16 Friday International Friday, June 22, 2018 Syria President Assad gets food lifeline from Crimea Syria and Crimea under Western sanctions

LONDON: Crimea has stepped up grain exports to Syria over the News in brief past year in an arrangement that gives the Black Sea peninsula an out- let for its surplus crops and ensures President Bashar Al-Assad has a Rats break into ATM reliable source of wheat. Shipments started picking up in the middle of last year and at least 10 ships took a minimum of 170,000 tons of NEW DELHI: Indian police yesterday said rats nibbled through more grain to Syria between July 2017 and May 2018, according to port and than a million rupees of banknotes after busting into a cash machine ship tracking data seen by Reuters and confirmed by shipping sources. in the country’s northeast. The rodent heist in Assam state was only The recent rise in grain shipments from Crimea is helping to sup- detected by bank officials after locals complained that the ATM was port Assad’s government, as a steady supply of wheat is critical to faulty and had stopped dispensing cash, police in Tinkusia district providing the heavily subsidized bread that many Syrians depend said. “The bank officials came to check the ATM machine last week on. Syria’s domestic wheat production has been hit by fighting in and found a dead rat and shredded banknotes when it was opened,” its main grain-producing regions, forcing Assad’s cash-strapped said district police superintendent Mugdhajyoti Dev Mahanta.”We’ve government to rely on imports. While food is not restricted by Western sanctions on Syria, banking sanctions and asset freezes checked and there is no other criminal or conspiracy to angle to the have made it difficult for some grain trading houses to do business incident. It looks like the rats entered the machine through a small with Assad’s government and it has failed to fill a number of large AL-QADI, Syria: A Syrian child from the northern city of Manbij, displaced by fight- opening for some wires,” he said. The rats munched through an esti- wheat tenders. ing between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Islamic State (IS) group fight- mated 1.2 million rupees ($18,000) worth of hard currency, local media Crimea has also been under Western sanctions since it was an- ers, sits outside mud-brick dwellings at Al-Qadi camp for the displaced. —AFP reported. —AFP nexed from Ukraine by Russia in 2014 and has been frozen out of many export markets, making Syria an ideal trading partner - es- pecially as it is open to receiving goods from Syria such as olive oil Bouteflika eyes fifth term in exchange for wheat. “We do not have any problems with a num- Rising exports ber of countries, including Syria,” Crimea’s Deputy Prime Minister Crimea’s agriculture sector has received about 2.4 billion roubles ($38 ALGIERS: The main ally of Algeria’s ruling party will back 81-year- Georgy Muradov told Reuters. “Our countries do not apply sanc- million) of Russian state support over the last three years, and this has led old President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s bid next year for a fifth term in tions against each other, so of course they are free to work.” to wider usage of modern technology and higher yields, Russia’s Agriculture office, its head said yesterday. Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia of the Russia, the world’s second biggest wheat exporter, intervened mil- Ministry told Reuters when asked to comment on rising Crimean grain ex- Rally for National Democracy (RND) said his party would support itarily in the Syrian conflict in 2015 to help turn the tide in favor of ports. “Due to the significant growth of the crop, Crimea was able to cover Bouteflika in a presidential poll in 2019. Bouteflika, head of the ruling Assad and it has also been supplying grain to the government as part both the domestic needs of the republic’s citizens and to export the excess National Liberation Front (FLN), has led Algeria since 1999 and won of its humanitarian aid. Syria also said in September it had struck a of wheat,” the Russian ministry said. For Crimea, which is controlled by Rus- a fourth term in 2014 despite suffering a stroke the previous year. In deal to buy 3 million tonnes of wheat from Russia over three years sia, trading with Syria using blacklisted Syrian ships and other vessels means it can offload grain it cannot export elsewhere due to Western sanctions a speech to the RND’s ruling body, Ouyahia said the party would sup- and was seeking credit finance from Moscow, but no Russian wheat while giving Assad another supply line. Crimea produces some 1.4 million port Bouteflika “continuing his mission and his sacrifice in the service has yet been exported, according to Russian customs data. This may be because Russia wants to avoid putting its own grain trading at risk tons of grain a year, leaving about 1 million for export, although dry weather of Algeria”. Ouyahia, 65, is himself serving a fourth term as prime min- may reduce this year’s crop. Russia, which gives Crimea some financial sup- ister and is seen as a key Bouteflika ally. The president made two rare by dealing with Syria, while major aid supplies could put strains on its budget and reduce wheat export revenue, Russian grain industry port, is also keen for the peninsula to organize its own business to lessen the public appearances in a wheelchair in April and May, at the inaugu- sources said. burden on its finances, the Russian industry sources said. —Reuters ration of a mosque and for the extension of the Algiers metro. —AFP

As part of an effort to stabilize the country the ruling Ethiopian Peo- South Sudan peace push Driven away by conflict, ples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) in April appointed Abiy Ahmed, a 42 year-old from the Oromo wing of the ethnically-based ADDIS ABABA: East African leaders gathered in Ethiopia yesterday coalition as prime minister. Though the move brought stability to most hoping to revive stalled South Sudan peace talks, following a long- thousands of Ethiopians parts of the country the problem of ethnically-motivated evictions and awaited face-to-face meeting between the two warring leaders. Pres- displacement remains unresolved. Since taking office Abiy has visited ident Salva Kiir and his former deputy turned rebel leader Riek stranded without a home most regions of Ethiopia and has repeatedly called for “unity” between Machar held face-to-face talks on Wednesday, brokered by Ethiopian its ethnic groups. “This has been a tragedy that should never have taken prime minister Abiy Ahmed, in their first meeting in nearly two years. BAHIR DAR: Early one morning, Aschal Zegeye and her young family place,” he said of the conflict between Oromia and Somali region during What was discussed has been kept under wraps, but video footage heard a knock at the door. Her husband answered it. Shortly after he was an April visit to Jigjiga, capital of the Somali state. But critics argue the of their initial meeting shows Abiy sandwiched between the two tow- dead. “They took him outside and slaughtered him,” the 25 year-old government has not done enough to prevent the displacement of ethnic ering South Sudanese after cajoling them into an awkward group hug. mother of two said in a church shelter in the city of Bahir Dar. With her groups in Oromia and other parts of the country since April. The last time Kiir and Machar met was at the outbreak of deadly one year-old baby son on her back, she spoke of the day last October fighting in the South Sudanese capital Juba in July 2016. Machar, de- when her husband was murdered by a mob and she and her children Violence persists feated, then fled to neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo and were chased from their home. “They burnt our farm. A group of men beat Human rights group Amnesty International said earlier this month then into exile in South Africa where he was placed under de-facto me with sticks_ I ran away into the woods to hide for three days. Then I thousands of displaced Amharas had arrived in Bahir Dar, the capital of begged on the streets to get back here.” house arrest. —AFP Amhara region, from Oromia since October. Thousands more are on the Aschal is one of around a million Ethiopians driven from their homes verge of displacement due to violent attacks on their homes by ethni- by a land and ethnicity-fuelled crisis that has gripped the Horn of Africa cally-motivated young men, Amnesty said. Each day brings new arrivals, nation for years and escalated in recent months. Most dramatically, ten- according to Father Abraham, a priest and representative of Amharas ‘Sex-for-marks’ don sions between ethnic Somali and Oromo ethnic groups and conflict along displaced from Oromia. the border separating the two regions led to the displacement of hun- Meanwhile, hundreds of ethnic Amharas have arrived after violent LAGOS: A lecturer has been dismissed from his post at one of Nige- dreds of thousands last year, most of whom have still not returned home. clashes in the neighboring region of Benishangul-Gumuz where they ria’s leading universities for promising a female student higher marks had lived for many years. “We have been displaced three times now,” in exchange for sex. Obafemi Awolowo University said its governing Old tensions said Minale Ayalew, a 45 year-old priest and father of six who fled body had decided Richard Akindele “should be dismissed from the The crisis sprawls across Ethiopia, a country of 100 million people hit from Benishangul-Gumuz. “We came back here each time, asked the services of the university for gross misconduct”. His dismissal came by anti-government protests that began in 2015 over land rights before regional government for help, and the government said it wouldn’t after the student in question released a secret recording online in broadening into demonstrations against authoritarian rule. It threatens happen again. But it does happen again.” At least 400,000 mostly eth- April of a conversation in which the lecturer offered to improve her the country’s fragile system of “ethnic federalism”, a constitutional model nic Gedeos were displaced from southern Oromia following violence grade if she slept with him. —AFP which offers a degree of self-determination to Ethiopia’s diverse commu- in mid-April, the National Disaster Risk Management Commission said nities but which critics say encourages competition along ethnic lines. this week. —Reuters