Sudan’s ruling military council said it had restarted talks late on Sunday with an alliance of protest and opposition groups that is pushing for a civilian-led transition to democracy.

The Transitional Military Council (TMC) had suspended the talks late on Wednesday after two outbreaks of violence around protest sites in the capital Khartoum.

Street protests and a sit-in outside the Defense Ministry have continued since the army ousted and arrested former President Omar al-Bashir on April 11.

Demonstrators are calling for a rapid transition to civilian rule, and demanding justice over the deaths of dozens of people killed since protests triggered by an economic crisis and decades of repressive rule spread across Sudan from Dec. 19.

The TMC and the Declaration of Freedom and Change Forces (DFCF) have agreed on a three-year transition before elections, but have been deadlocked over whether civilians or the military would control a sovereign council that would hold ultimate power.

The Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), which spearheaded protests against Bashir and heads the DFCF, has accused the TMC of dragging its feet in the talks and has sought to increase pressure on the council by expanding protests.

It also held the TMC responsible for street violence over the past week in which several protesters were killed and dozens wounded.

The council accused protesters of not respecting an understanding on de-escalation while talks were under way.

 
…

Sudanese citizens are criticizing the American representative to their country for dining with one of Sudan’s most notorious warlords.

U.S. representative to Sudan, Charge D’Affaires Steven Koutsis, attended an Iftar meal to break the daily Ramadan fast on Saturday with Mohamed Hamdan Dagolo, whose troops are accused of committing atrocities in Darfur and other areas, including as recently as this week.

Dagolo, known by his nickname “Hemeti,” is the commander of the Rapid Support Forces militia. Previously, Hemeti was a commander of the Janjaweed militia, which is accused of committing genocide in Darfur more than a decade ago.

At the time, the U.S. led the international community in condemning the killings in Darfur and called for the perpetrators to face justice.

Koutsis and Hemeti broke the Ramadan fast together at the same table, with two people sitting between them. The event was organized by Sultan Ahmed Ali Dinar, the great-grandson of a Darfuri king.

During the ceremony, guests shouted praise for Hemeti and the RSF. A large banner hung behind a stage with Hemeti’s photo on it.

Third time invited to Iftar

After the event, Koutsis explained to the Voice of America why he attended.

“I’ve come here every year since I’ve been here [in Khartoum] to support the Darfuri people,” Koutsis said. “This is the third time I’ve come to this Iftar that is hosted by Sultan Ahmed Ali Dinar. So I was pleased to come here for the third time.”

Hemeti is also deputy chairman of Sudan’s ruling military junta, which seized power in an April coup after the ouster of longstanding dictator Omar al-Bashir following months of street protests. Since then, thousands of protesters have camped out at a sit-in outside Khartoum’s military headquarters, demanding Hemeti and the other generals hand power to a civilian government.

The United States has also repeatedly called for the junta to hand power to civilians.

During the past week, soldiers opened fire twice on protesters around the sit-in, causing hundreds of casualties, including several deaths. Protest leaders accused Hemeti’s RSF of carrying out the attacks. The U.S. Embassy in Khartoum blamed the junta.

VOA asked Koutsis if it was appropriate for a representative of the United States to be at an event with a militia leader implicated in war crimes and the killings of protesters.

“I think it’s appropriate for a representative of the U.S. to support the people of Darfur by being here,” he responded.

Koutsis said on Tuesday he visited some Sudanese people at Khartoum’s Fedail Hospital who were wounded in a Monday attack on the protest sit-in. A week before the violence began, Koutsis attended an Iftar at the protest sit-in.

The incident with Hemeti has created confusion among Sudanese as to whether Washington supports the protesters calling for a civilian government or the military leaders who took power.

‘Really angry’

Speaking to VOA, Adeeb Yousif a Darfuri academic at Washington’s George Mason University, said Koutsis’ participation in the dinner has made some Darfuris “really angry.”

Yousif said it was painful to see Koutsis “sitting together with Hemeti [who is] considered to be the perpetrator of killing those innocent children and wounding many of them [this week].”

Yousif said he did not support the U.S. Embassy leader attending the dinner, saying his presence gave legitimacy to Hemeti.

Yousif questioned Koutsis’ reasoning for attending the event. He said this year is “totally different” from the two years prior, due to Sudan’s ongoing political upheaval.

He further said the meal cannot be taken as a way of supporting people of Darfur. He said he believes Sultan Ahmed Ali Dinar is a businessman linked to Bashir’s old regime and is not a credible representative of Darfuris.

“His great grand-grandfather was the king of the area, and there’s nobody (who) can deny,” Yousif said. “But for him, I don’t think he has any supporters in Darfur apart of his family and those who are benefiting from his business.”

Solidarity questioned

Idriss Haroun, a Darfuri who saw family members killed during the alleged genocide in Darfur in 2004 and has lived in a displaced person’s camp since, also rejected the Sultan.

“We are happy the American ambassador (charge d’affaires) is leading pressure against the military council to hand the government to civilians,” Haroun said, speaking to VOA from a tent at the protest sit-in in Khartoum. “We thank him for that. But, if he went to the Iftar in solidarity with Hemeti and the Sultan, then he is the same as Hemeti and the Sultan. All of them are killers.”

Saudi Arabia was the only other country with a representative at Hemeti’s event.

Hemeti has sent RSF troops to fight with the Saudis in the war in Yemen, a conflict in which all sides are accused of atrocities. Hemeti is also accused of sending child soldiers among his troops in Yemen.

At the Iftar, Hemeti’s security detail included at least one child soldier.

 
…

A U.N. watchdog group is demanding an end to the widespread practice of torture and other cruel punishments in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  The DRC is one of six countries examined by the U.N. Committee Against Torture, which monitors the implementation by States of the Convention Against Torture.  At the conclusion of its four-week session, the Committee criticized the DRC for failing to meet this test.

Democratic Republic of Congo’s Minister for Human Rights Marie-Ange Mushobekwa offered a vigorous defense of her country’s efforts to comply with the provisions of the Convention Against Torture.  She argued that following the ratification of the treaty in 2010, her country had adopted a law against torture which strengthened and completed the Penal Code.  She said measures were being enacted to strengthen the criminalization of torture.

But her defense failed to persuade the 18 independent members of the U.N. Committee Against Torture. Human Rights expert, Sebastien Touze said evidence presented to the Committee indicates the prohibitions enshrined in the Convention are being completely ignored by the DRC, legally and in practice.  

Furthermore, he noted 63 percent of human rights violations were committed by State agents.

He said there is a general climate of impunity in DRC.  He said no one suspected of human rights violations is prosecuted, allowing torture and other cruel acts to flourish. Victims of abuse are abandoned and have no recourse to justice, he said.

In its report, the Committee notes that arbitrary detention is widespread.  It finds secret detention centers continue to exist in which the majority of detainees there are victims of torture, and cruel and degrading treatment.  Those most at risk of abuse, it says include human rights defenders, journalists and political dissidents.

The U.N. Committee reports violence against women is widespread.  And while rape and sexual violence, including mass rape are endemic in situations of conflict, it says the 2011 law in DRC does not recognize these atrocities as acts of torture.

The experts express great concern about the numerous human rights violations received by the Committee.  They have asked the DRC delegation to report back within a year on steps being taken to bring the country into compliance with the Torture Convention.

Minister Mushobekwa said her country was not in denial about its checkered human rights record.  She said the government is doing all it can to fight impunity against torture, but things take time. 
…

The deputy leader of Sudan’s military council voiced his enthusiasm for democratic elections in front of an audience of tribal leaders and senior diplomats Saturday, while seeking to deflect blame for violence in Khartoum this week.

The clashes threatened to derail the council’s talks with an alliance of protest and opposition groups pushing for a swift transition to civilian rule after the fall of former President Omar al-Bashir last month.

Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the youthful leader of Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has emerged as the most prominent member of the Transitional Military Council (TMC) that ousted and arrested Bashir following months of protests.

Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti, has considerable power. His RSF are deployed across Khartoum, and he is close to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, which between them pledged $3 billion in aid to Sudan late last month.

Free and fair elections

On Saturday he spoke for nearly 20 minutes after breaking the Ramadan fast to an audience including the top official in the U.S. embassy and the Saudi ambassador, as well as local and international media.

“Democracy is consultation … that’s it, we want real democracy,” he said, in a speech punctuated by applause and laughter. “We want a man who comes in through the ballot box. … We want free and fair elections.”

Many of those present were from Sudan’s western Darfur region. Human rights groups accused militias that Hemedti commanded of genocide in the war that began there in 2003, allegations Bashir’s government denied.

​Shooting at barricades

On Monday and Wednesday, violence broke out in areas of Khartoum where security forces had been trying to clear barricades erected by protesters, including around a sit-in outside the Defense Ministry that started April 6.

Protesters are pushing for civilian rule and for justice in the deaths of dozens of demonstrators since December.

Some accused the RSF of shooting at demonstrations last week, and witnesses saw troops in RSF marked vehicles opening fire.

Hemedti said those responsible had been found inside Khartoum University and the sit-in.

“These people have been arrested and confessed on camera,” he said, adding that they would be presented to the public later.

At least four people were killed Monday and dozens wounded. After at least nine more people were wounded Wednesday, the TMC said it was suspending the talks for 72 hours.

Talks are to resume Sunday evening. The two sides have agreed to a transition lasting three years before elections, with a legislative council on which opposition and protest groups would have two-thirds of the seats.

However, they have been split over the balance of a mixed military-civilian sovereign council that would hold ultimate power.

Bashir along with senior allies is being held in prison in Khartoum. Hemedti said officials from Bashir’s regime who had fled abroad would be brought back to face justice.

“We cannot arrest the entire National Congress Party. There is no prison that would contain it with its 7 million members,” he added, referring to Bashir’s political party.
…

This report originated in VOA’s Central Africa Service.

KIGALI, RWANDA — Safi Mukundwa knows what it means to be young, fearful and desperate.

Mukundwa was just 8 years old when she hid among bloodied bodies, emerging as the only one in her family to survive the 1994 genocide that swept through Rwanda, including her Western Province hometown of Kibuye. She remembers the man who killed her mother and brother.

“He was the one who cut my legs with a machete,” says Mukundwa, whose injuries have required six surgeries. She remembers the kind doctor at the local hospital who treated her wounds and concealed her during the ethnic killing spree mostly targeting Tutsis.

And she remembers praying throughout that extended ordeal. 

“I told God that if I can get out of this place alive, I will dedicate my life to helping others,” she said.

Now 33, Mukundwa has made good on that commitment through Safi Life, the nonprofit organization that she inspired. Its mission is to educate, empower and advance young Rwandan women.

​Friendship first

Safi Life was formally launched in 2012, growing out of a friendship between its namesake and Devon Ogden. Both women were college students when Ogden, an American from California, visited Rwanda in the summer of 2007 and heard Mukundwa’s testimony at the Kigali Genocide Memorial. They met over lunch, and Ogden eventually asked how she might help the young Rwandan.

Mukundwa recalls “asking her to help me help others” by providing college scholarships to genocide survivors.

Ogden set up a U.S.-based foundation to support Rwandan girls and women, with Mukundwa as Safi Life’s local director. Its first effort was to provide scholarships for genocide survivors. 

“We’ve got two girls in school now and already have put 12 through college,” Ogden says in a recent phone call from Los Angeles, where she works as an actress. “And they’re all staying in their country to advance Rwanda.”

The foundation’s Facebook page brims with photos of college graduates such as Florence, who used a scholarship to study mining engineering. She landed a “dream job” with a company dealing in minerals, according to a March post.

Outreach to young women, mothers

In early 2018, Safi Life launched an outreach project to aid young women, especially those who are single and pregnant or with young children. It opened a center in the Kigali suburb of Karembure, welcoming dozens to learn knitting, tailoring and other income-producing skills. The project, called Ndashoboye, a Kinyarwanda word that means “I am capable,” also provides mentoring on how to run a business. A second center opened in January in Ndera, a few kilometers from the capital city’s downtown.

“We support teen mothers by providing them with basic skills to make them self-reliant and able to take care of their newborns” and lead dignified lives, Mukundwa says. “… We also offer counseling to them. Most of them come to us with significant levels of stress that could, in turn, lead to mental problems.”

Pregnancy outside marriage is taboo in this central African country of 12.3 million. Poor girls are most vulnerable, with pregnancy and childbirth usually prompting them to drop out of school.

“Safi had met so many girls who were young, with unplanned pregnancies, and were shunned by their families. A couple of them were on the streets, working as prostitutes,” Ogden says.

At the Ndera center, Teonilla Mujawamariya says her parents kicked her out when she became pregnant at 17. 

“I almost thought of ending the pregnancy,” she said, “but I was fearful of losing both my life and the child’s.”

(Until last August, Rwanda permitted abortion only with a court’s approval. Now it allows the procedure, with a doctor’s permission, in cases of rape, incest or health risk to the woman or fetus. In April, President Paul Kagame pardoned 367 people jailed for having or participating in abortion.)

Mujawamariya credits the Ndashoboye program with giving her hope and help. Now 20, she’s enrolled in a one-year knitting program and anticipates earning enough money to support herself and her toddler son. Trainees make items such as shirts, dresses, hats, bags and children’s clothing, all sold locally.

Mothers often bring their youngsters, who rest or play nearby. Mukundwa says she hopes Safi Life one day will be able to provide child care.

The program had 50 graduates last year, and “a couple of our scholarship recipients are now volunteering” to work with Ndashoboye trainees, Ogden says.

Safi Life members also volunteer for community projects, such as planting trees, she adds. 

“We have the pay-it-forward motto. We get the girls together to help the community. Giving: That’s what Safi’s vision always has been,” Ogden said.

The organization’s namesake says her experiences allow her to understand Safi Life participants’ hardships — and potential. An orphan, she worked through college, married, had two children and recently earned a master’s degree in business. She wants to start an enterprise that matches college graduates with jobs.

“One thing that gives me satisfaction is the fact that my life history has enabled me to help change other people’s lives,” Mukundwa says. “Sometimes, I think there is a reason I didn’t die, and that could have been God’s plan to use me.”
…