(LONDON) — Magawa, a rat credited with finding over 100 landmines and explosives in Cambodia, is dead at age 8.
The African giant pouched male rat was the most successful landmine detecting rat for the nonprofit APOPO — a Tanzania-based group that trains the species to detect landmines and tuberculosis — dubbing them “HeroRATs.”
Magawa won a People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals Gold Medal — the highest honor given to heroic animals by the U.K.-based veterinary charity — for his work in Cambodia in 2020. According to APOPO, Magawa “passed away peacefully this weekend,” having recently celebrated his birthday.
Magawa retired last year after spending four years discovering explosives with his incredible sense of smell.
African giant pouched rats are larger than the average pet rat, but are not heavy enough to set off most landmines by walking over them.
With 60 million people in 59 countries affected by uncleared landmines, training animals like Magawa can improve efficiency and cut costs in a decades-long battle to clear landmines from past conflict zones, APOPO says.
“All of us at APOPO are feeling the loss of Magawa and we are grateful for the incredible work he’s done,” the nonprofit said on its website. “During his career, Magawa found over 100 landmines and other explosives, making him APOPO’s most successful HeroRAT to date. His contribution allows communities in Cambodia to live, work, and play; without fear of losing life or limb.”
(KAZAKHSTAN) — Russian-led troops sent to help quell protests will begin leaving Kazakhstan in two days now that the government is back in control, the country’s president has said.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in an address to Kazakhstan’s parliament Tuesday said the troops, deployed by the Moscow-dominated military alliance, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation at his request last week, would start a phased withdrawal that would finish in no more than 10 days.
“The main mission of the CSTO peacekeeping forces has been successfully completed,” Tokayev told lawmakers. He said that the situation was now stable in all regions of Kazakhstan.
The Russian-led alliance sent troops late last week to Kazakhstan as violent protests saw Tokayev’s authoritarian government lose control over its biggest city, Almaty. Russia sent the largest contingent, deploying paratroopers units with armored vehicles, backed by several hundred soldiers from the other former Soviet countries in the alliance: Belarus, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Tokayev has said the force numbers around 2,300 troops.
In recent days, Tokayev’s security forces have forcibly regained control in Kazakhstan, using live fire to end the uprising in Almaty and arresting nearly 10,000 people. The unrest saw at least 164 people killed and over 2,000 injured, according to authorities.
The Russian-led troops have not been used in combat or in direct clashes with protesters, according to the authorities, who say instead they were used to guard key facilities, including Almaty’s airport which was overrun by protesters. Tokayev has said the arrival of the foreign forces freed up his security forces in the capital Nur-Sultan to help quash the unrest in other regions.
The Russian intervention had worried Western countries that have expressed fear the Kremlin’s forces might remain indefinitely and that Kazakhstan could find its independence eroded.
The U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken this weekend told reporters, “I think one lesson in recent history is that once Russians are in your house, it’s sometimes very difficult to get them to leave.”
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin a day earlier has insisted his troops would “without question” leave as soon as their mission was complete.
Life was slowly returning to some normalcy in Almaty on Tuesday, although the city remained under heavy guard by security forces. Troops are posted at key buildings and checkpoints, stopping people and examining their phones for signs they may have taken part in the protests, according to an ABC reporter on the ground.
Tokayev on Tuesday announced his picks for a new government, including a new prime minister. The lower house of parliament quickly approved Tokayev’s acting prime minister, Alikhan Smailov, to the the post. In a special session of parliament, Tokayev also promised to launch broad reforms to overhaul Kazakhstan’s government and tackle economic problems in the country — addressing concerns that led to the protests. The unrest was triggered by a sudden hike in fuel prices, and came amid wide discontent with rising prices on basic goods and stagnant wages that have worsened with the pandemic.
Tokayev said his government would announce a new packet of measures within two months aimed at tackling inflation and raising incomes.
He also declared he would radically improve Kazakhstan’s security forces to prevent a repeat of last week’s unrest, promising to increase the number of special forces units in the police and create new ones in the national guard. He also promised to announce in September a packet of political reforms, saying Kazakhstan would “continue a course of political modernisation.”
(NEW YORK) — Scientists are researching how to promote global diversity amid warming temperatures, but some of the methods that could prove effective may be further hindered by climate change, according to new research.
The mass-clearing of trees is occurring around the world due to a plethora of culprits, including wildfires, logging and clearing development. More than 18 million acres of forest are lost every year, according to the Ecological Society of America, and the forests that remain are often weakened by severe drought and disease. All of these things are exacerbated as the earth warms.
One method some scientists are confident will help vegetation survive the inevitable heat of the future is assisted migration, which involves planting a species of tree that is native to the area but sourcing the seed from farther south, where the temperature is warmer. Theoretically, this would ensure that the forest will endure, because that variation has already adapted to warmer temperatures.
But new research has shown that populations of some species of warm-adapted plants are actually decreasing in their native habitats — and if a plant population is dwindling, its seedlings may not be available to be migrated. A study published in Nature on Monday found that alpine plants in the European Alps are among the many plant and animal species responding to recent global warming, and climate change could be leading to the reduction of plants within each species that has adapted to warmer weather.
“These individuals that are adapted to warmer climatic conditions may get lost in the future climate change,” Johannes Wessely, author of the study and a researcher in the University of Vienna’s department of botany and biodiversity research, told ABC News.
The model developed by the researchers, which considered variations in the climate tolerance of six species of alpine plants, suggests that the ranges and populations of these plants will shrink as the climate warms, because the area in which it can survive will occupy smaller plots at higher elevations. This will then lead to less warm-adapted vegetation, and possibly the extinction of the species due to maladaptation and less vegetation overall, Wessely said.
The survivability of the species will depend on the rate of climate change, Wessely added.
“This pattern gets stronger, the stronger climate changes,” he said.
More research needs to be done to determine whether warming temperatures will have the similar effect on other plant species, Wessely said. If so, it could alter how effective assisted migration will be in fortifying vegetation against climate change.
Maladaptation is one of the main concerns scientists have when considering assisted migration, making sure to take extreme care when moving species outside of their normal zone, Owen Burney, the director of the John T. Harrington Forestry Research Center at New Mexico State University, told ABC News.
“There’s always a risk in doing that,” he said, but he emphasized that genetic research completed so far proves the method can be beneficial, for example, in providing some resilience to drought within a local population.
Scenarios that could possibly work include moving a variation of a Mexican pine species from Mexico to the southeastern U.S., where it does not exist, or moving a species from a lower to higher elevation. But ample testing will be necessary to make that determination, it can be tough to find investors for forestry, Burney said.
Forests are critical to the Earth’s ecology for their ability to capture and store carbon out of the atmosphere, alter the air quality and quantity of drinking water and provide habitat for the world’s land species.
Last year, the United Nations Environment Programme declared that promoting and preserving biodiversity — especially reforestation — would play a crucial role in combating climate change.
The growth and productivity of forests is both directly and indirectly affected by climate change, according to the Ecological Society of America. Changes in the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere affect forests directly, while the effect on the complex ecosystems as a result of climate change affects the forests indirectly.
(WASHINGTON) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that the United States was open to discussing limits on missile deployments and troop exercises in Europe during talks with Russia this week over Ukraine.
“There are confidence-building measures, there are risk-reduction measures, all of which, if done reciprocally, I think can really reduce tensions and address concerns,” Blinken told told ABC This Week anchor George Stephanopoulos.
And after Russia sent troops to help quell unrest in neighboring Kazakhstan, Blinken did not rule out that events there could come up in talks — even though Russia has ruled that out.
He criticized Kazakhstan’s president ordering security forces to shoot to kill protesters.
“That is something I resolutely reject,” Blinken said. “The shoot-to-kill order, to the extent it exists, is wrong and should be rescinded.”
Delegations from the U.S. and Russia planned to hold talksSunday night and Monday in Geneva, kicking off a critical week of diplomacy between Moscow and the West over Russian President Vladimir Putin menacing neighboring Ukraine.
Blinken said it may be possible “to address whatever legitimate concerns Russia may have.”
For example, he said, “there may be grounds for renewing” the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia, from which the Trump administration withdrew and which the U.S. accuses Russia of violating.
“Similarly, there are agreements on the deployment of conventional forces in Europe, on things like the scope and scale of exercises, that, if adhered to reciprocally — that is, Russia makes good on its commitments, which it’s repeatedly violated — then there are grounds for reducing tensions, creating greater transparency, creating greater confidence, all of which would address concerns that Russia purports to have,” Blinken said.
Stephanopoulos pressed, “So you’re willing to address troop levels, you’re willing to address missile deployments, you’re willing to address training exercises?”
Blinken said the United States was “not looking at troop levels.”
“When it comes to the deployment of forces and troop levels, we’re not looking at troop levels,” he said. “To the contrary, if Russia commits renewed aggression against Ukraine, I think it’s a very fair prospect that NATO will reinforce its positions along its eastern flank, the countries that border Russia.
“But when it comes to, for example, the scope and scale of exercises,” he continued, “things that were dealt with in the conventional forces in Europe treaty that Russia’s been in violation of, those are things that we can look at.”
The U.S.-Russia negotiations are expected to be followed by talks between Russia and NATO in Brussels on Wednesday and more discussions between the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in Vienna on Thursday. The U.S. will participate in those talks, too.
As President Joe Biden has threatened in the past, Blinken promised “massive consequences” for Russia if it invades Ukraine — promising they would go beyond those that the West imposed on Russia after it annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 — saying the U.S. and European allies have coordinated on “economic, financial and other consequences.”
But when asked by Stephanopoulos whether he thinks Putin has already made the decision to take control of the Ukraine, Blinken noted he wasn’t sure yet.
“It’s clear that we’ve offered him two paths forward,” Blinken said. “One is through diplomacy and dialogue. The other is through deterrents and massive consequences for Russia if it renews its aggression against Ukraine. And we’re about to test the proposition of which path President Putin wants to take this week.”
And the secretary of state tempered expectations about quick results.
“I don’t think we’re going to see any breakthroughs next week,” Blinken said.
It would be “very difficult” to “make actual progress,” he said, as long as “there’s an ongoing escalation, when Russia has a gun to the head of Ukraine with 100,000 troops near its borders, the possibility of doubling that on very short order.”
“If we’re seeing de-escalation, if we’re seeing a reduction in tensions, that is the kind of environment in which we can make real progress and, again, address concerns, reasonable concerns on both sides,” Blinken said.
(CAPITOLIO, Brazil) — At least 10 people are dead and two remain hospitalized after a slab of a cliff broke off Saturday afternoon and crashed down onto four tourist boats in a lake in Brazil, officials said.
The incident took place at Lake Furnas, a popular tourist spot roughly 260 miles north of Sao Paulo, around 12:30 p.m., according to the Minas Gerais state fire department. The Brazilian Navy and local firefighters were deployed to the scene to help the victims.
One of the deceased victims has been identified as 68-year-old Julio Borges Antunes, according to the Minas Gerais Fire department. The names of the other victims have not been released.
Officials said all of the tourists on the boats were Brazilians.
Officials on Saturday evening had said 20 people were missing and 32 were hospitalized.
Romeu Zema, the governor of Minas Gerais, tweeted updates on the incident during the afternoon and said heavy rains were a factor in the cliff collapse. The rescue efforts were ongoing, Zema tweeted.
“I sympathize with the families during this difficult time,” he tweeted in Portuguese.
The Brazilian Navy is overseeing the investigation into what caused the collapse, according to authorities.
(LAKE FURNAS, Brazil) — At least five people are dead and as many as 20 are missing after a slab of a cliff broke off Saturday afternoon and crashed down onto three tourists boats in a lake, officials said.
The incident took place at Lake Furnas, a popular tourist spot roughly 260 miles north of Sao Paulo, around 12:30 p.m., according to the Minas Gerais state fire department. The Brazilian Navy and local firefighters were deployed to the scene to help the victims.
Five people were killed, 32 people were hospitalized and 20 people were missing, as of Saturday evening, the fire department told ABC News. Six victims were taken to the hospital in serious condition, officials said.
The fire department told ABC News that 23 of the hospitalized victims could be released soon.
Romeu Zema, the governor of Minas Gerais, tweeted updates on the incident during the afternoon and said heavy rains were a factor in the cliff collapse. The rescue efforts were ongoing, Zema tweeted.
“I sympathize with the families during this difficult time,” he tweeted in Portuguese.
The Brazilian Navy is overseeing the investigation into what caused the collapse, according to authorities.
(ALMATY, Kazakhstan) — There are signs Kazakhstan’s president is slowly regaining control in the country, following a bloody clampdown by security forces to end days of mass protests and after Russian-led troops arrived to support the government.
For the second day in a row, Kazakhstan’s biggest city Almaty was eerily quiet and under heavy military control, according to an ABC News reporter there. The city, the former capital, was the epicenter of the protests this week, where mobs stormed key government buildings and overran the airport. But under cover of an internet blackout, security forces using live fire have cleared the streets over the past three days in clashes that have left dozens killed, according to the government.
The streets were mostly deserted on Saturday, but the occasional sound of gunshots could be heard. It was not clear, but some of the shots appeared to be warning shots fired by troops, directing people not to approach police cordons, according to the ABC News reporter, who is not being named for safety reasons. The main square, the key protest site, was occupied by security forces and blocked off with armored vehicles.
A curfew is in effect in the evening and authorities have told people to remain indoors. Military units have set up checkpoints and are controlling access to the city. Most shops are closed and people are struggling to find basic groceries, except for bread that is still being delivered, according to ABC’s reporter. The city center is wrecked, many shops looted and the roads are strewn with burnt-out cars. Several journalists on the ground have reported seeing corpses lying in the street.
The protests began a week ago, triggered by a rise in gas prices, but quickly spread and developed into the biggest uprising against Kazakhstan’s authoritarian government since it gained independence following the fall of the Soviet Union. Kazakhstan’s president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Wednesday appealed to Russia for help, asking a Moscow-led military alliance of former Soviet countries to send troops. A few thousand Russian paratrooper units have since arrived in the country, along with several hundred from Belarus, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia.
The internet blackout in the country made it difficult to get a clear picture of the situation in other cities on Saturday, but there were signs protests had faded. Kazakhstan’s interior ministry said police now have “full control” over Aktob, a city that saw major protests. In Aktau, another protest center, a Russian-state news reporter showed police removing a small number of protesters from the central square.
Security forces were engaged in a gun battle for several hours near a village on the outskirts of Almaty, according to a reporter from the Russian state news agency, Sputnik.
Kazakhstan’s interior ministry said police have arrested over 4,400 people during the protests. At least 26 protesters and 18 security forces personnel have been killed, and hundreds of people injured in the unrest, according to the authorities.
Tokyaev on Saturday spoke to Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, telling him the situation was “stabilizing” but that “hotspots of terrorism” remained and that he would fight them “with the utmost determination,” according to a readout from Kazakhstan’s president’s office.
Tokayev and the Kremlin have claimed the unrest was carried out by “foreign terrorist” groups. In many places the protests have been largely peaceful, though in Almaty they were overtaken by intense violence, with mobs of men ransacking government buildings and there was widespread looting. Men armed with assault rifles, seemingly organized, have been seen and appear to have fought with the security forces. But peaceful demonstrations appear to continue in the city — as troops advanced on the square on Wednesday, a group of young people stood holding a banner reading, “We are not terrorists.”
Kazakhstan’s security services on Saturday also arrested the former head of the country’s domestic security agency, Karim Masimov, on charges of treason, in a surprise move that fueled speculation in Kazakhstan that an internal struggle has also been going on among the elite during the protests.
Masimov had headed the powerful KNB security service until he was removed this week by Tokayev, when the president dismissed his government as a concession to the protests.
A statement published on the security agency’s website, said Masimov and other unnamed individuals, were suspected of “state treason” and that he has been held in a detention center for the past two days. The charge against him carries a maximum sentence of 15 years prison.
Masimov was a key ally of Kazakhstan’s long-time ruler Nursultan Nazarbayev, the ex-Communist party boss who has dominated the country for three decades.
Nazarbayev, who is 81, in 2019 passed the presidency to Tokayev, but had retained considerable power behind the scenes as chairman of the national security council and has the honorary title “leader of the nation.”
This week, amid the unrest, Tokayev announced he was replacing Nazarbayev as chairman of the security council, a move seen as signaling an end to Nazarbayev’s power.
Nazarbayev’s removal now combined with the arrest of his key ally in Tokayev’s government has prompted some to claim Tokayev is using the upheaval to put an end to his former patron’s influence in the government and cement his own.
Nazarbayev’s whereabouts — as has not been seen in public since the protests began — have become a subject of interest among Kazakhstanis. Nazarbayev’s spokesperson on Saturday denied multiple reports that Nazarbayev had left Kazakhstan with his daughter. The spokesperson said Nazarbayev was in the capital Nur-Sultan — named after him — and was in regular contact with Tokayev.
A journalist working with ABC News contributed to this report from Almaty, Kazakhstan.
(LONDON) — Duchess Kate is starting 2022 with a milestone birthday.
The Duchess of Cambridge turns 40 on Jan. 9, a birthday she is expected to celebrate privately with her family.
Kate, the wife of Prince William and a mother of three, appears to be starting her new decade with a renewed focus on her royal role.
In the nearly 11 years since she wed Prince William at Westminster Abbey, she has become one of the most popular members of Britain’s royal family.
And in recent years, Kate has taken on an increasingly high-profile role in the royal family amid family changes.
At age 95, Queen Elizabeth II has scaled back her public engagements, particularly since a brief hospitalization in October. And Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan’s decision to step back as senior working royals has left William and Kate, now the only working royals of their generation, to pick up more duties.
The growing public profile has been a “significant transformation” for Kate, who was thrust into the public spotlight when she started dating William while in college, according to ABC News royal contributor Victoria Murphy.
“I think her desire to do a good job, be liked by the public and respected by the family was palpable in the beginning, and she was clearly very nervous when the spotlight was on her over public speaking,” said Murphy. “She built up her workload very gradually, taking on only a small number of patronages initially and taking time before making solo appearances and speeches.”
“But over the years, Kate has grown hugely in confidence, and is now a driving force behind how she and William work and the causes they take on,” she said.
It was Kate, for example, who had the idea to focus on mental health as a cause, according to Murphy, resulting in the very successful Heads Together campaign that launched in 2016 and continues to be a focus of William and Kate’s work to this day.
As the Cambridges prepare to one day become king and queen consort, Murphy says the public can expect to see Kate grow even more in her role as she zeroes in on causes close to her heart.
“I’ve always thought that Kate is a team player, cool-headed and a good listener, and that these things have stood her in good stead over the year,” said Murphy. “I think she also very much has the ability to compartmentalize, as it has been said the queen does, which is an important quality in handling the pressures of the public role.”
Since becoming a mom eight years ago, Kate has focused much of her attention on supporting new parents and young children.
In early 2020, just before the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Kate launched a nationwide survey to explore what people in the U.K. think about raising children, with a focus on kids under age 5.
Then in June of last year, the duchess launched the Royal Foundation Center for Early Childhood, which she said is designed to “raise awareness of why the first five years of life are just so important for our future life outcomes, and what we can do as a society to embrace this golden opportunity to create a happier, more mentally healthy, more nurturing society.”
At the same time, Kate and the Royal Foundation, William and Kate’s charitable arm, released “Big Change Starts Small,” a research report on early childhood development.
Kate has also focused much of her work on making sure the outdoors are included in kids’ early development. She helped design a “Back to Nature” garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2019, and the next year was named joint president of the U.K. Scout Association, marking the first time a royal woman has held the title of president or joint president of the Scouts.
“I think what has changed in the last few years is that it has become really clear what Kate’s main areas of work are in a way that feels much more focused and immersive,” said Murphy. “She has always been interested in the outdoors and in young people, but the fact that she is making those areas cornerstones of her work have become a lot more obvious.”
Murphy said Kate’s commitment to the cause of early childhood education is particularly striking, noting, “It’s a challenging and very broad area but she has shown a real and serious commitment to it over a long period of time that I think has earned her a lot of respect from people who work in this field.”
During the pandemic, Kate offered support for parents and students and teachers, and spoke about the experience of quarantining with and leading virtual learning for her own children, Prince George, 8, Princess Charlotte, 6, and Prince Louis, 3.
The glimpse Kate provided into her and William’s home life is just one example of how the duchess’ growing confidence has allowed her to be more at ease, according to Murphy.
Kate and William launched a YouTube channel last year, where they share more behind-the-scenes content. And in 2020, Kate gave a rare interview to a motherhood-focused podcast, where she opened up about experiencing mom guilt.
“The [podcast] was a brave move because it could have backfired if people had been critical of the fact she has access to a lot more help than most,” said Murphy. “But it ended up being one of the best things she could have done because it really made it clear how hands-on a mother she is and the relatable way she is raising her three children.”
Kate has also been more public in recent years about her own passions, whether that is participating in sports, like the tennis game that Kate, an avid fan, played with U.S. Open winner Emma Raducanu last year, or photography.
Kate, a college art major who is often the photographer behind family photos shared with the public, last year launched a photography project, “Hold Still,” to capture life during the coronavirus pandemic.
The photographs were compiled in a book in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery, of which Kate is a patron.
More recently, in December, Kate hosted her first Christmas carol concert at Westminster Abbey, honoring people and organizations who supported their communities during the pandemic.
During the concert, Kate delivered a surprise performance, showing off one of her unknown passions, piano playing, when she accompanied singer Tom Walker.
“These things show a willingness to put herself out there and to let us see more of who she is and what she enjoys,” said Murphy.
And while Kate seems to be most in her element when outdoors or with kids, she is also happy to embrace the “glamorous side of royal life,” according to Murphy.
She stunned in a gold evening gown at the world premiere of the latest James Bond movie in September, and won praise the next month for wearing a recycled Alexander McQueen gown at the inaugural Earthshot Prize Awards.
“Over the years there has been much excitement when she has worn tiaras from the queen’s collection,” said Murphy. “And even a decade into her public role, she still easily commands all the front pages whenever she makes a red carpet appearance.”
(MOSCOW) — Russian paratroopers have arrived in Kazakhstan to help its government end mass protests that are gripping the former Soviet country.
The Russian troops are deploying to Kazakhstan as part of a joint force from a Russian-led military alliance of several former Soviet countries, after Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jopart Tokayev appealed late Wednesday it for help in supressing the protests. The unrest was triggered by a hike in fuel prices, but has escalated into an unprecedented uprising against Kazakhstan’s authoritarian regime, with thousands of people storming government building across the country, including the largest city, Almaty.
The Russian-led alliance, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), has said the force is part of a “peacekeeping” mission to help Kazakhstan’s government restore order. The Russian paratroopers landed Wednesday morning close to Almaty and would begin completing tasks immediately, the alliance told Russian news agencies. Contingents from Belarus, Armenia, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan will also deploy, according to the alliance.
The Russian troops arrived as Kazakhstan’s security forces moved to try to regain control in Almaty, the former capital where protesters yesterday stormed and set fire to key government buildings and overran the airport. Local police said overnight they had killed dozens of protesters in the city, accusing them of attacking government and police buildings.
Video published by the Russian news agency TASS showed Kazakhstan government soldiers advancing in a line and firing at protesters in Almaty. That shooting took place at the main square in front of Almaty’s mayor’s office, according to the agency, that was the center of the protests on Wednesday and was gutted by fire after a crowd stormed it. Kazakhstan’s interior ministry said Thursday that police had now arrested 2,000 people during raids in Almaty and that officers were now moving “to clear” two main streets.
Almaty’s police department said 8 police and security personnel were killed and 353 injured during Wednesday’s protests.
President Tokayev has vowed to use force to put an end to the protests, after concessions earlier Wednesday, including dismissing his government and reversing the fuel price rise, failed to quell them. Tokayev claimed the protests were being led by foreign terrorists groups, using the claim to justify his call for the Russian-led alliance to send troops.
It was not clear how many Russian troops were being sent, though the force appeared to be relatively small. Tajikistan has said it will send 200 soldiers, Belarus 500 and Armenia around 70.
It was unclear whether the Russian troops would take part directly in operations against the protesters, which could see them fire on Kazakh civilians, an inflammatory scenario Moscow likely wants to avoid. The CSTO alliance said the “peacekeeping” force’s main tasks would be “to secure important state and military facilities” and to assist Kazakhstan’s law enforcement agencies “stabilise the situation.”
An internet blackout made it difficult to access the state of the protests on Thursday, although connection was restored later in the day. In Almaty, the center of the protests, the streets were largely empty and eerily quiet on Thursday, according to an ABC reporter in the city. The reporter said overnight they had heard distant gunshots but that on Thursday there was little sign of protesters in most of the city, as security forces moved to try to clear the central square.
Authorities announced all banks were temporarily closed Thursday due to ongoing “counter-terrorism operations” and because of problems with the internet. In the capital, Nur-Sultan, local residents reported lines for bread and other foods.
Videos posted by local independent media showed crowds of protesters in some cities, including the western oil hub Zhanozen, where the protests over the fuel prices began five days ago.
The protests started there after the price of liquified natural gas used in vehicles almost doubled overnight. But by Tuesday the protests had spread across Kazakhstan and were challenging the regime created by Nursultan Nazarbayev, the former Communist party boss who has dominated the country since it gained independence during the Soviet Union’s fall.
Nazarbayev, who is 81, in 2019 handed power to Tokayev as his handpicked successor, but he retained substantial power behind the scenes by moving to become chair of the national security council and he was granted the honorary title of “leader of the nation.” Under Tokayev, Nazarbayev’s cult of personality has continued, with the capital city, Nur-Sultan, named after him.
Protesters pulled down a statue of Nazarbayev on Wednesday in Taldyrkurgan, the Almaty regional capital. And demonstrators in many places chanted a Kazakh slogan meaning “Go away, old man!”
Tokayev on Wednesday announced he was taking over from Nazarabayev as head of chairman of the security council, in what appeared as a concession to the protests meant to signal a final end to Nazarbayev’s rule. Tokayev himself was named president in an election criticised by international observers as flawed.
Nazarbayev’s regime has been a close ally of Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, which considers Kazakhstan a crucial part of Moscow’s sphere of influence. The intervention to help Kazakhstan’s government was the second time in a year and a half, that the Kremlin has had to come to the aid of a former Soviet authoritarian leader in a key neighbor, after mass protests in 2020 threatened to topple Belarus’ Alexander Lukashenko.
(WASHINGTON) — With Sudan’s fragile transition to democracy derailed, the United States and Europe have issued a stark warning to the Sudanese military against appointing a new government “without the involvement of a broad range of civilian stakeholders.”
“Unilateral action to appoint a new Prime Minister and Cabinet would undermine those institutions’ credibility and risks plunging the nation into conflict,” Norway, the United Kingdom, the U.S. and the European Union said in a joint statement Tuesday. “In the absence of progress, we would look to accelerate efforts to hold those actors impeding the democratic process accountable.”
Sudan has been seen as a powerful example of democratic hope after a 2019 revolution forced the military’s overthrow of the Islamist regime of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, an alleged war criminal and former military officer who seized power of the North African nation in 1989. The popular uprising was marked by iconic images of protesters, especially women, going viral on social media and garnering support from celebrities around the world. After al-Bashir was ousted, Sudanese military and civilian leaders came together to form a transitional government and agreed on a 39-month process to return to democratic, civilian rule.
That progress came to a grinding halt on Oct. 25, 2021, when the military took power, dissolved the transitional government and expelled the civilian members. Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, who was appointed by the transitional government in 2019, was placed under house arrest along with a number of other senior politicians. Mass protests as well as pressure from the international community, including the U.S. government withholding $700 million in economic aid, ushered in a deal that reinstated Hamdok as prime minister on Nov. 21, 2021.
But Hamdok resigned on Sunday, after the military refused to loosen its grip on power.
“I tried as much as I could to avoid our country slipping into a catastrophe, and now our country is going through a dangerous turning point that may threaten its entire survival if it is not remedied soon,” Hamdok said in a televised national address. “The major crisis today in the homeland is primarily a political crisis, but it is gradually changing to include all aspects of economic and social life and is on its way to becoming a comprehensive crisis.”
“The key word towards a solution to this dilemma that has persisted for more than six decades in the history of the country is to rely on dialogue at a round table in which all groups of Sudanese society and the state are represented to agree on a national charter and to draw a roadmap to complete the civil democratic transformation,” he added.
Thousands of pro-democracy protesters have taken to the streets of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, and other cities across the country to denounce the military takeover and demand civilian rule. Sudanese security forces have used violent means to disperse protesters, killing at least 57 of them and injuring hundreds of others since October, according to the Sudan Doctors Committee, which is part of the pro-democracy movement.
Meanwhile, the United Nations has expressed grave concern about reports of sexual violence and sexual harassment against women and girls by Sudanese security forces during protests in December.
The U.S. government has repeatedly called for accountability in the wake of the reported atrocities but has yet to penalize the Sudanese military. When asked why the Sudanese military hasn’t been sanctioned, U.S. Department of State spokesperson Ned Price told reporters Tuesday: “We don’t preview sanctions designations, but we are exploring all available options to support Sudan’s transition.”
However, some analysts argued that now is the time for action, not more warnings and threats.
Cameron Hudson, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center, a think-tank in Washington, D.C., said the U.S. government “must move beyond tired bromides claiming to ‘stand with the people of Sudan’ and unabashedly throw its weight behind the country’s pro-democracy movement in tangible and meaningful ways that will begin to swing the balance of power more in the protesters’ favor.”
“Sudan’s formal transition to democracy is over, even though its revolution lives on in the hearts of millions of peaceful pro-democracy protesters,” Hudson wrote Monday in a post for the Atlantic Council’s blog. “Washington and its international partners have now lost the final pretense of what allowed them — for too long — to frame their engagement in terms of supporting a ‘civilian-led transitional government.'”
“With no political agreement or civilian leader left to undermine, Washington and its allies should now pursue a more hardline approach toward the military that holds it accountable for the October coup and the deadly response to peaceful protests since then,” he added before noting “that should mean sanctions.”
It remains unclear whether freezing the assets of Sudanese military leaders would have any impact, especially since allies like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates continue to back them and Sudan previously found a way to manage under nearly 20 years of U.S. sanctions.
Some analysts argued that regional allies have little to gain from an unstable Sudan. Camille Lons, a Bahrain-based research associate for the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a think-tank in London, said the “spill-over effects — such as economic repercussions, refugee flows, terrorism threats and arms smuggling — are perceived as highly problematic.”
“Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as well as Egypt, continue to favour the military in Sudan. But that does not mean that they view the coup positively,” Lons wrote in an analysis posted on Nov. 16. “Several Gulf and Egyptian diplomats and officials have privately expressed their surprise and concern over what they see as a reckless move.”
“But as the US shows growing signs of disengagement in the region,” she added, “Arab Gulf countries will increasingly have to take care of their own regional security and stability, albeit with more pragmatism.”
In the absence of assertive pressure from the international community, the situation in Sudan is becoming dark and uncertain. In the war-torn Darfur region, where a genocide sparked global outrage, escalating violence has displaced thousands of people since November. There have also been “alarming reports” of villages being destroyed, sexual violence and livestock rustling, according to the United Nations.
Moreover, Sudan under al-Bashir had concerning ties to terrorism that include giving safe haven to al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden and being implicated in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, for which al-Qaida claimed responsibility. But Hudson said the Sudanese military “appears intent” to keep the country off the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. After being added in 1993 over its links to al-Qaida, Sudan was officially removed from the list in 2020.
“The military, for all its faults and abuses, has been a reasonably reliable ally in the fight against terrorism and has its own reasons to be concerned by jihadists taking up residence in Sudan,” Hudson told ABC News on Wednesday.
But diplomatic efforts by the U.S. and others to pressure Sudanese military leadership may be complicated by the departure of a senior U.S. diplomat.
Reuters, citing sources, reported Wednesday that the U.S. special envoy for the Horn of Africa, Jeffrey Feltman, is leaving his post at the end of the month amid the growing chaos in Sudan and neighboring Ethiopia, and that he will be replaced by David Satterfield, the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Turkey. The U.S. Department of State declined ABC News’ request for comment.
Hudson told ABC News that Feltman’s departure would not be “particularly surprising, as he was only there as a stopgap to help the administration respond early on to the unfolding crises in Ethiopia and Sudan.”
“Most critical now is that the U.S. maintain a strong and consistent level of diplomatic engagement in the region at this critical moment,” he added, noting that an announcement of a replacement for Feltman would suggest that “this will be the case and should be welcomed.”
