IGAD: No Initiative to Resolve Sudan Crisis

IGAD Executive Secretary Dr. Workneh Gebeyehu. (IGAD)
IGAD Executive Secretary Dr. Workneh Gebeyehu. (IGAD)
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IGAD: No Initiative to Resolve Sudan Crisis

IGAD Executive Secretary Dr. Workneh Gebeyehu. (IGAD)
IGAD Executive Secretary Dr. Workneh Gebeyehu. (IGAD)

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) said on Tuesday it will not propose an initiative to resolve the political crisis in Sudan that erupted in wake of the October 2021 military coup.

IGAD’s role will be restricted to helping Sudan get out of this crisis, and to submitting reports to the Authority at the meeting to be held on the sidelines of the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa next week.

“We are convinced that IGAD’s efforts should be limited to supporting the people of Sudan in facing the crisis. We do not want to dispel efforts, so we will not present a parallel initiative to solve the current crisis in the country,” IGAD’s Executive Secretary Workneh Gebeyehu said in a press conference concluding his visit to Khartoum.

Gebeyehu had arrived in the Sudanese capital on Sunday for a three-day visit, to hold talks with the military and political leaders.

“We know that the Sudanese are capable to prudently address the challenges they face. As a regional organization, of which Sudan is a member, we have come to assist the efforts made by its people,” Gebeyehu said.

He added that IGAD insists on playing a role in Khartoum by coordinating with the African Union and other international players.

“Accordingly, we held consultations with diplomatic representatives in Sudan, and we agreed not to present multiple parallel initiatives,” he stressed.

During his visit, Gebeyehu held talks with head of the Sovereign Transitional Council General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, as well as foreign diplomats and Sudanese political forces, during which he was briefed on the development of the situation and efforts to address the crisis.

His visit is the first direct official action by the African body since the Oct. 25 military coup.

The army takeover halted a power sharing arrangement between the military and civilians negotiated in 2019 after a popular uprising that forced the removal of longtime president Omar al-Bashir and his government.



Women and Children Scavenge for Food in Gaza, UN Official Says

 Palestinians walk on a destroyed street after Israeli forces withdrew from a part of Nuseirat, following a ground operation amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, November 29, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians walk on a destroyed street after Israeli forces withdrew from a part of Nuseirat, following a ground operation amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, November 29, 2024. (Reuters)
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Women and Children Scavenge for Food in Gaza, UN Official Says

 Palestinians walk on a destroyed street after Israeli forces withdrew from a part of Nuseirat, following a ground operation amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, November 29, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians walk on a destroyed street after Israeli forces withdrew from a part of Nuseirat, following a ground operation amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, November 29, 2024. (Reuters)

Large groups of women and children are scavenging for food among mounds of trash in parts of the Gaza Strip, a UN official said on Friday following a visit to the Palestinian enclave.

Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN Human Rights office for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, expressed concern about the levels of hunger, even in areas of central Gaza where aid agencies have teams on the ground.

"I was particularly alarmed by the prevalence of hunger," Sunghay told a Geneva press briefing via video link from Jordan. "Acquiring basic necessities has become a daily, dreadful struggle for survival."

Sunghay said the UN had been unable to take any aid to northern Gaza, where he said an estimated 70,000 people remain following "repeated impediments or rejections of humanitarian convoys by the Israeli authorities".

Sunghay visited camps for people recently displaced from parts of northern Gaza. They were living in horrendous conditions with severe food shortages and poor sanitation, he said.

"It is so obvious that massive humanitarian aid needs to come in – and it is not. It is so important the Israeli authorities make this happen," he said. He did not specify the last time UN agencies had sent aid to northern Gaza.

US WARNING

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin set out steps last month for Israel to carry out in 30 days to address the situation in Gaza, warning that failure to do so may have consequences on US military aid to Israel.

The State Department said on Nov. 12 that President Joe Biden's administration had concluded that Israel was not currently impeding assistance to Gaza and therefore was not violating US law.

The Israeli army, which began its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip after the group's attack on southern Israeli communities in October 2023, said its operating in northern Gaza since Oct. 5 were trying to prevent militants regrouping and waging attacks from those areas.

Israel's government body that oversees aid, Cogat, says it facilitates the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and accuses UN agencies of not distributing it efficiently.

Looting has also depleted aid supplies within the Gaza Strip, with nearly 100 food aid trucks raided on Nov. 16.

"The women I met had all either lost family members, were separated from their families, had relatives buried under rubble, or were themselves injured or sick," Sunghay said of his stay in the Gaza Strip.

"Breaking down in front of me, they desperately pleaded for a ceasefire."