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  • Congo files an ICJ case against Rwanda over decades of violence in eastern Congo

    Congo files an ICJ case against Rwanda over decades of violence in eastern Congo

    In a landmark legal move that escalates long-simmering tensions between two central African neighbors, the Democratic Republic of Congo announced Friday it has initiated formal proceedings against Rwanda at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations’ highest tribunal for inter-state disputes. The filing seeks to hold Rwanda legally accountable for more than 30 years of widespread violence that has devastated the mineral-rich eastern region of Congo, leaving millions of civilians displaced and suffering systemic human rights abuses.

    Congo’s legal application accuses Rwanda of violating multiple foundational international conventions, including pacts banning genocide, racial discrimination, torture, and systemic discrimination against women. The legal documents outline that since the early 1990s, civilian communities in eastern Congo have endured mass targeted killings, extrajudicial executions, widespread torture, systematic sexual violence, mass forced displacement, and ongoing ethnic and gender-based persecution perpetrated by Rwandan-backed armed factions.

    The conflict that has torn eastern Congo apart for generations has roots stretching back to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, when Hutu militias responsible for the mass killings fled across the border into eastern Congo to escape prosecution. In the decades that followed, Rwanda has repeatedly deployed cross-border military incursions and armed proxy groups, justifying its actions as necessary to neutralize the remaining Hutu extremist fighters and safeguard Rwanda’s national security. However, both Congolese officials and the U.S. government have long alleged that Rwanda uses the security threat as a cover to gain control over eastern Congo’s vast reserves of valuable strategic minerals, which are critical to global tech and manufacturing supply chains.

    Today, the region remains mired in instability as government forces and allied militias battle more than 100 active armed factions. The most powerful and disruptive of these groups is the M23 movement, which has been repeatedly linked to Rwandan support. M23 fighters launched sweeping offensive operations in early 2023, rapidly seizing key strategic population centers including the major eastern city of Goma and expanding their territorial control across large swathes of North Kivu province.

    The United Nations has classified the ongoing crisis in eastern Congo as “one of the most protracted, complex, serious humanitarian crises on Earth.” More than 6 million people have been displaced by the decades of violence, according to U.N. data, with millions more facing acute food insecurity and limited access to basic humanitarian aid.

    In its filing, Congo named a litany of Rwandan-backed rebel groups that it holds responsible for the decades of bloodshed, with the M23 topping the list of accused factions. The Congolese legal team is asking the ICJ to issue a formal ruling that Rwanda bears international legal responsibility for the violations, order an immediate halt to all Rwandan-backed hostile activities within Congolese territory, require formal assurances that such actions will not be repeated in the future, and order substantial reparations to be paid to both the Congolese government and the civilian victims of the violence.

    Responding to the filing, the ICJ confirmed in a public statement that it had received Congolese application to institute proceedings, but has not yet made any determination on whether the court has jurisdiction to hear the full case. The Rwandan government has not issued any immediate public response to the new legal action. While Rwanda has consistently denied any official support to armed groups operating inside Congo, U.N. expert panels have published multiple findings documenting concrete evidence that Rwandan military personnel have fought alongside M23 fighters and directly directed the group’s military operations.

    This new legal filing marks the third time Congo has attempted to bring Rwanda before the ICJ over the cross-border conflict. The first case was voluntarily withdrawn by Congolese authorities in 2001, and the court dismissed the second attempt in 2006 for lack of jurisdiction, finding that Rwanda had not ratified all of the international treaties cited by Congo, or had entered formal reservations that barred the court from hearing the dispute.

    The landmark legal action comes amid stalled diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict: separate U.S.- and Qatar-mediated peace negotiations between Congolese and Rwandan officials have so far failed to produce a durable ceasefire or lasting political settlement. Just one day before the ICJ filing was announced, the U.S. government imposed new economic sanctions on a Rwanda-based gold refinery, Gasabo Gold Refinery, which U.S. officials say forms part of a transnational criminal network that operates in coordination with M23 to illegally extract and smuggle gold out of eastern Congo. U.S. officials emphasized the sanctions are intended to support ongoing diplomatic peace efforts by cutting off a key source of funding for the armed group.

    The new legal challenge adds another layer of complexity to an already intractable regional crisis, setting the stage for a high-stakes international legal showdown that could shape the future of security and stability in central Africa.

  • Four men held over child-marriage in Sierra Leone set to appear in landmark court case

    Four men held over child-marriage in Sierra Leone set to appear in landmark court case

    Two years after Sierra Leone implemented a full national ban on child marriage, the West African nation is moving forward with its first ever criminal trial against individuals accused of violating the landmark law, marking a watershed moment for gender equality and the protection of minor girls’ rights.

    Four men are scheduled to appear before a court to face charges linked to the forced marriage of a 17-year-old girl. The accused group includes the victim’s own father and the man who purportedly married her; their identities are being withheld by media outlets to safeguard the underage survivor’s privacy and safety.

    If found guilty, the four defendants face a minimum prison sentence of 15 years, a fine of roughly $4,000, or both penalties combined. Under the 2024 Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, even guests and organizers who attend an underage wedding can be arrested and prosecuted for their involvement.

    Sierra Leone’s deeply patriarchal cultural norms have normalized forced child marriage for generations, with many families routinely coercing young daughters into early unions. Though the law now sets 18 as the legal minimum age of marriage, child marriage cases remain widespread across the country, with many such ceremonies still being officiated by local religious leaders. This specific forced marriage was found to have taken place in Grafton, a suburban community on the outskirts of Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown.

    Alpha Sesay, Sierra Leone’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice, confirmed in an interview with the BBC that these charges represent an unprecedented turning point for the enforcement of the 2024 child marriage ban. “This marks the first time that any individual has faced criminal charges for entering into, consenting to, or facilitating a child marriage in our country,” Sesay explained.

    Prior to the 2024 legal reform, Sierra Leone had conflicting national legislation that left a harmful loophole: the Customary Marriage Act still permitted parents to consent to marriage for underage daughters. Two years ago, that outdated customary law was formally struck from the books, establishing a clear legal framework that allows authorities to prosecute any person who participates in the marriage of anyone below the age of 18.

    In addition to the charges against the father and the purported husband, the two other accused face counts of contracting child marriage, consenting to the union, and aiding and abetting the illegal ceremony. Court documents detail that the victim’s father actively facilitated the union, taking key steps during the wedding ceremony to ensure the illegal marriage was completed successfully.

    Gender equality and women’s rights activists across the country have celebrated the unprecedented legal action, framing it as proof that years of advocacy for legal reform are delivering tangible results. Menisa Sesay, president of Legal Access through Women Yearning for Equality Rights and Social Justice — an all-female advocacy group made up of legal professionals — told the BBC she felt “extremely happy” about the milestone.

    Sesay noted that the trial confirms the legal reforms that activists spent years campaigning for are finally being put into practice, validating the movement’s core mission to protect vulnerable women and girls from exploitation.

    Recent data from Human Rights Watch underscores the scale of the crisis that remains: an estimated 30% of all girls in Sierra Leone are married before they turn 18, and in remote rural regions, some brides are as young as 14. For years, activists warned that even after the ban was passed, weak enforcement meant perpetrators faced no consequences for violating the law. But Menisa Sesay says the new charges are a hopeful sign for the future. “The charges brought against the four… is reassuring that there is light at the end of the tunnel for women and girls in Sierra Leone,” she said.

  • Israel releases classified documents detailing 1976 Entebbe raid to free more than 100 hostages

    Israel releases classified documents detailing 1976 Entebbe raid to free more than 100 hostages

    JERUSALEM — On Friday, Israel made public a vast collection of long-classified government documents that lay bare the internal deliberations and high-stakes decision-making behind one of the most legendary operations in Israeli military history: the 1976 Entebbe hostage rescue mission, whose 50th anniversary will be marked on July 3. The declassification comes at a deeply resonant moment for Israel, which is still navigating the fallout from the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas-led militants that killed approximately 1,200 people and abducted 251 hostages to the Gaza Strip, casting a new shadow over decades of Israeli policy on hostage crises.

    The operation itself remains a defining feat of military daring: On June 27, 1976, militants from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and West Germany’s Revolutionäre Zellen hijacked an Air France flight traveling from Tel Aviv to Paris, diverting it to Entebbe Airport in Uganda, where they received backing from then-Ugandan dictator Idi Amin’s government. The hijackers held 106 passengers, the vast majority of whom were Israeli or Jewish, threatening to execute them unless dozens of imprisoned militants were released by multiple countries. In a mission that took under an hour to complete, 29 Israeli commandos flew more than 2,500 miles over hostile territory to storm the airport, rescuing all but three hostages killed in crossfire. All seven hijackers and roughly 45 Ugandan soldiers were killed in the operation, and only one Israeli commando died: Yonatan Netanyahu, older brother of current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The operation’s low casualty count and audacious scope cemented its place as a foundational myth of Israeli military prowess.

    Longstanding popular narrative has framed Entebbe as a turning point where Israel rejected negotiation with hostage-takers in favor of a bold military strike. The newly released files from the Israel State Archives upend that simplified telling, revealing that Israeli leaders under then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin pursued a deliberate two-pronged strategy, only greenlighting the raid when diplomatic efforts showed no signs of progress. For the first six days of the crisis, Rabin’s ad hoc national crisis team took a hard line, refusing any negotiations with the hijackers. But as the militants’ execution deadline drew near and pressure mounted from the hostages’ families, the cabinet shifted position, opening the door to conditional talks.

    “The zero hour is approaching … We believe that a supreme effort must be made and break the ultimatum,” Rabin’s crisis team wrote in one newly released memo, which authorized negotiations on portions of the hijackers’ demands. While pushing forward France-brokered talks with Amin’s government, Israeli military planners simultaneously worked in secret: they built full-scale mockups of the Entebbe terminal to practice the raid, mapped flight routes through African airspace controlled by hostile states, and prepared transport planes for the overnight strike.

    Only when negotiations stalled did leaders give the final order for the mission. Even before the release of these files, much was already known about the broad outlines of the Entebbe operation, but the new documents provide granular, unprecedented insight into the weight of the choices facing the Israeli cabinet. For decades, Israel has maintained a formal policy of occasionally exchanging imprisoned Palestinian detainees for hostages held by militant groups, a practice that has drawn repeated criticism from those who argue it incentivizes future kidnappings. The Entebbe documents confirm Rabin’s administration was willing to test diplomacy before turning to force, contradicting the popular framing of the operation as an outright rejection of negotiation.

    The operation drew international condemnation at the time from Idi Amin and the Organization of African Unity, the predecessor to the modern African Union, which argued the raid violated Ugandan national sovereignty at a time when diplomatic efforts were still ongoing. For Israel, the mission stood as a rare high-profile victory after the trauma of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, where all nine Israeli hostages were killed during a failed German-led rescue attempt. Even in the immediate aftermath of the operation’s success, however, Rabin warned against overstating its impact on the long-term fight against terrorism, a prescient observation that carries new weight today amid the ongoing Gaza hostage crisis.

    “Let us not deceive ourselves,” Rabin wrote in one personal memo included in the declassified files. “It was an extraordinary operation and achievement. However, the problem is not over. Terrorism continues to operate. What other problems terrorism will pose to us and what lessons we must learn from this matter, it is too early to say. We have finished one battle, but the war continues.”

  • The woman leading Cameroonian cricket’s ‘Roger Milla’ generation

    The woman leading Cameroonian cricket’s ‘Roger Milla’ generation

    When 29-year-old Madeleine Nseke Sissako first stepped onto an informal cricket pitch in Yaounde at the age of nine, she and her young teammates faced widespread ridicule. Neighbors, unfamiliar with the sport, mocked the group for carrying the cricket bats they called sticks, drawing an unlikely comparison to the pop-culture Ninja Turtles. Few locals believed the little-known sport could ever take root in the Central African country, where the word ‘cricket’ is most often associated with the common insect rather than a global team sport.

    Against that backdrop of skepticism, Nseke Sissako has emerged as one of Cameroon’s most accomplished and ambitious professional cricketers, leading a quiet revolution to grow the sport from its humble grassroots origins. Cricket runs deep in her family: eight members of the Nseke clan have represented Cameroon at the senior or youth international level, and it was her older brother Abanda Protais who first convinced the reluctant youngster to give the sport a chance. ‘I grew up always by his side, going with him to every practice,’ Nseke Sissako recalls. ‘At first, I had no real love for the game, but he talked me into it and taught me all the fundamentals.’

    Today, Nseke Sissako wears two pivotal hats: she serves as both captain and head coach of the Yaounde-based Emergence Ladies Cricket Club, which she has led to multiple domestic titles, and has represented Cameroon’s senior women’s national team, the Cricket Lionesses, since 2021. Ranked 67th out of 79 global sides in the ICC Women’s T20 rankings, Cameroon’s national program has marked steady progress in recent years, notching wins over Lesotho, Eswatini and Mozambique in 2024. ‘We’ve come so far,’ Nseke Sissako says. ‘When we first started competing internationally, we were the obvious underdogs, always the weakest team. Back then, we mostly traveled just for the experience, to get photos, and see new places. That’s changed now.’

    Her father, Eugene Nseke Toube, a former professional footballer, has supported his daughter’s work in cricket but keeps her grounded. ‘I always tell her she still has a lot to learn, and she has to keep putting in the work if she wants to reach her goals,’ he explains. ‘We encourage her to keep pushing, but where she is now isn’t the finish line.’

    Cricket’s journey in Cameroon began only in 2003, when a development project spearheaded by Victor Agbor-Nso — now president of Cameroon’s national cricket governing body Fecacricket — introduced the sport to the country. ‘We started from absolutely nothing,’ Agbor-Nso says. ‘No one knew what cricket was. It was just a joke, a laughing stock.’ The sport grew steadily enough for Fecacricket to earn affiliate membership with the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2007, and the federation officially recognized by Cameroon’s ministry of sports two years prior, in 2005.

    Agbor-Nso credits the Nseke family, which received a special award from Fecacricket in 2024 for their contributions, with transforming the sport’s profile in the country. ‘The Nsekes have been absolutely critical to turning our dream for Cameroonian cricket into reality — starting from scratch to building a respected sport that people can look up to,’ he says. Today, the country counts 22 registered clubs (12 men’s, 10 women’s) with more than 550 top-level registered players, and Agbor-Nso estimates that roughly 70,000 Cameroonians across the country are learning the sport, mostly through school-based outreach programs.

    Still, major barriers remain. A lack of specialized cricket infrastructure and equipment is one of the biggest hurdles; Cameroon currently has no international-standard cricket venue. ‘If we had a proper stadium with the right playing surface, Cameroon could compete with the best in the world,’ Nseke Sissako says. Fecacricket also faces persistent funding shortfalls: the body only raises roughly a third of its annual budget target, even with support from the ICC and the Cameroonian government, slowing the federation’s progress. ‘We have huge ambitions, but the resources we have right now are nowhere near enough,’ Agbor-Nso explains. ‘We’re working to attract new sponsors to come and support our growth.’

    In recent years, Fecacricket has prioritized expanding women’s cricket, shifting from allocating just 20% of its resources to the women’s game to working toward a 50-50 split between men’s and women’s programming. Agbor-Nso points to Nseke Sissako as the perfect role model for this new era. Beyond leading her domestic club, she also served as head coach of Cameroon’s Under-19 women’s national team during recent qualifiers for the 2026 Women’s Under-19 T20 World Cup, working to inspire the next generation of female players. ‘All we can do now is keep working and believe in ourselves,’ Nseke Sissako says. ‘We need to boost the sport’s visibility, and keep planting the seed in schools through targeted development programs.’

    As the 2026 Women’s T20 World Cup unfolds across England, Wales and South Africa, Nseke Sissako is rooting for the tournament’s only African competitor — the two-time defending runners-up South Africa, who remain the only African nation to ever qualify for the tournament. ‘I will always support South Africa, because it’s because of their success that the rest of the world is paying more attention to African cricket,’ she says. ‘A South African win would give a huge boost to the sport across the whole region, including here in Cameroon.’ Drawing inspiration from Cameroonian football icon Roger Milla, who broke barriers for African football on the global stage, Nseke Sissako says she and her teammates see themselves as the trailblazers of Cameroonian cricket — and she holds an unshakable ambition to turn Cameroon into ‘one of the biggest cricket-playing nations in Africa and the world.’

  • The scars of war among survivors in Sudan

    The scars of war among survivors in Sudan

    It has now been three years since full-scale conflict erupted across Sudan, a brutal war that has left the nation in ruins and indelibly scarred the bodies, minds and futures of millions of civilians who have lived through its devastation. Tens of thousands have been killed, and more than half of the country’s population has been displaced by ongoing fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces, which retook control of the capital Khartoum last year, and the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which continues to clash with government troops across large swathes of the country.

    Associated Press journalists spent more than a week reporting in Khartoum and its surrounding areas to document the human cost of the conflict, accompanying military media representatives on the ground while retaining full editorial control over all reporting. Through conversations with five survivors of the war, the true scale of the civilian crisis that has unfolded across Sudan comes into sharp focus.

    For 33-year-old Omer al-Toum, a lifelong dream of representing Sudan’s national soccer team was destroyed in an instant. Last October, an unexploded ordnance detonated in his home as he attempted to use it to loosen a nail. The blast tore off part of his right leg and left arm, and left his other leg shattered beyond repair. Even with his life permanently altered, al-Toum has chosen to meet his new reality with quiet resolve. He hides the depth of his grief from his family, and finds purpose in coaching young local soccer players, urging them to stay in school and build alternative futures. “As long as you are still breathing, you are still capable of doing many things. And when God takes something away from you, he will surely compensate you with other things,” he said. Though he cannot bathe or get out of bed unassisted, and his wheelchair cannot fit through many of his home’s doorways, al-Toum says his 8-month-old daughter keeps him going. Accessing a high-quality prosthetic to regain greater mobility would require travel abroad, a cost and risk he cannot currently take.

    For 16-year-old Noon Madani, the war stole her sister and nearly stole her ability to walk. Nearly three years ago, in August 2022, Madani did not want to leave her family’s home in a neighborhood outside Khartoum controlled by the RSF. But her 18-year-old older sister insisted they leave to pay an overdue household bill. On their journey home, a missile struck, killing Madani’s sister instantly and crushing both of her legs. Trapped and immobile beside her dying sister, Madani says she still vividly remembers seeing fragments of the missile embedded in her sister’s skull. She spent six months recovering in a local hospital, undergoing multiple surgeries, fighting life-threatening infections, and often waiting days for care after most medical staff fled the region. Today, she still uses a wheelchair while her legs heal, and doctors say she will likely walk again. Every day, her younger brothers wheel her to school, where she studies science with the dream of one day becoming a doctor. “We are trying to forget the war,” her father Omer Bakar said, “the nightmare we finally woke up from.”

    Fatma Ageb, 38, lost nearly her entire family in a single 2025 shelling attack on her Khartoum home. She remembers only one moment from that day in February: her two older daughters, aged 10 and 12, laughing as they planned what birthday gift to buy their baby sister Zeinab. The shell killed her husband and her two older daughters instantly. Shrapnel tore through Ageb’s body, and left her 8-year-old Zeinab severely wounded: the blast scarred half her face and took her right eye, which she now replaces with a prosthetic glass eye. “If it wasn’t for Zeinab I wouldn’t want to live. She’s always calling for her sisters and father,” Ageb said, wiping away tears as her daughter, wearing a Frozen character necklace, held up a shy drawing for reporters while a doctor treated her lingering wounds. Friends and relatives have pooled what money they could to cover Zeinab’s ongoing surgeries, but more funds are needed, and Ageb has no way to pay for the care her daughter requires.

    Even aid workers who spent years supporting their communities have not escaped the war’s harm. Tariq Abuzeid, a 52-year-old construction worker, had long run volunteer soup kitchens out of his Khartoum home, raising funds to feed hungry neighbors and distribute life-saving medicine to the sick. When the war reached the capital, he never stopped his work delivering aid to trapped civilians. In December 2023, he was caught in intense shelling just after distributing food to a neighborhood. The blast cost him his right leg. Now, surrounded by his family, Abuzeid struggles to accept his new reality. “I used to serve people. … Now I feel like I am a burden,” he said, his voice breaking. The blast caused severe bleeding that damaged his immune system, and he takes dozens of pills every day just to manage constant pain. Accessing a properly fitted prosthetic and a sturdy wheelchair remains nearly impossible in war-torn Khartoum. Even so, he has not quit his volunteer work: large metal cooking bowls still stack in his yard as he prepares the next meal for his hungry neighbors.

    For a 50-year-old mother who fled the besieged town of Dilling in South Kordofan with her two adult daughters last July, the war brought unfathomable sexual violence, a horror the United Nations has called one of the defining characteristics of the Sudan conflict. Driven from their home by extreme hunger, the family was abducted by RSF fighters while fleeing. Bound hand and foot with their faces covered, they were driven for hours to a makeshift desert base where more than a dozen other women were being held. For months, the woman was regularly beaten and gang-raped until she was badly injured. Every night, she would cringe in fear as fighters walked through the holding area, picking which women they would take. When fighters came for her daughters, aged 20 and 25, she begged them to take her instead. One night, when the base was nearly empty, she managed to escape into the desert with her daughters. Terrified, starving and weak, they walked for days before finding safety in a neighboring town. The RSF has not responded to requests for comment on the allegations. Now staying at a women’s support center in Khartoum, the woman says doctors have told her the injuries from her assault are so severe she will need a hysterectomy. In a country torn apart by war, even this life-saving care remains out of reach.

    This reporting is part of AP’s Africa Pulse coverage, supported by funding from the Gates Foundation, with the AP retaining full editorial independence over all content.

  • US sanctions Rwanda gold refinery accused of smuggling DR Congo’s minerals

    US sanctions Rwanda gold refinery accused of smuggling DR Congo’s minerals

    In a significant step targeting what it calls illicit cross-border mineral trade tied to armed unrest, the United States has announced sweeping sanctions against Rwanda’s leading gold processing facility, Gasabo Gold Refinery, alongside two of its top executives. The action, unveiled Thursday, stems from long-running accusations that the Rwandan-linked network is collaborating with the M23 rebel movement that controls large mineral-rich territories in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

    Washington claims the network moving illicit minerals to Gasabo works in tandem with M23, which holds swathes of eastern DRC home to massive deposits of gold and coltan — a critical raw material for consumer and industrial electronics manufacturing. The US Treasury’s allegation further claims that Rwandan government officials and military personnel directly oversee this smuggling operation, with at least 60 kilograms of gold worth millions of US dollars illegally trafficked from eastern DRC to Gasabo Gold Refinery in the first months of 2026.

    Rwanda has consistently rejected international claims that it provides military and logistical support to M23, even as multiple independent investigations from United Nations experts and other bodies have produced substantial evidence to the contrary. While the Rwandan government has not yet issued an official response to the latest US sanctions, it has previously characterized similar punitive measures as unfair, one-sided actions targeting the country. Three additional mining firms controlled by Gasabo chairman Jean Malic Kalima — Bugambira Mines, Wolfram Mining and Processing, and Rwinkwavu Mining Corporation — were also added to the US sanctions list alongside the refinery, Kalima himself, and chief executive Bosco Kayobotsi.

    This is not the first international action against Gasabo Gold Refinery: the European Union already blacklisted the facility last year over accusations it profits from the armed conflict in eastern DRC. None of the parties sanctioned this week have responded to requests for comment from the BBC. Under the terms of the new US sanctions, any assets held by the designated entities and individuals within US jurisdiction will be immediately frozen, and all commercial transactions between American citizens or companies and the sanctioned parties are prohibited.

    “The United States will not allow rogue groups to profit from the illicit mineral trade and destabilise the region,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an official statement announcing the measures. “The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s mineral wealth rightfully belongs to the Congolese people.”

    The sanctions come against the backdrop of a December 2024 peace deal brokered by the US between the presidents of Rwanda and the DRC. That agreement was designed to end decades of persistent armed conflict in eastern DRC and build a more transparent, accountable regional mineral sector. Many industry and policy analysts believe the Trump administration also sees enhanced regional stability as a pathway to increasing American investment in the DRC’s vast critical mineral reserves, which are central to global supply chains for clean energy technology and electronics.

    Despite the signing of the high-profile peace deal, large-scale fighting has continued across eastern DRC. Just one day before the sanctions were announced, senior officials from Rwanda, the DRC, and the US held a follow-up summit to review implementation of the agreement, and issued a joint statement acknowledging “serious concern over the escalating fighting” in the region.

  • A Moroccan court sentences 29 prominent people in major drug trafficking and corruption case

    A Moroccan court sentences 29 prominent people in major drug trafficking and corruption case

    A high-profile international drug trafficking and corruption scandal that has shaken Morocco’s political establishment has concluded with a Moroccan court issuing prison sentences to 29 people, counting among them senior politicians, well-known sports leaders, and prominent business figures.

    The ruling, delivered late Thursday following a trial that stretched more than two years, also mandated the defendants pay hundreds of millions of dollars in combined fines. The sprawling case traces its origins to allegations from a jailed incarcerated drug kingpin commonly known as “Sahara’s Pablo Escobar” — a nickname tying him to the infamous Colombian drug trafficker. Hadj Ahmed Ben Brahim, a Malian national already behind bars, claimed that a network of his former business associates, including senior Moroccan political figures, participated in his international trafficking operations before illegally seizing his assets while he was in prison. All accused individuals have consistently denied all charges brought against them.

    The 30-defendant trial, which drew testimony from 18 witnesses and included two civil parties, sparked widespread public outcry after the initial allegations came to light, and reenergized long-simmering national debates about systemic corruption within Moroccan political circles. The fallout even prompted a rare public intervention from King Mohammed VI, Morocco’s head of state who is officially positioned above day-to-day partisan politics and rarely addresses public controversies. The king called for the adoption of a legally binding parliamentary ethics code designed to “moralize” public life in the nation’s legislative body.

    Among the highest-profile convictions is that of Abdennebi Bioui, a powerful construction tycoon and former lawmaker with the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) — Morocco’s co-governing political party — who also previously led a regional governing council. Bioui was handed a 12-year prison sentence and ordered to pay an individual fine of nearly $16,000. Two other former PAM lawmakers, both former presidents of top Moroccan soccer clubs, also received heavy sentences: Said Naciri, former president of powerhouse club Wydad AC, and Belkacem Mir, another ex-club leader, each received 10-year prison terms.

    The remaining 26 convicted defendants received sentences ranging up to nine years in prison, with individual fines capped at just over $26,600. One defendant was cleared of all charges and acquitted. Convictions covered a broad range of offenses, including international drug and gold trafficking, political corruption, document forgery, and violations of national exchange control regulations. Legal teams for the convicted have confirmed they plan to file appeals of the court’s ruling, as allowed under Moroccan law.

    In addition to fines and prison time, the court ordered the seizure of convicted defendants’ assets — including those of Bioui, Naciri, and Mir — capped at a total of $1 million. The three high-profile former lawmakers were also ordered to jointly pay more than $106,000 in damages to Ben Brahim, and together hold responsibility for the hundreds of millions of dollars in financial penalties owed to Moroccan customs authorities. Local media reports confirm that state prosecutors had requested convictions for all 30 defendants and full asset seizure ahead of the ruling.

    Chaos erupted in the packed Casablanca courtroom immediately after the judge finished reading the sentences, as shouts of protest rang out from the defendants’ holding area. Multiple convicted men yelled claims of innocence, with shouting escalating into scenes of panic and grief among supporters. Relatives of the defendants screamed, several people collapsed on the courtroom floor, and others wept openly as police moved through the crowd to reestablish order.

    Court documents presented by prosecutors outline that Ben Brahim first accused his former partners of running a cross-border gold trafficking network alongside drug operations. The Paris-based outlet Jeune Afrique further reported that Ben Brahim’s criminal partnership with Moroccan political figures centered on moving cannabis resin to consumer markets across Libya, Egypt, and Mauritania.

    Morocco holds the distinction of being one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of hashish, a cannabis derivative. While the North African nation recently moved to legalize cannabis cultivation strictly for medical and industrial uses, illegal drug trafficking remains a deeply rooted criminal industry in the country. Morocco’s geographic proximity to Europe has long made it a key transit hub for traffickers moving narcotics across the Mediterranean into European consumer markets.

  • China-Zimbabwe health partnership delivers new hope to patients

    China-Zimbabwe health partnership delivers new hope to patients

    Across Zimbabwe, thousands of people living with chronic pain, life-threatening acute conditions, and treatment-resistant illnesses are finding new hope through a decades-long health partnership between China and Zimbabwe, centered on expanding access to both traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and cutting-edge modern medical technologies.

    At the Zimbabwe-China Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture Center based at Harare’s Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, the nation’s top public referral institution, the 10-member 23rd Chinese medical team has built a reputation for life-saving care and transformative treatment. Led by Ma Zheng, a public health specialist from China’s Hunan Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the team draws on cross-disciplinary expertise from leading Hunan hospitals to treat an average of 30 patients daily, combining TCM practices with modern critical care techniques.

    Stories of dramatic recoveries have spread far beyond Harare’s city limits, drawing patients from hundreds of kilometers across all 10 of Zimbabwe’s provinces, many traveling for more than six hours to access care the center provides. One of the team’s most notable achievements involved rescuing an elderly HIV-positive patient who had developed multiple organ failure stemming from acute heart failure and cardiogenic shock. Local clinicians had been unable to secure venous access after the patient’s peripheral veins collapsed from widespread swelling, but coordinated multidisciplinary emergency intervention from the Chinese team stabilized the patient and pulled him back from the brink of death.

    In another high-stakes case, the team rapidly treated a patient with an acute ischemic stroke within the critical 4.5-hour window that determines long-term outcomes, preventing permanent disability and adding another success story to the growing list of results that have built public trust in Chinese medical expertise among Zimbabweans.

    For patients living with chronic pain that has resisted conventional Zimbabwean healthcare treatments, TCM practices including acupuncture, cupping, moxibustion, massage, and herbal medicine have delivered life-changing relief. Revayi Roselinah Chaitezvi, a Chitungwiza resident who lived with disabling back pain for five years, saw her symptoms subside dramatically after just three acupuncture sessions. For 27-year-old Jomarie Nhari, persistent shoulder pain and muscle strain that failed to respond to expensive conventional physiotherapy also improved dramatically after acupuncture, exceeding all her expectations. Sixty-one-year-old Ivy Gundam, who lives with high blood pressure and chronic knee pain, now says acupuncture has let her regain control of her daily life after years of being limited by discomfort.

    Beyond direct patient care, the partnership is driving long-term progress for Zimbabwe’s entire healthcare system. The Chinese team has introduced advanced neuromodulation technologies—including deep brain stimulation and spinal cord stimulation—for the first time in the country, allowing local clinicians to treat Parkinson’s disease, severe neuralgia, and spinal cord injuries that once required patients to travel abroad for costly care. The team also plans to roll out affordable, easy-to-use rapid multiplex detection testing that can screen for HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis B in a single test, a tool ideal for grassroots community outreach. Regular training programs for local doctors and nurses are also building local capacity to diagnose and manage infectious diseases, creating sustainable skills that extend beyond the team’s deployment.

    The work of the medical team has also inspired a new generation of Zimbabwean healthcare workers to carry TCM practice forward across the country. Charlotte Muziri, a former Miss Zimbabwe Queen and University of Zimbabwe graduate, first connected with the team when her father had a stroke in 2017, and the successful treatment restored hope to her entire family. Today, she volunteers as a trainee at the center and plans to pursue advanced medical studies in China. Munashe Mboneka, one of Zimbabwe’s first locally trained TCM practitioners, completed specialized training in Hunan province in 2022 and now works full-time at the center, where patient demand consistently outstrips available capacity. “The Chinese doctors have become a beacon of hope for Zimbabweans who had exhausted other treatment options,” Mboneka said.

    In addition to fixed care at the Harare center, the team regularly hosts mobile outreach camps across remote rural communities, providing free consultations, acupuncture treatment, disease screening, and health education to thousands of people who would otherwise lack access to these services.

    This current chapter of collaboration builds on a health partnership that stretches back more than 40 years. China first sent medical teams to Zimbabwe in 1985, and has since supported the construction of major public healthcare facilities including Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital and the Mahusekwa China-Zimbabwe Friendship Hospital. Today, the partnership’s impact is measured not just in infrastructure and technology transfer, but in the thousands of lives saved, chronic pain relieved, and hope restored for Zimbabweans who had nowhere else to turn for care.

  • ‘We could call it racist’ – Ivory Coast boss sad at Schweinsteiger comments

    ‘We could call it racist’ – Ivory Coast boss sad at Schweinsteiger comments

    A major controversy has erupted around the 2026 FIFA World Cup after Ivory Coast men’s national team manager Emerse Fae accused former Germany international midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger of making potentially racist comments about African football, in the wake of the Elephants’ historic first-ever qualification to the World Cup knockout stage.

    Schweinsteiger, the 2014 World Cup winner with Germany, made the remarks while working as a pundit for German public broadcaster ARD ahead of Germany’s Group E clash against Ivory Coast on June 20. When asked to break down Ivorian playing style, the former Bayern Munich star described the side as playing “a bit African football”, adding it was “a bit unorthodox, a bit wild, a bit perhaps also not so conditioned by tactics” and warned Germany to prepare for their unpredictable approach.

    Those comments drew sharp criticism from Fae after his side secured their spot in the round of 32 with a 2-0 victory over Curacao in Philadelphia on Thursday, which locked in second place in Group E behind Germany. Speaking to reporters after the historic result, the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations-winning manager said he was deeply disappointed by Schweinsteiger’s words, arguing they reflected outdated, harmful stereotypes about African soccer.

    “Schweinsteiger was a very good player; I have always loved him as a midfielder and the way he understood football,” Fae told journalists. “When I heard his comments, I was disappointed in the man. It is odd he would speak that way. We could call it racist, if we were calling a spade a spade. I don’t agree with him, but I have no other solution other than to work with things as they are. All I can show is that on the pitch African teams are not just physical, we are technical and tactical. I can only hope it is a clumsy statement, rather than something going on in his mind. If that’s what he thinks, he is free to do so.”

    Fae also suggested the remarks may have been a deliberate attempt to stir controversy and grab headlines, rather than an offhand mistake. The comments have already sparked debate across German media, with high-profile football figure Jurgen Klopp, former Liverpool manager, declining to weigh in on the dispute when asked during a World Cup appearance in New York on Wednesday.

    “Now you want to carry on the subject. No, no, I have no chance. I have no chance to answer this question,” Klopp told reporters. “Everybody likes it so you bring me in this situation. It’s not my job that everybody likes it, but this is a serious subject, and I don’t even know what is appropriate to say. For African people it’s one thing, for other people it’s another thing, and I’m not here.”

    Despite falling 2-1 to Germany in their final group stage match, Ivory Coast secured their knockout place with earlier wins over Ecuador and Curacao. The Elephants will face either Group F winners France or runners-up Norway in their first knockout round match on June 30 in Arlington, Texas, as they chase further history at this expanded 48-team World Cup.

  • Ivory Coast coach slams ‘racist’ comments made by former Germany star Bastian Schweinsteiger

    Ivory Coast coach slams ‘racist’ comments made by former Germany star Bastian Schweinsteiger

    Ahead of a high-stakes World Cup meeting between Germany and Ivory Coast last weekend, former German international midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger drew sharp condemnation this week for generalized, stereotype-laden remarks about the African side, with Ivory Coast’s head coach Emerse Faé labeling the comments outright racist.

    Speaking on German public broadcaster ARD as part of pre-match analysis, Schweinsteiger framed what he claimed German players should expect from their upcoming opponent. Describing Ivory Coast’s playing style as “a bit African football, a bit unorthodox, a bit wild, a bit perhaps also not so conditioned by tactics,” he warned the German squad to prepare for an unpredictable matchup.

    The controversy erupted days later, after Faé guided his squad to a historic milestone: a 2-0 victory over Curaçao that secured Ivory Coast’s first-ever spot in the World Cup knockout round in the nation’s history. In his post-match press conference, Faé addressed the widespread criticism of Schweinsteiger’s words, breaking his silence to share his frank perspective.

    Faé acknowledged that the comment could be interpreted as a clumsy misstep that does not fully represent Schweinsteiger’s personal views, but added: “We could call it racist, if we were calling a spade a spade.”

    Schweinsteiger’s remarks had already faced public backlash earlier in the week from sports journalists and commentators, who argued that the description played into long-standing harmful racial stereotypes about African football. German sports commentator Patrick Schnitzler wrote on Instagram that the line reflected “racist prejudices that we are all passing on unnoticed.” Black German journalist Philipp Awounou, writing for Der Spiegel, noted that the characterization leaned on outdated racist tropes with roots in European colonialism, though he added that he did not believe Schweinsteiger himself holds intentional racist views.

    Faé pushed back against the stereotype that Ivory Coast relies only on physicality rather than structured strategy, emphasizing that his side’s run to the knockout round came from a equal mix of tactical intelligence, intentional preparation, and physical strength. He also questioned whether the former player leaned on the familiar harmful trope to generate attention for his new broadcasting career.

    “When I heard his comment, I was disappointed,” Faé said. “Disappointed in the man. It is odd he would speak that way.”