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Patricia Gualinga. Defending the Amazon Rivers.

She is a Kichwa Indigenous leader of the Sarayaku people in Ecuador. “When you begin a fight against global economic interests, your life is always at risk. I knew staying quiet was not the better option; I had to keep going. If they wanted to drive me away through fear, they didn’t succeed.” She tells.

The Amazonian ecosystem is one of the most important freshwater sources in the world. I come from a land of waterfalls, lakes and rivers that flow from the Amazon, and it is water that gives us food sovereignty. There are no markets in my town; we feed ourselves with fish from the river. If [water] dries up we lose our food source, the land dries up, and it generates an imbalance because the water is a living thing, with energy, with its light and purpose.

According to our ancestors, we are the people of the Zenith, meaning midday; a fighting people. … It’s a people of 1250 inhabitants who fought fiercely against extractive companies. Our challenge is a “success story” because we are the only people who removed an oil company [the Argentinian General Fuel Company] in the early 2000s, confronted the nation of Ecuador, and denounced human rights violations.

In 2012, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights agreed with us, ruling in Sarayaku’s favour and penalizing the state. The blessing of Sarayaku is turning into a symbol of resistance, struggle and dignity for Indigenous people. This is not only for the welfare of Indigenous peoples. Think about humankind, your children, and all the people who benefit from the Amazonian biome. No one can say we are isolated; we are close and connected.

We [Indigenous] are people who have cared for those forests and ecosystems for millennia. We went to the United Nations … to speak up and to make a stand. The human right to water belongs to everyone and, accordingly, defending the Amazon is everyone’s responsibility because thanks to it we have water.

If the forest is healthy, water will flow. Complete deforestation, as commercial interests attempt to do, affects water directly; it begins to dry up, to lose its balance. Now it’s time to listen to us, to act and to see things in a different light. Not as man dominating nature, but man
as part of nature.

When the oil company entered Sarayaku territory and people decided to fight … it was impossible to stand by and watch. We didn’t know where this fight would take us, but we knew we couldn’t stay quiet. I knew the plan of action, how the government functions, how to direct, how to document the technical aspects of the process and how to communicate. I had contacts in the media. … [Initially] I thought the fight would be over if we managed to say no to the company, that it would end there. In 2018, I decided to retire from leadership and keep a low profile,
but it was impossible.

Six months after, I received death threats. It was terrible because they came to my house around one o’clock in the morning. I was with my elderly parents. They threatened me, “If you continue with this, we’ll kill you.” When you begin a fight against global economic interests, your life is always at risk. I knew staying quiet was not the better option; I had to keep going. If they wanted to drive me away through fear,
they didn’t succeed.

I asked the Church to be our ally. I told them they couldn’t watch while Indigenous rights were violated. That they had speak up and accompany us. We have fought side-by-side with many priests, but help from the head of the institution was needed.
Currently, I’m part of the vice presidency of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA). [It] can only be the work of the Spirit.

We are happy that Pope Francis has put the Amazon in his heart. It’s a great strength for marginalized people who inhabit and care for such a biodiverse biome and at the same time suffer the ravages of extractivism. I’m 54 years old and 30 of those years I have spent fighting. My parents were Catholic — the first catechists. I always dreamt and prayed that the Church would be a part of this journey, of this accompaniment. God lives in the Amazon rainforest, with these extraordinary people. (Maryknoll magazine) – (CC BY 2.0/ Climate Alliance Org)

Mission. The Challenges Ahead.

Three young Comboni missionaries talk about their vocation and their pastoral journeys.

My name is David Costa Domingues, a Comboni missionary from Portugal.  I have just celebrated my priestly silver jubilee. I grew up in the simple but profound religiosity of my family and with a certain curiosity for the mission world, which at that time was still very vague. I was going to catechism and, one day, the catechist asked: “Who wants to be a missionary?”, “Me!”, I answered. Everything started from there.
Saying goodbye to family, friends, and my youth football team in Calvão was not easy. But I wanted something more serious and lasting. So, in 1984, I entered the Comboni Seminary in Viseu. I was not alone! A nice group of schoolmates and the football team joined this new adventure.

During the many years of training, I saw my companions take other paths. I moved on. After 14 years of studies, on 9 August 1998, I was ordained a priest in the parish of Calvão, surrounded by my family and the Christian community that had seen me born and grow.
Since then, 25 years of grace have passed, which took me first to the north of Portugal, to Famalicão, for five years (1998-2003), and then to the unknown world of Asia, where I stayed for almost twenty years (2003-2022). If it was all down to my own will, I would certainly still be there! But we are not missionaries to do what we want. Therefore, in June 2022, I agreed to leave Asia to come to Rome where I now find myself performing a different service: this time, to the whole Comboni Institute.

Of the many beautiful experiences, I have had over the past 25 years, here I recount one that has particularly marked me. Shortly after arriving in Manila, Philippines, I could not close my eyes to the reality of the many poor who live and sleep in the streets and struggle to survive, many times with what they find in the garbage from the rich.
So, I started bringing them rice, tins of food, and clothes.

Little by little, this became for me a pleasant habit of communion with these people, accustomed as they were to be ignored and rejected. Out of shame, they preferred to go out at night to look through the rubbish for their daily food. One day, in one of these dumps, I came across a boy who was rummaging through the dirt. I offered him the bag of food I had brought with me and stopped to have a few words with him. At that moment, a young pregnant woman approached and said: “I am so hungry.” The boy looked at her, lowered his eyes to the bag

I had just given him, and, without hesitation, offered it to her. “Take it,” he said. The young woman opened the bag, took a handful of uncooked rice, and began to eat it greedily. Such was the hunger she felt! It was experiences like this that gave me the strength to continue living my missionary life.

In recalling the past 25 years of my priesthood, I can say that I have lived them with all my heart, with joy and sadness, and also with some difficulties and frailties, but wholeheartedly. Precisely for this reason, I celebrated this jubilee with much gratitude. I have had many mission experiences over the years, many of them unforgettable. I have met so many people who, in different ways, have been – and still are – part of my journey. To all of them, I feel I must say: “Thank you from the bottom of my heart!”

Fr Eduardo: “People teach Me how to Be a Missionary”
I am Fr Eduardo Revolledo Villanueva from Lima, Peru. To talk about my vocation, I have to remember my experience in the Comboni parish “Cristo Missionario del Padre”, located on the outskirts of Lima, Peru. Since I was a child and adolescent I participated with great enthusiasm in the groups of altar servers, liturgy, catechesis, and youth. I feel that my vocation to missionary religious life was born from the contact I had with the Comboni Missionaries I met there.

Encouraged by the witness of the Comboni Missionaries, I started a journey of deeper discernment to discover what God wanted for me. With many fears and doubts, but with the conviction that God would accompany me, in 2008 I entered the postulancy of the Comboni Missionaries, the first stage of formation to religious life, and I started studying philosophy.

It was a very positive experience and I was able to share my vocational concerns with young Peruvians and Chileans who had the same ideals and wanted to be missionaries.  Then I went to Mexico for almost two years to continue my formation process. It was the first time I left my country and had an international experience.

In 2014 I made my first religious vows. To carry out my theological studies, my superiors assigned me to Kenya. I was in that East African country for almost four years.
Going to another continent and learning new languages was, without a doubt, a great challenge for me. As a missionary, it was necessary to open my mind and heart, strengthen my will and determination to learn from the people and get to know their culture and customs.

After finishing my studies in Kenya, I was assigned to Asia. I spent the first year in Vietnam studying the language and then came to Taiwan to learn Chinese. It was there that I gave my life for the mission with perpetual consecration to God and ordination to the diaconate in the Comboni parish we serve on the outskirts of the capital Taipei. Later, I returned to Peru where I was ordained a priest for the service of the people of God.

At present, I serve as a parish priest in a parish on the outskirts of the city where the Comboni Missionaries live in Taipei (Taiwan).
The parish is small because the percentage of Catholics in the region is low, yet the Christian community is lively and very enthusiastic in the expression of their faith. The parish is very peculiar, as it welcomes Vietnamese immigrants and people coming from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

It is a truly multicultural place, where faith is the meeting point and the union. In the parish we carry out various pastoral tasks, such as accompanying groups of children and teenagers, caring for migrants, indigenous pastoral work, visiting families, and Bible courses.
Normally, we tend to think that missionaries are the ones who teach people about God.  However, considering my short experience in Vietnam and Taiwan, I think it is the opposite.

It is the people I meet who, in their simplicity, reveal to me the merciful face of God. They are the ones who taught me how to be a missionary priest, encouraging me to be a close person, willing to learn day by day from them, who share with me their culture, their faith, and their experience with our God who is love and present in their hearts.

Father Moses, “the challenges that face me as a young missionary”
My name is Father Moses Samuel Huruwella, from Malawi.  After 13 years of mission in Togo and Ghana, last July, I have just celebrated my first year in the parish of Chikowa, in the Zambian diocese of Chipata, but located very close to the border with Malawi, my native country. The parish was founded in 1941 by the Missionaries of Africa and in 1983 the Comboni Missionaries took it over. I am currently the parish priest and if I have to be honest, I will say that the mission here is not easy at all because there are many challenges that we have to face.

Nestled among the valleys, our parish territory is quite isolated and we are not helped by the poor state of the communication routes, which become impassable during the rainy season. The government has abandoned this area for many years, which is reflected in both the communication routes and other aspects of life.

The number of schools is insufficient and the numbers of enrolments are scandalous: less than 30% in the primary schools, even if the figure is even worse in the very few middle schools in the area. Even though, as missionaries, we have sought to intensify schooling, we face the reluctance of many parents who do not see the use of school and do not want to send their sons, let alone their daughters to school.

Many girls fall behind in their studies, which has consequences for them, such as the proliferation of teenage pregnancies. Another challenge is the shortage of teachers and the low level of education.
Health is another of our concerns. The list of diseases that people suffer from is long. There are frequent cases of malaria, anemia, tuberculosis, malnutrition, and tropical sores.

As for the life of faith, despite the presence of the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations, people remain very attached to their traditional beliefs. Even those who have accepted Christianity profess their faith in God while practicing their traditional beliefs. It is evident that, despite our widespread presence in the area, we still have much to do to inculturate the faith.
As a missionary, I accept all the challenges that the social reality presents, and with love and patience I try to adapt to people’s level of understanding and point of view, always respecting their culture.

Seeking to control the Northeast.

The thirty-year instability of the mining provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri is an indicator of the voracity of neighbouring countries, the obtuseness of the Kinshasa government and the lack of interest on the part of the international community. A state of war that also has ethnic implications.

Compared to 2018, the elections last December 2023 had an additional and rather cumbersome obstacle: the armed group March 23 (M23), a survivor of the enormous combined civil and foreign war that took place in the Democratic Republic of Congo between 1996 and 2007. M23 was a remnant formed in March 2012 as an armed extension of the Congolese Rally for Democracy which had lost heavily in the first post-war elections. Having disappeared from the Congolese political scene after an attempted insurrection, the M23 brutally reappeared in the northeast in November 2021 as an unofficial but heavily armed embodiment of Rwandan interests.

The city of Goma, North Kivu. Clashes with the M23 rebels have moved closer to Goma in recent weeks, causing the U.N. peacekeeping mission MONUSCO and the Congolese army to launch a new operation to reinforce its security perimeter.
Photo: CC BY-SA 2.0/Abel Kavanagh

This added an explosive international touch to a state of war inherited from the conflict at the beginning of the century which had left behind a disjointed society, whose positive symbol was and is Dr. Denis Mukwege, 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner and a candidate for the presidency in past elections.

An ethnic headache
Specific studies have estimated that there are 120 armed groups in the northeast: if the M23 is but one of these, its political cohesion, discipline and modern weapons make it a leading player. Its political positioning derives from the horror of the Rwandan genocide (1994), even if it had nothing to do with this tragedy (the ethnic basis of the movement is Tutsi, but it is an extension of the Rwandan population not a Congolese factor), but proved useful to the iconic figure of Rwandan President Kagame. Many of the armed groups are ethnically based formations and some such as Codeco (Cooperative for the Development of Congo, Lendu ethnic group) and M23 itself (Banyarwanda Tutsi) are ethnically limited. Others approach forms of banditry. There are also actors with complex links to foreign countries through entirely different connections.

Tanzanian soldiers of the UN brigade deployed in the city of Kiwanja, 75 km north of Goma, Rutshuru territory. CC BY-SA 2.0/ ONUSCO/Sy Koumbo Singa Gali

For example, the members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Rwanda (Fdlr) – heirs of the Rwandan genocidal Hutu groups who sought refuge in Ituri where they took root – have become a Congolese ethnic group which serves as an “anti-genocidal” pretext for President Kagame to justify the existence of M23 (which he denies supporting) which opposes the Fdlr.
There is also a regional military force which is the expression of the East African Community. As well as an Islamist terrorist group, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), coming from Uganda and linked to the Islamic State group. The ADF operates in DR Congo because the weakness and military incapacity of the Congolese army facilitate the holding of a base. To continue their cross-border war, Ugandan troops have followed the ADF and are now fighting alongside the Congolese army.

Kagame forges ahead
Faced with general confusion, Congolese civil society, which serves as a battleground for all the different forces, is reacting with increasing frustration unfortunately, justified by the brutal behaviour of all the actors. Local defence groups, exasperated, protest to the Kinshasa government against the presence on the ground of their enemies’ enemies. This state of affairs had led President Tshisekedi to proclaim on 25 September a “new war” against the M23 which focuses much of the popular resentment on itself.
The provinces that have been under a state of siege for two and a half years – civil institutions are suspended in Ituri and North Kivu – have become open ground for resolving all regional disputes.

The Burundian army troops themselves, who entered South Kivu with an explicit mandate from the African Union, found themselves the target of attacks without knowing by whom they were being attacked. CC BY 2.0/sedaf

To the point that the Burundian army troops themselves, who entered South Kivu with an explicit mandate from the African Union, found themselves the target of attacks without knowing by whom they were being attacked. Paul Kagame seems to continue to think that his aura of “Liberator from Genocide” – which dates back to 1994 but, due to his questionable subsequent actions, doubts are being raised as to its validity – gives him a sort of global blank check that allows him to deny the evidence. The United Nations has published two reports, in June 2022 and June 2023, reiterating allegations of Rwandan support for the M23. Not only does Kagame continue to deny it, but last August he also promoted and decorated General André Nyamvumba, whom the Americans themselves – who have long been Kigali’s biggest supporters – had condemned for his actions in the DR Congo.

International duplicity
The international community has proven to be incapable of forming a common front in the face of the catastrophic situation in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo where there are no fewer than five million displaced people. The most hypocritical were the French who, to “redeem” the shame of having for so long supported the Rwandan regime responsible for the genocide, tried to effectively deny the accusations of interference made against the Kigali regime to which they paid (last March) 34 million euros in special aid. Given the collapse of the French presence in Africa, marked by a succession of coups d’état from Mali (2020) to Gabon (2023), having a renewed superficial friendship with Kagame has become a kind of partial insurance policy for Paris to try to prevent the Russian presence from replacing that of the French.

Rwanda flag on soldiers’ arm. 123rf

Last December, Great Britain signed a new agreement with the Rwandan regime to send to Rwanda all those who, African or not, do not have the right to political asylum recognized in England. The Americans, on the other hand, are hesitant. The kidnapping in the Middle East and the summary trial of Paul Rusesabagina (the film Hotel Rwanda tells how he saved many lives during the 1994 genocide), later sentenced to 25 years in prison for supporting the Rwandan opposition, marked a distancing from the Kagame regime. The release of Rusesabagina last March softened the US position but did not lead to any condemnation of the presence of the M23 group in DR Congo. Exasperated by the passivity of the UN Mission (MONUSCO, present in the north-east for 23 years), the Kinshasa government has asked for the withdrawal of the international mission which, although not very operational, represents a symbolic eye open to the north-east.

The city of Bukavu, South Kivu. CC BY-SA 40/Abel Kavanagh

This is better than nothing, given “incidents” like the one on August 30th which led to a massacre (48 dead and 56 injured) during a ceremony of the Wazalendo sect in Goma. The M23 accuses the Wazalendo of accepting to be used as an anti-M23 militia, replacing the Congolese army whose efforts in fighting the Tutsi movement leave a lot to be desired. We need to go back to using the painful, though precise term, which emerges in a context in which the Rwandan mini-invasion updates the worst ethnicization of the denomination of the regional political vocabulary. The traces left by the war of the years 1996-2007 remain visible and are still experienced. We have come to a point where, from violated agreements to unenforceable sanctions, from sporadic massacres to ignored territorial violations, the international community shows, more than anything, its hypocrisy and its profound indifference. (Open Photo: M23 rebels. CC BY-SA 2.0/ Al Jazeera)

Gérard Prunier

 

Madagascar. Water from Baobabs .

In Madagascar, large centuries-old trees become cisterns to cope with the growing shortage of water.  Baobabs are known for their size, hardiness, and impressive longevity.
Less known is their ability to conserve enormous quantities of water for a long time: a precious feature for those who live in the Mahafaly plateau, the driest region of the Great Island.

The Mahafaly plateau is one of the driest territories in Madagascar. Located in the southeastern part of the Big Island, it is populated by around 20,000 people belonging to the Mahafaly and Tandroy ethnic groups, who have learned to live in such a hostile environment.

Malagasy family travelling on a zebu cart on the sandy road going through the “Avenida the Baobab”. 123rf

Here it rains only a few times a year and the scant rainfall is immediately absorbed by the porous limestone soil. There are no rivers, lakes, or other natural water points.
A century ago, the region suffered a long period of drought that led to famine and the death of thousands of people.
Those who survived realized that they had to take action to avoid other water and humanitarian emergencies. It was then that the population of the plateau noticed a peculiarity of the baobabs: the ability of their trunks to store large quantities of water. When a baobab is struck by lightning, its trunk splits and the rain seeps into the cracks, small and large cracks, collecting in the cavities. Water does not penetrate the hard, compact wood of the tree, which does not rot. The water remains fresh and surprisingly pure.

Natural cisterns
The ‘barrel’ trunk of the baobab, characterized by a trunk that can reach a diameter of 8 metres, is a sort of natural ‘air-conditioned’ cistern capable of holding and conserving rainwater. The largest baobabs can store up to 14,000 litres of water, which the tree bark protects from external contamination.

Beautiful Baobab trees at sunset. The ‘barrel’ trunk of the baobab, is characterized by a trunk that can reach a diameter of 8 metres. 123rf

The Mahafaly communities have learned to transform these giants of nature into water reservoirs that allow them to cope with the harshest and hottest periods of the year.Each family is responsible for their own tree, which they look after with care. Ampotaka, with a population of 300 families, each with its own baobab, is a typical village of the region. Every June, two or three new trees are hollowed out to create new reservoirs, as older reservoirs lead to the slow deterioration of the tree which eventually collapses in on itself. To create a good cistern, the baobab must be relatively mature: speaking of plants that can live over a thousand years, ‘mature’ usually means being at least three hundred years old. Three people and at least ten days of work are needed to obtain the cavity of the desired volume. The larger the reservoir, the greater the chance of surviving droughts.

Difficult months
On the Madagascar plateau, water resources are carefully managed throughout the dry season, which generally runs from May to October… but can last much longer. For the first three months, the daily water requirement is met by reserves collected naturally in the hollow trees. In the following three months, the inhabitants go in search of tubers (such as mangeboka) and roots (baboke) which they squeeze to obtain drinking water and quench their thirst. Wild watermelons, used for cooking and drinking, are also rich in water.In July, the artificial baobab cisterns that fill up during the rainy season are reopened.

Each family is responsible for their tree, which they look after with care. File swm

The water inside them usually lasts until October and is used for drinking, cooking, and washing. If rainfall is delayed – and climate change makes the alternation of seasons increasingly uncertain – villagers are forced to make long cart journeys, 15-20 hours on bad roads, to reach the nearest place where it is possible to buy water. At that point, water consumption is extremely limited. Children are bathed only once a month. Not a drop should go to waste. People suffer from thirst and the weakest die of dehydration.
The vagaries of the sky are increasingly frequent and, while the eastern coasts of Madagascar are often plagued by violent hurricanes, the internal regions of the plateau are exposed to recurring periods of drought. This is why baobab cisterns are increasingly necessary. Their construction and maintenance are passed down from generation to generation. Each tree is baptized with the name of a newborn so that, once an adult, he can take care of his own baobab. (Open Photo:123rf)

Pascal Maitre/Africa

 

 

Sudan. The forgotten catastrophe.

While the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine are attracting most media and Western attention, a potentially greater tragedy is threatening
Sudan where a civil war has been raging since April 2023 with
no peace in sight.

For more than ten months Sudan has been torn apart by a civil war that has already made 12,000 victims according to the UN, a figure probably widely underestimated since large portions of the country have been cut off from the rest of the world and nobody knows exactly what happened there. So far, the war has displaced 7.1 million people, including 1.5 million in neighbouring countries, according to the UN Secretary-General spokesman Stéphane Dujarric, who refers to the tragedy as “the world’s largest displacement crisis”.
This civil war opposes the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) led by Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) which grew from the Janjaweed militia that terrorized the Western Darfur region two decades ago and are now led by Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as “Hemedti”. Both groups were allies when they overthrew in 2019, President Omar al-Bashir whose dictatorship was seriously challenged by the mobilization of pro-democracy activists.
Two years later, both generals cracked down on pro-democracy protesters, putting an end to the transition towards democracy and took power together before they eventually fell out over the timetable for the RSF to be integrated into the army.

Sudanese leader General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan (R) and Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo – known as Hemedti – head of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) [X]

Fighting between both sides has thrown the country into chaos, involving large numbers of troops: an estimated 200,000 soldiers on the SAF side against 70,000 to 100,000 fighters on Hemedti’s side. The fighting is fierce. As a result, the UN World Food Programme suspended temporarily aid to 800,000 people on 21 December in the Al-Jazirah state, which was until then spared by violence. The WFP’s decision followed a major battle lost by the SAF, despite the bombardments of its jet fighters, which ended up with the loss of the second city of the country, Wad Madani, 180 km South of Khartoum, to the RSF militia.
The Wad Madani battle generated a humanitarian disaster. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the city turned “into another death trap” for civilians, including 300,000 people who had fled Khartoum where hospitals had been shelled, where airstrikes hit residential neighbourhoods while both sides were perpetrating rapes, kidnappings and murders of civilians. Meanwhile, in Western Sudan, fighting took the form of ethnic cleansing as militias have razed villages and executed families.

The view of Khartoum.

By mid-December, the RSF controlled most of the capital and advanced along the motorway towards Wad Madani, taking village after village after having seized four regional capitals in Western Darfur and several cities in central Sudan. Reporters describe scenes of “total panic” as the RSF paramilitary move South, looting cars, lorries and tractors. Since mid-December, the paramilitary moved near Senna, 140 kilometres south of Wad Madani. According to The Washington Post, both warring sides forcibly recruit civilians, including refugees who return from camps in the Amhara region of Ethiopia where conditions are extremely difficult. There are countless reports that both sides are committing war crimes. Residents of RSF-controlled areas report mass rapes killings and detentions including the looting of banks in Khartoum while SAF has also accused of widespread looting from homes in Omdurman on the other bank of the Nile on 13 December in the only part of the city they still control. Ethnic cleansing has also been perpetrated by the SAF against members of the Rizeigat community, which makes up the core of the RSF. One explanation for the looting by SAF soldiers is that their regular army salaries are low. Fighters can earn 10 times more in the RSF, which controls gold mines in Western Darfur.
The humanitarian toll is enormous. The UN said more than 20 million children have not been at school since the beginning of the war. About 18 million people face acute hunger (including half of the population of Khartoum), and nearly 5 million in emergency levels.  According to the UN, families in conflict zones could experience famine-like hunger by next summer. Altogether, some 30 million people, almost two-thirds of the population, need assistance in Sudan.

Sudanese refugees wait to be registered after crossing the border into the Central African Republic. UNHCR/Xavier Bourgois

The crisis is exacerbated because, in some areas such as al-Shajara, a southern Khartoum neighbourhood, the RSF had taken most supplies. Moreover, the area planted during this year’s season is 15% smaller than average and the production of sorghum and millet fell by 24% and 50% compared to 2022, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation.
The conflict has devastated the livelihoods of millions of people. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected that Sudan’s real Gross Domestic Product fell by 18 per cent at the end of 2023. Besides, according to the UN, with international attention focused on Ukraine and now Israel and Gaza, necessary funding for Sudan has been falling short.  The U.N.’s 2023 humanitarian response appeal for Sudan of US 2.6 billion was only one-third funded, in contrast with Ukraine, where a similar appeal has been 56% funded.
There isn’t much hope that violence will recede soon. Both armies are more or less evenly matched while foreign involvement is exacerbating the conflict and turning it into a proxy war. Saudi Arabia and Egypt back the Sudan Armed Forces, while the United Arab Emirates supports the RSF.  Last November, General Yasser Atta, the SAF number two, accused Abu Dhabi of being “a mafia state” that had “taken the path of evil” by supporting General Dagalo’s Rapid Support Forces paramilitaries.
According to researcher Alex de Waal, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyane, the President of the UAE, supported indeed Dagalo because – the latter had “supplied him with paramilitaries for its war against the Houthis in Yemen”.

General Yasser Al-Atta, a member of the Sudanese Sovereign Council and Assistant Commander-in-Chief of the Sudanese Army, has criticized the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for providing military supplies to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Photo Suna

In a speech to his troops on 28 November, Atta accused the Emirates of having sent arms to the RSF via Uganda, Chad and the Central African Republic since the start of the war with the help of the Russian mercenary Wagner group. According to American sources, the gold from Darfur is being used by the RSF to finance the Wagner arms supplies operations. In retaliation, demonstrations against the Emirates took place in Khartoum and were followed by the expulsion of Sudanese diplomats by Abu Dhabi and Emirati diplomats from Sudan.
On the other side, the Emirati support to the RSF combined with Iran’s rapprochement with Saudi Arabia, which has been itself a long-time supporter of Sudanese governments, has also contributed to a resumption of the ties between Tehran and the Sudanese Armed Forces. All this could stoke the fires since Western powers fear that Iran could supply the SAF with weapons and expertise, namely with drones like those provided to the Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis or the Ethiopian army. This Tehran-Khartoum rapprochement is disappointing Washington which has been pushing for a normalization of diplomatic relations between Sudan and Israel before the Gaza war.
But there are other indications of an internationalization of the conflict. In October 2023, the military Africa website reported that Israeli-made LAR-160 light artillery rockets were being used by the RSF. The list of other foreign actors also includes Egypt which is the traditional ally of the Khartoum authorities and is highly likely to enhance its support for the SAF to better manage cross-border refugee flows even at the price of a deterioration of its relations with the Emirates. (Open Photo: Sudanese refugees. WFP/Eloge Mbaihondoum)

François Misser

Tensions in the Red Sea: the changing scenario in the Middle East.

The US and UK have stepped up airstrikes against  Yemeni Houthi militias.

The Anglo-American air strikes were a direct response to the long series of Houthi attacks against civilian ships and boats (merchant and container) crossing the Strait of Bab al-Mandeb, in the Red Sea, in retaliation for the Israeli invasion of Gaza.

The drone and missile attacks conducted by the Shiite Zaydi militias have hit a systemic artery of global traffic, equal to 12% of international trade (including energy) and 33% of global container traffic. These actions caused a significant drop in merchant passages in the area (around 40%) and an average quadrupling of fuel and transport costs, with consequent delays in the delivery of goods (12-15 days more).

The initiative of Washington and London has largely degraded the operational and military capacity of the Yemeni militias, but it is undeniable that all this will not lead to a total reduction in the
scope of the threat represented, nor the risk of the same conditions recurring shortly.

Furthermore, the US and UK strikes have contributed to broadening the geographical scope of the regional conflict beyond the main scenario of Gaza, making the situation even more sensitive to future enlargements and threats. Furthermore, this condition represented a novel factor for all the actors involved more or less directly in the military dynamics, effectively facilitating a favorable change of pace especially for the Houthis and Israel.

A dynamic that is well suited to the Houthis, as it allows them to act with two different hats (dialogue and attack) using the usual tool of the “stick” (now wide-ranging military attacks) and the “carrot” (willingness to continue the national dialogue in Yemen).

This means exploiting the Palestinian cause functionally to justify attacks on global maritime trade, conditioning its strategic capabilities, and exerting new and more multilevel pressure on the United States and Saudi Arabia – actors involved in the Yemeni dynamics. Therefore, the Houthis’ effort to insert themselves into the Gaza conflict is aimed at strengthening its domestic consensus base and curbing internal (loyalist government of Aden) and foreign (USA and Saudi Arabia) opposition, while cementing the positioning and regional status of the movement in the so-called Iranian-led “axis of resistance”, which also includes Hezbollah and Hamas.

The situation is equally advantageous for Israel: the escalation in the Red Sea and a possible encapsulation of Hezbollah in the ongoing dynamic against Tel Aviv has already had the merit of shifting international attention from Gaza and the West Bank. At the same time, all this has allowed greater and more direct involvement of the United States in crisis scenarios, directing the focus on Iran’s role and relations with its regional proxies in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.

At the same time, the escalation of the conflict also reinforces the vision of the conflict carried forward by the Netanyahu executive, which aims to exploit tensions with Iran and its regional partners to remain in power in Tel Aviv for as long as possible. This is despite the clear collapse in the polls and the Prime Minister’s confidence even in the face of his radical government allies.

Tehran itself, which remained essentially on the margins of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, has maintained an ambivalent role of pressure and openness to dialogue, although it continues to profess its disinterest in getting involved in a war with regional potential. However, the activation of the Yemeni scenario – in which in any case the Iranian role remains mostly convergent with the Houthi agenda and with an anti-Saudi function – and, above all, of the Lebanese one – especially if Hezbollah were to be dragged into the Israeli clash – would have undefined but more exasperating effects, in which it would, however, be unlikely to imagine maintaining the ambiguous and opaque strategy like the one prepared up to now by Tehran.

This is the same strategic dilemma that would effectively force the United States to also raise the level of commitment, despite both the presidential campaign for the November 2024 elections has already started with too many unknowns and concerns for the Biden Administration, and Washington’s lack of will to find itself exposed on multiple opposing and contemporary military fronts (Ukraine and the risks of a possible crisis in Taiwan must never be minimized).

A similar scenario is therefore counterproductive for the United States itself, which would not only favour the regional and international propaganda of Iran-Russia-China but would also undermine the popularity – already low – of the White House in the Arab countries.

The latter are suffering from a reduced decline in trust towards their US partner and have long exploited the new context, including that of the Red Sea, to strengthen their quest for non-involvement in the war between Israel and Hamas and reorient its international interests. All without forgetting the risks and repercussions on the respective national public opinions in terms of popularity and legitimacy caused by the ambiguous diplomacy of the Arab actors in the political and military campaign of contrast in Tel Aviv, Gaza and the West Bank.

Therefore, the clear increase in regional tensions and the expansion – at least geographical – of the crisis scenario beyond the Palestinian context, will lead to a clear change of pace between all the actors involved, with the risk of acting in the dark. The danger, therefore, will not only lie in the already evident consequences for international trade, but in the increasingly asymmetric threats to national security and, more generally, to Middle Eastern instability. (Open Photo: The cargo ship transporting containers across the Red Sea.123rf)

Giuseppe Dentice/CeSI

 

Africa. The Drone Market.

South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria, and Egypt produce their own. However, around twenty African countries are purchasing unmanned aircraft for military purposes. China and Turkey lead the way among foreign exporters. Meanwhile, the arsenals of jihadist and criminal groups
are also growing.

The control of land borders and coasts, combating illicit trafficking such as drugs, weapons and poaching, raids against cells of jihadist groups or rebel militiamen. Even in Africa, the use of drones is reshaping the internal security of countries and cross-border security. Among the governments that have invested the most in the purchase of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in recent years is Nigeria. Abuja focused in particular on the Orions, produced by the French-American company Elistair. These drones from the MALE (medium-altitude long-endurance) category are capable of remaining in flight for up to fifty hours and identifying potential threats even several kilometres away.

An MQ-1 Predator, armed with AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. Photo: Leslie Pratt – afrc.af.mil.

The first African country to equip itself with drones for military purposes was South Africa, which used them in the civil war in Rhodesia in 1978. The first UAVs produced by Cape Town date back to the end of the 1980s. Other states are also investing in domestic production. Akram Kharief, a defence and security analyst of Algerian origin, explains: “Algeria has developed two armed drones of the MALE category in cooperation with the Emirates. Egypt has also launched its similar drone at the EDEX (Egypt Defence Expo) in Cairo in 2021”. Nigeria and Morocco are also moving along the same path.

Foreign suppliers
At the moment, however, the vast majority of drones flying over African skies come from countries outside the continent. At the top of the list are China and Turkey, followed by Israel, the United States, Germany, and Iran. “The country that led the way was China”, continues the Algerian analyst. “Beijing is a leader in the production of MALE drones. Its CH3, CH4 and Wing Loong models are the most widespread in Africa, mainly in Nigeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Algeria, and Morocco”.

A freshly delivered Malian Bayraktar TB2. Photo: President’s office Mali

Turkey has forcefully entered the African market by sending its Bayraktar TB2 drones in support of the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli. The aircraft is produced by the Baykar company, whose board of directors chairman is Selcuk Bayraktar, son-in-law of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The effectiveness of Turkish UAVs in repelling the offensives of the soldiers of Cyrenaica, General Khalifa Haftar has attracted the interest of other African governments including those of Ethiopia, Morocco, Rwanda, Togo, and Tunisia. A list that Angola could soon join.
“It cannot be ruled out that other countries will enter this market”, says Federico Borsari, an analyst at the Centre for European Policy Analysis. “There are states that are recording important progress in the development of drones such as Iran. But Saudi Arabia and the Emirates are also investing heavily in their internal industry, so they will
soon start coming forward”.
According to the pacifist organization PAX, based in the Netherlands, at least 20 African countries have equipped themselves with drones for military purposes. Among these are Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Mozambique. Kenya uses them to intercept incursions by al-Shabaab militiamen from Somalia. Botswana, Ivory Coast, Sudan, and Zambia have recently strengthened their respective fleets by purchasing medium-sized tactical drones.
Among these, Botswana has a consolidated supply channel with Israel, from which it had already purchased a series of Silver Arrow Micro-Vs at the beginning of the 2000s.

Drone use by Jihadists
The low cost of these aircraft, the savings in terms of human lives and the relative ease with which UAVs can be obtained for civil or commercial use have also pushed jihadist and criminal groups to focus on this solution. There is clear evidence of the use of drones by al-Shabaab in Somalia, Boko Haram in Nigeria, cells of the West African Province of the Islamic State and armed militias active in DR Congo, and Mozambique.

In recent years the Islamic State group has led the way in this regard, using DJI Phantom drones. 123rf

UAVs are used to gather information, conduct swarm attacks, or carry improvised explosive devices to launch against military and civilian targets. In recent years the Islamic State group has led the way in this regard, using DJI Phantom drones, which can be purchased on Amazon for around 450 dollars, to carry out attacks. Another increasingly widespread practice in Africa is also that of narco-drones, borrowed from Colombian drug cartels who have for some time been using UAVs to evade border security measures or attack cash vans. In the conversion of drones for criminal purposes, ‘help’ could also come from 3D printing technologies through which it is possible to manufacture missing or spare parts at home.

Rocco Bellantone

 

The Philippines. Why the Rosary in Jeepneys?

Jeepney drivers often hang rosaries and display religious images on their dashboards.  Why is this devotion to religious items in the jeepneys? We went to find out.

Riding a jeepney in the Philippines, you will be accustomed to seeing a hanging rosary in the rear-view mirror of the jeepney. Sometimes, the image of the Santo Niño or the image of the Virgin Mary is displayed on the vehicle’s dashboard. Why is this devotion to religious items in the jeepneys? Talking to some of the jeepney drivers about the display of rosaries and religious items inside of their jeepneys, the first reason they give is “for protection against evil.” For them, religious items are
a shield from anything bad.
In fact, before hitting the road, drivers often perform a ritual: they touch or hold the hanging rosary or religious items briefly and then make the Sign of the Cross. With this ritual, jeepney drivers entrust their lives to God, asking Him to protect them from all harm.

The Jeepney on the street of Manila. The drivers believe that rosaries and images of Jesus and Mary bring good health. 123rf

Protection against evil is the first reason drivers have rosaries and other religious items in their cars. They believe that through these religious items, God protects them against evil.
Kuya (brother) Jen, a jeepney driver from Parañaque, has been for 16 years carrying a small prayer booklet to Our Mother of Perpetual Help in his wallet. His reason for having that booklet is also for protection. He believes that Our Mother of Perpetual Help is his protector. Kuya Jen says, “Once on the road, we have to pray and ask the Lord and our Blessed Mother to protect us. And I believe they do. It is necessary to ask for protection when we leave our homes. Many bad things can happen when we are on the road.”
Another reason for having religious items inside the jeepneys is for good health. The drivers believe that rosaries and images of Jesus and Mary bring good health. Kuya Richard, being a jeepney driver for almost twenty year, says, “binibigyan Nila kami ng Magandang kalusugan” (They give good health). “We need good health to work and only God can give us good health.” Being a Catholic, he always makes the Sign of the Cross whenever he passes a church. And many of his colleagues do the same thing. They intend to have religious items inside their jeepneys to be healthy and strong enough to continue working. “To be a jeepney driver is demanding work. It requires good health,” repeats Kuya Richard.

Jeepneys in the streets of Naga City. “Once on the road, we have to pray and ask the Lord and our Blessed Mother to protect us. 123rf

Kuya John Marie agrees that these religious items in their jeepneys give them and their respective families good health. The presence of religious items in jeepneys also identifies the religious belief of the owner of the jeepney or the driver. If the jeepney has a rosary hanging in the rear-view mirror, the owner is a Catholic. Kuya Francis Dayola, a jeepney driver for 23 years, says, “Anytime you see a rosary in the jeepney, know that the driver or the owner is Catholic. Non-Catholics don’t put a rosary in their jeepneys.” For him, the presence of a rosary in his jeepney reminds him that God is with him. “Araw araw, bawat minuto, kasama ko ang Panginoon” (every day, every minute, God is with me).
Religious items such as rosaries, images, and crucifixes in the cars are expressions of people’s faith. These religious items increase in the people a certain sense of relationship with God, feeling His loving presence even on the road. Through these religious items, jeepney drivers experience God inside the church and more so when they drive daily. Behind these religious items in the jeepney is a hidden deep spirituality. The Catholic Church calls it popular piety. Popular piety is an expression of faith proper to a specific environment and culture. For the Church, popular piety is “a treasure of the people of God.” It “manifests a thirst for God known only to the poor and the humble.” As we can see, there is a deep sense of reverence for God in the lives of the jeepney drivers. This explains the Sign of the Cross that most of them do whenever they pass along Churches.

Colourful passenger jeepney with bright designs on the streets of Cebu. They are neither afraid nor shy to express publicly their Catholic faith. 123rf

No matter what reason the jeepney drivers give as an explanation for hanging rosaries and putting other religious items in their vehicle, the truth is that this practice reveals their faith. They are neither afraid nor shy to express publicly their Catholic faith. This expression of their faith through the religious items (rosary, images, crucifix) shows knowingly or unknowingly, how much they love and treasure their faith and want to share it with others that they may know about it too.
They treasure their faith so much that they pass it on from generation to generation. A woman selling turon (fried banana rolls) at Sucat Highway’s jeepney station says, “Hanging rosaries and having images of Mama Mary and of the Santo Niño in jeepneys, have become a tradition for Filipinos.” For her, it is a legacy of the Filipino Catholic faith passed on from one generation to another. The said practice (hanging rosaries, images of Mama Mary and the Santo Niño in jeepneys) may seem so ordinary without much importance.
Yet, this practice describes in a simple and meaningful way, the faith of an ordinary Filipino, that God is part of his daily life.

Noel Sakie

 

Kenya. Preparing Future Entrepreneurs.

The Institute for Social Transformation (IST) in Nairobi is a leader in social entrepreneurship training in Africa. It was founded 30 years ago by the Comboni Missionaries within the Catholic University of Tangaza. Today, it hosts more than 330 students of various nationalities eager to contribute to the improvement of society.

On 25 August 1986, Tangaza University College (TUC) was born in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. Five missionary institutes, including the Comboni Missionaries, were among the founders.
Today, the TUC is a consortium made up of 22 religious congregations. TUC has become one of the leading Catholic universities in East Africa. From just over 100 theology students with whom it opened its doors, today it hosts more than 1,700 lay students and almost 800 men and women from different congregations and 35 nationalities.

IST students during a lesson. File swm

During its 37 years of existence, more than 30,000 young people have earned one of the 59 degrees currently offered by the university. It offers a Doctor of Philosophy in ‘Social Transformation’, the first of its kind in Africa; nine master’s programs; 10 degrees; 21 higher degree courses, and 18 intermediate degree courses.
The growth of the TUC, both in terms of qualifications and enrolled students, can be explained by its founding idea of being an open academic space. This approach has allowed the creation of various initiatives within it.The need to provide adequate training to teachers in their schools in East Africa compelled the Brothers of the Christian Schools – the De La Salle Brothers – to create the Institute of Education. The Maryknoll Missionaries promoted one for the Study of African Culture; the Salesians that of Youth Studies, with the aim of offering academic training to the people who accompany young people; the Missionaries of Africa – White Fathers – opened one specialized in Interreligious Dialogue and Islamic Culture; the Carmelites that of Spirituality; while the Vincentian Family has launched a Leadership and Management Centre which provides practical skills and knowledge in the management of all types of institutions.

A Comboni project
The First Special Assembly for Africa held in Rome in 1994, known as the African Synod, invited the Church of the continent to offer qualified training to its pastoral agents to enable them to be evangelizing and transforming agents of their communities. Furthermore, the Synod insisted on the need to improve the self-financing of the African Church, which is too dependent on external aid. Starting from this invitation, the Comboni Missionaries founded the Institute of Social Ministry in 1994, which in 2008 changed its name to the Institute for Social Transformation (IST). Its current director, Brother Jonas Dzinekou, believes that this initiative is “An expression of the Comboni charism, given that the concept of social transformation that we use today actualizes Comboni’s dream of regenerating Africa and his inspiration is still present in our work”.

Father Francesco Pierli, founder of the Institute (L), Br. Alberto Parise (Director from 2004 – 2014). The current director, Brother Jonas Dzinekou. File swm

The inspirer and first director was Father Francesco Pierli, a former superior general of the Comboni Missionaries from 1985 to 1991. The Institute started by offering a two-year course. At first, the course was intended for non-ordained religious men and women, but slowly it opened up to lay students and consequently to the birth of new training programs with more focus on the social sciences, without forgetting the theological aspect and spiritual basis.
In 2004, Fr. Pierli was replaced as director of IST by Br. Alberto Parise who had attended the institute during his training. He has had some work experience in the Kariobangi slum on the outskirts of Nairobi. “During my experience in the field – says Brother Parise – I was able to discover the usefulness of all the content I received, but I also understood that the practical dimension had to be further strengthened. The agents of social transformation are like artists, who in addition to having creative ideas must also know how to handle the brush or callipers; that is, they must grasp the techniques that allow them to express their ideas”.
Under the direction of Brother Parise, IST training began to have a strong theoretical-practical component which continues today. This fact led to a real ‘re-education of teachers, accustomed to giving long speeches in class and seeking increasingly active participation from students ’. With this new perspective, and under the supervision of the faculty, students at all levels of the IST, from doctoral to intermediate level cycles, must now develop social and business transformation projects that they then apply in the field. Brother Dzinekou insists that “They must be projects that work, not theoretical constructions that offer no verifiable results”.

Students from the IST on a field research project. File swm

An example is the Mango Tree Trust-Kenya, an organization created in 2006 in the Kenyan county of Homa Bay for the community integration of orphans and families affected by HIV-AIDS. The project currently relies on the help of volunteers who provide direct or indirect assistance to nearly 3,000 orphans.
Other successful projects by IST alumni have been developed in areas as diverse as the resolution of inter-ethnic conflicts, the development of agriculture and livestock farming, the reintegration of marginalized people, the production of renewable energy or political support projects, such as defending the rights of people with disabilities on public transport in Kenya.
Popular education is another aspect that has been present at the IST since the beginning. Every year the teaching staff organizes numerous meetings and seminars outside the university campus. One of the best-known initiatives is Mtaani University, launched in September 2012 in the Huruma neighbourhood of Nairobi.
For the first time in the country, a university moves away from classrooms to train students directly in the environment they will have to work in in the future. Teachers go to various neighbourhoods for several weeks each term to provide theoretical training and offer concrete tools for civic education and social entrepreneurship. For the rest of the terms, students are in the field identifying problems and raising awareness in their communities. Thanks to this practical training, the transformative impact is indeed great.

Social entrepreneurship
The global crisis of 2008 warned IST leaders about the limits of development projects, which are heavily dependent on external financing. Furthermore, as Brother Parise points out, “The dynamics of the project require us to decide on the objectives before starting the journey, and this logic did not fit well with our more participatory ministerial approach. For this reason, we have started to focus more on a social entrepreneurship project model, encouraging our students to be entrepreneurs in creating social enterprises. These are not based on the donor-beneficiary duo, nor do they have a specific execution period, but rather aim at long-term economic sustainability”.

Working group meeting at Mtaani University. Photo: IST

Again, numerous examples could be cited of social enterprises created by IST alumni that have a positive impact on society. One of these, Sanpad Kenya Limited, is a sanitary pad specialist company founded by former student Lucy Kapkirwok.
The more entrepreneurial orientation of IST, started during the management of Brother Parise, was strengthened with the arrival in 2014 of Brother Jonas Dzinekou, a doctor of economic sciences with a good knowledge of the business world. “How is it possible that some young Africans risk their lives crossing the Mediterranean in search of a better life and do not see the enormous opportunities that their continent holds?” asks Brother Jonas. Without hiding the many obstacles that young Africans face, he affirms that “Africa needs the commitment of young people to create many micro-enterprises because large companies and multinationals will not solve the problems of poverty on the continent”.To help young students develop their entrepreneurial skills, the IST created the Social Innovation Sandbox, a centre integrated into the Yunus Social Business Centre network, founded by Muhammed Yunus, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to the development of microfinance and microcredit, as a means to combat poverty. The Social Innovation Sandbox has an economic fund to support the most innovative ideas of IST students and, according to the director of the centre, “as well as being a novelty in the Kenyan education system, it represents a good formula for combatting unemployment among young Africans”.

Planting the organic garden in Kajiado. Photo: IST

Since its creation 30 years ago, the IST has been able to adapt to the social needs of the African continent by providing practical and realistic training programs starting from a Christian vision of reality. He recently joined the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, promoted by Pope Francis through the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, responsible for organizing action in favour of caring for our common home.The future is not written in stone, and it is difficult to predict the evolution that the IST will undergo, but it will always maintain its vocation of educating for social transformation. “I observe our young people a lot and when they have spent two years at the centre, they are no longer the same as when they arrived. We can see in their eyes the joy of knowing they themselves are capable of improving reality, escaping the fatalism that sometimes grips young Africans”, Brother Dzinekou concludes. (Open Photo: A student at the Institute for Social Transformation (IST) – Enrique Bayo)

Enrique Bayo

 

Asia. Uneasy Scenarios.

The new year comes not only with a wide series of events, starting with important elections in several countries, but it also opens onto a restless scenario with open conflicts and tensions that could further increase the instability of crucial areas of the continent from the South China Sea to the East China Sea, as well as in areas contested by Pakistan, India, and the People’s Republic of China.

In China, the post-Covid-19 pandemic seems to propose new difficulties rather than a recovery that would serve to ward off suspicions and criticisms at home and abroad regarding the authorities’ attitude in combating the virus which has been accompanied by the accentuated authoritarianism of the almost total power of President Xi Jinping. However, this does not prevent there being difficulties in managing power, tensions between the various currents and clans within the party, as evidenced by the dismissal of several ministers in 2023, and the de facto end of the reformist movement headed by former prime minister Li Keqiang who died on October 27. The planning today does not seem to coincide with the data and prospects of the current five-year plan and the objective of global economic primacy indicated to the Chinese by Xi which could, at the very least, recede, while the already eroded confidence of diplomacy and investors awaits Beijing to test its maturity in managing the Ukrainian crisis and the growing tensions in the Far East of which it is a co-protagonist.

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech at the 30th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting in San Francisco, the United States, Nov. 17, 2023. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

In Hong Kong, the ongoing economic and financial decline in the Special Autonomous Region of China will be confronted with political choices aimed at limiting even more freedoms and rights. The expected approval of a new security law that definitively closes any space for criticism and opposition will certainly not restore impetus to a society impoverished by the substantial emigration of young people, intellectuals and professionals; infiltrated by denunciation, intimidated by continuous arrests and trials that affect anyone who has participated in any way in the anti-government demonstrations of recent years based on liberticidal measures imposed since 30 June 2020 inspired by the National Security Law of the People’s Republic of China. The production and financial system, which is increasingly subjected to the needs of the People’s Republic of China and its rules, sees the withdrawal of foreign companies and investments without signs of a countertrend for 2024.
Taiwan. Taiwan will see new parliamentary and presidential elections on January 13th. A decisive round in a period of growing tensions with the threat increased by repercussions. Despite not being the favourite for the parliamentary vote, even if probably with the support of the new Taiwan People’s Party, it is even more difficult for the Kuomintang to try to have its own presidential candidate. In favour of the island’s integration with mainland China and winner of the local elections in November, the party seeks a statement that eases tension with Beijing and the risk of military initiatives. The Democratic Progressive Party of outgoing president Tsai Ing-wen, although disheartened by voters regarding the management of the pandemic and the increase in the cost of living, on the other hand, can capitalize on the support of large sectors of the economy and the population who fear the realization of the idea of ‘one country two systems’ which has dramatically revealed its failure in Hong Kong.

Lahore. Minar-e-Pakistan is a national monument marking Pakistan’s independence movement. CC BY-SA 4.0/ Holosoft

This year will also see elections in the major Islamic countries of Asia: to renew their respective parliaments on January 13th in Bangladesh and on the 28th in Pakistan. These events are expected, in the first place, to confirm the leadership of Sheikh Hasina Wazed and his pragmatic choices even if not free from criticism for the harshness with which he contrasts political opposition and radical Islam; and in the second to perhaps allow greater stability after months of political uncertainty and social tensions in a dramatic economic situation.
Indonesia‘s elections will be presidential and parliamentary on February 24th. A three-way race for the highest state office which, according to analysts, could divide the country with the largest economy in South-East Asia looking for a role that has so far not been achieved. Another element of interest but also of concern is the participation as a vice-presidential candidate in the team of the former general and current Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto, a conservative candidate for the position of head of state, of Gibran Rakabuming Raka, son of the president in office, Joko Widodo, who defeated Subianto in the last elections. Beyond the evident contradictory nature of the candidacies, the fear is that this could consolidate a new dynasty of leaders in the turbulent Indonesian politics, in apparent contrast with the democratic and progressive demands promoted by Widodo so far.
The result of the Indonesian vote will be even more important, due to the passing of the rotating presidency of ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) from Indonesia to Laos last September. A ‘weak’ presidency that the new Indonesian leaders will be able to try to address, strengthened by the demographic and economic weight of their country but also by the complete democracy of the archipelago where there is no shortage of limits and contradictions.
Laos, in fact, with Cambodia and Myanmar, is part of a group under pressure inside and outside the Association regarding respect for fundamental rights and individual and collective freedoms, as well as for the low level of development and well-being.

Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of the Republic of India. (Photo: Prime Minister’s Office)

Finally, even India, ‘the largest democracy in the world’, presents itself on the electoral front in 2024 with a call to the polls of great importance and complexity which in several rounds between April and May will allow almost a billion voters to renew the lower house of the central Parliament but also the local assemblies of all levels. Once again competing for control of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha will be the coalition led by the nationalist Bharatiya Janata party and the one led by the Indian National Congress party which in the outgoing chamber had obtained 303 and 52 seats, respectively. The position of the BJP led by Narendra Modi is almost unassailable, but the battle will clarify whether the Congress will be able to overcome its now long leadership crisis, which not even the central role of the Gandhi family has so far been able to heal.

Members of Myanmar Parliament attend the Lower House session in capital Naypyidaw, Myanmar. CC BY-SA 3.0/ Htoo Tay Zar

In Myanmar, under an emergency law that had been postponed several times and which has postponed new elections now scheduled for 2025, there is an increasingly full-blown civil war. In the face of international inattention, the regime continues to arm itself to fight against its own population, to keep in detention or under house arrest a large part of the democratic leadership that had re-imposed itself with the November 2020 vote, defeated by the regime after the coup of February 1, 2021. Those who saved themselves from repression and who gave life to the National Unity Government (NUG) which operates clandestinely, continue to seek international legitimation and support while increasingly directing not only the Burmese dissidents, who in turn are arming themselves and organizing themselves into popular self-defence groups, but also ethnic militias. The current international situation and the still present interests of many countries in Burmese resources play into the junta’s game, while the situation for the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been imprisoned again for months and in precarious health, becomes difficult also on the level of personal safety.

Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida. CC BY 4.0/Prime Minister’s Office

Japan. Facilitated at the end of 2023 by an economic recovery and a weak yen which made products and brands more saleable, the year 2024 will be lived in a Japan aiming for recovery from the Covid emergency with hopes of a greater strategic role for Tokyo which, led by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, also works on the renewed interest abroad in the country (as evidenced by an unstoppable tourist flow) and a more proactive role of the government required by its alliances and the protection of its interests at a regional and global level. Internally, Kishida has two lines: continue the expansionary policy of his predecessor Shinzo Abe (Abenomics) to relaunch production, exports, and consumption; address more efficiently the problems associated with the decline in births, the accelerated aging of the population, adequate welfare, and guarantee adequate employment opportunities for women and young people. (Open Photo: Pixabay)

Stefano Vecchia
Asian Analyst

 

Yemen: Houthi piracy in the Red Sea.

Recent Houthi piracy attacks heighten global maritime security concerns in the Red Sea, despite international efforts of deterrence.

The issue of maritime security and insecurity in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb area is primarily tied to Yemen’s militarized islands. Since 2015, Yemeni islands are mostly controlled, as for its coastline, by armed groups: the Iranian-backed Yemen’s Houthis and a variety of forces supported by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

In the context of the Yemen war, the Houthis have repeatedly attacked Saudi and Emirati targets using various maritime warfare tactics. Recently, amid the Hamas-Israel war, the Houthis are turning to piracy –alongside aerial attacks- against Israeli targets in the Red Sea.

On November 19th, the hijacking by the Houthis of an Israeli-related cargo ship, “Galaxy Leader”, has turned the light on the risks to freedom of navigation in the Red Sea. The ship was seized off the Yemeni Western coast and diverted to the close Houthi-controlled Hodeida port city. However, this is not the first time the Houthis perform a
piracy attack in these waters.

Between January-April 2022, the Iranian-backed armed group, controlling much of North-Western Yemen, seized an Emirati cargo ship, “Rawabi”, while it was sailing off the Hodeida coast. The 11-member crew was released only four months later, due to the national truce brokered in Yemen.

In recent years, maritime security in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb area has been negatively impacted by the Yemen war. Since 2015, the Houthis have attacked several times both military and commercial targets in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb: Saudi warships, the US Navy, Saudi oil tankers and coastal infrastructures, Emirati civilian ships.

Maritime attacks from Yemen were performed with drones, missiles, rockets, remoted-controlled boats; floating sea mines were also planted to disrupt navigation. Between 2015-17, the Bab el-Mandeb strait was the epicentre of Houthis’ attacks.

Since 2017, Emirati-backed Yemen’s armed groups have taken control of the Bab el-Mandeb area pushing the Houthis to withdraw, and thus securing the choke-point’s neighbourhood. Therefore, the flashpoint area has moved to the Southern Red Sea, where the Houthis are still in control of Hodeida, the main port of the Yemeni Western coast.

As for its coasts, Yemen’s islands since 2015 have undergone a process of gradual militarization. First, the Houthis have extended their control to a series of Red Sea islands off the Hodeida coast: these have become linchpins for maritime attacks.

According to the independent Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies, since early 2023 the Houthis have been stepping up their military presence off the Hodeida coast, also performing marine patrols. Moreover, Houthis’ naval forces unprecedentedly clashed (in June 2023) with the National Resistance Forces (the Western coast coalition headed by Tareq Saleh), stationed at Zuqar.

In late 2015, the Saudi-led Coalition retook Zuqar, an island of the Hanish archipelago (between Yemen and Eritrea), previously seized by the insurgents, and established a military outpost for the Coalition.

Regarding the Emirati-backed groups, Tareq Saleh’s National Resistance Forces, a coalition which oppose the Houthis while not formally part of the regular security sector, are stationed at Zuqar (Southern Red Sea) and Perim/Mayyun (Bab el-Mandeb).

In 2021, Tareq Saleh stated during an interview that some units of the National Resistance Forces are deployed in Perim, where these are also affiliated with the Yemeni Coast Guard. The small island of Perim hosts an airbase reportedly built by the UAE in 2021.

In the Arabian Sea, Yemen’s Socotra archipelago is a natural gatekeeper to the Bab el-Mandeb, given its geographic location. Since 2018 onwards, Socotra and another island of the archipelago, Abd Al-Kuri, have seen rising military presence, primarily due to the UAE.

When the pro-secessionist-and Emirati-backed- Southern Transitional Council (STC) took control of the island in 2020, the local Coast Guard (still loyal to the internationally-recognized government) had to withdraw from its positions, while one of its battalions joined the STC.

Socotra would host some Emirati-built military installations comprising an Emirati intelligence base in cooperation with Israel, which could deploy Israeli-made sensors to counter Iranian-made missiles and drones). Recently, a military airport would have also been
built in Abd Al-Kuri.

Maritime security in the Red Sea is an issue of global concern. For trade and energy reasons, European, American, Arab and Asian powers are all interested in protecting freedom of navigation along the waterway connecting the Suez Canal with the Indian Ocean.

In recent years, several initiatives have been taken to strengthen Red Sea security, also at the multilateral level. For instance, a US-led task force, the CTF-153, was launched in 2022 to improve maritime security in the area and countering weapons smuggling (of whom the Houthis are the main recipients).

Before and after the start of the Hamas-Israel war, the US has deployed warships and marines in the Red Sea. Moreover, since late October, Israel has strengthened its defense posture to deter Houthis’ attacks.

However, deterrence hasn’t been effective. Rather, the Houthis seem emboldened by the ´stage` the Israel-Hamas war has been indirectly offering them, as well as by the possibility to engage with the US Navy. At the same time, Saudi-Houthi direct talks aimed at reaching a bilateral ceasefire in Yemen are not preventing the armed group from performing multidimensional attacks (aerial and maritime) in and through the Red Sea, with uncertain prospects also for Saudi national security.

While the Bab el-Mandeb area looks safer now, due to the deployment of UAE-backed forces, the Southern Red Sea represents a rising global security threat. As long as the Houthis will hold coastal territories, Yemen’s Western islands will continue to be unpredictable stoplights in the Red Sea.  (Photo: The guided-missile destroyer USS Nitze (DDG 94) transits the Arabian Sea. MC3 Jeff Atherton/US Navy)

Eleonora Ardemagni/ISPI

Syria. Aiming at the New Generations.

Thirteen years of war have shaped the daily lives of the people remaining in Syria. Millions of children have never known peace. Quality school education is almost non-existent. A generation without a future, which also influences the future of the country. The ‘Don Bosco’ paediatric centre of the Salesians in Damascus is a refuge for many of these boys and girls.

According to United Nations estimates, at least 13,000 children and young people have been killed in the Syrian war. Katia Sioufi survived. In those days, a few seconds could have decided whether she or someone else would be left lifeless on the pavement in front of the school gate. Images that the young woman, now 24 years old, will keep forever. Images of a war that changed her life and her future forever.

Katia was 11 years old when the war began and took with it many of her friends.Photo Salesian missions

Katia was 11 years old when the war began and took with it many of her friends. Her family remained intact: her father Elias, her mother Violet, and her younger brother Georges.
The older sister Maria left Syria some time ago and took refuge in Hungary with her husband. For the next few years, Katia would only be able to communicate with her youngest niece via cell phone.
Despite everything, Katia is lucky because she is not one of the two million children in Syria who have not attended school for years. They could not be educated because their schools were destroyed, their teachers fled, or poverty forced them to work. The neighbourhood of Jaramana where Katia lives, a suburb southeast of the historic centre of Damascus, has been violently attacked for years, but the school has remained standing despite the impact of grenades and bombs. Sometimes the teachers would only come in the morning.

The Don Bosco Centre
In those years, the one place where she always found someone to welcome her was the ‘Don Bosco’ Salesian Centre for children and young people. The team made up of a handful of religious, lived there and would deliberately leave the gates open, even when gunshots could be heard day and night, and many were afraid to leave their homes. Even today, Katia, who now studies computer science at the University of Damascus, visits the bright building, located on a quiet street in the Al-Salheya neighbourhood, near the city centre, several times a week. Next door, the Salesian nuns run a kindergarten and, from the minaret opposite, the muezzin calls the Muslim neighbours to prayer.

For many years, Fr. Miguel Ángel Condo Soto has worked alongside the populations of the Middle East. Photo: Salesian Missions

Here, at the Don Bosco Centre, Katia meets her friends; here they can have fun together, listen to music, practise sports, play the guitar or put on plays, talk about God and the world – and always find someone to listen to them when their worries are great. The heart of the centre is the chapel. It is a place of peace where Mass is regularly celebrated (attended by many migrant workers, especially Filipinos). Every week, 1,200 children and young people aged between 8 and 25 from socially disadvantaged areas of Damascus attend the Salesian centre with its huge courtyard. Most of them live in the densely populated Jaramana area.
They come from Christian, Orthodox, Maronite and Catholic families – a minority that is disappearing in Syria. “Our centre is a refuge”, explains Miguel Ángel Condo Soto. The 34-year-old Bolivian Salesian priest knows well the needs and suffering of Syrian families. For many years he has worked alongside the populations of the Middle East. “The people in Syria have more than thirteen years of war behind them. They suffer and yet continue to live every day. Everything is in short supply here. Many people can barely earn their daily bread. Food prices are high, petrol is expensive. With us, children and young people can leave the worries of everyday life behind for a few hours and grow stronger”.

The shanty towns
The Salesian community hires buses to take all the children and young people to the safety of the Don Bosco Centre and bring them home after morning lessons. Katia Sioufi steps out of one of these colourful vehicles in Jaramana in the late afternoon. In the dusty streets there is a lot to do. To the right and left of the narrow alleys, illegally constructed buildings rise towards the sky, leaning precariously.
In the past, when Jaramana was still a small town in its own right, most of the people who lived here were Christians and Druze. Today Jaramana is a refuge for countless Palestinian families and Iraqi refugees. The slums begin on the outskirts of the city, where children rummage through piles of roadside rubbish. Katia is returning home. She used to live in Babtouma, the city where she was born, but rents have become unaffordable for a family like the Sioufis.
On the top floor of a tall building, Katia’s parents are waiting for her. Three bedrooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom. The folding dining table is pulled out from behind the cabinet. Mama Violet serves rice today with chicken meat, which cost her a lot of money.

The Don Bosco Centre wants to offer a safe place for many children and young people. Photo: Salesian Missions

The 51-year-old woman comments: “What we earn is barely enough to live on. Before the war, we could send Katia to a public school. Now we can no longer support our children as we would like”. Later, 19-year-old Georges returned home. He has found work in a small jewellery shop. The money he earns is not enough for him to study. Like every other day, he makes his bed on the sofa. Hoping for a better future, Katia wants to continue studying. She can do this with the help of the Salesians, who have rented a small house in Jaramana with financial help from abroad. In the classrooms of this outpost of the Don Bosco Centre, every day, supplementary lessons are given to as many children in the neighbourhood as possible: mathematics, Arabic, English, physics, and everything you need. For many of them, it is the only quality education they receive during the day. The teachers are former students of the Don Bosco community, who teach younger children in the afternoon, thus earning some money for their families. “We support young people socially, emotionally and spiritually”, explains Father Miguel. Katia is one of the young people who teaches the younger children, and she enjoys coming here to study. There is almost no electricity in the house and in winter there is no heating.

“We want the young generations to realize their dreams here again”. Photo: Salesian Missions

“If we are cold, we cannot learn well”, says Leen Abou Sekka, another former Don Bosco youth in charge of the Jaramana house. About 250 children come regularly. Leen turns off the lights at 10 p.m. “Public schools in Syria are not of a good standard. Furthermore, many girls and boys have physical and psychological injuries. They have suffered many bad things. Some have stammers, others are violent, still others have completely withdrawn from the community. The war still affects them today”. Leen would like more space and a larger group of teachers. But there is no money. However, a small meal is served every day. Nothing hot, mostly sandwiches, which can easily be prepared. The centre asks families for a symbolic financial contribution.
In Damascus, there are not many safe places for children. The Don Bosco Centre wants to offer a safe place for many children and young people. Father Dany Kerio, director of the Salesian community in Damascus, says: “We want the young generations to realize their dreams here again”, so that Syria does not remain a lost country. (Open Photo: Salesian Missions)

Kristina Balbach/Missio

 

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