Can China help to end the fighting in Sudan?

Can China help to end the fighting in Sudan?
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Sudanese citizens displaced from their homes by the raging war dig small holes at the shore to get potable water at the banks of the White Nile in Khartoum on May 6, 2023. (REUTERS)
Can China help to end the fighting in Sudan?
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People salvage items from a medical storage destroyed amid fighting in Nyala, the capital of Sudan's province of South Darfur on May 2, 2023. (AFP)
Can China help to end the fighting in Sudan?
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Sudanese refugee women, who fled the violence in their country build makeshift shelters while waiting to be placed in refugees camp near the border between Sudan and Chad in Koufroun, Chad, on May 6, 2023. (REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra)
Can China help to end the fighting in Sudan?
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Smoke billows amid persistent fighting in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, on May 4, 2023, despite extended truce agreements between the warring groups. (AFP)
Can China help to end the fighting in Sudan?
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Chinese citizens evacuated from Sudan display their country's banners as they arrive at King Faisal navy base in Jeddah on April 26, 2023. (AFP)
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Updated 07 May 2023
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Can China help to end the fighting in Sudan?

Can China help to end the fighting in Sudan?
  • Diplomatic track record suggests Beijing well placed to broker peace between the feuding Sudanese generals
  • Long history of trade engagement with Sudan gives China political and economic influence that West lacks

JUBA, South Sudan: The crisis in Sudan, which began when clashes broke out between Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan’s Sudanese Armed Forces and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo’s Rapid Support Forces on April 15, has claimed more than 500 lives and displaced nearly 300,000 people over a span of just three weeks.

As Sudan’s neighbors, Arab and Middle Eastern countries, and Western powers make fervent pleas for an end to the fighting, many analysts say the Sudanese are actually looking to the East for a resolution.

China has acted as a mediator in several Middle Eastern rapprochement efforts, notably brokering the restoration of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran in early April and encouraging the push for reconciliation between the Syrian regime and Arab countries.

Its recent diplomatic track record, experts say, suggests China is ideally positioned to play the role of a peace broker in the Sudanese conflict as well.

INNUMBERS

$2.03bn China’s exports to Sudan during 2022

$780m Sudan’s exports to China in 2021

$17m Value of China-Sudan economic and technology agreements signed in 2022

“China has more influence on Sudan than the West and regional bodies, and could work with countries of the Arab League to solve the conflict before it escalates,” Manasseh Zindo, a South Sudanese peacemaker and a former delegate to the Intergovernmental Authority on Development-led peace process, told Arab News.

According to Zindo, while Western countries have tended to impose sanctions on Sudan, China has done business with the country’s leaders, giving it a unique opportunity to help end the conflict between the military and the RSF.

“Sudanese leaders do not have much faith in the West and would be more comfortable with mediation championed by China,” he said.

 

 

Indeed, the general consensus is that China’s longstanding economic ties with Sudan, which date back to the late 1950s, give it a vested interest in brokering a deal to end the current fighting and pushing for a lasting solution to the crisis.

Over the years, China has emerged as one of Sudan’s largest trading partners, the result of investing heavily in the country’s oil industry and buying up part of the output too.

In recent years, China has expanded its investments to sectors beyond oil, such as infrastructure, mining and agriculture. It has also helped Sudan tap its hydroelectric power potential, notably by financing the construction of the Merowe Dam on the Nile River.

In the area of infrastructure, China has helped to build several major projects in Sudan, including the Khartoum International Airport, the Friendship Hall in Khartoum, and the Roseires Dam on the Blue Nile River.




This picture taken on September 15, 2022 shows a view of a building of China's National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) near the Nile river waterfront in Sudan's capital Khartoum. (AFP)

Taken together, these projects have given a boost to Sudan’s transportation and energy infrastructure, contributing to the country’s economic development.

By the same token, China’s web of investments in Sudan would be at great risk were the current fighting to turn into a protracted conflict and exact a heavy economic toll.

“Disruption of production in the country could have serious consequences not just for Sudan and South Sudan, but also to some extent for China,” Augustino Ting Mayai, research director at the Sudd Institute in South Sudan’s Juba, told Arab News.

Since the eruption of violence in Sudan last month, the UN, the African Union and several regional blocs have repeatedly appealed for calm, proposing ceasefires and dialogue. So far, however, the outcomes have not been encouraging, with mere minutes passing between the implementation of a truce and the resumption of airstrikes and small-arms fire.

The two feuding Sudanese factions, who each blame one another for the multiple broken ceasefires, are actually former allies. After the removal of dictator Omar Al-Bashir in 2019, a joint transitional military-civilian government was established, led by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.




Sudanese Army soldiers walk near tanks stationed on a street in southern Khartoum on May 6, 2023, amid ongoing fighting against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. (AFP)

In just two years’ time, Al-Burhan and Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, closed ranks to overthrow Hamdok. Efforts to coax Sudan back toward a civilian-led government began anew, but disputes over the integration of Dagalo’s RSF into the SAF led to tensions, which evidently reached a flashpoint when explosions and gunfire began to rock Khartoum and other cities on April 15.

“The collapse of Sudan could lead to more violence across the region fueled by the spread of weapons, such as in Libya and Somalia,” Kai Xue, a Beijing-based Africa expert, told Arab News.

Libya, which shares its southeastern border with Sudan, and Somalia, on the Horn of Africa, are two examples of how protracted civil conflicts can plunge African nations into vicious cycles of violence with damaging global consequences.




Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) gather near the presidential palace in Khartoum on May 1, 2023. (Screen grab from RSF video/ESN/AFP

In Libya, the fall of former dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011 led to the rapid spread of small arms and light weapons throughout the country, which is now home to a large number of warring groups engaged in an unending power struggle.

The unchecked proliferation of arms, ammunition and explosives not only fuels the conflict in Libya but also has a destabilizing effect on the entire region. Neighboring countries, such as Chad, Niger and Sudan, have struggled to stem the misuse, accumulation and illicit transfer of small arms and light weapons across their borders.

The civil war, followed by state collapse and the emergence of armed groups, in Somalia has had a similar effect on nearby countries. The diversion and illicit trade of small arms and light weapons has been a major driver of the Somali conflict, which continues to this day.

The smuggling and transfer of weapons and explosives from Somalia have also had a significant impact on neighboring countries, such as Kenya and Ethiopia. The terrorist group Al-Shabaab, which has links with Al-Qaeda, has launched deadly attacks in both countries using weapons smuggled in from Somalia.

Africa analysts say if Somalia and Libya hold any lesson, it is that the conflict in Sudan potentially has serious implications not just for the future of the country but for that of the wider region too.




Sudanese refugees, who fled the violence in their country stand beside makeshift shelters near the border between Sudan and Chad in Koufroun, Chad, on May 6, 2023. (REUTERS)

The UN has warned of an impending humanitarian catastrophe as a result of the fighting, saying that 800,000 people are expected to flee the country. Compounding the crisis is the fact that Sudan itself is already home to more than 1 million refugees and 3 million internally displaced persons.

Sudan’s impoverished neighbors also already host large refugee populations and have been plagued for years by political and economic instability as well as natural disasters such as flash floods and drought.

“It is good that everybody is calling for peace, but there is almost a traffic jam of peacemaking when everyone wants to get involved,” Tibor Nagy, a former US ambassador to Ethiopia, told Arab News.

He expressed regret that the US did not provide more support for Sudan’s transition to civilian rule.

 

 

“I think if the US had been quicker, then maybe Prime Minister (Hamdok) would not have been overthrown,” Nagy said. “Yet, at the end of the day, the fault lies with General Al-Burhan and Hemedti, as it is now clear that neither one of them wanted a real civilian-led government.”

As for China, Nagy said the country “tends to issue good statements when there is a flare-up like the current conflict in Sudan, but it tends to stay back and wait for others to make peace, as we saw in the case of Ethiopia’s recent civil war,” Nagy said.

Under the circumstances, China’s involvement in the Sudan feud is likely to be passive, according to Benjamin Barton, of the University of Nottingham, Malaysia. Citing the scale of the crisis and the size of Sudan, he said China will wait for the violence to ebb before getting involved.

“It’s all really dependent on the warring parties,” he told Arab News. “Sometimes these conflict situations go way beyond China’s ability to intervene.”

 

 

The once laudable Western goal of seeing a civilian-led government formed to steer Sudan’s transition to a democratic dispensation seems far-fetched now. So, some in Africa hope that given its political clout and economic influence, China can at least have a mitigating effect on the current tensions.

“China could use its diplomatic channels to bring both sides of the conflict to the table,” Onyando Kakoba, secretary-general of the Forum of Parliaments of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, told Arab News, adding: “It should avoid taking sides, which could escalate the crisis.”

His view is seconded by Deng Dau Deng Malek, the acting minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation of South Sudan, who told Arab News: “Pressure must be exerted by all international partners (to end the fighting in Sudan), including China.”


Italy signs judicial cooperation agreements with Algeria, Libya

Italy signs judicial cooperation agreements with Algeria, Libya
Updated 10 sec ago
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Italy signs judicial cooperation agreements with Algeria, Libya

Italy signs judicial cooperation agreements with Algeria, Libya
  • Prisoners can serve sentence in country of origin following case-by-case evaluation procedure
  • Deals signed on sidelines of conference to mark 20th anniversary of UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime

ROME: Italy on Friday signed with Libya and Algeria agreements on judicial cooperation and extradition of convicted criminals.

The agreements were signed on the sidelines of an international conference in the Italian city of Palermo to mark the 20th anniversary of the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime.

They enhance judicial cooperation, and provide that select prisoners can serve their sentence in their country of origin following a case-by-case evaluation procedure.

Before entering into force, the agreements must be approved by the Italian parliament through a specific ratification bill.

“The treaties we signed will be essential to boost fruitful judicial cooperation between our countries, and will be a useful tool in order to have faster extradition processes for criminals arrested in our countries,” Italian Justice Minister Carlo Nordio told reporters after signing the agreements.

“Italy is ready to increase its network of liaison magistrates in several countries in North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa,” he said.

“The experience we have so far has been very satisfactory, both for us and for the countries where our magistrates have been performing their duties alongside their local colleagues. That is a great way to learn best practices from both sides.”


Syrians in Lebanon ‘economically displaced,’ not ‘refugees’: Justice minister

Syrians in Lebanon ‘economically displaced,’ not ‘refugees’: Justice minister
Updated 29 September 2023
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Syrians in Lebanon ‘economically displaced,’ not ‘refugees’: Justice minister

Syrians in Lebanon ‘economically displaced,’ not ‘refugees’: Justice minister
  • Henry Khoury’s comments were made during a meeting in Rome with his Italian counterpart
  • ‘The massive influx of Syrians to Lebanon is an issue that will have negative impacts on Europe’

ROME: Lebanese Justice Minister Henry Khoury told his Italian counterpart Carlo Nordio that Syrians fleeing to his country should no longer be considered as “refugees” but as “economically displaced.”
During a meeting in Rome to discuss enhancing judicial cooperation, Khoury said: “The massive influx of Syrians to Lebanon is an issue that will have negative impacts on Europe. For them, Lebanon is only a temporary destination, while their actual goal is to reach Europe.”
Since 2011, more than a million Syrians have taken refuge in Lebanon, whose population is just under 4 million people.
Lebanon never signed the Geneva Convention on refugees, and does not recognize the refugee status of Palestinians or Syrians who are in the country.
Khoury told Nordio that the bad conditions in Lebanese prisons are caused by the “transgressions” of displaced Syrians “that raise the crime rate and the number of prisoners in the country.”
He added: “The prison infrastructure in Lebanon cannot withstand the overcrowding resulting from the high number of prisoners.”
Nordio pledged “every possible cooperation though specific programs to help the judicial system in Lebanon in order to perform its regular activities.”


Turkish scholar goes on trial in absentia

Turkish scholar goes on trial in absentia
Updated 29 September 2023
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Turkish scholar goes on trial in absentia

Turkish scholar goes on trial in absentia
  • Selek, now 51, is long since exiled in France
  • The presiding judge told a packed Istanbul courtroom, that the arrest warrant for Selek remained active

ISRANBUL: A Turkish court held another hearing Friday in the trial of sociologist and writer Pinar Selek over a deadly 1998 explosion, as her supporters protested the case against her outside.
Selek, now 51, is long since exiled in France. But the presiding judge told a packed Istanbul courtroom, that the arrest warrant for Selek remained active. He set the next hearing for June 28.
Selek is best known for her research on the Kurdish conflict in Turkiye and her work with street children.
As her supporters demonstrated outside the court, international observers including diplomats and one French lawmaker attended the proceedings inside.
Her defenders argue that the case, which they say is based on little or no solid evidence, has dragged on for too long already.
“We have the feeling that (this case) will never end,” French lawmaker Pascale Martin, told AFP after the hearing. “This pressure has been going on for 25 years, it’s humanly impossible.”
Friday’s hearing was the second in a trial that opened back in March. Selek, who fled Turkiye in 2008, has been cleared of the same charges in four previous trials.
“This dossier is full of fake evidence. There’s not much to say, it’s a very unfair case,” Selek’s father, veteran lawyer Alp Selek told the court.
The case started when her father, who is also her defense lawyer, was 67 years old.
“I am now 90 years old and this case is still dragging,” he said.
French jurists present in the courtroom also came to her defense.
“Pinar Selek has become a symbol of fight for democratic freedom,” lawyer Francoise Cotta told the judge.
She demanded “justice” and asked for her release.
Selek was first arrested in 1998 while studying Turkiye’s Kurdish community, which has faced decades of persecution.
She was accused of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), listed as a terror group by Turkiye and its Western allies.
Selek had been interviewing PKK members to find out why they had chosen armed violence. She was jailed after refusing to divulge their names to the police.
She was eventually charged in connection with an explosion at Istanbul’s popular spice market that killed seven people and injured dozens.
Selek was released in 2000 following the publication of a report blaming the blast on a gas leak.
But that was only the start of her legal problems. More trials followed in the highly controversial case.
She settled in Germany after fleeing Turkiye, before relocating to France, where she gained citizenship in 2017.
Selek, who was acquitted four times, in 2006, 2008, 2011 and 2014, now lives and teaches in Nice.
“Life is short, I want to live it well. I don’t want this trial to shape my life,” Selek told AFP in a recent interview.
“They won’t be able to erase my smile or diminish the quality of my thinking,” she said.
Selek faces life in prison without the possibility of parole, a sentence that could keep her from ever returning to Turkiye.
On Tuesday, PEN America, which campaigns for the freedoms of writers, urged the Turkish government to dismiss all charges against Selek.
“The Turkish government’s relentless persecution of Pinar Selek comes from their fear of her ability to amplify marginalized voices through her research on minority rights and Kurdish communities,” said PEN America’s Justin Shildad.


Tunisia, Italy sign MoU on cybersecurity

Tunisia, Italy sign MoU on cybersecurity
Updated 29 September 2023
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Tunisia, Italy sign MoU on cybersecurity

Tunisia, Italy sign MoU on cybersecurity
  • General director of Italian National Cybersecurity Agency tells Arab News deal is ‘strategic’
  • ‘It represents an important step to strengthen the security of cyberspace in the Mediterranean area’

ROME: Tunisia and Italy will cooperate on cybersecurity under a memorandum of understanding signed in Tunis on Thursday.

The MoU between Tunisia’s National Cybersecurity Agency and the Italian National Cybersecurity Agency aims “to establish continuous and strong cooperation in the field of cybersecurity, as well as in digital trust services,” Bruno Frattasi, general director of the Italian agency, told Arab News.

He signed the document with his Tunisian counterpart Yacine Djemaiel during a ceremony at the Ministry of Communication Technologies. Tunisian Minister of Communication Technologies Nizar Ben Neji attended the ceremony.

The MoU’s objective is to strengthen the exchange of experience and expertise between the two national institutions, and the development of specialized skills in the field of cybersecurity.

“The common challenges we face, and the transnational nature of cyber threats, pushed Italy and Tunisia to strengthen their cooperation in this important field,” said Frattasi.

“I believe that this agreement with Tunisia is strategic for Italy as it represents an important step to strengthen the security of cyberspace in the Mediterranean area.”


Lebanese children ‘miss out’ on education as crisis takes toll

Lebanese children ‘miss out’ on education as crisis takes toll
Updated 29 September 2023
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Lebanese children ‘miss out’ on education as crisis takes toll

Lebanese children ‘miss out’ on education as crisis takes toll
  • Lack of funding for the school system has precipitated repeated teachers’ strikes and school closures, resulting in children being increasingly pulled out of the formal learning system
  • Lebanon’s public institutions have been crumbling since the economy collapsed in late 2019

BEIRUT: Rana Hariri doesn’t know when she’ll be able to send her children back to school, as Lebanon’s grinding economic crisis thrusts the fate of public education into uncertainty.
Lack of funding for the school system has precipitated repeated teachers’ strikes and school closures, resulting in children being increasingly pulled out of the formal learning system, and in some cases being forced to work.
Hariri, 51, says her nine-year-old daughter Aya “repeatedly asks me: ‘When will I go back to school?’ But I do not know what to tell her.”
Lebanon’s public institutions have been crumbling since the economy collapsed in late 2019, pushing most of the population into poverty and dealing a heavy blow to state schools.
Public sector workers, including teachers, have repeatedly gone on strike as the value of their salaries crashed after the Lebanese pound lost more than 98 percent of its worth against the dollar.
“My children stayed at home for three months last year due to the strikes,” said Hariri.
She had hopes that her 14-year-old daughter Menna would someday become a doctor.
But now, “I just hope she’ll be able to go to school in the first place,” she said, sitting at her friend’s house surrounded by her four children.
“For the past four years, teachers have failed to secure their rights, while our children miss out on basic education.”
Public sector teachers earn the equivalent of $150 to $300 per month, while the education ministry has sounded the alarm over lack of funding.
Hariri took her anger to the streets, protesting alongside teachers who demanded better wages at a sit-in in September.
The school year is due to begin in early October, but amid uncertainty over the start date, her two sons, aged 13 and 17, have taken up work with their father, a plumber.
Her daughters have meanwhile been forced to wait at home.
“I want them to have a degree... but this country is killing their future,” she said with a sigh.
Since 2019, children have “experienced devastating disruption to their education,” according to the United Nations’ children’s agency.
The disruptions were attributed to the economic crisis, the coronavirus epidemic, a deadly 2020 blast that rocked Beirut’s port and strikes that forced school closures.
“A growing number of families” can no longer afford “the cost of education including transport to school, food, textbooks, stationery, and clothes,” UNICEF Lebanon said.
At least 15 percent of households have pulled their children out of schools, UNICEF found in a June report, up from 10 percent a year ago.
And one in 10 families have been forced to send children, sometimes as young as six years old, to work to make ends meet, the report said.
“Being out of school exposes children... to violence,... poverty,” and increases risks of child marriage in girls, said Atif Rafique, chief of education at UNICEF Lebanon.
Education Minister Abbas Halabi has repeatedly complained of funding problems, warning in September that “public education is in danger.”
“The most urgent problem today is financial,” he said, adding that his ministry was still working on securing funding for the upcoming school year.
The education ministry mostly relies on government credit lines and donor funding, mainly from the World Bank and the UN, to educate the more than 260,000 Lebanese pupils and over 152,000 Syrians enrolled in public schools.
But Halabi said donors had informed him they could not afford to give more money to public school employees.
According to a recent Human Rights Watch report, the education ministry has slashed the number of teaching days from 180 in 2016 to about 60 in the past two years, “citing financial constraints.”
Year after year, the ministry has had “no plan” to secure the funds needed for schools to remain open without interruption, said Ramzi Kaiss, HRW’s Lebanon researcher.
“If we’re going to have a fifth year that is lost or interrupted, it’s going to be catastrophic,” he told AFP.
But despite the setbacks, more pupils have poured into Lebanon’s public schools as families can no longer afford private education.
Homemaker Farah Koubar, 35, said she fears she one day won’t even be able to afford sending her three young children to public school.
“I’m afraid they will miss out on their education,” she told AFP from her small home in Beirut.
“Every year life becomes more difficult,” she said, holding back tears as she recalled how she has had to ask acquaintances for financial help to secure her family’s survival.
“Everything is expensive, food, water, gasoline — even bread.”