COP28 kicks off with climate disaster fund victory

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates

The UN climate summit clinched an early victory Thursday, with delegates adopting a new fund to help poor nations cope with costly climate disasters.

The opening ceremony of the 28th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP28, in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.

COP28 President Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber said the decision sent a "positive signal of momentum to the world and to our work here in Dubai".

In establishing the fund on the first day of the two-week COP28 conference, delegates opened the door for governments to announce contributions. 

And several did, kicking off a series of small pledges that countries hoped would build throughout the conference to a substantial sum, including $US100 million from the COP28 host United Arab Emirates, at least $US51 million from Britain, $US17.5 million from the United States, and $US10 million from Japan.

Later, the European Union pledged $US245.39 million, which included $US100 million pledged by Germany. 

The early breakthrough on the damage fund, which poorer nations had demanded for years, could help grease the wheels for other compromises to be made during the two-week summit. 

Alden Meyer of the thinktank E3G said the approval for the "loss and damage" fund, as it's been called informally over the last two years, meant "not having either side play games and using L&D as a bargaining chip tied to other issues." 

Another task for the summit will be the global stocktake, an assessment of countries' progress in meeting the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to well below two degrees Celsius.

The fund's adoption "allows us now to focus on the global stocktake and the phase out of fossil fuels and build-up of renewable energy," said Jennifer Morgan, Germany's special climate envoy.

But some groups were cautious about celebrating the fund's early adoption, noting there were still unresolved issues including how the fund would be financed in the future. 

"The absence of a defined replenishment cycle raises serious questions about the fund's long-term sustainability," said Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at Climate Action Network International. 

Adnan Amin, CEO of the COP28 summit, told Reuters this month the aim was to secure several hundred million US dollars for the climate disaster fund during the event. 

Pope Francis, who was forced to cancel his trip to COP28 due to illness, sent a message on social media platform X: "May participants in #COP28 be strategists who focus on the common good and the future of their children, rather than the vested interests of certain countries or businesses. May they demonstrate the nobility of politics and not its shame." 

UN Security Council due to vote on lifting arms embargo on Somalia

By Michelle Nichols, UNITED NATIONS

The United Nations Security Council is due to vote on Friday to remove the final restrictions on weapons deliveries to Somalia's government and its security forces, diplomats said, more than 30 years after an arms embargo was first imposed on the country.

The council put the embargo on Somalia in 1992 to cut the flow of weapons to feuding warlords, who had ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and plunged the Horn of Africa country into civil war.

The 15-member body is due to adopt two British-drafted resolutions on Friday, diplomats said - one to remove the full arms embargo on Somalia and another to reimpose an arms embargo on Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab militants.

One of the draft resolutions spells out that "for the avoidance of doubt, that there is no arms embargo on the Government of the Federal Republic of Somalia."

It also expresses concern about the number of safe ammunition storage facilities in Somalia, and encourages the construction, refurbishment and use of safe ammunition depots across Somalia. It urges other countries to help.

Al Shabaab has been waging a brutal insurgency against the Somali government since 2006 to try to establish its own rule based on a strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.

Somalia's government had long asked for the arms embargo to be removed so it could beef up its forces to take on the militants. The Security Council began to partially start lifting measures Somalia's security forces in 2013.

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said last week that Somalia has one year to expel al Shabaab, with the deadline for remaining African Union peacekeepers to leave looming next December.

Israel resumes combat in Gaza after accusing Hamas of violating truce

JERUSALEM, Israel  

Israel’s military said it had resumed combat operations in the Gaza Strip minutes after a temporary truce with Hamas expired Friday, blaming the militant group for breaking the cease-fire.

The truce expired at 7 a.m (0500 GMT) Friday. The halt in fighting began a week ago, on Novvember 24. It initially lasted for four days, and then was extended for several days with the help of Qatar and fellow mediator Egypt.

During the week-long truce, Hamas and other militants in Gaza released more than 100 hostages, most of them Israelis, in return for 240 Palestinians freed from prisons in Israel.

Virtually all of those freed were women and children, but the fact that few such hostages remained in Gaza complicated reaching a deal for a further extension.

On the ceasefire, an adviser to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was open to continuing the ceasefire if Hamas committed to further hostage releases.

Israel had previously set the release of 10 hostages a day as the minimum it would accept to pause its assault.

“We’re ready for all possibilities.... Without that, we’re going back to the combat,” Netanyahu adviser Mark Regev said on CNN, Reuters reports.

Before the prior truce was due to expire early on Thursday, Hamas and its ally, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, put their fighters on alert for a resumption of hostilities.

Hamas, a militant group that has ruled Gaza for 16 years, had also been expected to set a higher price for the remaining hostages, especially Israeli soldiers. About 140 hostages remain in Gaza, with more than 100 having been freed as part of the truce.

Qatar and Egypt, which have played a key role as mediators had sought to prolong the truce by another two days.

Biden hosts the Angolan president to strengthened ties with Africa

By Zeke Miller, WASHINGTON US

US President Joe Biden hosted Angolan President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço in the Oval Office on Thursday as he sought to reaffirm his commitment to Africa even as two wars consume much of his administration’s foreign policy focus.

The White House meeting follows Angola’s move to position itself as a strategic partner to the United States and as it has shifted away from Russian and Chinese influence under Lourenço’s tenure. The visit comes as Biden appears set to break his commitment to African leaders to visit the continent this year — though senior U.S. officials have made key trips to Africa throughout 2023.

“We meet a historic moment,” Biden said. “America is all in on Africa. We’re all in with you in Angola.”

Lourenço praised Biden’s approach to the continent and said his country is looking to develop increased economic and security ties with the U.S.

“This is a new page that has been turned in U.S.-Africa relations and that’s thanks to you, Mr. President,” he said.

Lobbyists for Lourenço had petitioned Biden administration officials to set up the meeting between the two leaders for months, warning that the absence of such a high-profile engagement could jeopardize Angola’s commitment to working with the U.S.

“While others in southern Africa are strengthening ties to China, President Lourenço is shedding Angola’s historic relationships with China (and Russia) in favor of a new and strategic partnership with the United States. This is a fundamental shift in Angolan foreign policy,” lobbyist Robert Kapla wrote in April to Biden confidant Amos Hochstein, according to lobbyist disclosure records.

“We are informed that if President Lourenço is unable to meet with President Biden this year, there is real risk that the positive momentum both sides have generated since 2017 will begin to lose traction,” Kapla wrote a week earlier to Ambassador Molly Phee, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs.

The visit comes months after Biden and allies among the Group of 20 leading rich and developing nations unveiled a Trans-African Corridor connecting the Angolan port of Lobito with landlocked areas of the African continent: the Kananga province in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the copper mining regions of Zambia. It’s part of a global infrastructure program championed by Biden that is meant as a counterweight to China’s Belt and Road initiative.

”They’re a strategic partner and a growing global voice on issues of peace and security,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Thursday, adding that the two leaders would discuss economic and security cooperation as well as regional and global issues.

Much of Biden’s recent foreign policy focus has been on Russia’s war in Ukraine and the fighting between Israel and Hamas. Declaring that U.S. leadership “holds the world together,” the Democratic president told Americans in an Oval Office address in October that the U.S. must deepen its support of Ukraine and Israel in the middle of two vastly different, unpredictable and bloody wars.

Biden pledged to visit Africa in 2023 when he hosted the continent’s leaders in Washington last December, but the White House has repeatedly declined to say when he will make the trip, and there are no indications that he is set to make good on the promise before the new year. Asked Thursday by a reporter if he’d visit Angola, Biden said only, “I have been there, and I will be back.”

Henry Kissinger, US diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize winner, dies aged 100

WASHINGTON, US

Henry Kissinger, the diplomatic powerhouse whose service under two presidents left a lifelong mark on US foreign policy, has died at the age of 100.

The diplomat, best known for his time as Secretary of State to Richard Nixon, continued to be closely involved in global foreign policy past his hundredth birthday – visiting Xi Jinping in Beijing in July this year.

“Dr. Henry Kissinger, a respected American scholar and statesman, died today at his home in Connecticut,” his consultancy Kissinger Associates said in a statement on Wednesday.

Although his foreign policy decisions and their association with the doctrine of “realism” were controversial, he survived the resignation of Mr Nixon in 1974 and continued to offer advice in that post to his successor, Gerald Ford.

His 1973 Peace Prize - awarded jointly to North Vietnam’s Le Duc Tho, who would decline it - was one of the most controversial ever. Two members of the Nobel committee resigned over the selection and questions arose about the US secret bombing of Cambodia.

Serving first as National Security Adviser to the Nixon administration, Mr Kissinger was closely associated with the US policy of “Vietnamisation” in the 1970s, as the burden of the war transferred from American troops to Southern Vietnamese forces.

He was given the role of Secretary of State in 1973, serving for one year before becoming an informal adviser to presidents on foreign policy and running his own geopolitical consulting firm in New York City from 1982.

His influence in government waned under the next Republican president, Ronald Reagan, and he moved to international speaking events, private work and writing more than a dozen books.

He was invited to the White House to speak with every president - apart from Joe Biden - after Mr Ford and celebrated his 100th birthday in May.

George W Bush, one of the first to pay tribute to Mr Kissinger on Wednesday night, said he and his wife Laura would “miss his wisdom, his charm and his humour”.

“America has lost one of the most dependable and distinctive voices on foreign affairs with the passing of Henry Kissinger,” he said.

“I have long admired the man who fled the Nazis as a young boy from a Jewish family, then fought them in the United States Army.

“When he later became Secretary of State, his appointment as a former refugee said as much about his greatness as it did America’s greatness. He worked in the administrations of two presidents and counselled many more. I am grateful for that service and advice, but I am most grateful for his friendship.”

On Thursday morning, Dame Karen Pierce, UK Ambassador to the US, issued a statement saying she was “very sad” to hear of Mr Kissinger’s passing. 

Although influential, Mr Kissinger’s legacy was controversial and he invited criticism from opponents of his policy on Vietnam, the bombing of Cambodia and the invasion of Timor-Leste in 1975.

In the India-Pakistan War of 1971, Mr Nixon and Mr Kissinger were heavily criticised for tilting toward Pakistan.

Mr Kissinger was heard calling the Indians “bastards” - a remark he later said he regretted.

Anthony Bourdain, the late food critic, once said: “Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands.”

Christopher Hitchens, the British polemicist, dedicated an entire book to his legacy entitled The Trial of Henry Kissinger.

Nonetheless, the German-born Jewish refugee’s efforts led to the diplomatic opening of China, landmark US-Soviet arms control talks, expanded ties between Israel and its Arab neighbours, and the Paris Peace Accords with North Vietnam.

After the 9/11 attacks, president Bush picked Mr Kissinger to head an investigative committee.

The outcry from Democrats, who saw a conflict of interest with many of his consulting firm’s clients, forced him to step down from the post.

Regional court dismisses challenge to East Africa pipeline

ARUSHA, Tanzania

A regional court has dismissed a petition seeking to stop the construction of a controversial $4bn (£3.1bn) crude oil pipeline from Uganda to Tanzania.

The East African Court of Justice (EACJ) on Wednesday ruled that the case was filed too late and was therefore time-barred and beyond its jurisdiction.

The 1,443km (896-mile) East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (Eacop), which is being constructed by the Ugandan and Tanzanian governments along with TotalEnergies and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has faced pushback from local communities and rights and environmental groups.

The groups say the project is displacing communities from their land, desecrating graves along the pipeline route and causing environmental harm.

"This judgement marks a continuation of how the global north and various government institutions in Africa are blind to the destruction of the environment and the impact oil and gas has on the climate," civil society group Natural Justice said in a statement.

Natural Justice and the other three civil society organisations that filed the case in 2020 said they would appeal against the decision.

Israel-Hamas truce extended for a day

GAZA STRIP, Palestine

A truce between Israel and Hamas will continue, both sides said Thursday, moments before the deal was due to expire, though details of any official agreement remained unclear.

Minutes before the halt in fighting was due to expire at 0500GMT, Israel’s military said the “operational pause” would be extended, without specifying for how long.

“In light of the mediators’ efforts to continue the process of releasing the hostages and subject to the terms of the framework, the operational pause will continue,” it said.

Hamas meanwhile said there was an agreement to “extend the truce for a seventh day,” without further details.

Qatar, which has led the truce negotiations, confirmed the pause had been extended until Friday.

There had been pressure to extend the pause to allow more hostage releases and additional aid into devastated Gaza, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arriving in Israel for talks Wednesday night.

The truce has brought a temporary halt to fighting that began on October 7 when Hamas militants poured over the border into Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 240, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel’s subsequent air and ground campaign in Gaza has killed nearly 15,000 people, also mostly civilians, according to Hamas officials, and reduced large parts of the north of the territory to rubble.

The truce agreement allows for extensions if Hamas can release another 10 hostages a day, and a source close to the group said Wednesday that it was willing to prolong the pause by four days.

But with just an hour to go before the truce was due to expire, Hamas said its offer to free another seven hostages, and hand over the bodies of another three it said were killed in Israeli bombardment, had been refused.

Both sides had earlier said they were ready to return to fighting, with Hamas’s armed wing warning its fighters to “maintain high military readiness... in anticipation of a resumption of combat if it is not renewed,” according to a message posted on its Telegram channel.

IDF spokesman Doron Spielman said troops would “move into operational mode very quickly and continue with our targets in Gaza,” if the truce expired.

Overnight, 10 more Israeli hostages were freed under the terms of the deal, with another four Thai hostages and two Israeli-Russian women released outside the framework of the arrangement.

Video released by Hamas showed masked gunmen handing hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Among those freed was Liat Beinin, who also holds American citizenship, and works as a guide at Israel’s Holocaust museum Yad Vashem.

US President Joe Biden said he was “deeply gratified” by the release.

“This deal has delivered meaningful results,” he said of the truce.

Shortly after the hostages arrived in Israel, the country’s prison service said 30 Palestinian prisoners had been released, including well-known activist Ahed Tamimi.

Since the truce began on November 24, 70 Israeli hostages have been freed in return for 210 Palestinian prisoners.

Around 30 foreigners, most of them Thais living in Israel, have been freed outside the terms of the deal.

Israel has made clear it sees the truce as a temporary halt intended to free hostages, but there are growing calls for a more sustained pause in fighting.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres demanded a “true humanitarian cease-fire,” warning Gazans are “in the midst of an epic humanitarian catastrophe.”

And China, whose top diplomat Wang Yi was in New York for Security Council talks on the violence, urged an immediate “sustained humanitarian truce,” in a position paper released Thursday.

The hostage releases have brought joy tinged with agony, with families anxiously waiting each night to learn if their loved ones will be freed, and learning harrowing details from those who return.

Four-year-old Abigail was captured after crawling out from under the body of her father, killed by militants, covered in his blood, her great aunt Liz Hirsh Naftali said.

“It’s a miracle,” she said of the little girl’s survival and release.

However Israel’s army also said Wednesday it was investigating a claim by Hamas’s armed wing that a 10-month-old baby hostage, his four-year-old brother and their mother had all been killed in an Israeli bombing in Gaza.

Israel pounded the Gaza Strip relentlessly before the truce, forcing an estimated 1.7 million people to leave their homes and limiting the entry of food, water, medicine and fuel.

Conditions in the territory remain “catastrophic,” according to the World Food Programme, and the population faces a “high risk of famine.

Israeli forces targeted several hospitals in northern Gaza during the fighting, accusing Hamas of using them for military purposes.

The spokesman for the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, Ashraf Al-Qudra, told AFP Wednesday that doctors found five premature babies dead in Gaza City’s Al-Nasr hospital, which medical staff had been forced to abandon.

The truce has allowed those displaced to return to their homes, but for many there is little left.

“I discovered that my house had been completely destroyed — 27 years of my life to build it and everything is gone,” said Taghrid Al-Najjar, 46, after returning to her home in southeastern Gaza.

The violence in Gaza has also raised tensions in the West Bank, where nearly 240 Palestinians have been killed by either Israeli soldiers or settlers since October 7, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

An eight-year-old boy and a teenager were the latest deaths in the occupied territory, with Israel saying it “responded with live fire... and hits were identified” after suspects hurled explosive devices toward troops.

ECOWAS set to rule on complaint over Niger's deposed president detention

ABUJA, Nigeria

The ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) is set to issue a decision on a complaint submitted by lawyers of former Nigerien president Mohamed Bazoum over his ouster in a July coup. 

Since his toppling, Bazoum has been held at his residence in the heart of the presidential palace in the Niamey, Niger's capital.

The complaint with the ECOWAS Court of Justice by Bazoom's lawyers centers on what they called "sequestration and arbitrary detention". The court's decision is expected on Thursday November 30.

On November 1, the public prosecutor at the Niamey Court of Appeal confirmed that there had been an escape attempt by President Mohamed Bazoum on October 18. But gave no details.

The ECOWAS Court of Justice had on November 21 examined Niger's complaint against the regional organization, which imposed sanctions following the coup d'état.

“There is no sector of the Nigerien society that has not been affected by these sanctions according to Younkaila Yaye, one of the government’s lawyers

The government asked the court to relax the sanctions pending the final judgement. But ECOWAS protested against their request.

Mohamed Bazoum is the fifth Nigerien president to be overthrown by a putsch since the country gained independence from France in 1960.

The first president, Hamani Diori, overthrown in 1974, was imprisoned and then placed under house arrest for several years before being released in 1987.

Sudanese army announces ground campaign to 'eliminate' paramilitary forces

KHARTOUM, Sudan

The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) on Tuesday announced the beginning of a ground campaign to march on the Sudanese capital to "eliminate" the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

"The army has begun a campaign. All the (military) areas are ready, and we will march in all directions," Yasir Al-Atta, the SAF's assistant commander-in-chief, addressed soldiers and officers of Omdurman Military Area.

Al-Atta commended the efforts and support of the Sudanese people for the armed forces to preserve the entity of Sudan and defeat the RSF, accusing some regional and international countries and organizations of supporting the RSF.

A senior Sudanese army officer was quoted on Tuesday by Sudan's Al-Sudani newspaper website as saying that "the SAF has inflicted heavy losses of lives and equipment."

Drones and heavy artillery strikes were launched on Tuesday in Bahri, Omdurman and Khartoum, destroying 35 RSF positions, while the army's special forces conducted qualitative operations on the militia pockets in the Jabra neighborhood of Khartoum and Omdurman, the officer said.

Meanwhile, video clips posted on social media on Tuesday showed heavy columns of smoke rising in the neighborhoods of eastern Khartoum due to continued battles between the SAF and RSF in Khartoum.

Sudan has been witnessing deadly clashes between the SAF and the RSF in Khartoum and other areas since April 15, which have killed up to 9,000 people by October, forced more than 6 million displaced within and outside Sudan, and left 25 million in need of aid, according to the latest Sudan situation report issued on November 12 by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

ICC prosecutors halt 13-year Kenya investigation that failed to produce any convictions

THE HAGUE, Netherlands

The International Criminal Court prosecutor’s office announced Monday it is halting its long-running investigation into deadly violence that broke out in Kenya after the African nation’s 2007 presidential election.

The decision was announced at a time when the prosecutor’s office is appealing for extra resources as it investigates ongoing conflicts including the war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war.

The Kenya investigation that opened in 2010 led to charges against six suspects, including the country’s current and former presidents, but ultimately did not yield any successful prosecutions, amid claims of witness intimidation and political interference. All charges against the suspects were either withdrawn, terminated or tossed out by pre-trial judges.

Among the suspects charged but never convicted were then-President Uhuru Kenyatta and then-Deputy President William Ruto.

Prosecutors also have charged three Kenyans with interfering with witnesses. One of those suspects died and two others remain at large. They could still be put on trial at the ICC if they are captured and sent to The Hague.

Post-election violence in 2007 and 2008 left more than 1,000 people dead and forced 600,000 from their homes in Kenya.

“After assessing all the information available to me at this time, I have decided to conclude the investigation phase,” ICC Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan said in a statement.

The court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, was previously Ruto’s defense lawyer at the ICC and recused himself from all Kenya investigations in 2021. Ruto’s trial was halted after prosecutors finished presenting their case and Khan successfully argued that the evidence was not strong enough.

13 Sierra Leone military officers arrest for staging a coup - Minister

ABUJA, Nigeria

Attacks on Sierra Leone’s main military barracks and prisons were a failed coup attempt and have resulted in the arrest of 13 military officers, the government’s spokesman said Tuesday.

The attackers attempted to “overthrow the elected government of Sierra Leone,” Information Minister Chernor Bah said at a briefing to reporters about the early morning attacks that took security forces and residents by surprise in the usually peaceful capital city of Freetown on Sunday.

“Thirteen military officers are currently in custody and one other civilian … in this incident we are now calling a failed coup,” Bah said.

Coming months after Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio was reelected for a second term in a disputed vote in June, a coup attempt in the West African nation further raises political tensions in West and Central Africa. 

Coups have surged in the region, with eight military takeovers since 2020, including in Niger and Gabon this year.

Residents in Freetown were awoken by sounds of heavy gunfire Sunday as gunmen broke into the key armory in the country’s largest military barracks, located near the presidential villa in a heavily guarded part of the city.

The attackers – in their dozens – also targeted two prisons in the city, including the central prison where most of the more than 2,000 inmates were freed, according to Col. Sulaiman Massaquoi, acting head of the Sierra Leone Correctional Service.

A civilian was also arrested in connection with the attack and more than 100 of the freed inmates have reported back at the prisons amid a manhunt for fleeing suspects, the information minister said.

Gunshots were heard in the capital on Tuesday as security forces tried to arrest one of the fleeing suspects. “The person of interest has been arrested and is now in custody of the security forces,” the information ministry said in a statement.

Many of the attackers were either hiding or still on the run across the country, the Chief of Defense Staff Lt. Gen. Peter Lavahun told the briefing.

He said the armory had no closed-circuit television (CCTV) but that officials were checking to confirm the number of weapons seized. “We were able to recover two vehicles containing arms and ammunition that were carted away,” said Lavahun.

Many in Freetown and across the country remained indoors on Tuesday, more than a day after the government relaxed a 24-hour curfew to a night lockdown.

There have been political tensions in Sierra Leone since Bio’s reelection in a vote that the opposition has said was rigged in his favor. Two months after he was reelected, police said they arrested several people, including senior military officers planning to use protests “to undermine peace.”

Neighboring Guinea remains politically unstable after a coup in 2021. Sierra Leone itself is still healing from a 11-year civil war that ended more than two decades ago. Its population of 8 million people is among the poorest in the world.

West Africa’s regional economic bloc of ECOWAS — of which Sierra Leone is a member —- condemned the attacks and sent a delegation to “extend their support and solidarity” to the country’s president.

Sudan government condemns UAE for arming RSF

KHARTOUM, Sudan

Yasser Al-Atta, a member of the Sudanese Sovereign Council and Assistant Commander-in-Chief of the Sudanese Army, has sharply criticized the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for providing military supplies to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a militia group that has been embroiled in a conflict with the Sudanese army for over seven months.

Al-Atta’s statement, which is the first official confirmation of UAE involvement in the Sudanese conflict, comes amid mounting allegations from Western media and Sudanese political and civil groups that the UAE is backing the RSF and providing them with weapons and military equipment.

Addressing a military gathering at the Wadi Saydna military base north of Omdurman, Al-Atta said, “Information obtained by the General Intelligence Service and the military and foreign diplomatic intelligence indicates that the UAE has been transporting military supplies to the Janjaweed militia via Entebbe Airport in Uganda and Central Africa, before the start of the dismantling of the Russian Wagner Group, in addition to Am Jars Airport in Chad.”

He further alleged that the UAE’s efforts to supply the Janjaweed have been hampered by influential figures within the Chadian government, stating, “We respect the Chadian people. They are a brotherly people with whom we have ties of blood, religion, and language, but within them are some mercenary agents and traitors to the African peoples, and they are agents of modern colonialism.”

Al-Atta went on to criticize the UAE for its involvement in the conflict, saying, “I know a terrorist and criminal organization, but a state that is a mafia is the first time I hear of it… The Emirates is a state that loves ruin and follows in the footsteps of evil, even though its people are brotherly and its founding leader, Sheikh Zayed, was at this time known for goodness and giving, but the successor is behind evil.”

He warned the countries that support the RSF to prepare for repercussions, stating, “We remind them of the experience of the Sudanese intelligence services in fighting back against the enemy.”

Al-Atta also declared the army’s readiness to take action against the RSF, stating, “The high command has prepared plans, that all areas are ready, and the capabilities are available, and we will march in all directions.”

Earlier on Monday, Al-Atta had left the headquarters of the Corps of Engineers in central Omdurman after having been there since the start of the war with the RSF on April 15. The RSF say they have imposed a siege on the Corps of Engineers headquarters and seek to seize it.

Kenya High Court quashes housing levy

NAIROBI, Kenya

Kenyans will continue paying the Housing Levy albeit for the next one month, after the High Court suspended an earlier judgement that found the law unconstitutional until January to allow the government to move to the Court of Appeal.

The court suspended their judgment until January 10, 2024 after the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), attorney general and Speaker of the National Assembly Moses Wetang’ula pleaded with the judges to grant them a stay, for at least 45 days.

“We have no doubt this court has jurisdiction to grant orders of stay pending appeal even after declaring a certain decision unconstitutional,” Justice David Majanja said in a short ruling.

Justices Majanja, Christine Meoli and Lawrence Mugambi ruled that they were of the view that they do not have the last word on the matters at hand.

“The respondents are also entitled to exercise the right of appeal, to the court of appeal and even the Supreme Court. We are inclined to grant the stay for a temporary period, pending the filing of the formal application at the Court of Appeal,” Justices Majanja said.

In the earlier decision, the three-judge bench dealt a blow to President William Ruto’s housing programme after declaring the Housing Levy unconstitutional for being discriminatory and creating unequal principles.

The judges ruled that Section 84 of the Finance Act, which amends the Employment Act to introduce the Housing Levy violates the principles of taxation for making distinction between formal and informal sectors, thus creating unequal and inequitable principles.

The court added that the enactment of laws must be supported with a rational explanation but in the case of the Housing Levy, the government failed to provide an explanation for the imposition of the levy or a legal framework to anchor the fees.

All employees, whether on permanent and pensionable terms or contract-based engagements, started contributing to the Affordable Housing Fund since July 2023, when the act came into force. 

“An order is granted prohibiting the respondent from collecting or charging or otherwise charging on Affordable Housing Act based on section 84 of the Finance Act and all prayers on the consolidated petition not specifically granted,” Judge Majanja who read the ruling said.

The court, at same time, said the Finance Act, 2023 is a Money Bill and the argument that the concurrence of both Speakers of the National Assembly and Senate was required before the law was enacted, does not stand.

Although the judges found that there were anomalies in the passage of some sections contained in the Finance Act, they were not serious to negate the law. 

In the process, the judges upheld the 16 per cent VAT on insurance premiums, the digital asset tax, and the tax on betting, saying they were constitutional and within the mandate of the Parliament. 

Justices Majanja, Meoli and Mugambi said it was wrong to argue that amendment of section 2 of the Finance Act on Income Tax Act, which imposes taxes on entertainment, interferes with the function of the county governments.

According to the court, the amendment does not affect the functions of the county governments as argued by Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah and other petitioners in the case.

Senator Omtatah had argued that both speakers should have considered whether the Bill concerned counties and if so, whether it was a special or ordinary bill and resolve the questions before the Finance Bill was enacted.

The judges ruled that looking at the evidence presented before them, the public participation conducted by the National Assembly was sufficient.

In early August, the government backdated the Housing Levy deductions to July 1, 2023, and appointed the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) as the collection agent.

That was after the Court of Appeal overturned an order suspending the implementation of the Finance Act 2023 after Treasury Cabinet Secretary Prof Njuguna Ndung'u argued that the government was losing billions of shillings as a result of the freeze.

In a statement on August 2, 2023, the State Department for Housing and Urban Development said the levy would be payable by the employee and the employer at the rate of 1.5 per cent of the employee's gross monthly salary as outlined in the Finance Act 2023.

Madagascar detains two colonels over election mutiny

ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar

Two colonels in Madagascar's army have been charged and detained on suspicion of attempting to "contest" the presidential election and "destabilise the government" ahead of the recent poll, which was held in a tense atmosphere, the prosecutor's office and the gendarmerie said on Tuesday.

"Two Madagascan army colonels tried to bribe battalion commanders in the city of Antananarivo with the aim of inciting them to mutiny", Tahina Ravelomanana, head of the gendarmerie's criminal section, told our correspondent.

They acted "with a view to contesting the election and destabilizing the government", he said.

In the weeks leading up to the first round of the election on 16 November, the two high-ranking officers offered the equivalent of nearly 25,000 euros to several army officials to incite soldiers to cause unrest.

These officials refused the bribe and reported the two men to the general staff, who lodged a complaint.

The two men were charged with "threatening state security", said Antananarivo prosecutor Narindra Rakotoniaina. "They were taken into custody on Monday and detained until their hearing on 16 January".

The incumbent president, Andry Rajoelina, was declared the winner of the first round of the presidential election by the electoral commission on Saturday.

The electoral process took place against a backdrop of high tension between the incumbent's camp and a group of around ten opposition candidates, who organised regular demonstrations in the capital for several weeks prior to the poll. 

Calling on voters not to go to the polls, they denounced government manoeuvres aimed at securing a second term for Mr Rajoelina. The opposition reported irregularities during the vote and said it did not recognise the results.

Two appeals to have the election annulled have been lodged with the High Constitutional Court, the country's highest court, which is responsible for announcing the final results by 4 December at the latest. Elected in 2018, Andry Rajoelina first came to power in 2009 following a mutiny that ousted former president Marc Ravalomanana. 

Since its independence from France in 1960, elections on the large Indian Ocean island have rarely been concluded without being accompanied by disputes or a crisis.

All 41 workers rescued from collapsed tunnel in India after 17-day ordeal

SILKYARA TUNNEL, India

Cheers greeted a group of 41 workers as they were successfully removed from a collapsed tunnel under the Himalayas on Tuesday, the climax of a 17-day rescue operation to drill through rock and debris.

It took weeks to bore an escape route for the workers through the mountain, with the last two meters drilled by hand, before the rescued men eventually emerged.

Video footage from the scene showed Pushkar Singh Dhami, chief minister of Uttarakhand state meeting the workers, who appeared to be in good health, as they emerged from the tunnel amid jubilant scenes.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the successful rescue “is making everyone emotional,” in a statement on X.

“I want to tell the men who were trapped in the tunnel that your bravery and patience are inspiring everyone,” he wrote.

“I also salute the spirit of all the people associated with this rescue operation. Their bravery and determination have granted a new life to our labourer brothers. Everyone involved in this mission has set an amazing example of humanity and teamwork,” added Modi.

The men had been trapped since November 12 when the part of tunnel they were helping to construct in India’s northern Uttarakhand state gave way, blocking their only exit with more than 60 meters of broken rock, concrete and twisted metal.

The first workers were removed following a series of agonizing setbacks, during which rescue efforts were halted when the heavy machinery used to drill through the debris broke down, forcing workers to partially dig by hand and adopt other riskier methods to bring them to safety.

Engineers had previously attempted to excavate the debris in the exit shaft using heavy machinery, but were forced to abandon efforts late on Friday after the powerful US-made drill they were using broke down just meters from the trapped men.

Rescuers were also simultaneously drilling downward through the unstable mountain terrain as a backup way to reach the trapped men. But in the end the initial plan proved successful.

With the drilling completed, rescuers then pushed a large pipe through the last part of the exit shaft for the men to be brought to safety.

The laborers – all migrant workers from some of India’s poorest states – have been receiving food, water and oxygen through a 53-meter pipe that has been inserted through the debris and authorities say they remain in good health.

Doctors on site have kept in regular contact with the men inside, giving them tips on how to remain positive and calm. Their families have been gathering at the tunnel exit each day to pray for their safe return.

The tunnel is part of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Char Dham Highway route, a controversial multimillion dollar project to upgrade the country’s transport network and improve connectivity to important Hindu pilgrimage sites in the region.

Thirteen soldiers killed in Sierra Leone violence

By Wedaeli Chibelushi, FREETOWN Sierra Leone

Thirteen soldiers were among the 19 killed during Sunday's violence in Sierra Leone, which saw gunmen attacking a military barracks and prisons, an army spokesman has said.

Sierra Leoneans spent Sunday under a nationwide curfew amid disarray in capital, Freetown.

The information minister described the attacks as "co-ordinated and planned".

Our reporter saw armed men on the streets chanting that they would "clean" Sierra Leone.

As well as the 13 soldiers, one police officer, one civilian and a private security employee were also killed along with three of the attackers, Army spokesman Col Issa Bangura said.

Eight soldiers were also wounded in action.

In the attack on one of the prisons, some 1,890 inmates escaped, the Reuters news agency said, citing a situation report.

The violence was a "very serious breach", Information Minister Chernoh Bah said on Monday morning, after the curfew had been lifted.

"These were co-ordinated and properly planned attacks on the security and wellbeing of our state."

Bah said current and former military officials were among those involved, some of whom have been detained by security forces.

Gunmen, witnessed by our reporter in Freetown on Sunday, wore military uniforms and balaclavas.

Addressing suggestions that there had been an attempted coup, Mr Bah said: "We have apprehended some of the major leaders of yesterday's attack and they are currently being interrogated by our security forces.

"Once they can ascertain the full intent of their actions... we will make a declaration on whether it was an attempted coup."

Several countries in West and Central Africa are under military rule after a series of recent coups. These include Sierra Leone's neighbour Guinea as well as Mali, Niger and Chad.

Our correspondent says he understands that the gunmen intended to storm the presidential residence on Sunday morning. However, they moved on after failing to take control a nearby armoury and overcome President Julius Maada Bio's security.

A former President, Ernest Koroma, also came close to Sunday's violence.

A military source on Sunday told the BBC that one of Mr Koroma's guards had been detained - hours later the former leader announced that a guard of his had been killed and another abducted.

In a statement, Mr Koroma said he "strongly condemned" the violence, in which "Corporal Eddie Conteh was reportedly shot at point blank range while his colleague, Warrant Officer John Swarray was whisked away to an unknown location".

The information minister echoed President Bio in insisting order has been restored in the capital. The sound of gunshots had drastically decreased overnight and the atmosphere was calmer, witnesses said.

However, Mr Bah said a "manhunt" for gunmen and the escaped prisoners is ongoing.

In a televised address on Sunday evening, the president described the events as a "breach of security" and an attack on democracy.

A new nine-hour night-time curfew will begin at 21:00 local time (21:00 GMT) on Monday, the information ministry says.

As daily life began to resume in Freetown, one passer-by said: "Yesterday was like hell on earth for some of us that reside beside the central prison or close to the state house.

"We are happy that from the government's side, they have put everything under control for now."

Another complained: "We don't want to see this type of thing in this country because we have day-to-day activities… I have my family. This is too much. Every five or six months we get this."

The political situation in Sierra Leone has remained tense since June, when President Bio was re-elected - narrowly missing out on the need to have a run-off.

International observers have condemned inconsistencies and a lack of transparency in the count, as well as acts of violence and intimidation.

In August, a number of soldiers were arrested and accused of plotting a coup against the president.

The US, European Union, UK and regional bloc Ecowas released statements strongly condemning Sunday's violence.

On Monday afternoon, Sierra Leone's information ministry said a delegation from Ecowas and Nigeria was set to arrive in Freetown for a meeting with the foreign minister.