Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

International-UN-NGOs

Trump’s sanctions on ICC prosecutor said to have halted tribunal’s work

2025-05-16

[IsraelTimes] Key organizations paused cooperation with International Criminal Court, chief prosecutor Karim Khan lost email access; US measures response to arrest warrants issued for Israeli leaders

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor has lost access to his email, and his bank accounts have been frozen.

The Hague-based court’s American staffers have been told that if they travel to the US they risk arrest.

Some non-governmental organizations have stopped working with the ICC and the leaders of one won’t even reply to emails from court officials.

Those are just some of the hurdles facing court staff since US President Donald Trump
...Never got invited to a P.Diddy party...
in February slapped sanctions on its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, according to interviews with current and former ICC officials, international lawyers and human rights
One man's rights are another man's existential threat.
advocates.

The sanctions will "prevent victims from getting access to justice," warned Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch.

Trump sanctioned the court after a panel of ICC judges in November issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his then-defense minister, Yoav Gallant. The US and Israel are not members of the court.

Judges found there was reason to believe that the pair may have committed war crimes by restricting humanitarian aid

and intentionally targeting civilians in Israel’s campaign against the Hamas
Hamas

..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
terror group in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
— charges Israeli officials deny.

Israel says it goes to great lengths to avoid harming civilians as it targets Hamas and other terror groups who have built a warren of fortified tunnels under Gaza and routinely use civilian infrastructure like schools and hospitals as command centers and to carry out attacks.

Staffers and allies of the ICC said the sanctions have made it increasingly difficult for the tribunal to conduct basic tasks, let alone seek justice for victims of war crimes or genocide.

A spokesperson for the ICC and for Khan declined to comment. In February, ICC President Judge Tomoko Akane said that the sanctions "constitute serious attacks against the Court’s States Parties, the rule of law based international order and millions of victims."

ORDER TARGETS CHIEF PROSECUTOR
The February order bans Khan and other non-Americans among the ICC’s 900 staff members from entering the United States. It also threatens any person, institution or company with fines and prison time if they provide Khan with "financial, material, or technological support."

The sanctions are hampering work on a broad array of investigations, not just the one into Israel’s leaders.

The ICC, for example, had been investigating atrocities in Sudan
...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans...
and had issued arrest warrants for former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir
...Former President-for-Life of Sudan. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself head cheese. He fell out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. He was overthrown by popular consent in 2019. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it...
on charges that include genocide. That probe has ground to a halt even as reports mount of new atrocities in Sudan, according to an attorney representing an ICC prosecutor who is fighting the sanctions in US courts. The prosecutor, Eric Iverson, filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration seeking protection from the sanctions.

Her client "cannot do, what I would describe as, basic lawyer functions," said Allison Miller, who is representing Iverson in the suit.

American staffers at the organization, like Iverson, have been warned by its attorneys that they risk arrest if they return home to visit family, according to ICC officials. Six bigwigs have left the court over concerns about sanctions.

One reason the court has been hamstrung is that it relies heavily on contractors and non-governmental organizations. Those businesses and groups have curtailed work on behalf of the court because they were concerned about being targeted by US authorities, according to current and former ICC staffers.

Microsoft, for example, cancelled Khan’s email address, forcing the prosecutor to move to Proton Mail, a Swiss email provider, ICC staffers said. His bank accounts in his home country of the United Kingdom have been blocked.

Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment.

Staffers at a non-governmental organization that plays an integral role in the court’s efforts to gather evidence and find witnesses said the group has transferred money out of US bank accounts because they fear it might be seized by the Trump administration.

Senior leadership at two other US-based human rights organizations told the AP that their groups have stopped working with the ICC. A senior staffer at one told the AP that employees have even stopped replying to emails from court officials out of fear of triggering a response from the Trump administration.

The cumulative effect of such actions has led ICC staffers to openly wonder whether the organization can survive the Trump administration, according to ICC officials who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal.

Said one such official: "It’s hard to see how the court makes it through the next four years."

TRUMP ALLEGED ICC&RSQUO;S ACTIONS WERE BASELESS
Trump, a staunch supporter of Netanyahu, issued his sanctions order shortly after retaking office, accusing the ICC of "illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel." Washington says the court has no jurisdiction over Israel.

Trump’s order said the ICC’s "actions against Israel and the United States set a dangerous precedent, directly endangering current and former United States personnel, including active service members of the Armed Forces." He said the court’s "malign conduct" threatens "the illusory sovereignty of the United States and undermines the critical national security and foreign policy work of the United States Government."

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Netanyahu has dismissed the ICC’s allegations as "absurd," and Israel’s Knesset is considering legislation that would make providing evidence to the court a crime.

Israel launched its offensive after Hamas-led turbans stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 as hostages to Gaza. Of those, 57, over half of whom are believed dead, are still in captivity, plus the body of a soldier held for the past decade.

COPING WITH DARK HUMOR
Inside the court, staffers have been coping with dark humor, joking about how they cannot even loan Khan a pen or risk appearing on the US radar.

This is not the first time the ICC has drawn Trump’s ire. In 2020, the former Trump administration sanctioned Khan’s predecessor, Fatou Bensouda, and one of her deputies over the court’s investigation into alleged crimes committed in Afghanistan while the United States military was operating in the country.

US president Joe The Big Guy Biden
...46th president of the U.S. Joe's wife and daughter weren't killed by a drunk driver. He didn't graduate with three or even two degrees, wasn't in the top half of his law class, and his daddy didn't come home from a hard day's work in the mines and play football with the guys. The NAACP hasn't endorsed him every time he's run....
rescinded the sanctions when he took office several months later.

Three lawsuits are now pending from US court staff and consultants against the Trump administration, arguing that the sanctions infringe on their freedom of expression. Earlier this week Iverson, the lawyer investigating genocide in Sudan, won temporary protection from prosecution but if other US citizens at the court want a similar assurance, they would have to bring their own complaint.

Meanwhile,
...back at the abandoned silver mine, a triangular dorsal fin appeared in the water. Then another...
the court is facing an increasing lack of cooperation from countries normally considered to be its staunchest supporters.

The ICC has no enforcement apparatus of its own and relies on member states. In the last year, three countries — including two in the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
— have refused to execute warrants issued by the court.

The renewed assault from the Trump administration comes as the court was already facing internal challenges. Last year, just weeks before Khan announced he was requesting arrest warrants for the Israeli officials, two court staff reported the British barrister had harassed a female aide, according to reporting by the News Agency that Dare Not be Named.

Khan has categorically denied the accusations that he groped and tried to coerce a female aide into a sexual relationship. A United Nations
...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
investigation is underway, and Khan has since been accused of retaliating against staff who supported the woman, including demoting several people he felt were critical of him.

Link

Africa Subsaharan

Fulani expansion war, a federal pet, by Ochereome Nnanna - Vanguard News

2025-04-23

A backgrounder on Nigeria's internal dysfunction.
[VANGUARDNGR]Before his sudden, mysterious death, former Head of State, General Sani Abacha, left us with an enduring, prophetic soundbite. He said: “If an insurgency lasts for more than 24 hours, then, know that government has a hand in it”. Way back on May 8, 2014, The Cable newspaper published a retweet of the late General’s daughter, Ms Gumsu Abacha, quoting exactly the same one-liner in response to Boko Haram “exploits”.

What would you say of the Fulani expansionism “insurgency” which has lasted 25 years? By “federal”, I do not necessarily mean the President Bola Tinubu administration, though it is also complicit as will be shown shortly. “Federal” here means the machinery of the Nigerian State, the ruling Establishment or dispensation, the power that be which produces and dictates to successive Federal Governments.

Since 1999, this power dispensing machine has produced five presidents – Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan, Muhammadu Buhari and Tinubu, always making sure it does not fall into “wrong” hands. Only such mechanism could enact the magic of making Obasanjo president from jail, ensuring that no Northern candidate would stand against him. To the best of my knowledge, the Fulani wars of conquest started around 2001 in the Plateau area. Armed Fulani “herdsmen” were routinely massacring the indigenes to take over their fertile farmlands. The military, police, security and what have you, have failed to stop them despite several eye-service deployments.

But when the Tarokh people armed themselves and retaliated in May 2004, President Obasanjo declared a state of emergency and removed PDP Governor, Joshua Dariye, who was seen as encouraging his indigenous people to defend themselves. What did Dariye do later? He joined Muhammadu Buhari’s APC and helped the party capture the state in 2015. Buhari pardoned and released him from his 14-year jail conviction for allegedly stealing N2bn. Dariye could not beat them. He joined them, and was rewarded by Buhari himself, just as Adams Oshiomhole had promised all who join APC.

Lionhearted governors who were crushed became a lesson to others. Fight the State and pay for it; collude with the State against your people and be rewarded. When you see Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State running kitikiti-katakata to lick the toes of fellow governors from the North over the Uromi lynching, you know the fear the State exerts over occupants of powerful or lucrative positions.

When Buhari came to power in 2015, he saw himself as the Nigerian variant of Omar Al Bashir of Sudan, who armed Arab pastoralist militia, the Janjaweed, to conquer and annex the lands of black Sudanese, thus sparking the Darfur crises. Buhari was determined to make Nigeria the new home of his Fulani kinsmen from everywhere. He tried to enforce his Ruga grazing routes, water resources and Livestock Plan policies throughout the country, but these were stiffly resisted. Buhari then threw open the borders for armed Fulani and their families, especially the nomads from everywhere, to relocate to Nigeria.

During the COVID-19 lockdowns, he and his powerful kinsmen used food and cement trailers and trucks to distribute armed Fulani youths in forests all over the Middle Belt and Southern states. It was clearly a well-organised operation aimed at forcefully grafting alien, violent Fulani elements among unwilling indigenous communities. They were camped in the forests where they killed people in their farms and harvested organs for sale. They kidnapped for ransom and used livestock to destroy farms. They flushed people out of their ancestral lands and occupied communities.

The Federal Government and its organs of security and coercion protected them from those seeking to defend themselves. They were promptly released when arrested by vigilante groups and handed over to the supposed law enforcement agencies. Government and (unfortunately, sections of the media) deceived the public, calling attacks on innocent Nigerian farming communities “farmers-herders clashes”. Government kept promising displaced people they would be restored to their ancestral lands but have now become permanent occupants of Internally-Displaced Persons, IDPs, camps. The invaders are settling down and renaming conquered communities.

The Federal Government refused to even acknowledge Fulani invaders as terrorists. Instead, they turned around to falsely slap that moniker on the Eastern Security Network, ESN, formed by the concerned diaspora Igbo through Mazi Nnamdi Kanu's Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, to defend Igboland.

When Tinubu controversially won the 2023 presidential election, I consoled myself that Buhari the Fulaniser was out and Tinubu, being a Southerner, would check the Fulanisation agenda. It has also been wreaking even more havoc in the South-West, Tinubu's home zone. But we were in for a shock. After initially arresting and detaining Bello Bodejo, the leader of the loquacious and violent Miyetti Allah Kyautal Hore, Tinubu quickly released him when the Fulani elite threatened him. He even went ahead to create Federal Ministry of Livestock to appease them, thus fully resuscitating Buhari's Fulanisation agenda.

Tinubu holds on to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu even after releasing Fulani's Bodejo and Sunday Igboho of Yoruba Nation. Under Tinubu, the cuddling of Fulani herdsmen terrorism continues unabated, and so do the endless barrages of meaningless condolence messages and empty promises. The entire landscape is filled with cowardly governors and political leaders who sell out their people for political power and lucrative posts. At this rate, the indigenous people of Nigeria are doomed.

Retired Lt-General Theophilus Danjuma warned before (and has just repeated the warning) that the government is an enhancer of Fulani expansionism. ''They collude,'' he says. ''They will not protect you! Arm and protect yourselves''. Danjuma, a hero of the Nigerian side of the civil war, has written off the armed forces he once served and led. Who are we to believe otherwise? Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB and ESN have once again been vindicated, even by Danjuma!

Self-defence is the first law of nature. The ball is in our court.

Link

International-UN-NGOs

ICC top judge pans ‘appalling’ US threat to penalize court over Israel arrest warrants

2024-12-03

[IsraelTimes] Tomoko Akane references threat by US Senator Graham, who said Washington would sanction allies who cooperate over warrants targeting Netanyahu and Gallant

The president of the International Criminal Court lashed out at the United States and Russia for interfering with its investigations, calling attacks on the court "appalling."

"The court is being threatened with draconian economic sanctions by another permanent member of the Security Council as if it was a terrorist organization," Judge Tomoko Akane said in her address to the institution’s annual meeting, which opened on Monday.

Akane was referring to remarks made by US Sen. Lindsey Graham
...soft-spoken senator from South Carolina, former best buddy of John Maverick McCain. Since McCain's demise, Graham has become more outspoken, more Republican and more of a supporter of President Trump. The speech he gave in support of Brett Kavanaugh was downright manly and really cheesed off the Dems...
, whose Republican party will control both branches of Congress in January, and who called the court a "dangerous joke" and urged Congress to sanction its prosecutor. "To any ally, Canada, Britannia, Germany, La Belle France, if you try to help the ICC, we’re going to sanction you," Graham said on Fox News.

Graham was angered by an announcement last month that judges had granted a request from the court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister along with Hamas
Hamas

..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
’s military chief Mohammed Deif — who Israel has said it killed in an ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
...KABOOM!...
this summer — for crimes against humanity in connection with the nearly 14-month war against Hamas in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...

ICC FACES CHALLENGES IN IMPLEMENTING ARREST WARRANTS
Graham’s threat isn’t seen as just empty words. US President-elect Trump'>Donald Trump
...They hit him with slander, they impeached him twice. Nancy Pelosi tore up his State of the Union address on national TV. They stole an election and put his adherents in jail. They vilified him. They couldn't crucify him, so they shot him. Still, they can't keep him down...
sanctioned the court’s previous prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, with a travel ban and asset freeze for investigating American troops and intelligence officials in Afghanistan.

Akane on Monday also had harsh words for Russia. "Several elected officials are being subjected to arrest warrants from a permanent member of the Security Council," she said. Moscow issued warrants for Khan and others in response to an investigation into President Vladimir Putin
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
The Assembly of States Parties, which represents the ICC’s 124 member countries, will convene its 23rd conference to elect committee members and approve the court’s budget against a backdrop of unfavorable headlines.

The ICC was established in 2002 as the world’s permanent court of last resort to prosecute individuals responsible for the most heinous atrocities — war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and the crime of aggression. The court only becomes involved when "nations are unable or unwilling to prosecute those crimes on their territory. To date, 124 countries have signed on to the Rome Statute, which created the institution. Those who have not include Israel, Russia, China and the US.

The ICC has no police force and relies on member states to execute arrest warrants.

The decision to warrant issues for Netanyahu and ex-defense minister Yoav Gallant has been denounced by critics of the court and given only milquetoast approval by many of its supporters, a stark contrast to the robust backing of an arrest warrant for Putin last year over war crimes in Ukraine.

The two wars also have starkly different backgrounds. Leading up to its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, Putin expressed increasingly belligerent views toward its smaller neighbor, challenging Ukraine’s legitimacy as a state, and arguing that it was a historic part of Russia. Moscow then annexed parts of the country under its occupation in September 2022.

Global security expert Janina Dill worried that such responses could undermine global justice efforts. "It really has the potential to damage not just the court, but international law," she told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named.

Milena Sterio, an expert in international law at Cleveland, kept in touch with the world by Obamaphone,
...was ruled by a Democrat machine from 1942 through 1971. After the river caught fire during the administration of Carl Stokes they tried a Republican, then went back to being Democrats when the party hacked up Dennis Kucinich ...
State University, told the AP that sanctions against the court could affect a number of people who contribute to the court’s work, such as international human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
lawyer Amal Clooney. Clooney advised the current prosecutor on his request for the warrants for Netanyahu and others.

"Sanctions are a huge burden," Sterio said.

ACCUSATIONS AGAINST KHAN
Also hanging heavy over the meeting in The Hague are the internal pressures that Khan faces. In October, the AP reported the 54-year-old British lawyer is facing allegations he tried to coerce a female aide into a sexual relationship and groped her.

Two co-workers in whom the woman confided reported the alleged misconduct in May to the court’s independent watchdog, which says it interviewed the woman and ended its inquiry after five days when she opted against filing a formal complaint. Khan was never questioned. He has denied the claims.

The Assembly of States Parties has announced it will launch an external probe into the allegations. It’s not clear if the investigation will be addressed during the meeting.

Khan took the floor after Akane. He didn’t address the accusations against him or the threats against the court directly, other than to say the institution was facing "unprecedented challenges."

Instead, he highlighted his office’s recent request for an arrest warrant against the head of Myanmar’s military government and said he planned to request warrants related to Afghanistan and Sudan
...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans...
in the coming months.

Late last week, six countries including La Belle France, Luxembourg, and Mexico asked Khan’s office to look into possible crimes in Afghanistan since the Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
took control in 2021. While Khan isn’t obligated to open an investigation in response to such a request, historically court prosecutors have done so.

The court, which has long faced accusations of ineffectiveness, will have no trials pending after two conclude in December. While it has issued a number of arrest warrants in recent months, many high-profile suspects remain on the lam.

Member states don’t always act. Mongolia refused to arrest Putin when he visited in September. Sudan’s former president Omar al-Bashir
...Former President-for-Life of Sudan. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself head cheese. He fell out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. He was overthrown by popular consent in 2019. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it...
is wanted by the ICC over accusations related to the conflict in Darfur, but his country has refused to hand him over. Last week, Khan requested a warrant for the head of Myanmar’s military regime, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, for attacks against the country’s Rohingya Moslem minority. Judges have yet to decide on that request.

"It becomes very difficult to justify the court’s existence," Sterio said.

One imagines so.

Link

Africa Horn

Sudanese paramilitary commander slapped with US sanctions

2024-11-16

[Garowe] The Rapid Support Force (RSF) commander is the latest victim of sanctions imposed by the United States Treasury Department, with gross abuse of human rights
One man's rights are another man's existential threat.
in West Darfur being one of the atrocious activities he is accused of.

In a statement, the Treasury Department said Abdel Rahman Juma Barkalla led the RSF’s campaign in West Darfur, marked by credible claims of serious human rights abuses, including the targeting of civilians, conflict-related sexual violence, and ethnically motivated violence.

A few days ago, Barkalla was slapped with sanctions by the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
Security Council. The war between the Sudan
Sudan

Link

Africa Horn

Top RSF commander defects, joins Sudanese army

2024-10-23

[Garowe] A top military commander associated with the Rapid Support Force (RSF) defected his outfit, joining the Sudan
Sudan

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Africa Horn

Sudan's RSF claims control of Suki, army silent

2024-07-28

[SUDANTRIBUNE] Sudan
Sudan

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Africa Horn

22 dead in shelling of El-Fasher

2024-07-28

[ARABNEWS] Besieging Sudan
Sudan

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Africa Horn

The Janjaweed Rebranded: Why international community's calls to RSF fall on deaf ears?

2024-07-18

[SUDANTRIBUNE] Fifteen months of the RSF militia’s war against the Sudan
Sudan

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Africa Horn

Sudanese army retakes A-Dinder from RSF

2024-07-05

[SUDANTRIBUNE] The Sudan
Sudan

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Africa Horn

Sudan: RSF kills at least 100 in attack on village

2024-06-07

[AFRICANEWS] At least 100 people were killed, and dozens were maimed after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces attacked a village in Gezira province in Sudan
Sudan

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Africa Horn

Sudan's descent into chaos sets stage for al-Qaida to make a return to historic stronghold

2024-05-13

[AFRICANEWS] "Sudan
Sudan

...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans...
's moment has come; chaos is our chance to sow the seeds of jihad," warned Abu Hudhaifa al-Sudani, a high-ranking al-Qaeda leader, in an October 2022 manifesto.

His words may have seemed premature at the time, but a year of brutal civil war has now plunged Sudan into the kind of chaos in which terrorist groups thrive. The risk of al-Qaeda gaining ground in Sudan is now very real and imperils, I believe, not only the country itself but also regional — and potentially global — security.

In April 2023, fighting broke out in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, creating a power vacuum that Lions of Islam are eager to fill.

At the same time, the Rapid Support Forces — a group that developed under and was once allied to Sudan's al-Qaeda-harboring former president Omar al-Bashir
...Former President-for-Life of Sudan He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself head cheese. He fell out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Hee was overthrown by popular consent in 2019. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it...>
— has been solidifying its grip in strategic areas such as Darfur and southern Khartoum.

Indeed, both the paramilitary group and the armed forces have been accused of recruiting Islamist fighters, fueling fears that the civil war will — regardless of the victor — prove a toehold for bully boy groups.

As a defense policy researcher and counterterrorism expert, I'm concerned that Sudan risks becoming an al-Qaeda stronghold — and a potential base for orchestrating attacks on the U.S. and its allies. A potential Rapid Support Forces takeover in Sudan could mirror pre-9/11 Afghanistan, where Taliban
...Arabic for students...
control facilitated al-Qaeda's rise.

Al-Qaeda members, seeking opportunities to achieve what they couldn't in the Middle East, are already heeding calls to head to Sudan.

DECADES OF TURMOIL AND EXTREMISM
Sudan's civil strife predates the current fighting by decades. It ignited in 1989 when al-Bashir seized power, aligning the nation with radical Islamist ideologies. He imposed Sharia law and in 1991 sheltered al-Qaeda leader the late Osama bin Laden
...... who is now neither a strong horse nor a weak horse, but a dead horse......
. Under al-Bashir's regime, bin Laden established training camps and expanded al-Qaeda's financial network, laying the groundwork for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Facing international sanctions over its support of terrorism, Sudan expelled bin Laden in 1996.

But al-Bashir's sponsorship of the Janjaweed militia group, the architects of the 2003 Darfur genocide, further solidified his alignment with Islamist bully boys. Under scrutiny, al-Bashir rebranded the Janjaweed as the Rapid Support Forces in 2013, appointing ex-Janjaweed member Mohammed Hamdan "Hemeti" Dagalo as its leader and retaining their brutal tactics.

The 2021 coup, orchestrated by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan of the Sudanese Armed Forces and Hemeti of the Rapid Support Forces, soon devolved into a power struggle between the two men, igniting Sudan's current conflict.

Today, with Hemeti at the helm, the paramilitary group continues its oppressive campaign in West Darfur, engaging in alleged ethnic cleansing against the Indigenous Masalit people.

Meanwhile,
...back at the barn, Bossy's udder had begun to ache...
a prison attack in April 2023, which the Sudanese army blamed on Rapid Support Forces rebels, facilitated the escape of al-Bashir's allies, though the former president remains hospitalized under guard.

SUDAN AT THE HEART OF JIHAD
With conflicts in the Middle Eastand Eastern Europe, the West might be overlooking the crisis in Sudan and the potential it holds for al-Qaeda, a group that has long harbored ambitions of returning to Sudan.

Despite his expulsion, bin Laden continued to emphasize Sudan's importance in his plans for global jihad. This was evident in his 2006 audiotape and diary entries in which he referred to Sudan as a pivotal operational base.

A 2023 publication by key al-Qaeda figure Ibrahim al-Qussi titled "Fragments from al-Qaeda's History" revealed that bin Laden directed an investment of US$12 million solely for jihad in Sudan, highlighting the region's ongoing relevance to al-Qaeda's objectives.

Sudan's appeal to Lions of Islam extends beyond its connections to bin Laden. Strategically bridging North and sub-Saharan Africa, Sudan is a key location for Islamist Lions of Islam aiming to expand their influence across the region.

After the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban's return to power, al-Qaeda reestablished a presence in the country, reopening training camps and madrassas.

Well before that, however, al-Qaeda had long since evolved from a centralized organization in Afghanistan into a decentralized network with global affiliates — from the Arabian Peninsula to the Indian subcontinent all the way to sub-Saharan Africa and the Sahel.

HISTORIC TIES, NEW AMBITIONS
Recent developments highlight al-Qaeda's increased focus on Sudan and are driven by detailed expansion plans of Sudanese al-Qaeda leader Abu Hudhaifa al-Sudani. A former bin Laden associate with a notorious background in Afghanistan and Iraq, al-Sudani issued a renewed call for jihad.

Following the onset of civil war in Sudan, al-Sudani's 2022 manifesto, "Now the fighting has come: War messages to the Mujahideen in Sudan," not only prescribes a military strategy of targeted strikes and guerrilla warfare across Sudan but also a vision for jihad extending from Dongola in the country's north to Darfur in its south, with Khartoum as the command center.

Al-Qaeda further articulated its threat in a message on the 22nd anniversary of the 2001 attacks on the U.S., promising, "It is only a matter of time before the next strike eclipses the horrors of 9/11."

This declaration, combined with the group's escalating presence in conflict zones such as Niger and Libya, actively positions them to target U.S. interests worldwide. Indeed, a 2022 United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
report indicated that al-Qaeda was planning high-profile attacks, possibly at sea.

What an bully boy takeover would mean

Al-Qaeda's potential in resource-rich Sudan should not be underestimated. Historically, the group's operations from resource-limited Afghanistan were devastating; in Sudan, with its abundance of oil, gold and fertile land, their capabilities could be significantly magnified.

Sudan provides a lucrative base for whoever holds power. Forging links with both sides of the civil war would no doubt be of huge financial benefit to al-Qaeda should either side prevail, in the same way al-Bashir's rule was a generation earlier.

And Sudan's Red Sea access makes it potentially an even greater threat than Iraq and Afghanistan combined.

Gaining a Sudanese stronghold could empower al-Qaeda affiliates across Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
, Somalia and the Sahel region
... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas...
, exacerbating regional conflicts and threatening crucial Red Sea trade routes. Interestingly, a United Nations July 2022 report revealed that al-Qaeda's Yemen branch had been boosting its maritime capabilities.

The resurgence of al-Qaeda capabilities in the region could lead to increased piracy, militarized blockades and unregulated arms flow, escalating regional tensions and causing broader geopolitical unrest.

But as the United States redirects resources and attention to wars in Europa
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
and the Middle East and countering China, Sudan has seemingly slipped down its priority list. Complicating matters further, U.S. responses are tangled in the conflicting interests of its Gulf allies supporting various factions in Sudan's civil war.

Link

Africa Horn

TPLF: We are not involved in Sudan conflict

2024-05-10

Good to know.

[Garowe] The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) has denied claims that it is involved in the Sudanese conflict, which has seen Rapid Support Forces (RSF) engage the Sudanese army in fierce fighting as the two factions push for total control of government.

A statement issued by the Tigray Interim Administration termed the claims as 'baseless', noting that it has never been involved in the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) conflict, which has left thousands of people dead.

The claims, Tigray Interim Administration noted, are "apparently designed to shore up international support for its campaign against the SAF by internationalizing the tragic civil war." "The RSF’s allegation that TPLF fighters were taking part in the Sudanese civil war is based on nothing more than a fecund imagination."

RSF, the paramilitary wing which previously worked closely with the Sudanese army, made sensational claims that it has 'credible' evidence linking TPLF with close partnerships with SAF, which is struggling to contain the group.

The RSF leveled accusations against the Sudanese army, contending that since the outset of the civil conflict in Sudan, the SAF has actively solicited support from foreign mercenaries and entities across various nations, Addis Standard reports.

According to the RSF, these external entities have provided extensive support to the SAF, encompassing diverse operational domains such as air force operations, engineering tasks, artillery maneuvers, the deployment of military drones, and engagement in information warfare.

"Our advanced surveillance systems have documented the deaths of numerous mercenaries killed in combat and tracked their remains as they were repatriated through Port Sudan Airport last November and December."

The civil war erupted in Sudan on 15 April 2023, pitting two factions of the military government against each other: the SAF and the RSF. Allegations of foreign involvement in exacerbating the conflict have been rampant on both sides.

In November 2023, the Sudanese army, led by General Abdul Fattah al-Burhan, accused the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of supporting the RSF and facilitating the transfer of supplies through countries including Uganda.

Sudan has been in political turmoil since the ouster of Omar al-Bashir
...Former President-for-Life of Sudan He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself head cheese. He fell out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Hee was overthrown by popular consent in 2019. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it...
, with the military always tussling for leadership with civilians. And the RSF entered the twist, pushing for integration into the Sudan Armed Forces.

"Despite confronting internal adversities, the Sudanese populace and government have diligently extended aid and protection to the distressed refugees," reads the statement.

Given these circumstances, the Addis Standard adds, the interim administration, led by Getachew Reda, emphasized that "Tigray does not incline to intervene in the ongoing civil strife, recognizing Sudan as a cherished sanctuary for Tigrayans."

Link

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