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"President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told the US that Ukraine needs the $60bn aid currently stuck in a congressional stand-off within a month.
Zelenskyy said the long-awaited package was about military not financial support and that he was unsure Ukraine would be able to find the types and amounts of weapons it needed if the funding did not materialise.
'Our position on the battlefield will be weaker [without it],' Zelenskyy said, speaking at a conference in Kyiv on Sunday."
- Read more at the Financial Times -
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"Bombs that struck houses, markets and bus stations across Sudan, often killing dozens of civilians at once. Ethnic rampages, accompanied by rape and looting, that killed thousands in the western region of Darfur.
And a video clip, verified by United Nations officials, that shows Sudanese soldiers parading through the streets of a major city, triumphantly brandishing the decapitated heads of students who were killed on the basis of their ethnicity.
The horrors of Sudan’s spiraling civil war are laid out in graphic detail in a new United Nations report that draws on satellite imagery, photos, videos and interviews with over 300 victims and witnesses, to present the stark human toll from 10 months of fighting.
Many probable war crimes have occurred as part of the grinding battle for control of Sudan, one of the largest countries in Africa, which started with clashes between the country’s military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in April 2023, the report by the U.N.’s human rights body found."
- Read more at the New York Times -
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"Caribbean leaders met with embattled Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry on Sunday to talk about his country’s unrelenting gang violence, with one top official noting that his continued presence as head of government remains a main stumbling block to progress.
Bahamian Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell told The Associated Press that opposition leaders and other groups in Haiti oppose Henry as prime minister, even as the regional trade bloc known as Caricom keeps trying to help change the country’s situation.
Mitchell said the international community also questions how the country would function if Haiti’s prime minister resigns or is removed, adding that “there needs to be a political solution.”
- Read more at the Associated Press -
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"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israeli forces would push into the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah regardless of the outcome of talks to pause the fighting that appear to have been making some progress in recent days.
'It has to be done,' the Israeli prime minister said. 'Because total victory is our goal, and total victory is within reach.'
Mr. Netanyahu did say that if a cease-fire deal was reached, the move into Rafah, which during 20 weeks of war has served as a last refuge for hundreds of thousands of Gazan families forced from their homes, would be 'delayed somewhat.'"
- Read more at the New York Times -
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"Chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. opened Saturday in an official ceremony its first semiconductor plant in Japan as part of its ongoing global expansion.
'We are deeply grateful for the seamless support provided by you at every step,' TSMC Chairman Mark Liu said after thanking the Japanese government, local community and business partners, including electronic giant Sony and auto-parts maker Denso. The company’s founder Morris Chang, was also present.
This comes as Japan is trying to regain its presence in the chip production industry."
- Read more at the Associated Press -
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"Sudan has not so much slid down the international agenda as off it entirely. Yet the fighting that has raged since civil war broke out last April, unleashing a return of ethnic cleansing, has both geopolitical and humanitarian consequences the world has yet to digest.
The conflict brings the anarchy that has raged in the Sahel right up to Sudan’s 650km Red Sea coastline, threatening to spread some of Africa’s worst problems into the Middle East and vice versa. The conflict has sucked in outside powers. Gulf states have lined up behind each of the two generals who are slugging it out over the carcass of the Sudanese state.
Although it is a sideshow, reports that a small unit of Ukrainian troops is fighting Russian mercenaries inside Sudan underlines the extent to which the country has become a magnet for global mayhem.
In purely numerical terms, the resulting humanitarian crisis is arguably the world’s worst. Some 2mn people have fled Khartoum alone, which has been the scene of heavy fighting. In all, some 8mn Sudanese have been driven from their homes, nearly a quarter of whom have left the country.
Humanitarian agencies’ appeals have fallen on deaf ears. A paltry 3.5 per cent of the $2.7bn requested by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has been raised. That leaves 18mn people — more than a third of Sudanese — in what the UN World Food Programme calls 'acute hunger'. Nearly 20mn children are out of school. The state is so broken that no one is even counting the dead. The UN estimates that at least 13,000 people have been killed, but the true number could be much higher
The limited relief money raised has not been effectively deployed. Aid agencies have stuck to old models of trucking food shipments that are blockaded or looted by warring fighters. Better to bypass the generals, whose disregard of civilian life is breathtaking, and transfer cash directly to the neighbourhood committees who are performing heroics.
The diplomatic response has been equally underwhelming. An African mediation effort has got nowhere. Last year’s so-called Jeddah talks were steered by the US and Saudi Arabia, but that left the United Arab Emirates — a big investor in Sudan — outside the process.
Though the UAE denies it, a report by a UN panel of experts provides credible evidence that the Emiratis have been arming the Rapid Support Forces, a rogue paramilitary group, and one of the two warring parties. That its leader, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, or Hemeti, a former camel trader accused of genocide in Darfur, should be touted as a possible mediator, shows just how far Sudan has veered into jeopardy.
Other countries, including Egypt and Iran, have backed the Sudanese Armed Forces. A recent influx of weapons, including drones, has allowed government forces to mount a counteroffensive, pushing fighting back into Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city across the Nile.
With no let-up in the war, the stalled diplomatic process must be urgently revived. Two developments provide the tiniest crumbs of hope. Last month, Sudan’s warring factions participated in secret talks in Bahrain, a sign that even the deluded generals may realise that neither side can win. And the US, better late than never, is about to appoint a special envoy, widely trailed as Tom Perriello, a former Democratic congressman. He needs strong White House backing to be effective."
- Read more at the Financial Times -
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This morning's DNB was compiled by Benjamin Pearl
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