Africa

One year since Liberian authorities launched a “historic undertaking” to assume full responsibility of the country’s security by the end of next June, top United Nations officials today discussed what measures are needed to support the implantation of the plan.

After losing most of its territory in Nigeria, Islamist militant group Boko Haram has started to attack neighbouring Cameroon, killing hundreds of people. Maud Jullien went on patrol with the Cameroonian army.

Cameroon sentences 89 members of Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram to death in the first case since new anti-terror laws were passed, local media report.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned yesterday’s double suicide attacks in Maiduguri in Nigeria’s restive Borno state by suspected Boko Haram elements, which left 20 people dead and many injured.

The latest flare-up of Ebola in Sierra Leone is over, the United Nations health agency today reported, but cautioned that the West African region remains at risk and should remain on alert.

By Marc-André Franche
Mar 17 2016 (Dawn, Pakistan)

The year 2015 will be remembered for two landmark global agreements. In September, UN member states endorsed the 2030 Development Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. Later, 196 parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change adopted the Paris Agreement at the conclusion of UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in France.

The year will also be remembered as the warmest on record with temperature rises breaking the one degree Celsius milestone above pre-industrial era average. A heatwave swept the globe including Sindh where 2,000 perished reminding us of the increased intensity and frequency of climatic events and its growing impact on development, particularly the poor and vulnerable.

It has been established that climate change is the consequence of Greenhouse Gas Emission (GHG) and is caused by human activities.

T he Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Synthesis Report of 2014 pointed to an increase in global temperature of 4°C contrary to the initial estimates of about 3.5°C till 2100.

Developing countries are more vulnerable because of their dependence on agriculture and socioeconomic dynamics including their weak capacities to cope with climate change.

In 2008, more than 100 million people fell below the poverty line largely due to food price hikes and low agriculture yields.

At the COP21 participating countries adopted the first-ever universal, legally binding climate deal that promises a global action plan to save the world from the effects of climate change by limiting global warming to 1.5 °C.

The COP21 agreement is indeed a diplomatic success. However, the intentions in the Paris Agreement and actual commitments in the form of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) by governments don`t connect. Estimates suggest that the combined impact of all INDCs, if fully implemented, will account for 86pc of the GHG emissions and will still result in global average temperature hikes above the 2°C threshold. Similarly, the intention of developed countries to mobilise $100 billion per year until 2025 is not only insufficient but also uncertain to be realised.

Pakistan is the eighth most vulnerable country to climate change though it produces less than 0.5pc of global emissions. Events like the 2010 floods which resulted in 2,000 human lives and economic losses equivalent to 7pc of GDP reconfirm that climate change is the most immediate development threat faced by this country. There is a clear and visible shift in summer monsoons trend from northeast to northwest by a range of 80-100 kilometres, threatening the agriculture sector. Frequency of other extreme weather events like cyclones, droughts and glacial lake outburst floods showthat Pakistan is becoming increasingly vulnerable to climate change.

Pakistan is conscious to the threats. The National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) of 2012 outlines mitigation and adaptation actions. Pakistan is one of the few countries to have undertaken a Climate Public Expenditure and Institutional Review (CPEIR) and has established public expenditure and institutional benchmarks. Post 18th Amendment, climate change has largely become a provincial subject and provinces must now take the lead. It is encouraging to note that some of the provinces have already started initiatives such as the `Billion Tree Plantation` initiative.

The deficit of vision and action remains widespread however. The INDCs put forward by Pakistan for the COP21 were considered limited and devoid of quantitative commitments and investment requirements for adaptation and mitigation. Using the CPEIR, Pakistan could have spelled out in detail its vulnerability to climate change. This would have afforded an opportunity to plead climate change-related needs in front of lobbyists,donors and negotiators across the globe. Pakistan can still revise its INDCs.

It needs strong institutions to implement its NCCP. A `whole of government` approach including parliament, finance, planning and sectoral departments is needed.The medium-term budgetary frameworks of ministries should talce into account climate change`s effects. The finance and planning institutions at the federal and provincial level should track related expenditure and progress. Provinces must integrate climate change issues in their growth strategies given its impact on poverty and social development.

Pakistan incurred $6bn climate changerelated losses in 2012. It needs to invest 5.5pc of GDP annually for mitigation and 1.5-3pc for adaptation to address its effects. For a 15pc reduction in GHG, an annual investment of around $8bn is needed. Given the global shortfall in financing, Pakistan requires an overarching climate change financing framework which can help streamline budget allocations and ensure holistic response to the challenge.

So far the evidence affirms that no one will remain untouched by the consequences of climate change. Developing countries will be most affected. It is time to act together. As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said, `there is no plan B, because there is no planet B`.

The writer is country director of UNDP in Pakistan

This story was originally published by Dawn, Pakistan

There have been angry exchanges in South Africa's parliament over President Jacob Zuma's alleged links with a wealthy family.

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 17 2016 (IPS)

“When it comes to peace talks, women have a special stake,” said Gloria Steinem while discussing current peace talks in the Middle East.

Steinem, a prominent activist, joined the 60th annual session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) as part of Donor Direct Action, an NGO connecting women’s rights activists to donors.

Partnering with Karama, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) focused on violence against women in the Arab region, the two organisations highlighted the need to include women not only in politics, but also in peace processes in conflict nations.

“Women should not be in the corridor, but actually at the table,” Karama founder Hibaaq Osman told delegates.

According to the International Peace Institute (IPI), between 1992 and 2011, just 2 percent of chief mediators and 9 percent of negotiators in peace processes were women.

However, in conflict, women continue to bear the brunt of causalities, gender-based violence and livelihood insecurity.

Despite the unanimous UN adoption of Resolution 1325 calling for the increase in women’s representation in conflict management and resolution, little has been done to enforce and implement it.

No woman has ever been the chief or lead mediator in an UN-led peace negotiation.

In an effort to include more women, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura established a Women’s Advisory Board, the first of its kind.

Though it is a monumental step towards women’s participation in peace talks, Mouna Ghanem, the founder of the Syrian Women’s Forum and member of the Women’s Advisory Board, stated that this is only the first step.

“This is not what we are aspiring for. What we are aspiring for is not only participation,” Ghanem told reporters.

“We are aspiring to be the decision makers, and we have a long way to go,” she continued.

The ongoing Syrian negotiations, which are on their fifth day in Geneva, have invited two parties to the table: Assad’s government and the main opposition bloc High Negotiations Committee (HNC). Though the Women’s Advisory Board will express their concerns and provide recommendations to the delegations, it is unclear how much influence they will have.

While criticising the lack of female decision-makers, Ghanem asked: “Why are [men] making the future of Syria? Why aren’t women also making the future of Syria? Are we going to let those who destroyed Syria and committed huge human rights violations to women and children…are we going to let them decide the future of Syria?

She added that the two-party negotiating system will not bring the best interests of Syrians, especially women.

Sahar Ghanem, the head of Civil Society Organisations Affairs Unit in the Yemeni Prime Minister’s Office, painted an almost identical picture, noting that the Yemeni peace talks also did not include women. She disclosed that women were “sacrificed” from the talks in order to bring the two reluctant parties together to negotiate.

Instead, in October 2015, a coalition of Yemeni women met with the UN Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed to consult on the political situation.

Director of the Libyan Women’s Platform for Peace Zahra’ Langhi noted that mediation must go beyond just the representation of women, adding that the UN-led mission failed to do this.

“They can bring some women in a segregated track and tick the box and say ‘we have women’, but women were not respectively engaged in the process,” she told IPS.

“The peace [the UN peace envoy] aim to achieve is fragile peace…it is a peace that does not engage local communities that women are the heart of,” she continued.

Langhi also asserted that in order to have sustainable peace, a ceasefire is insufficient, and they must tackle with the root causes of the conflict.

Among the causes are militarisation and the arms trade which, in Libya, has contributed to the systematic violence against civil society representatives, especially women.

Since the country’s revolution in 2011, there has been a wave of seemingly politically-motivated assassinations. In June 2014, prominent human rights lawyer and politician Salwa Bugaighis was shot to death in her home.

A month later, Fariha al-Barkawy was gunned down in broad daylight. In February 2015, civil society activist Intisar al-Hassairy was found dead in the trunk of her car.

“Because of the militarization and the assassination of these women, other women…decided not to be part of civil society anymore,” Langhi told IPS.

Echoing similar sentiments was Syrian Women’s Advisory Board representative Ghanem who said that the international community is simply giving Syrian refugees a “painkiller” without addressing why they are refugees in the first place.

“We should ask what the disease is and the disease is distributing arms to all these groups who are fighting in Syria,” she stated.

The three women highlighted though it is important to have a 30 percent quota for women in politics, the inclusion of more women in peace talks must involve investing in local communities. This will lead to long-lasting “sustainable” peace, they remarked.

Research from the Philippines and Colombia has shown that including women and men in peace processes significantly increases the likelihood of reaching and sustaining an agreement.

Citing the case of Liberia, where a group of women began a nonviolent campaign for peace which effectively ended the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003, Steinem pointed to the power of women in matters of peace and security, stating: “Now if they could make such a difference outside the room and away from the peace table, imagine what women could do in the room and at the table if we were half of every group.”

Though a new administration has been established after more than a year of UN peace talks, violence persists in the country and the peace deal remains weak.

Similarly, the peace deal between the Yemeni government and Houthi rebels is on the verge of collapse as negotiations continue to stall.

Syrian peace talks also teeter following disputes with the HNC and the Kurdish party who plan to announce a federal system in the Northern Kurd-dominated region of the country.

End

Roberto Savio, founder and president emeritus of the Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency and publisher of Other News.

By Roberto Savio
ROME, Mar 17 2016 (IPS)

The recent German elections went as predicted.. A new right wing, xenophobe party, Alternative for Germany, AFD, has emerged with force, and will bein national Parliament in 2017.This development is unprecedented in German politics since the end of the second world war, and it is widely viewedas part of a general trend – the rise of populist and xenophobe forces all over Europe.

Roberto Savio

The European elections of 2004 rang thefirst warning bell. The euro crisis and social instability saw the beginning of a surge to the right. Since then, every national election has seen a shift in the internal balance. Historical examples of civics and tolerance in the Nordic countries, such as Sweden, Norway and Denmark, has changed direction. Tthe Swedish Democrats, a party rooted in the neo Nazi movement, has forced the country to change its famous policy of open door to refugees. The Danish Popular Party last summer emerged as the second choice. In Finland, the True Finns becaoe the third force in 2015, and are now in the governmental coalition. In 2011, the massacre of 78 Norwegians by the neo Nazi Breivik heralded the end of the Nordic political identity.

Since 2004, the right wing parties just grew. Now they are in power in Hungary and Poland, and few days ago the pro Nazi “People Party for our Slovaquia” (LSNS), is firmly in parliament as the fourth force. And if elections are held today, the Freedom Party of the islamophobe GertWilders, would get the first place in the Netherlands. In France in 2015, the parties had to join forces to block Marine Le Pen from winning the French regional elections.

The weight of The UK Independence Party UKIP has obliged Cameron to call for a referendum on Europe. In Austria the right Freedom Party won 20.5% of the votes and, more recently, it came ahead either of the socialists or the Christian democrats in some state elections, entered in a Socialist-led government in Burgenland and gained more than 30% of the votes in Vienna. In Italy, the votes of the 5 Stars Movement added with those of the League of Matteo Salvini, it is almost 40% of anti Europe vote. Obviously the arrival of more than a million refugees, has given a boost to all xenophobe parties, and the Alternative for Germany’s fast rise has been explained as a punishment to Merkel, who opened the door to refugees, without any consultation, not even with France,

But beside this obvious explanation, it would be time to consider why since the crisis of the 2009, in such a short time, a campaign against Europe, and for a nationalist platform, seems to beso successful. Even without the refugees, the right wing tide has been a clear and evident fact. Refugees have become just an accelerator to what was happening everywhere. And why those right wing parties attract a very variegated electorate, from workers to housewives, from pensioners to young students? And why, suddenly, the dream of a European integration has lost popular support?

Obviously, this would entail a complex and long analysis, that we cannot afford here. But I would like to add an uncomfortable angle of reflection, probably not politically correct. The strict intransigence of the German government (embodied by the Nein fur Allen, no to everything, i.e. the minister of finance Wolfgang Schauble), has contributed to the decline of the European dream. Until the crisis of 2009, there were no serious financial and social problems. Then the crisis came, and Europe is now barely back to the pre crisis level (Italy not yet). This means that during the seven years of austerity imposed byGermany, with an epic fight on Cyprus and then Greece, and splitting Europe with a North-South divide was the only way forward. It would be of course irresponsible to suggest that the South of Europe could have ignored rules and budgets. But to make of the European Union a warden visibly indifferent to the savage cuts in public expenses, from welfare to hospitals, to the emerging dramatic youth unemployment everywhere, was not certainly the best recipe to give an attractive image of the European institutions.

Germany did look a superpower, passionate of its wealth, insensitive to other’s problems, which went by its own way, with no interest in consultation and socialization. It was easy during the seven years of crisis to attract a large number of people who felt left out, ignored by the traditional political parties, who did remember or imagine the good times of national sovereignty. They saw in foreign banks and corporations their enemy, in foreigners those who were robbing their jobs (remember the British campaign against the Polish plumber?) and saw Brussels as a bunch of unelected bureaucrats who did want to intrude in their lives, and decide on the shape of the tomatoes. Berlin did not do anything to correct that trend. It made a moral issue of the deficit of the debtors’ countries, and blocked any attempt to socialize the excedent of its economy with others.

It is may be time to consider that the German intransigence has a responsibility in the surge of the rightwing and nationalist tide, with the message that they did not care about others, intent only to keep their privileged situation; European solidarity is over. One by one its allies went into budget deficits , like Austria, Finland, the Netherlands, without Berlin even noticing. Austerity was a taboo which could not be discussed, like one cannot or must not discuss moral or religious dogmas.

It can be easily said that this is lamentation is from the side of the debtors, and that is usually what they do. Pass on the responsibility to the creditors, instead of making a real and sincere mea culpa. But then, what happens when Brussels, the warden of Europe, calls on Germany for a European responsibility ? Total indifference.

On the March 13, the European Commission did publish a report on the economic situation, and indicated that Spain, Italy and Portugal were the most fragile countries, in the terrible lack of growth in the Eurozone. The report specifically singles out Germany, echoing what already the IMF, the OECD, and the G20 have been stating: Berlin has completely ignored their call for increasing expenditure in infrastructures, as a way of a stimulus, using its huge superavit.

Germany has taken tiny steps in the last decade on all of the EU recommendations. It did not increase its budget in education, in research and development, nor did it improve the fiscal system. Brussels have been asking to increase the retirement age, at no avail. It has recommended to revise the fiscal treatments of the so called minijobs, and to eliminate barriers in the service sector, without any reaction. It asked to increase salaries, to redistribute the state superavit, in a total indifference. The Commission now says clearly that the large commercial superavit makes of Germany a risk for the euro. Brussels considers that Germany is not doing anything in matter of reforms, that must increase its public investment, and concludes that its enormous budgetary asynchrony with the rest of Europe “has adverse implications for the Eurozone”.

Let us not forget that Alternative for Germany was created by a group of academics who were against the euro. They were misplaced by the present leadership, who wants to get rid of the Brussels inference in the life of Germans, and go back to the times of the strong Germany of the past. Is the path of Merkel’s splendid solitude helping or weakening the European dream? No doubt she is a brilliant national leader. But a European one? .

(END)

Test your knowledge of the Africans in the Premier League

By Zahed Khan
Mar 17 2016 (The Daily Star, Bangladesh)

In any country, one has to be an adult to qualify as a driver. But in Bangladesh, one does not have to obey that law to become a driver – and that literally means it is “allowed”.

Monir is 16. He has been driving a human haulier for six months. Underage, he naturally does not have a license. But who cares? You can spot him in the Mohammadpur and Mirpur route. Monir says many of his buddies are also in this same profession.

The Daily Star have also spotted even younger drivers driving minibuses — even on the VIP road right under the nose of the law enforcers.

In most cases, underage drivers are seen driving human hauliers. Drivers say this is because qualified drivers with genuine licenses are not interested to drive these smaller vehicles for prestige issues.

Also, vehicle owners can exploit young and eager-to-please drivers better when it comes to payment.

The most common defence of people who deploy these kids for such risky jobs is that they were very poor and these jobs were providing them with a livelihood.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

Jan Oberg is TFF Director & Co-founder, peace studies professor. PhD in sociology, peace and future researcher. Associate professor (Docent) at Lund University, thereafter visiting or guest professor at various universities. Former director of the Lund University Peace Research Institute (LUPRI); former secretary-general of the Danish Peace Foundation; former member of the Danish government’s Committee on security and disarmament.

By Jan Oberg
Lund, Sweden, Mar 17 2016 (IPS)

The EUropean Union – a criminal?

The EU that has peace as its top goal and received Nobel’s Peace Prize?

The EU with Schengen and Dublin?

Jan Oberg

The EU with “European” values, humanism and mission civilisatrice that tells others how to live in accordance with international law and in respect for human rights?

We live in times where little shall surprise us anymore. The answer to the question – will EU become a criminal in international law terms? – will be answered on March 17 and 18 when the EU Council meets to decide whether or not to carry through the agreement with Turkey about how to handle refugees.

Amnesty International knows what it is all about. AI uses words such as “alarmingly shortsighted”, “inhumane”, “dehumanising”, “moral and legally flawed” and “EU and Turkish leaders have today sunk to a new low, effectively horse trading away the rights and dignity of some of the world’s most vulnerable people.”

And “By no stretch of imagination can Turkey be considered a ‘safe third country’ that the EU can cosily outsource its obligations to,” says Iverna McGowan, Head of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office.

When Amnesty International expresses itself this way, we should listen very very carefully. I do and I’ve signed Amnesty’s Open Letter to Swedish prime minister Löfvén protesting that Sweden too may join this inhuman and law-violating agreement with Turkey.

Hurry up, it is tomorrow!

Behind every refugee stands an arms trade, stands militarism.

A huge majority of the refugees have fled the wars conducted by irresponsible and narrow-minded EU leaders who, thereby, have already violated international law.

They continue to do so – Denmark being the latest to join the tragedy.

EU countries combined make up the largest economy in the world.

How bizarre that the EU has the resources to fight one war after the other, has huge military budgets and nuclear weapons and puts unlimited resources into wars against terror (that is, to a large extent, a response to U.S./NATO/EU foreign policies) but cowardly believes it can’t find the resources to care for 1,2 million seeking refuge among its 500 million, i.e. 0,24%!

Precisely because EU countries have caused a major part of the refugees to flee, we have a special moral obligation to a) receive them and b) learn to not start wars just like that on somebody else’s territory.

Where there is a will, there is a way. Will the EU anything good, the time is now.

There is no refugee crisis in the EU. There are several other crises:

1) A crisis caused by years of militarism;

2) A crisis of crisis management;

3) A crisis of leadership – or, with the exception of Chancellor Merkel – no leadership for common policies at all; and

4) A crisis of solidarity, humanity and ethics.

You may add a 5) the Euro-racism expressed as Islamophobia.

I am pretty sure that the EU would have acted differently if there had been a huge natural catastrophe or a nuclear power plant meltdown in Israel and 1,2 million Jews had come to Europe or if an EU country had experienced something like that in its own midst.

If on March 16-17, 2016, the EU decides to implement this immoral and law-violating agreement with increasingly authoritarian, war-fighting, terror-supporting and refugee-unsafe country Turkey, the moral decay of the Western world will be obvious.

If not to itself, then to the 92% of the world’s people living outside it.

And the EU will deserve nothing better than it own dissolution. Because it wasn’t for a better but for a worse world.

And technically – what is left when the asylum right, the Schengen and Dublin conventions etc. will be violated by the Council itself?

Either the EU is for a better world or it’s time for another Europe after it!

Jan Oberg’s article was published on 16 March 2016 in: TFF – Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research. Go to Original.

And how close are their links to President Jacob Zuma?

March 16, 2016 (MUNDRI) – Military media officials of armed opposition faction based in the South Sudan's greater Mundri of Amadi state (former Western Equatoria state) have accused the government of planning to attack their positions in further violation of the ceasefire agreement signed in August last year.

South Sudanese SPLA soldiers are pictured in Pageri in Eastern Equatoria state on August 20, 2015 (Photo AFP/Samir Bol)

“The Governor of Amadi State has this morning demanded the commander of SPLA-Juba in Mundri Barracks to issue an order to despatch three trucks full of SPLA Juba military from Mundri towards Bari to fight the SPLA\M IO forces in their assembly area and to proceed to Medewu, Ladingwa and up to Bangolo,” alleged a press statement signed by Baya Kayidri, the official Reporter of SPLA-IO, Division 9, Sector 5 in Western Equatoria state.

Kayidri said the aim of the government was to dislodge the opposition forces from their assembly point and have a permanent military deployment at Bari and areas far beyond Medewu.

“These are very unfortunate situations as it indicates that he [governor] is perusing war instead of focusing on the implementation of the signed peace agreement,” he said in the statement extended to Sudan Tribune on Wednesday.

He warned that the action will cause more humanitarian suffering among the civilian populations in these areas of targets.

“We therefore urge the JMEC and the CTSAMM to take note of these planned violation and advise the governor to stop all military activities in Greater Mundri counties and focus on the implementation of the signed peace agreement.”

He said the forces in Greater Mundri, originally Arrow Boys, are officially part and parcel of the SPLM-IO under the leadership of the first vice president designate, Riek Machar, and therefore have been covered by the ceasefire agreement.

He however added that it is unfortunate that civilians in these areas have suffered when the SPLA-Juba attacked the cantonment sites of the SPLA-IO early last month which resulted into cases like houses burnt and properties looted with majority of the populations remained displaced.

“Therefore, these second operation by SPLA Juba forces on SPLA IO is going to result to more looting of civilian properties, burning of houses, killing of innocent civilians and more displacement, which will affect more women, children and elderly men and women as they will be forced to run to bush again and suffer just as they have started suffering,” he further lamented.

JMEC and the UN, he said, should note that the current military operation by the government will hinder delivery of humanitarian aid to the suffering populations in those areas, adding the governor must be stopped from his “aggressive actions.”

(ST)

March 16, 2016 (ADDIS ABABA) – The leader of the armed opposition faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM-IO), Riek Machar, also the South Sudanese first vice president designate, has issued a message of condolences to the family of late Professor Bari Wani, who passed on in the national capital, Addis Ababa.

Prof Arkangelo Bari Wanji (ST File Photo)

“On behalf of the SPLM/SPLA-IO and my own behalf, I am sending my deepest condolences to you for the loss of my long time comrade in struggle, friend and humble citizen of our beloved country, Prof Bari Wanji,” partly reads the message signed by Machar and extended to Sudan Tribune on Wednesday.

“Words cannot express my sorrow and grief in this hour of morning,” he said, adding “Our thoughts and prayers shall be with you in this difficult time.”

Wanji, a member of the ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and a former chairman of specialized Committee for Finance and Economic affairs in the National Legislative Assembly, died on Monday in the national capital, Juba.

He was also a chairman of Public Accounts Committee in Sudanese government in Khartoum before South Sudan broke away and established an independent state in July 2011.

Late Wanji who was born in 1936 died at the age of 80, according to his family sources.

Wanji hails from Golo ethnic community in Wau county of Western Bahr el Ghazal state. He was elected to the parliament in Juba in 2010.

The late has been suffering from illness for a long time which resulted to his demise.

A family member told Sudan Tribune on Tuesday that the South Sudan national parliament administration was in contact with them for arrangements over the preparations for his burial in Wau, his home town.

Meanwhile, South Sudan president, Salva Kiir, has described Wanji's death as a great loss to the people of South Sudan, “not only the people of Wau state.”

CONDOLENCES FOR IVORY COAST ATTACK

The South Sudanese first vice president designate also sent a condolence message to the President of Ivory Coast, Alassane Ouattara, for the recent terrorist attack in his country which left at least 16 people dead, when terrorist suspected to be affiliated to the Al-Qaeda bombed Bassam Grand Resort.

“Your Excellency, it is with deep sorrow and sadness that I am sending you this message of condolences for the victims of the terror attack on the Bassam Grand Resort that has left 16 people dead,” reads the message from Machar.

“We condemn in the strongest term possible this horrific and terrible act by the terrorists Al-Qaeda affiliated group…My thoughts and prayers are with the families of victims and the entire population of the peace loving people of Ivory Coast,” he said.

He said the “SPLM/SPLA-IO and the South Sudanese in general” stood with the country in the terrible tragedy.

(ST)

March 16, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - The head of the African Union High Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) Thabo Mbeki Wednesday has invited a newly formed opposition coalition to take part in an informal and inclusive consultations meeting with the government on the national dialogue process.

AUHIP's Thabo Mbeki talks to reporters after a meeting with Sudanese president Omer al-Bashir on national dialogue in Khartoum on 10 September 2014 (SUNA)

As scheduled, Mbeki arrived to Khartoum on Wednesday where he met with the national dialogue body known as (7+7) committee. Also, he met with the opposition Futures Forces of Change (FFC) that was established on 24 February

The former South African president is expected to meet with President Omer al-Bashir and the government negotiating delegation on Thursday before to fly to Addis Ababa where he organizes a meeting between the government and some holdout armed and political opposition groups on Friday.

In a statement issued on Wednesday evening, the FFC, which is mainly composed of dissident members of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), said they accepted to take part in this meeting to discuss the confidence building measures necessary for an equal dialogue.

"The African mechanism delegation proposed to the alliance of the Futures Forces of Change to hold a meeting, organized by the AUHIP, with the government side to discuss and find solutions to the issues raised (with him)".

"The Futures Forces of Change accepted the AUHIP proposal, in support of the peace efforts," it further added.

The FFC delegation led by Ghazi Salah al-Din Attabani discussed with Mbeki ''The failure to create a conducive environment for the dialogue, the absence of key players, the lack of commitment to the road map, which was endorsed by the (National Dialogue) General Assembly and the Addis Ababa agreement; and the government's attempts to divide the opposition and creating more than a (parallel) negotiation track".

Based on an initiative launched by al-Bashir two years ago for a national dialogue, Mebki seeks to bring all the Sudanese parties to the negotiating table to discuss an agreement ending armed conflicts and paves the road for democratic reforms.

Up to date, the warring parties failed to reach a cessation of hostilities agreement. In addition, The government and the opposition groups didn't strike a deal on how to organize the national dialogue or to define its goals.

Following their meeting with the AUHIP chief, the government spokesperson Ahmed Balal Osman said they briefed the chief mediator about the ongoing dialogue conference in Khartoum and told him that they endorsed many measures aiming to ensure freedoms and create a suitable atmosphere in the country.

A 7+7 member Osman Abu Almajd stated that Mbeki promised to organize a meeting between the holdout opposition groups and the dialogue coordination mechanism.

After the FFC meeting, Attabani told reporters that the consultations will be convened inside the country and without previous agenda.

He further said the meeting will include all the Sudanese parties, but no date has yet been determined.

The former presidential adviser said they informed Mbeki that they want a "dialogue that does not exclude anybody".

MBEKI DIDN'T MEET NCF

However, the leader of left opposition alliance National Consensus Forces (NCF) Farouk Abu Issa Wednesday said the African Union mediator didn't ask to meet them.

"Mbeki kept saying that the National Consensus Forces are not willing to participate in the dialogue. But this is not true because the NCF met him more than ten times during his frequent visits to Sudan and gave him about six memos in which the NCF clearly stated they are willing to participate in a genuine and productive dialogue," Abu Issa said.

"(Such dialogue) requires the creation of a conducive environment by stopping war, allowing humanitarian access, and the release of political detainees and prisoners. Furthermore, the dialogue should lead to a transitional government and the dismantling of one-party state," he stressed.

The African Union mediators believe that the NCF forces have a radical stance against the regime and want to dictate some preconditions before to join the process.

However, the SPLM-N sees the NCF as its strategic ally and repeats they will refuse a dialogue excluding the left parties.

(ST)

March 16, 2016 (WAU) – Lawmakers in South Sudan's Western Bahr el Ghazal state assembly, at its third sitting on Tuesday, elected Anyar Anyar Dor and Viola Omely as speaker and the deputy respectively.

Dor, who hails from Marial Bai payam of Jur River county, replaces Mario Nyibang John. Nyibang was controversially-elected two years.

On the other hand, the deputy speaker from Wau county, replaces Mary Emilio Bafuka.

Speaking during the swearing in ceremony in Wau town on Tuesday, Anyar said the state assembly would mainly focus on the state's security situation as well as the implementation of last year's peace deal between government and the armed opposition.

“Our country is going through hard time and facing gigantic confronts on the issue of insecurity," said Anyar.

“We need work to guarantee that the security situation is stabile, peace is implemented throughout the region and that the warring parties recently restore trust between ourselves, and fabricate the social framework," he stressed.

Meanwhile, all the 32 members of the newly established Wau state parliament took oath on Tuesday in the presence of the state chief justice and Governor Elias Waya Nyipuoch.

(ST)

Dr Maung Zarni is a non-resident research scholar, Sleuth Rith Institute, (A permanent Documentation Centre of Cambodia) & former visiting lecturer, Harvard Medical School, USA

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has announced that &#8211 for the first time &#8211 it would not suspend relief operations to vulnerable people in Zimbabwe during the spring and summer but continue food and cash assistance throughout the year.

March 16, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan's Vice-President Hasabo Mohamed Abdel-Rahman Wednesday discussed with the British Ambassador to Khartoum Michael Aron bilateral ties between the two countries besides Sudan's dialogue and peace processes.

Vice-president Hasabo Mohamed Abdel-Rahman

Abdel-Rahman urged the United Kingdom government to take positive stances during the upcoming round of talks with the rebel groups in order to achieve peace and stability in Sudan.

For his part, Aron told reporters following the meeting that the head of the African department at the British Foreign and Commonwealth office would visit Sudan on Sunday to initiate a new strategic dialogue with Khartoum.

He added the British official will meet with Sudan's foreign minister Ibrahim Ghandour besides other Sudanese officials.

The British ambassador expressed his country's readiness to support efforts to achieve peace in Sudan, pointing to the visit of the African mediation Thabo Mbeki to Khartoum on Wednesday.

He stressed the importance for holding a comprehensive national dialogue, expressing optimism over the results of the upcoming talks between the government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) in Addis Ababa.

The Sudanese army has been fighting SPLM-N rebels in Blue Nile and South Kordofan since 201.

Last November the two warring parties failed to reach cessation of hostilities and humanitarian access agreements, as the five-day talks showed that important gaps persist in the positions of the two sides.

A Strategic Consultations Meeting between the two parties under the auspices of the African mediation would kick off on Friday in Addis Ababa to resume negotiations for peace and democratic reforms.

(ST)