GENEVA: South Sudan’s hellish war will get worse if its neighbors let President Salva Kiir hold an election before he accepts peacekeepers, a cease-fire and political opposition, UN investigators said on Wednesday.
South Sudan was plunged into civil war in 2013 when Kiir fell out with his deputy, Riek Machar. Since then 50,000-300,000 people have died, according to the African Union (AU), and millions have been displaced or pushed to the brink of famine.
“It’s just a story of absolutely unimaginable cruelty,” Yasmin Sooka, head of the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, told a news conference in Geneva.
Last year Machar fled, but during his retreat Kiir’s forces sparked a new conflict in the Equatorias region, boosting opposition to Kiir’s Dinka tribe, which almost one in four South Sudanese belong to.
Kiir’s mandate expires in April, and he has made clear he wants a new election, which would be catastrophic, Sooka and her fellow commissioner Godfrey Musila said.
“You will not have a democratic Dinka president elected,” Musila said. “If the Dinka are to stay in power they will have to do that militarily. It has to be a police state.”
Outside powers must urgently find a way to generate a legitimate government, he said. The first task was to fully deploy a 4,000-strong regional protection force that Kiir and East African bloc IGAD agreed on a year ago.
Although limited to the capital, Juba, the force would create conditions for the opposition to return and would free up UN peacekeepers to go further afield, helping to bring about a cease-fire, which the opposition, with no military supply lines, would accept, Musila said.
Only 400 of the force have arrived so far.
Sooka said the best tool to get action was the “hybrid court” that the AU and South Sudan agreed to set up, based on a mix of their laws, to prosecute suspects including top political and military figures.
Sooka has an “almost prosecutorial mandate” from the UN Human Rights Council and plans to have a team of 16 on the ground this week, including forensic analysts and military advisers.
On Monday, South Sudan Justice Minister Paulino Wanawilla Unango told the Council that the government was still incorporating last year’s agreement with IGAD.
Sooka said the AU must ensure consequences if the government failed to take the necessary steps, as it did in Gambia in January, when it intervened to oust president Yahya Jammeh.
“The West Africans camped outside of Gambia and told the president if you don’t go, our armies will come in,” she said. “But will the East African community or IGAD do that?”
A South Sudan vote would heap disaster upon catastrophe, UN says
A South Sudan vote would heap disaster upon catastrophe, UN says
Russian strike on Kharkiv hardware store kills two: official
Videos posted by witnesses on social media showed a huge column of black smoke billowing into the sky from the Epitsentr store
KYIV: A Russian strike on Saturday hit a store selling building materials in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, killing at least two people, its mayor said.
“We know for sure about two dead,” Kharkiv mayor Igor Terekhov wrote on Telegram, saying that according to preliminary information the strike hit a hypermarket for construction materials in a residential area.
Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Synegubov said that “two Russian guided bombs hit a construction hypermarket” and “a fire broke out over 15,000 square meters.”
Videos posted by witnesses on social media showed a huge column of black smoke billowing into the sky from the Epitsentr store, located in an area of large stores beside a car park. The chain of hypermarkets sells household and DIY goods.
“We have a large number of people missing. There are many wounded,” Terekhov wrote on Telegram.
“Apparently, the attack was on a shopping center where there were many people — this is pure terrorism.”
The city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest, regularly comes under attack from Russian missiles.
Strikes on the city killed at least seven people on Thursday, local authorities said.
Russia launched a ground offensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region on May 10, but Ukraine said Friday that it had managed to halt its progress.
British man charged after allegedly joining Syrian terror group
LONDON: A British man who allegedly travelled to Syria to fight for the Jaish Al-Fatah group has been charged with terrorism offences, the Metropolitan Police said on Saturday.
Isa Giga was arrested after arriving in London aboard a flight from Turkey on Thursday.
He was due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Saturday. He is suspected of traveling to commit acts of terrorism.
“We have been clear for some time now that should anyone return to the UK whom we suspect of being involved in any terrorist-related activity overseas, then they can expect to be thoroughly investigated,” Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the force’s Counter Terrorism Command told the BBC.
“We work very closely with other partners and agencies here in the UK and overseas in order to do this and help keep the public safe.”
A mob in Pakistan burns down a house and beats a Christian over alleged desecration of Qur’an
- The incident occurred Saturday in the Mujahid Colony residential area in Sargodha
- Police quickly responded and saved the lives of the two men
LAHORE: Hundreds of Muslims in eastern Pakistan went on a rampage over allegations that a Christian man had desecrated the pages of Islam’s holy book, ransacking and burning his house and beating him before police officers rescued the man and his father, officials said.
The incident occurred Saturday in the Mujahid Colony residential area in Sargodha, a city in Punjab province, said district police chief Ijaz Malhi. He said police quickly responded and saved the lives of the two men.
Malhi said the situation was under control and officers were investigating the allegations.
The incident brought back memories of one of the worst attacks on Christians in Pakistan in August 2023, when angry mobs burned churches and attacked dozens in Jaranwala, a district in Punjab province. Muslim residents claimed they saw a Christian and his friend tearing out pages from a Qur’an and throwing them on the ground. No one was killed. In 2009, six Christians were killed and some 60 homes burned down in the district of Gojra in Punjab following allegations of insults to Islam.
Malhi said police on Saturday dispersed the crowds and were also seeking help from religious scholars to defuse tensions. The Punjab government condemned the attack.
The man’s small shoemaking factory was also burned down, Malhi said.
Blasphemy accusations are common in Pakistan.
Under the country’s blasphemy laws, anyone found guilty of insulting Islam or Islamic religious figures can be sentenced to death. While no one has been executed for blasphemy, often just an accusation can cause riots and incite mobs to violence, lynching and killings.
More than 10,000 people reach UK on small boats since January
- The latest numbers on a government website showed 10,170 arrived between January and May 25
- The plan has been bogged down by legal obstacles for more than two years
LONDON: More than 10,000 asylum seekers have arrived in Britain in small boats so far this year, updated government data showed on Saturday, underlining a key challenge facing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ahead of a July 4 national election.
The number of people landing on England’s southern beaches after making the dangerous Channel crossing fell by a third in 2023, but the latest numbers on a government website showed 10,170 arrived between January and May 25, up from 7,395 over the same period last year.
Sunak, who announced the election date on Wednesday, said later this week that asylum seekers who come to Britain illegally would not be deported to Rwanda before the vote — casting doubt on one of his Conservative Party’s flagship policies.
The plan has been bogged down by legal obstacles for more than two years, and the opposition Labour Party, which is about 20 points ahead in opinion polls and seen on track to end 14 years of Conservative rule, has promised to scrap the policy if it wins the election.
Labour’s shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock said Sunak’s government had not done enough to tackle the issue.
“Because all the government’s efforts are now focused on getting a few hundred people flown to Rwanda, they have lost sight of the thousands more who are crossing the Channel every month,” Kinnock said in a statement.
Labour has said if elected it would create a Border Security Command that would bring together staff from the police, the domestic intelligence agency and prosecutors to work with international agencies to stop people smuggling.
Supporters, opponents of Tehran clash in London
- Event to mark death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi descends into violence
- 4 injured, 1 arrested: Metropolitan Police
LONDON: Clashes in London between supporters and opponents of Iran’s government on Friday left four people with injuries, Sky News reported on Saturday.
One person was arrested on suspicion of violent disorder following the clashes.
Metropolitan Police officers were called to the scene at about 6 p.m. following reports of violence.
Pro-Tehran demonstrators had held an event to mark the death of President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash last week.
Outside the venue, anti-Tehran protesters held a counter-demonstration, and clashes broke out between the two sides.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said four people were treated by paramedics for injuries. “Their injuries are not believed to be either life threatening or life changing,” the spokesperson added.
“Further inquiries will now follow to establish what further offences took place and to identify those involved.”
