Peace agreement Following reports of horrific civilian abuses, the outside world put even greater pressure on the warring parties. At the end of August, both Kiir and Machar signed a peace agreement that would result in a unified government and division of power at all levels. New elections were expected to be held in early… Read More »
Armistice quickly broken On January 23, a ceasefire agreement was signed in Addis Ababa, but there was strong doubt among outsiders that, above all, the undisciplined and not very coordinated rebel forces would respect the ceasefire. As feared, it did not take many days before reports of fighting came again. In February 2014, it was… Read More »
Nuer militias commit massacres Around SPLA-Nasir, loosely united militias from the lou nuer ethnic group, a branch of the Nuer people, went by the name of the White Army. It had been formed partly to defend the cattle of the present, and partly to fight against the Sudanese army. After the break-up between Garang and… Read More »
Conflicts in South Kurdufan and Blue Nile Following South Sudan’s independence in 2011, rebel movements became lively in the states of Southern Kurdufan and the Blue Nile along the new and partly disputed border between the two countries. The dominant guerrilla in the area was SPLM-N (see above) which during the civil war was active… Read More »
Hundreds of thousands killed In 2010, Milli Minnawi broke with the government and terminated the peace agreement from 2006. Instead, the government signed an agreement with LJM in 2011. In the same year, JEM, SLM-Nur and SLM-Minnawi merged with the SPLM-North rebel movement, a “branch” of the South Sudanese independence movement. Together they formed the… Read More »
Open war breaks out The conflict continued unabated, albeit at a low level, until 2003, when it took the form of open warfare between African guerrillas and government-backed Arab militias. Death toll rose dramatically and the Darfur conflict struck the world with horror. Initially, the government’s policy was to rule by dividing. Khartoum incited Arabs… Read More »
Immediately new conflicts The celebration of the new state had hardly abated before the unresolved issues led to new conflicts. South Sudan accused Sudan of stealing oil delivered from the south for shipment from Sudan and in February 2012 suspended all oil production pending a settlement. Despite the fact that the countries entered into a… Read More »
Controversial border area The Abyei border area is particularly controversial, as it has rich oil wells and valuable pasture. The conflict over Abyei was jeopardizing South Sudan’s independence at the last minute, but the parties managed to agree that a peacekeeping force of 4,200 Ethiopian troops would be stationed in the area and that negotiations… Read More »
Islamist dictatorship Sudan’s current president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, came to power through a military coup in 1989. However, the real ruler of the first decade after the coup was Islamist Hassan al-Turabi, who led the government’s support party, with roots in the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Sudan now became one of the world’s toughest dictatorships.… Read More »
Africa’s longest war, between northern and southern Sudan, lasted from 1955 to 2005 (with a shaky pause of eleven years) and claimed the lives of up to two million people. In 2011, the country was divided into Sudan and South Sudan after the South Sudanese voted to form an independent state. However, many disputes remain… Read More »
Humanitarian disaster Reports of large flows of refugees came as early as 2011. They have increased dramatically since then. In mid-2016, an estimated 6.5 million Syrians were displaced within the country and almost 5 million in other countries. Of those who leave Syria, most end up in neighboring countries, especially in Turkey and Lebanon. About… Read More »
Brutal strife Both the government and the rebels have committed a lot of violence and brutality. How many have died is difficult to say because it is impossible to obtain reliable information. But in August 2014, the UN reported that more than 191,000 people had died since the war broke out. The Syrian Observatory for… Read More »
The entry of Bashar al-Assad In 2000, Hafez al-Assad died of a heart attack, and his son Bashar al-Assad took over as president of Syria. He began his first term in a more open political spirit and there was talk of both political and economic reforms. Political prisoners were released from prisons, media censorship was… Read More »
Syria has long been dominated by the socialist Ba’ath party and the powerful Assad family. Hafez al-Assad seized power in a coup in 1970 and gathered all the power around himself. When he died in 2000, his son, the current president Bashar al-Assad, took over. The country has been ruled tightly, and media censorship, corruption,… Read More »
Pressure on the rebels In 2007, the government launched a major offensive aimed at carrying out mass arrests of suspects in the conflict area. Nearly 2,000 people were arrested in two months and the criticism was sharp from human rights organizations. The Thai government is accused, among other things, of various forms of torture in… Read More »
The red and yellow shirts During the years 2008 to 2010, Thailand was hit by several revolutionary political crises that degenerated into violent protests, concentrated in the capital Bangkok. In August 2008, large parts of Bangkok, including the airport, were besieged by yellow-clad protesters. The protesters managed to force new elections, which were won by… Read More »
For many, Thailand is the definition of paradise with sandy beaches, turquoise waters and hospitable people. What does not fit in that description are the political problems that in recent years have led to extensive demonstrations in Bangkok, as well as the armed conflict that is going on in the southern parts of the country… Read More »
Regional hunt for Kony However, the armed struggle against the LRA was not over. In fact, a number of Ugandan soldiers remained in the Congo, continuing to search for the scattered rebels. Many were also sent to southern Sudan and CAR, when groups of LRA rebels in 2009 went both east and north. However, fighting… Read More »
LRA’s goals After emerging during the chaotic late 1980’s, the LRA continued its struggle for decades to come. Over the years, the LRA has stated a number of different reasons for its armed struggle. Originally, they pointed to the government army’s violations of human rights in Acholi as one of the main reasons. They have… Read More »
1990’s: new rebel groups The 1990’s were marked by the emergence of new rebel groups. The armed struggle against Museveni’s regime began in northern Uganda, but rebel groups also emerged in the northeastern region of Teso. The northwestern region of West Nile Bank was relatively quiet until the mid-1990’s, when the West Nile Bank Front… Read More »
Uganda’s history has been marred by armed conflict. Even after the current president Yoweri Museveni took power in 1986, new rebel groups continued to emerge and take up the fight against the government. The main survivors today are the Alliance of Democratic Forces (ADF) and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), both of which have become… Read More »
New agreement in Minsk Parliamentary elections at the end of October were a major victory for the pro-European parties led by, among others, President Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. The five dominant parties formed a coalition government. No elections were held in rebel-held areas and in Crimea. Donetsk and Luhansk hosted their own elections… Read More »
Russia conquered Crimea President Putin was authorized by the upper house of the Russian parliament to intervene militarily in Ukraine, “wherever Russian life was threatened”. Ukraine was preparing for general mobilization and the Western Alliance NATO accused Russia of threatening peace and security in Europe. The Russian government, for its part, blamed the United States… Read More »
40 years of silence When the Nazis were expelled in 1944, fighting continued between Ukrainian partisans and the Soviet Union. Only towards the end of the 1940’s did the Soviet Union have full control over Ukraine, but then hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians had been killed and probably even more sent to Siberia. No real… Read More »
In February 2014, a popular uprising against the Ukrainian government led to an armed conflict that created the most dangerous political situation in Europe since World War II. When Russia tried to halt Ukraine’s rapprochement with Western Europe, a new “cold war” began to take shape after 25 years of relative tension between the West… Read More »
New mediators Baker’s successor as UN envoy, the Dutchman Peter van Walsum, announced in 2008 that he considered Polisario’s goal of an independent Western Sahara to be no longer “realistic”. To break the deadlock, van Walsum therefore called on the Security Council to propose another way forward, that is, to allow him to explore some… Read More »
Disagreement over voting power The Polisario only accepted in principle that people who had demonstrably lived in Western Sahara before the invasion and their descendants would be allowed to vote, based on a Spanish census from 1974. Morocco also demanded participation for the Moroccans who moved into the area after 1975 and during the ceasefire,… Read More »
Western Sahara is at the center of one of the world’s most protracted conflicts. Most of the former Spanish Sahara colony is occupied by Morocco, while the Western Saharan liberation movement Polisario has declared the area an independent state. The UN has long sought to hold a referendum on the future status of the territory.… Read More »
The lifesavers You will see lifeguards on almost all public beaches in Australia. They are usually paid by the local authorities and guard the beaches all year round, because Australians swim or surf all year round. The waves can pile up quite a bit on the east and south coast, which are usually ideal conditions… Read More »
Economy Country rich in raw materials The raw materials and the industries that process them are important to Australia’s economy. Iron ore, hard coal, crude oil, natural gas, but also diamonds, gold and uranium are mined. Australia is one of the most resource-rich countries on earth. Anyone who works in mining can earn a lot… Read More »