Day: February 7, 2022

Millions of people around the world enjoy a daily cup of coffee; however, their daily caffeine fix could be under threat because climate change is killing coffee plants, putting farmers’ livelihoods at risk.

Inside the vast, steamy greenhouses at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in the leafy suburbs of west London, Aaron Davis leads the research into coffee.

“Arabica coffee, our preferred coffee, provides us with about 60% of the coffee that we drink globally. It’s a delicious coffee, it’s the one we love to drink. The other species is robusta coffee, which provides us with the other 40% of the coffee we drink – but that mainly goes into instant coffees and espresso mixes,” Davis explains.

The cultivation of arabica and robusta coffee beans accounts for millions of livelihoods across Africa, South America and Asia.

“These coffees have served us very well for many centuries, but under climate change they’re facing problems,” Davis says.

“Arabica is a cool tropical plant; it doesn’t like high temperatures. Robusta is a plant that likes even moist conditions; it likes high rainfall. And under climate change, rainfall patters are being modified, and it’s also experiencing problems. In some cases, yields are dramatically reduced because of increased temperatures or reduced rainfall. But in some cases, as we’ve seen in Ethiopia, you might get a complete harvest failure and death of the trees.”

The solution could be growing deep in the forests of West Africa. There are around 130 species of coffee plant – but not all taste good. In Sierra Leone, scientists from Kew helped to identify one candidate, stenophylla, growing in the wild.

“This is extremely heat tolerant. And is an interesting species because it matches arabica in terms of its superb taste,” Davis says.

Two other coffee species also show promise for commercial cultivation in a changing climate: liberica and eugenioides, which “has low yields and very small beans, but it has an amazing taste,” according to Davis.

Some believe the taste is far superior. At the 2021 World Barista Championship in Milan, Australia’s Hugh Kelly won third prize with his eugenioides espresso. Kelly recalled the first time he tasted it at a remote farm in Colombia. “It was a coffee like I’ve never tasted before; as I tasted it, it was unbelievably sweet … I knew that sweetness and gentle acidity were the bones for an incredible espresso,” Kelly told judges in Milan.

Researchers hope Kelly’s success could be the breakthrough moment for these relatively unknown beans.

The team at the Botanic Gardens is working with farmers in Africa on cultivating the new coffees commercially. Catherine Kiwuka of the Ugandan National Agricultural Research Organization, who oversees some of the projects, says challenges still lie ahead.

“What requirements do they need? How do we boost its productivity? Instead of it being dominated by only two species, we have the opportunity to tap into the value of other coffee species.”

It’s hoped that substantial volumes of liberica coffee will be exported from Uganda to Europe this year. Researchers hope it will provide a sustainable income for farmers – and an exciting new taste for coffee drinkers.

Source: Voice of America

Security forces in Sudan have repeatedly attacked or used excessive unnecessary force, including lethal force, against peaceful demonstrators in Khartoum, a New-York based human rights group said Monday.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said it documented three of the seven killing of protestors’ incidents recorded by doctors’ groups.

Following the October 25, 2021 military coup, numerous protests have taken place across Sudan, particularly in the Sudanese capital.

The rights group expressed concerns that calls from regional and international actors for the military to halt the crackdown have had no impact.

Fingers were also pointed at Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and unidentified agents in civilian clothes for involvement in the abuses against protesters since the coup.

“For over three months, Sudan’s security forces have caused serious bodily, often lethal, harm to suppress the protests,” said Mohamed Osman, Sudan researcher at HRW.

He added, “And yet, emboldened by years of impunity, and a meek international response to their coup, Sudan’s military leaders have been committing grave crimes against civilians without consequences.”

The statement also highlighted several testimonies from people who witnessed the killings of peaceful protestors by the security forces.

The right group, however, said it was not been able to investigate or assess independently evidence surrounding some reported killings.

“The military has repeatedly responded to popular civilian opposition with summary killings, arbitrary arrests, and other abuses, and yet the Sudanese people continue to press for change,” said Osman.

“The international community should not passively observe the protesters, but actively engage with their calls for a fairer Sudan,” he stressed.

According to the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors, security forces have killed 79 people, including a woman and nine children. January 17 was the second deadliest day since the October 25 coup.

Source: Sudan Tribune

The military component in Sudan said that elections must be held under a proportional system before withdrawing from national politics, at the end of the transitional period.

Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan Head of the Sovereign Council stressed his resolve to transfer power to an elected government by the end of the transitional period.

However, he told a fact-finding mission led by the IGAD Executive Secretary on January 31, that the military would withdraw under two conditions.

“The initiation of a comprehensive national reconciliation and consensus-building process,” reads a report by the IGAD body to the group leaders seen by the Sudan Tribune.

“The holding of participatory and inclusive national elections based on the principle of proportional representation,” he further stressed according to the report.

Proportional representation is a fair electoral system as it leads to reflect the votes cast for each party.

A proportional system was introduced in Sudan in 2008 to ensure a fair representation of women (30%) and political parties (15). However, the same law adopted the simple majority system for the geographic constituencies.

The report did not explain if he spoke about a partial of full proportional representation.

The IGAD is planning to mediate talks between the military, and the civil and political forces including the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) over the formation of a transitional government to implement the remaining reforms and hold the general elections.

According to the report, the military said willing to form a coalition government with a broad coalition of all political actors.

The government should not just be formed by “the current assemblage of formal political parties only” said the report referring to the FFC.

This is why the constitutional declaration of 2019 should be amended to include the political groups that are banned from participating in the transition, he further requested.

The declaration, co-signed by the military component and the FFC, provides that all the political groups that were allied to the former regime should not participate in the transitional institutions.

The constitutional text governing the transition further bans the National Congress Party of former President Omer al-Bashir.

Before the coup, al-Burhan had been pressed by the FFC groups to transfer power to a civilian they will pick to lead the Sovereign Council for the second part of the transitional period, as agreed in the constitutional declaration.

The military leader and his colleagues fear facing charges for crime against humanity and grave human rights violations during the attacks on pro-democracy protesters and the post-coup crimes.

In addition, they refuse to put an end to their financial privileges and transfer their economic companies to the civilian government.

Source: Sudan Tribune

The European Union (EU) has condemned the continued torture and violation of human rights in Uganda and demanded that those who violate the laws should be held accountable and personally liable for their actions.

On February 7, the EU delegation issued a statement together with the diplomatic missions of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden in Uganda.

“During the recently concluded Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the Uganda Human Rights Commission and several other stakeholders pointed out the persistence in Uganda of torture. They also expressed concern for other human right violations in Uganda such as the excessive use of force by the police, violations to freedom of expression and the media, including harassment, threats, illegal detentions and violence against journalists and human rights defenders,” partly reads the statement.

It added, “The EU Delegation fully shares the concern of many Ugandan stakeholders over a situation that for more than a year has seen a significant increase of reports of torture, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, harassment as well as attacks against human rights defenders, members of the opposition and environmental rights activists”.

The EU further noted that arbitrary arrest of people by security services, holding them in ungazetted places of detention for prolonged periods of time, torturing them, not bringing them before a court within the mandatory time limits, are violations of Uganda’s national legislation, regional and international commitments as well as specific presidential guidelines.

As such, the EU wants the relevant Ugandan authorities to urgently ensure a comprehensive investigation into all the reported abuses, including the events of 18th and 19th of November 2020, adding that those who are being held incommunicado should be immediately released or tried in court.

“While we note the actions already taken against some perpetrators of human rights violations amongst security forces, the relevant Ugandan authorities should urgently ensure a comprehensive investigation into all the reported abuses, including the events of 18th and 19th of November 2020,” stressed the EU.

“Those who are being held incommunicado should be immediately released or brought before justice and those who violate the laws of Uganda should be held accountable and personally liable for their actions,” he added.

Source: Sudan Tribune

South African military instructors trained combatants affiliated with peace signatory groups in Darfur without the agreement of the Sudanese government, the UN panel of independent experts said.

In a report to the UN Security Council dated January 24, the experts tasked with monitoring arms embargo and sanctions imposed on Darfur in 2005 said that the Sudan Liberation Movement of Minni Minnawi and the Gathering of the Sudan Liberation Forces (GSLF) hired foreign trainers for their fighters.

“From December 2020 to July 2021, nine independently contracted South African nationals trained new recruits of the signatory movements at their training camps in North Darfur,” reads the report.

“The training took place at the SLA/MM training camp in Orusheng (near Abu Gamra) and the GSLF camp in Aboulia,” further added the experts based on their own investigations.

The Sudanese army denied having been informed about the training operations.

Also, a member of the Sovereign Council told the experts that such training by foreign instructors was “unacceptable”.

The Sudanese government delayed the implementation of the security arrangements pointing to the lack of money.

Signatory groups from the Darfur region continue their mercenary activities in Libya saying this would provide them with the needed resources to feed their combatants in Darfur.

The reports say the Darfur groups continue to send newly recruited fighters to Libya despite the international pressure to end their presence there.

Based on information by the joint Sudanese Chadian border force, the experts speak about the continued movement of armed fighters from the two groups between Libya and Darfur thought Chad.

Further, they mention accusations by Chadian rebel groups that the SLM-MM and the GSLF support the Chadian army in its war against the rebels in Chad or Libya, “on the ground of shared Zaghawa affiliation between them and Deby,” reads the report.

The panel, however, “has found no evidence of such intervention of Darfurian movements in Chad”.

Developing mistrust

The report underscored a developing mistrust between the Sudanese army and the signatory groups.

The Sudanese authorities from one side balm the former rebels for various breaches such as bringing some fighters to Khartoum and big cities, failure to canton their forces in the agreed sites and recruitment of new fighters.

On the other hand, the armed groups suspect the government of delaying the security arrangements, particularly the integrations of the combatants, to undermine them. Also, they say that the Sudanese army fabricated the Third Front-Tamazuj to undermine them.

The report which was based on interviews before the coup of October 2021, does not mention the recent developments as SLM-MM, the Justice and Equality Movement of Gibril Ibrahim and Tamazuj are now the allies of the coup leaders.

The delay in the implementation of the security arrangements in South Sudan led to the fragmentation of the former armed opposition groups and many of them rallied the government forces loyal to President Salva Kiir.

However, Darfur armed groups with mercenary activities in Libya have the means to ensure their own funding.

Source: Sudan Tribune