The Africa Thread

[Gnasher]

This is seriously grim. Going from bad to worse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bjornebye]

1 hour ago, Gnasher said:

This is seriously grim. Going from bad to worse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dreadful. Zero lessons learned but clearly millions starving financially benefits some fuckers somewhere. We can land on the moon but can't even feed our own? Cunt world. 

[AngryOfTuebrook]

This looks like fun.

 

 

[TheHowieLama]

The war in Sudan is “triggering the world’s largest hunger crisis,” with more than 25 million people “trapped in a spiral” of food insecurity, a United Nations agency has warned.

Nine in 10 people across the country face “emergency levels of hunger” and are “stuck” in areas “largely inaccessible” due to “relentless violence and interference by the warring parties,” the UN’s World Food Program (WFP) said Wednesday.

The war, which has also created the world’s largest displacement crisis, according to the UN, has left 18 million people “acutely food insecure” in Sudan and millions more in neighboring South Sudan and Chad.

 

The warning from the WFP came as US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the UN had found evidence that girls as young as 14 had been raped by “elements” of the Rapid Support Forces in WFP storage facilities controlled by the paramilitary faction.

Thomas-Greenfield on Wednesday read out sections from the UN Panel of Experts’ final report on Sudan, a report she described as “52 pages of stomach-churning findings.”

She said the report claimed that RSF snipers “indiscriminately targeted civilians, including women, pregnant women and young people,” and “schools, hospitals, markets, government buildings and humanitarian assets were looted mostly by RSF and allied militias and destroyed by shelling and bombing by the two warring parties.”

[Bruce Spanner]

57 minutes ago, TheHowieLama said:

The war in Sudan is “triggering the world’s largest hunger crisis,” with more than 25 million people “trapped in a spiral” of food insecurity, a United Nations agency has warned.

Nine in 10 people across the country face “emergency levels of hunger” and are “stuck” in areas “largely inaccessible” due to “relentless violence and interference by the warring parties,” the UN’s World Food Program (WFP) said Wednesday.

The war, which has also created the world’s largest displacement crisis, according to the UN, has left 18 million people “acutely food insecure” in Sudan and millions more in neighboring South Sudan and Chad.

 

The warning from the WFP came as US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the UN had found evidence that girls as young as 14 had been raped by “elements” of the Rapid Support Forces in WFP storage facilities controlled by the paramilitary faction.

Thomas-Greenfield on Wednesday read out sections from the UN Panel of Experts’ final report on Sudan, a report she described as “52 pages of stomach-churning findings.”

She said the report claimed that RSF snipers “indiscriminately targeted civilians, including women, pregnant women and young people,” and “schools, hospitals, markets, government buildings and humanitarian assets were looted mostly by RSF and allied militias and destroyed by shelling and bombing by the two warring parties.”

 

Here is the full read out.

 

https://usun.usmission.gov/remarks-by-ambassador-linda-thomas-greenfield-at-the-un-security-council-stakeout-on-the-un-panel-of-experts-report-on-sudan/
 

You’ll notice that even during allocated time it gets moved down the importance agenda.

 

This is what we’re up against.

 

EDIT: Should add this is ‘positive’ news overall.

[Gnasher]

On 07/03/2024 at 10:57, TheHowieLama said:

The war in Sudan is “triggering the world’s largest hunger crisis,” with more than 25 million people “trapped in a spiral” of food insecurity, a United Nations agency has warned.

Nine in 10 people across the country face “emergency levels of hunger” and are “stuck” in areas “largely inaccessible” due to “relentless violence and interference by the warring parties,” the UN’s World Food Program (WFP) said Wednesday.

The war, which has also created the world’s largest displacement crisis, according to the UN, has left 18 million people “acutely food insecure” in Sudan and millions more in neighboring South Sudan and Chad.

 

The warning from the WFP came as US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the UN had found evidence that girls as young as 14 had been raped by “elements” of the Rapid Support Forces in WFP storage facilities controlled by the paramilitary faction.

Thomas-Greenfield on Wednesday read out sections from the UN Panel of Experts’ final report on Sudan, a report she described as “52 pages of stomach-churning findings.”

She said the report claimed that RSF snipers “indiscriminately targeted civilians, including women, pregnant women and young people,” and “schools, hospitals, markets, government buildings and humanitarian assets were looted mostly by RSF and allied militias and destroyed by shelling and bombing by the two warring parties.”

 

11 million food insecurity. 5 million facing starvation!

 

https://www.euronews.com/2024/03/07/world-food-programme-sudans-war-risks-creating-worlds-largest-hunger-crisis?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&s=09

 

 

[Bjornebye]

Africa. Besieged by foreign powers and greed. Poor bastards. 

[Kepler-186]

Sudan: a country in pieces   Donors at a conference in Paris have raised more than €2 billion for Sudan, including funds from the EU, France, Germany, the US and the UK.    So what? It’s about time. A year since the start of a conflict that took even the Sudanese by surprise, war has consumed a country five times the size of Germany. In the process it has   put all Sudan’s seven African neighbours at risk of escalating violence; displaced 8.5 million people, with 1.8 million fleeing mainly to Chad, South Sudan and Egypt; and dashed hopes of a new era of democracy at the confluence of the Nile.   By the numbers   25 million – people in need of humanitarian assistance, nearly half the population, with nearly 5 million on the verge of famine 6 – factor by which the number of Sudanese entering Europe has grown since 2023 15,500 – people estimated killed in the war, which has injured almost 30,000 more 800,000 – children with severe malnutrition  5 – percentage share of the $2.7 billion needed to address Sudan’s humanitarian crisis this year that has actually materialised

[Kepler-186]

Part 2 (from Tortoise’s Sensemaker email)

 

Power play. The war started as a power-grab by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for control of the capital, Khartoum. It has now become a civil war between the RSF and Sudan’s regular army (the SAF) with no discernible frontline, a complex ethnic history, multiple militias and wargaming from outside actors, with millions of Sudanese caught in the middle. 

 

Today, the RSF controls most of Sudan, including 

 

• Al Jazirah, which produces most of Sudan’s cereal crops; 
• Darfur, where mass killings and displacement have led to extensive ethnic violence; and
• Khartoum, where large areas of the city have been destroyed. 

 

“Since we lost Khartoum, the majority of the country is paralysed, from the telecommunication system, banking, governance, and our capability to respond with humanitarian assistance,” said Eatizaz Yousif, the Sudan country director for the International Rescue Committee. 

 

Beyond Sudan. The UAE is believed to be supplying large quantities of military aid to the RSF via flights to neighbouring Chad. In addition:

 

• Ukrainian special forces are fighting the RSF and its Wagner Group backers; 
• Russia is understood to be backing both sides; while 
• Iran is reportedly providing its Mohajer-6 military drones to the Sudanese army.

 

Famine stalks the country and is expected to have taken hold in most of it by June, killing half a million people, according to a study by the Clingendael Institute, a Dutch think-tank. Behind closed doors, senior western officials are discussing a worst-case scenario of 10,000 deaths a day.

 

Harvests have been disrupted, cereal production has declined by almost half and the cost of food has soared. UN agencies struggle to reach 90 per cent of the areas most in need of aid as both sides use food as a weapon of war:

 

• RSF fighters regularly attack aid lorries and loot NGOs warehouses, while the SAF banned aid agencies from delivering supplies via Chad and continues to withhold travel permits for aid workers.
• There are logistical obstacles to reaching remote rural areas in Africa’s third biggest country, which is mostly desert, poorly served by roads. 

 

What’s needed. Money and attention. Before this week, western governments had provided only a fraction of the cash needed to avert disaster. 

 

• The crises in Europe and the Middle East have taken priority “but even before, there was no focus on Sudan,” says Zeinab Badawi, the Sudanese-born journalist and president of SOAS University of London.
• Delivering food aid to the region has become more expensive given difficulties in accessing wheat from Ukraine and running the gauntlet of Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping.

 

The UN is seeking another $1.4 billion to help neighbouring countries that have taken in hundreds of thousands of refugees.

 

What’s more… Negotiation efforts to date have been uncoordinated and led by junior ministers, which makes them “invisible,” said Yousif. Sudan deserves better.

[Bruce Spanner]

One year ago on Monday the bombs stated falling.

 

The world literally doesn’t care, there were marches and vigils in London over the weekend which were, relatively, well attended, but the world has pretty much turned its back and is waiting for it to sort itself out.

 

Was texting a mate the other day, he’s been living in stables since last year, and they’re just getting on with life. The militia visit them from time to time but there’s nothing left to steal.

 

Remarkable resilience and I can’t wait to raise a glass with him, and others, once this horror show is over.

[Kepler-186]

31 minutes ago, Bruce Spanner said:

One year ago on Monday the bombs stated falling.

 

The world literally doesn’t care, there were marches and vigils in London over the weekend which were, relatively, well attended, but the world has pretty much turned its back and is waiting for it to sort itself out.

 

Was texting a mate the other day, he’s been living in stables since last year, and they’re just getting on with life. The militia visit them from time to time but there’s nothing left to steal.

 

Remarkable resilience and I can’t wait to raise a glass with him, and others, once this horror show is over.

Glad your mate is ok. You’re right it’s an absolute horror show and the report I posted only shows how many parties are involved. 
 

Are there any good reporters covering it I could follow/read? 

[Bruce Spanner]

25 minutes ago, Kepler-186 said:

Glad your mate is ok. You’re right it’s an absolute horror show and the report I posted only shows how many parties are involved. 
 

Are there any good reporters covering it I could follow/read? 

Sudan War Monitor do a very good job and is pretty objective, but with the difficulties of getting in and actually documenting the worst will be discovered once the war, finally, finishes.

 

https://sudanwarmonitor.com/

 

I still get some of dispatches from missions and embassies from time to time, but even then it’s still pretty sparse.

[Anubis]

What is the deal with the UAE arming the rebels? What is their angle?

[Bruce Spanner]

8 minutes ago, Anubis said:

What is the deal with the UAE arming the rebels? What is there angle?

Gold and influence.

 

Also, Sudan provides a lot of raw ingredients and staples for food.

 

Theres a significant export market from Sudan in wheat, flour etc. which the UAE doesn’t grow itself.

 

Should add that the UAE are helping both sides, in theory, with alliances of sorts.

 

The Abu Dhabi family are the biggest disruptors and have firmly planted their flag with the militia and are financing and helping them.

 

So it’s more complicated than just the UAE as there are internal differences and disputes there as well, essentially it’s a bit of a pissing contest between cousins on who can extract most from Sudan. 

[Anubis]

So, seizing land and cultivating misery and death for their own ends. Our allies, ladies and gentlemen. 

[Bruce Spanner]

2 minutes ago, Anubis said:

So, seizing land and cultivating misery and death for their own ends. Our allies, ladies and gentlemen. 

Nothing new, every nation that’s been there has blood on their hands to some degree.

 

None have left it in a better state than they found it.