UAE MOVES TO INTERVENE IN SUDAN ETHIOPIA BORDER ROW
Sudan’s cabinet has approved an initiative by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to mediate on the border dispute with neighbouring Ethiopia.
This will also include the row over a mega dam being constructed on the Nile.
The al-Fashaga farmlands where Ethiopia’s northern Amhara region meets Sudan’s Gedaref State in the east is claimed by both nations and has recently been a source of clashes between troops.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed says his country does not want a war with Sudan over the territorial dispute.
Meanwhile negotiations over the Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (GERD) have remained deadlocked over the years despite recent interventions by the U.S. and the African Union.
LIBYA REBEL ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALLY HANDS OVER POWER TO NEW GOVERNMENT
We begin in North Africa Libya where the rebel administration has officially handed power to the country’s new interim government, based in Tripoli.
The handover ceremony took place in Libya’s second city, Benghazi.
A new Government of National Unity, led by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah and backed by the UN, was sworn in last week in Tripoli to replace the two rival administrations which have been fighting for control of Libya.
Libya has been beset by violence since forces backed by Nato overthrew its leader, Muammar Gaddafi, in 2011.
CARGO SHIP CUTS OFF SUEZ CANAL WATERWAY
A massive cargo ship has turned sideways in Egypt’s Suez Canal, blocking traffic in a crucial East-West waterway for global shipping. Traffic on the narrow waterway dividing continental Africa from the Sinai Peninsula stopped on Tuesday after the MV Ever Given, a Panama-flagged container ship got stuck.
Experts say high winds caused the ship to find it difficult to turn, leaving the cargo ship stuck.
MOROCCAN HISTORIAN AND ACTIVIST REGAINS FREEDOM
Still in North Africa, an activist and historian in Morocco, Maati Monjib who was taken into custody in December,2020 has left prison after being granted provisional release.
Sixty year old Monjib, is reported to be in good health, despite having been on hunger strike for 19 days.
Monjib is known as a fierce critic of the Moroccan government and of the security services.
On leaving prison, he says accusations against him of money laundering were police fabrications, and that he would work for the liberation of others imprisoned for their political opinions.
6 YEARS ON AND KENYA REMAINS UNDECIDED ON DADAAB CAMP CLOSURE
Kenyan authorities have, for the umpteenth time, given the united nations refugee agency a 14-day ultimatum to close one of the world’s largest refugee camp.
The Government has been threatened to forcibly repatriate Somali refugees living at Dadaab camp to the border if the deadline elapses, since April 2015.
The Government also wants UNHCR to shut down the Kakuma camp in the north-west.
Kenya cites national security threats posed by some of the refugees that it says are linked to the Somalia-based militant group al-Shabab.
Dadaab was set up in 1991 to house families fleeing conflict in Somalia, and some people have been living there for more than 20 years.
UGANDA ELECTIONS FALLOUT
Eighteen Ugandan men believed to have been held by the state’s security services have been freed and allowed to return to their villages.
The men were arrested in the run-up to the elections in January.
Hundreds of opposition activists and campaigners from across the country were picked up during the election campaign. While the government admits it is holding more than 200 people on charges related to violent acts during the elections, many still remain unaccounted for and are believed to be still in the hands of the security services.
SOUTH SUDAN PRESIDENT SAYS COUNTRY CAN’T HAVE 2022 ELECTIONS
President of South Sudan has said his country is not in a position to conduct general elections in 2022 as envisioned in a peace deal.
The office of the president stated this while responding to calls by Peter Biar Ajak, a political activist and former detainee who sought refuge in the United States in 2020.
In a Facebook post, Ajak accused President Salva Kiir’s administration of deliberately postponing the election.
But the president’s office says Biar’s call for early elections is without justification, citing the inauguration of the current unity government which took some time.
WORLD WRAP
AFGHAN SECURITY
The Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), Deborah Lyons, has pointed out to the Security Council that the peace process must reflect on the Afghan population.
The Bonn Agreement, which aims to foster peace in Afghanistan, was signed on December 2001, following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the September 11, 2001 attack in the United States.
COVID-19 IN AFGHANISTAN
Heads of the WTO, WHO, OECD, IMF, World Bank and UNCTAD have discussed the multilateral trade system’s role in ensuring the availability of essential medical goods required to control the spread of the virus. The Aid-for-Trade Stocktaking event aims to survey the trade impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and make the case for the mobilization of Aid-for-Trade financing to support recovery and foster resilience.