Africa
South Sudan: Yes, another war for oil
South Sudan may be developing into proxy war, pitting US client states Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia against Khartoum in a struggle for control of pipeline routes.
Tag: peace initiatives
The Andes
Colombia: campesinos mobilize for land, water
Campesinos across Colombia continue to press demands for return of lands usurped by paramilitaries—despite conitnued death threats and legal persecution.
Afghanistan
Women’s freedom icon rocks Kabul peace concert
Aryana Sayeed, a popular singer and TV personality facing death threats for refusing to wear the hijab, performed at a Kabul "Peace Concert," organized by youth groups.
Afghanistan
Malala Yousafzai: still a hero!
Malala Yousafzai has not been co-opted by international accolades, as evidenced by her protests against US drone strikes—to President Obama’s very face.
Africa
Pipeline intrigues behind South Sudan fighting
South Sudan says Khartoum is fomenting rebellion in Jonglei state in a bid to block the South’s plans to build an oil pipeline through Ethiopia to a port in Djibouti.
Africa
Kenya: land at issue in electoral tensions
Separatists on Kenya's coast are boycotting the elections, claiming their territory was illegally annexed, its lands usurped from the inhabitants and handed out to settlers.
The Andes
Colombia: tribunal rules for Peace Community
A Colombian court ordered the army to hold a public ceremony officially apologizing for the massacre at San José de Apartadó Peace Community, eight years after it was carried out.
The Andes
Colombia: ELN to join peace talks?
Colombia’s peace advocates are calling for inclusion of the ELN guerillas in the Havana dialogue with the FARC, warning of a “marginalized” front in the civil war.
The Andes
Colombia: ICC ‘false positive’ probe advances
The International Criminal Court issued an interim report on the Colombian military’s “false positives” extradjudicial killings, finding official complicity up the chain of command.
The Andes
Colombia: San José de Apartadó Peace Community under attack again
The San José de Apartadó Peace Community in Colombia’s northern Urabá region is again under threat—seven years after the massacre that forced many residents to flee the village.
The Andes
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Colombia's President Iván Duque declared the peace process with the National Liberation Army (ELN) indefinitely suspended following a bomb blast at a National Police academy in Bogotá that left more than 20 dead and some 70 wounded. Calling the ELN a "criminal machine of kidnapping and assassination," Duque said that arrest orders against the group's top leaders, suspended for the talks, would now be carried out. He also called on Cuba, where members of the ELN command are now based, to have them arrested. The ELN took responsibility for the attack in a communique, calling it an act of "legitimate defense" that was "legal under the laws of war." The statement asserted: "The National Police School of Cadets is a military installation; there officials receive instruction and training later put to use in combat, conducting military operations, actively participating in the counter-insurgency war and bringing methods of war for use against social protest." (Photo: Colombia Reports)
Greater Middle East
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US officials say the timetable for Donald Trump's withdrawal of all 2,000 troops from Syria has been extended from 30 days to four months. The statements came a day after Trump met with his ally Sen. Lindsay Graham, a critic of the withdrawal order, who was apparently instrumental in getting the president to blink—amid the predictable irruption of blustering and face-saving tweets. This may apply some brakes to Turkish preparations to cross the border to expunge the revolutionary Kurdish forces in northern Syria's autonomous zone of Rojava. Residents of the Rojava town of Kobane, near the border, have launched a "human shield" encampment to block any incursion by Turkish forces. At the border village of Qeremox, the unarmed encampment was organized by Kobane's autonomous administration, and has been joined by international supporters. (Photo of Kobani women at the Qeremox encampment via ANF)