Pambazuka News 546: US/NATO occupation of Libya & tributes to Samir Amin
Pambazuka News 546: US/NATO occupation of Libya & tributes to Samir Amin
In a interview with John Githongo, Ron Singer discusses the state of Kenya’s media and the dominance of self-interested political and ethnic forces.
I think it is absolutely disgusting how black cities in Libya like Tawergha are being emptied out by the rebels and US airstrikes. One thing that I have noticed is that in all the videos I have seen where the rebels are 'liberating' a city, there seems to already be no one there! How are we protecting the civilians if most people have fled in fear? The Wall Street Journal even reported a rebel commander saying that the people in Tawergha should just pack up their things and go because it won't exist anymore after the rebels arrive.
We are now living in very dangerous times. France, UK and US known as FUKUS have a major plan to attack many nations in the twisted belief they are fulfilling some sort of Biblical Prophecies. Morrocco, South Africa, Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Ghana, Niger and Nigeria are the next targets in Africa.
Syria and Iran in the Middle East and India partly due to the Maoist insurgency that is growing even though the Indian Government is keeping it quiet. Oil has been found on the Somalia/Kenya and Ethiopia/Kenya border areas so that is another potential target for FUKUS in the future.
Please beware of these facts no one is exempt there is a lot of trouble coming and many people around the world will suffer.
Currently, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Chechenya, Somalia are in Conflict with Bosnia and Kosovo in danger of conflict. You do not have to believe this but for sure you will see more conflicts start-up around the world then you must wake-up to reality.
Be safe and be aware.
In spite of the declaration of a unilateral ceasefire in South Kordofan by President Bashir on 23rd August there has been a continuation of aerial bombardment of civilian targets by Government forces and attacks by Government soldiers and their allied militias. At the same time SPLA forces continued to attack Government garrisons.
In the early hours of the 2nd of September there was an outbreak of fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) which involved all of those gathered in the Joint Integrated Units (JIU) forces in Blue Nile.
With fear still rife among the Ivoirian refugees remaining in eastern Liberia, NGO the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), which is managing refugee camps in Grand Gedeh County, is working to ensure refugee camps are apolitical and weapon-free.
NAPE and other members of Save Mabira Crusade, in collaboration with other citizens of Uganda and Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) have submitted a petition opposing the proposed giveaway of Mabira and other forest reserves in Uganda. Save Mabira Crusade is a network of individuals, NGOs, civic leaders, religious, cultural and academic institutions, political organisations and local communities that have come together to save one of Uganda’s most valuable rainforests.
By focusing during 19 days on the prevention of diverse types of abuse and violence against children and youth, the 19 Days of Activism for Prevention campaign aims to continue to bring to light the alarming problem, its multifaceted aspects, and the need to generate sufficient grass-roots interest and government and public support for better prevention measures.
In response to reports that British scientists are about to test the hardware needed to put sulphur particles in the stratosphere as a climate technofix, international technology watchdog ETC Group is calling on the UK government to halt the controversial test and respect UN processes underway to discuss these issues.
'Thinking Africa: Liberation, Race and Higher Education' supplement was published by South Africa's Mail and Guardian newspaper (26 August 2011) and contains reflection pieces from Rhodes University's 'Thinking Africa: Fanon 50 years later' (6-9 July 2011) colloquium as well as the 'Race in Higher Education Roundtable' (11-13 July 2011) organised under the auspices of the university's Centre for Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning.
The Commonwealth Secretariat will present a paper on the role and status of forced migrant teachers in emergencies at the UK Forum for International Education and Training International Conference on Education and Development at Oxford University on 13 September 2011.
Jamaica’s druglord Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, former strongman in the Prime Minister’s political constituency, has pleaded gulity to charges of two counts of racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to commit assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering respectively, laid against him in the United States, and is awaiting sentencing.
The Government of Somaliland announced that it will expel about 100,000 illegal immigrants from the country. The government set one month for illegal immigrants to leave Somaliland, or face punishment, warning Somalilanders found hiding illegal immigrants will also be subject to punishment. The Government plans to repatriate about 80,000 – 90,000 illegal immigrants mainly Ethiopians in one month.
A report by Climate Exchange Network for Africa includes five chapters, which cover: the impacts of climate change in Africa; options for adapting to climate changes; an assessment of the economic costs of climate change and adaptation; mitigation scenarios; and policy recommendations.
Investigative journalism distinguishes itself from regular journalism by its depth and subject matter, often involving crime, political corruption or corporate wrongdoing. It can play an essential role in a country’s governance by keeping corporations and government accountable. However, the political and economic environment in some regions of the world present specific challenges for investigative journalists: countries that score low on governance and transparency present particular risks and underline the need to build investigative journalism capacity. This brief analyses the obstacles to investigative journalism in the East African region, focusing on Kenya and Uganda, and discusses what can be done to help address these barriers.
The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by anti-press violence by supporters of Julius Malema, youth leader of South Africa's ruling African National Congress, and is relieved that the party leader has urged restraint. Malema supporters protesting their leader's disciplinary hearing at ANC headquarters in Johannesburg hurled bottles, stones, and bricks at police and reporters. At least nine journalists were injured.
According to a new Land Deal Brief from the Oakland Institute (OI) to be released on September 12, 2011, the controversial Gibe III hydroelectric project located in Ethiopia's Omo Valley is facilitating the take over of 350,000 hectares (ha) of land for sugar cane and cotton plantations.
Rising demand for the dominant form of renewable energy worldwide – wood – could drive yet more acquisitions of land in developing countries where food insecurity is rising and land rights are weak, say researchers at the International Institute for Environment and Development. In a briefing paper published August 30, they warn that this new trend needs greater public scrutiny and debate.
The National Elections Commission on Tuesday September 6, 2011, met with lawmakers, asking them to consider a way out of a possible constitutional crisis likely to result from the ensuing legislative and presidential Elections. The NEC delegation, headed by Chairman James Fromayan, wants the legislators to fashion a way to save the commission the unreasonable costs of rerunning the legislative elections pursuant to an absolute majority requirement to win.
Use your understanding of international development issues to strengthen the contribution of the African Diaspora to international development debates, policy and practice.
Human rights advocates watching Gambia are worried that abuses against perceived dissenters will rise as the November presidential election nears, killing any chance of a free and fair poll. Already the official campaign period - the only time opposition parties are given access to the media and allowed to actively campaign - has been shrunk to 11 days from four weeks, sparking concern among political leaders.
On 31 December 2011, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and several states hosting Rwandan refugees are considering invoking the “cessation clause” of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. This is a very unusual and dangerous move that could cause revocation of the refugee status of tens of thousands of people who fled ethnic and political persecution in Rwanda, stripping them of basic rights and exposing them to forcible repatriation and possible persecution. Cessation is premature and should be stopped.
Following her experience of being on the ground in Tripoli, Lizzie Phelan writes of the Western media’s alarming ability ‘to not just fabricate events but to create’.
We only have 17 hours left to raise the money we need for a our book tour. If we get at least $4,000usd, then we'll be able to bring 2 authors on tour.
Please contribute here now so that our voices can be heard outside South Africa:
I heard of Samir Amin long before I met him. As a member of the Ghana Youth Council, I was involved in organising a conference that we thought would bring together youth movements throughout Africa to plan how we could plan together to advance the cause of Africa's political and economic development.
Swaziland's authorities are acting with more restraint towards protestors in response to this week's demonstrations, writes Peter Kenworthy.
Social Media for Social Change is an intensive course for youth and volunteers that will introduce you to social media tools that drive social change. Social media includes internet-based and mobile phone tools and platforms for communications, such as Facebook and Twitter. The course will provide you with skills in how to plan and organise a basic social media communications strategy for your organisation that strengthens networking. To register or get more information about the Training, please contact Isabella Falsted at [email][email protected] or Elsie Eyakuze at [email][email protected]
Africa Today spoke with Professor Lako Tongun on the independence of the Republic of South Sudan. Professor Tongun was in attendance during the celebrations in Juba, South Sudan on July 11, 2011.
The revolution in Libya, led by a motley group of democrats and Islamists and their imperialist allies, is likely to entrench the deep divisions in the country, writes Samir Amin, warning of the possibility of disintegration of the nation.
The NATO military campaign in Libya is a pointed example of imperialism as the last stage of capitalism, Amy Niang argues. It is a travesty of international law, whose goal is conquest of economic resources.
Events in Libya are a clear wake-up call for Africa to unite, writes Nana Ansah.
Africa faces an alarming rise in land grabbing, writes Esther Vivas.
Though we might see events in Libya as a sort of twisted fantasy tale, their effects will be all too real for the country and Africa at large, writes Nicholas H. Tucker.
Bernard Baha of the Land Rights Research and Resources Institute points out in the paper 'The Politics of Investment in Large Scale Agricultural Ventures' that Tanzania has always been a country in the spotlight concerning cases of land grabbing for various uses. In the recent past there has been a lot of information in both print and electronic media about land being taken for various investment purposes. Little is known about these deals between the government and foreign investment companies eyeing Tanzania as a destination for agricultural investment.
Honouring Samir Amin as he celebrates his 80th birthday this month, Horace Campbell pays tribute to Amin’s tireless work ‘to strengthen effective forms of popular power’ and underlines his enormous contribution to our understanding of global capitalism’s increasing destructiveness.
In response to an article entitled by Andrey Mbugua, Mia Nikasimo takes great exception to Mbugua’s assumptions, language and presentations of LBGTI and transsexual people.
Citing the long history of the presence of peoples from the Indian sub-continent in Africa, the National Museums of Kenya sponsored, in 2000, a special exhibit on the 'Asian African Heritage.' This special issue of Research in African Literatures follows the lead of this exhibition by bringing together new essays by some of the leading scholars who have written on Asian African literatures in East and South Africa. The articles engage both with writers who are now considered canonical, such as M.G. Vassanji from Tanzania and Ahmed Essop from South Africa, as well as newer voices that have emerged over the past decade.
Dibussi Tande captures the reaction to the fall of Gaddafi in this week’s round-up of the African blogosphere.
Following comments about Botswana being a puppet of US imperialism, ANC Youth League President Julius Malema is appearing before the party’s disciplinary committee, writes Ronald Wesso.
To understand the present capitalist economic crisis, Ama Biney contends that there is an urgent need to revisit the works of Egyptian political economist Samir Amin. His bold proposals on ending global inequalities and injustices are timely.
Social movements in South Africa are divided, which renders them amenable to external pressures, according to Lindela Figlan. Unless they unite and pursue a common vision against capitalism, they will not succeed in their objectives.
My question is: Can we defend ourselves or we are still weak?
This is a pledge for the African Union to take action and firmly intervene in the issue of Libya. As events in this war develop in the worst direction the intervention is necessary for two main reasons, first one is the documented racist harassment of the Black populations living in Libya. If we allow the Libyan Rebels to continue with this kind of prosecutions without reaction or even punishment, we will set a huge step back to the Apartheid Era because it can be an extremely dangerous precedent for all the countries in the north of Africa or even the European countries too, meaning that attacking or killing black innocent citizens is cheap and easy.
The second reason is that Côte D'Ivoire and Libya have become experiments for the Neocolonial powers in a time of economical crisis. Traditionally, when the European economy breaks down then the colonialism raises. If we don't take effective and executive strong actions all Africa will be in a serious danger of recolonization. This intervention has a strong legal basis as Libya is still a member of the AU and Article 4 of the African Union Act provides for: “(h) the right of the Union to intervene in a Member State pursuant to a decision of the Assembly in respect of grave circumstances, namely: WAR CRIMES, GENOCIDE and CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY”.
I'm not asking for an intervention in support of Kaddafi’s regime but in support of African independence and protection of our citizens. The intervention should be military if necessary with enough effectives of the AU crossing the borders of Niger and Chad. It should consist in a rapid rescuing operation of all black citizens living in Libya, repatriation if they wish so and/or a demonstration of force to stop killings in the hands of the Libyan Rebels.
Remember History tends to repeat itself specially if we don't learn from past lessons.
Total global mobile connections are set to surpass 6 billion by year-end, according to the latest Wireless Intelligence forecasts, a landmark which would mean the industry has added the last 1 billion connections in just 16 months. Wireless Intelligence estimates that the 6 billion milestone will be reached in late November and that total global connections will end the year at 6.07 billion. Africa is set to overtake the Americas as the second-largest regional market on 648 million connections (11 per cent of the total). Africa is forecast to record the strongest year-on-year connections growth of all the global regions, rising 18 per cent over the previous year.
The rape of girls and women remains a major concern in South Africa, and the health care sector needs to be better equipped to collect evidence to prove sexual violation to help secure the conviction of perpetrators by the courts. The Foundation for Professional Development, a project of the South African Medical Association, is trying to improve how rape survivors are treated. It’s currently training health care workers to counsel victims of rape and to collect forensic evidence to help survivors build strong legal cases should they want the justice system involved.
A civil society organisation in Nigeria has described the performance of the government under President Goodluck Jonathan as inept. The Coalition against Corrupt leaders, a civil society monitoring the performances of government officials says the first 100 days of Jonathan's administration falls short of average expectation.
This year’s International Literacy Day, celebrated world-wide on 8 September, will focus on the link between literacy and peace. During a ceremony in New Delhi, India, UNESCO will award the international Confucius and King Sejong literacy prizes to projects in Burundi, Mexico, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the United States of America. South and West Asia account for more than half (51,8%) the world’s adult illiterate population, ahead of sub-Saharan Africa (21,4%), East Asia and the Pacific (12,8%), the Arab States (7,6%), Latin America and the Caribbean (4,6%), North America, Europe and Central Asia (2%).
The Executive Director of the Ghana Blind Union (GBU), Dr. Peter Obeng Asamoah, has appealed to the government to channel more resources into the education of persons with disability in the country, especially the blind. He stressed that if the country was serious about getting rid of blind beggars from the streets of the cities, then a conscious effort must be made to provide them with the requisite education.
Thomas C. Mountain, writing on counterpunch.org, reports that the recently released, and long awaited, Wikileaks Files on Ethiopia expose the lies used to justify UN 'inSecurity' Council Sanctions in force against Eritrea.
A number of human rights organisations have condemned the arbitrary use of agression towards and detention of, youths who were involved in the demonstrations at Independence Square in Luanda on September 3 – as well journalists who were covering the event.
Several leading human rights activists are urging South African President Jacob Zuma to reconsider his plan to appoint a controversial pastor to lead the country's judicial system. Three women Nobel laureates say that Zuma's selection, Mogoeng Mogoeng, would weaken women's rights if appointed as chief justice of the Constitutional Court.
With Samir Amin celebrating his 80th birthday this month, Ebrima Sall salutes Amin’s long-standing commitment to allying world-class scholarship with an unflinching commitment to social justice.
‘9 September marks 40 years since the uprising at Attica State Prison’, writes Michael E. Deutsch, an incident alarming in its reflection of the US authorities' extreme brutality and the rise of the ‘prison–industrial’ complex.
The IIE Scholar Rescue Fund (SRF) is pleased to announce a call for applications for threatened academics whose lives or work are in danger in their home countries. Fellowships support temporary academic positions at safe universities and colleges anywhere in the world. Professors, researchers, and lecturers from any country or field may apply.
As of September 1, the Guantánamo Public Memory Project will be coordinated from the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University, steered by a leadership committee of partners including the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience.
September 9-13 mark the 40th anniversary of the Attica Rebellion. This massive prison takeover by hundreds of inmates and the callous repression and murders by the state of New York are part of a unique moment in US history. The legacy of Attica and the fight for human rights is carried on in the prisons of Georgia, Ohio, California and wherever people are caged for years on end.
Hundreds of placard-carrying women, from about 10 Gbaramatu communities in Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State, laid siege to the project site of Chevron Nigeria Limited at Chanomi Creek and disrupted the laying of pipelines for the multi-billon dollars Escravos Gas to Liquid project.
The Inaugural OUT Film Festival will be the first public showing of cinema that reflects the life of sexual minorities. The film festival wants to make known a community that Kenyan society deems to be secret. The festival aims to entertain, educate and celebrate. There will be a variety of films and documentaries from within and outside the continent that will alter the way you look at the way the Queer community lives and loves.
Women are our best hope for the continent, says Zimbabwean writer Petina Gappah in her introduction to The Africa Report's list of the 50 women shaping Africa. Porgress has been slow, but many women are showing the art of the possible, inspiring a new generation to take control of their destiny.
The Refugee Law Project, under its video advocacy programme, has produced documentaries to show the work being done at RLP, as well as highlight the plight of forced migrants in Uganda. Research looked into the nature and dynamics of land ownership, land access, and land use as well as how political perceptions and considerations factored as important elements in the land conflicts and how the question of investment played out in the context of ongoing conflicts associated with land in Amuru district.
Human Rights Watch reports that black Libyans and African migrants are being held on suspicion of having fought as mercenaries for Gaddafi, by the de facto authorities, the National Transitional Council (NTC), solely on account of their skin colour. The migrants are being held in ad hoc places of detention across Tripoli, and it remains unclear how or if the NTC plans to review each case to determine whether there is evidence of criminal activity or not.
The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N) declared resistance to what it described as a coup against the elected governor of the Blue Nile State, Malik Aggar, announcing intensification of its efforts to forge a nationwide alliance to execute regime-change agendas.
INTERPOL has issued Red Notices for Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, his son Saif Al-islam Gaddafi and former director of military intelligence Abdullah Al-Senussi after the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno-Ocampo, requested the world police body to issue internationally wanted persons notices against the Libyan nationals for alleged crimes against humanity, including murder and persecution.
In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers...
An op-ed piece in The Citizen notes that Saturday’s sinking of a ferryboat off the coast of Unguja Island with the loss of almost 200 lives brings to the fore a very pertinent question: were any lessons learnt from the May 21, 1996 MV Bukoba disaster in Lake Victoria in which close to 1,000 people died? It is hard not to draw comparisons between the two incidents given that factors behind the accidents bear an uncanny resemblance.
Pambazuka News 545: Corporations, crime, revolts and protests
Pambazuka News 545: Corporations, crime, revolts and protests
This article from focuses on the relationship between land grabs and water demand in the countries that rely on the Nile River. 'Growing water demand, driven by population growth and foreign land (and water) acquisitions, are straining the Nile’s natural limits. Avoiding dangerous conflicts over water will require three Basin-wide initiatives. The first is for governments to address the population threat head-on by ensuring that all women have access to family planning services and by providing education for girls throughout the region. The second is to adopt more water-efficient irrigation technologies and shift to less water-intensive crops.'
After 30 years and over 20 million deaths in Africa alone, US researchers now report that early treatment of people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that leads to AIDS cuts transmission of the disease by over 96 per cent. Unexpectedly announced by the US National Institutes of Health on 12 May after a six-year clinical trial, the discovery that anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) can make people living with HIV far less infectious means that humanity finally has the tools to reverse the global epidemic. But, says this article from African Renewal, having the technology to curb AIDS, however, is not the same as having the political will to do so.
Insights MENA is an interactive tool providing critical data about the online behavior of urban consumers in five key MENA markets: Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and UAE. Visit the website to find out more.
Police from the Law and Order section on 11 August 2011 visited Alpha Media Holdings (AMH) offices in search of Zimbabwe Independent editor Constantine Chimakure and senior political reporter Wongai Zhangazha over a story the paper published in its edition of 8 July 2011. Detectives said that they wanted the two to assist in investigations of who ‘leaked’ the details of the story as it was based on cabinet deliberations, which is an offence under the Official Secrets Act.
Three journalists were killed and 21 others injured in Tripoli after North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) warplanes bombed three transmission towers on 30 July in an effort to take Libyan state television off the air. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) have condemned the attack.
Fears are mounting that a cholera epidemic could spread rapidly among the hundreds of thousands of people living in often unsanitary conditions in Mogadishu after fleeing drought, famine and insecurity. In Mogadishu's largest health facility, Banadir Hospital, 4,272 cases of acute watery diarrhoea, a symptom of cholera, have been recorded so far this year, causing 181 deaths. (Random laboratory tests showed that 60 per cent of the cases also tested positive for malaria, according to WHO.)
This article form Fesmedia Africa assesses the role of new media in social change in Africa. 'New media platforms are changing how people communicate with each other around the world. However, there is great variation in both the kind of communication platforms people make use of as well as in how they access these platforms. Computer ownership and internet access are still the prerogative of the wealthy few in wide swathes of the African continent. All the same, mobile internet access is on the rise and if current growth rates continue, African mobile phone penetration will reach 100 per cent by 2014.'
Extreme weather conditions predicted because of climate change in Namibia are likely to have a tremendous effect on the 70 per cent of the country's people who live in rural areas and depend heavily on agriculture. According to experts in climate change, Namibia has no option but to adapt to the changing climate as radical changes in weather, such as extreme dry spells and exceptionally heavy rainfall, are forecast for the Southern African country.
ANC Youth League president Julius Malema’s fate, and that of his executive, rests with the ANC’s top six officials, who will decide whether to accept the league’s apology and retraction of what the mother body regards as a politically embarrassing call for regime change in Botswana. ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu said officials would continue discussing the matter and there was no deadline to finalise these talks. He had earlier said the ANC would first have to weigh up whether the apology undid the damage to the ANC and the country. The youth league’s apology on Saturday came nearly two weeks after it vowed to stand by its intention to mobilise opposition to Sir Ian Khama’s government, which it described as a 'puppet regime'.
Gender-based corruption in workplaces exists in Rwanda, reveals a new report published by Transparency Rwanda (TR), the civil society organisation leading the fight against corruption. The report is the first of its kind in Rwanda and reveals a number of challenges for the country. The study acknowledges that Rwanda has made impressive progress both in the fight against corruption and in the promotion of gender equality. However, 5 per cent of respondents personally experienced gender-based corruption in workplaces, 10 per cent perceive that the problem exists and nearly 20 per cent know someone who has been a victim.
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has called for a 'wealth tax' to be imposed on all white South Africans. The former archbishop of Cape Town and former head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) also called on members of President Jacob Zuma’s cabinet to sell their 'expensive cars', 'to show you care' about the poor in South Africa. Tutu said apartheid had left South Africans riddled with 'self-hate', and it was directly to blame for the country’s vicious crime rate and road carnage.
Over the past three years, the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) carried out exploratory research in five countries from different continents on the internet’s role in accessing information about sex education, health, fighting sex discrimination and defining one’s own sexuality.Carried out in Brazil, India, Lebanon, South Africa & USA the research looks at how the internet plays host to critical information about sex education, health, fighting sex discrimination and defining one’s own sexuality. It debunks the commonly-held view that sexuality online is just about pornography.
The developing world has, for the first time, outstripped richer economies in providing new investment in the renewable energy sector, according to a report. And research and development (R&D) funding from government sources, at US$5 billion in 2010, for the first time overtook corporate R&D investment, according to 'Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2011', published by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in July, reports
'Politics, Religion and Power in the Great Lakes Region' covers the political, religious and power relations in the contemporary Great Lakes states: Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Tanzania, Kenya and the Sudan. The work is important because of the nexus between these countries’ shared present and past - their political, socio-economic, cultural and historical aspirations.
Atrocities committed in June in Sudan's Southern Kordofan state by armies of the north and south 'could amount to crimes against humanity or war crimes', according to a report by the UN human rights agency. The 12-page report covers the period from 5-30 June and describes a wide range of alleged violations of international law in the town of Kadugli. The violations are also said to have occurred in the surrounding Nuba mountains, after fighting broke out in Kadugli on 5 June between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Sudan People's Liberation Army North (SPLA-N).
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said all the parties in Somalia's conflict have violated the rules of war and are guilty of causing civilian casualties in the fight for territorial control that is contributing to the humanitarian catastrophe there. The New York-based group said al-Shabab, the rebel Isamist group that controls large parts of the country, was guilty of unrelenting brutality, while government troops carry out arbitrary arrests and detentions.