标签： Africa

Three years into Sudan’s brutal civil conflict between the national army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the world is confronting staggering new evidence of human suffering and strategic escalation that has pushed the country into the worst humanitarian crisis on the globe today. A newly released report from the United Nations Human Rights Office has laid bare an alarming, widespread pattern of violence: sexual assault is being systematically deployed as a weapon of war to terrorize civilian populations, at a scale never before documented in the country’s recent history. The UN’s verified data records 546 confirmed incidents of conflict-related sexual violence, including gang rape and sexual slavery, affecting at least 838 people across Sudan – 539 women, 284 girls, 8 men and 7 boys. Senior UN officials emphasize these numbers represent only a fraction of the true harm, noting pervasive under-reporting driven by fear and restricted access to unsafe areas has obscured the full scope of the crisis. The report attributes the vast majority of verified cases to RSF fighters and their allied militias, though it also documents allegations of sexual violence committed by army personnel and their allies. “This is a war crime and, if committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack, a crime against humanity,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said of the systemic use of sexual violence. Neither the RSF nor the Sudanese army has issued a public response to the latest report, but both groups have consistently denied similar allegations of human rights abuses since the conflict began. Beyond the revelations of sexual violence, the international community is sounding urgent alarms over an imminent threat to the strategic city of el-Obeid, where intelligence indicates the RSF is preparing a full-scale ground offensive to seize control of the key hub. Seven Western nations – the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and Norway – have issued a joint statement calling for an immediate end to hostilities in el-Obeid, warning the city of more than half a million residents (including 200,000 internally displaced people who fled violence elsewhere) is on the “precipice of atrocity”. UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper outlined the escalating threats facing the city: the RSF has already launched drone strikes targeting civilian infrastructure, blocked critical supply routes, and cut off access to basic necessities including clean water, food and healthcare for hundreds of thousands of trapped civilians. “There are now credible signs of an imminent offensive. This is a critical moment, and the international community must act,” the joint statement read. The Western powers explicitly urged the global community to act to avoid a repeat of the mass atrocities committed last year when RSF forces captured the city of el-Fasher in northern Darfur. A February UN report documented that more than 6,000 people were killed in just three days of fighting after RSF seized control of el-Fasher, and international assessors have concluded the killings bear the “hallmarks of genocide”. For displaced residents trapped in el-Obeid, the impending threat has created a state of perpetual terror. “As displaced people we feel we have come here only to die. We are afraid,” one displaced woman told BBC Arabic’s Sudan Lifeline programme. “We arrived here and this has become our fate. We cannot eat. We cannot drink. Where can we go? Where do we go from here?” Another resident described constant fear of drone attacks, adding, “We are terrified and feel psychologically and physically insecure.” Geopolitically, el-Obeid holds enormous strategic importance for both warring parties: it sits at the boundary between RSF-held territories in western Sudan and army-held regions in the east, and lies within Sudan’s major oil-producing Kordofan region. Analysts widely agree that whichever faction controls el-Obeid and the broader Kordofan region will effectively control Sudan’s national oil supply and a large swathe of the country’s territory. The ongoing civil conflict, which erupted in 2023 after a bitter power-sharing collapse between the army and RSF, has already triggered a humanitarian catastrophe unmatched globally. International aid agencies confirm that more than 11 million Sudanese people have been forced to flee their homes, and 28 million – more than half the country’s population – face acute food insecurity and hunger.

Nine months after jointly announcing plans to abandon the International Criminal Court alongside two neighboring Sahel nations, Niger has formally submitted its official request to leave the permanent international tribunal, court officials have confirmed.

The Hague-based ICC confirmed in a statement accessed by Agence France-Presse that it received Niger’s formal “instrument of withdrawal” on June 18. Under the court’s governing rules, any withdrawal takes full effect exactly one year after the notification is submitted. The ICC also emphasized that Niger remains bound by all its existing obligations to the tribunal through the entire 12-month transition period.

Back in September 2025, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso — all three currently ruled by military juntas that rose to power via coups earlier in the 2020s — released a joint declaration rejecting the ICC’s authority over their territories. The trio framed the court as a tool of “neo-colonialist repression” against sovereign states, and announced plans to develop what they called “indigenous mechanisms” to advance peace and deliver justice across the Sahel region. The ICC’s recent statement did not reference any formal withdrawal submissions from Mali or Burkina Faso, leaving Niger’s application as the only one currently processed by the tribunal.

Established in 2002, the ICC was created to investigate and prosecute the world’s most severe offenses: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and acts of aggression. It currently counts 125 member states around the globe, though major powers including the United States, China, Russia, and Israel have never joined the institution.

This latest move follows a broader regional realignment for the three Sahel nations. Last year, all three simultaneously withdrew from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), West Africa’s leading regional integration bloc, and launched their own new cooperative body, the Confederation of Sahel States. As former French colonies, the three nations have grown increasingly estranged from Western powers in recent years and have deepened political, economic, and military ties to Moscow.

Russia itself is not an ICC member, and the court has an active arrest warrant outstanding for Russian President Vladimir Putin over alleged war crimes connected to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Armed forces from all three Sahel juntas have faced repeated international accusations of committing human rights abuses against civilian populations amid a years-long escalating campaign against jihadi insurgents linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.

If Niger’s withdrawal is finalized next year, it will become only the third country to formally exit the ICC, following the departures of Burundi in 2017 and the Philippines in 2019.

A looming public health crisis is building in South Africa after the Trump administration confirmed it would draw down all United States HIV and AIDS funding to the country, a move that the head of the UN’s leading HIV agency warns will put countless lives at risk and undo decades of critical progress.

Speaking to reporters on the eve of a high-level UN meeting focused on global HIV response efforts, UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima issued an urgent plea to Washington to reverse course and pursue a planned phase-out of funding instead of an abrupt withdrawal. “Please do not take money away because you are taking lives away,” Byanyima stressed, adding that the sudden cut to life-saving programs puts the most vulnerable populations directly in harm’s way.

For decades, the U.S. President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has poured approximately $400 million annually into South Africa’s national HIV response, covering around 17% of the country’s total HIV programming budget. While South Africa has built domestic capacity to supply antiretroviral HIV drugs independent of U.S. funding, PEPFAR resources have anchored a wide range of prevention programs that have slowed transmission dramatically across the country, which is home to more than 8 million people living with HIV — the highest national caseload globally.

Byanyima warned that eliminating this core contribution risks reversing all the gains the global public health community has made against the epidemic in South Africa over the past two decades. She also noted that financing cuts to global HIV assistance are not isolated to the U.S., calling on all UN member states to uphold their commitment to protecting the human rights of people living with HIV.

The funding withdrawal is tied to rising diplomatic tensions between the Trump administration and the South African government. U.S. officials confirmed the phased drawdown last week, citing Pretoria’s failure to meet Washington’s policy demands, specifically over unsubstantiated claims that the South African government has failed to protect the white-minority Afrikaner community. The Trump administration has previously pushed widely discredited claims of a “white genocide” in South Africa, and has condemned the country’s Black Economic Empowerment policy, which Pretoria has defended as a necessary correction to deep economic inequality rooted in the apartheid era. South African officials reject all accusations of discriminatory policy against minority groups.

While South Africa’s health ministry says it has not received formal notification of the funding cut, it noted that the country has been developing a national HIV self-reliance plan for years to reduce dependence on international aid. Even so, public health experts warn that an abrupt end to U.S. funding would leave a crippling gap in prevention programming that South Africa’s domestic budget cannot fill overnight.

Byanyima emphasized that the U.S. has long been the world’s largest contributor to global HIV response efforts, and expressed hope that Washington would reconsider its decision to withdraw PEPFAR funding from South Africa. “Taking it away is taking life-saving support from the most vulnerable people, so that is sad and I would like the United States to reconsider their position,” she said.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — In a formal step that underscores growing rejection of international judicial oversight among West Africa’s military-ruled states, Niger has officially initiated its departure from the International Criminal Court, leveling accusations that the Hague-based institution practices systemic selective justice.

The West African nation delivered an official withdrawal notification to the United Nations on Monday, activating the one-year departure process outlined in the ICC’s founding legal document, the Rome Statute. The notification letter, released publicly through UN channels, voiced disillusionment with the court, which was established to deliver accountability for the world’s worst atrocities. “While the court had raised great hopes among peoples who cherish peace and justice, it has been misused and exploited,” the document read.

Niger’s exit was not unexpected: the country joined Mali and Burkina Faso in announcing their collective intent to withdraw from the court last year. All three nations have undergone seismic political shifts since 2020, when Mali’s military first seized power. In Niger’s case, a 2023 coup overthrew the country’s democratically elected civilian government, installing a nationalist military junta that has cut ties with long-time Western and regional partners and forged new strategic alliances with actors including Russia — a country whose leader, Vladimir Putin, currently faces an ICC-issued arrest warrant over the forced deportation of Ukrainian children during Moscow’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Niger’s completed departure will make it the third sovereign state to formally exit the ICC, following prior withdrawals by Burundi and the Philippines. Only Hungary launched a similar exit process last year, but the country reversed its decision following a national election that saw anti-withdrawal forces take power.

ICC officials responded to Niger’s announcement with measured disappointment, emphasizing that the court’s core mission relies on collective global participation. “We regret any decision to depart from the collective effort to end impunity for the most serious international crimes,” the court said in an official statement following the notification.

Under the terms of the Rome Statute, Niger’s withdrawal will not take full effect until one year after the UN received the official notification. Importantly, the ICC will retain full jurisdiction over any crimes committed on Nigerien territory before the withdrawal enters into force.

Niger’s exit comes as the country faces escalating security instability linked to jihadi insurgent groups operating across the Sahel region. Earlier this month, a brazen armed attack on Niamey’s main international airport — a critical strategic hub that houses the military junta’s air force base, its fleet of drones and combat aircraft, and the headquarters of a new regional security alliance between Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso — left more than 30 people dead. The assault marked the second major attack on the airport this year, part of a growing trend of insurgent groups expanding their operations from rural border areas to major urban centers across the Sahel.