voting on the UN's Ukraine resolution, countries like Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Namibia had this "historic friendship in mind," N'Kilumbu said.


"Especially in Angola and Mozambique, there has been virtually no political change since the Cold War era. And that's why the umbilical cord that connects these countries to Moscow has never been severed," said N'Kilumbu.

The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), for example, continues to maintain close ties with Russia's military, business and political elites, N'Kilumbu points out.

"At the military level, we still have Russian instructors. Our military academy is Russian-influenced," he said.

Russian resources and weapons

In recent years, Russia has increasingly used this historic Soviet connections to expand its political, economic and, above all, military relations with African nations.

In 2019, Vladimir Putin hosted a Russia-Africa Summit attended by 43 African leaders.

Just one year later, Russia became Africa's biggest arms supplier.

According to a 2020 analysis by the peace research institute SIPRI, between 2016 and 2020 around 30% of all arms exported to sub-Saharan Africa countries came from Russia. This vastly overshadows weapon supplies from other nations such as China (20%), France (9.5%) and the USA (5.4%).

This increased the volume of Russian arms shipments by 23% over the previous five-year period.

Russia's Tu-160-Bomber in Pretoria (2019): South Africa is Africa's most important weapons buyer

Arming the Central African Republic

Nowhere on the continent has Russian influence grown as rapidly as in the Central African Republic (CAR).

The intensified cooperation between the two nations began in 2017, when Russia delivered weapons, including Kalashnikovs and surface-to-air missiles, to the war-torn country for the first time.

Since then, Russia has gradually increased its presence in CAR.

In 2018, Russian military advisers were dispatched to CAR with the official aim of training local armed forces.

Meanwhile, numerous Russian companies have received licenses to mine gold and diamonds in the country while its President, Faustin-Archange Touadera, is now guarded by Russians.

His main security adviser is Valery Sakharov, a former employee of Russia's domestic intelligence service, the FSB.

Given Moscow's ties to the nation, it is unsurprising that a pro-Russia rally took place in the capital Bangui on Saturday, says political scientist Olivio N'Kilumbu.

Demonstrators held up placards with slogans such as "Russia, CAR is with you" and "Russia save Donbas", a reference to a region in eastern Ukraine where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014.
'Wagner is in Mali'

Russia has also expanded its presence in crisis-ridden Mali.

Rumors have been flying for months that Mali's military leaders are relying on the support of Russian mercenaries, allegations the junta has denied.

But the United States has repeatedly called out the Malian government for working with Moscow.

Africom, the US military's Africa command, said that "several hundred" Russian mercenaries were in the country.

"Wagner is in Mali," Africom announced in a Voice of America interview in January, referring to the shadowy Russian private military firm linked to a close ally of Vladmir Putin.

Wagner mercenaries are also said to have fought in Mozambique, Sudan and CAR.

A pro-Russia demo in Bangui on Sunday: "Russia CAR is with you" reads one placard
Political, historical and military dependencies

Guinean writer and intellectual Tierno Monenembo believes that many African states will never free themselves from Russia's grip, especially given their increasing reliance on Moscow's military prowess.

Against this backdrop, he said, the decision by 25 African states not to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine is understandable.

"In such a situation, it is difficult for African nations to take a stand," he said. "When you are small, when you are weak, if you're poorly armed and underdeveloped, you don't just get involved in a conflict between military superpowers. That's the business of the big players."

He added: "There is a Fulani proverb that says: 'The chicken doesn't need to discuss the price of the knife. Whoever is in possession of the knife — that is who will cut the chicken's throat.

This article was originally written in German.

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South Sudan to face its worst hunger crisis yet: WFP

South Sudan (AFP/Kun TIAN)

Fri, March 11, 2022, 

More than 70 percent of South Sudan's population will face extreme hunger this year as conflict and climate-related disasters deepen food scarcity, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) warned Friday.

Since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, the world's newest nation has been in the throes of economic and political crisis, and is struggling to recover from a five-year civil war that left nearly 400,000 people dead.

On Friday, the WFP warned of a fresh hunger crisis threatening millions of South Sudanese already battered by floods and a resurgence of conflict.

"While global attention remains fixated on Ukraine, a hidden hunger emergency is engulfing South Sudan with about 8.3 million people in South Sudan -– including refugees -– (facing) extreme hunger in the coming months," the WFP said in a statement.

As climate disasters and violence force tens of thousands of people to flee their homes and abandon their livelihoods, many South Sudanese have already been pushed to the brink and "could starve without food assistance", the agency said.

"The extent and depth of this crisis is unsettling. We’re seeing people across the country have exhausted all their available options to make ends meet and now they are left with nothing," said Adeyinka Badejo, the WFP's deputy country director in South Sudan.

The alarming news comes weeks after the United Nations warned that the country risks a return to war, with hundreds of civilians killed during outbreaks of interethnic violence.

Although a 2018 ceasefire and power-sharing deal between President Salva Kiir and his deputy Riek Machar still largely holds, it is being sorely tested, with little progress made in fulfilling the terms of the lumbering peace process.

Four out of five of South Sudan's 11 million people live in "absolute poverty", according to the World Bank in 2018.

More than 60 percent of its population suffers from severe hunger from the combined effects of conflict, drought and floods.

750 killed in north Ethiopia

in second half 2021: rights body

Ethiopia (AFP/Simon MALFATTO) (Simon MALFATTO)Fri, March 11, 2022, 

At least 750 civilians were killed or executed in Ethiopia's Amhara and Afar regions in the second half of 2021, the country's rights body said in a report published Friday that catalogued widespread abuses, including torture and gang rape.

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said at least 403 civilians died in air raids, drone strikes and heavy artillery fire since Tigrayan rebels fighting government forces launched an offensive into the neighbouring regions of northern Ethiopia in July last year.

At least 346 civilians lost their lives in extra-judicial killings carried out by the warning parties, mainly Tigrayan rebels but also goverment forces and their allies, the EHRC added.

It also accused Tigrayan rebels of widespread abuses such as gang rape, torture, looting and the destruction of public facilities such as hospitals and schools in the two regions that border Tigray.

"Tigray forces engaged in abductions and enforced disappearances in a manner that may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity," the report said.

The conflict in the north erupted in November 2020 when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent forces into Tigray to topple the ruling Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), a move he said came in response to the rebel group's attacks on army camps.

The war has spread to neighbouring regions, killed thousands of people and, according to the UN and the United States, driven hundreds of thousands to the brink of starvation.

txw/ri