Tribal violence in Sudan’s restive Darfur region has left at least 31 people dead this week, local officials said on Wednesday.
The violence is pitting members of ethnic African and Arab tribes against each, and is centred in and around the remote town of Fur Baranga near the Chadian border.
Also on Wednesday, the governor of West Darfur province, Gen Khamis Abdullah Abikr, issued a decree empowering the police and army to use “decisive force” in dealing with what a statement described as "outlaws".
On Tuesday, the West Darfur government declared a state of emergency in the province and imposed a night-time curfew for two weeks in a bid to restore peace.
“All units of regular forces [army and police] are hereby commissioned to use decisive force when carrying out their duty to fight all kinds of conduct that breaches efforts to impose security, stability and the prestige of the state across the province of West Darfur,” said the statement.
Local officials said the violence was sparked by the shooting deaths of two men earlier this week in two separate incidents in Fur Baranga.
Authorities are still investigating the motives behind the killings, they said.
Reprisal attacks followed, with homes torched and residents fleeing the scene of the violence, said the officials.
Mohammed Hussein Tayman, acting executive officer of Fur Baranga, said the death toll stood at 31 as of Wednesday morning, when the town appeared calm but tense. He did not say how many people, if any, had been wounded in the clashes.
Darfur has long been bedevilled by violence. A civil war there in the early 2000s left 300,000 people dead and displaced more than 2.5 million, according to UN figures.
That conflict involved Darfur’s ethnic central and sub-Saharan Africans taking up arms against the government to press demands for an end to perceived oppression by the Arabised political elite in Khartoum.
The government of dictator Omar Al Bashir, removed from power following a 2018-19 uprising, responded with a campaign of aerial bombardment and scorched-earth raids by the army and an allied militia called Janjaweed.
A peace deal signed in 2020 between the military and several rebel groups in Darfur has failed to address the root causes of conflict there, with clashes between Arab and African tribes over land, water and pasture continuing to this day.
After a period of calm, violence erupted again in Sudan’s outlying regions following a 2021 military coup that derailed Sudan’s fragile democratic transition and plunged the nation into its worst post-independence political and economic crises.
The violence is blamed in part on the political vacuum created by the coup.
The nation has had no prime minister or a proper cabinet since the coup's removal of a western-backed government. The coup was led by army chief and now military ruler Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan.
Sudan’s western backers have also suspended billions of dollars’ worth of aid in response to the coup, denying the country of more than 40 million a long-awaited chance to overhaul its battered economy.
At least five people were killed in clashes in West Darfur last month. Last October, more than 170 were killed in clashes in Blue Nile province in the remote south-east corner of the country.
Besides more than 120 anti-military protesters killed by security forces since the coup, hundreds have been killed in tribal or ethnic clashes in the west and south of the country over the past 18 months.
Also on Tuesday, the UN said it was "deeply concerned" after a video surfaced on social media showing a man calling for the world body's special representative in Sudan to be assassinated.
“I request a fatwa,” said the man, who identified himself in the video only as Abdel Moneim. “I volunteer myself to assassinate Volker [Perthes].”
The remarks were made during what appeared to be a small conference held by an umbrella group consisting of Islamist factions affiliated with Sudan's ousted president Al Bashir, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
"The language of the incitement and the violence will only deepen divisions on the ground," said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric during a briefing on Tuesday.
Moonfall
Director: Rolan Emmerich
Stars: Patrick Wilson, Halle Berry
Rating: 3/5
How green is the expo nursery?
Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery
An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo
Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery
Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape
The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides
All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality
Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the country
Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow
Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site
Green waste is recycled as compost
Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is used to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation needs
Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers
About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer
Main themes of expo is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.
Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months
TRAP
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: 3/5
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Milestones on the road to union
1970
October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.
December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.
1971
March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.
July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.
July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.
August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.
August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.
September 3: Qatar becomes independent.
November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.
November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.
November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.
November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties
December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.
December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
