ICC prosecutor urges world to ‘stem the bleeding’ in Sudan before region spins out of control

Special ICC prosecutor urges world to ‘stem the bleeding’ in Sudan before region spins out of control
Karim Khan, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, briefs the Security Council meeting on the situation in the Sudan and South Sudan. (UN)
Short Url
Updated 05 August 2024
Follow

ICC prosecutor urges world to ‘stem the bleeding’ in Sudan before region spins out of control

ICC prosecutor urges world to ‘stem the bleeding’ in Sudan before region spins out of control
  • Karim Khan warns this part of Africa is ‘reaching a tipping point, in which a Pandora's box of ethnic, racial, religious, sectarian (and) commercial interests will be unleashed’
  • Since the war in Sudan began in April 2023, 19,000 people have been killed, more than 10m are displaced internally, and more than 2m have fled to other countries

NEW YORK CITY: Violence in Sudan has continued to escalate in the past six months, the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor said on Monday, with reports of rapes, crimes against children and persecution on a massive scale. 

“Terror has become a common currency,” Karim Khan told a meeting of the UN Security Council, “and the terror is not felt by the people with guns but by people who are running, very often with nothing on their feet, hungry.”

War between rival military factions has been raging in Sudan for more than a year. Since it began in April 2023, about 19,000 people have been killed. More than 10 million are displaced within the country and more than 2 million have fled to neighboring countries as refugees, making it the largest displacement crisis in the world.

The country is on the brink of famine as a severe food crisis looms, with many families reportedly already often going days without food.

Khan said the ICC is prioritizing investigations into allegations of crimes against, and affecting, children, and gender crimes. These “profound human rights abuses, mass violations of personal dignity” continue to be fueled by the “provision of arms, financial support from various sectors, and political triangulations that lead to inaction by the international community,” he added.

His comments came during the latest semi-annual briefing to the Security Council on the court’s Darfur-related activities. Almost 20 years after the council referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC, arrest warrants issued by the court against former president Omar Al-Bashir, former ministers Ahmad Mohammed Harun and Abdel Raheem Mohammed Hussein, and the former commander-in-chief of the Justice and Equality Movement, Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain, remain outstanding.

Khan said that such failures to execute arrest warrants for indicted individuals have contributed to several unwelcome consequences, including “the climate of impunity and the outbreak of violence that commenced in April (2023), and that continues today, (in which) belligerents think they can get away with murder and rape; the feeling that the bandwidth of the (Security) Council, the bandwidth of states, is too limited, it’s too preoccupied with other epicenters of conflict, hot wars in other parts of the world; that we’ve lost sight of the plight of the people of Darfur, we have somehow forgotten our responsibilities under the UN Charter; (and) the feeling that Darfur or Sudan is a law-free zone in which people can act with abandon, based upon their worst proclivities, their worst base instincts, the politics of hate and power, the opportunities to profit.”

He called on council members to “back in substance” the call for justice.

In comments directed toward both of the warring factions, the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, as well as “those who are funding them, supplying them with weapons, giving orders, gaining certain advantages,” Khan said his office is investigating and “using our resources as effectively as we can to make sure that the events since April of last year are subjected to the principle of international humanitarian law and the imperative that every human life must be seen to have equal value.”

He said that after “a great deal of difficulty,” Sudanese authorities are finally cooperating with ICC investigators who have been able to enter Port Sudan, collect evidence and engage with Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces and the country’s de facto leader.

“But one swallow does not a summer make,” Khan added as he underscored the need for “continuous, deepening cooperation with the Sudanese Armed Forces, with Gen. Al-Burhan and his government moving forward.”

He said that “one concrete way in which that commitment to accountability, and this lack of tolerance for impunity, can be evidenced is by properly enforcing court orders,” including the arrest of former minister Harun and delivering him to the court.

However, Khan said that the most recent significant efforts to engage with the leadership of the Rapid Support Forces have so far proved to be fruitless.

Meanwhile, he said, ICC investigators have visited neighboring Chad several times and collected “very valuable testimonial evidence” from displaced Sudanese citizens living there as refugees.

They have met representatives of Sudanese civil society in Chad, South Sudan, the Central African Republic and Europe, he added, “to get and preserve their accounts and their stories, to analyze it and to piece it together, to see what crimes, if any, it shows and who is responsible for the hell on earth that is being unleashed so stubbornly, so persistently against the people of Darfur.”

Khan said his office has used technological tools to gather and piece together various forms of evidence from phones, videos and audio recordings, and that this is “proving to be extremely critical to pierce the veil of impunity.”

The collective efforts by investigators, analysts, lawyers and members of civil society have resulted in significant progress being made, he added, and he expressed hope that he will soon be able to announce that arrest warrants have been requested for individuals believed to be most responsible for the crimes in the country.

Meanwhile, Khan sounded a broader alarm over what he described as “a trapezium of chaos in that part of the continent.”

He continued: “If one draws a line from the Mediterranean of Libya, down to the Red Sea of Sudan, and then draws a line to Sub-Saharan Africa, and then all the way to the Atlantic, with Boko Haram causing instability, chaos and suffering in Nigeria, and then back to Sudan, (we) see the map and the countries that risk being unsettled or destabilized by this concentration of chaos and suffering.”

He warned the members of the Security Council that in addition to the concerns about the rights of the people of Darfur, “we’re reaching a tipping point in which a Pandora’s box of ethnic, racial, religious, sectarian (and) commercial interests will be unleashed.”

He added that “they will no longer be susceptible to the political powers of the great states of the world, or even of this council. It requires some real action now to stem the bleeding … in Sudan.”


Gaza aid situation not much improved, US says as deadline for Israel looms

Gaza aid situation not much improved, US says as deadline for Israel looms
Updated 10 sec ago
Follow

Gaza aid situation not much improved, US says as deadline for Israel looms

Gaza aid situation not much improved, US says as deadline for Israel looms
  • Aid workers and UN officials say humanitarian conditions continue to be dire in Gaza

WASHINGTON: Israel has taken some measures to increase aid access to Gaza but has so far failed to significantly turn around the humanitarian situation in the enclave, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday, as a deadline set by the US to improve the situation approaches.
The Biden administration told Israel in an Oct. 13 letter it had 30 days to take specific steps to address the dire humanitarian crisis in the strip, which has been pummeled for more than a year by Israeli ground and air operations that Israel says are aimed at rooting out Hamas militants.
Aid workers and UN officials say humanitarian conditions continue to be dire in Gaza.
“As of today, the situation has not significantly turned around. We have seen an increase in some measurements. We’ve seen an increase in the number of crossings that are open. But just if you look at the stipulated recommendations in the letter, those have not been met,” Miller said.
Miller said the results so far were “not good enough” but stressed that the 30-day period had not elapsed.
He declined to say what consequences Israel would face if it failed to implement the recommendations.
“What I can tell you that we will do is we will follow the law,” he said.
Washington, Israel’s main supplier of weapons, has frequently pressed Israel to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza since the war with Hamas began with the Palestinian militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel.
The Oct. 13 letter, sent by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, said a failure to demonstrate a sustained commitment to implementing the measures on aid access may have implications for US policy and law.
Section 620i of the US Foreign Assistance Act prohibits military aid to countries that impede delivery of US humanitarian assistance.
Israel on Monday said it was canceling its agreement with the UN relief agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), citing accusations that some UNRWA staff had Hamas links.
UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said Israel had scaled back the entry of aid trucks into the Gaza Strip to an average of 30 trucks a day, the lowest in a long time.
An Israeli government spokesman said no limit had been imposed on aid entering Gaza, with 47 aid trucks entering northern Gaza on Sunday alone.
Israeli statistics reviewed by Reuters last week showed that aid shipments allowed into Gaza in October remained at their lowest levels since October 2023.


Israel hostages forum demands probe in secrets leak case

Israel hostages forum demands probe in secrets leak case
Updated 16 min 26 sec ago
Follow

Israel hostages forum demands probe in secrets leak case

Israel hostages forum demands probe in secrets leak case
  • “The (hostage) families demand an investigation against all those suspected of sabotage and undermining state security,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement

JERUSALEM: A Gaza hostages campaign group called Monday for an investigation into the alleged leak of confidential documents by an ex-aide to Israel’s premier, which may have undermined efforts to secure their release.
A court announced Sunday that Eliezer Feldstein, a former aide to Benjamin Netanyahu, had been detained along with three others for allegedly leaking documents to foreign media.
The case has prompted the opposition to question whether Netanyahu was involved in the leak — an allegation denied by his office.
“The (hostage) families demand an investigation against all those suspected of sabotage and undermining state security,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.
“Such actions, especially during wartime, endanger the hostages, jeopardize their chances of return and abandon them to the risk of being killed by Hamas terrorists.”
The forum represents most of the families of the 97 hostages still held in Gaza after they were seized in the unprecedented October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war.
The Israeli military says 34 of them are dead.
“The suspicions suggest that individuals associated with the prime minister acted to carry out one of the greatest frauds in the country’s history,” the forum said.
“This is a moral low point like no other. It is a severe blow to the remaining trust between the government and its citizens.”
Critics have long accused Netanyahu of stalling in truce negotiations and prolonging the war to appease his far-right coalition partners.
Israel’s domestic security agency Shin Bet and the army launched an investigation into the breach in September after two newspapers, British weekly The Jewish Chronicle and Germany’s Bild tabloid, published articles based on the classified military documents.
One article claimed a document had been uncovered showing that then Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar — later killed by Israel — and the hostages in Gaza would be smuggled into Egypt through the Philadelphi corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border.
The other was based on what was said to be an internal Hamas leadership memo on Sinwar’s strategy to hamper talks toward the liberation of hostages.
The Israeli court said the release of the documents ran the risk of causing “severe harm to state security.”
“As a result, the ability of security bodies to achieve the objective of releasing the hostages, as part of the war goals, could have been compromised,” it added.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,206 people on Israeli soil, mostly civilians, according to AFP’s count based on official Israeli data, including hostages who died or were killed in captivity in Gaza.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has so far killed at least 43,341 people, a majority of them civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry. The UN considers these figures as reliable.
Meanwhile, late on Monday Netanyahu asked the attorney general to begin investigating other alleged leaks from cabinet meetings during the war.
“Since the beginning of the war, we have witnessed an incessant flood of serious leaks and revelations of state secrets,” he said in a letter to the attorney general, which was posted on his Telegram channel.
“Therefore, I am appealing to you to immediately order the investigation of the leaks in general.”


UNRWA ban in Gaza ‘will not make Israel safer’: WHO

UNRWA ban in Gaza ‘will not make Israel safer’: WHO
Updated 05 November 2024
Follow

UNRWA ban in Gaza ‘will not make Israel safer’: WHO

UNRWA ban in Gaza ‘will not make Israel safer’: WHO
  • “This ban will not make Israel safer. It will only deepen the suffering of the people of Gaza and increase the risk of disease outbreaks,” Tedros says

GENEVA: The chief of the World Health Organization on Monday denounced Israel’s decision to cut ties with the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees, saying it would not make the country safer while increasing civilian suffering in Gaza.
“Let me be clear: There is simply no alternative to UNRWA,” the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a video posted on X.
“This ban will not make Israel safer. It will only deepen the suffering of the people of Gaza and increase the risk of disease outbreaks,” Tedros added.
His comments came after Israel said it had formally notified the UN of its decision to sever ties with UNRWA, after Israeli lawmakers backed the move last week.
The suspension of the agency, which coordinates nearly all aid in war-ravaged Gaza, sparked global condemnation including from key Israeli backer the United States.
The move is expected to come into force in late January, with the UN Security Council warning it would have severe consequences for millions of Palestinians.
Israel has accused a dozen UNRWA employees of taking part in the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, the deadliest in Israeli history.
A series of probes found some “neutrality related issues” at UNRWA but said Israel had not provided evidence for its chief allegations.
The agency, which employs 13,000 people in Gaza, fired nine employees after an internal probe found that they “may have been involved in the armed attacks of 7 October.”
UNRWA, which was established in 1949 after the first Arab-Israeli conflict following Israel’s creation a year earlier, provides assistance to nearly six million Palestinian refugees across Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
“Every day, it provides thousands of medical consultations and vaccinated hundreds of children,” Tedros said, adding that many humanitarian partners rely on UNRWA’s logistical networks to get supplies into Gaza.
He said that the UNRWA staff his organization had worked with were “dedicated health and humanitarian professionals who work tirelessly for their communities under unimaginable circumstances.”
Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed 43,374 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which the United Nations considers to be reliable.


GCC’s chief urges regional collective action at counter-terrorism conference in Kuwait

GCC’s chief urges regional collective action at counter-terrorism conference in Kuwait
Updated 04 November 2024
Follow

GCC’s chief urges regional collective action at counter-terrorism conference in Kuwait

GCC’s chief urges regional collective action at counter-terrorism conference in Kuwait
  • Meeting gathers ministers, UN agency representatives, international organizations

KUWAIT CITY: Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary-General Jasem Al-Budaiwi addressed a high-level conference on counter-terrorism and border security on Monday.

The conference, which is being held in Kuwait and ends on Tuesday, has been organized by Kuwait in partnership with Tajikistan and the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism.

It gathered ministers, UN agency representatives, and international and regional organizations to help bolster international counter-terrorism efforts.

Al-Budaiwi said: “This important regional conference focuses on border security and combating terrorism, which are vital issues requiring collective action.”

Al-Budaiwi spoke of the GCC’s achievements in security collaboration, including information-sharing and laws targeting terrorism financing.

He added: “The GCC countries have built a common security system through joint agreements, enhancing cooperation in border protection and addressing security threats.”

He stressed the region’s proactive approach in utilizing technology and training personnel to safeguard borders against transnational threats like arms and human trafficking.


Fate of elderly residents uncertain after Israel destroys homes in Lebanese border village

Fate of elderly residents uncertain after Israel destroys homes in Lebanese border village
Updated 04 November 2024
Follow

Fate of elderly residents uncertain after Israel destroys homes in Lebanese border village

Fate of elderly residents uncertain after Israel destroys homes in Lebanese border village
  • Prime minister calls on international community to address Israeli aggression against Lebanon and protect nation’s heritage and cultural sites
  • Three people were killed in a raid on a residence in the town of Arabsalim in Iqlim Al-Tuffah

BEIRUT: Dozens of houses and other buildings in the Lebanese border village of Mays Al-Jabal have been destroyed during Israeli incursions over the past 48 hours, residents said. The fate of several elderly villagers, including a woman, who refused to leave their homes before the attacks remains uncertain.

Meanwhile, caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, on Monday called on the international community to address Israel’s “continued aggression against Lebanon and its crimes of killing and destruction.”

His appeal came during meetings with ambassadors from the permanent members of the UN Security Council — the US, the UK, France, Russia and China — and Sandra de Waal, the EU’s envoy to Lebanon.

The death toll in the country had risen to 2,968 by Sunday evening, officials said, including dozens of children, women and the elderly people who died in the rubble of their homes. The number of wounded has risen to 13,319. Health Minister Firas Abiad said eight hospitals in the south of the country, the Bekaa and Beirut’s southern suburbs are out of service.

The people of Mays Al-Jabal appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross for help to search for survivors who might be trapped under the rubble following the Israeli attacks. Some of the missing were said to be in their 80s and 90s and had received medical and food aid in recent months from the Red Cross, in coordination with UN Interim Force in Lebanon and the Lebanese army.

Explosions during the attacks in Mays Al-Jabal caused tremors similar to those in the towns of Kfarkela, Blida, Mhaibib, Khiam, Ayta Al-Shaab and Ramyah over the past two weeks. Israeli forces were reportedly spotted on the move in the vicinity of Mays Al-Jabal’s government hospital on Monday in preparation for a fresh assault.

Activists on social media shared satellite images of the devastation caused by the Israeli attacks on border villages, from which the inhabitants have fled.

Israeli airstrikes hit the villages of Tyre and Bint Jbeil but did not stop there. A Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Authority center in the town of Bazouriyeh was targeted, killing two paramedics and wounding several people.

Bint Jbeil, Maroun Al-Ras, Yaroun and Aitaroun have also come under sporadic artillery fire, though they were quiet on Monday. However, three people were killed in a raid on a residence in the town of Arabsalim in Iqlim Al-Tuffah region, and an Israeli airstrike on Machghara in Western Bekaa killed four people and left several injured.

The Israeli army said the air force had killed Abu Ali Rida, a Hezbollah leader in the southern Baraachit area said to be responsible for planning and carrying out rocket and anti-tank attacks, and overseeing the activities of Hezbollah operatives in the area.

Hezbollah said it “struck a gathering of soldiers to the east of Maroun Al-Ras, using a suicide drone that reached its intended target.” The group also said Israeli forces “retreated from the Khiam region on Sunday, as well as from Sarda, Al-Amra, Talat Al-Hamames and the vicinity of Al-Wazzani.”

It added that its forces had attacked the Nahariya settlement and the Meron air surveillance base, and launched a suicide-drone assault targeting Israeli forces in the Yiftah settlement.

On Sunday night, Hezbollah said it launched an “air attack with a squadron of suicide drones on a gathering of Israeli forces in the Manara settlement,” and targeted “the settlements of Elite Hashahar, Sha'al, Hatzor, Dalton and Yesud HaMa’ala with rocket barrages.”

Sirens sounded in Acre and Nahariya on Monday. Avichay Adraee, a spokesperson for the Israeli army, said: “Within 30 minutes this morning, the air force successfully intercepted four drones en route to Israel. Some of these drones originated from Lebanon, while others came from the east. Two of the drones were intercepted before entering the country’s airspace.”

According to Israeli news reports, “a drone was intercepted in the Rekhs Ramim area in Upper Galilee without activating the sirens.” And an Israeli attack on a residence in the Baalbek-Hermel area, close to the Douris municipality, reportedly caused significant damage.

During his meeting with the international envoys, Mikati said Israel had “turned against all the suggested solutions and continues its war crimes in various Lebanese regions, to the extent of targeting archaeological sites. This, in itself, is an additional crime against humanity and must be confronted and stopped.”

He highlighted the “escalation of Israeli hostilities against Lebanon and the atrocities committed, including killings and destruction, which should be brought to the attention of the international community, which remains silent on these events.”

Nations that traditionally “carry the banner of humanity and human rights should exert maximum pressure on Israel to stop its aggression,” Mikati added.

He said the Lebanese government has “welcomed all calls advocating for a ceasefire but Israel has turned against all proposed solutions. We renew our demand to put pressure on Israel to cease its aggression.”

The government previously agreed to “enhance the presence of the army and recruit military personnel,” he continued, and during an upcoming parliamentary session “we will discuss certain executive measures to support recruiting 1,500 members for the army.”

Mikati reiterated the need for the international community to put pressure on Israel to avoid targeting civilians, medical teams and ambulance crews, and handed the envoys “a letter in which he stressed that the ongoing Israeli aggression, especially the attacks on places such as Baalbek and Tyre, have led to the displacement of entire villages and threatened priceless heritage and cultural sites.”

He also presented them with a report on the damage to Lebanon’s health sector caused by the Israeli attacks, and called for “an immediate ceasefire to stop the senseless violence and protect our country’s cultural heritage.”

Mikati urged the Security Council “to take swift and decisive action to protect the historical treasures that are not only part of our national identity but also hold significance as global historical landmarks.”

He added: “We must work together to ensure the preservation of these sites for future generations.”