分类： world

The United Nations refugee agency has launched an investigation into newly emerged reports that two vessels carrying Rohingya, the long-persecuted ethnic minority from Myanmar, overturned in the Bay of Bengal while attempting a dangerous ocean crossing. In a public statement released Tuesday, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) confirmed that the two boats are believed to have departed Rakhine State, western Myanmar, in late June before sinking.

July 14, 2026 marks 25 years since one of Australia’s most high-profile missing person and murder cases unfolded in the remote outback of the Northern Territory. On that same date in 2001, 28-year-old British backpacker Peter Falconio, originally from Huddersfield, was shot and killed by Bradley Murdoch on a desolate stretch of Stuart Highway near Barrow Creek, roughly 300 kilometers north of Alice Springs. To this day, Falconio’s body has never been recovered, and 25 years on from the attack, Northern Territory (NT) Police have made the unprecedented decision to release a collection of never-before-seen photographs from their original investigation, in a last-ditch effort to jog public memory and elicit new information that could finally lead investigators to Falconio’s remains.

The newly released batch of images captures key pieces of evidence and context from the immediate aftermath of the attack. Included among them is a full-length portrait of Murdoch taken during the early police investigation, a raw shot of Falconio’s travel partner and girlfriend Joanne Lees visibly traumatized just hours after the assault, close-up images of the binding injuries Lees sustained when Murdoch tied her wrists with cable ties, the abandoned orange Volkswagen Kombi van the couple was driving around Australia that was found parked off the Stuart Highway near the attack site, and multiple shots of the remote outback crime scene itself.

The attack that shook both Australia and the United Kingdom unfolded after Murdoch pulled his vehicle alongside the couple’s camper van, claiming he had spotted sparks coming from the van’s exhaust. When Falconio stepped out to inspect the issue, Murdoch shot him in the head before forcing Lees into his own vehicle and binding her. Lees managed to escape Murdoch’s custody, hiding in dense outback scrubland for several hours before she was able to flag down a passing truck for help.

Murdoch was ultimately found guilty of Falconio’s murder, as well as charges of assault and attempted kidnapping of Lees, in a unanimous jury verdict following his 2005 trial. Despite overwhelming DNA evidence linking him to the crime, Murdoch consistently maintained his innocence, launched two unsuccessful appeals to overturn his conviction, and never cooperated with authorities to disclose where he had hidden Falconio’s body. Last year, the 67-year-old died in prison from terminal throat cancer, taking the secret of Falconio’s burial location to his grave. Just one week before his death, NT Police conducted a final recorded interview with Murdoch in a last attempt to get him to reveal the location; footage of that interview was released to the public in recent days.

NT Police Commissioner Martin Dole emphasized that the investigation will remain open until Falconio’s family gets the closure they have waited 25 years for. “This was a traumatic and horrific event for Ms Lees, and for Peter’s family, who have now gone such a long time without the answers they deserve,” Dole said in an official statement. “While a murderer has been held accountable for his crimes, this investigation can never be considered closed until Peter’s remains are found and his family can lay him to rest.”

Dole added that it was “deeply regrettable that Murdoch died without, as far as we know, ever disclosing the location of Peter’s remains. His cowardly silence has denied his family, friends and loved ones the closure they deserve.” Police remain committed to pursuing every possible lead to bring the case to a full conclusion, and an existing reward of up to AU$500,000 remains active for any information that leads investigators to the recovery of Falconio’s remains. Commissioner Dole expressed hope that the 25-year milestone, paired with the release of these unseen images, will prompt anyone with even small pieces of forgotten information to come forward.

In a landmark ruling marking the first judicial conviction of senior Rapid Support Forces (RSF) leadership since Sudan’s brutal civil war erupted in April 2023, an anti-terrorism court based in Port Sudan handed down death sentences in absentia on Sunday to RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo—widely known as Hemedti—and 15 other co-defendants. The convictions center on allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and the targeted assassination of West Darfur Governor Khamis Abdullah Abakar in the West Darfur capital of el-Geneina.

The case was rooted in the 2023 assassination of Governor Abakar, which occurred just 24 hours after the governor publicly condemned RSF shelling of the el-Jamarik neighborhood in el-Geneina. Circulated video evidence showing RSF fighters mutilating Abakar’s body has been publicly available, though the paramilitary group has consistently denied involvement and pinned blame on the opposing Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).

Human Rights Watch’s 2024 investigation into violence in el-Geneina concluded that the attacks against the Masalit people and other non-Arab communities in the region amounted to ethnic cleansing, with strong evidence pointing to acts of genocide. Data from Middle East Eye’s June 2023 reporting estimates that roughly 1,500 people were killed in el-Geneina in the first two months of the war alone, forcing tens of thousands of Masalit civilians to flee on foot across the border to refugee camps in eastern Chad.

Among the convicted defendants are two of Hemedti’s brothers: RSF deputy leader Abdel Rahim Hamdan Dagalo and Algoney Hamdan Daglo Musa, commonly referred to as al-Qoni. Additional high-profile convictions include West Darfur RSF commander Abdel Rahman Juma Barkallah and the region’s former deputy governor al-Tijani al-Tahir Karshoum.

Presiding over the trial, special judge Mohamed al-Amin ruled that Hemedti bore direct legal responsibility for orchestrating the genocide of the Masalit community and organizing the siege of el-Geneina. The judgment detailed systemic patterns of property destruction and looting, as well as deliberate targeted attacks on civilian populations, residential zones, schools, and religious sites. Abdel Rahim Dagalo was found guilty of co-organizing the el-Geneina siege, mass civilian displacement, and the Masalit genocide; al-Qoni was convicted of facilitating the siege; and Barkallah was held responsible for leading frontline RSF fighters in coordinated assaults on Masalit-majority neighborhoods.

Alongside the death sentences, the court ordered the full confiscation of all RSF assets and directed Sudanese authorities to request Interpol red notices to secure the arrest and extradition of all convicted individuals. In his closing statement, Judge Amin delivered a blistering rebuke of the RSF’s actions, noting that the group deployed heavy weaponry in residential areas, carried out widespread looting, arson, and sexual violence, and acted on explicit ethnic hatred with the goal of eradicating the Masalit community.

“These convicted individuals were state leaders who abused their authority and turned state weapons—meant to protect citizens—into tools of crime,” Judge Amin said. “Their actions left thousands dead or displaced, destroyed an entire city, and erased its civilization and history.”

The Port Sudan ruling comes just days after International Criminal Court (ICC) Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Khan announced a “breakthrough” in the court’s investigations into alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in West Darfur, following an investigative trip to eastern Chad. However, a recent Middle East Eye investigation uncovered that the ICC prosecutor’s office has privately decided not to move forward with an arrest warrant application for an RSF member, despite three years of investigations and public promises that applications would be filed imminently. The decision has sparked growing scrutiny over the timeline and commitment of international judicial action against RSF leadership.

While international progress on accountability remains slow, the first extraterritorial prosecution attempt against RSF members has already been launched in neighboring Kenya. On June 9, 12 Sudanese victims represented by Legal Action Worldwide and the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies filed a formal complaint alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity with Kenya’s Director of Public Prosecutions, relying on the principle of universal jurisdiction.

The complaint calls for an investigation into allegations of torture and sexual violence committed by 10 RSF members, several of whom are believed to currently reside in Kenya. The filing directly undermines the Kenyan government’s long-standing public partnership with the RSF: Kenyan President William Samoei Ruto has hosted Hemedti at the country’s State House, allowed the RSF to hold meetings for a parallel Sudanese administration in Nairobi, and granted Kenyan passports to RSF leaders to facilitate cross-border travel. Critics further accuse the Ruto administration of supplying crates of ammunition to the paramilitary group and enabling the smuggling and export of Sudanese gold and gum arabic through Kenyan ports.
“This moment is not just a test of Kenya’s commitment to upholding international justice,” said Dr. Owiso Owiso, lead Kenyan counsel for the 12 victims. “It also proves that even when domestic accountability systems and the broader international community have failed the people of Sudan, avenues to seek justice are not completely closed.”

Seven months after taking on the presidency of PEN America, one of the United States’ most prominent literary organizations dedicated to defending free speech, award-winning Ethiopian-American novelist Dinaw Mengestu has stepped down from his post. His departure, announced last week, stems from long-simmering frustration over what he calls systemic unfair treatment of Palestinians at the organization, in contrast to its positioning toward Israelis and Jewish Americans.

Mengestu’s resignation came in the wake of PEN America’s release of a new report documenting the professional and emotional harm faced by Israeli and Jewish-American writers in the aftermath of Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza, now stretching nearly three years. The report detailed multiple accounts of writers losing employment, speaking opportunities and career advancement due to their positions on the conflict. But for Mengestu, the report was just the latest example of the organization’s long-standing failure to uphold its core mission of defending free expression fairly and equitably across all sides of the conflict.

In an Instagram statement posted Sunday, Mengestu clarified that his departure was not a dispute over differing personal perspectives or experiences. Instead, he argued that PEN America’s ongoing institutional choices produce work that enables suppression through bigotry and deliberate indifference toward Palestinian voices. At the center of this disagreement is the organization’s long-standing stance on the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, a global nonviolent campaign launched in 2005 to end Israeli occupation, racial segregation and the blockade of Gaza, modeled on the anti-apartheid pressure campaign that helped end white minority rule in South Africa. Mengestu emphasized that BDS activity constitutes protected free speech under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, a right PEN America has consistently failed to uphold.

For years, Mengestu noted, PEN America has framed BDS as a direct assault on the identity of Jewish students, while systematically diminishing Palestinian experiences of violence and dispossession to the point of near erasure. “What PEN America fails to understand is that a boycott is a form of dialogue,” he wrote. He added that the hundreds of writers who boycotted PEN America in 2024 did so to push for meaningful institutional change, and many only returned to the organization after being promised reform.

Many of those boycotting writers are affiliated with Writers Against The War on Gaza (WAWOG), a prominent collective that labeled Israel’s military campaign in Gaza a genocide just two weeks after it launched in October 2023 – a classification that has since been endorsed by the United Nations, leading historians and leading genocide scholars. WAWOG’s website documents more than 400 successful cultural boycott outcomes across North America since the start of the conflict. The group declined to share its full membership size or demographic breakdown with Middle East Eye, but an anonymous representative praised Mengestu’s decision to step down.

“We understand and commend [Mengestu] for not wanting to be associated with an institution that would… equate BDS as discriminatory,” the representative told Middle East Eye Monday. “For a lot of us, principles are the only thing we have.” The representative added that PEN America consistently draws false equivalence between material genocidal violence against Palestinians and the semantic disagreements raised by Zionist Israelis and Jewish Americans. “The desecration of cultural spaces in Gaza, wiping out the universities, killing scholars and writers and arresting them, it just doesn’t even compare,” they said.

When contacted for comment by Middle East Eye, PEN America offered only a brief, measured statement acknowledging Mengestu’s departure. “We are grateful for Dinaw Mengestu’s leadership and we respect that he’s made a decision he believes in,” the organization said. “We recognize people can disagree about how best to apply free expression principles in this extraordinarily difficult environment.” The 100-year-old institution, which centers its public mission on defending free expression in all its forms, outlined its formal stance on boycotts in the 9 July report on Israeli and Jewish writers: the organization opposes cultural and academic boycotts that inhibit the international exchange of art, literature and knowledge, but will defend the right of writers who choose to participate in such boycotts against professional retaliation.

PEN America confirmed to Middle East Eye that this caveat, affirming BDS participation as protected free speech, was only added to the organization’s public position in the past week. Prior to this update, the organization’s 2007-era stance on boycotts did not acknowledge that participating in or advocating for boycotts qualifies as protected free expression. Mengestu has characterized this last-minute adjustment as a hollow attempt to appease all sides amid mounting pressure for reform, though the organization has not publicly explained why it chose to update its position now after years of escalating criticism.

The 9 July report did acknowledge that no organized BDS campaign has called for targeting writers solely on the basis of their Jewish identity. It did, however, note that many Jewish writers have reported losing access to agents, publishers and public events since 7 October 2023, due to their Jewish identity, support for Zionism, or sympathy for Israel.

As of Monday, Gaza’s Ministry of Health has confirmed at least 73,231 Palestinians killed in Israeli military operations since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks that killed roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel. Independent experts estimate an additional 10,000 Palestinians remain buried under rubble across the blockaded enclave, with hundreds of thousands more sustaining injuries. Even after a recently announced ceasefire brokered by former U.S. President Donald Trump on 10 October, 1,108 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes and sniper fire across Gaza.

In a direct challenge to a recent Israeli High Court of Justice ruling that deemed a prior access ban unlawful, Israeli authorities have implemented sweeping new restrictions that effectively expand a blanket ban on International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) access to Palestinian captives held in Israeli prisons.

Last week, Israel Prison Service (IPS) Commissioner Kobi Yaakobi formalized the new sweeping regulations, which impose far-reaching limits on the humanitarian organization’s ability to carry out routine visits to detained Palestinians. Under the updated rules, Red Cross representatives are barred entirely from visiting multiple categories of Palestinian captives under any circumstances. This total ban applies to detainees the IPS labels as “highly violent”, as well as those held in solitary confinement and prisoners currently undergoing interrogation.

For the remaining detainees who are not subject to a total ban, visits are capped at just 30 minutes per meeting, and prison commanders retain full authority to cut humanitarian visits short at their own discretion without formal oversight. Additional constraints further restrict access: the Red Cross is only permitted to conduct one round of visits per quarter, and the organization is required to submit a pre-approved list of no more than five captives it intends to meet with ahead of any visit.

This latest policy shift directly defies a High Court order issued last month, which compelled the Israeli state to restore Red Cross access to Palestinian captives after an initial blanket ban was introduced immediately following the October 7, 2023 attacks in southern Israel. In a brief official statement defending the new measures, the IPS asserted that “The agency operates in accordance with the law. If any allegation is raised, it should be addressed through the appropriate channels.”

The new restrictions come just weeks after a parliamentary bill that would have formally codified a total ban on Red Cross visits failed to pass in the Israeli Knesset, falling in a 36-41 vote. The bill failed after ultra-Orthodox Haredi coalition parties boycotted the vote in protest over the ruling government’s failure to advance legislation key to their own policy agenda, in a move unrelated to the Red Cross access debate.

This report was originally published by Middle East Eye, an outlet that provides independent, on-the-ground coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and surrounding regions.