A senior UN official charged Feb. 16 at a press conference in Munich that numerous countries are violating the Libya arms embargo and that they must be held accountable. UN Deputy Special Representative to Libya Stephanie Williams said that "the arms embargo has become a joke." Williams' comments follow a UN Security Council resolution passed just a week earlier expressing "grave concern" for the humanitarian situation in Libya, noting especially "deteriorating living standards and insufficient provision of basic services" and "the situation faced by migrants, refugees, and internally displaced people." The Libyan National Army (LNA), led by Khalifa Haftar, has been fighting with the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) for control of Tripoli since April of last year. Russia, Egypt and the UAE are said to be supporting the LNA, while Turkey supports the GNA. Foreign powers are violating the arms embargo "by land, sea and air," Williams said. (Jurist)

At least 40 people were killed and some 30 injured in a new outbreak of inter-communal violence in Sudan's Darfur region. The fighting erupted Dec. 31 east of El-Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state, reportedly sparked by the killing of an Arab man near Crendingue, a camp for displaced persons from the Masslit tribe. Most of the dead appear to be Masslit. Thousands more have fled across the border into Chad, fearing attack. Reports from the area say gunmen have prevented families of the victims from collecting the bodies. and continue to fire in the air. In the pro-democracy revolution that has been ongoing in Sudan for months, many Massalit youth formed Resistance Committees, and established security patrols around the camp and neighboring villages. Many local Arabs, however, supported the former regime, fueling the current conflict. (Sudan Tribune)

The state prosecutor of Sudan, Tagelsir al-Heber, on Dec. 22 announced the launch of an investigation into the crimes committed in the Darfur region under former President Omar al-Bashir. Al-Bashir has already been arrested by the Sudanese government for corruption and is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and grave rights violations committed in the Darfur region of Sudan as early as 2002.

A new agreement was announced July 5 between Sudan's opposition coalition, the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC), and the ruling Transitional Military Council (TMC). The agreement, brokered by the African Union and Ethiopia, provides for power to be shared through a Sovereign Council, to be made up of five members of the FFC, five members of the military, and one chosen jointly as a nominal president. (Jurist) Among the FFC's constituent groups are two armed rebel factions active in the conflicted Darfur region, the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). After the new transition deal was announced, these two groups both issued statements denying Sudanese media reports that they had dropped out of the FFC—claims that may originate in a TMC stratagem to remove the Darfur question from the opposition agenda. (Sudan Tribune)

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City on May 22 reversed a district court's dismissal of a class action lawsuit against French bank BNP Paribas over aiding atrocities in Sudan. The lawsuit was brought in 2016 by 21 refugees from Sudan's ethnic-cleansing campaigns Darfur and South Kordofan regions, alleging that the bank conspired with, and aided and abetted, the Sudanese regime. The plaintiffs' complaint alleges that BNP processed thousands of illegal transactions through its New York offices, which financed weapons purchases and funded militias in a "well-documented genocidal campaign." The reversal comes nearly five years after BNP pleaded guilty to committing large-scale violations of sanctions against Sudan, Cuba and Iran, which resulted in a record $8.97 billion fine.

Sudan public prosecutors announced May 13 that they have charged ousted president Omar al-Bashir with incitement and involvement in the killing of protesters during the uprising that drove him from power last month. Protest organizers say security forces killed around 100 demonstrators during the four months of rallies leading to al-Bashir's overthrow on April 11. The demonstrators have remained in the streets since then, demanding the dismantling of his regime and a swift transition to civilian rule. The Transitional Military Council said al-Bashir will face justice inside the country and will not be extradited to The Hague. It was not immediately clear what punishment he might face.

Sudan's longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir was removed from power and arrested by the military April 11, following months of popular protests that culminated in clashes between his loyalist security branches and the military. In the prior category is the feared National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), which two days earlier was met with resistance from army troops when it tried to us repression to clear a protest encampment outside the armed forces headquarters in Khartoum. The NISS, perhaps under pressure from the military, now says the hundreds arrested in the weeks of protests will be released—although it did not say when. Armored vehicles from the military's elite Rapid Support Forces have taken strategic positions around the capital. But protesters continue to fill the streets, chanting: "It has fallen, we won." Opposition leaders are clear they will continue to oppose any attempt at military rule.

Well, this is all too telling. Seeking to legitimize his regime now that he's reconquered most of Syria (with massive Russian military help), Bashar Assad has just welcomed the first Arab League leader to Damascus since the war began in 2011—and it is none other than President Omar Bashir of Sudan, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur. As BashirWatch recalls, Bashir has been evading justice for 11 years. The Assad regime's official news agency SANA said the two dictators discussed the "situations and crises faced by many Arab countries," stressing the need to build "new principles for inter-Arab relations based on the respect of the sovereignty of countries and non-interference in internal affairs." (Al Jazeera, Middle East Eye)