US Envoy in Chad to Spotlight Sudan Atrocities

FILE PHOTO: Sudanese women, who fled the conflict in Murnei in Sudan's Darfur region, wait beside their belongings to be registered by UNHCR upon crossing the border between Sudan and Chad, in Adre, Chad July 26, 2023. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra
FILE PHOTO: Sudanese women, who fled the conflict in Murnei in Sudan's Darfur region, wait beside their belongings to be registered by UNHCR upon crossing the border between Sudan and Chad, in Adre, Chad July 26, 2023. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra
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US Envoy in Chad to Spotlight Sudan Atrocities

FILE PHOTO: Sudanese women, who fled the conflict in Murnei in Sudan's Darfur region, wait beside their belongings to be registered by UNHCR upon crossing the border between Sudan and Chad, in Adre, Chad July 26, 2023. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra
FILE PHOTO: Sudanese women, who fled the conflict in Murnei in Sudan's Darfur region, wait beside their belongings to be registered by UNHCR upon crossing the border between Sudan and Chad, in Adre, Chad July 26, 2023. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

The United States envoy to the United Nations arrived in Chad on Wednesday to meet Sudanese refugees who have fled ethnic and sexual violence in Darfur, which she described as "reminiscent" of atrocities 20 years ago that Washington declared a genocide.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who is a member of President Joe Biden's cabinet, is due to visit Chad's border with Darfur in western Sudan to highlight the worsening conflict and growing humanitarian crisis.

War broke out in Sudan on April 15 - four years after former President Omar al-Bashir was ousted by a popular uprising. Tensions between the army (SAF) and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which jointly staged a coup in 2021, erupted into fighting over a plan to transition to civilian rule.

"We certainly have reached a level of serious atrocities being committed and it is very reminiscent of what we saw happening in 2004 that led to the genocide determination," said Thomas-Greenfield before arriving in Chad.

"We're hearing from women who are being brutally gang raped over and over again, villages being raided, there are aerial photos showing mass graves. Signs are there," she said.

In the early 2000s the UN estimates some 300,000 people were killed in Darfur when "Janjaweed" militias - from which the RSF formed - helped the army crush a rebellion by mainly non-Arab groups. Sudanese leaders are wanted by the International Criminal Court for genocide and crimes against humanity.

"Once again, Darfur is descending into an abyss without mercy or hope," UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said in a statement. "Civilians have been trapped, targeted, raped and murdered. It is unlawful and it is outrageous."

Thomas-Greenfield first visited Chad's border with Darfur in 2004 as a senior State Department official - the same year Washington described the violence there as a genocide.

"I went before the genocide was declared, but saw all of the evidence that a genocide was happening," she said. "I had witnessed that before, having gone into the refugee camps in Goma (Democratic Republic of Congo) after Rwanda and seeing the tortured look on people's faces, the terror on their faces."

A genocide was committed in Rwanda in 1994 when ruling Hutu majority extremists killed more than 800,000 minority Tutsis and Hutu moderates in 100 days.

The United Nations says that since the start of the Sudan war in April some 380,000 refugees - mostly women and children - have fled to Chad. Hundreds of thousands more have escaped to Central African Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has appealed for $1 billion to help provide aid and protection to more than 1.8 million people who are expected to flee Sudan this year. Nearly 7.1 million people are displaced inside the country, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Griffiths said that those inside Sudan who had managed to escape the violence now face starvation.

"More than 60 percent of people in West Darfur are highly food insecure, as is over half the population in East and South Darfur," Griffiths said. "We're in a race against the clock."

In recent weeks the United Nations has been able to deliver aid into West Darfur from Chad and has aid trucks ready to reach other parts of the region, but said "unrelenting clashes" were stopping them from reaching the people in need.

"Darfur's people are caught in a state of near total deprivation. Our message is urgent: Stop the fighting and let us through," Griffiths said.

In Sudan the UN says half the country's 49 million people need help and has appealed for $2.6 billion - so far, it has secured only 26% of this amount. Washington is the top donor, followed by the European Commission, Germany and Canada.

The fighting throughout Sudan has caused a "humanitarian catastrophe," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council last week in a report seen by Reuters.

"The growing ethnic mobilization and the increase in ethnically motivated attacks could spark a full blown civil war, with potentially an even more devastating impact on the Sudanese people, the region and beyond," Guterres wrote.



Türkiye Backing Syria’s Military and Has No Immediate Withdrawal Plans, Defense Minister Says 

Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler attends a signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding on establishing a mine countermeasures naval group in the Black Sea, aimed at clearing mines floating there as a result of the war in Ukraine, in Istanbul, Türkiye, January 11, 2024. (Reuters)
Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler attends a signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding on establishing a mine countermeasures naval group in the Black Sea, aimed at clearing mines floating there as a result of the war in Ukraine, in Istanbul, Türkiye, January 11, 2024. (Reuters)
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Türkiye Backing Syria’s Military and Has No Immediate Withdrawal Plans, Defense Minister Says 

Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler attends a signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding on establishing a mine countermeasures naval group in the Black Sea, aimed at clearing mines floating there as a result of the war in Ukraine, in Istanbul, Türkiye, January 11, 2024. (Reuters)
Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler attends a signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding on establishing a mine countermeasures naval group in the Black Sea, aimed at clearing mines floating there as a result of the war in Ukraine, in Istanbul, Türkiye, January 11, 2024. (Reuters)

Türkiye is training and advising Syria's armed forces and helping improve its defenses, and has no immediate plans for the withdrawal or relocation of its troops stationed there, Defense Minister Yasar Guler told Reuters.

Türkiye has emerged as a key foreign ally of Syria's new government since opposition groups - some of them backed for years by Ankara - ousted former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December to end his family's five-decade rule.

It has promised to help rebuild neighboring Syria and facilitate the return of millions of Syrian civil war refugees, and played a key role last month getting US and European sanctions on Syria lifted.

The newfound Turkish influence in Damascus has raised Israeli concerns and risked a standoff or worse in Syria between the regional powers.

In written answers to questions from Reuters, Guler said Türkiye and Israel, which carried out its latest airstrikes on southern Syria late on Tuesday, are continuing de-confliction talks to avoid military accidents in the country.

Türkiye’s overall priority in Syria is preserving its territorial integrity and unity, and ridding it of terrorism, he said, adding Ankara was supporting Damascus in these efforts.

"We have started providing military training and consultancy services, while taking steps to increase Syria's defense capacity," Guler said, without elaborating on those steps.

Named to the post by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan two years ago, Guler said it was too early to discuss possible withdrawal or relocation of the more than 20,000 Turkish troops in Syria.

Ankara controlled swathes of northern Syria and established dozens of bases there after several cross-border operations in recent years against Kurdish militants it deems terrorists.

This can "only be re-evaluated when Syria achieves peace and stability, when the threat of terrorism in the region is fully removed, when our border security is fully ensured, and when the honorable return of people who had to flee is done," he said.

NATO member Türkiye has accused Israel of undermining Syrian peace and rebuilding with its military operations there in recent months and, since late 2023, has also fiercely criticized Israel's assault on Gaza.

But the two regional powers have been quietly working to establish a de-confliction mechanism in Syria.

Guler described the talks as "technical level meetings to establish a de-confliction mechanism to prevent unwanted events" or direct conflict, as well as "a communication and coordination structure".

"Our efforts to form this line and make it fully operational continue. Yet it should not be forgotten that the de-confliction mechanism is not a normalization," he told Reuters.