THE leaders of Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan will hold the next round of talks on the long-lasting Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) dispute under the auspices of the AU today, an official said.

The AU Chairman and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said this in a statement, as quoted by his office on Twitter yesterday.

“The Trilateral Negotiations on the GERD will resume on Tuesday, Oct. 27, following a seven-week break,” Ramaphosa said.

Egyptian President AbdelFattah al Sisi, Ethiopian Prime Minister Ahmed Abiya and Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok will attend the meeting, the statement read.

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The chairman has expressed confidence that the parties would reach an agreement to resolve Ramaphosa noted that the successful conclusion of the dam talks would enhance and accelerate regional integration, as well as promote sustainable development and cooperation between the African countries.

“The resumption of the Trilateral Negotiations on the GERD under the auspices of the AU indicates strong political will and commitment by the leadership of the 3 Parties involved in negotiations to the peaceful and amicable resolution of the GERD matter,” Ramaphosa said.

Ethiopia has long been deadlocked in the Nile dam dispute with Sudan and Egypt, which fear that Addis Ababa’s mega hydroelectric project would slash their access to water.

The talks between the three countries are being brokered by the AU.

The latest round of negotiations was held on Sept. 14 and ended with no deal.

 

DOZENS of rebel fighters are dead following suspected Russian airstrikes on a training camp in northwest Syria yesterday, according to activists and war monitors.

As many as 100 others were reportedly injured when warplanes targeted a training base run by Failaq al-Sham, one of the main rebel groups backed by Turkey in the country’s civil war.

Failaq al-Sham operates in Idlib province, one of the last pockets of territory still in the hands of the opposition. Its training camp in the town of Kafr Takharim is about six miles (10 kilometers) from the Turkish border.

Capt. Naji Mustafa, a spokesperson for an umbrella group of Turkey-backed fighters known as the National Liberation Front, condemned what he called a Russian “provocation”.

“The raid is a clear and ongoing violation” of the truce agreed to by Russia, he told Al-Monitor in a statement yesterday, warning the rebels will take “revenge for our martyrs”.

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The attack is among the deadliest since a cease-fire came into force last March, bringing an end to an 11-month government offensive on the region that killed more than 1,600 civilians and displaced over 1 million, according to the United Nations. Rights groups accused the regime and its main ally, Russia, of carrying out disproportionate and deliberate attacks against civilians in an effort to retake the rebel territory.

The March 5 truce was brokered by Moscow and Ankara, which back opposing sides in Syria’s civil war. The deal managed to stem the flow of displaced civilians rushing to Turkey’s doorstep, but at the same time locked in the territorial gains made by Syrian government forces during their brutal offensive.

The attack on Failaq al-Sham comes on the heels of an American drone strike last week that targeted a meeting of suspected al-Qaeda senior leaders in Idlib.  The northwest enclave is home to a number of moderate rebel groups but is dominated by the hard-line Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. The al-Qaeda-linked group Hurras al-Deen also holds sway in the region.

A NON-governmental organisation, Foundation for Peace Professionals (PeacePro), has hailed the ceasefire agreement facilitated by the United Nations (UN) between the two factional governments in Libya.

It urged the African Union (AU) to play more active role in the reconstruction process, describing the ceasefire as the beginning of peace-making in the North African country.

PeacePro also urged the two factional governments to work out their country’s harmonisation and never return to the era of violent confrontation.

In a statement by its Executive Director, Abdulrazaq Hamzat, PeacePro stated that with the latest permanent ceasefire agreement between the conflicting parties, a decade of violence in Libya is halted, giving the country an opportunity to make peace and begin the process of reconstruction and transformation.

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Hamzat said: “We welcome the ceasefire agreement facilitated by the United Nations (UN) and we urge the African Union (AU) to play more active role in the reconstruction process.”

He explained that the responsibility of permanently resolving the Libya’s crisis and getting the country back on its feet cannot be left to the United Nations alone, arguing that “the passive or nominal role of the African Union is not good for the continent”.

PeacePro, therefore, called on Libyans to forget their bitterness and forgive each other.

UNITED States (U.S.) President Donald Trump posted a slew of tweets yesterday, accusing the media of intentionally whipping up a frenzy over the rising Coronavirus caseload, while he blamed the high numbers on increased testing.

“Cases up because we TEST, TEST, TEST. A Fake News Media Conspiracy,” Trump said in one tweet.

While testing numbers are rising, so are hospitalisations, a sign that people are getting seriously ill in greater numbers.

More than 80,000 cases were reported in one day over the weekend, a record high, and the seven-day rolling average remains elevated at levels not seen in several months.

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“COVID, COVID, COVID is being used by them [the media], in total coordination, in order to change our great early election numbers.

“Should be an election law violation!” Trump wrote in another tweet.

On Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows appeared to have given up on fighting the virus.

“We are not going to control the pandemic,” Meadows said, saying the Federal Government would focus on vaccines and medicines.

Speaking with reporters yesterday, Meadows tried to walk back his comments, saying the White House was working to “defeat” the pandemic, rather than simply contain it.

Meanwhile, there was a new coronavirus outbreak among White House staff, centred around people who work with Vice President Mike Pence.

 

Agency Reporter

Spain declared a second nationwide state of emergency yesterday and ordered an overnight curfew across the country in hopes of stemming a resurgence in coronavirus infections, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said.

The Socialist leader told the nation in a televised address that the extraordinary measure will go into effect yesterday night.

This is as Italian government yesterday adopted a raft of new measures aimed at curbing a spike in new coronavirus cases, which have been doubling every week for three weeks.

But, Sánchez said his government is using the state of emergency to impose an 11 p.m.-6 a.m. nationwide curfew, except in the Canary Islands.

Spain’s 19 regional leaders will have authority to set different hours for the curfew as long as they are stricter, close regional borders to travel and limit gatherings to six people who don’t live together, the prime minister said.

“The reality is that Europe and Spain are immersed in a second wave of the pandemic,” Sánchez said after meeting with his Cabinet.

Read Also: Johnson announces UK’s three-tier lockdown alert

The leader added that he would ask Parliament this week to extend the state of emergency for six months, until May.

Sánchez’s government said Saturday night that a majority of Spain’s regional leaders have agreed to a new state of emergency and the meeting Yesterday was to study its terms.

The state of emergency gives the national government extraordinary powers, including the ability to temporarily restrict basic freedoms guaranteed in Spain’s Constitution such as the right to free movement.

Spain’s government has already declared two state of emergencies during the pandemic. The first was declared in March to apply a strict home confinement across the nation, close stores, and recruit private industry for the national public health fight. It was lifted in June.

Spain this week became the first European country to surpass 1 million officially recorded COVID-19 cases. Sánchez said Friday in a nationally televised address that the true figure could be more than 3 million, due to gaps in testing and other factors.

Spain on Friday reported almost 20,000 new daily cases and 231 more deaths, taking the country’s death toll in the pandemic to 34,752.

Also yesterday, the Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told a press conference: “If this November we respect all these new rules we will be able to keep the epidemic curve under control… and face

Agency Reporter

The United Nations (UN) has announced that 50 countries have ratified a UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons, triggering its entry into force in 90 days, a move hailed by anti-nuclear activists but strongly opposed by the United States and the other major nuclear powers.

As of Friday, the treaty had 49 signatories, and the United Nations said the 50th ratification from Honduras had been received.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hailed the 50 states and saluted “the instrumental work” of civil society in facilitating negotiations and pushing for ratification, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

The UN chief said the treaty’s entry into force on Jan. 22 culminates a worldwide movement “to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons” and “is a tribute to the survivors of nuclear explosions and tests, many of whom advocated for this treaty”.

Guterres said the treaty “represents a meaningful commitment towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons, which remains the highest disarmament priority of the United Nations,” Dujarric said.

Beatrice Fihn, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize-winning coalition whose work helped spearhead the nuclear ban treaty, said: “This moment has been 75 years coming since the horrific attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the founding of the U.N. which made nuclear disarmament a cornerstone.”

“The 50 countries that ratify this Treaty are showing true leadership in setting a new international norm that nuclear weapons are not just immoral but illegal,” she said.

The 50th ratification came on the 75th anniversary of the ratification of the U.N. Charter which officially established the United Nations and is celebrated as UN Day.

“The United Nations was formed to promote peace with a goal of the abolition of nuclear weapons,” Fihn said. “This treaty is the U.N. at its best – working closely with civil society to bring democracy to disarmament.”

The treaty requires that all ratifying countries “never under any circumstances … develop, test, produce, manufacture, otherwise acquire, possess or stockpile nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.” It also bans any transfer or use of nuclear weapons or nuclear explosive devices – and the threat to use such weapons – and requires parties to promote the treaty to other countries.

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Once it enters into force all countries that have ratified it will be bound by those requirements.

The United States had written to treaty signatories saying the Trump administration believes they made “a strategic error” and urging them to rescind their ratification.

The U.S. letter, obtained by The Associated Press, said the five original nuclear powers – the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France – and America’s NATO allies “stand unified in our opposition to the potential repercussions” of the treaty.

It says the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, known as the TPNW, “turns back the clock on verification and disarmament and is dangerous” to the half-century-old Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, considered the cornerstone of global non-proliferation efforts.

“The TPNW is and will remain divisive in the international community and risk further entrenching divisions in existing non-proliferation and disarmament fora that offer the only realistic prospect for consensus-based progress,” the letter said. “It would be unfortunate if the TPNW were allowed to derail our ability to work together to address pressing proliferation.”

Fihn has stressed that “the non-proliferation Treaty is about preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and eliminating nuclear weapons, and this treaty implements that. There’s no way you can undermine the Non-proliferation Treaty by banning nuclear weapons. It’s the end goal of the Non-proliferation Treaty.”

The NPT sought to prevent the spread of nuclear arms beyond the five original weapons powers. It requires non-nuclear signatory nations to not pursue atomic weapons in exchange for a commitment by the five powers to move toward nuclear disarmament and to guarantee non-nuclear states’ access to peaceful nuclear technology for producing energy.

Rebecca Johnson, a co-founder and first president of the International Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons, said: “The ban treaty is as much about just making it much more possible for people all around the world to see nobody needs nuclear weapons, and they’re actually an impediment, an obstacle – they’re in the way of dealing with the real security threats we have on the ground from COVID to climate.”

She said in an AP interview that nuclear weapons can’t prevent or deal with conflicts like the most recent war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. “They’re just in the way, and they’re highly expensive, and the governments that have them are distracted from the real security issues by trying to constantly pay for these arms races that they’re still obsessed with.”