标签： Africa

As the brutal power conflict between Sudan’s two main military factions enters its fourth year, active fighting has ramped up sharply across multiple regions of the country, leaving global aid watchers sounding urgent alarms over a rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis for millions of vulnerable civilians.

The ongoing confrontation, which first erupted in April 2023, pits the official Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), with violence now spreading simultaneously across the southeastern Blue Nile region and the western regions of Darfur and Kordofan.

On Tuesday, the SAF confirmed it had intercepted and downed a hostile drone north of Al-Tuwaysha town in North Darfur State. This confrontation marks just the latest in a growing string of aerial skirmishes, where uncrewed aerial vehicles have emerged as a primary weapon for both warring factions over the past several months.

Further east, in the Blue Nile region, the SAF’s 4th Infantry Division announced it had secured new territorial advances following a large-scale offensive across multiple eastern districts of the state. The military command confirmed in an official statement that operations pushed past the Abu Dugla and Ashambo areas, concluding with the full seizure of the Al-Bar district from forces it labeled “rebel elements.”

According to the statement, government troops captured stockpiles of weapons, military hardware, and a number of enemy combatants during the operation. Military officials added that offensive operations will continue in the region to secure Sudan’s border and protect civilian populations. After months of relative quiet, Blue Nile has reemerged as a key conflict zone as the SAF works to retake control of Kurmuk, a strategically critical border town.

Independent military observers note that the renewed push in Blue Nile forms part of a broader strategic shift by the SAF: expanding military operations beyond the long-standing conflict hotspots of Darfur and Kordofan to reassert state control over vulnerable border regions.

In western Sudan, however, the humanitarian outlook in North Darfur continues to deteriorate at an alarming rate. RSF-linked social media accounts published video footage Tuesday confirming RSF fighters had entered the Ambro area of North Darfur, just days after drone strikes hit the zone and drove displaced residents to seek shelter there from nearby conflict zones.

The North Darfur Coordination of Resistance Committees confirmed that thousands of civilians have fled the Orshi area for Ambro in search of safety, adding that targeted violations against civilian populations in the western parts of the state continue without interruption. The committee stressed that displaced residents are surviving in catastrophic conditions in makeshift camp sites, and has called for expanded independent humanitarian monitoring and urgent international intervention to address the growing crisis.

To the south in North Kordofan State, human rights organization Emergency Lawyers reported that repeated RSF drone strikes on the major city of El Obeid last week destroyed the city’s central power substation. The attack triggered widespread blackouts that cut off access to clean water, disrupted critical health care services, and halted local public transport. The group warned that continued attacks on civilian and critical infrastructure will speed up mass displacement from the city, and raise the risk of a full-scale humanitarian catastrophe in one of western Sudan’s largest urban hubs.

Current United Nations estimates place the total death toll from the 3-year conflict at more than tens of thousands of people, with over 7 million people displaced internally across Sudan and an additional 1.5 million fleeing to neighboring countries to seek safety. International aid organizations have repeatedly warned that access to food, clean water, and medical care is severely limited across most conflict zones, with the risk of mass famine and preventable disease outbreaks growing by the week.

JOHANNESBURG – A sweeping rollback of U.S. foreign assistance spearheaded by the second Trump administration is pushing South Africa’s long-running fight against HIV/AIDS into uncharted crisis, with civil society groups warning that adolescent girls and women — already among the nation’s most at-risk populations for HIV infection — are bearing the earliest and most severe brunt of the cuts.

The program facing elimination is the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, better known globally as PEPFAR, a landmark U.S. initiative that has backed South Africa’s HIV response for two decades. PEPFAR is widely celebrated by global public health experts for saving more than 20 million lives across the world since its launch, with South Africa — home to the world’s largest HIV-positive population — as one of its core beneficiaries. The program delivers more than $400 million in annual support to the country’s public health infrastructure for HIV care and prevention.

The U.S. State Department confirmed it is implementing a phased drawdown of most PEPFAR activities in South Africa, with full wind-down of core programming scheduled for completion by the end of September 2025. Only limited critical personnel support will extend through March 2026, officials confirmed.

The aid cut comes as part of broader global foreign aid reductions outlined in a January 2025 executive order from President Donald Trump, who issued a full halt on all U.S. financial assistance to South Africa the following month. The Trump administration has justified the freeze by citing a slate of political disagreements with the South African government: the country’s Black Economic Empowerment policies, its controversial land expropriation legislation, and South Africa’s prominent legal case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, where Pretoria has accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. The administration also amplified widely disputed claims that white Afrikaner minority communities face systemic genocide in South Africa.

Israel has forcefully denied South Africa’s genocide allegations, countering that the October 7, 2023, cross-border attack by Hamas-led militants that killed approximately 1,200 people in southern Israel itself constitutes an act of genocide. A State Department spokesperson confirmed to the Associated Press this week that PEPFAR withdrawal was conditional: South African leaders were told the funding would be pulled unless they addressed U.S. demands, including a requirement that senior government officials more frequently and unequivocally condemn what the U.S. frames as race-based incitement to violence, specifically the anti-apartheid struggle song “Kill the Boer,” which some critics interpret as a call for violence against white Afrikaner farmers.

Official data from South Africa puts the nation’s HIV-positive population at roughly 8 million people — 12.7% of its total 63-million population. PEPFAR funding accounts for approximately 17% of the South African government’s overall budget for HIV programming. Importantly, the funding does not cover the bulk of antiretroviral drug purchases: 90% of the country’s ARV supply is self-funded, with the remaining 10% covered by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Even so, the withdrawal has already inflicted tangible damage across 27 South African districts, where community HIV support facilities have shuttered and hundreds of frontline workers and outreach volunteers have been laid off.

South Africa’s national health department has been preparing for the aid cut since the initial January 2025 freeze on U.S. foreign assistance and cancellation of USAID grants, spokesperson Foster Mohale told reporters. The government launched a self-reliance plan to mitigate the impact of the withdrawal, and allocated $45 million in emergency funding last year to fill gaps left by the lost PEPFAR support. But civil society groups that have conducted on-the-ground impact assessments in high-prevalence districts say emergency funding has not been enough to offset the loss, especially for prevention services.

Section27, a leading South African civil society organization focused on health rights, recently assessed the cuts in three high-burden districts and found prevention programming has been hit hardest. As public health systems face strained resources, authorities have shifted priorities to maintaining existing treatment access for people already living with HIV — a necessary shift that comes at the cost of stopping new infections, explained Tendai Mafuma, senior legal researcher at Section27.

The Anova Health Institute, one of the largest organizations that delivered PEPFAR-funded programming in the country, has already wound down all PEPFAR-supported activities and laid off approximately 3,000 health workers since 2024. Dr. Kate Rees, a public health medicine specialist at Anova, said community-based delivery of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) — a critical medication that prevents HIV transmission — and other prevention services have been gutted by the cuts.

“Community delivery of prevention is important to reach the people that need it most,” Rees said. Along with adolescent girls and young women, Rees added, the groups most impacted include children, young people, and key at-risk populations such as men who have sex with men and people who use drugs — groups that rely heavily on outreach services to access life-saving care.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – A surging wave of anti-immigrant hostility and targeted violence has forced thousands of African migrants to flee South Africa, deepening a national crisis that has drawn international condemnation and put the country’s migration policy at the center of regional tensions.

The unrest has unfolded alongside months of organized demonstrations led by anti-immigration groups, which have issued an ultimatum: by June 30, all undocumented migrants must leave the country, and the South African government must crack down on what the groups frame as an out-of-control illegal immigration crisis in Africa’s largest economy. If their demands are not met, the organizations have threatened to launch a national shutdown that could paralyze economic activity across the country. South Africa’s police minister confirmed that security forces are already on high alert ahead of planned major protests scheduled for the deadline date.

Many migrants have fled their communities out of fear of attack, gathering in makeshift shelters near diplomatic missions and other secured areas. Multiple home countries have already begun repatriating their citizens, and have publicly criticized South Africa for allowing a widespread culture of xenophobia to take root.

Anti-immigration protests have roiled major South African cities since March, pushing the migration debate to the top of the country’s political agenda. Without providing any factual evidence, protest leaders have blamed undocumented immigrants for South Africa’s crippling 32% national unemployment rate, failing public services, and rising crime rates. Earlier this month, President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation in a televised address aimed at defusing tensions. He argued that many anti-immigration groups are exploiting the issue to advance partisan political goals, noting that “illegal immigration is not the cause of our social and economic difficulties.” Even so, Ramaphosa acknowledged that the government has failed to effectively manage border control, a concession that has done little to cool public anger.

As one of the most economically developed nations on the African continent, South Africa has long drawn migrants from poorer neighboring countries seeking greater economic opportunity and safety. Data from the country’s 2022 national census shows that foreign-born residents make up less than 4% of the total population: roughly 2.4 million people out of 62 million total residents. Critics of the government argue that the official census count excludes large numbers of people residing in the country without formal documentation, a claim that has bolstered anti-immigration groups’ arguments that the crisis is larger than acknowledged.

South Africa is already one of several major global economies grappling with increasingly polarized debate over immigration policy, alongside the United States and European nations. According to the country’s home affairs ministry, over the past two years, South Africa has deported more than 100,000 people found to be residing in the country illegally, and has turned away roughly 500,000 more undocumented people attempting to cross the country’s borders. Anti-immigration groups have cited these high numbers to back up their claims that the migration problem remains unaddressed.

Police have launched multiple investigations into fatal attacks linked to the rising anti-immigrant sentiment. Earlier this month, two Mozambican migrants were killed in anti-immigrant unrest in a small coastal town, where more than 50 homes in a migrant neighborhood were burned to the ground. Last week, a Malawian man was stoned to death during an anti-immigration protest in another region of the country, triggering a second homicide investigation. Multiple other assaults and targeted attacks have been reported across the country.

Xenophobic violence has a long, painful history in South Africa. Migrants from low-income nations including Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Malawi often settle in the country’s most impoverished communities, where high levels of native unemployment and public frustration create fertile ground for resentment. In 2008, a nationwide wave of anti-immigrant violence that began in Johannesburg left more than 60 people dead, both South African citizens and foreign migrants. Intermittent outbursts of targeted violence against immigrants have occurred in the decades since.

The United Nations has added its voice to international criticism of South Africa’s response to the crisis. A spokesperson for UN Secretary-General António Guterres said Guterres is “deeply concerned by reports of xenophobic attacks and acts of harassment and intimidation against migrants and foreign nationals in parts of South Africa.” Multiple African governments, including those of Nigeria, Ghana, and Mozambique, have also issued strong formal rebukes of South Africa over the targeting of their citizens.

As the June 30 deadline approaches, thousands of migrants have already fled the country to seek safety. So far, Nigeria and Ghana have repatriated nearly 2,000 of their citizens on government-funded evacuation flights, with officials confirming more repatriation flights are planned. Zimbabwe and Mozambique have also repatriated smaller groups of their nationals.

Last week, roughly 10,000 Malawian migrants gathered at a temporary shelter in the eastern coastal city of Durban, all waiting to arrange return travel to their home country. More than 8,000 of those migrants have since left South Africa on buses provided by the Malawian government or private sponsors, but hundreds remain stuck in the shelter waiting for departure. South African authorities confirmed they have facilitated the voluntary repatriation of Malawian citizens, though many other migrants have been formally deported for lacking legal residency documentation.

A devastating arson attack at a Kenyan girls’ boarding school that left 16 teenage pupils dead and dozens wounded is moving into the legal phase, with national prosecutors announcing they have approved murder charges for the students implicated in the blaze.

The fatal fire broke out on 28 May at Utumishi Girls’ School, located in Gilgil roughly 120 kilometers northwest of Kenya’s capital Nairobi. The inferno swept through the upper floor of a three-story dormitory that was housing 202 students in 135 bunk beds, a layout that quickly turned a contained fire into a mass casualty event. Trapped by an emergency exit that failed to open when the blaze started, the students could only escape through a single narrow doorway, leading to the high death toll. All the victims were between 15 and 18 years old.

Local law enforcement launched an immediate investigation into the cause of the fire. After conducting interviews with surviving students and school staff, and completing a forensic analysis of closed-circuit security camera footage from the campus, eight students were identified as persons of interest. Police allege the group planned and carried out the attack by igniting mattresses close to one of the dormitory’s exits, and all eight were taken into police custody after the incident.

In an official statement released last week, Kenya’s Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) confirmed that after a thorough review of all evidence collected by investigators, the DPP has formally approved murder charges against the implicated students. “The suspects will face sixteen (16) counts of murder arising from the incident,” the statement read. While prosecutors have not confirmed the exact number of students that will be charged, nor an exact timeline for the arraignment, court documents confirm the suspects are scheduled to make their first formal appearance at a Naivasha courtroom on Wednesday. All eight remain in police custody as of Tuesday.

Beyond the immediate case, the ODPP has sounded the alarm over a concerning nationwide uptick in arson attacks and violent incidents at Kenyan learning institutions, warning that any individual found responsible for such violence will face full legal accountability.

Preliminary government assessments have also highlighted critical systemic safety failures at the school that contributed to the high death toll. Kenya’s Education Minister Julius Ogamba confirmed early findings show multiple serious breaches of mandatory safety protocols at Utumishi Girls’ School, including severe overcrowding in the dormitory where the fire broke out and the fatal decision to lock the emergency exit door during occupancy.

This tragedy is not an isolated event for Kenya: the country has grappled with a decades-long pattern of fatal dormitory fires at boarding schools. Just two years ago, a similar dormitory blaze in central Kenya killed at least 21 people. Research into past incidents shows many of these fires have been linked to arson, often carried out by disgruntled students protesting harsh disciplinary rules, poor living conditions, or fee increases. Other fires have been ruled accidental. In most cases with high casualty counts, investigators have pinned the elevated death toll on systemic failures: widespread overcrowding, non-functional emergency exits, blocked escape routes, and locked windows that violate national school safety guidelines.

As the legal process gets underway this week, Kenyan education officials are facing renewed pressure to implement mandatory safety audits across all of the country’s boarding schools to address the long-unresolved risks that have led to repeated mass casualty fires.