Corpses pile up after nearly 200 killed in Congo floods

By Crispin Kyala, BUSHUSHU Democratic Republic of Congo

At least 176 people have died in flash floods in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a regional governor said on Friday, as heavy rain destroyed buildings and forced aid workers to gather mud-clad corpses into piles.

The rainfall in Kalehe territory in South Kivu province caused rivers to overflow on Thursday, inundating the villages of Bushushu and Nyamukubi.

South Kivu governor Théo Ngwabidje Kasi put the death toll at 176 and said that others were still missing. A local civil society member, Kasole Martin, said 227 bodies had been found.

"People are sleeping out in the open, schools and hospitals have been swept away," Martin said.

On Friday, haggard-looking survivors stood outside a wooden shed in which Red Cross workers in blue scrubs placed bodies on top of each other. Many had lost clothing and were covered in dirt. A Reuters reporter counted 72 corpses.

The corrugated iron roofs of flattened houses jutted out from beneath thick layers of mud, photos showed.

A doctor in Kalehe territory's main hospital, Robert Masamba, said injured survivors had been streaming in since Thursday evening.

"My team and I have not slept. We have received 56 patients, 80% of which have fractures," he said.

Floods and landslides are not uncommon in South Kivu, which shares a border with Rwanda. Heavy rains also triggered flooding and landslides in Rwanda this week, killing 130 people and destroying more than 5,000 homes.

The last incident of a similar scale in Congo occurred in October 2014, when heavy rainfall destroyed over 700 homes. More than 130 people were reported missing at the time, according to the United Nations.

Britain's King Charles III has been crowned

LONDON, UK

Britain's King Charles III has been crowned in a once-in-a-generation royal event that is being witnessed by hundreds of high-profile guests inside Westminster Abbey, as well as tens of thousands of well-wishers who have gathered in central London despite the rain.

The intricate coronation service followed a traditional template that has stayed much the same for more than 1,000 years.

The King took the Coronation Oath and became the first monarch to pray aloud at his coronation. In his prayer he asked to "be a blessing" to people "of every faith and conviction."

He was anointed with holy oil by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the spiritual leader of the Anglican Church who is leading the ceremony. The anointment, considered the most sacred part of the ceremony, took place behind a screen.

The King was presented with the coronation regalia, including the royal Robe and Stole, in what is known as the investiture part of the service.

He was then crowned with the 360-year-old St. Edward's Crown, the most significant part of the coronation ceremony. After crowning the King, Welby declared: "God Save the King."

Wearing the crown, the King was seated on the throne, after which the Archbishop of Canterbury invited the British public, as well as those from "other Realms," for the first time, to recite a pledge of allegiance to the new monarch and his "heirs and successors."

Ahead of the event, some parts of the British media and public interpreted the invitation as a command, reporting that people had been "asked" and "called" to swear allegiance to the King. In the face of such criticism, the Church of England revised the text of the liturgy so that members of the public would be given a choice between saying simply "God save King Charles" or reciting the full pledge of allegiance.

Once the King was crowned, his wife, Queen Camilla, was crowned in her own, shorter ceremony with Queen Mary's Crown -- marking the first time in recent history that a new crown wasn't made specifically for this occasion -- and presented with the Sceptre and Rod.

While Charles became King on the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II in September last year, the coronation is the formal crowning of the monarch and is a profoundly religious affair, reflecting the fact that aside from being head of state of the United Kingdom and 14 other countries, Charles is also the Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

However, it has been modernized in certain key ways. The archbishop acknowledged the multiple faiths observed in the UK during the ceremony, saying the Church of England "will seek to foster an environment in which people of all faiths may live freely."

Iran executes Swedish-Iranian for alleged terrorism

TEHRAN, Iran

Iran has executed a Swedish-Iranian man accused of being behind a deadly 2018 attack on a military parade.

Habib Chaab was a founder of a separatist group calling for independence for ethnic Arabs in Iran's south-western Khuzestan province.

He had been living in exile in Sweden for a decade when he was abducted by Iranian agents in Turkey in 2020.

Sweden's Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said his government had urged Iran not to execute Chaab.

"The death penalty is an inhuman and irreversible punishment and Sweden, together with the rest of the EU, condemns its application under all circumstances," he said.

Iran's judiciary accused Chaab of leading Harakat al-Nidal, or the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz, which Iran says is a terrorist group behind attacks in the south-west of the country.

The oil-rich province has a large Arab minority which has long complained of marginalisation and discrimination, which Tehran denies.

The 2018 attack on a military parade in the city of Ahvaz saw gunmen open fire at Revolutionary Guard troops, killing 25 people including soldiers and civilians watching the parade.

Chaab was reportedly lured to Istanbul to meet a woman before being kidnapped and smuggled into Iran in an operation said to have been orchestrated by a notorious Turkey-based Iranian crime boss.

Iranian officials have not provided details of how Chaab was arrested. Once inside Iran, state TV showed him appearing to admit involvement in the 2018 attack. He was convicted of being "corrupt on earth", a capital offence.

Prosecutors said Chaab had been involved in attacks since 2005 "under the protection of two spy services, including the Mossad and Sapo", which are Israel and Sweden's spy agencies.

They alleged that other leaders of the group were based in Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden and the group received financial and logistical support from Saudi Arabia.

Earlier this year regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to restore diplomatic relations, seven years after severing them in a bitter row.

Iran has arrested dozens of Iranians with dual nationality or foreign permanent residency in recent years, mostly on spying and national security charges.

Its judiciary says two other dual-nationals have been sentenced to death or executed on security chares so far this year.

In January Iran executed British-Iranian man Alireza Akbari, 61, after he was convicted of spying for the UK, which he denied.

In an audio message to BBC Persian he said he had been tortured and forced to confess on camera to crimes he did not commit.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said his execution was a "callous and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime".

In April Iran's Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd, 67, for alleged involvement in a deadly mosque bombing in 2008, which he denies.

Rights group Amnesty International said his trial had been "grossly unfair" and he had been tortured.

The country executes more people each year than any other country except China, according to rights groups. - BBC

Sudan envoys begin talks amid pressure to end conflict

ASWAN, Egypt 

Sudan’s warring sides were beginning talks Saturday that aim to firm up a shaky cease-fire after three weeks of fierce fighting that has killed hundreds and pushed the African country to the brink of collapse, the United States and Saudi Arabia said.

The negotiations, the first between the Sudanese military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, since the fighting broke out on April 15, were taking place in Saudi Arabia’s coastal city of Jeddah, on the Red Sea, according to a joint Saudi-American statement.

The talks are part of a diplomatic initiative proposed by the kingdom and the U.S. that aims to stop the fighting, which has turned Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, and other urban areas into battlefields and pushed hundreds of thousands from their homes.

In their joint statement, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. urged both parties to “actively engage in the talks towards a cease-fire and end to the conflict, which will spare the Sudanese people’s suffering.”

The statement did not offer a timeframe for the talks, which come after concerted efforts by Riyadh and other international powers to pressure the warring sides in Sudan to the negotiating table.

Since a 2021 coup that upended Sudan’s transition to democracy, Saudi Arabia has been active in mediating between the ruling generals and a pro-democracy movement. And after Sudan’s top two generals — commanders of the military and the paramilitary — turned on each other in April and the latest fighting broke out, Jeddah became a hub for those evacuated by sea from Sudan’s main sea port of Port Sudan.

Officials from the military and the RSF said the talks would address the opening of humanitarian corridors in Khartoum and the adjacent city of Omdurman, which have been the centers of the battles.

They would also discuss providing protection to civilian infrastructure, including health facilities that have been overwhelmed and suffer from dire shortages of both staff and medical supplies, one military official said.

An RSF official they would also discuss a mechanism to monitor the cease-fire, which is one of a series of truces that failed to stop the fighting.

Meanwhile, Sudan’s pro-democracy movement said the Jeddah talks would be “a first step” to stop the country’s collapse and called on leaders of the military and the RSF to make a “bold decision” to end the conflict.

The movement, which is a coalition of political parties and civil society groups, had negotiated with the military for months to restore the country’s democratic transition after a 2021 military coup led by army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, who also chairs the ruling sovereign council, and his deputy in the council Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo.

On Saturday, Dagalo tweeted his first comment on the Jeddah talks, welcoming the initiative to establish a firm cease-fire and open humanitarian corridors. “We remain hopeful that the discussions will achieve their intended goals,” he said.

At least 550 people were killed, including civilians, and more than 4,900 were wounded as of Monday, according to the Sudanese Health Ministry. The Sudanese Doctors’ Syndicate, which tracks only civilian casualties, said Friday that 473 civilians have been killed in the violence and more than 2,450 have been wounded.

The fighting capped months of tensions between Burhan and Dagalo. It plunged the country into further chaos and forced foreign governments to evacuate their diplomats and thousands of foreign nationals out of Sudan. Hundreds of thousands of Sudanese were displaced inside Sudan or crossed into neighboring countries as the fighting dragged on in urban areas.

The U.N. refugee agency estimated that the number of Sudanese fleeing to neighboring countries would reach 860,000, and that aid agencies would need $445 million to assist them.

WHO declares end to Covid global health emergency

GENEVA, Switzerland

The World Health Organization ended the Covid-19 global health emergency on Friday, saying it was time for countries to transition from treating Covid as an emergency to dealing with it as a disease that is here to stay.

The decision was made on the advice of a panel of independent experts, the so-called Covid-19 emergency committee, which met Thursday. Though a couple of members of the committee were reportedly hesitant about the move, the majority agreed Covid no longer meets the criteria of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

"It’s … with great hope that I declare Covid-19 over as a global health emergency,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a news conference in Geneva. “However, that does not mean Covid-19 is over as a global health threat.”

The Covid-19 PHEIC has been in effect since Jan. 30, 2020. Since the start of the pandemic, the WHO estimates that at least 20 million people around the world have died from the new disease, though the official death toll is about 7 million.

"Covid has changed our world and it has changed us,” Tedros said. “If we all go back to how things were before Covid-19, we will have failed to learn our lessons and we will have failed future generations.”

Tedros and other WHO officials emphasized that while they were ending the PHEIC, the pandemic is not over. The WHO does not declare the start of a pandemic and it will not declare an end to it either. Still, a Covid-weary world will likely interpret this announcement that way.

"The emergency phase of this global crisis that we’ve all been facing for three-and-a-half years is over, but Covid is here to stay,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s Covid technical lead.

A PHEIC is a tool created within the International Health Regulations to help the WHO respond to disease events with the potential for global spread. When a PHEIC is in place, the WHO director-general can make special recommendations, mainly aimed at discouraging countries from closing borders or restricting trade — actions that could deter countries from alerting the WHO if they are dealing with dangerous disease outbreaks.

Didier Houssin, the chair of the emergency committee, said the decision to recommend an end to the PHEIC was in part due to the belief that the tool was not adapted to disease events that are sub-acute or chronic. 

Houssin acknowledged that there remains a risk that a more pathogenic variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus may emerge, and that a new PHEIC might need to be declared.The WHO’s declaration comes days before the U.S. public health emergency will expire, on May 11.

Tedros noted that the emergency committee also recommended that WHO use a tool of the IHR that has not previously been deployed — that he set up a review committee to advise WHO on the creation of recommendations for countries on the long-term management of Covid. The director-general said he accepted that advice.

These recommendations would build on an updated Covid management plan for the period from 2023 to 2025 that WHO issued earlier this week.

Tedros and members of his senior staff urged governments not to let down their guards but to work to improve the problems in health systems and response operations that the pandemic exposed.

"The battle is not over,” warned Mike Ryan, who heads WHO’s health emergencies program. “We still have weaknesses. And those weaknesses we still have in our system will be exposed by this virus or another virus. And they need to be fixed.”

More than 100 killed in Congo flooding

KINSHASA, DR Congo

Estimate after overseeing recovery efforts in the affected territory of Kalehe, calling the scale of destruction “enormous, beyond words ... whole houses were carried away.” He said bodies were still being collected from the shores of the nearby Lake Kivu.

Two rivers broke their banks after the heavy rains which began on Thursday evening and there have been multiple landslides with scores of homes destroyed, according to Delphin Birimbi, a community leader in the region.

As bodies were pulled from the mud, some residents estimated that more than 75% of homes in the village of Nyamukubi have been carried away by the floods, along with school buildings and a health center.

Official Thomas Bakenge called for immediate assistance, saying “there is absolutely nothing left here. We urgently need help.”

Rescuers worked to find and save anyone who may be trapped under the rubble of their homes.

In a statement published Friday, the provincial government of South Kivu offered its sympathies to the families affected and said it was sending a delegation to the scene.

Heavy rains have brought misery to thousands in East Africa, with parts of Uganda and Kenya also seeing heavy rainfall.

Flooding and landslides in Rwanda, which borders Congo, left 129 people dead earlier this week.

King Charles' III coronation divides Africans

NAIROBI, Kenya

The next English monarch is to be crowned Saturday during a ceremony where soldiers from countries of the commonwealth will be marching alongside British troops in honor of the king.

For some, its an affirmation of the lasting friendship that binds Britain and its former colonies, But for most, news of the ceremony is met with apathy at best and hostility at worst.  

This is also the first time in British history that religious leaders representing all faiths will play an active role in the ceremony.

For some, its an affirmation of the lasting friendship that binds Britain and its former colonies, But for most, news of the ceremony is met with apathy at best and hostility at worst as ghosts of the Empire’s murderous colonial past lingers centuries later :

"We all want to know what is going to happen but it is a great occasion, I will be watching. Most of my friends and colleagues will all be watching," shares Keith Taylor, Kenyan of British origin.

"I won't be interested in watching the news or whatever is happening over there because we have been mistreated back then by those colonisers. We were being mistreated. So there is no need of me watching the coronation of the king plus I will be here, hustling," argues Grahmat Luvisia, a Kenyan motorcycle taxi driver.

In Kenya, the colonial legacy of Britain means the event is mostly being met with indifference, as Britain and the monarchy are far from the hearts and minds of most Kenyans.

"One would expect Kenyans to be excited because of our long-shared history. Sadly, it is that history that makes Kenyans disinterested. Actually not happy with the British because of the torture during colonialism, because of the oppression because of detentions, because of killings, because of the alienation of our land, and for that reason Kenyans will be busy looking for what to put in their stomach," analyses Professor Herman Manyora PhD School of Journalism and Communication Studies at the University of Nairobi.

In South Africa, the government has asked for the monarchy to return the star of Africa, the world’s largest diamond that has adorned the royal scepter for over a century, yet another painful reminder of the empire’s looting and oppression.

President Biden authorises sanctions against Sudan

WASHINGTON, US

US President, Joe Biden has issued an executive order permitting sanctions against Sudan, with the aim of bringing an end to the fighting.

Mr Biden described the violence as a tragedy and a disloyalty to the Sudanese people.

He stated that the unrest in Sudan posed an "extraordinary and exceptional threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States".

The conflict in Sudan is likely to be prolonged, according to the director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, who told a US Senate committee that both sides believed they could win militarily and had limited incentives to engage in negotiations.

Despite the most recent ceasefire, there has been continuous heavy fighting in the capital, Khartoum, as well as in the adjacent cities of Omdurman and Bahri.

Since the outbreak of fighting last month, the World Food Programme has estimated that over $13 million (£10.3 million) worth of food aid that was intended for Sudan has been looted.

The WFP has reported that looting in the country is rampant.

The UN children's agency, Unicef, has cautioned that the situation is on the brink of catastrophe, with children increasingly becoming victims of the conflict. - Africa

Nigeria Military to ensure Tinubu is sworn in as President before court ruling

ABUJA, Nigeria

The Nigerian military says it has not seen any reasons why ‘President-elect’, Bola Tinubu of the All-Progressives Congress should not be sworn in on May 29, as the next president of the country.

It warned those planning to scuttle his inauguration against doing so, saying would forestall any threat. The Nigerian military says it has not seen any reasons why ‘President-elect’, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress should not be sworn in on May 29, as the next president of the country.

SaharaReporters had reported that the Emeritus Archbishop of Abuja Catholic Archdiocese, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, on Thursday, stated that it makes no sense to swear in Tinubu as the president before the conclusion of the hearing of the presidential Election Petition Tribunal.

The presidential candidates of the Labour Party, Peter Obi and Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, are challenging the declaration of Bola Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential elections.

But Cardinal Onaiyekan while featuring on a Channels TV programme on Thursday, described the status of the election process as "anomalous", insisting that he was still waiting for the court to declare the winner of the election.

However, addressing journalists in Abuja, the Director, Defence Media Operation, Maj.-Gen. Musa Danmadami, said the presidential election had come and gone, and a winner had been announced.

Danmadami stated, “As far as internal security is concerned, the police still remain the lead agency. The Armed Forces and other security operatives are only playing a supportive role. I’ll reiterate that we’re on standby to make sure that nothing unwanted happens.

“The issue of threat to the security and stability of the country is addressed promptly. Elections have come and gone. For the presidential election, a winner has been announced.

“There is a transition committee in place comprising all members of the security agencies, ministries and agencies of government to make sure the event is held successfully and without a glitch.

“We don’t see reasons why there should be a problem during the activity. The inauguration will come and go and nothing will happen.”

“We are not going to relent at ensuring there is peace and stability across the length and breadth of the country,” he added.

Protesters in Port Sudan call to expel UN envoy

KHARTOUM, Sudan

A group of demonstrators largely made up of former regime supporters held a protest in the Red Sea capital calling for UN envoy Volker Perthes to leave Sudan, before storming his office.

Perthes has been operating from Port Sudan since the eruption of armed conflict in Khartoum between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces on April 15, 2023.

The demonstration began at the Alumni Club and ended at the Coral Hotel, where the UN envoy’s headquarters is located. Protesters chanted slogans against the UN’s involvement in Sudanese affairs and demanded the envoy’s departure.

Eyewitnesses told Sudan Tribune that the majority of protesters were affiliated with the former regime, while others belonged to the tribal body of the Supreme Council of Beja Chiefdoms and independent groups.

Sources also reported the involvement of “remnants” of the former regime in the Red Sea State, who had previously organized several protests in Khartoum after the October 25, 2021 coup against the UN envoy.

Sayed Abu Amna, the spokesperson for the Beja tribal body, has refuted any connection between the council and the group that stormed the residence of the UN envoy in Port Sudan.

“The Supreme Council is a peaceful civilian organization that does not condone violent means and respects the United Nations and its institutions and missions,” Abu Amna added.

He pointed out that their objection to Volker’s presence in the region was due to his exclusion of the region’s representative in the political process, which was limited to “a few fictitious individuals and entities” that do not represent the diverse peoples of Sudan.

The UN envoy is part of a facilitation panel that includes the IGAD and the African Union. The role of the Trilateral Mechanism is limited to facilitating the political process, which is led and run by Sudanese parties.

Mohamed Terik, the head of the Beja Chiedoms Council, is a member of the People of Sudan Initiative, a pro-Islamist coalition that held several demonstrations outside the UNITAMS headquarters in Khartoum.

Terik, who calls for the cancellation of the Juba peace agreement for Eastern Sudan, is also a member of the Democratic Bloc, which gathers two peace signatories from the Darfur region and the Democratic Unionist Party led by Gaffar al-Mirghani.

 

Call for Russia to use 'Squadron of Eagles' to protect Kremlin

MOSCOW, Russia

As the fallout from Wednesday morning's apparent drone strike on the Kremlin continued to dominate the Russian news cycle, the deputy chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee made an unusual call for a "squadron of eagle interceptors" to be created to help defend Moscow from future drone strikes.

"We need to think about protecting our important infrastructure to the point of forming a squadron of drone interceptor eagles in the Kremlin and other places," Alexei Zhuravlev told Russian news agency RIA Novosti on Thursday, apparently in full seriousness.

Following his call, military expert and pro-war pundit Vladislav Shurygin posted a video to his Telegram channel showing an eagle successfully intercepting a drone in mid-flight.

Zhuravlev also called for a Russian strike on the headquarters of the Ukrainian intelligence services and the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in response to the alleged Kremlin drone attack. 

"It is necessary to target the center of Kyiv! Destroy the president's office, raze the Verkhovna Rada, the General Staff, and the buildings where the Ukrainian special services are located to the ground," the parliamentarian said.

"The fact that a drone flew to the Kremlin is a personal insult to me," Zhuravlev added.

Wagner group leader blames Russia for ammunition shortages

MOSCOW, Russia

Russia’s Wagner mercenary group will exit eastern Ukraine’s Bakhmut next week after suffering losses due to critical ammunition shortages, the private military contractor’s founder Yevgeny Prigozhin announced Friday.

Yevgeny Prigozhin

Wagner fighters, many of whom are convicts recruited from Russian prisons, have been at the forefront of Russia's efforts to capture Bakhmut, taking heavy losses in a brutal, monthslong battle. Tensions between Wagner and Russia’s Defense Ministry have simmered during this time, with Prigozhin accusing the Russian army of taking credit for victories won by Wagner fighters and of slowing down Wagner units' advances in Ukraine.

“My soldiers will not suffer senseless and unjustified losses in Bakhmut without ammunition,” Prigozhin said in a video address published by his press service in which he is flanked by masked Wagner soldiers.

“That’s why we will exit Bakhmut on May 10, 2023,” he said, adding that Wagner fighters will de-camp “until the Russian people need us again.”

The Kremlin declined to comment on Prigozhin’s threat, saying only that it had seen the one-time Kremlin chef’s video address.

The announcement came hours after he filmed an expletive-laden tirade against the military’s top brass over the alleged ammunition shortage in Bakhmut.

“[Russian Defense Minister Sergei] Shoigu, [Russian Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Valery] Gerasimov, where the f*ck is the ammunition?” the fuming Prigozhin said on camera.

He filmed the address in the dark of night in front of about 30 dead men, some covered in blood, who he said were Wagner soldiers who would be alive if the ammunition shortage had been resolved.

“You sit there, bastards, in expensive clubs,” Prigozhin said. “You think you’re the masters of this life and that you have the right to dispose of their lives.”

“They came here as volunteers and are dying for you to live it up in your redwood offices. Keep that in mind.”

There is a rift between Prigozhin and top Russian military commanders who raised doubts about the mercenary force with President Vladimir Putin, Bloomberg reported earlier this year. 

Wagner has taken a leading role in the fighting for the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut since the summer of 2022, which has still not been fully seized by Russia despite the loss of thousands of lives on both sides. 

After a spring offensive that largely failed to make any significant territorial gains, military analysts believe that Russian forces in Ukraine are shifting to the defense ahead of a major Ukrainian attack. 

Attack kills seven South Sudanese peace delegates, Norway NGO confirms

OSLO, Norway

A Norwegian humanitarian organization said Thursday seven South Sudanese delegates who attended a peace conference were killed in two of its cars, while three of its employees escaped unharmed.

"We strongly condemn the attack on civilians and humanitarian aid workers," the head of Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), Dagfinn Hoybraten, said in a statement.

"The attack demonstrates how demanding and complex it is to work in a country where the security situation is changing all the time," he added.

The seven were killed on Saturday in Imehejek in Eastern Equatoria state after attending a peace conference and being offered a ride in NCA cars.

Three NCA employees, also from South Sudan, escaped unharmed, NCA said.

The humanitarian organisation provided no other details, saying the attack was still under investigation.

In South Sudan, Eastern Equatoria state's information minister Patrick Oting told AFP the attack was "unfortunate", adding that conference was intended to defuse tensions between two communities over cattle raids.

"It is an unfortunate situation that has happened, in fact these people were (here) for the peace dialogue mission to Imehejek," he said.

German chancellor Scholz supports seat for the AU in the G20

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia

German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said he supports the inclusion of the African Union in the G20 group of nations.

Speaking on arrival in Ethiopia on Thursday, Scholz reaffirmed the central role played by the African Union in mediating the crisis in Sudan.

"We want to make our contribution to advancing peace and security. That is why we have been addressing the various difficult security issues in different regions of Africa. Particularly and first and foremost, of course, with regard to the newly erupted conflict in Sudan. And we have discussed in detail the situation. But I also assured all of Germany's support for a peaceful resolution of the conflict, where the African Union, of course, plays a very central role. And that was important to me, but I think it's also very important for the question of further development", said the German chancellor.

In the past, American president Joe Biden and French president Emmanuel Macron, among others, have also advocated for the AU to join the G20.

"I made a very important statement here for the African Union. We want to support that the African Union gets a seat in the G20, that it can participate and have a say. This is out of respect for the continent and its many states and also its growing population."

South Africa is currently the only African member of the G20, which was established in 2008.

After Ethiopia the German chancellor heads to Kenya.

In Kenya, Olaf Scholz hopes to establish partnerships in clean energy with a "pioneer" country where 90% of needs are covered by renewables.

Kenya, already Germany's main trading partner in East Africa, plans to cover all of its energy needs with renewables by 2030.

This is the second trip by Olaf Scholz to Africa since he took office in December 2021.

Biden issues order setting path for sanctions in Sudan

By Aamer Madhani, WASHINGTON USA

US President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Thursday setting the path to sanction individuals involved in the recent violence in Sudan that’s left hundreds dead and thrown the African nation into chaos.

Biden said in a statement that his order will “hold individuals responsible for threatening the peace, security, and stability of Sudan; undermining Sudan’s democratic transition; using violence against civilians; or committing serious human rights abuses.”

The president said the violence taking place in Sudan is “a tragedy — and it is a betrayal of the Sudanese people’s clear demand for civilian government and a transition to democracy.”

Sudan’s fighting broke out April 15 between two commanders who just 18 months earlier jointly orchestrated a military coup to derail the nation’s transition to democracy.

The power struggle between the armed forces chief, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and the head of the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, has millions of Sudanese cowering inside their homes and has already displaced hundreds of thousands.

“I join the peace-loving people of Sudan and leaders around the world in calling for a durable ceasefire between the belligerent parties,” Biden said.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the Biden administration had not settled on whether sanctions will be issued against the warring generals.

“I wouldn’t read it as a warning,” Kirby said of the executive order. “It’s the president setting up the proper authorities in case we want to use those kinds of tools.”

He said the administration and the Sudanese people want the generals to “put down their arms, stop fighting, get back to the table to to work on a transition to civilian authority.”

Several countries have been racing to evacuate their citizens from the troubled nation though millions remain there amid a fragile ceasefire.

The United Nations warned on Wednesday that the country’s people are “facing a humanitarian catastrophe.”

The conflict has killed at least 550 people, including civilians, and wounded more than 4,900. At least 334,000 people have been displaced inside Sudan and tens of thousands more to neighboring countries Egypt, Chad, South Sudan, the Central African Republic and Ethiopia, according to U.N. agencies.

Thousands of U.N. workers were evacuated a week into the fighting, and some U.N. agencies paused their services. The World Food Program suspended operations after three of its workers were killed in fighting in southern Sudan, but the agency has since said it will resume its work.

The fighting has included unprecedented urban warfare in the capital, Khartoum.