Somalia’s government says 43 al-Shabab militants, including two senior commanders, were killed by Somali National Army forces during a weekend airstrike about 14 kilometers from the Jamame District in the Lower Juba region.

“The airstrike successfully eliminated key al-Shabab leaders Aden Abdirahman Aden and Idris Abdirahim Nur, who was of Kenyan national origin, and a total of 43 al-Shabab fighters,” the Somali National News Agency (SONNA) reported on Monday.

SONNA said the attack, carried out by “Somalia’s international partners,” happened Friday as militants and their commanders gathered to plan attacks against government soldiers at the Barsanguni military base, which is home to the Somali National Army and local forces.

The statement did not specify the foreign partner that conducted the airstrike, but often, U.S Africa Command drones carry out attacks on Somali militant targets.

“The successful disruption of this planned attack demonstrates the effectiveness of the ongoing efforts to combat al-Shabaab and protect the people of Somalia,” the statement added.

The news comes as Somalia’s Council of Ministers nominated Brigadier General Ibrahim Sheikh Muhyadin Addow as the new commander of the Somali National Army.

A spokesman for the Somali Defense Ministry said the appointment follows a proposal to remove General Odawa Yusuf, who has held the position since March 2019.

“General Addow brings a wealth of experience to his new role. He has previously held various military positions, including Commander of the National Presidential Guard Brigade,” the nomination statement said.

These military developments come at a time when the army, with the help of forces from neighboring countries, is up for the second phase of an offensive against al-Shabab.
…

As the world mark Sickle Cell Day on Monday, Nigeria accounts for about 33% of the 300,000 children diagnosed every year with the disease.

The World Health Organization and Nigeria’s Health Ministry say 25% of the country’s total population are carriers of mutant genes that give rise to the genetic disorder. In 2011, Nigeria’s Health Ministry initiated mandatory screening for newborns to help detect the condition early, but many Nigerian hospitals have yet to comply with the directive.

Anna Ochigbo of Nigeria has lost two siblings to sickle cell anemia. In May 2022, Ochigbo launched the nonprofit Hoplites Sickle Cell Foundation in memory of her siblings. 

“We don’t just create awareness on the importance of genotype testing before marriage,” she said. “We go as far as conducting free genotype testing in certain communities, and we also try as much as possible to educate young people.”

About 50 million people are estimated to be living with sickle cell disease globally, but Nigeria has the highest burden. Every year, an estimated 100,000 kids are diagnosed with the condition in Nigeria, according to the Health Ministry, and up to 80% die before they turn five. 

Hoplites Foundation holds periodic hangouts for sickle cell warriors to meet and share their experiences.

“The participation has been really, really massive,” Ochigbo said. “A lot of sickle cell warriors are coming out now. They want to connect. They want to network. They want to go to a place where they feel loved and appreciated.”

Nigerian authorities in 2011 initiated universal screening for newborns at hospitals to help detect the condition early. However, the Health Ministry’s sickle cell program manager, Alayo Sopekan, said many health centers have yet to adopt the measure.

“Every single child born in Nigeria should be screened at birth. Now, we have a much more refined technology. We have started training health workers,” Sopekan said.

Experts say apart from screening newborns, authorities need to intensify community genotype testing to help create awareness about the disease, and to dispel myths and misinformation about the condition, including that the disease is a spiritual attack on the body.

Nigerian musician Excel Praiseworth has been living with sickle cell disease for 29 years. 

Last year, he started a nonprofit called The Sickle Sound, where he uses his music to debunk misinformation about the condition.

“We’ve been writing songs. We have the sickle sound, which has gone far and wide, and it’s beautiful to know that warriors can listen to these songs and have solace,” Praiseworth said. “Nigeria and the world at large should just get rid of unnecessary stereotypes.”

In 2021, Nigerian lawmakers introduced a bill to screen couples before they get married, but the bill was suspended due to rights issues.

As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to mark World Sickle Cell Day, advocates are urging authorities to take interventions about the condition more seriously in order for the negative trend to improve. 
…

Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, says that human rights around the world are in a perilous state as countries are failing to honor the fundamental rights and freedoms of all peoples as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The U.N. rights chief, who spoke Monday at the opening of the U.N. Human Rights Council’s four-week session, told a packed chamber that human rights, the cornerstone of the United Nations, are now “at a critical juncture” due to what he said are the self-serving interests of repressive governments, which in his view are taking precedence over international cooperation to advance human rights.

In a sweeping global review of the human rights situation in dozens of countries, Türk highlighted the many atrocities and crimes being committed in all regions of the world.

In a report that spared few governments, he lambasted the human rights record of Honduras, expressing concern about land-related conflicts and “attacks against human rights and environmental defenders.” He castigated Nicaraguan authorities for undermining the human rights of its people “with extremely harsh repression of civil society and a drastically reduced civic space.”

Turning to the war in Ukraine, Türk called on Russia to grant his colleagues access to both Ukrainian territory occupied by the Russian Federation, and to the Russian Federation itself — “not least, to visit civilian detainees, prisoners of war and Ukrainian children and people with disabilities who have been taken to these areas.”

The High Commissioner singled out what he considers egregious cases of abuse and discrimination in sub-Saharan Africa, such as in Uganda, which recently adopted legislation criminalizing homosexuality.

He criticized Mali’s request for the withdrawal of MINUSMA, the U.N.’s peacekeeping mission, saying “human rights must always be above the fray of politics.”

He deplored worsening conditions in South Sudan where violent incidents affecting civilians rose by 12 percent in the first three months of this year. “There has been little action by the authorities to hold perpetrators to account,” he said, “while senior government officials allegedly implicated in serious crimes remain in office.”

Türk slammed Eritrea for its ongoing refusal to engage with the full spectrum of human rights bodies, noting that Burundi also has not granted access to or cooperated with the Council’s Commission of Inquiry or other investigative bodies since 2016.

On the other hand, he said Ethiopia has cooperated with his office, enabling him to send international human rights monitors to the north, where a war in the Tigray region ended last November. The Commission report on Ethiopia is due to be presented to the Council in September.

Türk said he was deeply worried about the deteriorating human rights situation in Afghanistan where “the Taliban de facto authorities have dismantled the most fundamental principles of human rights, particularly for women and girls.”

At a comprehensive examination of the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan that took place later in the day, human rights experts accused the Taliban of practicing a form of “gender apartheid.”

Dorothy Estrada-Tanck, chair of the working group on discrimination against women and girls, said that they were being “erased” in Afghanistan. She said, “women and girls are systematically discriminated against in every aspect of their lives…Women are wholly excluded from participation in political and public life.”

Since the Taliban took power in August 2021, she said the de facto authorities have relentlessly issued edict after edict, “of which the vast majority restrict the rights of women and girls, including their rights to education, work, health, access to justice and freedom of movement, attire, and behavior.”

In his presentation to the Council, Türk expressed concern about widespread human rights violations in Iran including “the massive recent increase in executions, as well as continuing discrimination against women.”

He said he was extremely worried by the deteriorating situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory where he said, “excessive use of force and unlawful killings of Palestinians by the Israeli Security Forces have increased, including apparent extrajudicial executions.”

There were no immediate responses from any of the countries Türk mentioned.

Ending on a more positive note after an otherwise withering look at the worsening human rights situation around the world, Türk said his office’s support of Mauritania’s efforts to end discrimination, notably the persistent issue of slavery, was bearing fruit.

He said, “at least 38 cases of slavery have been brought to court, with 10 judgements made in the first two months of this year.” He commended the authorities’ cooperation “with the special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery during his visit last year.”
…

Mali started counting votes on Sunday from a constitutional referendum that the ruling military junta and regional powers have said will pave the way to elections and a return to civilian rule.

The junta, which seized power in coups in 2020 and 2021, promised to hold the plebiscite as part of a transition to democracy, under pressure from West African regional bloc the Economic Community of West African States. Provisional results are expected by Tuesday.

Some of the proposed clauses in the new constitution drafted by the transitional council are contentious, with proponents saying they would strengthen fragile political institutions and opponents saying they would give too much power to the president.

But regional bodies and the United Nations see the referendum itself as an important test of the junta’s willingness to stick to the transition and hold a nationwide democratic process, particularly at a time when Islamist militants are stepping up attacks.

“With this project, we are betting on the future of our state, the restoration of its authority, and the regained trust between institutions and citizens,” interim president Colonel Assimi Goita said in a televised speech on Friday.

The draft includes updates that have been proposed in past failed efforts to revise the constitution, including the creation of a second parliamentary chamber to boost representation from across Mali.

The proposed establishment of a separate court of auditors for state spending will bring Mali in line with a directive from the West African Economic and Monetary Union from 2000.

But some opposition parties, pro-democracy groups and campaigners for the ‘No’ vote say non-elected authorities such as the junta have no right to oversee such a substantial constitutional overhaul.

“I am for a revision of the constitution but not this referendum. The legitimacy of the actors, the process …I think we could have done better,” lawyer Fousseini Ag Yehia said in the capital Bamako on Saturday.

Northern Mali armed groups that signed a 2015 peace deal, which has been shaky since the junta took power, had called for a boycott of the referendum saying the process was “not sufficiently inclusive.”

Ahmoudane Ag Ikmasse a former member of parliament for the northern town of Kidal, told Reuters that no voting took place there on Sunday.

Ould Mohamed Ramadane, a spokesman for the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA), the northern Tuareg-led rebel alliance, said voting only took place in a few places with a high concentration of Malian armed forces, such as Timbuktu, Gao and Menaka.

Large areas of northern Mali are controlled by militants linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State as the Sahel nation struggles to find stability since a 2012 Tuareg rebellion.  

Mali on Friday demanded the departure of U.N. peacekeepers who have been in the country since 2013, saying the mission was fueling tensions between communities.
…

The start of a 72-hour ceasefire aimed at calming more than two months of conflict between rival Sudanese military factions brought a lull in clashes in Khartoum early on Sunday following battles and air strikes overnight, residents said.

Sudan’s army and the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have agreed to refrain from attacks and from seeking military advantage during the ceasefire period, which started at 6 a.m. (0400 GMT), as well as allowing for delivery of aid, Saudi and U.S. mediators said. Several previous truces have failed to stop the fighting.

The power struggle between the two sides has turned the capital into a war zone plagued by looting, led to outbursts of fighting in other regions, and triggered a sharp escalation of violence in Darfur in western Sudan.

In the hours before the truce period began witnesses reported clashes and air strikes in several areas of Khartoum and Omdurman, one of two adjoining cities that make up the wider capital at the confluence of the River Nile.

“The situation in Khartoum is calm, especially because last night there were air strikes and it was terrifying,” 49-year-old resident Salaheldin Ahmed told Reuters by phone on Sunday morning, expressing hope that the truce could be the “beginning of the end” of the war.

“We are tired,” he said. “Enough of war, death and looting.”

Previous ceasefires brokered by Saudi Arabia and the United States at talks in Jeddah have allowed for the delivery of some humanitarian aid as fighting has subsided, but both sides have repeatedly violated the agreements.

The conflict, which erupted over disputes about a plan for a transition to elections under a civilian government four years after long-ruling autocrat Omar al-Bashir was overthrown during a popular uprising, has intensified since early June.

On Monday, Germany, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Nations are hosting a donors conference in Geneva that aims to attract pledges of funding for humanitarian relief in Sudan.

The U.N. says more than half the population of 49 million now needs humanitarian assistance within Sudan, requiring some $3 billion in funding until the end of the year.

It has also appealed for nearly $500 million for the refugee crisis caused by the conflict. More than 500,000 people have fled into countries neighboring Sudan, in addition to nearly 1.7 million who have been internally displaced.
…

Malians will vote Sunday in a referendum on changing the constitution that the ruling military junta and regional powers have said will pave the way to elections and a return to civilian rule.

The junta, which seized power in coups in 2020 and 2021, promised to hold the plebiscite as part of a transition to democracy under pressure from the West African regional bloc ECOWAS.

Some of the changes in the committee-drafted constitution are contentious, with proponents saying they would strengthen fragile political institutions and opponents saying they would give too much power to the president.

But regional bodies and the United Nations see the referendum itself as an important test of the junta’s willingness to stick to the transition and hold a nationwide democratic process, particularly at a time when Islamist militants are stepping up attacks.

“With this project, we are betting on the future of our state, the restoration of its authority, and the regained trust between institutions and citizens,” interim President Assimi Goita said in televised speech Friday.

“Now is the time to confirm our commitment to the new Mali,” he added, wearing his trademark beret and military fatigues.

The draft includes updates that have been proposed in earlier failed efforts to revise the constitution that supporters hope will reinforce democracy and address divisions, including the creation of a second parliamentary chamber to boost representation from across Mali.

The proposed establishment of a separate court of auditors for state spending will bring Mali in line with a directive from the West African Economic and Monetary Union from 2000.

But some opposition parties, pro-democracy groups and campaigners for the ‘No’ vote say the non-democratically elected authorities such as the junta have no right to oversee such a substantial constitutional overhaul.

They also say the proposed constitution hands excessive authority to the president including over the legislative process.

“I am for a revision of the constitution but not this referendum. The legitimacy of the actors, the process. … I think we could have done better,” lawyer Fousseini Ag Yehia said in the capital, Bamako, on Saturday.

Provisional results are expected within 72 hours of the vote. Presidential elections are scheduled for February 2024. 
…

A Tunisian judge has barred radio and television news programs from covering the cases of prominent opposition figures accused of conspiring against state security in recent months, official news agency TAP said Saturday.

The order fuels concerns over rights in Tunisia since President Kais Saied seized extra powers in 2021, moving to rule by decree and then assume authority over the judiciary.

“The investigating judge of office 36 of the anti-terrorism branch issues a decision banning media coverage of the two cases of conspiring against state security,” the court’s spokesperson Hanan el-Qadas told TAP.

TAP later quoted Qadas as saying the order only concerned “audio-visual media” and was intended to keep details of the cases confidential and protect personal data of people involved.

Reuters was unable to immediately reach the spokesperson.

Judges have detained or opened investigations into more than 20 political, judicial, media and business figures with opposition ties over recent months, accusing some of plotting against state security.

The main opposition parties have decried the arrests as politically motivated and rights groups have urged Tunisian authorities to free those detained.

Neither the Interior Ministry nor the Justice Ministry have publicly commented on the arrests so far.

President Saied has described the detainees as terrorists, criminals and traitors, saying judges who free them would be considered as having abetted them.

The opposition accuses Saied of a coup for shutting down parliament in 2021, ruling by decree and writing a new constitution that was passed last year with low turnout to give him nearly unchecked powers.

They say he has dismantled the democratic system introduced after a 2011 revolution that also brought one of the freest media landscapes of any Arab country, in which press regularly reported criticism of the government.
…

An airstrike in Sudan’s capital Khartoum Saturday killed at least 17 people, including five children, health officials said, as fighting continued between rival generals seeking to control the country. 

The attack was one of the deadliest of the clashes in urban areas of Khartoum and elsewhere in Sudan between the military and a powerful paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF. 

It was not clear whether the attack was by aircraft or a drone. The military’s aircraft have repeatedly targeted RSF troops, and the RSF has reportedly used drones and anti-aircraft weapons against the military. 

The conflict in Sudan broke out in mid-April, capping months of increasing tensions between the leaders of the military and the RSF. 

Saturday’s strike hit the Yarmouk neighborhood in southern Khartoum, where clashes have centered in recent weeks, according to Sudan’s Ministry of Health. The area houses a military facility controlled by the army. At least 25 houses were destroyed, the ministry wrote in a Facebook post. 

The dead included five children and an unknown number of women and elderly people, and some wounded people were hospitalized, the ministry said. 

A local group that calls itself The Emergency Room and helps organize humanitarian aid in the area, said at least 11 people were wounded in the strike. It posted images it said were of houses damaged in the attack and people searching through rubble. Other images claimed to show a wounded girl and man. 

The RSF claimed in a statement that the military’s aircraft bombed the area, killing and wounded civilians. It claimed it downed a military MiG fighter jet. The paramilitary group’s claims couldn’t be independently verified. 

A military spokesman didn’t respond to messages seeking comment. 

The conflict has plunged the African country into chaos and turned Khartoum and other urban areas into battlefields. The paramilitary force has occupied people’s houses and other civilian properties since the onset of the conflict, according to residents and activists. 

The clashes have killed hundreds of civilians and wounded thousands of others. More than 2.2 million people have fled their homes to safer areas inside Sudan or crossed into neighboring countries. 

Along with Khartoum, fighting has raged in Darfur, a sprawling area in western Sudan. Genena, the provincial capital of West Darfur province, has experienced some of the worst battles in the conflict, with tens of thousands of its residents fleeing to neighboring Chad. 

Arab militias known as janjaweed have recently joined the clashes in Genena on the side of the RSF, according to residents and activists. 

On Wednesday, West Darfur Gov. Khamis Abdalla Abkar was abducted and killed hours after he accused the RSF and allied Arab militias in a televised interview of attacking Genena. 

His slaying was blamed on the RSF, a charge the paramilitary force denied. 
…

Malian Foreign Affairs Minister Abdoulaye Diop on Friday called for the immediate withdrawal of the United Nations peacekeeping mission from his country.

Diop told the U.N. Security Council Mali wanted the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, or MINUSMA, the U.N. force in Mali, removed “without delay.”

“Minusma seems to have become part of the problem by fueling community tensions exacerbated by extremely serious allegations which are highly detrimental to peace, reconciliation and national cohesion in Mali,” said the minister.

“This situation is begetting mistrust among the Malian population and also causing a crisis of confidence between Malian authorities and MINUSMA,” Diop told the council.

The West African country has faced an insurgency since 2012. The U.N. peacekeeping mission was deployed in 2013 but the instability continues.

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
…

The United Nations refugee agency has pledged its support of Malawi’s move to resettle more than 50,000 refugees and asylum-seekers currently living at the overcrowded Dzaleka refugee camp in the central part of the country. Last week, Malawi’s government announced it had secured a new site in the northern part of the country to help reduce the number refugees at the Dzaleka camp, which was originally designed to accommodate 12,000 people.

UNHCR Regional Director for Southern Africa Valentin Tapsoba pledged support of the move after meeting Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera, in the capital, Lilongwe.

According to a statement released after the meeting, Tapsoba said UNHCR welcomes the government of Malawi’s commitment to improving living conditions and overall well-being of refugees living in the country by upgrading refugee settlements.

Malawi set up Dzaleka refugee camp in 1994 to accommodate about 12,000 people but now it is hosting more than 50,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia and Ethiopia.

Kenyi Emanuel Lukajo is the associate external relations and reporting officer for the UNHCR in Malawi. He says the government’s relocation of about 8,000 refugees, who have been staying outside the camp, has strained the already scarce resources at the camp.

“Life is very difficult,” said Lokajo. “There is not enough water, not enough shelter, even the children who are pulled out of school in the city are not able to enroll in schools because there are not enough slots. So, everything is not there, so we don’t have the money to provide for an additional number of people that have been relocated.”

Malawi started forcibly relocating refugees, who were illegally living across rural and urban areas of the country last month, after the expiration of the April 15 deadline the government set for voluntary relocation.

In a statement, the UNHCR says that to date, approximately 1,900 individuals have returned to the congested Dzaleka camp amid financial challenges the agency is facing in taking care of the refugees.

The U.N. refugee agency says that as of 1 June, it has only received 15 percent of the required $27.2 million to adequately support refugees and asylum-seekers in Malawi this year.

However, the Malawi government says it has acquired land for a new resettlement site for the refugees in Chitipa district, north of Malawi, to solve overcrowding problems facing the refugees there.

Ken Zikhale Ng’oma is the minister of homeland security in Malawi. He told a press conference last week that the new settlement will also help keep away potential criminals who enter Malawi under the pretext of being refugees and asylum keepers.

“Which is why we want to change the system now. We will close Dzaleka anytime,” Ng’oma said. “And we will open up a new site in Chitipa where we want to make sure that anybody who enters Malawi should be examined before entering Malawi just as Americans do. No asylum seeker will get in and say ‘I will apply inside’ no. It is done at the gate. So, we want to borrow the American system.”

The UNHCR says it stands ready to provide the necessary support toward the new site.

“If the government says they have found a new site, UNHCR has no objection to that as long as UNHCR is involved in the process and then we assess the site to ensure that the site has got enough water, is not prone to flooding and the site is not very close to the border,” said Lokajo. “So if all the conditions are met, then UNHCR will not hesitate to support the process.”

Malawi government authorities have assured to involve UNHCR in the site assessment process and collaborate to secure resources for the development of the new settlement.
…

Ahead of International Day of the African Child on June 16, rights groups and officials in Cameroon are distributing birth certificates to 30,000 of several million children denied education for lack of the document. A majority of the children without birth registration are from western regions and Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria where separatist and Boko Haram conflicts have displaced several million people.

The Cameroon government says thousands of children have been visiting district councils all over the country this week to collect their birth certificates.

Among the children expecting the Youande City Council to establish their birth certificates is 17-year-old Mustapha Issa.

Mustapha said he is one of the several thousand children denied an education for lack of a birth certificate.

Mustapha said he went to the Yaounde City Council on Thursday and pleaded with the mayor to help him, alongside other children who have not received an education because they lack birth certificates. He said the mothers of some of the children yearning for an education gave birth to their children at home and failed to register their births.

Officials of the Yaounde City Council say they received at least a dozen humanitarian groups asking for birth certificates to be issued for children so they can obtain an education, health care and other government services.

The Ministry of Decentralization and Local Development is supervising the establishment and distribution of birth certificates to needy children. The document is free for babies younger than 90 days old. But older children have to spend about $20 to have birth certificates in a long process that involves officials of Cameroon’s Justice Ministry.

Cameroon’s Ministry of Secondary Education said it is compulsory for children to present their birth certificates before continuing with their education after the primary level.

Mustapha said dropouts become street children, drug addicts and gangsters.

The Cameroon government said several thousand birth certificates were lost or destroyed in Cameroon’s separatist conflict that so far has displaced 750,000 people in English-speaking western regions, most of them women and children.

Tanjong Martin, mayor of the Tubah district in Cameroon’s English-speaking northwest region, said the number of applications for birth certificates is overwhelming.

“During this time of the anglophone crisis, schools were not functioning, councils were not running, and the children for these years had no birth certificates,” Martin said. “Now, we have about 3,000 applications, and as you know, new ones are coming up, so it is a big problem in areas where this crisis hit since 2016.”

Cameroon also said tens of thousands of birth certificates were lost in attacks by Boko Haram militants that have displaced more than 3 million people in northern Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria.

George Elanga Obam, Cameroon’s minister of Decentralization, said Cameroon is working in partnership with Nigeria for displaced children to have birth certificates.

“With Boko Haram, a lot of people came from Nigeria,” he said. “Most of their children do not have their birth certificates. The first thing we do as a state is education, talking to parents with all the means that we can use … talking to the civil society. It is very important to be registered in civil status. We will reduce the amount of children not having birth certificates.”

Cameroon said more 3.3 million children in the country of 26 million do not have required birth certificates. More than 2 million are of school-going age, the government said.
…

A catastrophic food crisis looms in Sudan if fighting doesn’t stop, said Freydoun Borhani, team leader with aid organization Mercy Corps in Gedaref state, on the Ethiopian border.

“Right now, it’s planting season in Gedaref state, for example. People there must buy seeds for plantation. The price of the seeds go very high. And this creates a problem for the farmer,” Borhani said.

But that’s not the only challenge farmers face, according to Borhani.

“Besides that, the number of people who moved here have created a lack of food in the market, and the price of food is very high, and some people cannot afford to purchase this food,” Borhani said. “Some places, it’s 134 percent increase. Wheat flour, rice or sugar also 100 percent or more.”

Mercy Corps had plans to distribute seeds to about 2,100 farmers in Gedaref, Nyala and Kordofan states, but for security reasons it will be able to give seeds to only 700 farmers in Gedaref starting next week.

The latest 24-hour cease-fire negotiated by the United States and Saudi Arabia expired early Sunday, and the war is showing no signs of ending, as fighting continues in parts of the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere.

Kenya’s President William Ruto said he and other East African leaders plan to meet the Sudanese generals in person next week to discuss ways to end the war. The announcement follows a gathering of heads of states and government convened by the East African bloc IGAD, or Intergovernmental Authority on Development, in Djibouti earlier this week.

“We have taken the decision that the quartet of Kenya, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Somalia will in the next 10 days meet face to face with General [Abdel Fattah al-] Burhan and General [Mohamed Hamdan] Dagalo in a face-to-face engagement, so we can speak to them directly on behalf of IGAD with a view of stopping the war that is raging in Sudan,” Ruto said following the IGAD talks.

Macharia Munene, professor of history and international relations at the United States International University in Nairobi, told VOA the in-person meeting with the two generals is a good step but there are more factors at play.

“The problem with IGAD and AU [African Union] is that it depends on the EU [European Union] and external forces of resources to operate,” Munene said. “That’s the main problem … sometimes it’s difficult to agree on anything, in part because the players are dependent on advice and resources from outside.”

Abdisalan Adan, education and peace advocate and the director of Maarifa College in Kenya, told VOA bringing them to the table might be the solution, but there’s much to accomplish between now and then.

“First of all, bridging the gap and bringing the trust among the two [generals] and from our side, Kenya, we should see the conflict from a wider perspective, then working very softly in terms of bringing all actors together, international actors together, not only IGAD, but bring on board African Union, European Union and Americans,” he said.

Dr. Edgar Githua, a lecturer at USIU and Strathmore University specializing in international relations, peace and conflict, told VOA that Kenya’s Ruto is a good person to lead the negotiations.

“I think he’s seen conflict within Kenya. Remember, in Kenya we had our post-election violence in 2007, and he was part of that mediating team … so he understands what internal conflicts are all about; in Sudan, it’s an internal conflict, so he understands the dynamics,” Githua said.

Ruto also said officials will try to persuade the warring factions to establish a humanitarian corridor in the next two weeks and, following that, initiate a process of an inclusive national dialogue.

But in a statement on Thursday, Sudan’s foreign ministry said it preferred South Sudanese leadership of the initiative.

Since the war started about two months ago, more than 1.65 million people have been displaced, including more than 1.2 million within the country and about half a million to neighboring countries. As long as the conflict continues, Mercy Corps says humanitarian needs will grow among the populations that were already severely food insecure.
…