BEIRUT: Russia has invited the Kurdish-led authorities in northern Syria to its proposed congress of Syria’s various ethnic groups, a senior Kurdish official told Reuters on Tuesday.
Such a congress would focus on seeking “compromise solutions toward the political settlement” of Syria’s conflict, a Russian negotiator on Syria said earlier this week.
“We are studying the issue and our stance has been positive so far,” said Badran Jia Kurd, an adviser to the administration that governs Kurdish-led autonomous regions of northern Syria.
They received the official invitation during meetings with Russian officials in northern Syria last month, he said.
Moscow, a key ally of the Damascus government, may host a congress in mid-November to bring together Syria’s ethnic groups and work on a new constitution, Russian news agency RIA said on Monday.
It remains unclear which other groups or combatants in Syria’s multi-sided war would take part in the congress.
The congress, which Russian President Vladimir Putin first mentioned this month, may take place at Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi, RIA said.
Russia’s Hmeymim air base in Syria also might be used, Alexander Lavrentyev, a senior Russian negotiator on Syria said on Monday.
The proposal has received backing from the United Nations, Lavrentyev told reporters in Kazakhstan.
Russia invites Syrian Kurds to congress of Syrian ethnic groups: Kurdish official
Russia invites Syrian Kurds to congress of Syrian ethnic groups: Kurdish official
UN rights chief Shocked by ‘unbearable’ Darfur atrocities
- Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur
PORT SUDAN: Nearly three years of war have put the Sudanese people through “hell,” the UN’s rights chief said on Sunday, blasting the vast sums spent on advanced weaponry at the expense of humanitarian aid and the recruitment of child soldiers.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that has left tens of thousands of people dead and around 11 million displaced.
Speaking in Port Sudan during his first wartime visit, UN Human Rights commissioner Volker Turk said the population had endured “horror and hell,” calling it “despicable” that funds that “should be used to alleviate the suffering of the population” are instead spent on advanced weapons, particularly drones.
More than 21 million people are facing acute food insecurity, and two-thirds of Sudan’s population is in urgent need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.
In addition to the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis, Sudan is also facing “the increasing militarization of society by all parties to the conflict, including through the arming of civilians and recruitment and use of children,” Turk added.
He said he had heard testimony of “unbearable” atrocities from survivors of attacks in Darfur, and warned of similar crimes unfolding in the Kordofan region — the current epicenter of the fighting.
Testimony of these atrocities must be heard by “the commanders of this conflict and those who are arming, funding and profiting from this war,” he said.
Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur.
“We must ensure that the perpetrators of these horrific violations face justice regardless of the affiliation,” Turk said on Sunday, adding that repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure could constitute “war crimes.”
He called on both sides to “cease intolerable attacks against civilian objects that are indispensable to the civilian population, including markets, health facilities, schools and shelters.”
Turk again warned on Sunday that crimes similar to those seen in El-Fasher could recur in volatile Kordofan, where the RSF has advanced, besieging and attacking several key cities.
Hundreds of thousands face starvation across the region, where more than 65,000 people have been displaced since October, according to the latest UN figures.
