Look back at some global events in 2018

From the gruesome murder of Saudi dissent journalist, series of Indonesian deadly disasters and the ongoing chaotic exit of Britain from the EU, Daily Trust takes a look back at some major events that took place on the world stage in 2018.   Khashoggi Killing Saudi Arabia was plunged into a diplomatic nightmare after the […]

From the gruesome murder of Saudi dissent journalist, series of Indonesian deadly disasters and the ongoing chaotic exit of Britain from the EU, Daily Trust takes a look back at some major events that took place on the world stage in 2018.

 

Khashoggi Killing

Saudi Arabia was plunged into a diplomatic nightmare after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in its Turkish consulate On Oct. 2, 2018.

Turkish intelligence alleged Prince Mohammed ordered the assassination of Mr Khashoggi, who was critical of him.

After weeks of repeated denials that it had anything to do with his disappearance, Saudi Arabia acknowledged that its officials were behind the gruesome murder.

On 15 November, the Saudi public prosecutor said Khashoggi was given a lethal injection after a struggle and his body was dismembered inside the consulate after his death.

The Saudi journalist’s murder reverberated around the world, with the United States Senate censuring the Crown Prince and voting to end its support of Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen.

Year of earthquakes and tsunamis for Indonesia

The devastating tsunami that smashed through villages and beach resorts along Indonesia’s Sunda Strait, which left at least 430 dead just days before Christmas, was the latest in what seems like an endless chain of extreme natural events to hit the country in 2018.

Throughout the year, Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) recorded almost 2,000 natural disasters that claimed nearly 4,000 lives and displaced around 3 million people.

The official death toll from multiple earthquakes and an ensuing tsunami that hit Sulawesi between September 28 and October 1 stood at 2,073, but with around 5,000 still missing long after the search for survivors ended, the true number is likely to be much higher.

Indonesia is one of the world’s most disaster-prone nations. It lies on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide and many of the world’s volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur.

Theresa May struggles to implement Brexit

The UK is scheduled to exit the European Union on March 29, 2019, but the road to departure has been a bumpy one.

Prime Minister Theresa May’s move threw Britain’s Brexit plans into disarray and intensified a domestic political crisis.

Having been forced to pull the vote in December in the face of almost certain failure, Mrs May needs to offer her Tory critics a fresh alternative to key issues such as the Irish Border if her Withdrawal Agreement is to pass through the chambers.

MPs are due to debate the Withdrawal Agreement hammered out with Brussels on January 9 before a meaningful vote the following week.

Yemen:  Battle for Hodeidah continues after truce

Yemen’s warring parties on December 13, agreed to cease fighting for the Houthi-held port city of Hodeidah and withdraw their troops, the first significant breakthrough for U.N.-led peace efforts in five years of conflict.

A day after a ceasefire agreement was reached, fighting broke out on the outskirts of Hodeidah.

The conflict has pushed Yemen, the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula, to the verge of famine. An estimated 10,000 people have been killed. The war has also left around two-thirds of Yemen’s population of 27 million relying on aid, and more than 8 million at risk of starvation.

Yesterday, David Beasley, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), said that his agency had collected evidence showing the Houthis had diverted shipments of food sent to help alleviate “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis”.

Trump meets Kim

After months of speculation and u-turns, US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had a ‘successful’ one-on-one talk at Singapore’s Sentosa island on 12 June. Trump summed up the summit saying that the two countries have an “excellent relationship”, as Kim committed to ‘complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula’ in a joint ‘comprehensive document’ signed between the two countries.

The two sides have been engaged in talks on the leaders’ second meeting. The next summit meeting is likely to happen early in 2019, a senior US official told a small group of reporters on Friday, December 28.

Earlier in the year, Trump had boasted that his nuclear button was “much bigger” and “more powerful” than the North Korean leader’s.

British Royal wedding

Prince Harry and his actress bride Meghan Markle married on 19 May, 2018 in a dazzling ceremony that blended ancient English ritual with African American culture, infusing the 1,000-year-old British monarchy with a blast of modernity.

The wedding was a global affair, with thousands camped out along the procession route to Windsor Castle. Around the world, millions were watching on television – even in the wee hours of the morning, or late at night in some time zones.

The couple are now known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, putting them in the senior ranks of British royalty.

The union of Harry, 33, a former royal wild child and sixth-in-line to the British throne, and 36-year-old Meghan, a divorcee whose mother is African-American and father is white, was like no other the royal family has seen before.

Ethiopia-Eritrea border reopens after 20 years

The leaders of Ethiopia and Eritrea re-opened crossing points on their shared border for the first time in 20 years in September, cementing a stunning reconciliation and giving Addis Ababa a direct route to its former foe’s Red Sea ports.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki signed a peace deal in July, restoring diplomatic and trade relations between the nations.

The Ethiopia-Eritrea war, fought over the exact location of the boundary between the two nations, began in May 1998 and left tens of thousands of people dead.

It ended in 2000 with the signing of the Algiers agreement. But peace was never fully restored as Ethiopia refused to implement a ruling by a border commission established by the agreement.

US cages immigrant children

Nearly 2,000 children were taken from their parents after former US Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a policy which directed homeland security officials to refer all cases of illegal entry into the US for prosecution.

Church groups and human rights advocates had sharply criticized Donald Trump’s policy, calling it inhumane.

Stories had also spread of children being torn from their parents’ arms, and parents not being able to find where their kids have gone.

Bowing to pressure from anxious allies, Trump had signed an executive order on 20 June, ending the process of separating children from families after they were detained crossing the US border illegally.

South Sudan warring parties sign peace deal

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir signed a peace deal with main rebel leader Riek Machar in September, formally ending a five-year war that has killed tens of thousands.

The deal, mediated by Sudan and signed in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, reinstated Machar in his former role as vice president and comes two weeks after a peace deal was officially agreed upon between the government and rebel groups.

Previous peace deals have held for only a matter of months before fighting resumed, and in late August Machar caused worry among negotiators by refusing to sign.

About four million South Sudanese were displaced in half a decade of fighting.