Sudan swears in President al-Bashir as he shifts alliances

June 02, 2015

CAIRO (AP) — Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Tuesday was sworn in for another five-year term extending his 25-year autocratic rule, a testament to his ability to survive civil wars, sanctions and an international war crimes indictment.

In his latest maneuver to survive, al-Bashir has switched alliances, joining ranks with Saudi Arabia, the region's biggest bankroller, after nearly two decades of strained ties. That means moving away from close relations with the kingdom's rival Iran, which has long used Sudan as a transit route for weapons shipments to armed groups in the region, particularly Hamas.

Shortly before his re-election, al-Bashir threw his support to the Saudi-led coalition waging an air campaign against Shiite rebels in Yemen who are allied to Iran. The Sudanese contribution to the campaign is largely symbolic — but al-Bashir is likely hoping for Gulf financial support that could keep his beleaguered economy afloat.

"Our relations with Arab brothers have witnessed very positive developments lately, by the grace of God," al-Bashir declared Tuesday in a speech in Omdurman, neighboring the capital Khartoum, after his swearing-in. By building on the Arab ties, he expressed hopes of eventually normalizing relations with Western nations as well.

Al-Bashir won re-election in April, though opposition parties boycotted the vote. After his victory with an official landslide of 94 percent of the vote, the opposition said in a joint statement that it will not recognize the results and called on the people to join ranks to "topple" al-Bashir.

In his speech Tuesday, al-Bashir pledged to draft a permanent constitution, combat corruption, improve the economy and end conflicts in at least three war-torn regions — Darfur in the west, and Kordofan and the Blue Nile in the south and southwest, all of which have armed uprisings against his rule.

He added a gesture to the opposition, saying "the arms of the nation are open to everyone" and promising amnesty to any armed groups who are "genuine" in entering negotiations. During al-Bashir's quarter-century in power, Sudan has been plagued by rebel movements, and it lost a third of its territory as South Sudan became independent in 2011. International sanctions over support of terrorism and over the Darfur conflict have battered Sudan's economy, which was also hit hard after the break with the south gutted oil revenues.

Local papers hailed the foreign policy shift toward Saudi Arabia. A Sudanese daily, Al-Tayar, described the move as "correcting the political position" of Khartoum. The Saudi news site Sabq praised as a breakthrough a visit by al-Bashir to the kingdom in March to meet with Saudi Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman.

Still, Gulf rulers appear to be keeping some public distance. They sent only envoys to attend al-Bashir's inauguration, a lower level than even foreign minister. The only senior figures to attend were Egypt's president, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, and a handful of African leaders, including Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

Despite the absences, "there is a real transformation of relations," said Hussein Shobokshi, a prominent Saudi newspaper political columnist. He pointed to a large advertising section in the prominent Saudi-owned Al-Sharq Alawsat newspaper promoting investment in Sudan. Chambers of commerce in Riyadh organized workshops on investment in Sudan.

"Saudi Arabia wanted to bring Sudan to the Arab square," he said, noting the kingdom was concerned over Khartoum's ties to Iran. But Sudanese journalist Faisal Mohammed Saleh said the low-level Gulf representation Tuesday sent a message of "don't expect much."

He said that al-Bashir may get some relative financial rewards from warming ties. "The price will be to stop using Sudan to supply weapons to armed groups in the region," he said. But, he added, it is unrealistic to think the Gulf will help him restore relations with the West.

Al-Bashir, who took power in a 1989 coup, is the only sitting head of state facing genocide charges at the International Criminal Court. The charges stem from reported atrocities in the conflict in Darfur, in which 300,000 people were killed and 2 million displaced in the government's campaign, according to United Nations figures.

Relations deteriorated between Sudan and Gulf countries in 1990s, when Sudan along with Yemen allied with Iraq's Saddam Hussein after the invasion of Kuwait. Ties with Iran complicated relations. In August 2013, Saudi Arabia banned the plane of al-Bashir from crossing its airspace on its way to Iran.

Iran helped supply weapons to al-Bashir in his 1989 coup and has invested in Sudanese water and engineering projects. Though China is Sudan's main arms source, Iran is also a supplier and signed a military relations deal with Khartoum in 2008.

Israel routinely accuses Iran of smuggling weapons to Hamas in Gaza through Sudan, which has a long desert border with Egypt. In October 2012, a suspected Israeli airstrike against a weapons factory in Khartoum, killing four people.

In March, Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Karti insisted Khartoum has only diplomatic relations with Tehran, denying it had ever had any alliance with Iran. "This is mere lie against Sudan," he said.

AP correspondent Mohamed Osman in Khartoum, Sudan, contributed to this report.

Sudan extends presidential poll by 1 day amid low turnout

April 15, 2015

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — Sudan extended voting another day in its presidential and legislative election Wednesday as campaigners went door to door to seek voters amid a low turnout that saw poll workers eating and praying to pass the time.

While state media trumpeted a "successful vote," most centers appeared empty amid widespread apathy about a vote certain to extend President Omar al-Bashir's 25-year rule despite an economic crisis and insurgencies roiling parts of Sudan. Al-Bashir also is the only sitting world leader wanted by the International Criminal Court on genocide charges, which are linked to the long-running conflict in Darfur.

Sudan's opposition, weakened by a government crackdown, is boycotting the vote and have called for the formation of a transitional government. "People are boycotting because this is a government that humiliated, terrorized, made us lose hope and stole our dreams. This is a government that led Sudan to a state of war," activist Zahra Haidar told The Associated Press.

Haidar and a dozen opposition figures gathered at the house of a young activist named Sandra Kadouda, who disappeared this week after joining an anti-election campaign. Wednesday night, Kadouda was found dumped in a street after being badly beaten and interrogated about anti-al-Bashir campaigns, said Galal Youssef, a political detainees' coordinator.

Youssef said Kadouda was "taken blindfolded and left blindfolded." Authorities have denied detaining her. To increase turnout, authorities gave awards for polling centers with high turnout. Voters were not required to even show their IDs in order to cast a vote, with many carrying a piece of paper obtained from a local city council their home address. Witnesses said that ruling party campaigners went house to house, calling on people to vote.

At one Khartoum polling center in the upper-middle-class neighborhood of al-Riyadh, turnout was only 15 percent after three days of voting, election official Youssef Ibrahim said. Other workers spread out mattresses in the empty poll place while some drank tea.

"Even if you give people a month, they won't come if they don't want to come," Ibrahim said. "The people are fed up. After 25 years, people have had enough."

Sudan begins voting in election al-Bashir expected to win

April 13, 2015

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — Sudan began voting Monday in an election expected to be won by President Omar al-Bashir, the world's only sitting leader wanted on genocide charges.

Voters slowly began arriving to polling places in Sudan's capital, Khartoum. Opposition parties, citing a lack of freedom of speech and assembly in the African country, are boycotting the vote, which includes electing candidates for the country's legislative council.

Voter lists hung on walls at polling stations. Some police officers and soldiers lined up with civilians to vote. Ahmed Sulieman, a university professor, was one of a handful of voters at the polling place in St. Francis School in downtown Khartoum. He described voting as the only way for a "peaceful transition of power" in this country of 35 million people.

"Many countries are suffering amid power struggles," Sulieman said. "I am here for the sake of stability and safety." Al-Bashir has ruled Sudan unchallenged for 25 years and presents himself as a symbol of stability. He survived the 2011 Arab Spring and his massive security apparatus has left the once-vibrant opposition a husk of its former self.

The 2011 secession of South Sudan, which ended Africa's longest-running civil war, deprived Khartoum of a third of its territory and population, and nearly 80 percent of its oil revenues. Smaller armed conflicts are currently raging in other parts of his country.

As long as he remains president, al-Bashir remains immune from being sent to the International Criminal Court on charges of orchestrating genocide during the Darfur conflict, which left 300,000 people dead and 2 million displaced.

Economic losses from South Sudan's succession forced al-Bashir to embark on austerity measures in 2013 that sparked the largest anti-government demonstrations of his rule. Security forces clamped down, killing some 200 people and arresting hundreds more.

Mohammed Hashim, a businessman who voted Monday, defended the crackdown, saying "detentions are meant to preserve the rights of others." "The Arab Spring produced wars and failed in embodying people's dreams," he said. "The Arab Spring failed and what we have here is better."

Nearly 13 million people are registered to vote. Results are expected on April 27.

Greek firefighters battle blazes; save 200 trapped on beach

July 17, 2015

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek firefighters battled large fires in the south, on the outskirts of Athens and on an island near the capital Friday as flames fed by strong winds forced the evacuation of villages and summer camps. About 200 people trapped by one fire were plucked off a beach by rescue boats.

In all, firefighters were battling 59 fire fronts, mainly in southern Greece and near the capital. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said Greece had requested help from his country's army and air force, as well as the European emergency response center, to fight the blazes.

France was sending two Canadair firefighting aircraft and a Beechcraft reconnaissance plane along with expert teams, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said. The aircraft and teams were to fly to Greece on Saturday. France helped Greece fight forest fires in August 2014.

Tsipras was holding an emergency meeting Friday night with the head of the armed forces, the defense and interior ministers, the head of the civil protection agency and the head of Greece's secret services.

Defense Minister Panos Kammenos said it was likely that at least some of the fires were the result of arson, and ordered the armed forces to patrol forests and woodlands across the country as a preventative measure.

"All forces are on alert," Tsipras said, noting that the hot, dry and windy conditions were making firefighting more difficult. The most severe fire was a massive blaze in the Lakonia area in the Peloponnese, southern Greece, where at least three villages were evacuated.

Rescue boats battled gale-force winds to reach about 200 people who had taken refuge in a bay, ferrying them to safety, the coast guard said. Twelve other people were rescued from a separate beach, it said.

Two helicopters, 120 firefighters and nearly 30 soldiers were fighting the Lakonia blaze, which local media said burned through electric pylons, cutting off electricity to the southern island of Kythira. Two pilots were slightly injured when their firefighting plane had to make an emergency landing.

Another major fire burned across a large swathe of Mount Ymittos on the outskirts of the Greek capital, blanketing parts of southern Athens in smoke and threatening houses in outlying neighborhoods. Strong winds fanned the flames across the mountainside, hampering efforts by water-dropping planes and helicopters that continued flying sorties as night fell.

A third major fire broke out Friday afternoon north of the capital in Malakasa, where more than 120 children were being evacuated from summer camps, mayor Thomas Rousis told state television. Firefighters were also tackling at least three other blazes, one near Athens, another in the southern area of Argolida in the Peloponnese, and a third on the island of Evia, northwest of the capital.

Forest and brush fires are common during Greece's hot, dry summers. In 2007, massive forest fires ravaged southern Greece, devastating dozens of villages and killing about 60 people.

Elaine Ganley in Paris contributed to this report.

South Africans celebrate International Nelson Mandela Day

July 18, 2015

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africans honored the 67 years of former president Nelson Mandela's service to the country with 67 minutes of charity and community action around the country on his birthday Saturday.

Established in 2009, the day is meant to encourage South Africans to emulate Mandela's humanitarian legacy and recognize the decades he spent fighting apartheid. All over the country, volunteers handed out blankets and books, distributed toys at orphanages, and cleaned up public areas, before reporting their activities on social media.

His former wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela held a lunch for elderly, needy women at the Mandela family restaurant near the family home in Soweto, calling it a chance to recommit to his values of "bettering the lives of our people."

Dozens of elderly women wrapped in coats and scarves against the crisp winter weather filled a tent set up on the road. "It makes me happy but it reminds me of the past, of the apartheid years," said Elizabeth Khoba, 77, who had just received a fleecy purple blanket. She lived near the late statesman and remembered him "as a very tall chap" who would chide misbehaving children in the neighborhood.

Retired archbishop Desmond Tutu, who once lived a few doors away from Mandela, described his fellow Nobel laureate's work as "a lifetime of selflessness . an example of humanity for the ages." At the University of Johannesburg, Mandela's widow Graca Machel gave out food parcels and blankets knitted specifically for the occasion.

"Knowing my man as I know, wherever he is up there, he is with a bright bright smile blessing you all, blessing our nation," said Machel. Mandela died in December 2013. To mark the day, the United Nations announced the first Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Prize to be awarded every five years to a man and woman who have furthered his legacy, which embodied "the highest values of the United Nations," said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Shoppers return to Kenyan mall 2 years after attack

July 18, 2015

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Hundreds of shoppers Saturday thronged through the re-opened Westgate Shopping Mall in Kenya's capital, Nairobi nearly two years after an extremist attack there left at least 67 people dead.

Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero cut a ribbon during the ceremony which came after two years of repairs from the damage caused by security forces battling four gunmen from Somalia's al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab group in September 2013.

The attack on the upscale shopping center shocked the nation and led to a four-day siege by security forces, which destroyed part of the roof when the army fired rocket propelled grenades to dislodge the attackers.

"We could have been hurt but our spirits have not been broken, it is a demonstration of the determination and the positivity and the resilience and the indomitable spirit of the Kenyan people," said Kidero. "I know there will be apprehensions but, as a country, we are safer."

Brighton Salamba, 25, the manager at Tapas Ceviche Bar, said he was happy to finally be back at work and described how he underwent counselling sessions paid for by his employer to get over the trauma from the experience.

He managed to escape the attackers by locking the door of the restaurant and crawling up a ventilator shaft with 25 other people. The group moved through the ducts until they reached another restaurant and fled through an exit, Salamba recalled.

"I thanked God. We could hear the screams and gunshots," he said. "We lost two colleagues in the attack." Shoppers will get a 10 percent discount for every $30 spent at the 80,000 square foot (7,400 square meter) complex which is expected to employ more than 250 staff.

American fast food chain Pizza Hut will also open for the first time in Kenya at the mall. Al-Shabab justified the attack as revenge on Kenya for sending its troops to Somalia to fight the militants.

Burundi officials skip crisis talks days before poll

July 19, 2015

BUJUMBURA, Burundi (AP) — Government representatives failed to show up Sunday for talks in Burundi aimed at ending the unrest caused by the president's controversial bid for a third term, forcing the mediation to be adjourned just ahead of Tuesday's election, the talks facilitator said.

Ugandan Defense Minister Crispus Kiyonga, who is acting as mediator, stopped short of saying the talks had collapsed and said the government should be given a chance to explain itself. The talks are backed by the East African Community.

"The dialogue has not failed it is still on, we have only adjourned," Kiyonga said. He said the mediation process had made progress in a few days by getting the government and the opposition to sit down and agree on what the issues are to be discussed, including restoring security and the refugee crisis.

Burundi has been rocked by violence that has left more than 100 people dead. Over 144,000 people have fled the country since the ruling party announced President Pierre Nkurunziza's candidacy in April.

Interior Minister Edouard Nduwimana said that the government had skipped the dialogue because of statements made by the opposition about the need for democratic institutions, which he said suggested they hoped to take power through a coup.

He told The Associated Press that the government had to discuss the opposition's remarks with the facilitator before returning to the talks. The opposition, however, maintained that the government quit because discussions had shifted to the upcoming elections.

"The government does not want to discuss the electoral calendar and wants to do everything according to its plan," said opposition spokesman Jean Minani. Kiyonga said talks will continue even after the elections and the contentious issue of the president's third term will still be in the agenda.

Earlier United Nations-backed negotiations between the parties collapsed after the opposition insisted on Nkurunziza's exit.