Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 701
As the war enters its 701st day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Thursday, January 25, 2024. Fighting A Russian military transport plane carrying 74 people crashed in the Belgorod region of southern Russia not far from the Ukrainian border. Russia said there were 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war on board who were part of a planned prisoner swap, and accused Ukraine of shooting down the plane. Ukraine did not confirm it had shot down the plane, or that Ukrainian POWs were passengers. The Ukrainian military said it would continue to target military transport aircraft it believed were carrying missiles for Russia’s war on Ukraine, and air force commander Mykola Oleshchuk accused Russia of trying to discredit Ukraine over the aircraft crash. “Ukraine has the right to defend itself and destroy the means of the aggressors’ aerial attack,” he said. Ukraine’s military intelligence service said Kyiv had not been asked to ensure air space security on Wednesday around the Belgorod area as had been the case during previous prisoner-of-war swaps with Moscow. It said it had no reliable information on who was on board the crashed plane. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for full clarity on the circumstances of the crash and accused Moscow of “playing with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners of war”. The RBC Ukraine news outlet said he cancelled a planned regional trip as well as events linked to his birthday to deal with the crash. Two people were killed and eight injured in the town of Hirnyk, close to the front line in the east, after a Russian missile attack hit a residential area, Donetsk regional governor Vadym Filashkin said. Hirnyk lies to the northwest of Maryinka, a town still held by Ukraine but all but destroyed after many months of fighting with Russian forces. Regional governor Oleh Kiper said one person was injured in a Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa, that hit residential homes and started a fire. Avdiivka mayor Vitaliy Barabash said Russian forces entered the war-battered town for the first time but were pushed back. “Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups entered the southern part of the city of Avdiivka, but they were dislodged,” Barabash told the AFP news agency but declined to say when the Russians entered the town or how long they were there. About 32,000 people lived in Avdiivka before Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Politics and diplomacy Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said he was worried that the war in Ukraine had been forgotten amid crises in other parts of the world. Speaking at the end of a week-long visit to Kyiv, Grandi told the Associated Press news agency that it was important to remind the international community that Ukrainians continued to live through a brutal war and that he was concerned humanitarian aid was being held up by political wrangling. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico met Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in the western Ukrainian town of Uzhhorod where he reaffirmed support for Ukraine’s bid to join the European Union, but said policy differences remained on issues including NATO accession. Fico, elected after tapping into pro-Russian sentiments, said he did not believe there was a military solution to the war, and welcomed a peace plan proposed by Ukraine’s president, although he called it unrealistic. In the first of three required readings, Russia’s State Duma passed a bill to confiscate the property, money and valuables of anyone convicted of spreading criticism of the Russian army. Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska is the first women’s qualifier to reach the Australian Open semifinals in 45 years [Mike Frey/USA TODAY Sports via Reuters] A US Senate committee approved 20 to 1 in favour of the “Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity [REPO)] for Ukrainians Act”, which would help set the stage for the US to confiscate Russian assets and hand them over to Ukraine for post-war reconstruction. The bill has broad bipartisan support but needs to pass both houses of Congress before it can be signed by the president and become law. The EU, the US, Japan and Canada froze some $300bn of Russian central bank assets in 2022 when Russia launched its full-scale invasion nearly two years ago. Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska became the first women’s qualifier to reach the semifinals of the Australian Open in 45 years. After her latest victory, and wearing blue and yellow to match Ukraine’s flag, she said she was “proud” of those fighting for their country. Weapons German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said European nations had to “do more” to provide the weapons for Ukraine to defend itself from Russia’s onslaught. “The contributions that European nations have earmarked for 2024 so far are not big enough,” Scholz told Die Zeit weekly in an interview. Adblock test (Why?)
‘Traitor’: Thousands strike against Argentina’s President Javier Milei
Buenos Aires, Argentina – In the biggest show of resistance to date against far-right President Javier Milei, Argentinian workers have taken to the streets for a general strike, bringing swaths of downtown Buenos Aires to a standstill. It was an unprecedented mobilisation. Never before in modern Argentinian history has a mass strike been called less than seven weeks into a new presidency. But leaders from Argentina’s largest labour union say the nationwide protests reflect the urgency they feel as Milei pursues radical economic and political reforms he likens to “shock therapy”. Thousands of protesters swarmed the square in front of Argentina’s Congress on Wednesday, denouncing Milei’s sweeping plans to overhaul the government, privatise public industries and slash spending. Some banged pots and carried signs accusing Milei of being a “traitor”. Other banners featured the portrait of working-class icon Evita Peron. Elizabeth Gutierrez made her way to the gathering after working an overnight shift as a nurse. She explained she was motivated by steep increases in food prices since Milei took office. “Before we used to have asados [barbecues] every Sunday. Not now. Even rice is very expensive,” Gutierrez said. “Rents have shot up. You can’t live off your salary any more: It’s not enough.” “The people are here to defend their nation,” she added. Protester Alicia Pereyra, 63, says her life has been turned ‘upside down’ since Javier Milei’s inauguration [Lautaro Grinspan/Al Jazeera] Another protester, 63-year-old retiree Alicia Pereyra, voiced opposition to Milei’s efforts to deregulate the economy, including plans to “modernise” labour law and ditch rent regulation. “He wants us to be slaves,” Pereyra said. Draped in an Argentinian flag, Pereyra worried about her ability to make ends meet in the face of Milei’s reforms. Her retirement income amounts to only 85,000 pesos per month — about $70. She said basic necessities had become so costly under Milei that she is unsure whether she will be able to access the medicine she needs for a chronic illness. Even small luxuries are now out of reach. Pereyra described how she and her husband opted for orange juice instead of wine to make their New Year’s toast for 2024, breaking a long-running family tradition. “It’s a horrible feeling of not knowing what’s going to happen tomorrow,” she said. “[Milei] is turning our heads upside down.” Protesters clanged pots and pans on the streets of Buenos Aires, Argentina, on January 24 [Lautaro Grinspan/Al Jazeera] Extreme measures exacerbate extreme inflation Argentina had already been suffering from record triple-digit inflation when Milei took office on December 10. Elected on the promise that he would fix the sputtering economy, Milei quickly moved to implement austerity measures that he said were needed to get Argentina’s finances in order. In his inauguration address, he warned the country that Argentina’s situation would get worse before it got better. And he was right. One of his earliest measures was to devalue the Argentinian peso by 54 percent, which accelerated the already sky-high inflation rates. According to the National Institute for Statistics and Censuses (INDEC), Argentina ended 2023 with annual inflation of 211.4 percent, the steepest rate in Latin America, surpassing even Venezuela. The year also clocked the fastest inflation hikes since 1990, resulting in higher prices for consumers. Santiago Manoukian, chief economist at the consulting firm Ecolatina, told Al Jazeera that December’s price increases will continue hitting consumers’ pocketbooks for the next several months. Salaries will have a hard time keeping up. “We believe that real wages fell in December more than in any other month since at least 2002,” he said. “Purchasing power is going to continue to go down.” That trend is expected to slow consumer spending, which Manoukian said will likely result in a recession and an uptick in unemployment and poverty. Four in 10 Argentines were already in poverty when Milei took office, according to national data. Thousands of Argentinians participated in Wednesday’s nationwide strike, called by one of the country’s largest labour unions [Lautaro Grinspan/Al Jazeera] Omnibus bill proceeds to Congress amid strike Milei coupled his currency devaluation measure with immediate cuts to government spending, including consumer subsidies. One presidential “mega-decree” in December reformed or overturned dozens of laws and paved the way for the privatisation of state-run companies. Another decree axed 5,000 government jobs. But further changes are on the way. Wednesday’s nationwide strike comes as Congress prepares to consider a slimmed-down version of Milei’s “omnibus law” the following day. Originally containing 664 articles, the bill sought to reimagine the country’s elections, restructure the lower chamber of Congress and enact tough new restrictions on protests, including through penalties of up to six years in prison. The streamlined version is still massive, with over 500 articles. If passed, it would hand broad legislative powers to Milei’s executive branch for an “emergency” period of one year. Still, the president dismissed Wednesday’s strike as evidence of backward thinking. “There are two Argentinas,” he told local media. “One wants to stay behind, in the past, in decadence.” Members of his administration likewise blasted the protesters. On Wednesday, Security Minister Patricia Bullrich — Milei’s erstwhile rival on the campaign trail — called the union groups that organised the strike “gangsters” and “guarantors of poverty”. “There’s no strike that will be able to stop us,” she wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Retirees carrying handwritten signs denounce austerity measures enacted under President Javier Milei in Argentina[Lautaro Grinspan/Al Jazeera] Expert compares Milei to a ’mini-Trump’ Federico Finchelstein, a New York-based historian and fascism scholar, said Milei’s first month in office has demonstrated his “authoritarian style of populism”. He drew parallels to Donald Trump, the controversial — but popular — former president of the United States who sought to claim broad executive authority while in office. Finchelstein likened Milei to a “mini-Trump”. “It’s a type of populism that looks to undermine democratic institutions,” Finchelstein said. But despite the criticism and protests he faces, Milei continues to enjoy broad support among Argentinians. One survey this month,
Hundreds flee further south as Israeli forces advance in Khan Younis
Hundreds of Palestinians have fled Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis after Israeli forces advanced deeper into the area. The Israeli military said its ground forces “encircled” the city earlier this week after 24 of its soldiers were killed in the enclave in the largest single-day toll since October 7. Khan Younis was designated by the Israeli army as a so-called “safe zone” for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who were forced to leave their homes in northern Gaza and Gaza City. However, repeated Israeli bombardment and attacks in the south have resulted in widespread destruction and more displacement. Israeli forces targeted hospitals, ambulances and schools where thousands of civilians had been sheltering. Gaza’s Ministry of Health has warned that Nasser Hospital and Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis are now in “grave danger”. In Nasser Hospital, shrapnel that reached inside the buildings has threatened the lives of patients, medical staff and people sheltering there, it said. On Tuesday, families once again picked up what was left of their belongings and fled towards the southern Rafah governorate, an already overcrowded area where disease is flourishing amid a lack of clean water, food, medicine and other basic supplies. The cold winter months and rainy season have worsened the misery of the 1.9 million displaced Palestinians. Many have had to move repeatedly in search of relative safety, the United Nations has said. Adblock test (Why?)
ICJ to decide on emergency measures in Israel-Gaza genocide case this week
The World Court will decide whether to order emergency measures relating to Israel’s military action in Gaza. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has said it will announce on Friday whether it will order emergency measures against Israel after South Africa filed a case accusing Israel of genocide in its assault on Gaza. The United Nations’ top court said in a statement on Wednesday that the 17-judge panel will announce its response to South Africa’s requests in court on January 26 at 12:00 GMT. South Africa’s Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor will travel to The Hague to be present at the court as it delivers its announcement, a government spokesperson said, according to Reuters. The ICJ will not deal with the main question of whether Israel is committing genocide on Friday, but will look at possible emergency measures requested by South Africa to restrain Israel’s actions. Earlier this month, in two days of hearings, South Africa asked the ICJ, also known as the World Court, to order an emergency suspension of Israel’s devastating military campaign in the Palestinian enclave. It argued that provisional measures are necessary “to protect against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people under the Genocide Convention, which continue to be violated with impunity”. If the ICJ does decide on issuing emergency measures, it is not bound to order exactly the actions South Africa requested. Such measures are intended to prevent a dispute from getting worse while the court looks at the full case, which could take several years. The ICJ’s deliberations are a painstaking process, involving detailed written submissions followed by oral arguments and counter-arguments by the team of top legal counsels representing each state. Experts say a ruling in the case could take three to four years. Rulings by the court are legally binding and without appeal, but the court has no way to enforce them. If the court grants some or all of South Africa’s eight requests for so-called provisional measures, it is unclear whether Israel will comply. Israel dismissed the genocide allegations as “grossly distorted” and said it had a right to defend itself from Hamas, the Palestinian group that led a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, killing at least 1,139 people and seizing around 240 others has hostages, according to Israeli officials. Israel says it is targeting Hamas in Gaza, not Palestinian civilians. Since October, more than 25,700 people have been killed in the Israeli assault, mostly women and children, according to Palestinian authorities in Gaza. While Israel often boycotts international tribunals and UN investigations, saying they are unfair and biased, the country sent a high-level legal team to two days of hearings earlier this month. Any court order to halt operations would be a major blow to the country’s international standing. The European Union has been silent on the matter, but Israel has seen support from its number-one backer and weapons supplier, the United States. Adblock test (Why?)
Will a US court order Biden to stop ‘complicity’ in Gaza genocide?
Shawan Jabarin wants to know when it will be enough: When will the death toll in Gaza be high enough for United States President Joe Biden to end his unequivocal military and diplomatic support for Israel? “How many Palestinian civilians have to be killed until he says, ‘This number is enough?’ How many? Two million Palestinians? One million? 700,000? It [would be] good if he can tell us which number wakes up his human conscience.” Jabarin, the general director of the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq, said Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip would not be possible without US support. The Israeli military campaign has killed more than 25,000 Palestinians, and United Nations officials and other experts have repeatedly warned of a risk of genocide. Yet, since the war began in early October, the Biden administration has bypassed Congress to greenlight arms sales to Israel and blocked efforts to secure a ceasefire. That’s why Al-Haq, alongside two other advocacy groups and individual Palestinians affected by the war, filed a lawsuit in the US late last year accusing Biden and other senior US leaders of being complicit in genocide. The first hearing in the case is set for January 26 in a federal court in California. “Without American support — militarily, politically — nothing like [this could have] happened,” Jabarin told Al Jazeera in a phone interview from Ramallah. “The US are not complicit indirectly. No, directly. They are helping to commission a genocide in Gaza.” The case Filed in mid-November, the lawsuit (PDF) accuses the Biden administration of failing to meet its responsibilities under international and domestic law to prevent genocide. The 1948 Genocide Convention, which the US ratified, states that “genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which [state parties] undertake to prevent and to punish”. It also outlines that “complicity in genocide” is a punishable act. Additionally, the obligations to prevent and punish genocide have been recognised as being part of “customary international law” — a term that refers to “a general practice accepted as law”. Drawing from those statutes, the lawsuit alleges “the United States has been obligated, from the time it learned of the specter of a genocide of the Palestinian people, to exercise its clear and considerable influence on Israel to prevent this grave crime from unfolding”. The complaint names three defendants: Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. It claims they “have not only been failing to uphold the country’s obligation to prevent a genocide, but have enabled the conditions for its development”. The lawsuit also emphasises that US leaders were fully aware of Israel’s “genocidal” objectives. “Dehumanising” remarks by senior Israeli officials, including Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, demonstrated a clear intent to pursue the “erasure and destruction of Palestinians”, it explained. Gallant, for instance, called Palestinians “human animals” when he ordered the total siege of Gaza in early October. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said, “The enemy will pay an unprecedented price,” before ordering Palestinians to “get out” of Gaza. “Those statements were not mere rhetoric. Israeli officials said what they meant and [they] do what they say,” said Katherine Gallagher, a senior staff lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), one of the organisations involved in the case. “States that have the ability to influence a country that is at serious risk of — if not already — committing genocide have to take all measures within [their] power to prevent [it],” she told Al Jazeera. “And the United States did not do that. Instead, it offered unconditional military support, financial support, and diplomatic cover and support for Israel’s ongoing genocidal campaign.” Gallagher explained that the plaintiffs are asking a district court to declare that the US has breached its obligations to prevent genocide. They are also requesting a preliminary injunction ordering officials to “take all measures within their power” to fulfil its legal responsibilities. “That would mean cutting off and ceasing the military support for the genocide,” she said. Government’s defence But the Biden administration has asked that the lawsuit be thrown out. In a December filing (PDF), it argued the court is being asked to “intrude into areas committed to the political branches of the government and violate constitutional separation of powers”. Since foreign policy is decided by the executive branch, not the courts, the lawsuit “should be dismissed as nonjusticiable”, the filing said. Oona Hathaway, a law professor at Yale University Law School, explained that this argument — known as the political question doctrine — is commonly used in foreign affairs cases, including challenges to the use of US military force abroad. “I think there is a good chance that a court will decide that this [US complicity in genocide case] is barred by the political question doctrine,” Hathaway told Al Jazeera. “I will say, I am myself really not a fan of the political question doctrine because I think that it means that legal violations often go unaddressed,” she said. “The truth of the matter is that, if the courts won’t address the possible legal violations, the chance that Congress is likely to do so is extremely slim.” Hathaway questioned whether the federal court would allow the claim to move to the merits stage, where parties present why their arguments should win. But even if that does not happen, Hathaway said the plaintiffs are likely hoping “to start a conversation” and bring attention to the situation in Gaza. “I think it’s part of raising the visibility of these concerns and ensuring that lawmakers and the American public are aware that there [are] potential legal obligations on the United States, not just on Israel, that are relevant to this conflict.” Effort ‘to stop this genocide’ For their part, the plaintiffs have rejected the government’s use of the political question doctrine. “This is not a case about run-of-the-mill policy decisions by the executive branch,” said Gallagher. “This is a case about compliance with
Suspect arrested over South Africa building fire that killed 77
A 29-year-old man told an inquiry of his involvement in starting the fire on August 31, 2023. South African police have arrested a man suspected of starting the fire that killed dozens of people in a building in downtown Johannesburg last year. Police confirmed the arrest on Wednesday, a day after the 29-year-old suspect told an inquiry into the fire that he was involved in starting it. The man is expected to appear before a Johannesburg court “soon” on charges of arson, 77 counts of murder and 120 counts of attempted murder, police said in a statement cited by the Reuters news agency. The blaze on August 31, 2023, ripped through the five-storey Usindiso building in Marshalltown in Johannesburg’s inner city. The building, which was once an apartheid-era “pass laws” office and later a women’s shelter, was then “hijacked”, or taken over, and used for illegal housing. Many of the victims of August’s blaze, including migrants from neighbouring countries, were burned beyond recognition. Emergency services officials said at the time that most of the fire escapes in the building had been locked or chained closed that night, making the blaze even deadlier. Many people jumped out of windows to escape the inferno, according to witnesses and health officials. Some said they had to throw their babies and children out, hoping they would be caught by people below. It was one of the deadliest building fires worldwide in recent years. The fire drew the world’s attention to downtown Johannesburg’s long-running problem with ‘hijacked’ buildings [File: Michele Spatari/AFP] ‘Hijacked’ building In the aftermath of the fire, a commission of inquiry was established to investigate the tragedy. During a hearing of the inquiry on Tuesday, the suspect – who spoke as a witness – admitted to his involvement in starting the fire, local media reported. The suspect said he had started a fire in the crowded housing block to cover up a murder he had committed, which triggered the bigger blaze, South Africa’s Eyewitness News reported. Andy Chinnah, a rights activist with Amnesty International who was present at the inquiry, told the AFP news agency that the man confessed to being a drug user who had befriended a dealer in the building. The man reportedly said he was high on drugs at the time the fire was started, and only later realised the extent of the blaze. He also broke down in tears when telling the inquiry about his actions on the night of the fire, witnesses said. According to Eyewitness News, the inquiry’s evidence leader said the statements made by the man before the inquiry may not necessarily be admissible against him in court. The man also testified that the building was a haven of criminality and was effectively run by drug dealers. The fire drew the world’s attention to downtown Johannesburg’s long-running problem with “hijacked” buildings, structures that have become rundown and taken over by criminal groups who charge fees for staying there. There are hundreds of such buildings in the old centre of the city, officials say. Adblock test (Why?)
Several killed in Israeli attack on UN shelter housing 800 in southern Gaza
UNRWA official fears ‘mass casualties’ after Israeli tank shelling on one of its facilities in Khan Younis. Several people have been killed after a United Nations shelter in Gaza‘s southern city of Khan Younis was shelled by Israeli forces, the Gaza head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said. “Two tank rounds hit building that shelters 800 people – reports now 9 dead and 75 injured,” Thomas White, the Gaza director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said on the social media platform X. Update – attack on Khan Younis Training Centre this afternoon – two tank rounds hit building that shelters 800 people – reports now 9 dead and 75 injured@UNRWA and @WHO team trying to reach the centre – agreed upon route with Israeli Army blocked with earth bank #Gaza — Thomas White (@TomWhiteGaza) January 24, 2024 In a separate post earlier on Wednesday, White said the training centre sheltering displaced families had been set ablaze. The number of victims is expected to rise, as the UN official said the incident had likely caused “mass casualties”. UNRWA spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna, based in Rafah, told Al Jazeera the UN has been trying to send ambulances to the site in coordination with the Israeli army. He said no warning had been issued by the Israeli military prior to the attack. The agency has not been able to access the compound for the past 48 hours due to the presence of Israeli tanks in the area, Abu Hasna said, describing the situation as “very dangerous”. “We tried to coordinate the exit of the IDPs [internally displaced persons] there but did not succeed unfortunately,” he added. Israel has continued intense attacks on Khan Younis, targeting medical facilities, among others. Some 660 attacks on health institutions have been recorded in Gaza. ‘Fire everywhere’ Gaza’s Ministry of Health on Wednesday said the Israeli army isolated the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis after it was encircled and ground troops engaged in close-quarter combat with Hamas fighters. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) also wrote on X that the Israeli army surrounded its headquarters and the El Amal Hospital in the southern city, enforcing restrictions on movement to and from the medical facility. Khan Younis was once designated a “safe zone” for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who evacuated from the northern parts and Gaza City at the start of the war. Israeli soldiers on Monday advanced for the first time into al-Mawasi district near the Mediterranean coast west of Khan Younis. Asmaa Abu Khudair, a Palestinian woman displaced from al-Mawasi to Rafah, said she fled the intense bombardment in the area after the building next to hers was attacked by the Israeli military. “Their aircraft started firing. All of a sudden, balls of fire started to fall on us,” she told Al Jazeera. “The whole area was in flames, fire everywhere. We started running, I pulled out one of my daughters, but my other daughter I couldn’t find.” Abu Khudair said the flames grew bigger and she had to flee without her missing daughter. “Do you understand when I say fire?”, she said in tears. “I lost my daughter. My husband was in his brother’s tent.” “The following day, their bodies were recovered, totally charred,” she added. At least 25,700 people have been killed and 63,740 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since the war began on October 7. Adblock test (Why?)
Argentines take to the streets to protest against new austerity measures
The president has said that the austerity measures are due to years of overspending that have resulted in huge debts. Argentine unions have begun a 12-hour strike in the capital to protest against tough economic reforms by President Javier Milei. Wednesday’s demonstration is the most significant show of opposition to Milei’s spending cuts and privatisation plans since he took office last month and pledged to fix an economy dealing with 211 percent inflation. The strike, coordinated by the umbrella union, the General Confederation of Labour (CGT), comes amid scrutiny of Milei’s two significant reforms: the “omnibus” bill going through Congress and a “mega-decree” deregulating the economy. “Milei wants a country where poverty and informal work reaches 90 percent,” union member and national opposition deputy Hugo Yasky said on local radio station Radio Con Vos. “Now there is no job creation. What there is now is widespread misery, people’s desperation, there are no measures to mitigate the damage they are causing.” Demonstrators hold a placard that reads ‘down with the decree’ as they protest near the Pueyrredon Bridge during a one-day national strike, in Buenos Aires, Argentina [Agustin Marcarian/Reuters] Earlier on Wednesday, the omnibus bill was approved by a committee in the lower congressional house, the Chamber of Deputies. The mass strikes began at 12pm (15:00 GMT) and affected transportation, banks, hospitals, and public services. Local airlines said they had been forced to cancel hundreds of fights due to the demonstration. Protesters held placards that read “The homeland is not for sale” and “Eating is not a privilege” as some others held a giant puppet of Milei. Another poster said, “Today’s retirees are yesterday’s workers, stop robbing them!” Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman, reporting from Buenos Aires, said it was “impossible” to determine the number of people attending the protest due to its scale. “There seems to be a kind of unofficial agreement with the strikers and the security minister to allow these huge numbers of people to be here but only if they cannot disrupt traffic,” Newman said. “It’s still very, very tense, and it’s an ongoing situation here, but it’s a huge turnout so far.” Milei’s government said that the austerity measures are due to years of overspending that have left the South American country with huge debts to local and international creditors, including a $44bn deal with the International Monetary Fund. “There is no strike that stops us, there is no threat that intimidates us,” Milei’s security minister and former presidential election rival Patricia Bullrich wrote on X. “It’s mafia unionists, poverty managers, complicit judges and corrupt politicians, all defending their privileges, resisting the change that society chose democratically.” Milei, an economist and former TV pundit, assumed the presidency after a shock win in last year’s general election. Adblock test (Why?)
Sudan’s Hemedti embraced abroad as he terrorises civilians at home
On January 6, Sudanese paramilitary leader Mohamad Hamdan Dagalo, better known as “Hemedti”, visited the memorial in Kigali that commemorates the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Hemedti toured the museum solemnly, his sympathy-filled face belying the fact that his paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are accused of similar atrocities in Sudan’s civil war. Hemedti’s visit to Rwanda was part of a tour to meet African heads of state from late December to early January. South Africa, Uganda, Djibouti, Rwanda and Ethiopia all greeted Hemedti warmly, and Kenya rolled out a red carpet for him. His tour dispelled rumours that he might be seriously wounded or killed in a conflict in which his fighters have killed thousands of civilians across Sudan, seized homes, looted cars, plundered aid, robbed banks and raped indiscriminately as a weapon of war. Despite civilians testifying to these atrocities, Hemedti was received across Africa like a head of state, raising fears that he will keep terrorising civilians with regional backing, local monitors and experts told Al Jazeera. “Any efforts that aim to justify or excuse Hemedti’s crimes are permitting him to continue his massacres,” said Bedour Zakaria, a human rights monitor who survived mass killings in West Darfur and is now in Kampala, Uganda. Accused of crimes, playing statesman In West Darfur, a region on the border with Chad, RSF fighters and allied Arab militias have killed up to 15,000 non-Arabs from the Masalit tribe, according to a soon-to-be-released United Nations report obtained by Al Jazeera. Displaced people get on a truck to flee Wad Madani, Sudan, on December 16, 2023 [AFP] The report said 13 mass graves have been identified in West Darfur since the war between the RSF and the Sudanese army erupted in April. About 550,000 Masalit refugees have also been uprooted from their land to camps in Chad. [BELOW: What does the asterisk refer to?] “Hemedti has committed all of the gravest crimes that you can think of on Masalit land,” said Yousif Gamal*, a human rights monitor from the Masalit tribe. “He has even forced [all Masalit] to leave our land and brought new settlers to replace us,” he told Al Jazeera. In what was perhaps a move to polish his image, Hemedti signed an agreement with Taqaddum, a broad civilian coalition self-declared as neutral in the conflict and headed by former Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on January 1. Many members of Taqaddum, including Hamdok, were in the civilian Forces for Freedom and Change, which briefly shared power with the military before being toppled in a coup by the army and RSF in October 2021. Still, they agreed to meet with Hemedti and expressed optimism after the signing. Taqaddum’s agreement with Hemedti said the RSF was willing “to immediately and unconditionally end hostilities” and provide security to civilians and repair basic services in areas under its control. However, so far, the RSF has failed to govern or demonstrate a desire to govern. [embedded content] Two weeks before the Addis Ababa meeting, the RSF captured Wad Madani, Sudan’s second-largest city, plundering it, killing civilians, displacing hundreds of thousands of people and raping. While Hemedti addressed his forces’ rampage in Geneina State, where Wad Madani is located, and said “rogue elements” responsible were being rounded up to be held accountable, abuses continued after the signing, prompting activists in Wad Madani to accuse Taqaddum of abandoning neutrality. “Taqaddum can’t have any legitimacy without the Sudanese people, and the Sudanese people reject the existence of the RSF,” said Mohamad Shendega, spokesperson for the Wad Madani resistance committee, one of many neighbourhood groups spearheading local relief efforts in Sudan. “Taqaddum has to remain neutral and independent of the two warring sides.” Rasha Aoud, spokesperson for Taqaddum, denied accusations that the civilian coalition was compromised. “There is no alliance between Taqaddum and the RSF,” she told Al Jazeera. Jawhara Kanu, a Sudanese expert with the United States Institute for Peace, believes Taqaddum does not have a formal alliance with Hemedti, but she fears “some in Taqaddum are blinded with hysteria and trauma and not able to see that as they fight the Kizan, they are getting closer to the RSF.” Former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok addresses people on the first anniversary of the start of the uprising against Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum on December 25, 2019 [File: Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters] The Kizan is the collective name for figures from former President Omar al-Bashir’s government who are suspected of being embedded in key positions in the army and de facto foreign ministry. Regional initiative Days after the Addis Ababa Declaration was signed, Hamdok and his delegation visited Djibouti, where they urged the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an eight-country regional bloc, to increase its efforts to bring about a meeting between Hemedti and army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. On January 18, Hemedti travelled to Entebbe, Uganda, to attend an IGAD summit that had Sudan on the agenda. Al-Burhan was invited by refused to attend, and two days later, the pro-army foreign ministry accused the bloc of “violating Sudan’s sovereignty” and suspended its membership in IGAD. Kanu said al-Burhan’s response was counterproductive. “I believe engaging is always better than disengaging,” she told Al Jazeera. “I think al-Burhan lost more than he won by not going. When you are not at the table, then anything can be said.” I had a meeting today in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, with Dr. Annette Weber, the EU special representative for the Horn of Africa. During our conversation, I briefed Dr. Weber on the reasons behind the war in Sudan, which was initiated by the extremist former regime and its… pic.twitter.com/7OictkZfAY — Mohamed Hamdan Daglo (@GeneralDagllo) January 18, 2024 Zakaria said the regional embrace of Hemedti is part of a broader history of domestic and international players whitewashing the RSF’s image. She referenced Hemedti’s photo-op with the European Union’s Horn of Africa envoy, Annette Webber, during the IGAD summit. “The Europeans pretend they care about human rights, international humanitarian law
Humanitarian aid for Gaza blocked by protests
NewsFeed A crowd of Israelis gathered to stop aid trucks from entering Gaza at the Karam Abu Salem border crossing. Some of the protesters include family members of captives being held by Hamas and are demanding their release come before any more humanitarian aid can cross. Published On 24 Jan 202424 Jan 2024 Adblock test (Why?)