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South Sudan's Vice President Riek Machar, pictured here addressing the press in 2020.
South Sudan’s vice president arrested, country on brink of civil war
Alarm bells are ringing ever more loudly in South Sudan, as Vice President Riek Machar — chief rival to Prime Minister Salva Kiir — was arrested late Wednesday in an operation involving 20 armored vehicles at his compound in Juba. He was placed under house arrest, a move that is fueling fears that the country will soon descend into civil war.
“We strongly condemn the unconstitutional actions taken today by the Minister of Defense and the Chief of National Security,” Machar’s SPLM-IO party said. The ex-rebel group added that the arrest effectively annulled the 2018 power-sharing deal that brought peace to the nascent nation — it withdrew from the security aspects of the agreement last week.
The public is reportedly in a state of panic, with violent clashes this week displacing some 50,000 people from their homes. Kiir pledged on Wednesday not to return the Upper Nile state to war, while SPLM-IO deputy leader Oyet Nathaniel Pierino urged the public to remain calm.
Wishful thinking: But calls for calm may reflect more hope than expectation. Kate Johnston, an associate fellow at the Center for a New American Security and a regional expert, called the arrest “a pretty fundamental undermining of the peace agreement” and warned of the dangers of civil war for the sub-Saharan state.
“Seventy-five percent of the population is already on food aid,” said Johnston. “A civil war would be catastrophic for the population.”
An elderly man holds an Iranian flag during an anti-U.S. and anti-Israel rally marking the anniversary of the U.S. embassy occupation outside the former U.S. embassy in downtown Tehran, Iran, on November 3, 2024, two days before the U.S. Presidential elections.
Khamenei’s “teeth-breaking” threat and UNICEF’s warning for Gaza
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneivowed a “teeth-breaking” response to recent Israeli strikes on Iranian military sites after Israel admitted striking targets in the Islamic Republic.
Speaking to students on Saturday, just before Monday’s 45th anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the US embassy in Tehran, Khamenei emphasized Iran’s military and political readiness to counteract what he called the “arrogance” of both Israel and the United States. Kamal Kharrazi, a top adviser to Khamenei, alsowarned that Iran might reconsider its nuclear doctrine if faced with an “existential threat,” stating it is currently capable of producing nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile,UNICEF warned on Saturday that the population of northern Gaza, particularly children, faces an “imminent risk of dying” due to disease, famine, and bombing campaigns. Executive Director Catherine Russell reported deadly strikes over the weekend in Jabalia, where at least 50 children were killed as they sought shelter in targeted buildings.
The WHO has also reported new strikes onhospitals and health centers, which the Israel Defense Forces say are used to shelter Hamas terrorists. In response, the IDFissued a statement that it was “focused on dismantling Hamas’ military capabilities while adhering to international law and minimizing civilian harm.”
Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba arrives for a group photograph with his new cabinet members at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo, Japan, October 1, 2024.
Hard Numbers: Ishiba forms his Cabinet, Haiti plagued by hunger, Tunisia jails opposition candidate, Eurozone inflation drops, Cambodian journalist arrested
2: He may think women should inherit the imperial thrones, but that doesn’t mean Japan’s Prime Minister-elect Shigeru Ishiba is an equal opportunity employer. Of his 19 newly appointed Cabinet ministers, only two are women, whom he’s appointed as children’s policy minister and education minister. His appointments also included two former defense ministers Ishiba has worked with in the past – one as foreign minister, another as his defense chief – signaling the new PM’s focus on security issues.
5.4 million: Hunger amid horrifying gang violence in Haiti has led nearly 6,000 people to the brink of starvation, according to a new report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. Nearly half the 11-million-strong country – a whopping 5.4 million Haitians – are facing crisis levels of hunger and famine. The Kenyan-led intervention force has had its UN mandate extended by a year, but an effort to turn it into a formal UN peacekeeping mission was stymied by China and Russia.
12: Running for office in Tunisia can win you … years behind bars, apparently. Ayachi Zammel, a candidate in the country’s Oct. 6 presidential election, is facing 12 years in jail for cases related to voter endorsements, his lawyer said. Zammel, who remains on the ballot, was one of just two candidates approved by Tunisia's electoral authority ISIE to challenge President Kais Saied.
1.8: European homebuyers may have cause to celebrate: Inflation in the Eurozone last month dropped to 1.8%, coming in below the European Central Bank’s 2% target for the first time in three years. As a result, the ECB is expected to drop the rate by a quarter point when it meets on Oct. 17.
2: Award-winning journalist Mech Dara has been arrested and charged for social media posts that could “incite social unrest,” a Cambodian court said. Dara, who has reported on corruption and human trafficking, faces a two-year sentence if convicted, and human rights groups are calling for his release.Residents wait to collect food in containers from a soup kitchen in Omdurman, Sudan March 11, 2024. Nearly five million people in the country are close to famine as Sudan's civil war passes the one-year mark.
Long-feared famine arrives in Sudan
Famine has officially hit Sudan’s Darfur region in Zamzam, a displacement camp with a population of roughly 500,000, as the civil war in the country continues to wreak havoc on the civilian population.
Zamzam is near the city of Al Fasher, home to 1.8 million people and the last significant holdout in Darfur against the RSF, withboth sides of the conflict accused of blocking aid deliveries and using hunger as a weapon.
The top global authority on hunger crises, the Famine Review Committee of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, said, “The scale of devastation brought by the escalating violence in Al Fasher is profound and harrowing.”
This is just the third time a famine classification has been made since the system was set up 20 years ago. It means that at least 20% of the population suffers extreme food shortages, 30% of children are acutely malnourished, and two people in every 10,000 die daily from starvation or malnutrition and disease.
On Tuesday, Sudan’s governmentconditionally accepted an invitation to attendUS-sponsored peace talks in Geneva. The effectiveness of the talks is highly uncertain in a region prone to failed cease-fire conversations.
FILE PHOTO: A soldier stands at Trident Pier, a temporary pier to deliver aid, off the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, near the Gaza coast, June 25, 2024.
US to scrap Gaza pier project
US military officials announced Wednesday they would dismantle the floating pier they had attempted to operate off the coast of Gaza, ending a difficult, expensive, monthslong mission to provide aid to civilians in the enclave.
Troubled from the start, the $230 million pier was announced in March but did not come online until May. It was only operational for about 20 days and has faced multiple challenges due to rough waters. It is currently anchored in the Israeli port of Ashdod.
When it was functional, it was used to deliver about 8,000 metric tons of aid — roughly equivalent to what humanitarian agencies say needs to enter Gaza every day.
The pier was pitched as a way to ensure Gazans on the verge of starvation could access food, medicine, and clean water while allowing Israel to continue its military campaign against Hamas. A UN-backed global hunger monitor reported last week that over 495,000 people are facing the most severe level of food insecurity, approximately 22% of the population, and hunger is widespread.
FILE PHOTO: A member of Sudanese armed forces looks on as he holds his weapon in the street in Omdurman, Sudan, March 9, 2024.
Famine looms in Sudan
As much of the world focuses on conflicts raging in Ukraine and Gaza, the ongoing war in Sudan has generated what a senior UN official said last week was “one the worst humanitarian disasters in recent memory.”
The numbers speak for themselves. Nearly a year of war between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has killed tens of thousands, forced eight million from their homes, and left more than 18 million people facing acute food insecurity. Some 730,000 Sudanese children are now suffering from severe malnutrition. Famine looms as a real possibility in the coming weeks.
A crane moves humanitarian aid for Gaza in a joint mission between NGOs Open Arms and World Central Kitchen at the port of Larnaca, Cyprus, March 8, 2024.
Aid trickles into Gaza – but how’s it getting there?
Amid warnings that close to 600,000 Gazans face famine, the World Food Programme said six of its trucks managed to enter northern Gaza for just the first time in three weeks on Wednesday.
What aid is actually getting into the enclave, and by what routes?
By land: Before the war, an average of 500 aid trucks entered the Gaza strip daily. In the first week of March, the Israeli government, which controls access points into Gaza (see our explainer here), allowed in an average of just 164 per day.
By air: The US, UAE, Jordan, Egypt, and France have all begun airdropping food. But a single truck can deliver ten times as much food as a plane, according to the UN, and people who need food the most might not get any.
By sea: An EU-backed ship is sailing to Gaza from Cyprus now, carrying about ten trucks worth of aid. A US Army team is also sailing from Virginia with equipment to build a floating pier, which could theoretically receive enough food to feed Gaza, but will take at least two months to become operational.Palestinians are carrying injured victims to the hospital following an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, on March 7, 2024, as battles continue between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement.
No Gaza truce by Ramadan
The Hamas delegation left Cairo Thursday after four days of fruitless talks that Israel boycotted, meaning there will be no cease-fire in Gaza ahead of Ramadan.
The impediments: Israel boycotted the talks because Hamas refused to provide a list of living hostages in advance. Hamas, for its part, said it could not agree to any cease-fire without Israel committing to withdrawing its troops in a phased pullout.
The nightmare for Gazans: A quarter of the population is reportedly "one step away" from famine conditions — with 575,000 on the verge of starvation.
France, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, the US, and Jordan have airdropped aid, but the trickle won’t suffice. US President Joe Biden is expected to announce the construction of a floating pier off Gaza to take in aid by sea in his State of the Union speech tonight.
What we’re watching: Will Israel go ahead with its threatened invasion of Rafah? Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had set a March 10 deadline for hostages to be returned. A leaked US diplomatic cable this week said that such an invasion could result in “mass civilian casualties, extensive population displacement, and the collapse of the existing humanitarian response.”