3 months after volcanic eruption, Tonga slowly rebuilds

Published: 15 Apr 2022 - 



WELLINGTON, New Zealand: Samantha Moala recalls she was taking a shower at her home in Tonga when she heard what sounded like a gunshot so powerful it hurt her ears.

As she and her family scrambled to their car to drive inland, ash blackened the sky. The world's biggest volcanic eruption in 30 years sent a tsunami around the globe, and the first waves washed across the road as Moala drove to safety at the airport with her terrified husband and two sons.

A volunteer with the Tonga Red Cross, Moala, 39, was soon attending to the cuts other people had suffered as they escaped, and giving them psychological support. She said about 50 of them stayed for two days at the airport until they got the all-clear to go back home.

"People were all shocked,” she said. "But I got to mingle with them, help them, get them to be confident. It's a small little island, and we got to know each other in two hours.”

Three months after the eruption, Tonga’s rebuilding is slowly progressing, and the impact of the disaster has come into clearer focus. Last week, the prime minister handed over the keys to the first rebuilt home of the 468 the government plans to reconstruct across three islands as part of its recovery program.

Some 3,000 people whose homes were destroyed or damaged initially sought shelter in community halls or evacuation centers. Eighty percent of Tonga's population was impacted in some way.

In the first few weeks after the eruption, Moala helped out by putting up tents and tarpaulins, and then by cooking food for other volunteers.

It took five long weeks for Tonga to restore its internet connection to the rest of the world after the tsunami severed a crucial fiber-optic cable. That delayed some families from abroad from being able to send financial help to their loved ones.

Three people in Tonga died from the tsunami and a fourth from what authorities described as related trauma. The sonic boom from the eruption was so loud it could be heard in Alaska and a mushroom plume of ash rocketed a record 58 kilometers (36 miles) into the sky.

The World Bank estimates the total bill for the damage is about $90 million. In the small island nation of 105,000 people, that’s equivalent to more than 18% of gross domestic product.

The bank noted that many coastal tourism businesses - which bring in vital foreign revenue for Tonga - were particularly hard hit, with tourist cabins and wharves destroyed. The agriculture industry also suffered, with crops lost and reef fisheries damaged.

The ANZ bank says Tonga's GDP will likely contract by 7.4% this year, after it had been expected to grow by 3.7% before the volcano erupted.

The international community has been helping out, with Tonga able to secure $8 million in funding from the World Bank and $10 million from the Asian Development Bank, as well as aid assistance from many places including Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the European Union, the U.S. and China.

But progress has been hampered by the nation's first outbreak of COVID-19, which was likely brought in by foreign military crews who raced to drop off supplies as the ash cleared. The outbreak prompted a series of lockdowns, and the country remains in a state of emergency.

Moala is among the more than 8,500 Tongans who have caught the coronavirus since it began spreading through the islands. Eleven people so far have died. Moala said the outbreak had affected many businesses, including her husband's work.

But as the outbreak ebbs and the rebuilding progresses, the islands' familiar rhythms are returning for many people.

Among those who remain most affected are the 62 people who lived on Mango Island and about another 100 on Atata Island who may never be able to return home.

The islands are located very close to the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai volcano, and the villages were completed wiped out. Residents have now been offered land by Tonga's king to relocate onto one of Tonga's two main islands.

Sione Taumoefolau, the secretary-general of the Tonga Red Cross Society, said there is a lot of work to be done relocating the residents.

It's also been slow-going getting supplies to people on other far-flung islands, he said. Many of them remain without internet access after a domestic fiber-optic cable was also damaged and will likely not be repaired for months.

"Three months later, people are starting to get back to normal," Taumoefolau said. "But we can see they still need psychological and social support, those that were really impacted, especially those who have to relocate.”

TONGA #FEMICIDE 
Domestic violence cases rise in wake of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai eruption, as women call for a power shift in humanitarian response

By Melissa Maykin, Inga Stünzner and Hilda Wayne for Sistas, Let's Talk

Ms Angilau says many Tongans are traumatised by the January 15 eruption and tsunami. 

(Supplied: Sia 'Uhila Angilau )

In an evacuation centre on Nukuʻalofa, Marian Kupu listened as a mother described the moment a tsunami forced her to flee with her daughter to the hills above Nomuka, in the Ha'apai region of Tonga.

Key points:
70 per cent of women and girls experience sexual or gender-based violence during crises

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai eruption devastated the Kingdom of Tonga in January

Domestic and family violence callouts increased due to the eruption, tsunami and COVID-19

"Her 10-year-old daughter got up and ran towards higher ground. She had never seen her daughter show so much fear," Ms Kupu said.

"She was running in front of her mum, shouting 'mum, run for your life.'

"The way the mother explained it, it was devastating."

The pair were separated during their escape. But after a short search, Ms Kupu said the woman eventually found her daughter kneeling beside a fallen coconut tree.

PODCAST

How the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai eruption impacted women
In the aftermath of Tonga's volcanic eruption, Hilda Wayne explores the disproportionate impact of natural disasters on women

"She was praying. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus," she said.

The young girl was so distressed by the experience that she stopped talking for several days.

"At that age, you couldn't imagine the feeling, [the thoughts] and the experience they had," she said.

While everyone suffers during natural disasters, women and girls experience unique risks.

According to the UN, about 70 per cent of women and girls have experienced sexual or gender-based violence during crises.

But despite this, women and girls are proving to be capable leaders, promoting women's needs in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery.
A one-in-1,000-year eruption

Ms Kupu, a journalist with more than a decade's experience in the region, was enjoying a quiet Saturday afternoon like many Tongans when loud bangs rang out across the South Pacific nation.

Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai erupted in the early hours of the evening, sending shockwaves around the world — the sounds so loud they were heard in Fiji, Vanuatu, Alaska and Canada.

The 1-in-1,000-year volcanic eruption propelled ash and rock into skies above Tonga's largest island, Tongatapu, before a tsunami inundated low-lying areas.

"The clouds, the noise, the ash was coming and there was a distinctive smell," she said.

"I knew it was the volcano erupting, but we didn't know what was going to happen."

Tongan writer and consultant Sia Uhila Angilau sensed the scale of the eruption — the mounting pressure in her ears felt as if they were "going to burst"

"It shook the whole house, and I was afraid that the glass was going to crack," she said.

First on-the-ground images emerge from Tonga after massive eruption and tsunami

Fear and panic

Ms Angilau said panicked locals spilled out onto the street, causing congestion and chaos.

"People were crying and running and calling out.

"I was in a car and I wished I was in a truck so I could take all the people on the road," she said.

"Most people didn't know where they were running to, they were just going away from the ocean."

Five people died, including two swimmers in Peru, and up to 600 buildings were damaged or destroyed by the tsunami, which wiped out some islands completely.

Ms Angilau said the events of January 15 were still raw for many people.

"The fear, the panic and everything, I think we're still reliving that reality now," she said.

"We've had thunder lately and many of us were scared, we just sat there and cried wondering if there was another eruption."

Eruption, tsunami, COVID-19 exacerbates violence against women

A full recovery is expected to take years. For women and girls, ongoing disruptions to family units, health systems and housing can be particularly distressing, and lead to violence.

Ofa Guttenbeil-Likiliki is the director of the Women and Children Crisis Centre (WCCC) in Tonga.

Ms Guttenbeil-Likiliki says domestic violence cases soared after the eruption and lockdown. 

(Supplied: Ofa Guttenbeil-Likiliki )

In the first 72 hours after the eruption and tsunami, the WCCC carried out needs assessments and worked to ensure women and children had shelter, food and water and emotional support.

"So, making sure they were in places with good lighting, access to bathrooms, and they weren't in positions of being abused or violated because of their vulnerabilities," she said.

"Then we rolled out psychosocial support to these affected areas, and in particular, the women who were displaced from outer islands.

Many women were already escaping violence which worsened during recent COVID-19 lockdowns.

The WCCC handles between 20 and 30 domestic and family violence cases each month, but after Tonga's 26-day lockdown in early February, Ms Guttenbeil-Likiliki said that rose by an additional 55 cases.


"We were prepared for this violence to going to keep climbing. The deputy police commissioner said whilst other crimes have decreased in Tonga, domestic violence is on the rise," she said.
An inclusive, local disaster response

While women bear the brunt of trauma during disasters, they are leaders in recovery and resilience.

Sharon Bhagwan-Rolls is the Regional Manager of Shifting the Power Coalition, which draws upon the skills, cultural knowledge and lived experiences of Pacific Island women to respond to disasters.

Ms Bhagwan-Rolls says humanitarian responses to crises must be inclusive.

 (Supplied: Sharon Bhagwan-Rolls )

"We're progressing gender equality, disability and LGBT inclusion agenda, because as local women leaders, we are on the front lines, and we've been experiencing it," she said.

Ms Bhagwan-Rolls said it was often the case that the humanitarian response to natural disasters in the Pacific was led by people outside the region and failed to meet the needs of diverse groups.

"When you talk about building back better, you do need to ask: what wasn't working for women — for women with disabilities, the LGBT community, for young women — previously?"
Selling coconuts, loaning out boats

In the days and weeks after Tonga Hunga-Tonga Ha'apai erupted, Ms Angilau said women did "everything they could" to help their communities get back on their feet.

"A lady was telling me how she couldn't go to work during the lockdowns, so she went and collected coconuts, and sold them by the roadside just to make money," she said.

"I'm aware of another woman who went and took out a loan so her boat could be used by the divers to go fishing, just to earn money and have food available for us after the eruption.

"That's something wonderful."

Hope At Last For Yemen – OpEd

An internally displaced woman and her daughter look over the city of Sana’a, Yemen, from the roof of this dilapidated building they call their new home. Photo: Giles Clarke/UN OCHA

 April 15, 2022  

By Neville Teller

The two-month truce between the combatants in the Yemen civil war, brokered by the UN on April 2, has been swiftly followed by dramatic action calculated to bring about a more permanent end to the hostilities, and even the start of a reconstruction program.  

On Thursday, April 7 Yemen’s ineffective, unpopular and largely absent president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, dismissed his vice president and went on TV to announce that he was abdicating in favor of a new presidential council that had been established for just that purpose. “I irreversibly delegate to the Presidential Leadership Council my full powers,” he said. 

According to his statement, the new body will assume the duties of both the president and his deputy, and will carry out political, military and security duties for the Yemeni government during what he refers to as a “transitional period”.

No sooner were details of the unprecedented political changes in the public domain than Saudi Arabia and the UAE announced a support package for the new Yemeni presidential council to the tune of $3 billion – a vast sum, but arguably only enough to start the immense task of repairing the ravages of seven years of conflict. 

Seven years of civil war left Yemen divided between an internationally-recognized government led by Hadi and backed by Saudi Arabia based in the southern city of Aden, and the Houthis based in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, which they captured back in 2014, controlling a fair chunk of territory in the west of the country.

The new 8-member Leadership Council is chaired by Rashad Al-Alimi, a minister during the presidency of Hadis’s predecessor, Ali Abdullah Saleh. Alimi has the support of Saudi Arabia, but he also has a close relationship with Yemen’s major political group, the Islamist Islah party.

Yemen’s misery started during the sadly misnamed “Arab spring” of 2011. Its political activists responded to the wave of protest sweeping the Arab world with its own mass protests and a near-assassination of the then president, Ali Abdullah Saleh.  Saleh was eventually forced to step down in favor of his vice-president, Hadi, who attempted to meet some of the activists’ demands.  In 2015 he tried sponsoring a draft constitution which proposed a federal system split between northerners and southerners, but the Iran-backed Houthi rebels rejected it.

The Houthis are a fundamentalist Shia group supported by Iran.  Saleh, although a Sunni Muslim, gave up the presidency with great reluctance, and then sought to maneuver a return to power in collaboration with his erstwhile enemies. It was through Saleh that the Houthis were able to gain control of most of the Yemeni military, including its air force. As a result, and supported with military hardware from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, they overran large tracts of the country.

Saudi Arabia, determined to prevent Iran from consolidating a strong presence in the Arabian peninsula, intervened in March 2015 to beat back the Houthis. The fighting has continued ever since, with neither party able to gain a clear advantage.

When Hadi took over the presidency in 2012, he was supposed to be in power for two years and serve as a transition to a full, inclusive Yemeni democracy.  He proved a sad disappointment, and the end of his period in power is not being mourned by many Yemenis.  Hadi never rose to the challenge of being a wartime leader.  He was a silent president who spoke to his people on camera only a handful of times. As Saudi Arabia launched its attack on the Houthis in March 2015, he fled to Saudi Arabia, and holed up in its capital, Riyadh. 

As for the new Presidential Leadership Council, seeds of disunity are unfortunately already sown within in.  One of the eight members is Aidarous al-Zubaydi, who supports an independent South Yemen and labels himself its president. South Yemen has a checkered history. Back in 1967, just after Britain left its South Arabia protectorate, South Yemen became an independent communist state backed by the USSR. It was only in 1990, with the imminent collapse of the Soviet Union, that South Yemen agreed to unite with the north to form the Unified Republic of Yemen.  The glue binding the two quickly became unstuck. It took only four years for the south to try to break away again. A short civil war ended with the south being overrun by northern troops and the national government back firmly in control. In 2020 South Yemen again declared independence. It is now governed by a Southern Transitional Council (STC), but there is cooperation and dialogue with the Yemeni government.   

To be successful the new Council will need to set aside their differences and cooperate in the interests of the nation as a whole.  It has clearly won the confidence of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and the task of disbursing its windfall $3bn to best effect is likely to occupy a good deal of its time and attention.  

As for the Houthis, they refused to attend the Riyadh talks that preceded the establishment of the presidential council, and have subsequently denounced it as a foreign and illegitimate imposition.  This reaction is perhaps not unexpected, but the current two-month ceasefire is a reality, brought about by extensive Saudi-Houthi negotiation.  If negotiations continue, the ceasefire could be extended into something approaching a truce.  

What Yemen needs are elections, an inclusive government, and a new structure for the state. UN Resolution 2216 aims to establish democracy in a federally united Yemen. The Houthis must be given the opportunity to choose. Do they wish to remain an outlawed militia permanently, or would they prefer to become a legitimate political party, able to contest parliamentary and presidential elections and participate in government? The price would be serious engagement in negotiations aimed at a peaceful transition to a political solution for a united Yemen.

Neville Teller
Neville Teller's latest book is ""Trump and the Holy Land: 2016-2020". He has written about the Middle East for more than 30 years, has published five books on the subject, and blogs at "A Mid-East Journal". Born in London and a graduate of Oxford University, he is also a long-time dramatist, writer and abridger for BBC radio and for the UK audiobook industry. He was made an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours, 2006 "for services to broadcasting and to drama."

Pentagon to build nuclear microreactors to power far-flung bases

By Todd South
Apr 15, 2022

LONG READ

Pentagon officials recently announced that the Defense Department will build a nuclear microreactor that can be flown to an austere site by a C-17 cargo plane and set up to power a military base.

A statement released Wednesday by the Pentagon’s Strategic Capabilities Office announced the construction and testing decision that followed the office’s Environmental Impact Statement work for “Project Pele.”


The project’s Program Manager, Dr. Jeff Waksman, told Military Times that the office expects to choose one of two designs submitted by BWXT Advanced Technologies, LLC, out of Lynchburg, Virginia, and X-energy, LLC, out of Greenbelt, Maryland, in the coming weeks.

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But a number of nuclear scientists and watchdogs have questioned the need for such a device. In recent years, they have publishing scathing reports, commentary and analyses about the potential contamination should the reactor or its fuel be damaged during an attack, stolen or experience a catastrophic failure.

“Not only have my concerns not been alleviated, they’ve actually grown,” Professor Alan J. Kuperman told Military Times.


Though the drawing board phases of the concepts have gone on in fits and starts since at least 2010, the actual final design and “bending metal” phase have not yet begun.

The Army originally awarded $40 million in contracts to three companies in March 2020, according to government documents.

In the fiscal year 2020, the Pentagon budgeted $63 million for the project, followed by another $70 million in fiscal 2021. Project Pele reports have hailed the fourth-generation nuclear reactor as a “pathfinder” for commercial adoption of the technology.

The moniker “Pele” refers not to the famous Brazilian soccer player but instead is a nod to the Hawaiian deity Pele, the goddess of fire and volcanos and mythological creator of the Hawaiian islands. But of course, there has to be an acronym and for this project it is Portable Energy for Lasting Effects.


The plans call for a 40-ton reactor that can fit in three-to-four 20-foot shipping containers and, once set up, provide 1 to 5 Mega Watts of power on full power operation for up to three years before refueling.

The microreactor will ultimately join a newer type of nuclear fuel being used in the program at the Idaho National Laboratory. Testing and experimentation will occur in 2024, with demonstrations anticipated by 2025, Waksman said.

The Idaho National Laboratory Transient Reactor Test Facility in Idaho Falls, Idaho, is shown Nov. 14, 2017. The Pentagon wants to build a prototype advanced mobile nuclear microreactor at the Idaho National Laboratory. (Chris Morgan/Idaho National Laboratory via AP)

“Advanced nuclear power has the potential to be a strategic game-changer for the United States, both for the DoD and for the commercial sector,” Waksman said. “For it to be adopted, it must first be successfully demonstrated under real-world operating conditions.”

Kuperman has concerns, though. He is the coordinator of the University of Texas at Austin’s Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Project and authored a 21-page report on the Pentagon’s program in 2021 titled, “Proposed U.S. Army Mobile Nuclear Reactors: Costs and Risks Outweigh Benefits.”


Members of the Nuclear Safety Project at the Union of Concerned Scientists also told Army Times in 2019 that they had major concerns that the Army’s own reporting on the design concept showed such a microreactor would “not be expected to survive a direct kinetic attack.”

Waksman responded to that concern with a twofold answer to Army Times this week, saying that the microreactor will be used for austere locations, some of which were identified in the original 2018 Army G-4 report, “Study on the Use of Mobile Nuclear Power Plants for Ground Operations.”

Those include places such as Fort Greely, Alaska, and Lajes Field, Azores.

Second, Waksman said that both the newer designed reactor, a “high-temperature gas reactor,” and its fuel source, known as high-assay low enriched uranium tristructural isotropic fuel, provide more safety measures than older generation reactors and fuel.

The design also has protection features built in that are currently classified, Waksman said. Additionally, commanders can enhance protection with barriers or by burying the reactor underground, he said.

“This thing is very resilient,” Waksman said.

The fuel type offers another layer of protection.

“The uranium is in millions of tiny pebbles, less than 1 mm in diameter, each individually encapsulated,” Waksman said. “Each fuel pellet is its own barrier.”

But critics such as Kuperman and Jake Hecla, a doctoral candidate at the University of California Berkeley and member of the Nuclear Policy Working Group, said relying on encapsulation is dangerous.

“Those fuel pellets themselves could be scattered for miles,” Kuperman said. “The pellet is flying around the base and the radioactivity permeates outside the cladding.”

Hecla said relying on encapsulation or cladding as a “last line of defense” to contain nuclear materials neglected “the realities of the consequences from potential accidents.”

One of the early foundations that drove Army G-4 research, according to its own 2018 report, was to use such microreactors at Forward Operating Bases. The idea was that they could reduce fuel consumption and the frequent attacks on supply lines that troops witnessed during operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Current estimates show that a single Pele microreactor could save up to 1 million gallons of diesel fuel annually, Waksman said.

But Waksman added that plans for the microreactors under development do not consider them for use in a tactical environment.

When pressed on the inconsistency in past reports and current plans, Strategic Capabilities Office spokesman Navy Lt. Cmdr. Timothy Gorman said “any new system has to target is ‘low hanging fruit.’”

“For the Navy, its lowest hanging fruit for nuclear power is submarines. For a land-based reactor, moving around in the tactical zone is not low hanging fruit, and thus is not seen as an early application for these reactors,” Gorman wrote in an email.

The Army is seeking to develop and field a mobile nuclear reactor to power forward operating bases. This is the the way in which such devices would be transported to theater. (Department of Defense)

Kuperman and Hecla point out that doesn’t mean future versions of microreactors would not be deployed near the front lines, making them targets for a direct strike by adversaries.

“This type of reactor is a sitting duck for that type of attack,” Kuperman said.

But Kuperman sees another problem with the change in application from Forward Operating Bases to non-tactical, austere zones.

“The whole point of a mobile reactor is for rapid deployment to a war zone,” Kuperman said. “Remote bases are enduring, they’re there for a long time. [They’re] building this expensive, supposedly rugged reactor for mobile deployment to remote bases, which don’t need a reactor.”

Gorman clarified that the program seeks nuclear power for island locations, and technically, in Army parlance, the microreactor is “transportable” rather than “mobile.” The quick setup options for the Pele prototype would beat current large-scale diesel generators that can take as long as two weeks to set up.

The Army is seeking to develop and field a mobile nuclear reactor to power forward operating bases. This is the Holos system being developed by Filippone & Associates LLC. (Department of Defense)

“The benefits of transportable power is the ability to rapidly move it where it’s needed and to be able to set it up in austere locations without reliability [sic] infrastructure,” Gorman wrote in an email response.

Hecla also found the shifting use confusing.

“I’m really at a loss for words here. I’ve heard so many justifications for these (microreactors) over the years I’ve been following it,” Hecla said.

Small-scale reactors have a history in the Army that goes back half a century, with mixed results. Those reactors were of much older design types.

More recently, a microreactor concept and design has been floating around the halls of the Pentagon for more than a decade.

The Cold War-era Army Nuclear Power Program ran from 1954 to 1977, and built eight small nuclear reactors. Those reactors ranged in power production from 1 to 10 megawatts.

Five of those eight reactors were used as follows:
The PM-1 reactor was used in Sundance, Wyoming, from 1962 to 1968.
The PM-2A was used at Camp Century, Greenland, from 1961 to 1964.
The PM-3A was used at McMurdo Base, Antarctica, from 1962 to 1972.
The ML-1 was used in developmental testing from 1962 to 1966.
The MH-1A was used in the Panama Canal Zone from 1965 to 1977.

A major failure happened with one of the original eight designs in 1961 when a core meltdown and explosion of the SL-1 reactor at the Idaho National Reactor Testing Station killed three operators. That testing station is now known as the Idaho National Laboratory and is the planned site for testing of the new Project Pele microreactor.

Three reactors deployed to Antarctica, Greenland and Alaska but proved “unreliable and expensive to operate,” according to reports.

Waksman admits that the older designs had problems.

“Certainly, they were very unsafe,” he said.

But the gains of eliminating long, vulnerable supply lines, especially through contested space, add to the project’s importance, he said.

The 2018 Army G-4 report listed the following locations as potential candidates or templates for where the microreactor could be installed:
Thule, Greenland
Kwajalein Atoll
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
Diego Garcia
Guam
Ascension Island
Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico
Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan
Camp Buehring, Kuwait
Fort Greely, Alaska
Lajes Field, Azores

More recently, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency issued a request for information from industry for microreactors in 2010. The agency budgeted $10 million in fiscal year 2012 to develop the program concept and proposed spending $150 million over a six-year period to build them.

Lack of funding at the time killed the program.

But, in 2014, Congress included language in their annual budget package for a report on a “small modular reactor” that would power forward or remote operating bases, according to congressional documents.

 This is the MegaPower system being developed by the Los Alamos National Laboratory. 

(Department of Defense)

A 2016 report authored by the Defense Science Board laid out power requirements that the reactor could provide. And the 148-page Army G-4 report in 2018 adopted the science board’s recommendations to pursue the technology.

Critics remarked that the current timeline that requires choosing a design in the coming months and having a test-ready microreactor and fuel in place in under two years is too fast.

That schedule is shorter than the development timeline for some components that go into new reactor designs, Hecla said.

But Waksman said the first land-based nuclear reactor built in the United States since the 1970s has sufficient technology, support and research behind it to succeed. The prototype, he added, will also help trim the development and fielding time and costs of a future round of small nuclear reactors.

About Todd South
Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.

Syrian Kurdish-led forces withdraw from regime zones in Qamishli

The Syrian Democratic Forces and Asayish have withdrawn from regime buildings in Qamishli, after taking control of parts of the city in northeast Syria on Thursday morning.

Russia reportedly pressured the SDF to withdraw from regime zones in the northeastern city of Qamishli [Getty]

The New Arab Staff
15 April, 2022

Syrian Kurdish-led forces withdrew on Thursday from regime buildings in the northeastern city of Qamishli for fear of Turkish intervention, according to reports.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Asayish – the police force of the Kurdish-controlled autonomous regions in north and east Syria – took control of the regime-held zones in the centre of the city on Thursday morning, before withdrawing the following evening, The New Arab’s Arabic language sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported.

Syrian regime ally Russia – who has been leading negotiations between the two sides - reportedly pressured the SDF to leave, warning that their continued presence in regime-controlled parts of the city could provoke Turkish-backed rebels to invade the area, German news agency DPA reported.

However, sources told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the Kurdish-led forces are still imposing a siege on the regime’s political security, military security and state security branches in the area.

“[We] will continue these security measures on the security square in Qamishli until the siege on our people in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhood is lifted,” the Asayish forces said in a statement.

The regime has held back goods from reaching the besieged, Kurdish-majority neighbourhood of Sheikh Maqsoud - located in Syria's largest city, Aleppo - “in an attempt to exert political pressures on the SDF”, according to Mohammad Abdul Sattar Ibrahim, a Syrian analyst in touch with Kurdish officials, Reuters reported.

However, the governor of Hasaka province, where Qamishli is located, has also accused the SDF of “preventing entry of wheat, foodstuffs and fuel” to other areas held by the regime in the province.

The SDF said on Thursday they took over about 10 regime offices including local finance, grains and education branches in the heart of Qamishli.

Much of Syria has been left in ruins following over a decade of conflict, which has killed over 500,000 people, mostly as a result of regime and Russian bombardment.

The country remains deeply fractured, with various foreign armies and militias in control of different regions.

IRAQI KURDISTAN

Turkey warplanes once again bombard northern Iraq

TEHRAN, Apr. 16 (MNA) – Turkish fighter jets conducted air raids on areas in Iraqi Dohuk province in the north on Saturday, local Iraqi media said.

An Iraqi source told the Iraqi Arabic-language al-Maloumeh news website that Turkish warplanes targeted the Korzar heights and surrounding areas near the villages of Nahili and Bari Kari in the Dirluk district of the Al-Emadiyah county in Dohuk province on Saturday.

The source added that "In the airstrike, the farmlands belonging to the people in the region were targeted and the residents had to evacuate for the city of Dirluk district as they were concerned for their safety."

Turkish warplanes attack villages in the Iraqi Kurdish region in the north almost on a daily basis despite opposition and condemnation from the Iraqi and Kurdish authorities.

Iraq has repeatedly called on Turkey to end the violations of its sovereignty and territorial integrity while Ankara says that it targets the PKK elements' hideouts in the region.

Iraq-Halliburton Deal on Gas to Be Decided After Eid Holiday

Khalid Al-Ansary and Kadhim Ajrash, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- Iraq’s cabinet may make a decision on reactivating a deal with Halliburton Co. to drill wells in the western gas field in Akkas next month, Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar said in a televised interview.

Iraq’s oil ministry has in recent months dispatched two exploration teams to get more clarity on the reserves of oil and gas in the region. The deal with Halliburton will enable the oil ministry to get clear data on the production capacity of the Akkas field and reach a decision after Ramadan, which ends in early May, the minister said.

Talks with Chevron Corp. and Saudi Aramco on investment in the region “will depend on the data we get from the exploration and well-drilling operations,” Abdul Jabbar said in the interview that aired on Al-Forat channel.

If global prices continue at this level, the selling price for Iraqi oil for this month would average $106-$107 a barrel, he added.

The oil ministry is providing 30 million liters of gasoline a day for consumption, which Abdul Jabbar called a “big” number. Work on a new refinery in Karbala has been delayed by Covid-19 but the facility is expected to enter service in the first quarter of 2023, he added. The country will continue to import gasoline until 2024.

Abdul Jabbar said 80% of the contracts that the Kurdistan Regional Government signed with oil companies are correct and the rest need to be reviewed. The KRG has no problem with 50% of the solutions the federal government offered to resolve the oil issues in Kurdistan. 

The region exports 430,000 barrel per day, Jabbar said.

Baghdad has long sought to bring Kurdish production under its control in exchange for funds from the national budget as compensation and a February ruling in Iraq’s top court asserted the central government’s right to the semi-autonomous region’s hydrocarbons.  

Read more: Baghdad Tells Kurdistan to Move Oil Assets to New Company

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How do the recent developments in the world shape the Kurdish Issue?

Posted on April 17, 2022 

by Editorial Staff in 1 Top News, Exclusive, Politics

Kawa Nader Qader | Exclusive to Ekurd.net

What the world is confronting nowadays and the quick events unfolding in the Middle East are open to all possibilities. It is hard for a political observer to predict the course of events or the outcomes of significant changes that may result in new coalitions and lineups. What will the effect be? What repercussions or consequences, whether positive or negative, will they have on the Kurdish political arena and the issue of Kurdistan in general? Let us particularly mention the following:

– The Russian-Ukrainian war triggered the energy crisis in most countries of the European continent, especially the industrial capitalist ones, due to their dependence on Russian gas by 40% to meet their needs in this field, estimated at (155 billion cubic meters). Additionally, the crisis of the high prices of some foodstuffs and other essential supplies for citizens jumped by 24% compared to the same period last year, with an estimated increase of 4.1% per month since the outbreak of that war.

Suppose the fight continues for a prolonged period, with dire consequences for the countries and their citizens alike, and large waves of mass protests erupt across the continent. In that case, they will spiral out of control and be difficult to mitigate. The anticipated situation worries European countries because they are unwilling to adjust their strategy to confront Russia through the Ukraine war and stop the expansion of Russian eastward, as they see it.

European countries are tense about the lack of energy. They have pinned their hopes on developing the energy infrastructure of Middle East countries that produce oil and gas to increase their shares and meet the European market’s energy needs on the one hand. On the other hand, reduce reliance on Russian gas and hold energy prices as stable as possible in the global market.

However, obtaining the volumes required to compensate for Russian gas and deliver it to Europe will not be as simple as some anticipate, especially given that Russia is a powerhouse with political and military clout in the Middle East. It is hard to ignore or underestimate it. Not to mention European countries’ inability to withstand the domestic implications of energy scarcity.

There are also hints of a breakthrough in the Iran nuclear dispute. The US removed pro-Iranian Yemeni Houthis from the terror list, while Iran expressed no interest in remaining on the Quds force on the same list. And lifting the embargo on the five billion Iranian dollars in the South Korean banks is a possible indication of a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel and bringing Iran back on the energy map to compensate for the lack of energy in Europe.

If this happens, it will motivate Iran to pursue its expansionist tendency in the region, known as the Shiite crescent, at the expense of Sunni Arab countries.

Iran is a regional power; no one can underestimate it. For fear of Iran, the Arab countries (especially some Gulf states) embraced and approached Israel and signed the “Abraham” security, economic, and military treaty.

Consequently, the Ukrainian and Iranian conflicts will affect the Middle East region, including Kurdistan. The developments and outcomes that they produce unavoidably reflect all aspects of Kurdistan’s life, especially the political ones. Let us mention some elements here:

The normalization of Turkey’s relations with Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia The recent revival of Turkish and American Ties The meeting of Turkish-Israeli and Turkish-Emirati presidents, as well as the handing over of the case of Saudi journalist “Jamal Khashoggi’s” murder in Turkey to Saudi Authorities These steps indicate that Erdogan’s government is reverting to his previous foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu’s “zero problems” strategy with neighbors. The recovery of those relations will undoubtedly be at the expense of the Kurdish people because Erdogan has never stopped utilizing all of his available capabilities and accessible opportunities to strike at the aspirations of the Kurdish people.

As with all successive Turkish governments, what accompanies this government is the horrific panic and the chronic fear of the Kurdish issue, or the Kurdish phobia.

As for Iran, maintaining its position as an influential regional power and signing security agreements with Turkey and Iraq will negatively affect the Kurdish situation in the region. In a contradictious manner, the leaders of the Kurdish parties in southern Kurdistan are neglecting the ongoing events that have disastrous results or severe impacts on the Kurdish issue in the whole region. They preoccupied themselves with marginal issues and side disputes to obtain cheap partisan gains or narrow subjective whims instead of closely monitoring the current changes in the map of relations between states and regional powers.

Despite all of the probable scenarios and unfavorable expectations that loom on the horizon, the Kurds do not have to accept the fate that the occupiers of their homeland have planned for them because the Kurdistan National Liberation Movement remains active in the region:

– As a significant political and military power, it has an impact on the formation of military and political equations in the region, as well as the difficulties of imposing a media blackout or waging a savage psychological war and disinformation operations against it, as was the case in the previous century.

– Not to mention that the rate of oil extracted from Kurdistan constitutes 4.5% of the world’s production. In contrast, it corresponds to 13.8% of the oil of OPEC countries and reaches 19% of the quantities of exports oil in the entire Middle East region. If we add to it the amounts of extracted gas, the position of Kurdistan on the energy map in the area and the world becomes clear. And this qualifies it to guarantee its place among the countries that compete to supply Europe with energy, which contributes to strengthening its political reality.

Kurdistan’s geography and rugged mountainous terrain provide a haven for the national liberation movement. In addition to strengthening the spirit of resistance, confrontation, and challenge of the Kurdish people and providing them with strong support to repel or defeat the fierce attacks of invaders and occupiers greedy for its natural resources, the irresponsible attitude of the ruling Kurdish parties towards the occurring circumstances represents the Achilles’ heel in weakening the Kurdish cause, which is embodied in:

– Another obstacle is that the opposition parties in the Kurdistan region’s political arena are keeping pace with the approach followed by the ruling parties. They sometimes pursue a populist policy to seize power or obtain several official positions and personal privileges from the Kurdistan Democratic Party president, Massoud Barzani. He has demonstrated himself as a Kurdish reference in the region by tickling the false national sense and hollow patriotic sentiments and ensuring the support of Israel, Turkey, and Iran to provide security, intelligence, and military services.

The proper outlet relies on the masses’ strength and national and patriotic depth, paying attention to Kurdistan’s interests rather than the invaders’ interest in executing their recommendations and requests. It is up to them to strengthen and consolidate the Kurdish presence to deal with the current changes in the international and regional arena. The way to do this work is by paying attention to the national project, relying on the Kurdish self-defenses forces and Kurdish public opinion, staying away from playing on the margins of events in the region, and raising the rate of Kurdish demands to a level that benefits the Kurdish majority. Otherwise, if the situation continues, the Kurdish leadership will reap nothing but disappointment and dependence on others while remaining pawns in the game of nations.

Kawa Nader Qader, a Kurdish writer from Iraqi Kurdistan.

Read more by Kawa Nader Qader
Kurdish-Israeli relations and the unfair double standards! 5.4.2022

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of Ekurd.net or its editors.

Copyright © 2022 Ekurd.net. All rights reserved

China accuses US of ‘white supremacy’ ethos

The United States has been trying to “blur” discrimination against Asian Americans, a report by a Chinese NGO has claimed

Chinatown, East Broadway, New York City. © Getty Images / Guido Cozzi / Atlantide Phototravel

Anti-Asian sentiments are on the rise in the US and they are being covered up by the country’s authorities, China’s largest human rights NGO has claimed.

On Friday, the China Society for Human Rights Studies published a report entitled, ‘Increasing Racial Discrimination Against Asians Exposes Overall Racist Nature of U.S. Society’. 

Noting that while the problem of discrimination and violence against Asian Americans cannot be considered a new one, the authors of the report argue that the coronavirus outbreak, which supposedly started in China before turning into a global pandemic, “has exposed various racial discrimination problems existing in the society.”

According to the AAPI Hate, a national coalition that tracks and responds to racially motivated hate crimes towards Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, more than 9,000 anti-Asian incidents took place between March 2020 and June 2021, during the peak of the pandemic. 

However, the health crisis isn’t the only thing that should be blamed for the “sufferings” which the US allegedly caused to Asian Americans, the authors of the report claim.

“The racial discrimination against Asian Americans that has continued to the present time is probably a built-in and natural product of American colonialism, and it also reflects a mindset of the United States: bullying the weak,” the report said.

Some of the other causes of anti-Asian sentiments listed by the NGO are an “upsurge of xenophobia” and “white supremacy,” which, as the report claims, “is embodied in the racial structure and social atmosphere of the United States.”

The stereotypical representation of Asian Americans as “well-educated with high incomes” has prevented many of them from “enjoying favorable policies for US ethnic minorities,” the report said. Another factor contributing to negative sentiments towards Asian Americans is their long-standing antagonism with other ethnic minorities, reflecting, according to the NGO, “the complex racial relations and conflicts within the United States.” Finally, the researchers pointed out that “the tension between the United States and a foreign country frequently led to discrimination and racist attacks against the immigrants from that foreign country.”

Considering the strained relations with China, the report suggests that even if the racial discrimination against Asian Americans in the post-pandemic era subsides, “the racial attacks against Chinese Americans will continue to rise.”

“The United States has never compensated for or reflected on the sufferings it has caused to Asian Americans, and even tries its best to cover up or blur relevant facts. As such, the deep-rooted malice toward Asian Americans in U.S. society can never be eliminated,” the report stated.

The researchers justify this accusation by claiming that Asian Americans are portrayed in the US as “outsiders in racial conflicts; the mainstream society denies the history of racial discrimination against Asian Americans and refuses to admit that there are racist attacks against Asian Americans at present.”

On Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian addressed the problem of racial discrimination in the US. During a regular press briefing, he was asked to comment on the State of Black America report, published on April 12 by the National Urban League. Lijian said the report “again exposes the persistent systemic racial discrimination in the US, which has seeped into all aspects of social life.” Underlining that “the sufferings of African Americans are not unique to them, but experienced by other ethnic minority groups as well,” the foreign ministry spokesman went on to urge the US government to take “a hard look at the country’s own human rights issues.”

These remarks came just a day after India made similar accusations against the US. Following a New York incident in which two Sikh men were assaulted with fists and a stick, Nikki Singh, a senior policy and advocacy manager at The Sikh Coalition, pointed to an increase in the number of hate crimes against members of the religious community in the US. Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said that his country was tracking human rights abuses in the US, including those targeting Americans of Indian origin.

Jaishankar’s statement came in response to comments by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken who said that Washington was “monitoring some recent concerning developments in India, including a rise in human rights abuses by some government, police, and prison officials.”

On April 12, the US State Department published its own annual report on human rights around the world, in which it blamed both Beijing and New Delhi for “significant human rights issues.” China is accused by the State Department, among other things, “of arbitrary or unlawful killings by the government,” tortures, arbitrary detentions, and life-threatening prison conditions.

Syrian refugee slams UK-Rwanda deportation policy and hits back at critics

Syrian refugee Hassan Akkad slammed the UK government's new Rwanda deportation policy announced on Thursday, saying Britain deserved better leadership.

Hassan Akkad called out the different treatment offered to Ukrainian refugees compared to asylum seekers from elsewhere on British TV [Getty]


The New Arab Staff
15 April, 2022

Syrian refugee and award-winning documentary filmmaker Hassan Akkad has hit back at critics on social media following his appearance on British television slamming the new UK-Rwanda deportation policy.

Akkad appeared on Good Morning Britain on Thursday morning to speak out against the British government's scheme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. He said UK leaders were trying to “scapegoat” vulnerable people and debunked inflated notions of the country's “refugee crisis”.

In response to comments on Twitter accusing the Syrian of “slagging off” the UK, the former English teacher expressed his love for Britain and said it deserved better.

“When I go on telly to talk about the abhorrent treatment of refugees and migrants in Britain, I’m not ‘slagging off Britain’.

“I have applied for British citizenship, and I’m hoping to get it. I love this country. I just think that we deserve better than this corrupt government,” he wrote on Twitter.

Akkad was part of pro-democracy protests in Syria in 2011. He was imprisoned and tortured by the regime, meeting Bashar al-Assad face-to-face at one point.

He later fled Damascus and travelled across Europe via Calais, then on to the UK in 2015.

He told British broadcasters that the threat of deportation to Rwanda will not deter people coming in small boats across the English Channel.

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UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the Rwanda deportation scheme on Thursday, presenting the plan as a way to “disrupt the business model of [people-smuggling] gangs”.

Critics of the scheme, which include politicians across political parties, refugee charities and immigration lawyers, have expressed grave concerns over the threat to human rights and the potential cost - estimated at £1.4 billion a year.

'Cowardly' and 'barbaric' plan to process refugees in Rwanda slammed


Priti Patel signs the accord with Rwandan deputy foreign minister Vincent Biruta

MORNING STAR

THE government was branded “institutionally racist,” “cowardly” and “barbaric” yesterday over multimillion-pound plans for asylum-seekers who cross the Channel in small boats to be processed in Rwanda.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson admitted that he expects a court challenge to the proposals, contained in clause 28 of the Nationality and Borders Bill, to detain and fly migrants more than 4,000 miles on chartered planes to the east African country.

He said the Royal Navy would take over “operational command” from Border Force in the English Channel to ensure that “no boat makes it to the UK undetected.”

About 250 to 300 military personnel will be dedicated to police migrants on busy days, working on ships and aircraft in the English Channel.

An initial £120 million is expected to be paid to the Rwandan government under an economic deal, with Home Secretary Priti Patel striking an agreement during a visit to the capital Kigali.

She said that the “vast majority” of those who arrive in Britain “illegally” will be detained and considered for relocation to Rwanda but declined to share specific details.

The number of people who can be relocated will be “unlimited,” with the first due to receive formal notifications within weeks and the first flights expected to take place in the coming months.

Mr Johnson pledged £50 million in new funding for boats, aerial surveillance and military personnel to help ensure that the measures are a “very considerable deterrent” to crossings.

He said the individuals who succeed in reaching Britain “will be taken not to hotels at vast public expense” but to Greek-style detention centres, the first of which will open “shortly.”

Human rights groups warned that similar practices in Australia had led to “rampant abuses” in camps, including rape, murder and suicide.

They called on the government to treat refugees with dignity and compassion by creating more safe routes to claim asylum and dropping the Borders Bill.

Refugee Action chief executive Tim Naor Hilton said that the “grubby cash-for-people plan” would be a “cowardly, barbaric and inhumane way to treat people fleeing persecution and war.”

He added: “Our so-called ‘Global Britain’ is offshoring its responsibilities onto Europe’s former colonies instead of doing our fair share to help some of the most vulnerable people on the planet.”

Freedom from Torture chief executive Sonya Sceats said that the plans were “deeply disturbing and should horrify anybody with a conscience.”

She said: “It is even more dismaying that the UK government has agreed this deal with a state known to practice torture, as we know from the many Rwandan torture survivors we have treated over the years.”

Steve Valdez-Symonds of Amnesty International UK argued that the “ill-conceived” plans, which he said would inflict further suffering while wasting huge amounts of public money, showed “how far removed from humanity the government is.”

He said: “After the chaos and bureaucracy-ridden failures of schemes the government clearly never truly wanted for Afghans and Ukrainians, this is a hugely misjudged distraction from the core work of creating a humane and properly functioning asylum system.”

Sophie McCann of Doctors without Borders (MSF) said the group had “witnessed some of the worst suffering” in Australia’s offshore camps on Nauru island.

She said: “Children as young as nine years old were trying to kill themselves.

“This kind of suffering is what awaits refugees in Rwanda.  It is medically and ethically reprehensible.”

She pointed out that the measures would deny refugees opportunities to gain a fair hearing and conceal their suffering from public view.

“Make no mistake, this government knows what the impact of this policy will be — it is knowingly and willingly subjecting refugees to horrific suffering,” she said.

Scottish Greens human rights spokeswoman Maggie Chapman said: “Even by the terrible standards of the institutionally racist Home Office, this would be a disgraceful new low.

“It is a repressive and authoritarian proposal that rejects the fundamental principle and right of asylum.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called the plans “unworkable,” “extortionate” and an attempt to distract from Mr Johnson being fined for breaching his own Covid-19 laws.

The deal with Rwanda comes after other locations touted, including Ascension Island, Albania and Gibraltar, were rejected, at times angrily, by the governments concerned.

Tory Rwanda deportation plan sparks huge backlash

NGOs, faith groups and MPs baffled by PM's ‘fly Channel refugees to East Africa’ deal

Royal Navy HMS Blazer tows two small boats as it arrives in Dover, Kent,

 following a number of small boat incidents in the Channel

MORNING STAR
 
A TORY minister has insisted that asylum-seekers will be able to enjoy “fully prosperous” lives in Rwanda despite major concerns about the country’s human rights record.

The government’s multimillion-pound deal with the east African nation comes just 10 months after ministers hit out at its government over failures to investigate human rights violations.

The new plan, announced on Thursday, would see some asylum-seekers, who cross the Channel to Britain in small boats, sent more than 4,000 miles away to have their asylum claims processed.

Ministers scrabbled to defend the plans today following a huge backlash from faith groups, human rights organisations, opposition politicians and even several senior Tories, with the proposals described as “cruel and nasty.”

Questioned on the deal, Home Office minister Tom Pursglove said asylum-seekers transferred to Rwanda would be under no compulsion to stay there, but did not specify how they would be supported to leave or where they would go.

“If they wish to leave and not enter the asylum system there, they are able to do so,” he told the BBC.

“But what will happen is that people will be processed under the Rwandan asylum system, if they are granted they can remain in Rwanda and what Rwanda want to do is to make sure those people can live fully prosperous and successful lives, and the partnership agreement we’ve got with them will help them to achieve that.”

Questioned on the costs of the proposals, Mr Pursglove said the new policy would save Britain money in the “long run” before adding that the costs to Rwanda would be “pretty equivalent” to what is being spent by our government.

Under the deal Rwanda, which already hosts more than 150,000 refugees across six major camps, would receive £120 million in up-front costs, with asylum-seekers being flown over as early as six weeks from now, according to reports.

Rights groups have expressed alarm at the plans, highlighting Rwanda’s “appalling” human rights record, including the fatal shooting of at least 12 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2018 by Rwandan security forces at a protest.

Describing the plans as “cruelty itself,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement: “Rwanda has a known track record of extrajudicial killings, suspicious deaths in custody, unlawful or arbitrary detention, torture, and abusive prosecutions, particularly targeting critics and dissidents.

“In fact, the UK directly raised its concerns about respect for human rights with Rwanda, and grants asylum to Rwandans who have fled the country, including four just last year.”

In July 2021, Britain’s international ambassador Rita French expressed regret that Rwanda was not carrying out “transparent, credible and independent investigations into allegations of human rights violations, including deaths in custody and torture.”

Rwanda is among governments believed to have paid Tony Blair’s Africa Governance Initiative for advice and possible “whitewashing,” though British governments have refused to disclose the “commercially sensitive” details about the former PM’s links to President Paul Kagame.

Concerns have also been raised about the fate of LGBT+ asylum seekers sent to the country due to evidence of ill-treatment and abuse faced by this community in Rwanda.

British-based refugee rights group Rainbow Migration said in a statement: “The agreement means that LGBTQI+ people who have fled life-threatening situations in their home countries, and sought safety and protection from the UK, will instead be sent to a country where it is not safe for LGBTQI+ people to be open about their sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Outrage at the plans continued today with former Tory cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell branding them “impractical” and “incredibly expensive.”

Former top civil servant Sir David Normington said the scheme was “inhumane, morally reprehensible, probably unlawful and may well be unworkable.”

Campaigners have also highlighted how a similar deal struck between Israel and Rwanda between 2014 and 2017 saw almost all deported refugees leave the country immediately, with many attempting to return to Europe via people-smuggling routes.

Refugee Council chief executive Enver Solomon said that deal, like Australia’s offshore model, did not achieve the stated aim of stopping people making dangerous journeys and only caused “significant harm and distress.”

Bahrain's Investcorp in 'exclusivity talks' to buy AC Milan

AC Milan could become the latest football club to be have an Arab owner, such as Manchester City and Newcastle 

A.C. Milan is one of Italy's top football clubs [Getty]

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
15 April, 2022

Bahrain-based Investcorp has entered into 'exclusivity talks' to purchase Italian club AC Milan, a source close to the deal told Reuters on Friday.

The source said the deal to buy the Serie A club from current owners Elliott Management Corporation was close to being completed.

Investcorp is an asset manager with lines of business including: private equity, real estate, absolute return investments, infrastructure, credit management, and strategic capital. It manages over $42 billion in assets.

American firm Elliott Management Corporation took over seven-times European champions Milan in 2018.

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Investcorp would not comment when contacted by Reuters while the club and Elliott Management did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Milan have won Serie A, Italy's top flight league title, 18 times but not since 2011- the club are currently top of the table.

AP Source: Bahrain-based investor in talks to buy AC Milan

By ROB HARRIS

AP

April 15, 2022

AC Milan's Zlatan Ibrahimovic reacts after an injury from a header during the Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Bologna at the San Siro stadium, in Milan, Italy, Monday, April 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

A Bahrain-based private equity firm is in exclusive talks to buy seven-time European champion AC Milan and become the Italian league’s first Middle East investor, a person with knowledge of the process said.

The buyout by Investcorp could see the Serie A leader sold for around 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion), the person told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of the exclusive talks which began this month.

The U.S.-based hedge firm Elliott Management has owned Milan since 2018 after the former Chinese owner failed to repay part of a loan. Milan declined comment while club director Paolo Maldini remained tight-lipped about the deal on Friday before the team’s 2-0 win over Genoa.

“I know little,” Maldini said. “It’s normal that there could be a sale in the future of Milan. I don’t know when that will be.

“With a few rounds remaining, I think it’s in the interest of everyone to try to win this championship.”

Investcorp, which was founded in Bahrain in 1982, delisted from the Bahrain stock exchange last year after almost four decades as it continues its global expansion of investments.

Investcorp executive chairman Mohammed Alardhi has been involved in the talks with Milan, the person with knowledge of the process said.

With offices across the Middle East, the U.S., Europe and Asia, Investcorp has assets valued at more than $37 billion, including from corporate investment, real estate and hedge funds.

The potential takeover comes with Milan on top of Serie A with five games remaining. Milan looks to win a first title since 2011, and a 19th overall, after a period of domestic dominance by Juventus broken by crosstown rival Inter Milan only last season.

The two Milan clubs share the San Siro stadium and they are looking to build a new stadium jointly as part of “The Cathedral” project.

AC Milan is also looking for investment that would allow the team to return to the pinnacle of European football having not won the Champions League since 2007 during the ownership of former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi. The team, which features Swedish star Zlatan Ibrahimovic, went out in the group stage in December after ending a seven-season absence from the lucrative UEFA competition.

Milan reported debts of around 100 million euros in the last financial year, to June 2021, as the club reported pandemic-impacted losses halving to 96.4 million euros.

While Investcorp would mark the entry of Gulf investment to Serie A, the English Premier League has Abu Dhabi funding of Manchester City and Saudi ownership of Newcastle, and Qatari investment has transformed Paris Saint-Germain.