The World Today for April 24, 2023

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NEED TO KNOW

The Bombs of Ambition

SUDAN

This week, downtown Khartoum became a war zone. Fighters have been attacking residents, United Nations workers and other civilians, sexually assaulting women, and looting and destroying property, CNN reported. Health officials are warning that the country’s hospitals are running out of medicine to treat the wounded. Many of them lost power and closed. Meanwhile, ambulances are being attacked in the streets.

A video showed how the sound of gunfire and bombs has replaced the city’s soundtrack of traffic and chatter.

Hundreds of people have been killed, tens of thousands have fled to neighboring South Sudan and Chad. Those left behind are now just trying to survive.

Khartoum resident Duaa Tariq saved her last bottle of potable water for her two-year-old. “This morning we ran out (of water),” she told the BBC. She detailed how she and her family have been sleeping on a mattress in a hall – the safest place in her house. “Most of the people [that] died, died in their houses with random bullets and missiles, so it’s better to avoid exposed places in the house.”

Essentially, the choice for civilians is hunger or bombs, the Washington Post noted.

The civil war in Sudan between government troops and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group, that broke out last week is threatening to destroy the country that both sides are seeking to control.

And both men have amassed war chests over the past few years, while controlling significant portions of the country’s economy and resources.

The war stems from a power struggle between Sudan’s nominal leader, military junta head Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who seized power in a coup in 2021, and Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, the commander of the RSF, a group linked to the Janjaweed militias who stand accused of committing crimes against humanity in Darfur in the early 2000s. Both sides have accused the other of attempting to pull off a coup, noted Deutsche Welle.

In an interview with National Public Radio, Jeffrey Feltman, former US special envoy to the region, said the bloody conflict reflected both men’s “lust for power.” The two were in a “marriage of convenience” after they worked together to oust former President Omar al-Bashir in 2019. For around two years, Sudan was a pseudo-democracy with a transitional government that featured civilian officials, but then Burhan staged a coup and took control. Now, Hemedti wants more influence.

In particular, argued University of Washington historian Christopher Tounsel in the Conversation, Hemedti was deploying RSF fighters around the country without the Sudanese army’s input.

And meanwhile, foreign hands were stirring the pot, especially Russia’s Wagner Group, Libya, and Egypt. Now, analysts worry that Sudan’s implosion could impact the region, destabilizing “Chad, the Central African Republic, Libya and South Sudan, which are all already scarred by conflict to varying degrees,” wrote the International Crisis Group. “Further, Sudan is riddled with countless other armed groups and communal militias, any or all of which could throw in its lot with Burhan or Hemedti, turning a two-sided war into a much more complex free-for-all, especially in the country’s peripheral areas.”

Tounsel cited an African proverb to describe the situation: “When the elephants fight, it is the grass that gets trampled.”

Similar violence and results have unfolded throughout Africa since the 1950s, contended Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara. Generals unseat dictators on pledges of national revival, prosperity, and democracy. They then fall into disputes with their allies, triggering gunfights that morph into civil wars.

And the grass doesn’t get a chance to recover.

THE WORLD, BRIEFLY

The End of the Road

PERU

Peru’s former President Alejandro Toledo surrendered to US authorities over the weekend and is expected to be extradited to Peru where he faces charges of corruption and money laundering, Agence France-Presse reported.

Toledo, who served as Peru’s president from 2001 to 2006, is wanted for alleged involvement in a wide-ranging scandal involving the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.

Peruvian prosecutors have accused him of taking millions of dollars from Odebrecht in exchange for favorable treatment during the bidding process for public works contracts. Toledo denies wrongdoing and claims that the charges against him are politically motivated.

He has been living in the US for a number of years and has fought extradition to Peru for nearly four years through various legal maneuvers.

If he is found guilty, he could face up to 20 years in prison.

The “Car Wash” scandal rocked governments across Latin America, with Odebrecht acknowledging in 2016 that it paid around $800 million in bribes to win lucrative contracts across the region, according to the New York Times.

Dozens of Latin American politicians and business leaders have been jailed for their involvement in the scandal, and Toledo is the third former Peruvian president to be implicated, along with Ollanta Humala and Alan García – the latter committed suicide in 2019 as police were about to arrest him.

Now, Toledo’s extradition is regarded as a win for anti-corruption efforts in Peru and proof that even high-ranking officials are not above the law.

Even so, it comes at a period of political unrest in the country, which has had seven presidents in the past seven years and has been roiled by protests since the impeachment of former President Pedro Castillo in December.

The Long Chapter

INDIA

An Indian court acquitted 69 Hindus, including a former minister of the country’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), of the murder of 11 Muslims during the deadly 2002 riots in the western state of Gujarat, the Guardian reported.

The victims died after their homes were set ablaze by Hindu mobs in the city of Ahmedabad during an outbreak of communal violence in February 2002.

Initially, there were 86 Hindus accused of the Ahmedabad murders, but 17 died before the trial was concluded. The special court cleared the remaining defendants of all charges, including Maya Kondani, a former minister in current Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration. Kondani was a lawmaker during the 2002 riots.

Others acquitted were members of Hindu vigilante groups that have close ties to the BJP.

The verdict is a major blow to those fighting for justice for the victims of the Gujarat riots. Many have accused the state government – controlled by the Hindu nationalist BJP – of protecting alleged Hindu culprits, intimidating victims and obstructing justice.

The riots began after Muslims were alleged to have set fire to a train carriage carrying Hindu pilgrims, prompting retaliatory attacks from Hindu groups. The unrest is considered one of the worst outbreaks of religious violence in India’s post-independence history.

More than 1,000 people – mostly Muslims – died in the violence, a number that human rights groups believe is higher.

Modi, who was chief minister of Gujarat during the riots, has also been accused of being complicit in the bloodshed by allowing Hindu groups to perpetrate violence and ordering authorities not to intervene.

The prime minister has denied the allegations and a supreme court panel found there was not enough evidence to prosecute him.

Try, Try Again

UGANDA

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni refused to sign into law a new bill that would impose harsh penalties including death against homosexuals, and requested that lawmakers revise the controversial draft legislation, Al Jazeera reported.

Museveni ordered the amendments following a meeting with legislators of his ruling party, a majority of whom support the bill that parliament approved last month.

While he had no objections over the harsh punishments stipulated in the bill, Museveni wanted lawmakers to look further into “the issue of rehabilitation of the persons who have in the past been engaged in homosexuality but would like to live normal lives again.”

Homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda under a colonial-era law criminalizing sexual acts “against the order of nature.” The new bill would have imposed more severe punishments, such as life imprisonment for homosexuality and the death penalty for the offense of “aggravated homosexuality.”

Aggravated homosexuality is described as sexual encounters involving HIV-infected people, minors, and other vulnerable people.

Those who advocate or support the rights of LGBTQ individuals face prison sentences of up to 20 years.

The contentious legislation prompted international condemnation from human rights groups and Western nations, with the United States threatening economic consequences if the bill became law.

Museveni has been under pressure to veto the bill, but anti-gay sentiment in Uganda has grown in recent weeks amid reports alleging sodomy in boarding schools.

DISCOVERIES

Scoring a Tiger

Scientists have discovered that tigers have distinct personalities that can also determine how the big cats fare in the wild, according to Science Magazine.

For their paper, researchers surveyed the caretakers of nearly 250 Siberian tigers living in two wildlife sanctuaries in northeastern China. The questionnaire included lists of up to 70 adjectives that described tiger personality traits for each cat in their care, ranging from “savage” and “imposing” to “dignified” and “friendly.”

The research team then reviewed more than 800 questionnaires and determined two diverse personality traits accounted for nearly 40 percent of the large feline’s behavior: “Majesty” and “steadiness” mindsets.

“Majesty” tigers scored highly regarding more aggressive and domineering traits, such as confidence, competitiveness and ambition. Animals in the “steadiness” mindset displayed traits such as obedience, tolerance and gentleness.

The team noted that the results resemble past research on both wild and domestic cats, adding these personalities also affect other aspects of a tiger’s life.

For example, the “majesty” felines were healthier, hunted more and had more breeding success than those with “steadiness” personalities. They also appeared to have a higher social status.

Still, researchers plan to further inquire why majesty mindsets have a higher success in the wild than their more cautious counterparts.

The authors added that the personality study could help boost conservation efforts of tigers in the wild, a species that is currently labeled as endangered.

“Our hope is that the illumination of the magnificence and rich interior life and personalities of these animals is making a tiny contribution to tiger welfare and conservation,” said lead author Rosalind Arden.

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