Day: December 16, 2021

Terrorist groups remained “a persistent and pervasive threat worldwide” through last year, the U.S. State Department concluded in a new assessment on Thursday.

“The United States and its partners made significant major strides against terrorist organizations,” the report concluded about Western anti-terrorism efforts through the end of 2020, the last year of former President Donald Trump’s White House tenure. However, it said “the terrorism threat has become more geographically dispersed in regions around the world.”

The report said that although the Islamic State terrorist group lost all the territory it had seized in Iraq and Syria, “the organization and its branches continued to mount a worldwide terrorism campaign, carrying out deadly attacks globally,” killing more people in 2020 than in any previous year.

The report said that al-Qaida and its affiliates faced the “significant” loss of two key leaders, yet their networks “continued to exploit under-governed spaces, conflict zones, and security gaps in the Middle East to acquire terrorist resources and conduct terrorist attacks.”

The State Department concluded that al-Qaida “bolstered its presence abroad, particularly in the Middle East and Africa, where affiliates AQAP, al-Shabab in the Horn of Africa, and Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin in the Sahel remain among the most active and dangerous terrorist groups in the world.”

In addition, it said, “Iran continued to support acts of terrorism regionally and globally during 2020. Regionally, Iran supported proxies and partner groups in Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, including Hezbollah and Hamas.”

The report said senior al-Qaida officials “continued to reside in Iran and facilitate terrorist operations from there. Globally, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force remained the primary Iranian actors involved in supporting terrorist recruitment, financing, and plots across Europe, Africa, and Asia, and both Americas.”

The State Department report said the global COVID-19 pandemic “complicated the terrorist landscape, creating both challenges and opportunities for terrorist groups. While the pandemic disrupted terrorist travel, financing, and operations, terrorist groups adapted their approaches and appeals, using the internet to continue radicalizing others to violence and inspiring attacks worldwide.”

The Islamic State “exploited the crisis to reinforce violent extremist narratives, proclaiming to followers that the virus was ‘God’s wrath upon the West,’” the report concluded.

Despite the ongoing terrorist threat, the report said the U.S. “continued to play a major role” in prosecuting IS foreign terrorist fighters and in marshaling allied countries to fight global terrorism.

It said that to ensure that Islamic State fighters captured by the Syrian Democratic Forces never return to the battlefield, “the United States continued to lead by example in bringing back its citizens and prosecuting them when appropriate,” including 10 charged with an array of terrorism-related crimes.

Source: Voice of America

Rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch say forces from Ethiopia’s Amhara region have committed a series of atrocities in the neighboring Tigray region.

According to the two group’s reports, released Thursday, Amhara region militia forces are carrying out mass detentions and killing civilians in western Tigray.

Joanne Mariner, Director of Crisis Response at Amnesty International, says “The new onslaught of abuses by Amhara forces against Tigrayan civilians remaining in several towns in Western Tigray should ring alarm bells.”

Mariner also called on immediate intervention to prevent further atrocities on ethnic Tigrayans in detention facilities.

The rights groups said they learned of the atrocities from victims, witnesses and residents of Western Tigray.

The rights group says Amhara region police officers, police militias and a civilian militia group known as Fanos have systematically rounded up Tigrayans in the towns of Adebai, Humera, and Rawyan since early November.

According to the report, the Amhara forces are also involved in looting shops and villages. Witnesses say the forces also shoot locals when they attempt to flee.

Both rights groups called on the Ethiopia government and its allies to stop targeting civilians, release the detainees, and allow humanitarian agencies access to Western Tigray.

They asked the international community to put pressure on the government and pave the way for an international investigation.

Amnesty International says it has sought a comment from Ethiopian authorities on the matter but got no response.

Western Tigray is a disputed area between Tigray and Amhara regions. Amhara forces entered this fertile area following the outbreak of hostilities between the federal government and Tigrayan forces in November 2020.

On Friday, the U.N. Human Rights Council will hold special session on the situation in Northern Ethiopia following the request by the EU. But Ethiopia objects to the move and said the decision is politically motivated.

Source: Voice of America

The United States and three other countries voiced encouragement Thursday over a political deal to reinstate Abdalla Hamdok as Sudan’s prime minister.

Sudanese military leaders struck a deal with civilian political forces on November 21 to return Hamdok to power after he was deposed in an October 25 military coup and spent nearly four weeks under house arrest.

The deal empowers Hamdok to lead a government during a political transition expected to last until 2023 while sharing power with the military.

Members of major political parties and Sudan’s influential protest movement have opposed the agreement, with some calling it a betrayal.

The November deal is meant to be based on an earlier agreement reached between the military and civilian political forces after the ouster of Omar al-Bashir in 2019, when they had agreed to share power until elections.

The agreement sparked massive street protests in Khartoum and other cities days after it was reached. As of late November, at least 40 unarmed protesters had been killed by excessive force used by the country’s security forces during nationwide protests since the coup, according to Amnesty International, which attributed the death toll to the Sudanese Doctors Committee.

“We urge signatories to live up to the commitments made in the political agreement,” the U.S., Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Britain said in a joint statement. “In this respect we note with appreciation the recent releases of political detainees, and the establishment of a committee of investigation to ensure that those responsible for violence against protestors are held accountable.

The military coup occurred after weeks of escalating tensions between military and civilian leaders over Sudan’s transition to democracy.

The coup has threatened to derail the process that began after the ouster of longtime autocrat Bashir in a popular uprising in 2019.

Source: Voice of America

A militia blockade of the interim government's headquarters in Tripoli appears to have ended Thursday, amid strong tensions in the Libyan capital just over a week before scheduled presidential elections. U.N. envoy Stephanie Williams met with key military leaders to try to prevent any violence which might jeopardize the elections.

U.N. special envoy to Libya Stephanie Williams met with rival political and military forces from eastern and western Libya in the port city of Sirte Thursday afternoon, hours after an Islamist militia group ended its siege of interim government headquarters in the capital Tripoli.

Tensions reportedly remain high in Tripoli just over a week before scheduled presidential elections.

Islamist militia commander Salah Badie issued a video statement late Wednesday threatening to scuttle the planned December 24 election and claiming that he will throw U.N. envoy Williams out of Libya.

The head of Libya's High National Election Commission, Emad al Sayah, told journalists several days ago that preparations for the election are continuing on schedule.

He said that he affirms to the Libyan people and political leaders that his committee will not ignore its obligation to hold free and fair elections, respecting the rights of all parties involved.

Saudi-owned al Arabiya TV, however, reported that another member of the commission called the December 24 election date "wishful thinking."

Libya analyst Aya Burweila tells VOA that "fair elections are possible provided that candidates who violate the U.N. Roadmap and the electoral law.....are removed from the list of candidates and foreign monitors are sent to polling stations to minimize the appetite of militia cartels in Tripoli who are hostile to elections."

One former U.N. Libya envoy, Lebanon's Tarek al Mitri, told Arab media that the "only way to stabilize Libya is to dismantle the militias causing havoc in the country."

Burweila agrees, arguing that such militias are likely to "attack and intimidate voters." Libyans, she adds, "are fed up and determined to exercise their basic right to choose their own government and take their country back after seven years of foreign-appointed rule and militia occupation...."

However, Libyan analyst Ezzedin Naguil told Al Arabiya TV that he thinks "both Russia and Turkey are unlikely to remove their militia forces from Libya until they achieve their strategic goals, which will likely involve tough international negotiations."

The leaders of two of Libya's closest neighbors, Algerian President Abdel Mejid Tebboune and Tunisian President Qais Saeed, met Wednesday to encourage Libyans to vote.

Tebboune insisted that it is up to the people to decide their fate.

He says that the solution in Libya is in the hands of the Libyan people and they must get rid of mercenaries and foreign forces and deal with each other.

Libya's parliament is due to meet in the eastern city of Beida early next week to make a final decision on whether to hold the election as scheduled.

Source: Voice of America