Amnesty International on Gaza

January 16, 2025

A glimmer of relief to Palestinians who have been victims of the genocide perpetrated by Israel.

Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International

Israel and the OPT: The long-awaited ceasefire will not repair the lives of Palestinians shattered by Israel’s genocide in Gaza

 

In response to reports that Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire agreement set to take effect on January 19, 2025, Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, said:

“The news of a ceasefire agreement will bring a glimmer of relief to Palestinians who have been victims of the genocide perpetrated by Israel. But this agreement has been cruelly long overdue.

“For Palestinians who have endured more than 15 months of devastating and relentless bombardments, who have been repeatedly displaced from their homes, and who are struggling to survive in makeshift tents without food, water, or basic necessities, the nightmare will not end with the bombings.

“For Palestinians who have lost countless loved ones, for those whose entire families have been wiped out or whose homes have been reduced to rubble, the end of the fighting will not suffice to repair their shattered lives or heal their trauma.

“The release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees will bring joy to families in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, but it will not erase the suffering they endured in captivity.

“There is no time to lose. Israel has consistently and deliberately blocked and hindered the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza: civilians have faced unprecedented levels of famine, and children have died of starvation. The international community, which has so far failed to persuade Israel to fulfil its legal obligations, must ensure that it immediately allows the delivery of vital supplies to all areas of the occupied Gaza Strip to ensure the survival of the Palestinian population. 

“This includes guaranteeing the entry of essential medical supplies to treat the wounded and the sick and facilitating the repair of medical centres and critical infrastructure. If Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza is not quickly lifted, this suffering will continue. Finally, independent human rights observers must be allowed access to Gaza to gather evidence and reveal the extent of violations.

“For Palestinians who have lost so much, there is little reason for optimism in the absence of guarantees that they will receive justice and reparations for the crimes committed against them.“

GAZA CEASEFIRE DEAL

 

Israel and Hamas reach ceasefire agreement meant to end 15-month Gaza war

Negotiators reached a deal on Wednesday for a ceasefire in the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas, an official briefed on the negotiations told Reuters, after 15 months of conflict that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and inflamed the Middle East.

The Gaza ceasefire deal is to take effect on 19 January 2025.

The deal outlines a six-week initial ceasefire phase and includes the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and release of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian detainees held by Israel, an official briefed on the negotiations told Reuters.

The agreement follows months of on-off negotiations brokered by Egyptian and Qatari mediators, with the backing of the United States, and came just ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump.

Hamas, Gaza's dominant Palestinian militant group, told Reuters its delegation had handed mediators its approval for the ceasefire agreement and return of hostages.

A Palestinian official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters earlier Hamas had given verbal approval to the ceasefire and hostage return proposal under negotiation in Qatar and was waiting for more information to give final written approval.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he was cutting a visit to Europe short and flying back to Israel overnight to take part in security cabinet and government votes on the deal - meaning the votes would likely be by or on Thursday.

Israeli troops invaded Gaza after Hamas-led gunmen broke through security barriers and burst into Israeli communities on 7 October 2023, killing 1,200 soldiers and civilians and abducting more than 250 foreign and Israeli hostages.

Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed more than 46,000 people, according to Gaza health ministry figures, and left the coastal enclave a wasteland of rubble with hundreds of thousands surviving the winter cold in tents and makeshift shelters.

As his inauguration approached, Trump repeated his demand that a deal be done swiftly, warning repeatedly that there would be "hell to pay" if the hostages were not released. His Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff worked with President Joe Biden's team to push the deal over the line.

In Israel, the return of the hostages may ease some of the public anger against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government over the 7 October security failure that led to the deadliest single day in the country's history.

The conflict spread across the Middle East, with Iran-backed proxies in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen attacking Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians.

The deal comes after Israel killed the top leaders of Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah in assassinations which gave it the upper hand.

 

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European Greens cautiously optimistic ceasefire
agreement will lead to lasting peace

The European Green Party (EGP) welcomes the announcement of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, marking a step that will hopefully end the cycle of violence that has caused immense suffering. 

 

Ahead of the announcement, far right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir admitted to scuppering previous ceasefire deals numerous times. As a result, hostages remained in captivity and Gazans continued to suffer indiscriminate violence from the Israeli Defence Forces. 

 

Vula Tsetsi, co-chair of the European Green Party, said: “We can only hope that today’s ceasefire will finally break the cycle of violence. While nothing can bring back the tens of thousands of Palestinians, including women and children who have been killed, nor Israeli victims of the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023, we hope that an agreement will serve as the foundation for a lasting peace and a two-state solution." 

 

Ciarán Cuffe, co-chair of the European Green Party, emphasized the importance of international efforts in ensuring a fair and lasting peace: “We have witnessed 465 days of destruction during which Gaza has been devastated beyond recognition. We urge European institutions and national governments to actively engage in diplomatic efforts to ensure that the ceasefire agreement holds, that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is addressed immediately and that both sides work constructively towards an enduring peace.” 

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DAWN Statement on Ceasefire in Gaza: Accountability,  Reparations, and the Path to Justice

(Washington D.C., January 15, 2025): In response to reports that Israel and Palestinian groups in Gaza have agreed to a ceasefire that will include the release of Israeli captives, Palestinian detainees and prisoners, and the staged withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, DAWN issued the following statement: ”Israel bears primary responsibility for the devastation it has wrought, and it should bear the primary cost of reconstructing and rehabilitating the Gaza Strip, including reparations to the people whose lives have been destroyed,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of DAWN. “If the world again allows Israel to externalize the costs of its crimes in Gaza, nothing will dissuade it from repeating its belligerence and abuses.” “The United States bears grave responsibility for what Israel has done to the Palestinians in Gaza because it has consistently blocked every ceasefire effort in the United Nations and gifted Israel the billions of dollars of weapons and munitions Israel has used against Palestinians in Gaza,” said Whitson. “A ceasefire agreement does not mean that Israeli war criminals who orchestrated this genocide are off the hook, and we will continue to demand accountability for their crimes,” said Raed Jarrar, DAWN’s advocacy director. “The international community should also hold U.S. officials in the Biden administration accountable for aiding and abetting crimes against humanity with their ongoing support of Israel’s war machine.”  “Ending Israel’s genocidal campaign against Palestinians in Gaza is of course, a long-overdue and welcome development but without guarantees that Israel can never again carry out such atrocities, it is but a single gulp of fresh air,” said Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, director of research for Israeli-Palestine at DAWN. “Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank need an international force to protect them from Israeli aggression and ensure they can exercise their inalienable right to self-determination.”

 

 

We saw 'The Room Next Door'...

 

... and, at least I, loved it.

Extremely timely issue, but film in a very visually arresting and sometimes surreal, detached intellectual way, all with a musicality that is so Almodovarian, even if displaced.

Provocative and unmatchable.

It also made me wonder if, ever, anywhere, anyone had such a wonderful friend... 

We'll need it, there is few in life we'll ever need that much.

'The Room Next Door' - Official Trailer

Haiti earthquake: 15 years later

 

What Haitians remember and hope, 15 years after the devastating 2010 earthquake

The remembrance of the 2010 catastrophic event that struck Haiti comes as the country faces major challenges, including gang-driven violence, extreme pockets of poverty, hunger and numerous health issues.

By Melissa Chemam

Bulldozer clears the rubble of a building that collapsed in the earthquake in Brefet, a
neighbourhood of Les Cayes, Haiti, on August 17, 2021 - Reginald Louissaint, Getty Images

"I remember the day the earthquake happened very very well. That year, I was 19 years old, I was in my final year of high school. I lived in a two-story house. I was working on a math assignment with my cousin, it was about 4:45 pm. when suddenly, the earth started shaking... I had no idea what was happening and I started running," Claudine St Fleur told RFI from Port-au-Prince, despite very poor connection and limited means of communication.  

She will never forget this day who took the life of our aunt, who was her only caretaker. "She was everything to me", Claudine says, in a sobbing voice. 

She and her cousin lived for weeks under a tent, and only found solace thanks to an uncle almost months later. An American friend of her aunt, who used to live in the same house as them, later helped her to pursue her studies.

Despite her resilience, Claudine is however unemployed now. "I lost my job because of the gangs and violence," she confesses.

Catastrophe

The earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 took place on 12 January 2010, killing at least 200,000, and displacing 1.5 to 2 million people.

The catastrophe hit and within 30 seconds the city was turned upside down, families torn apart and tens of thousands put at risk of going hungry.  

Fifteen year later, scars of the tragedy remain visible in Port-au-Prince, ... according to inhabitants of Port-au-Prince.

Antonal Mortimé at the time was executive secretary of the Platform of Haitian Human Rights Organisations (POHDH). He told Haitian media that the allocated funds by international actors were not actually invested in the reconstruction action plan after the earthquake.

Foreign countries and international groups had said they raised more than $9 billion for Haiti, pledging to rebuild the island and support its people.

"Everything would have been different if the allocated funds had actually been invested," Mortimé reported. 

Like him, many Haitians blame the international community and even the United Nations, for their slow response, the focus on western staff in the emergency search, and later on for the cholera crisis, which broke out just a few months after the earthquake and claimed more victims.

It took the UN six years to half-heartedly acknowledge its responsibility for the epidemic. 

Generation of 'chaos'

A generation of children is bearing the scars of Haiti’s earthquake, according to the NGO Save the Children, with their futures shaped by repeated displacements, ongoing crises, and persistent disruptions to their education over the past 15 years. 

"While Haiti has made some strides in recovery, ongoing violence from armed groups has crippled progress, leaving children’s futures hanging in the balance", the NGO wrote in a statement. 

Chantal Sylvie Imbeault, Save the Children’s country director in Haiti, said that “life has been a series of crises for many children in Haiti".

From hurricanes to earthquakes to the rampant violence we’re seeing today, many families we’ve spoken to have been displaced eight, nine, 10 times in the past 15 years, she added.

And "today, armed groups have turned Port-au-Prince into an open-air prison for children," she said, where nowhere in the city is safe. "They can’t safely go to school, play outside, or leave their neighbourhoods. These children’s futures are slipping away.”  

One of those children, 17 today, told Save the Children that her education is on hold. 

“My mom talks to me about the earthquake and how it affected us. I had bumps covering my skin because we were sleeping outside in poor conditions,” she said. 

“I have lost two school years - one because of the earthquake, and another because of the violence. It is painful. I don’t know when I will return to school,” she added.  

Multiple crises

The Haitian capital has since been witnessing a spike in violence, especially due to the rule of gangs over the past two years, despite the presence of a multinational security mission from 2024.

These armed gangs are accused of widespread murder, kidnapping and sexual violence.

The United Nations says gangs control around 80 percent of Port-au-Prince, and regularly attack civilians despite the deployment earlier this year of a multinational security mission led by Kenya.

President Jovenel Moise's 2021 assassination exacerbated instability, and consequences of many natural disasters, including the 2010 earthquake but also hurricanes and other quakes, have worsened the crisis. 

Nearly half the population now lives in severe hunger and extreme poverty, according to the International Rescue Committee who put Haiti on its list of the top 10 crises the world can’t ignore in 2025.

But Haiti has suffered from political violence for decades, due to political instability, years of dictatorship followed by poor governance, US interventions and the consequences of the enormous debt inflicted by the former colonial ruler, France, since Haiti's independence in 1804.

France thus lost its then-richest colony, and Haitians have had to pay over 112 million francs to France - about $560 million - until 2022, according to research from The New York Times and to  academic centres.

The cost of these 'Reparations for Freedom', as many call them, could now amount to about $560 million in today’s dollars.

In his book Aid State: Elite Panic, Disaster Capitalism, and the Battle to Control Haiti (2024), Jake Johnston, researcher and writer at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington DC (CEPR), also showed how long-standing US and European capitalist goals ensnared and re-enslaved Haiti under the guise of helping it.

"To the global West, Haiti has always been a place where labor is cheap, politicians are compliant, and profits are to be made," he writes.

"Over the course of nearly 100 years, the US has sought to control Haiti and its people with occupying police, military, and euphemistically-called peacekeeping forces."

Earthquakes and hurricanes only further devastated a state already decimated by the aid industrial complex, he concludes.

African support

Beyond Kenya, which is already leading the UN mission, Benin is also willing to support Haiti, more than ever before.

On Wednesday this week, the Foreign ministers of the two countries discussed sending troops to Haiti, with Benin saying stability in the strife-torn nation was symbolic to "all black people" around the world.

"For all black people in the world Haiti is symbolic, it is the first black republic in the world," Benin's foreign minister, Olushegun Bakari, said, "and so if Haiti falls all we black people fall."

Benin is one of the countries in Africa where a large part of formerly enslaved people are supposed to have been deported from towards Haiti.

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Link to my piece for RFI:

Haiti's future remains 'hanging in the balance' 15 years after earthquake

Read also my other piece, from 2024:

Can Kenya help solve Haiti's deep insecurity crisis?

Demonstration against the juntas in power in the Sahel

Paris

11 January 2025

Demonstration against the juntas in power in the Sahel  - Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Guinea

 

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New Substack post

 

Some unmissable stories as we start 2025

This year, South Africa presides the G20 (uniting the 19 strongest world economies + the EU & AU). Meanwhile, in the Congo, the backstory of our mineral-based tech-obsessed society takes a turn...

Melissa Chemam

Jan 08, 2025

Read from here:

Some unmissable stories as we start 2025

Genocide in Sudan

 

US determines Sudan's RSF committed genocide and imposes sanctions on its leader

  

The United States has determined that Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) had "committed genocide" in Sudan and imposed sanctions on the paramilitary group's leader. If conflict resolution NGOs welcome the decision, many organisations and analysts fear the move only offers 'too little too late.'  

By Melissa Chemam

AFP

The announcement came on Tuesday. It deals a blow to the RSF's attempts to burnish its image and assert legitimacy - including by installing a civilian government.

The paramilitary group seeks to expand its territory beyond the roughly half of the country it currently controls.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the determination was based on information about the RSF's systematic murder of men and boys and the targeted rape of women and girls from certain ethnic groups.

"The United States is committed to holding accountable those responsible," Blinken said, announcing sanctions against RSF leader Mohammad Hamdan Daglo, known as Hemedti, for his "role in systematic atrocities committed against the Sudanese people."

Daglo had been designated for his involvement in gross violations of human rights in Darfur, namely the mass rape of civilians by RSF soldiers under his control, and he and his family members are now ineligible for entry to the United States, he said.

Avaaz and other NGOs welcomed the decision.

The genocide determination will substantially impact the RSF's ability to continue fighting, Mohammed Suliman, a Sudanese researcher and writer based in Boston, told Avaaz, particularly given the Emirati lobby's efforts to neutralise US involvement in the Sudanese conflict. 

Call to action

The US Treasury Department unveiled its own sanctions against Daglo on Tuesday, accusing the RSF of engaging in "a brutal armed conflict with the Sudanese Armed Forces for control of Sudan."

"Through its campaign in Darfur, Gezira and other combat areas, the RSF has committed a litany of documented war crimes and atrocities," it said.

 As the overall commander of the RSF, Daglo "bears command responsibility for the abhorrent and illegal actions of his forces," it added.

The Treasury designated seven companies and one individual linked to the RSF for their roles in procuring weapons for the group.

"The United States continues to call for an end to this conflict that is putting innocent civilian lives in jeopardy," said deputy Treasury secretary Wally Adeyemo.

 "The Treasury Department remains committed to using every tool available to hold accountable those responsible for violating the human rights of the Sudanese people," he added.

In response, the RSF has accused the US of double standards, saying it is failing to effectively address the ongoing crisis.

Criticisms

The announcement has been expected by many in Sudan and in the humanitarian workers community. But for most of them, it is "too little too late," as Cameron Hudson, a senior fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in DC, wrote on social media.

"It's too late to fix a failed (non-existent) Sudan policy and it's too late to get on the right side of history," the  African policy expert added. "The fact is that this Administration had all the evidence they needed to make these announcements months ago when they could have had an impact on this war and they chose not to make them. With less than 2 weeks left in power, this is nothing more than a reflection of a guilty conscience."

Blinken's announcement is only as meaningful as the actions taken to address it, civil society groups also said.

Lauren Fortgang is executive director of Preventing And Ending Mass Atrocities (PAEMA), a US-based organisation working with communities in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burma, and Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, dedicated to preventing and ending mass atrocities by amplifying the integral role of community centered solutions.

She published a statement stating that "while this genocide determination is welcomed, earlier action could have saved thousands of lives."

The genocide determination by the US Secretary of State "reaffirms the daily reality of millions of Sudanese living through hell on Earth due to the brutality unleashed by the RSF and SAF," she wrote, but "it must be accompanied by stronger policies that match the severity of the worst humanitarian crisis the world has ever seen, as well as the severe protection crisis which worsens by the day."

The group called for the long overdue sanctions against Hemedti to be coordinated and truly effective.

"The United Nations should lead this effort and issue sanctions against senior RSF leadership", the statement added.

Sanctions must also be designated against external backers of the war, including the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Russia, Turkiye, and Serbia for reported violations of the Darfur arms embargo.

Defining genocide 

The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted after World War II, defines genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group."

But a genocide designation by the US State Department is rare. This determination against the RSF by the US is the ninth time it has made, including the Holocaust.

But legal experts started to question the ability of Secretary Blinken to determining genocide, especially as the UN, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have declared an ongoing genocide in Gaza, which the US refuses to recognise let alone address.

"Blinken finds genocide in Sudan but not in Gaza,"  Mark Seddon, director of the Center for United Nations Studies wrote on social media. "Really, you can't make this crap up"

Both the mass killing of civilians in Sudan and Palestinians in Gaza "should be recognised and stopped," wrote Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch.

Brutal armed conflict

Sudan has been torn apart and pushed towards famine by this war that erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the RSF.

War in Sudan leaves 13 million people displaced and more than half the population malnourished

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than eight million internally displaced, making Sudan the scene of the world's largest internal displacement crisis.

The United Nations says that more than 30 million people -- over half of them children -- are in need of aid in Sudan after 20 months of war.

"Sudan remains in the grip of a humanitarian crisis of staggering proportions," Edem Wosornu, from the UN's humanitarian agency OCHA, told the Security Council at the UN headquarters in New York earlier this week.

 

On Meta following X...

 

Good afternoon, You may have recently seen the news about Meta announcing it will eliminate its third-party fact-checking program to “restore free expression” and move to a “Community Notes” model, similar to the system that exists on Elon Musk’s platform X. CCDH has done research on how X's policies have contributed to rises in hate speech and bullying it its platform, and our organisation believes it could take a look at this and how Meta adhering to this, could shape the social media landscape even more.  Our CEO, Imran Ahmed, has issued a statement on that matter and would be more than happy to chat further if necessary.  “By abandoning its fact-checking program in favor of a discredited 'community notes' system, Meta is turbocharging the spread of unchallenged online lies, worsening the spread of hate, and creating more risks to our communities, democracy, public health, and the safety of our kids.  Meta is now saying it’s up to you to spot the lies on its platforms, and that it’s not their problem if you can’t tell the difference, even if those lies, hate, or scams end up hurting you.  Rather than stepping up to the challenge of responsible platform governance, Meta is retreating from accountability. This is huge step back for online safety, transparency, and accountability, and it could have terrible offline consequences in the form of real-world harm.”  Imran Ahmed, Founder and CEO, CCDH    Center for Countering Digital Hate · 1250 Connecticut Ave NW · Center For Countering Digital Hate · Washington, DC 20036-2603 · USA

A few words from Senegal and Chad to Macron

 

Senegal and Chad condemn France's President remarks on the end military cooperation

The Senegalese Prime Minister and the Chadian Foreign Minister have condemned claims coming from Emmanuel Macron that negotiations had taken place regarding the announced withdrawal of French troops from several African countries, denying their accuracy.

By Melissa Chemam

The Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko condemned Macron's remarks as "entirely incorrect", while the Chadian Foreign Minister Abderaman Koulamallah denounced a "contemptuous attitude".

They both reacted on Monday night to the French President's speech to his foreign Ambassadors. 

The annual conference of ambassadors is held this year on 6 and 7 January in Paris.

President Emmanuel Macron stated that the announced departure of French military bases had been negotiated between the African countries that decided on it and France, and claimed that it was purely for convenience and politeness that France allowed these African countries to make the announcement first.

Chad's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abderaman Koulamallah, expressed his disapproval of the French president's remarks in a statement read on national television. 

"The government of the Republic of Chad expresses its deep concern following recent comments by the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, which reflect a disdainful attitude towards Africa and Africans," Koulamallah said.

Chad’s Foreign Minister also stated that in 60 years of presence in Chad, French contributions have often been "limited to serving their own strategic interests, without any genuine lasting impact on the development of the Chadian people.”

He concluded by urging Macron to focus on “addressing the issues concerning the French people.”

Sonko strongly dismissed Macron's claims as well, on Monday night.

"I must emphasise that, in the case of Senegal, this assertion is entirely incorrect," he wrote on social media.

"No discussion or negotiation has taken place to date, and the decision made by Senegal stems solely from its own will, as a free, independent, and sovereign country."

Both Chad and Senegal repeated that their decisions to ask French troops to leave were unilateral.

Lack of gratitude?

Macron also criticised the "ingratitude" of certain leaders on the African continent—suggesting hey would not be heading sovereign nations today if the French army had not been deployed there, referring most probably to Mali and Niger, plagued with islamist violence for over a decade.

He declared that "no African country would be sovereign today if France had not intervened," Sonko underlined in his statement.

"Let us observe that France neither has the capacity nor the legitimacy to ensure Africa’s security and sovereignty," Sonko replied.

"On the contrary, it has often contributed to destabilising certain African countries, such as Libya, with disastrous consequences for the stability and security of the Sahel."

A staunch critic of the French presence in his country before coming to power last year, Sonko insisted on reminding President Macron that "if African soldiers—sometimes forcibly conscripted, mistreated, and ultimately betrayed—had not been deployed during the Second World War to defend France, the country might still be German today."

In his own response to Macron's speech, Koulamallah also highlighted the "crucial role" played by Africa and Chad "in the liberation of France during the two world wars."

The minister emphasised that their "immense sacrifices" had been "minimised" without receiving a "meaningful expression of gratitude." 

He went on to call on "French leaders to learn to respect the African people and to acknowledge the value of their sacrifices."

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, on 8 May 1945, in which African troops from the former French empire were heavily involved and played a key role in France's resistance to nazism.

The African soldiers were however often dismissed with no pension or excluded from celebrations.