UK to end Sudan evacuation with final flight as death toll rises

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2 years ago

April 30, 2023

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The final UK evacuation flight will leave Sudan tonight, as the death toll rises in the war-torn country.

Gunfire and heavy artillery in parts of the capital Khartoum, despite a ceasefire between the country’s two top generals, was reported by residents on Saturday.

Some 1,888 people have been evacuated on 21 flights from Wadi Saeedna Air Base since the UK’s aerial evacuation of Sudan began on Tuesday.

The Foreign Office says the evacuation of Britons has been the largest of any Western nation from the country.

The civilian death toll jumped to 411 and the number of injured to 2,023, according to the Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate, which measures casualties.

More than 50,000 Sudanese refugees – mostly women and children – have crossed over into Chad, Egypt, South Sudan and the Central African Republic since the crisis began, the United Nations said.

It said the diaspora risks raising regional instability, with South Sudan and the Central African Republic scarred by years of ethnic fighting and turmoil and Chad’s own democratic transition derailed by a 2021 coup.

Khartoum, a city of some five million people, has become a front line in the fighting between General Abdel Fattah Burhan, the commander of Sudan’s military, and General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, who leads the powerful paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces.

Those who escape the city face further obstacles, with a long and risky overland journey to Port Sudan, where ships have been evacuating people via the Red Sea.

The UK government has said it remains committed to supporting British nationals who remain in Sudan and its focus would now turn to providing consular support to British nationals in Port Sudan and neighbouring countries in the region.

Airlifts have also faced challenges, with a Turkish evacuation plane hit by gunfire outside of Khartoum on Friday.

‘It’s terrible there – the situation is not good’

The Coral Hotel – an architectural replica of the British colonial Governor’s House across the road – is the new office for British consular support.

The operations base relocated from Wad Seidna in Omdurman – roughly 22km from Khartoum and a heartland of fighting – after a Turkish military plane came under fire as it was about to land.

A senior military commander told Sky News that the plane was not following the agreed flight route and was considered a potential threat.

Before the incident, British citizens travelling to Wad Seidna military base condemned the lack of protection en route.

British diplomats were evacuated from Sudan a week into the conflict in a special military operation and the UK government came under fire for not evacuating their citizens. Civilian evacuation missions were announced on 25 April.

Here in the Coral Hotel, there are few British citizens to evacuate.

Many had already made their way – via Egypt and other rescue missions – by the time the UK began its evacuation effort.

Others who came here to Port Sudan left with the first three Saudi Arabian naval ships that transported them for 10 hours across the Red Sea to Jeddah.

The rooms are full of Sudanese-Americans and Sudanese nationals with UK and EU entry permits.

Anyone else is scattered in hotels and accommodation across town and hundreds are sleeping on the hard ground of the port.

“I wish [my family] had these documents so they can leave because it’s terrible there,” says Maowia, a Sudanese-American citizen.

“I feel sorry for them because the situation is not good.”

Civilians running out of food and supplies

Fighting continued around the presidential palace, the headquarters of the state broadcaster and a military base on Saturday, residents said, despite a ceasefire extended by another 72 hours on Friday under heavy international pressure.

Columns of thick black smoke billowed over the capital city’s skyline.

Those sheltering at home amid the conflict, which is now in its third week, have warned they are running out of food and basic supplies.

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While the military has appeared to have the upper hand in the battle to control Africa’s third-largest nation, there is little hope the conflict will end anytime soon.

World

Over 100 politicians from multiple countries condemn China over detention of tycoon Jimmy Lai

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1 hour ago

November 19, 2024

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Over 100 politicians from multiple countries condemn China over detention of tycoon Jimmy Lai

More than 100 politicians from 24 different countries, including the UK, the US and the EU, have written a joint letter condemning China over the “arbitrary detention and unfair trial” of Jimmy Lai, a tycoon and pro-democracy campaigner.

The parliamentarians, led by senior British Conservative MP Alicia Kearns, are “urgently” demanding the immediate release of the 77-year-old British citizen, who has been held in solitary confinement at a maximum security prison in Hong Kong for almost four years.

The letter – which will be embarrassing for Beijing – was made public on the eve of Mr Lai’s trial resuming and on the day after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of a G20 summit of economic powers in Brazil.

It also comes as Hong Kong jailed 45 pro-democracy activists.

The group of politicians, who also include representatives from Canada, Australia, Spain, Germany, Ukraine and France, said Mr Lai’s treatment was “inhumane”.

“He is being tried on trumped-up charges arising from his peaceful promotion of democracy, his journalism and his human rights advocacy,” they wrote in the letter, which has been seen by Sky News.

“The world is watching as the rule of law, media freedom and human rights in Hong Kong are eroded and undermined.

“We stand together in our defence of these fundamental freedoms and in our demand that Jimmy Lai be released immediately and unconditionally.”

Sir Keir raised the case of Mr Lai during remarks released at the start of his talks with Mr Xi on Monday – the first meeting between a British prime minister and the Chinese leader in six years.

The prime minister could be heard expressing concerns about reports of Mr Lai’s deteriorating health. However, he did not appear to call for his immediate release.

Ms Kearns, the MP for Rutland and Stamford in the East Midlands, said the meeting had been an opportunity to be unequivocal that the UK expects Mr Lai to be freed.

“Jimmy Lai is being inhumanely persecuted for standing up for basic human values,” she said in a statement, released alongside the letter.

“He represents the flame of freedom millions seek around the world.

“We have a duty to fight for Jimmy Lai as a British citizen, and to take a stand against the Chinese Community Party’s erosion of rule of law in Hong Kong.

“This letter represents the strength of international feeling and commitment of parliamentarians globally to securing Jimmy Lai’s immediate release and return to the UK with his family.”

Mr Lai was famously the proprietor of the Chinese-language newspaper Apple Daily in Hong Kong, which wrote scathing reports about the local authorities and the communist government in mainland China after Britain handed back the territory to Beijing in 1997.

The tabloid was a strong supporter of pro-democracy protesters who took to the streets of Hong Kong to demonstrate against the government in 2019.

But the media mogul was arrested the following year – one of the first victims of a draconian new security law imposed by the Chinese Communist Party.

His newspaper was closed after his bank accounts were frozen.

Mr Lai has since been convicted of illegal assembly and fraud. He is now on trial for sedition over articles published in Apple Daily.

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Hong Kong jails 45 pro-democracy activists after accusing them of trying to overthrow the city’s government

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1 hour ago

November 19, 2024

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Hong Kong jails 45 pro-democracy activists after accusing them of trying to overthrow the city's government

Forty-five pro-democracy activists have been jailed in Hong Kong’s largest ever national security trial.

The activists sentenced with jail terms ranging from four years to ten years were accused of conspiracy to commit subversion after holding an unofficial primary election in Hong Kong in 2020.

They were arrested in 2021.

Hong Kong authorities say the defendants were trying to overthrow the territory’s government.

Democracy activist Benny Tai received the longest sentence of ten years. He became the face of the movement when thousands of protesters took to the city’s streets during the “Umbrella Movement” demonstrations.

However, Hong Kong officials accused him of being behind the plan to organise elections to select candidates.

Tai had pleaded guilty, his lawyers argued he believed his election plan was allowed under the city’s Basic Law.

Another prominent activist Joshua Wong received a sentence of more than four years.

Wong became one of the leading figures in the protests. His activism started as a 15 year old when he spearheaded a huge rally against a government plan to change the school curriculum.

Then in 2019 Hong Kong erupted in protests after the city’s government proposed a bill that would allow extradition to mainland China. It peaked in June 2019 when Amnesty International reported that up to two million people marched on the streets, paralysing parts of Hong Kong’s business district.

The extradition bill was later dropped but it had ignited a movement demanding political change and freedom to elect their own leaders in Hong Kong.

China’s central government called the protests “riots” that could not continue.

Hong Kong introduced a national security law in the aftermath of the protests.

The US has called the trial “politically motivated”.

Dozens of family and friends of the accused were waiting for the verdict outside the West Kowloon Magistrates Court.

British citizen and media mogul Jimmy Lai is due to testify on Wednesday.

Meeting on the sidelines of the G20 in Brazil, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told China’s President Xi Jinping he’s concerned about the health of Lai.

He faces charges of fraud and the 2019 protests. He has also been charged with sedition and collusion with foreign forces.

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42,000 march on New Zealand’s parliament in support of Maori rights

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1 hour ago

November 19, 2024

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42,000 march on New Zealand's parliament in support of Maori rights

Tens of thousands of people have marched on New Zealand’s parliament in a protest in support of Maori rights.

The huge crowds took to the streets of Wellington in opposition to a law that could reshape the country’s founding treaty between the indigenous Maori people and the British crown.

The march was described as likely the country’s largest-ever protest in support of Maori rights.

“We’re fighting for our tamariki [children], for our mokopuna [grandchildren], so they can have what we haven’t been able to have,” Shanell Bob said as she waited for the march to begin.

“It’s different to when I was a child. We’re stronger now, our tamariki [children] are stronger now, they know who they are, they’re proud of who they are.”

The bill the protesters oppose is unpopular and unlikely to become law, but opposition to it has exploded.

It would change the meaning of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi and prevent its principles from applying only to the Maori people – whose chiefs signed the document when New Zealand was colonised.

Considered New Zealand’s founding document, it laid out the principles guiding the relationship between the British crown and the Maori in two versions – one in English and one in Maori.

The document gave Maori the same rights and privileges as British citizens, but the English and Maori versions differed in the degree to which the chiefs ceded power over their affairs, lands and autonomy.

Over time, the colonial rulers breached both versions, with Maori language and culture dwindling – the country’s indigenous people often barred from practicing it – and tribal land was confiscated.

What’s in the controversial bill?

The bill has been drawn up by the libertarian ACT New Zealand party, a junior partner in the ruling centre-right coalition government.

It seeks to enshrine a narrower interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi which it says discriminates against non-indigenous citizens.

Critics say it is motivated by a desire to reverse decades of policies that aimed to empower Maori people, who make up around 20% of the 5.3 million population.

In recent years, interpretation of clauses in the treaty have frequently guided legislation and policy, with rulings by the courts and a separate Maori tribunal resulting in growing Maori rights and privileges in the decades since independence in 1947.

The bill’s author, libertarian politician David Seymour, says that process of redress, following the earlier decades of breaches of the treaty, has created special treatment for the Maori – which he opposes.

‘We’re going for a walk!’

“We’re going for a walk!” one organiser said from a stage, as crowds gathered at the opposite end of New Zealand’s capital at the beginning of the protest.

Some people taking part had travelled the length of the country over the past nine days.

Diverse groups waited with Maori sovereignty flags at bus stops, which would have usually been occupied by morning commuters.

Youngsters were among those taking part as some schools said they wouldn’t register students as absent if they attended.

The city’s mayor joined in the protest as well as other politicians.

The Maori haka was performed by protesters as thousands more held signs in support as they lined the streets.

Some carried placards that bore jokes or insults aimed at politicians behind the bill, while others expressed pride in Maori identity, support for the protest or denounced the colonisation of the country.

Police said that about 42,000 people walked to the parliament’s grounds, with some spilling into the surrounding streets.

People sought the best vantage points, with some cramming themselves on to a children’s slide, as others climbed trees.

The legislation made it through its first vote last Thursday, after Mr Seymour made a political deal.

ACT’s coalition partners, the National Party and New Zealand First, agreed to support the bill through the first of its three readings, but both have said they will not support it to become law.

Mr Seymour briefly walked out on to the parliament’s forecourt to observe the protest and was booed by some.