Global Pulse

标签： Africa

非洲

  • Eswatini receives 11 people deported from the US as part of migration crackdown

    Eswatini receives 11 people deported from the US as part of migration crackdown

    MBABANE, Eswatini – The southern African kingdom of Eswatini has welcomed a fourth cohort of deportees transferred from the United States under a bilateral third-country hosting agreement, with 11 new arrivals entering the country this week, the Eswatini government confirmed in an official statement released Thursday.

    Acting government spokesperson Thabile Mdluli stated that the majority of this latest group hail from other African nations, and will remain in Eswatini on a temporary basis while the government upholds their fundamental human rights. “The government reaffirms that, during their temporary stay in the Kingdom, the fundamental rights of the third-country nationals will be respected and protected in accordance with the laws of the Kingdom of Eswatini and the Kingdom’s international obligations,” Mdluli noted in the statement.

    Mdluli also added that Eswatini has put in place layered security protocols to protect both the nation’s territorial integrity and the safety of its permanent residents for the duration of the deportees’ stay. Multiple officials familiar with the arrangement have confirmed that the 11 new arrivals will be temporarily housed at Matsapha Maximum Security Prison.

    The Trump administration launched the third-country deportation program as a core part of its broader immigration enforcement crackdown, with rights advocates reporting that thousands of migrants who cannot be directly returned to their home countries have been transferred to nearly 24 nations around the globe, most across the African continent. Alongside Eswatini, countries including the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of Congo have accepted groups of third-country deportees under these often-unpublicized bilateral deals.

    Eswatini, a landlocked southern African nation of roughly 1.2 million people that shares borders with South Africa and Mozambique, first began accepting these U.S.-deported third-country nationals in 2025 when the bilateral agreement entered into force. To date, this newest group marks the fourth cohort of deportees received by the kingdom, making it one of the most active African participants in the Trump administration’s program.

    To date, Eswatini has not publicly released the full terms of its agreement with the U.S. government, nor has it disclosed key details including the full nationalities of all deportees, their individual immigration legal statuses, or the exact length of time they are expected to remain in the kingdom. Only two previously transferred deportees have left Eswatini, returning to their home countries of Cambodia and Jamaica.

    The deal has sparked significant pushback from both international human rights organizations and domestic Eswatini civic groups, with critics calling out the lack of transparency around the agreement and the absence of formal parliamentary oversight. Domestic civic groups have already launched legal action against Eswatini authorities, challenging the legality of detaining foreign deportees in prison without formal criminal charges. Eswatini officials have confirmed that the deportees can be held for up to 12 months before they are repatriated to their home countries.

    Mzwandile Masuku, a prominent Eswatini human rights lawyer, argued that the ongoing transfers highlight deep gaps in institutional accountability within the kingdom. He warned that the untransparent practice could risk becoming normalized as a global immigration policy precedent if left unchallenged.

    In response to criticism, the Eswatini government has defended its participation in the agreement, framing the arrangement as an expression of the kingdom’s humanitarian commitments while emphasizing that all activities under the deal adhere to Eswatini’s national sovereignty and domestic laws.

    Associated Press reporter Michelle Gumede contributed reporting from Johannesburg, South Africa.

  • Morocco’s unfinished business with France

    Morocco’s unfinished business with France

    As the 2026 FIFA World Cup quarter-final showdown between Morocco and France kicks off in Boston, this fixture is far more than just another high-stakes knockout match. For the Atlas Lions and their millions of passionate supporters across the globe, it is a long-awaited rematch carrying decades of history, unfulfilled ambition, and an opportunity to prove their 2022 Cinderella run was no one-off miracle.

    The story of this encounter traces back four years to Qatar 2022, when Morocco made history as the first African and Arab nation to ever reach a World Cup semi-final. Their extraordinary tournament run was cut short by a 2-0 defeat to France, ending their dream of lifting the world title. Even in that moment of defeat, observers recognized something seismic had shifted: the global football community had rewritten its expectations of Moroccan football. Back then, reaching the semi-final felt like an overachievement beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. Today, anything short of that same milestone would fall short of the standard the team has set for itself.

    “This is a revenge match for the Moroccan national team, especially for the players who were part of that 2022 squad,” explained Moroccan sports journalist Hamza Chtioui. “They felt that loss deeply, and now they’re looking to settle the score – for themselves and for the entire nation.”

    This newfound confidence is no empty bravado, nor is it built on nostalgia for past glory. Since their breakthrough in Qatar, Moroccan football has continued to deliver impressive results that validate its growing status: the national under-20 side claimed the U-20 World Cup title, while the senior men’s team has climbed to 6th place in the official FIFA global rankings. These wins are the payoff for decades of deliberate, long-term investment in youth development led by the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (RMFF), a strategic project that has now come to fruition.

    “What happened in Qatar wasn’t a fluke,” said veteran Moroccan journalist Hameed Bel Hassan. “It was the result of years of strategic planning and programmes put in place by the RMFF. This has been a national project, and we now have a formidable national team that can compete with anyone.”

    Throughout the 2026 tournament, Morocco has lived up to that billing, proving they are no longer the unexpected underdogs. They have held their own against some of the world’s top football heavyweights, securing wins against Brazil, Scotland, the Netherlands and Canada to book their quarter-final spot against France. The surge of support for the team has been unmatched: thousands of fans are traveling from Morocco to the U.S. for the match, with Moroccans from across Europe and the globe converging on Boston to back the side. “I dare say Morocco will have the stronger support in the stadium,” Chtioui noted.

    Standing in their way is a French side widely regarded as the most complete squad in this year’s tournament. Led by global superstar Kylian Mbappe, Les Bleus have turned in consistently fluid, dominant performances to reach the last eight. Chtioui acknowledges France’s individual talent advantage, but argues that Morocco can neutralize that edge with cohesive team play: “Morocco’s midfield is about equal. If they can press France early, like they did against Brazil, they can create real problems. The 11 players just need to perform as one cohesive unit.”

    Beyond tactics and technical skill, Morocco draws unique strength from an unusual, heartfelt team culture centered on family. During the 2022 World Cup, viral images of defender Achraf Hakimi embracing his mother after matches, and winger Sofiane Boufal dancing with his mother on the pitch, became the defining emotional moments of the team’s historic run. That tradition has continued in 2026: after scoring the game-winning penalty against the Netherlands, Ismael Saibari ran straight into the stands to celebrate with his emotional mother.

    Far from being spontaneous, this focus on family is a deliberate strategy by the RMFF. Federation president Fouzi Lekjaa has framed having players’ mothers present at major tournaments as one of the team’s most effective psychological tools, noting it gives players a unique, powerful sense of motivation. “When the player sees his mother in the stands, it’s a huge boost and motivation,” Bel Hassan explained. “The players themselves have spoken about how supported they feel. A mother’s prayer, nothing really comes close.”

    This match carries layers of meaning that extend far beyond the 90 minutes of football, rooted in the long and complicated shared history of France and Morocco. Shaped by colonialism, migration, and one of the largest Moroccan diaspora communities in Europe, the fixture carries deep identity significance. Multiple current Moroccan internationals were eligible to play for France’s senior national side, having come up through French youth system, but ultimately chose to represent the country of their parents and grandparents. That decision adds an extra layer of emotional stakes to Thursday’s encounter.

    The most high-profile example of this dynamic is the head-to-head between Hakimi and Mbappe, who are close friends and club teammates at Paris Saint-Germain, but will be rivals on the pitch in Boston.

    The core question ahead of kickoff is not simply whether Morocco can beat France. It is whether the team that shocked the world in Qatar can prove that 2022’s historic run was not the peak of their ascent, but just the first step in their emergence as a permanent global football powerhouse. In Qatar, Morocco made history. In Boston, they have the chance to prove that history is only just beginning.

  • Uganda judges push back against lawyers’ bid to scrap ‘colonial titles’

    Uganda judges push back against lawyers’ bid to scrap ‘colonial titles’

    A fierce debate over decolonizing Uganda’s legal system has erupted after the Uganda Law Society (ULS), the national body representing the country’s practicing advocates, ordered its members to abandon two longstanding colonial-era courtroom customs: addressing judicial officers as “My Lord”, “My Lady”, “Your Lordship” or “Your Worship”, and bowing to judges before entering or exiting the courtroom.

    In an official statement signed by ULS president Isaac Ssemakadde, the association framed the new directive as a core step toward dismantling archaic colonial structures that it argues have undermined the functionality and accessibility of Uganda’s justice system. The society described the traditional honorifics and practice of physical deference as “feudal and colonial” constructs that improperly position judicial officers above ordinary Ugandan citizens, who the ULS emphasizes are the actual employers of public officials. The statement added that these outdated customs force ordinary Ugandans into positions of unnecessary humiliation, while granting unmerited deference to judicial leaders. Going forward, all ULS members are prohibited from bowing to judges, and are instructed to use plain, egalitarian forms of address instead: alternatives include “Mr Justice”, “Madam Justice”, “Mr Judge”, “Madam Judge”, “Mr Magistrate”, or direct reference to a judicial officer by their surname in appropriate contexts. The ULS concluded that all advocates and litigants appearing before Ugandan courts should stand upright and speak as equal, free citizens.

    The directive has drawn immediate pushback from Uganda’s independent judiciary, which rejected the ULS’s authority to set courtroom rules. Judiciary spokesperson James Ereemye told the BBC that the ULS has no legal standing to dictate to judicial bodies what procedures or decorum to require, noting that the judiciary remains an independent branch of the Ugandan government separate from professional legal associations. Ereemye added that courts will continue to demand adherence to long-established courtroom decorum, and dismissed the ULS’s directive as an unstructured move by “a section of young people who have failed to know the principles of agenda setting in management and administration”. He argued that any proposed changes to court procedure should be raised through official, established consultation channels rather than via a public directive from a professional association.

    As a former British colony, Uganda inherited its entire legal framework and most core courtroom traditions from the United Kingdom. This current clash is part of a much broader, decades-long debate across the African continent over whether to discard colonial-era legal customs as part of broader judicial decolonization reforms. In 2011, Kenya’s then-Chief Justice Willy Mutunga drew international attention when he publicly criticized traditional judicial dress codes that require judges to wear British-style wigs and robes, and chose to take his oath of office in a standard formal suit instead. Similar conversations around reforming colonial court practices have taken place in Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Ghana, where critics argue that these outdated, imported traditions are no longer appropriate or relevant for independent modern African nations.

  • AU envoy reaffirms efforts to de-escalate Sudan conflict, push for ceasefire

    AU envoy reaffirms efforts to de-escalate Sudan conflict, push for ceasefire

    Three years after deadly conflict erupted across Sudan, the African Union’s top mediator has doubled down on the bloc’s push to end the violence, following high-level talks with Sudan’s interim leadership in Khartoum.

    Mohamed Belaiche, the AU Special Envoy for Sudan, made the commitment Wednesday during a face-to-face meeting with Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, chairman of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereign Council, in the country’s capital. Belaiche emphasized that the AU’s immediate priority is rolling back escalating hostilities and laying the groundwork for a sustainable ceasefire, which would create space to resolve the country’s deep-rooted crisis through an inclusive, all-party political dialogue.

    Wednesday’s discussion, Belaiche noted, was part of a continuous series of consultations between the African Union and Sudanese stakeholders focused on tracking evolving political and security conditions across the nation. The two sides also covered two key procedural steps for the AU’s ongoing engagement: the reopening of the bloc’s liaison office in Khartoum, and logistics for an upcoming high-level AU delegation visit to the country scheduled for the near term.

    Sudan has been trapped in full-scale conflict since mid-April 2023, when tensions between the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by Al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces erupted into open combat. The three-year conflict has already claimed tens of thousands of lives and triggered one of the world’s worst displacement crises, with millions of Sudanese forced to flee their homes both within the country and across international borders.

  • Ebola misinformation fuels violent attacks on health workers

    Ebola misinformation fuels violent attacks on health workers

    The ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which first emerged in mid-May this year, has already triggered a devastating dual crisis: a rapidly spreading public health emergency compounded by dangerous falsehoods that have turned communities against the medical teams working to save lives. BBC Verify, the fact-checking division of the British public broadcaster, has conducted an investigation into multiple violent incidents targeting frontline health workers, all traced back to widespread misinformation circulating in affected regions. As of the latest official updates, the outbreak has infected more than 1,700 people across the country and claimed at least 580 lives, with case counts continuing to climb as responders struggle to contain both the virus and the harmful rumors undermining their work. Misinformation around Ebola is not a new phenomenon in central Africa, but its current impact has been particularly severe: false claims that health workers are spreading the virus themselves, or that Ebola treatment is a dangerous hoax, have convinced segments of the local population to attack medical convoys, storm treatment centers, and threaten staff. These violent acts not only endanger the lives of frontline workers but also severely disrupt outbreak containment efforts, allowing the virus to spread further into unmonitored communities. BBC Verify’s ongoing analysis underscores how quickly misinformation can travel through informal social networks in remote regions, turning a public health challenge into a security crisis that complicates international and local response efforts.

  • ‘This oxygen is spreading’ – inside Morocco’s mission to become a powerhouse

    ‘This oxygen is spreading’ – inside Morocco’s mission to become a powerhouse

    As Morocco prepares to face France once again for a spot in the 2026 FIFA World Cup semifinals on Thursday, football insiders who helped shape the nation’s modern program say the Atlas Lions’ current success is no fluke – it is the payoff of years of intentional, top-backed investment and strategic planning.

    Wales native Neil Ward, who stepped into the role of technical operations director at the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (RMFF) in 2020 after leading the Football Association of Wales Trust, was in Rabat when the country made global football history in 2022, becoming the first African nation to reach a men’s World Cup semifinal. He recalled that the entire city erupted in celebration that stretched into the early morning, with King Mohammed VI himself joining the festivities to mark the milestone. Even after a narrow elimination against France that tournament, the team’s momentum has not slowed, and as co-hosts of the 2030 World Cup alongside Spain and Portugal, the nation shows no sign of stepping back from its ambition to compete among the world’s elite.

    For British coaching educator Simon Jennings, who oversaw Morocco’s national youth development system from 2020 to 2024, the team’s current standing is the direct outcome of clear, unwavering national ambition rooted in the highest levels of government. King Mohammed VI has backed sustained, large-scale investment across every layer of Moroccan football, funding a cutting-edge national training center, elite youth academy, regional development hubs, major stadium renovations, and thousands of new amateur playing pitches across the country. These world-class facilities send a clear message to top talent playing in Europe’s top leagues that Morocco is serious about competing at the highest level, Ward explained.

    This significant public investment in football has drawn criticism from youth activists, who have called for greater funding to be redirected to pressing domestic priorities including education, healthcare, affordable housing, transport infrastructure and job creation. In response to these calls, the royal palace has committed to increasing 2026 budget allocations for health and education by 16% year-on-year, totaling the equivalent of £11.2 billion in new spending.

    Ward noted that the push to invest in football is rooted in two core goals: tapping into the deep, widespread passion for the sport that already exists across Moroccan society, and building the nation’s global soft power by proving it can compete with the world’s best football nations. That ambition represents a major shift in mentality: heading into the 2022 World Cup, Morocco had only advanced past the group stage once before, in 1986. But even before the first match kicked off in Qatar, then-manager Walid Regragui made clear the team was not just there to participate – they were there to make history.

    A key part of Morocco’s competitive edge comes from its proactive scouting of talented players of Moroccan descent around the world. With an estimated 5 million Moroccans living abroad, the federation has deployed full-time scouts across major European nations including France, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, and Scandinavia to identify promising young players with Moroccan roots early in their careers, and welcome them fully into the national team setup. Jennings emphasized that these players are fully embraced as Moroccans, with no sense of being secondary members of the squad, and many choose to represent Morocco even when they are eligible for top European national teams.

    That strategy has already delivered dramatic results: 19 of the 26 players in Morocco’s 2026 World Cup squad were born outside the country. Six of those players, including highly touted 18-year-old Lille midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi, were previously eligible to represent Thursday’s opponent France. Even rising Barcelona star Lamine Yamal, who represents Spain at the senior level and has a Moroccan father, was approached by the RMFF when he was just 12 or 13 years old – a testament to the federation’s commitment to leaving no stone unturned in talent identification, even when recruitment does not ultimately pan out.

    Now, the next phase of Morocco’s plan is growing more elite talent through its domestic youth system. Chris van Puyvelde, who served as RMFF technical director from 2022 to 2025, said the federation’s goal by the 2030 co-hosted World Cup is to reach an even split between players born in Morocco and players of Moroccan descent raised abroad. To hit that target, van Puyvelde noted, domestic organizational systems still need improvement, a challenge that comes amid growing pressure to deliver consistent top results.

    That pressure has already been felt by current senior manager Mohamed Ouahbi, the Belgium-born coach who took over the top job after Regragui resigned following a disappointing early exit from the 2025 African Nations Cup. After his Moroccan under-20 side failed to qualify for the 2023 African Nations Cup, Ouahbi retained the federation’s backing and, with added time and patience, led the under-20 squad to win the 2025 U-20 World Cup – earning him a promotion to the senior team role just months later, with a contract running through the 2030 World Cup. That long-term contract signals the federation’s commitment to building sustained success, not just chasing short-term results.

    As Morocco gets ready to face France for a spot in the 2026 World Cup semifinals, van Puyvelde summed up the transformation the country has undergone: Morocco is not just building new stadiums for the 2030 World Cup, it is building a complete, grassroots football structure from the bottom up. The breakthrough success of 2022 has already created momentum that is spreading across the entire country, and regardless of Thursday’s outcome, the Atlas Lions’ rise as a global football powerhouse is only just beginning.

  • Morocco presser disrupted by fighting journalists

    Morocco presser disrupted by fighting journalists

    A chaotic, unplanned moment interrupted Morocco’s official press conference ahead of a World Cup fixture, when a heated argument between two attending journalists escalated into an on-stage physical altercation. The awkward disruption left onlookers and attendees stunned, most notably Real Madrid and Morocco international winger Brahim Diaz, whose visibly confused and perplexed reaction to the sudden brawl was captured on camera. The unusual incident quickly went viral across sports media platforms, drawing widespread attention from football fans around the globe who shared clips and reacted to the out-of-place confrontation during what was supposed to be a routine pre-event media appearance. The press conference, organized to allow Morocco’s players and coaching staff to answer questions from the press ahead of their World Cup match, was thrown off schedule by the unexpected conflict between the two reporters, who were reportedly separated by event staff shortly after the argument began. Moments of the altercation and Diaz’s reaction have been circulated widely as supplementary World Cup content by sports outlets covering the tournament.

  • How Ebola misinformation is fuelling violent attacks against health workers

    How Ebola misinformation is fuelling violent attacks against health workers

    In the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, a rapidly spreading Ebola outbreak is facing an unprecedented threat not just from the virus itself, but from rampant misinformation that has turned local communities against the frontline healthcare workers trying to save lives. Among the countless stories of violence is the account of 27-year-old Daniel Uyirwoth Welo, a Red Cross volunteer who survived a brutal assault while carrying out a critical safe burial of an Ebola victim at a Bunia cemetery last month. Welo recounted how a crowd, driven by false rumors that the Ebola victim’s coffin was empty, seized him from behind, beating him with punches, spades, and machetes alongside three of his colleagues. The attack was sparked by widespread false narratives that have circulated both in local communities and online: that Ebola does not exist at all, or that the international Red Cross response is nothing more than a scheme to siphon public funds. This attack is far from an isolated incident.

    Official government data confirms that since the outbreak began in mid-May, more than 1,700 people have been infected, and 580 have lost their lives. BBC Verify’s investigation into resistance to Ebola control measures has identified 12 documented incidents of community unrest, seven of which have been confirmed via social media footage. These incidents include coordinated attacks on treatment centers, physical assaults on healthcare and aid workers, and repeated efforts to disrupt safe burials — a core intervention to stop Ebola spread. Experts warn the true number of unreported incidents is almost certainly higher, as many violent clashes occur in remote, hard-to-reach regions with limited access for monitors.

    The most recent major attack took place on July 1, when arsonists burned an Ebola treatment center to the ground in Bafwabango, located in Ituri province — the geographic epicenter of the current outbreak. Local media reports confirm one police officer was killed during clashes that erupted after community members attempted to seize the body of a suspected Ebola victim for traditional burial. Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with infected bodily fluids, and the bodies of deceased victims remain highly contagious for days after death. For this reason, supervised safe burials that eliminate close contact with the body are a cornerstone of outbreak control; traditional funeral practices involving washing, touching, and viewing the body were a major driver of transmission in past Ebola outbreaks across Central Africa.

    Despite this life-saving necessity, misinformation has repeatedly derailed these efforts. In late May, rioters burned medical equipment and two isolation tents at a treatment center in Rwampara after staff prevented relatives from removing a young Ebola victim’s body for traditional burial. Since that incident, at least three more medical facilities have been attacked or vandalized, according to on-the-ground reports.

    To understand the roots of this resistance, experts point to the deep cultural and social importance of traditional multi-day funeral rites in Congolese communities, which carry profound spiritual meaning. Julienne Anoko, an anthropologist working as a community engagement officer with the World Health Organization (WHO), explained that funerals are not merely end-of-life rituals but celebrations of a person’s journey to the afterlife, with practices that have been passed down through generations. Even so, misinformation and long-standing systemic distrust have amplified resistance beyond cultural differences to life-saving public health measures.

    On-the-ground responders report that widespread misconceptions have left many patients avoiding early medical care, drastically reducing their chances of survival when they finally do seek treatment. Dr Aimé Mbonda Noula, of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), explained that many families flee their homes and abandon Ebola victims’ bodies entirely rather than alert authorities, out of fear of being forced into quarantine. “Most of the people in these communities think that these treatment centres are places where, when you go, you die,” he said. “So, you usually run away from these places and run away from the health workers.” For those who remain, resistance to changing funeral practices runs deep: “They don’t believe that safe, dignified burials could really help,” said Dr Babou Rukengeza of the charity Save The Children. “They say: ‘this is my family member, I need to honour him… this is the last time that I can touch him.’”

    The violence has spread beyond Ituri to neighboring North Kivu province, where two Ebola response workers were attacked by mobs that blamed them for community deaths. Video verified by BBC Verify shows a female health worker fleeing a group of men who strike her with wooden planks, while another clip captures a medical worker crawling along a road as the crowd throws stones at him.

    A recent community assessment by the charity ActionAid in Ituri found that nearly one-third of respondents do not believe Ebola is a real disease, instead attributing deaths to sorcery or spiritual curses. Public health experts have labeled misinformation as the outbreak’s most dangerous ally. “False rumours delay care for people who need help and fuel attacks on health workers and health facilities, disrupting outbreak control and giving the virus more opportunities to spread,” explained Dr Wessam Mankoula of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

    This deep-seated distrust did not emerge overnight. Experts trace it back to decades of violent unrest in eastern DR Congo, shaped by prolonged civil conflict, foreign interference, and brutal competition over lucrative mineral resources including gold and coltan. “You have a very strong base of being very distrustful of anything coming from outside, including the central government,” said Dr Jean-Vivien Mombouli, a former Ebola response advisor to governments across the region.

    The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo Ebola species, for which no approved vaccine or specific treatment currently exists. The WHO has launched clinical trials for two promising experimental treatments, but experts caution it will take months to complete testing and confirm their effectiveness. With no quick medical fix on hand, health leaders emphasize that containing the outbreak depends as much on rebuilding community trust as it does on medical intervention. “Mistrust is the real battleground,” WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on social media in June. “Win trust, and we win this.”

  • International court tells BBC of breakthrough in Sudan war crimes probe

    International court tells BBC of breakthrough in Sudan war crimes probe

    Two decades after the International Criminal Court (ICC) first opened investigations into widespread atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur region, the court’s top deputy has announced a major investigative breakthrough: concrete evidence tying senior leaders of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the group’s violent 2024 seizure of key Darfur cities.

    Deputy ICC Chief Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan shared the update in an interview with the BBC, following a recent visit to refugee camps in eastern Chad that host hundreds of thousands of people displaced by Sudan’s 27-month-long internal conflict. During her trip, Khan collected firsthand testimonies from survivors who fled the siege and takeover of el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, one of the deadliest chapters of the ongoing war between the RSF and Sudan’s regular armed forces.

    According to United Nations estimates, more than 6,000 civilians were killed during the RSF’s October 2024 offensive to capture el-Fasher, forcing tens of thousands of residents to flee their homes to neighboring Chad and other safe regions. UN investigators have previously stated that the violence in el-Fasher bears the clear “hallmarks of genocide,” with consistent allegations that the Arab-majority RSF has deliberately targeted non-Arab ethnic communities in Darfur — a pattern of violence that mirrors atrocities committed in the region in the early 2000s. A separate, equally brutal massacre of civilians is also alleged to have been carried out by RSF fighters in the West Darfur capital of el-Geneina.

    Khan confirmed that the court’s years-long investigation into these new atrocities has crossed a key threshold. “We have now found concrete evidence that links what is happening on the ground through linkage evidence to specific persons in leadership mode,” she told reporters, adding that “it may take time for justice to develop, to be brought to the court, but we will get there.” She also confirmed that the evidence gathered so far links RSF leaders not only to war crimes, but to crimes against humanity as well. While the court has not announced a timeline for when formal charges will be filed, Khan emphasized that investigative progress has been substantial. “We cannot say how quickly or how long it’s going to take,” she said. “But we can say that progress has been significant and that we have achieved a breakthrough.”

    The RSF has repeatedly pushed back against the allegations. The group has denied that it carried out widespread ethnically motivated killings across Darfur, claiming that the scale of atrocities has been greatly exaggerated by international observers. RSF representatives have acknowledged that isolated violations may have occurred during the el-Fasher campaign, and say that an internal probe into alleged abuses ordered by RSF leader Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo shortly after the city’s capture remains ongoing.

    Khan noted that the patterns of violence observed in the latest outbreak of fighting in Darfur match exactly the patterns the ICC documented during its investigations into atrocities committed in the region in the 2000s, when the court first received a referral for the Darfur case from the UN Security Council. The current investigation draws on multiple streams of corroborating evidence, including survivor witness accounts, video and photographic documentation of atrocities, and forensic evidence.

    This is not the ICC’s first interaction with senior figures linked to Darfur atrocities. Over the course of 20 years of investigations, the court has secured seven arrest warrants and opened six separate cases against alleged perpetrators. The most high-profile defendant is former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted from power in a 2019 coup and remains in Sudanese custody, evading transfer to The Hague decades after the ICC issued his arrest warrant. Four other suspects also remain at large with active arrest warrants. In 2024, the court convicted Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, a senior former leader of the Janjaweed militia, on 27 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed between 2003 and 2004, sentencing him to 20 years in prison. The Janjaweed, a pro-government militia that targeted non-Arab civilians in 2000s Darfur, is the direct predecessor organization to the modern RSF, which was built from former Janjaweed factions.

    Sudan’s ongoing civil conflict, which erupted in April 2023, grew out of a power struggle between the Sudanese Army, led by Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, led by Dagalo. The conflict has displaced millions of people across the country and killed tens of thousands, with Darfur emerging as one of the worst-affected regions. The Hague-based ICC, the world’s only permanent international court with a mandate to prosecute genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, has maintained its investigation into Darfur atrocities through the latest conflict, as it continues to pursue accountability for crimes committed across more than two decades of violence in the region.

  • WHO warns movement of infected people driving Ebola outbreak in DRC

    WHO warns movement of infected people driving Ebola outbreak in DRC

    The world is facing a growing public health emergency in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where an Ebola outbreak caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain continues to expand unchecked, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed in a Tuesday media briefing. Despite ramped-up intervention efforts by global and local health authorities, cross-population movement remains the primary catalyst for sustained virus transmission, keeping the epidemic far from stabilization.