Day: September 30, 2021

JUBA— At least 40 Afghans have entered South Sudan without following the required legal procedures according to the country’s immigration authorities.

Addressing sector commanders morning in Juba, Gen Atem Marol, who heads South Sudan’s Immigration, Passports and Civil Registry, said the refugees entered the country illegally.

“My office noticed that there are Afghans who entered the country without [our] knowledge or [following] procedures,” said Atem, adding that the foreigners are staying in one place.

Gen Marol, who said it was not clear how the Afghans entered South Sudan, asked citizens to cooperate with the refugees and provide them the needed reception.

After taking Kabul on Aug 15, with the president and other top officials leaving Afghanistan, the Taliban announced a general amnesty for state employees, encouraged women to participate in its prospective government, and pledged that Afghan soil would not be a springboard for harming any country.

In late August, Uganda became the first African country to host Afghan refugees after its foreign affairs ministry confirmed having received 51 evacuees.

Uganda said the United States requested it to host “at-risk” Afghans and people of other nationalities who were in transit to America and other nations. It is the largest refugee-hosting nation on the African continent and the fourth in the world, with over 1.5 million refugees.

The vast influx of refugees is due to several factors in countries neighbouring Uganda, especially war and violence in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and associated economic crises and political instability in the region.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

ABUJA— Nigerian police said they arrested dozens of Shia Muslim followers of an outlawed group at a religious procession in the nation’s capital with a spokesperson of the group claiming eight members were shot dead during the gathering.

Abuja police denied any casualties occurred when the group, marking the religious ritual of Arbaeen, was dispersed on Tuesday.

“The miscreants who were found in their numbers were promptly intercepted by the security operatives and dispersed to prevent them from causing further disruption of public order,” the police statement said.

However, Abdullahi Muhamed, an IMN member, claimed that participants were walking peacefully along the expressway when a team of police and soldiers fired tear gas and live ammunition at them.

IMN spokesman, Ibrahim Musa, said security forces shot and wounded protesters.

“We were almost rounding up the procession when the police and army came and started shooting,” he said.

The IMN, a pro-Iranian group that was outlawed in 2019 for protests against the arrest of their leader Ibrahim el-Zakzaky, has clashed with Nigerian security forces for years and often marches in Abuja.

The army killed 350 IMN Shia Muslims during a religious procession in northern Nigeria in December 2015. According to rights groups, many were gunned down and burned alive.

IMN leader el-Zakzaky and his wife, who has been in custody since 2015, were freed last month after a court acquitted them of murder charges involving the death of a soldier.

But the religious leader still faces terrorism and treasonable offenses charges, according to prosecutors.

Muslims make up about half of Nigeria’s population of 200 million. The overwhelming majority of them are Sunni. The Shia Muslim minority has long complained of discrimination and repression.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

GENEVA— The crisis in Ethiopia that is pushing the war-scarred Tigray region towards starvation is a “stain on our conscience”, the United Nations humanitarian chief says.

Martin Griffiths issued one of the most sharply worded criticisms to date of the worst famine situation in decades, calling on Ethiopia’s incoming new government to lead the country away from “the abyss that it’s peering into”.

Memories of the 1980s famine in Ethiopia, which killed some 1 million people, were still vivid in his mind, “and we fervently hope is not happening at present”.

“That’s what keeps people awake at night,” Griffiths said.

Griffiths also criticized what the UN has called a de facto government blockade of food, medical supplies, and fuel to the Tigray region, where the malnutrition rate is now more than 22 percent.

Meanwhile, just 10 percent of needed humanitarian supplies have been reaching Tigray in recent weeks, Griffiths said, with the lack of fuel and communication making it all but impossible to reach people and assess the true scale of needs.

Mothers in the war-torn region have described feeding their children leaves in a desperate bid to keep them alive, as they move from place to place searching for aid.

Telltale signs of malnutrition, including sluggishness, rashes, loss of appetite, are becoming increasingly frequent.

“Before the war, my daughter was in good physical and mental health… now look at her,” the mother of a 20-month-old in the northern city of Adigrat, said.

“It’s been weeks since she lost her appetite. Presently she cannot walk, she lost her smiley face.”

In July, the UN warned that 400,000 people across Tigray had “crossed the threshold into famine”.

The government has blamed problems with humanitarian aid delivery on the Tigray forces, who long dominated the national government before the country’s current Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, sidelined them.

Abiy won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for establishing a peace agreement to end the long stalemate with Eritrea.

He has been accused of war crimes after he sent troops to Tigray to topple the regional ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). A move that he said was in response to TPLF attacks on army camps.

The war in Ethiopia began last November, as the harvest season began, and the UN has said at least half of the coming harvest will fail.

Abiy’s government has accused humanitarian workers of supporting the Tigray fighters.

Griffiths called such allegations unfair and unacceptable, inviting the government to share any evidence of misconduct by humanitarian workers so that the international body could investigate.

The UN, the United States, and others have urged the warring sides to stop the fighting and take steps towards peace.

But “the war doesn’t look as if it’s finishing any time soon,” Griffiths said.

Ethiopia will see the formation of a new government next week with another five years in office for the prime minister.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

BRUSSELS— The Court of Justice of the European Union said it has canceled two agricultural trade agreements with Morocco concerning the disputed Western Sahara region, saying the North African country did not have the consent of local inhabitants affected.

The EU ruled in favor of the Front Polisario independence movement, which had filed the case in 2019 on behalf of the Sahrawi people who populate the region. The front has been fighting for the Western Sahara’s independence from Morocco.

The EU-Morocco agreements concern the waters and territory of the disputed Western Sahara region.

The deals allowed Morocco to export goods from the contested Western Sahara, and had previously been ratified by the European Parliament.

In Wednesday’s ruling, the tribunal said the Council had made a mistake and decided to revoke the agreements saying they imposed obligations on the people of Western Sahara without their consent.

“The Court concludes that the Council did not sufficiently take into account all the relevant factors relating to the situation in Western Sahara,” it said in a press release.

The Council, which is made up of representatives of EU states, had “wrongly considered that it had a degree of discretion” in its decision on whether or not to comply with an unfulfilled requirement for consent, the statement said.

“The Court takes the view that, in so far as the agreements at issue apply expressly to Western Sahara and, as regards the decision concerning the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement, to the waters adjacent to that territory, they concern the people of that territory and require the consent of its people,” it said.

The agreements will be terminated “over a certain period” to ensure the EU respects commitments it has already agreed to.

The rule of international law, where the consent of “a third party to an international agreement may be presumed” if the deal grants the party rights does not apply to this case, the tribunal said.

“The agreements at issue are not intended to confer rights on the people of Western Sahara, but to impose obligations on them,” it added.

Morocco has occupied the Western Sahara area on the Atlantic coast of northwest Africa since 1975. The region was previously part of a Spanish colony.

In 1991, the Polisario Front and the Moroccan government agreed to a truce after 16 years of war. UN observers continue to monitor the situation, with clashes between the two sides reigniting last year.

The Polisario Front has since become an internationally-recognized representative of the Sahrawi people and their fight for independence.

The EU is Morocco’s leading trade partner and the biggest foreign investor in Morocco.

The EU ruling was embraced by Sahrawi activists as a small victory over Morocco. Some Moroccan nationalists, on the other hand, blasted the move, accusing the EU of “attacking Moroccan sovereignty”.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK