Sudan: UN Group of Experts – “Darfur is a source of weapons for foreign belligerents in neighbouring countries”

There has been a new United Nations Report on Sudan and the situation in Darfur. What is striking to me, is the weapons trade and the transfer of it within Darfur. This here is showing the reality on how these areas are moving both old weapons and new. Where the government of Sudan is supplying weapons, but the different militias are doing to.

The Group of Experts found out that the Darfurian Militias was even selling to Chadian Ones and to Central African Republic. These reports shows that there is so much trading of arms, which are done by violating the arms embargo, not only in Darfur, but also in the Central African Republic, Chad and Libya itself. That is why it is done by smugglers based in Darfur. This must surely be a way for the militias and state to get funding for their operations.

The Group of Experts explain it the best:

The Libya-based Darfurian rebels source most of their weapons in Darfur, in particular 12.7mm, 14.5mm and Goronov machine guns, which they frequently use but which are rarely available in Libya. They purchase some of these weapons from Darfurian smugglers, often ex-members of Arab militias, who deliver the weapons to Chad or Libya, where the transaction takes place. For instance, in November 2018, according to a rebel source, some GSLF elements were arrested by the Chadian authorities on their way back to Libya after buying weapons (12.7mm machine guns) brought from Darfur to a refugee camp in eastern Chad. Some other rebels use their personal connections with the SLA/AW group led by Soliman Marajan in the Malha area (North Darfur) to come and purchase weapons in the Malha and Mellit areas” (P: 27, 2019).

Security Council resolution 1591 (2005) requires that the Committee established pursuant to the resolution approve any movement of military equipment by the Government of the Sudan into Darfur. During the reporting period, the Government of the Sudan continued to transfer military equipment without seeking the Committee’s approval. In its travel to Darfur, the Panel on several occasions saw the offloading of military equipment from aircraft” (…) “As a further reason for the transfers of military equipment into Darfur, it cited Article 2 of the Charter of the United Nations and the need to protect its international borders with Libya, Chad and the Central African Republic” (P: 36-27, 2019).

Darfur continues to be a source of weapons for foreign belligerents in neighbouring countries. Some armed groups participating in the Libyan conflict purchase some of their weapons and ammunition (such as 12.7mm machine guns) in Darfur, in particular from Arab militia members in the Kutum/Kabkabiya area of North Darfur. For example, the Chadian authorities said to the Panel that in the second half of 2018, they had discovered an important arms cache in the Kariari refugee camp in eastern Chad (inhabited mostly by Darfurian Zaghawa refugees). These weapons originated from Darfur and were to be sent to Chadian rebels in Libya” (…) “Some ex-Séléka factions based in the north-eastern Central African Republic also sourced some weapons from militias of Darfur in 2018. Weapons smuggling from Darfur to neighbouring countries seems to have been accentuated by the weapons collection campaign in Darfur, as the campaign pushed some armed Darfurian elements to sell off their weapons surpluses rapidly” (P: 39, 2019).

So, unless Government of Sudan, their security forces want to handle this, unless the militias who fights for their rights and funding doesn’t get incentive to stop it. The volatile business going to continue. The militias of Darfur are getting their funding by trading weapons to the rest of the region, exporting it for cash. The state continues to drop weapons in violations to. Ensuring more are circulated there. Even as the state in the report has stated they are feeling they contain the militias in Darfur now and have made the Janjaweed aka RSF more professional. Still, there are questionable behaviour and that has to be addressed.

Even as there is riots, demonstrations and questioning the central leadership/dictatorship in Khartoum. Peace.

Reference:

United States Security Council – ‘Letter dated 10 January 2019 from the Panel of Experts on the Sudan established pursuant to resolution 1591 (2005) addressed to the President of the Security Council’ 10.01.2019

Zimbabwe: Press Statement by The Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Hon. Prof. M. Ncube on the Excise Duty Refund Framework Following the Fuel Price Increase under Statutory Instrument 9 of 2019 (13.01.2019)

Zimbabwe: Hiking fuel prices will touch all parts of life!

Yesterday, out of the blue, the President and his people said they would hold a Press Conference. This happen as President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced the spiking or doubling of fuel prices, as the state is struggling with the dollar shortage. This is happening as the effects of RTGS Taxes and the hurting economy in general. As the black-market bond-notes exchange rates and lack of currency in general. This is all making the financial market worse.

So, of today, there are long lines of cars going to petrol stations trying to get fuel. The videos of it is online and shown to the world. Mnangagwa statement came late at night on a Saturday and on Sunday, the results of this has occurred. As businesses are challenged, the Unions are reacting and the public are bitten by it too. This is hurting all, everything will become more expensive and the lie of 1:1 exchange between the Zimbabwe Bond-Notes and United States Dollars (USD). Therefore, the statement yesterday proves the added expenses on ordinary lives.

ZCTU Statement:

After wide consultations, the ZCTU General Council resolved to call for a nation wide STAY AWAY with effect from midnight today following the insensitive and provocative increase of fuel price by the President of Zimbabwe. 2) Workers have been facing serious hardships as a result of the general astronomical price increases since last year against stagnant salaries. The fuel increase added more misery to the suffering working class of Zimbabwe both in formal and informal sectors. The action will be embarked on an incremental basis & include other forms of actions that will be advised in due. There is nothing else pushing the workers besides the starvation & hardships afflicting every working class household. Think about your family & do the right thing” (Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, 13.01.2019).

Some people are blaming the sanctions, other like me is also looking into the added taxes done by this administration late last year. As the costs of currency has gone up, as the RTGS and the transactions are added expenses. Also, the reality of lack of currency itself, as the foreign exchange has hit the workforce of the state. There been numerous strikes, there been plenty of businesses closing and also empty shelves. Therefore, the stagnation and slow destruction of the economy without a currency. Is really hitting the common folk. Who knows what rate the inflation is at, but it must be hitting hard.

Because we know the hardships hits the citizens, not only the prices of fuel is doubled over night, but the amount of fuel you can buy has been cut in half or even less. That has even been stated by companies like Redan Coupon (Pvt.) Limited, who came out with a public statement. Showing the effects on all of them customers.

We know this is fixed prices from the government, as the President did on Live Press Conference, telling the public about the prices yesterday. The Herald wrote this about it yesterday: “Zera said the prices which were implemented recently were in line with Statutory Instruments 20 and 100 enacted in 2015. Zera notified members of the public that uel stations were at liberty to sell the commodity at lower prices “depending on their trading advantages.”” (Farirai Machivenyika – ‘Govt clears air on fuel prices’ 12.01.2019).

We are seeing clearly, that the authorities had worked together before the doubling of fuel prices happen. As the President stated. They know it will affect all parts of life, make everything more expensive. Everything in the Republic will be touched and the costs of life, will sky-rocket naturally. Not looking forward to see the inflation numbers and how it affects the prices on food and basics in general.

Also, expect more strikes and demonstrations, as the costs of living is hitting all parts of life. Peace.

Zimbabwe: Redan Coupon letter to Costumers (13.01.2019)

BoU Scandal: Mmaks Advocates – Press Release (12.01.2019)

Zimbabwe: Press Statement by the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Hon. M. Ncube, On the Setting Up of a Foreign Currency Allocation Committee (04.01.2019)

Joint Press Release Between the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and Delta Corporation: Sale of Products Exclusively in Hard Currency (03.01.2019)

Zimbabwe: Delta Beverages – Payment of Wholesale Prices in Hard Currency (02.01.2019)

Let me take a sledgehammer to the Japanese dream of President Kenyatta!

Yesterdays Round-Table Interview with President Uhuru Kenyatta, really shows some PR Stunt out of this world. He thinks he can spin it beautifully on live-broadcast. Where the President can attribute the difference between a thriving economy and his own. Even if the Japanese has higher loan-grade of the GDP, they are exporting much more and have such an advanced economy compared to the Kenyan. This is well-known, but the President tries to flatter himself and ask of the journalist to speak like an economist. Well, that is to different professions, maybe, let economist David Ndii explain, before the PR stunt is shown yet again. Shall we?

David Ndii explaining:

Kenya’s SGR, Uhuru Kenyatta’s erstwhile legacy project, has turned out to be the bugbear that this columnist among others warned that it would be. Its freight capacity is a third of what was promised, and it cannot be competitive without a hefty public subsidy. Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration has increased Kenya’s foreign debt two and a half fold, from US$9 billion to US$25 billion. The railway alone accounts for a third of this increase; another third is by sovereign bonds for which the country has nothing to show” (David Ndii – ’CHINA’S DEBT IMPERIALISM: The Art of War by Other Means?’ 18.08.2018, link: https://www.theeastafricanreview.info/op-eds/2018/08/18/chinas-debt-imperialism-the-art-of-war-by-other-means/).

Here is Mr Masai’s conversation with the President:

President Kenyatta: Do you know what the debt of the Japanese government is?

Mr Masai: I’m not really concerned about Japan.

President Kenyatta: Do you know what the Kenyan debt is?

Mr Masai: As I said, right now it’s something between Sh4.5 to Sh4.8 trillion

President Kenyatta: No, no, no as a percentage of the GDP [gross domestic product], talk like an economist.

Mr Masai: 56 per cent of GDP

President Kenyatta: What is Japan’s debt?

Mr Masai: I’m not in Japan so I’m not interested in Japan but Kenya

President Kenyatta: Japan’s debt is over 100 per cent of the GDP” (Evelyn Musabi – ‘Why Mark Masai is trending after Uhuru roundtable interview’ 29.12.2018, link: https://www.nation.co.ke/news/Why-Mark-Masai-is-trending-after-Uhuru-roundtable-interview/1056-4913816-q3k0d/index.html).

As we have seen how a renown economist plays the Kenyan economy and how the President does it. We can really see how this plays out. The President are right about the levels of debt for the government of Japan, but that is domestic. While the growing debt of Kenya is foreign and to other nations. Which is a whole another level… Where the carefulness of paying back should be key for the Jubilee.

Also, the Kenyan is the107th largest export economy, while Japan is the 4th largest export economy. Therefore, the dynamics of the economies are different. Just by the mere recognition of this, should make the President shiver to compel them even. Just like the GDP per Capita is $3.16K in Kenya, while in Japan it is $42.3K. The last measure to prove how wrong it is, the ECON Complexity, the Kenyan is at 89th of 214, while the Japanese is 1st of 214. These numbers are all taken from the Observation of Economic Complexity (OEC). Therefore, they are saying a lot and shows why the President shouldn’t compare these economies and the loans they have. Especially, when you see the significant differences.

Kenya is miles away from Japan. They are not even close. They are so far apart, that the Kenyan better beg the Japanese advice to build their economy and not just borrow to build a railway. Peace.

White House ends this year with more chaos and a prolonged shutdown!

If you ever thought Donald J. Trump was a great leaders. Always visit one of his profitable Casinos in Atlantic City, oh wait, they all went bankrupt. Just as that should have been a warning from the king of debt. The art of the Steal, sorry Deal. President Trump is showing his true horrific leadership skills, as the calender year of 2018.

There been people leaving the Cabinet since the appointments, the list is longer than a phone catalogue. Therefore, mentioning all of them… would be so long and futile, that the Trump Administration cannot keep people around or even be a little stable. That is why there has been Three White House Communication Directors. There are soon on the third or the forth Chief of Staff. Who remembers Reince Prebius from the start, right? We know, that Trump is creating a mess, but blaming the people around him.

That is why everyone around is acting, except for Jared Kusner and Ivanka Trump, who is playing Civil Servants, while getting paid. That is what nepotism does. They are advisors who survives, because they are connected by blood, not by skills or paid by lobbyists to get hired in his cabinet. That is why at the current moment this is the titles of plenty people: Acting Director of EPA, Acting Secretary of Defence, Acting Attorney General, Acting Chief of Staff and an Acting Pentagon Secretary.

That is why the White House is in chaos. The government is looking foolish and terrible. That is because the President cannot rule himself out. He just blame others and fires them. If not get other people to fire them for him. Trump has started a trade-wars with tariffs, that is hitting the market. There are even reports of no export of soybeans to China. Which is a key market for this commodity, however, because of the tariff war started with steel and aluminium, are now hurting the market. The Stock Exchange is crashing and getting blown, there is lack of confidence in the markets and the wealthy doesn’t want invest in the erratic market, which the state has created by the trade-wars.

Trump has made this mess, he has closed the government as the Senate and Congress had voted over it. Agreed so, that the civil servants and state officials would get paid. However, the President didn’t care, because he doesn’t want to look weak to Conservative Commentators Ann Coulter, who said he was weak for accepting a deal without funding for a wall. A wall Mexico was supposed to pay for somehow. However, the President expect now the US taxpayers to pay for a fictional wall to serve the Southern Border. Which, no one at the Capitol want to give the old man, whose busy watching Fox & Friend, while he drinks doing Diet Coke and bitch about democrats on Twitter. Such a statesman. Nah, not really, but we all knew that by now.

Lets be clear, the whirlwind the US is in, because their own mistakes. They made the system and crowned this man their President. That he took it for granted and doesn’t serve them. Trump does this because of his ego and mismanaged judgment. The White House Cabinet is crappie, because he appointed them and later fired them. If not they resigned for various reasons, but never for honourable ones. As they should have done it for Charlottesville, Children in Cages and Prisons, Zero Tolerance Policy or even Drone Strikes in Yemen and Somalia without any transparency. However, they leaves for other things, because they want to salvage their legacy. Nevertheless, that train has left that station, as they all was enabling the President to do his despicable acts and policies without anyone stopping him.

President Trump will blame others for the financial crashing by his taxes levies, tariffs, trade-wars and other policies, which is making the world more unstable and lack of good trade. Even if he is supposed to be a genius. Everything he touches because worse. He is revising everything Barrack Obama did, without seeing the consequences or even thinking about who it hits. That is why there are more pain to see. Just as the innocent children are dying behind bars in the United States. That is the President fault, as his policy and his orders made it happen. He is guilty for the dying innocent children. That is the mere reality of what the United States has become.

That the wealthy are feeling a pinch, the elites are getting hurt. As they all had faith in Trump is ironic. As they should have seen it coming. He has been the snake-oil salesman for decades. He is proving that with how he runs the government itself.

The Shutdown of the government is a week old now or about so. Where the Trump is doing it over a fictional wall, a requiem of a racist dream. The President are risking wages, added more cost to the government of fan-fiction from the hyperbole white supremacists and their fear. That is who the man seeks support from, that is what he will be remembered for and also his mismanagement. Because even his close allies are screwing up like Mnuchin and his calls with banks before Christmas Eve. But, they are trying to cover-up for the mad-man in the Oval Office. Who cannot deliver and creating havoc on his own. He doesn’t own up to he, he will just fire the Fed Chairman and have someone acting their too.

That is why the President has an acting cabinet, into the worst Stock Market in ages, where the government is in a Shutdown, which will be long-lasting into January somewhere, maybe longer. Depending on the wall and how hard Trump tantrums will last. However, he will look foolish and he continues to hurt civilians and the ones serving the Republic over a tragic Greek tragedy. Something he wouldn’t get or understand. That is the reality.

US is a laughing stock and made so by the President. Who cannot keep himself coherent for a day. Sooner or later, even more of his decisions will back-fire. We just don’t them yet. But he will not enriching the Republic. No, he is on self-destructive mode and many are awaiting the Robert Mueller Report on the Collusion and Obstruction of Justice made the President. As Individual One will have to answer for his actions, at one point, just not while he is in Office. Peace.