Protesters gather tires to add to the fires set during a rally against the military coup Saturday, March 27, 2021, in Tarmwe township in Yangon, Myanmar. The head of Myanmar’s junta on Saturday used the occasion of the country’s Armed Forces Day to try to justify the overthrow of the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, as protesters marked the holiday by calling for even bigger demonstrations. (AP Photo) YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — As Myanmar’s military celebrated the annual Armed Forces Day holiday with a parade Saturday in the country’s capital, soldiers and police elsewhere reportedly killed dozens of people as they suppressed protests in the deadliest bloodletting since last month’s coup. The online news site Myanmar Now reported late Saturday that the death toll had reached 114. A count issued by an independent researcher in Yangon who has been compiling near-real time death tolls put the total at 107, spread over more than two dozen cities and towns. Both numbers are higher than all estimates for the previous high on March 14, which ranged in counts from 74 to 90. Figures collected by the researcher, who asked not to be named for his security, have generally tallied with the counts issued at the end of each day by the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners, which documents deaths and arrests and is widely seen as a definitive source. The Associated Press is unable to independently confirm the death tolls. The killings quickly drew international condemnation, with multiple diplomatic missions to Myanmar releasing statements that mentioned the killing of civilians Saturday, including children. “This 76th Myanmar armed forces day will stay engraved as a day of terror and dishonour,” the European Union’s delegation to Myanmar said on Twitter. “The killing of unarmed civilians, including children, are indefensible acts.” U.S. Ambassador Thomas Vajda in a statement said “security forces are murdering unarmed civilians.” “These are not the actions of a professional military or police force,” he wrote. “Myanmar’s people have spoken clearly: they do not want to live under military rule.” The death toll in Myanmar has been steadily rising as authorities grow more forceful with their suppression of opposition to the Feb. 1 coup that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. The coup reversed years of progress toward democracy after five decades of military rule. Up through Friday, the Association of Political Prisoners had verified 328 people killed in the post-coup crackdown. Junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing did not directly refer to the protest movement when he gave his nationally televised Armed Forces Day speech before thousands of soldiers in Naypyitaw. He referred only to “terrorism which can be harmful to state tranquility and social security,” and called it unacceptable. This year’s event was seen as a flashpoint for violence, with demonstrators threatening to double down on their public opposition to the coup with more and bigger demonstrations. The protesters refer to the holiday by its original name, Resistance Day, which marks the beginning of a revolt against Japanese occupation in World War 2. State television MRTV on Friday night showed an announcement urging young people — who have been at the forefront of the protests and prominent among the casualties — to learn a lesson from those killed during demonstrations about the danger of being shot in the head or back. The warning was widely taken as a threat because a great number of the fatalities among protesters have come from being shot in the head, suggesting they have been targeted for death. The announcement suggested that some young people were taking part in protesting as if it was a game, and urged their parents and friends to talk them out of participating. In recent days the junta has portrayed the demonstrators as the ones perpetrating violence for their sporadic use of Molotov cocktails. On Saturday, some protesters in Yangon were seen carrying bows and arrows. In contrast, security forces have used live ammunition for weeks against what have still been overwhelmingly unarmed and peaceful crowds. The U.S. Embassy said shots were fired Saturday at its cultural center in Yangon, though no one was injured. The military government does not issue regular casualty counts, and when it has released figures, the totals have been a fraction of what independent parties such as the U.N. have reported. It has said its use of force has been justified to stop what it has called rioting. In his speech Saturday, Min Aung Hlaing used the occasion to try to justify the overthrow of Suu Kyi’s government, accusing it of failing to investigate irregularities in last November’s general election, and repeating that his government would hold “a free and fair election” and hand over power afterward. The military has claimed there were irregularities in the voting rolls for the last election, which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won in a landslide. The junta detained Suu Kyi on the day it took power, and continues to hold her on minor criminal charges while investigating allegations of corruption against her that her supporters dismiss as politically motivated. Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for New York-based Human Rights Watch, said Saturday’s events showed that the military, known in Myanmar as the Tatmadaw, should be prosecuted in international courts of law. “This is a day of suffering and mourning for the Burmese people, who have paid for the Tatmadaw’s arrogance and greed with their lives, time and time again,” he said. © copyright 2021 The Associated Press

H&M, Nike, Adidas and other brands are caught in a spiraling conflict over allegations of forced labor in the production of cotton in China's Xinjiang region. China stepped up pressure Monday on foreign shoe and clothing brands to reject reports of abuses in Xinjiang, telling companies that are targeted by Beijing for boycotts to look more closely and pointing to a statement by one that it found no forced labor. H&M, Nike, Adidas and other brands are caught in a spiraling conflict over Xinjiang after Western governments imposed sanctions on Chinese officials accused of abuses. State media called for a boycott of H&M for saying it would no longer use cotton from Xinjiang and are criticizing other brands for expressing concern about reports of forced labor. “When the stick of sanctions is brandished on Xinjiang, it will also hit your own head,” a spokesman for the Xinjiang regional government, Xu Guixiang, said at a news conference in Beijing. More than 1 million Uyghur Muslims are believed to be held in internment camps in the region where they are forced to study Marxism, renounce their religion, work in factories and face abuse, according to human rights groups and first-hand accounts from Uyghurs. Beijing refers to the centers as "re-education camps" and says they provide vocational training and are necessary to fight extremism. The U.S. has labeled China's practices in the area "genocide," which Beijing rejects. H&M should “look into this matter seriously,” Xu said. The attacks began when the ruling party’s Youth League publicized H&M’s statement last Wednesday. State TV called for a boycott of the Swedish retailer. Official media have criticized Nike, Adidas, Uniqlo and Burberry for expressing concern about reports of forced labor in Xinjiang. That came after United States, the 27-nation European Union, Britain and Canada on March 22 announced travel and financial sanctions on four Chinese officials accused of abuses. Beijing has retaliated by announcing similar penalties against European and British officials, legislators and researchers. H&M goods have disappeared from major Chinese e-commerce platforms but on Monday the other brands still were available. The smartphone apps for H&M, Adidas and Nike were missing Monday from major Chinese app stores. The Communist Party often pressures foreign clothing, travel and other brands over actions by their governments or to compel them to adopt its positions on Taiwan, Tibet and other sensitive issues. Most comply because China is one of the biggest, fastest-growing markets for global fashion, electronics and other consumer brands. Another government spokesman, Elijan Anayat, pointed to a statement by athletic shoe brand Skechers USA, Inc., that it failed to find evidence to support a report by an Australian think tank that one of its Chinese suppliers might use forced labor. The supplier, Dong Guan Lu Zhou Shoes, confirmed some of its workforce are Uyghurs but said they are free to leave, according to Skechers. It said the company has conducted multiple audits of the supplier since 2017 and has “no reason to believe that Lu Zhou is using any forced labor.” “I believe they will be appreciated by Chinese customers and win greater (market) shares,” Elijan Anayat said. H&M’s statement last March cited a decision by the Better Cotton Initiative, an industry group that promotes labor and environmental standards, to stop licensing cotton from Xinjiang because it was difficult to trace how it was produced. Japanese retailer MUJI and South Korean-owned athletic shoe maker FILA say will keep buying cotton from Xinjiang. FILA China said last week it started the process of withdrawing from the BCI. © The Associated Press and NBC News, 2021

Clashes between Arabs and non-Arabs in Darfur kill at least 40 credit: Daily Sabah By SAMY MAGDY CAIRO — Tribal clashes that erupted over the weekend between Arabs and non-Arabs in Sudan’s western Darfur region have killed at least 40 people and wounded around 60 others, the U.N. said Monday. The violence was between the Arab Rizeigat and the Masalit tribes in Genena, the provincial capital of West Darfur province. It happened after unknown armed men on Saturday shot dead two people from the Masalit, according to the U.N. humanitarian affairs agency. Two others from the Masalit were wounded in that shooting, it said. The circumstances of the shootings were not immediately clear. Since then, the two tribes have mobilized forces and gunfire could still be heard in Genena late Monday, the U.N. said. Authorities declared a state of emergency in West Darfur. Adam Regal, a spokesman for a local organization that helps run refugee camps in Darfur, said a shell hit a camp for displaced people in Genena on Monday, causing a fire that burned several houses. He shared video footage showing flames and thick clouds of black smoke. “The situation is very difficult and grave,” he said. The Sudanese doctors’ committee in West Darfur said armed men also opened fire on an ambulance late Sunday, wounding three health care workers. Dr. Ibrahim Adam Othman, a member of the committer, said the death toll could be much higher because many were not able to reach hospitals. The U.N. said all humanitarian activities were suspended as roads around the southern part of Genena were blocked. It said more than 700,000 people have been affected by the clashes, since Genena serves as a hub for aid delivery to the conflict-wrecked region. An unknown number of people fled their homes in Hay al-Jabal and al-Jamarik neighborhoods in Genena and took refuge in nearby mosques and public buildings, the U.N. agency added. West Darfur Gov. Mohammed Abdalla al-Duma said in a statement that officials were taking “necessary measures” without elaborating. He urged residents in Genena to stay vigilant and remain at home until security forces contain the situation. The clashes posed a challenge to efforts by Sudan’s transitional government to end decades-long rebellions in areas like Darfur. Earlier this year, tribal violence in West Darfur and South Darfur provinces killed around 470 people. It also displaced more than 120,000 people, mostly women and children, including at least 4,300 who crossed into neighboring Chad, according to the U.N. Sudan is on a fragile path to democracy after a popular uprising led the military to overthrow longtime autocratic President Omar al-Bashir in April 2019. A military-civilian government now rules the country, trying to end decades-long rebellions in various parts of the country, like the Darfur region. The Darfur conflict broke out when rebels from the territory’s ethnic central and sub-Saharan African community launched an insurgency in 2003, complaining of oppression by the Arab-dominated government in the capital Khartoum. Al-Bashir’s government responded with a scorched-earth campaign of aerial bombings and unleashed militias known as janjaweed who are accused of mass killings and rapes. Up to 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million were driven from their homes. The International Criminal Court charged al-Bashir, who has been in jail in Khartoum since his 2019 ouster, with war crimes and genocide for allegedly masterminding the campaign of attacks in Darfur. © Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

By NOHA ELHENNAWY CAIRO (AP) — The death toll from tribal violence in Sudan’s restive Darfur region has climbed to 132 as looting continued on Thursday, a local Sudanese local official said. The violence poses a challenge to efforts by Sudan’s transitional government to end decades-long rebellions in areas like Darfur, where conflict often falls along ethnic lines. The latest clashes grew out of a shooting on Saturday that killed two people from the Masalit tribe in a camp for displaced people in Genena, the capital of West Darfur province, the U.N said earlier. Fighting ensued between the Rizeigat and the Masalit tribes, with both mobilizing armed men and prompting authorities to declare a state of emergency in West Darfur. Governor of West Darfur Mohamed Abdullah al-Doma said that along with 132 people killed, at least 208 have been wounded. “I want to commend West Darfour, namely Genena residents, for their endurance of very hard circumstances two days ago when shells and bullets were flying everywhere,” Doma told reporters at a news conference in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum. He added that the shooting has now stopped but that looting continues on the edges of the province. Also Thursday, António Vitorino, head of the International Organization for Migration, condemned the latest escalation of violence in Genena, stressing concerns over reports of attacks on women and children, as well as humanitarian facilities. Earlier this year, tribal violence in West Darfur and South Darfur provinces killed around 470 people. It also displaced more than 120,000, mostly women and children, including at least 4,300 who crossed into neighboring Chad, according to the U.N. Sudan is on a fragile path to democracy after a popular uprising led the military to overthrow longtime autocratic President Omar al-Bashir in April 2019. A military-civilian government now rules the country. Doma blamed the violence on “well-known militias” that were trained and armed by al-Bashir’s government. They have not been disbanded or disarmed, and seize any tribal conflict to kill and steal, he said, adding that Chadian militias had crossed into Darfur and engaged in this latest episode of violence. He did not elaborate on his claim and there was no immediate comment from Chad. The Darfur conflict broke out when rebels from the territory’s ethnic central and sub-Saharan African community launched an insurgency in 2003, complaining of oppression by the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum. Al-Bashir’s government responded with a scorched-earth campaign of aerial bombings and unleashed militias known as janjaweed who are accused of mass killings and rapes. Up to 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million were driven from their homes. The International Criminal Court charged al-Bashir, who has been in jail in Khartoum since his 2019 ouster, with war crimes and genocide for allegedly masterminding the campaign of attacks in Darfur. Doma, the West Darfur governor, criticized the central government in Khartoum for not heeding his calls for reinforcements in Darfur. “More forces should be sent over because the local ones do not have the resources to handle the situation,” Doma said. “Darfur citizens are left on their own to face their destiny.” © Copyright 2021 The Associated Press

FILE-In this file Jan. 25, 2017 file photo, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, center, the leader of the ruling Law and Justice party, speaks with lawmakers in parliament in Warsaw, Poland. Kaczynski faced accusations on Wednesday Feb. 22, 2017 of sing offensive and divisive language for saying that members of his ruling party are "benevolent masters," contrasting them with oppositions politicians whom he described as not being "masters" at all. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz,file) Associated PressFebruary 22, 2017 WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The leader of Poland's ruling party faced accusations that he used offensive and divisive language when he said Wednesday that members of his ruling party are "humane masters." The language evoked a time when Polish society was divided between serfs and their masters, or lords. Some critics even said it was reminiscent of Nazi phraseology. Jaroslaw Kaczynski made his comments Wednesday as he argued in parliament that his ruling Law and Justice party has behaved better during its time in power than the previous governing party, Civic Platform. He said his party leaders did not use force to solve a crisis in parliament in December even though they could have. An opposition lawmaker sarcastically yelled to him: "Humane masters!" Kaczynski replied: "We are humane masters because we are masters, unlike some others." Civic Platform leader Grzegorz Schetyna said Kaczynski's words carried the "worst historical connections," implying notions of "a nation of masters and a master race." Kaczynski, who heads a populist and nationalist party, has also caused controversy in the past with language considered divisive by his critics. He has called the Poles who protest his government "Poles of the worst sort."In 2015 he warned that migrants arriving in Europe were dangerous because they carry "parasites and protozoa." Some critics said Kaczynski's comment Wednesday reminded them of the kind of language used by the Nazis. Tomasz Lis, the editor of Poland's Newsweek, asked on Twitter: "What's next? Das Herrenvolk? Uebermensch? Gott mit uns?" Herrenvolk ("master race") and Uebermensch ("superman") were concepts central to Adolf Hitler's racist ideology. "Gott mit uns" ("God is with us") is an older Prussian expression also used by the Nazis. (c) Associated Press 2017

The atrocities have been seared into the skin and the minds of Tigrayans, who take shelter by the thousands within sight of the homeland they fled in northern Ethiopia. They arrive in heat that soars above 38 C (100 F), carrying the pain of gunshot wounds, torn vaginas, welts on beaten backs. Less visible are the horrors that jolt them awake at night: Memories of dozens of bodies strewn on riverbanks. Fighters raping a woman one by one for speaking her own language. A child, weakened by hunger, left behind. Now, for the first time, they also bring proof of an official attempt at what is being called ethnic cleansing in the form of a new identity card that eliminates all traces of Tigray, as confirmed to The Associated Press by nine refugees from different communities. Written in a language not their own, issued by authorities from another ethnic group, the ID cards are the latest evidence of a systematic drive by the Ethiopian government and its allies to destroy the Tigrayan people. The Amhara authorities now in charge of the nearby city of Humera took Seid Mussa Omar’s original ID card displaying his Tigrayan identity and burned it, the soft-spoken nurse said. On his new card examined by the AP, issued in January with the Amharic language, an Amhara stamp and a border of tiny hearts, even the word Tigray had vanished. “I kept it to show the world,” Seid said. He added that only 10 Tigrayans remained of the roughly 400 who worked at the hospital where he had been employed, the rest killed or fleeing. “This is genocide … Their aim is to erase Tigray.” What started as a political dispute in one of Africa’s most powerful and populous countries has turned into a campaign of ethnic cleansing against minority Tigrayans, according to AP interviews with 30 refugees in Sudan and dozens more by phone, along with international experts. The Ethiopian government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Abiy Ahmed is accused of teaming up with his ethnic group — his mother was Amhara — and soldiers from neighboring Eritrea to punish around 6 million people. Witnesses say they have split much of Tigray between them, with the Amhara in the west and Eritrean forces in the east. Ethiopia claims that life in Tigray is returning to normal, and Abiy has called the conflict “tiresome.” But the refugees the AP spoke with, including some who arrived just hours before, said abuses were still occurring. Almost all described killings, often of multiple people, rapes and the looting and burning of crops that without massive food aid could tip the region into starvation. For months, the people of Tigray have been largely sealed off from the world, with electricity and telecommunication access severed and mobile phones often seized, leaving little to back up their claims of thousands, even tens of thousands, killed. That has begun to change. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken asserted last month that “ethnic cleansing” has taken place in western Tigray, marking the first time a top official in the international community has openly described the situation as such. The term refers to forcing a population from a region through expulsions and other violence, often including killings and rapes. Refugees told the AP that Amhara authorities and allied forces in western Tigray have taken over whole communities, ordering Tigrayans out or rounding them up. A refugee from Humera, Goitom Hagos, said he saw thousands of Tigrayans loaded into trucks and doesn’t know what happened to them. The Amhara now control some government offices in western Tigray and decide who belongs — and even whether Tigrayans exist at all. Some were ordered to accept the Amhara identity or leave, and others were told to leave anyway, the refugees said. Lemlem Gebrehiwet was forced to flee while heavily pregnant and gave birth three days after reaching Sudan. She recalled the new authorities telling her, “This is Amhara.” Shy, her baby girl waiting, she struggled to comprehend. “Maybe we did something wrong.” Seid, the nurse, fled Humera early in the conflict after his hospital came under heavy shelling, with the wounded carried in screaming and colleagues killed. He returned in January in the hope that conditions had improved, as Abiy’s government promised. They hadn’t. His home had been looted, and the remaining Tigrayans had shrunk to a quiet population of the elderly, women and children who were discouraged from speaking their own language, Tigrinya. At the hospital, Tigrayans had to pay for care, unlike the Amhara. Anyone who came was allowed to speak Amharic only. Tigrayan staffers weren’t paid, and every night there was gunfire. Ten days after returning to the hospital, Seid left for Sudan. Now, at this dusty post, refugees pass blazing days sprawled on plastic mats under shelters of woven straw. They stay perilously close to the border in the hope that missing loved ones will emerge from Tigray. The conflict began in November as a political clash of past and present, with all of Ethiopia arguably at stake. Tigray leaders had dominated the country’s government for nearly three decades, creating a system of ethnic-based regional states. But when Abiy took office in 2018, he moved to centralize power. He sidelined the Tigray leaders and made peace with Eritrea after years of war, earning a Nobel Peace Prize. After last year’s election was delayed, the defiant Tigray leaders viewed Abiy’s mandate as illegal and held their own vote. The government then opened a military offensive, saying Tigray forces had attacked a military base. “The federal government is trying to be king. We Tigrayans refuse,” said one refugee, Nega Chekole. In response to allegations that the Amhara are ordering Tigrayans to leave and issuing new ID cards, the spokeswoman for the prime minister’s office, Billene Seyoum, said the area is under a provisional administration “who are all from the region.” The Ethiopian government says it rejects “any and all notions and practices of ethnic cleansing” and will never tolerate such practices, “nor will it turn a blind eye to such crimes.” However, almost everyone the AP interviewed said they had watched fellow Tigrayans being killed or seen bodies on the ground. In her town of more than a dozen ethnic groups, Belaynesh Beyene was dealt a ghastly lesson in just how little Tigrayans suddenly were worth. In the early days of the fighting, she said she saw 24 bodies in the streets of Dansha in western Tigray. The 58-year-old grandmother and other residents were prevented from burying them by the Amhara youth militia, a practice that witnesses across Tigray have reported as an added insult to grief. The practice applies only to Tigrayan corpses. “They accidentally killed an ethnic Oromo in a Tigrayan household,” she said. “When they realized their ‘mistake,’ they came and buried him.” A spokesman for the Amhara regional government, Gizachew Muluneh, didn’t answer questions from the AP. The Amhara have said they are taking back land they claim belongs to them. Soldiers from Eritrea, long an enemy of Tigray’s now-fugitive leaders, have also been blamed for some of the worst human rights abuses. Under pressure, Abiy said last month the soldiers will leave, after long denying their presence. Hiwot Hadush, a teacher from Zalambessa, said scores of people were killed after the Eritreans went house to house, opening fire. “Even if someone was dead, they shot them again, dozens of times. I saw this,” she said. “I saw many bodies, even priests. They killed all Tigrayans.” In another border community, Irob, furniture maker Awalom Mebrahtom described hiding and watching Eritrean soldiers order 18 Tigrayans, mostly young men like him, to lie in a remote field. They were shot to death. The killings continue. In early March, after months on the run, 30-year-old Alem Mebrahtu attempted a desperate crossing of the Tekeze river. Separated from her three small children in the early chaos of the conflict, she had heard they were in Sudan. Sympathetic women from the Wolkait ethnic group pleaded with Eritrean soldiers near the river to let Alem cross, while urging her to pretend to be Wolkait, too. It worked, but she saw a grim reminder of what could have happened if she had failed. Bodies lay scattered near the riverbank, she said. She estimated around 50 corpses. “Some were face-down. Some were looking up at the sky,” she said. Exhaustion still pressed deep under her eyes, Alem started to cry. There by the river, confronted with death, tears hadn’t been allowed. The Eritrean soldiers beat people for expressing grief, she said. Samrawit Weldegerima, who had arrived just two weeks earlier in Hamdayet, also saw corpses by the river, counting seven. Freshly branded on their temples were the markings some Tigrayans have to express their identity, she said. “When I saw them, I was terrified,” Samrawit said, touching her belly, six months pregnant. “I thought I was already dead.” Those who crossed the river were amazed to find that the Amhara were now in charge in western Tigray. Alem’s home in Humera was occupied by Amhara militia. She asked them for her clothes, but they had been burned. She was told to get out. Reluctantly, to protect herself, she is trying to learn Amharic. “Their aim is to leave no Tigrayan,” she said. “I hope there will be a Tigray for my children to go home to.” The idea of home remains dangerous. Days after Abiy urged people in Tigray to return in late March, at least two men trying to do so from Hamdayet were fatally shot within sight of the border crossing. They were buried by hundreds of refugees at the Orthodox church in Hamdayet, where the blank walls are being mapped for murals of sacrifice and salvation. Some of the faithful drop to their knees and clutch the stones, deep in prayer. Others rest their foreheads against the entrance, as if they can’t go on. Even as the Amhara fighters took turns raping her, they offered the young woman a twisted path to what they considered redemption. She had returned to her looted home in Humera. There, she was seized by militia members speaking Amharic. When she asked them to speak her native Tigrinya, which she understood far better, they became angry and started kicking her. She fell, and they fell upon her. She remembers at least three men. “Let the Tigray government come and help you,” she recalled them saying. They also made her a proposal: “Claim to be Amhara and we’ll give you back your house and find you a husband. But if you claim to be Tigrayan, we will come and rape you again.” The woman’s Amhara neighbor was present during the attack. When she later approached him for help, there was none. “So what?” she recalled him saying. “You came back. Behave and be quiet.” The woman cried all night. The next day, she found little comfort in learning that many others in her neighborhood had been raped, too. “One mother and daughter had been forced to watch each other,” she said. “One woman was raped on the road, with people watching. Other accounts were worse than mine.” She left for Sudan. It was mid-February. Afraid to speak with anyone, she waited almost a month before seeking medical care. “I was ashamed,” she said, and started to cry. She watched the doorway warily, fearing the rumors that can spread among the refugees. She said she was grateful to be HIV-negative, but she is pregnant. For a long moment, she was silent. She can hardly think about that yet. Her family back home doesn’t know. The United Nations has said more than 500 rapes in Tigray have been reported to health care workers. But the woman from Humera, whose account was confirmed by her doctor, assumes many more survivors are hiding it just as she did. The AP doesn’t name people who have been sexually abused. Several refugees from different Tigray communities told the AP they watched or listened helplessly as women were taken away by Amhara or Eritrean fighters and raped. It was like taunting, said Adhanom Gebrehanis from Korarit village, who had just arrived in Hamdayet with the welts from a beating by Eritrean soldiers on his back. “They do these things openly to make us ashamed,” he said. He described watching Eritreans pull aside 20 women from a group of Tigrayans and rape them. The next day, 13 of the women were returned. “Go,” Adhanom said the Eritreans told the others. “We already have what we want.” A midwife from Adwa, Elsa Tesfa Berhe, described treating women secretly after Eritrean soldiers swept through health centers, looting even the beds and telling patients to leave. As Berhe snuck out to deliver babies and care for the wounded, she saw people trying to bury bodies at the risk of being shot, or pouring alcohol on corpses in an attempt to hide the smell. With the health centers destroyed, little if any care remains for women and girls who have been raped. No one knows how many now carry the children of their attackers. Berhe had just arrived in Sudan. She cried as she recalled a 60-year-old woman who was raped vaginally and anally by Eritrean soldiers and then waited for days, trying to hide the bleeding, before seeking help. “She didn’t want to tell anyone,” Berhe said. She heard the woman ask, “Can anyone trust me if I say I was raped?” Another woman was raped by four Eritrean soldiers while her husband hid under the bed, Berhe said. Her husband recounted the attack when they sought an abortion. A third woman described how Eritrean soldiers ordered her father to rape her, then shot and killed him when he refused. The soldiers raped her instead. Berhe fears that the situation in rural areas is even worse, as described by the displaced people arriving in cities. So far, few from the outside world can reach the areas where the majority of Tigrayans lived before the conflict, as fighting continues. “Do you think there is a word to explain this? There is no word,” said a midwife from Humera, who gave only her first name, Mulu. In Hamdayet she befriended seven women from the same village, Mai Gaba, who said they were raped separately by various fighters, including Ethiopian federal forces. Mulu fears that Mai Gaba is a conservative example and estimates that some communities have seen scores of assaults. “This is to harm the community psychologically,” Mulu said. “Most of the people in Tigray support the (fugitive Tigray leaders). To destroy them, you must destroy Tigrayans.” There is more to come. Almost every person interviewed described a worrying shortage of food, and some said Tigrayans are being starved. Many recalled seeing crops being looted or burned in communities by Amhara or Eritrean fighters, a toll that even shows up in satellite imagery. Kidu Gebregirgis, a farmer, said he was questioned almost daily about his ethnicity, his shirt yanked aside to check for marks from the strap of a gun. He said the Amhara harvested around 5,000 kilograms (5.5 short tons) of sorghum from his fields and hauled it away, a task that took two weeks. He shook his head in amazement. The conflict began shortly before the harvest in the largely agricultural region. Now the planting season approaches. “But there is no seed,” Kidu said. “There’s nothing to start again.” The prospect is terrifying, said Alex de Waal, the author of a new report warning of mass starvation in Tigray and a researcher at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. “What I fear is that millions of people are in the rural areas, staying because they are hopeful they will be able to plant,” he said. “If they’re not able to plant, if food supplies run out, then all of a sudden we could see a mass migration.” Tigrayans who passed through rural communities described starving people, often elderly, begging outside churches. Sometimes they did, too. Alem, the exhausted mother, begged for money and tightened her clothes to control the hunger pangs. Abedom, a day laborer who only gave one name, begged while roaming the mountains and villages for three months. “It was normal to go a whole day without food,” he said. “So many people were hungry. They loot everything, so if they take it all, how do I survive?” The hunger was staggering. One refugee saw a man faint on the road in Adi Asr, close to death. Another described a fellow traveler so tired he simply stopped walking. Yet another saw a child, too weak to go on, left behind. Again, ethnicity was crucial. Belaynesh, from Dansha, said she made sure to speak Amharic when approaching farmhouses in western Tigray for food. Ethiopia, under international pressure, has said food aid has been distributed to more than 4 million people in Tigray. Refugees disagreed, saying they saw no such thing in their communities or asserting that food was being diverted. Maza Girmay, 65, said she heard food was being distributed, so she went to the government office in her community of Bahkar to inquire. “They told me, ‘Go home, you’re Tigrayan,’” she said. “We Tigrayans are Ethiopian. Why do they treat us as non-Ethiopian?” The rejection brought her to tears. An Orthodox cross tattooed on her forehead, long faded from childhood, wrinkled with her sorrow. In the community of Division, farmer Berhane Gebrewahid said he was shot by Amhara fighters seeking his cattle. He said food aid was distributed in February by Amhara authorities but refused to Tigrayans, including him. Even the name of his homeland had been changed to Northern Gondar, after a major city in Amhara. A colonel with the Tigray fighters, Bahre Tebeje, worried that starvation will kill more people than the war itself. “Most food aid returns to the Amhara and Eritreans,” he asserted, leaning forward intently, a tattered black-and-white kaffiyeh around his neck. “It’s not being distributed to the people.” Severe malnutrition is already above emergency levels as humanitarian workers rush to reach communities, the U.N. has said. In Hamdayet, a handful of such cases were recently sent to a regional hospital for treatment, according to a doctor there. One woman, recovering, still couldn’t produce milk for her baby, who whimpered and sucked at a limp breast. Battered and hungry, Tigrayans still arrive daily at the border post where Sudanese soldiers watch a no man’s land in the shadow of a fading flag. One recent evening, the AP saw three new refugees approaching. In Sudan, the Tigrayans are registered and asked for their ethnicity. For once, they are free to answer. © Cara Anna for The Associated Press, 2021

By MANUEL RUEDA In this Dec. 14, 2018 file photo, a clerk goes over court files at the headquarter of the Special Peace Jurisdiction in Bogota, Colombia. The South American country's postwar reconciliation tribunal said Monday, April 19, 2021, that violence against former guerrilla fighters and community leaders is increasing in rural areas and jeopardizing its attempts to investigate crimes that took place during six decades of conflict that killed an estimated 260,000 people and forced millions to flee their homes. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File) BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s postwar reconciliation tribunal said Monday that violence against former guerrilla fighters and community leaders is increasing in rural areas and jeopardizing its attempts to investigate crimes that took place during six decades of conflict that killed an estimated 260,000 people and forced millions to flee their homes. The court known as the Special Jurisdiction for Peace was set up in 2016 following a peace deal between the government of Colombia and the country’s biggest guerrilla movement, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. On Monday, the tribunal’s president said that at least 276 former rebels have been killed since laying down their weapons in December 2016 and that 900 community leaders have been slain as well. The court said that 252 of those former rebels had been summoned to collaborate with its investigations. “This court’s mission is at risk if the murders and death threats do not stop,” the court’s president, Eduardo Cifuentes, wrote in a seven-page statement. “When violent groups silence human rights defenders and former fighters they don’t just hurt them and their families. They also deprive society of the chance to hear a small fragment of the truth and eliminate a potential source of reparations.” The tribunal requested that Colombia’s human rights ombudsman produce a report that looks into the causes of the postwar crimes and deliver recommendations to the government for stopping the bloodletting. Dozens of former army officers, guerrilla leaders and civilians have gone before the court to discuss their role in war crimes that include kidnappings for ransom, the forced recruitment of children and also cases in which soldiers seeking promotions killed civilians and dressed them up as rebel fighters. The court offers perpetrators of these crimes reduced sentences if they help with investigations and are willing to provide reparations to victims. But as Colombia struggles to control post-conflict violence the tribunal fears some witnesses will become too scared to come forward. “The possibilities of restorative justice will diminish,” Cifuentes said. Violence against community leaders and former fighters has been increasing in some rural areas of Colombia as a new generation of armed groups fights over resources — like gold mines and drug trafficking routes — that were abandoned by the FARC following the 2016 peace deal. Colombia’s government recently created a special force of 7,000 soldiers that is to focus on fighting groups that traffic drugs and are connected to international criminal networks. © Copyright 2021 AP News

By REGINA GARCIA CANO The Colombia-Venezuela Border. Credit: Las Teles MEXICO CITY (AP) — Venezuelan security forces operating against Colombian rebels along the nations’ shared border have executed peasants, tortured and arbitrarily arrested people, and prosecuted civilians in military courts, an international monitoring group said Monday. The Human Rights Watch report said the operation began March 21 in the rural state of Apure, where it said Venezuelan authorities previously had tolerated the presence of armed Colombians. The report said accounts on what prompted the clashes vary, but community leaders as well as human rights and aid groups told the organization that an armed band with close ties to the Venezuelan government is trying to oust a rival guerrilla group to consolidate control over drug trafficking. “The egregious abuses against Apure residents are not isolated incidents by rogue agents, but consistent with the Venezuelan security forces’ systematic practices,” José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director for Human Rights Watch said in a statement. “International inquiries are essential into the mounting evidence against security force members who have committed abuses, and against commanders and top-level officials who knew or should have known what was happening during these operations.” The operation in Apure has prompted roughly 6,000 people to flee, mostly to Arauquita, a town in Colombia where shelters are now overcrowded. Not all have access to aid. A day after the clashes began, Venezuela’s defense minister, Gen. Vladimir Padrino López, said the operation had resulted in the arrests of more than 30 people, the destruction of six rebel camps and the seizure of weapons, but he did not name the Colombian armed group involved. After reports of abuses surfaced, Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek Saab announced two efforts to investigate the situation. Hours after the report was released, Venezuelan authorities in a statement said several soldiers had been killed in clashes with the Colombian armed groups. They did not give a specific number. Padrino López in a statement said “bloody combat has been taking place with Colombian irregular armed groups” in the last 72 hours. The statement said that “a significant number of casualties” were recorded in the irregular groups and “several subjects who are providing valuable information for future actions were captured.” Padrino López added that “some of our troops whose bodies are being identified also died” and others were injured. It is unknown whether the incidents were part of a military operation or if the Venezuelan security forces were ambushed in the vicinity of the border town of La Victoria in Apure state, some 770 kilometers southwest of the capital, Caracas. Authorities earlier had reported the deaths of eight members of the military through April 5. Human Rights Watch in the report said several armed groups operate in the border communities, including the Martín Villa 10th Front and the Second Marquetalia, both of which formed after the 2016 demobilization of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish acronym FARC. A peace deal between the Colombian government and the FARC in 2016 ended five decades of war. But the group has suffered deep divisions, with some of its members joining mainstream leftist movements and others giving up on the peace process and returning to arms. The Second Marquetalia is close to the socialist administration of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Human Rights Watch said. Its report said that group is seeking to push out the 10th Front, which it said is the target of the Venezuelan operation. Among the cases of abuse detailed in the report are the killings on March 25 of four members of a family. Their bodies with bullet wounds, cuts and other injuries were found about a mile from their home. The report said forensic experts determined weapons might been planted close to their hands. Emir Remolina, the son of two of the people killed, told Human Rights Watch that he had seen his parents alive that morning, but when he returned to their home in the afternoon, he found it had been ransacked and his parents were missing. Neighbors told him security forces had loaded them onto an armored tank. “After several hours, Emir saw messages and photos circulating in WhatsApp groups reporting that (the Special Action Force of the Bolivarian National Police) had killed a family on a farm near the rural area of El Ripial, about a mile from Emir’s parents’ home,” the report said. “The images, which Human Rights Watch reviewed, showed the bodies on the ground, face up, with weapons by their hands. Emir recognized them as his parents, brother, and uncle.” The report said the Venezuelan government later reported that security forces had “neutralized” six people in Remolina’s parents’ community. Colombia and Venezuela share about 1,370 miles (2,200 kilometers) of border but have not had diplomatic relations since February 2019 following Maduro’s decision to expel Colombian diplomats. Colombian President Iván Duque does not recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate president and instead supports opposition leader Juan Guaidó. Padrino López on Monday said the irregular groups are “connected with drug trafficking” and that it is supposedly part of a strategy by the U.S. and Colombia governments to “act against Venezuela.” © Copyright 2021 The Associated Press

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The United Nations human rights office said it was “deeply alarmed” over violence against protesters in the Colombian city of Cali, where “police opened fire on demonstrators” and allegedly killed and injured several people Monday night. The statement from the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights comes as antigovernment protests sparked by proposed tax increase enter their sixth day and show few signs of stopping. According to Colombia’s Human Rights Ombudsman, 16 protesters and one policeman have been killed in the demonstrations since last Wednesday. But that figure doesn’t include reports of deaths in Cali on Monday, which the U.N. said it is still trying to confirm. The protests began after Colombia’s government proposed a tax plan aimed at raising $6.7 billion to pay the country’s debts and maintain a basic income scheme for 3 million low-income people that started during the pandemic. President Iván Duque withdrew the tax plan on Sunday amid the protests and his finance minister resigned the following day, but large demonstrations and roadblocks have continued. Numerous videos have emerged on social media showing police using excessive force during the protests and even shooting at some demonstrators point blank. In its statement, the UN urged Colombia’s government to protect the rights of protesters. “Law enforcement officers should abide by the principles of legality, precaution and necessity of proportionality,” the statement said. Later on Tuesday a group of eight non-government organizations including Oxfam and the Washington Office on Latin America published a statement asking Duque to stop using the military to control protests. The Biden administration also made a statement urging Colombian police and protesters to practice restraint. “All over the world citizens in democratic countries have the unquestionable right to protest peacefully,” the statement read. “We urge the utmost restraint by public forces to prevent additional loss of life.” Duque said in a statement issued Tuesday that his government would act with “resolve” against groups using the protests to provoke violence. The resident announced that his government would create “spaces” for civil society groups, political parties and the private sector to meet with government representatives. © Copyright 2021 Associated Press

Ambulance arriving at the Royal Care Hospital with the heavily wounded Ahmed Osman (Radio Dabanga) CAIRO (AP) — Two protesters were killed when Sudanese security forces dispersed a demonstration late Tuesday in the capital of Khartoum, a local medical group said. The violence broke out when dozens of protesters made their way late in the day to the sealed-off area outside the military’s headquarters to commemorate a deadly break-up of a protester camp two years ago. The protesters have demanded justice for those killed in the 2019 violence. Security forces closed off major roads and streets leading to the government and military headquarters in Khartoum ahead of the protests. The Sudanese doctors’ committee said security forced fired live bullets and tear gas to disperse the protesters, killing at least two people and wounding more than 15 others, some of them in critical condition. The committee is the medical arm of the Sudanese Professionals’ Association, which spearheaded the popular uprising that led to the military’s ouster of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir in April 2019. Sudan has since then been on a fragile path to democracy and is ruled by a military-civilian government now rules the country. The military said in a statement it regretted the violence in Tuesday’s demonstration outside its headquarters, vowing to investigate and bring those responsible before justice. Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok called for an urgent meeting with his defense and interior ministers, Khartoum governor and the country’s chief spy. Video footage circulated online showed protesters holding Sudanese flags. At some point, a mother of one of those killed in 2019 read a statement blaming that incident on Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and deputy head of ruling sovereign council. A spokesman for the RSF did not respond to phone calls seeking comment. The June 2019 disposal of the Khartoum protest camp coincided with the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Over 120 people were killed in that dayslong crackdown, according to protest groups. The government established an independent committee in 2019 to look into the crackdown, but the panel repeatedly missed its deadlines for reporting, angering the victims’ families and protest groups. © Copyright 2021 The Associated Press

Manuel Rueda A protester stands at a road block set up during anti-government protests in Cali, Colombia, Monday, May 10, 2021. Colombians have protested across the country against a government they feel has long ignored their needs, allowed corruption to run rampant and is so out of touch that it proposed tax increases during the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Andres Gonzalez) BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Forty-two people have died during anti-government protests that began two weeks ago amid discontent fueled by growing poverty and inequality during the pandemic, Colombia’s human rights ombudsman said Tuesday. The government agency added that 168 people had been reported missing during the protests, which were set to continue Wednesday. On May 5, the human rights ombudsman said 24 people had been killed in the protests and 89 were missing. The new figures from the ombudsman are similar to those recorded by Temblores, a non-governmental group that tracks police violence. Temblores said Tuesday that 40 people had been killed during the protests in incidents related to police violence while one policeman was stabbed to death while trying to stop a riot. Colombian police have been widely accused of using excessive force to break up demonstrations and riots that started April 28 after the government attempted to increase taxes in what it said was an effort to reduce its deficit and raise funds for health care and social services. The government withdrew its $6.7 billion tax plan May 2 and the finance minister resigned the following day, but protests have continued across the country. Demonstrators are now pressing demands that include reforming the police, implementing a basic income plan for 10 million people and providing free tuition at public universities. Colombia’s economy contracted 7% last year and millions of people were left without work by restrictions related to the pandemic. That increased frustration with the government, which had failed to meet demands made during a previous wave of protests in 2019. On Monday night, the government’s peace commissioner, Miguel Ceballos, said President Ivan Duque’s administration was willing to sit down with protest leaders to negotiate on some of their demands. Ceballos asked the United Nations and the Roman Catholic Church to mediate the talks. The protest leaders met with government officials earlier Monday and said that basic conditions for negotiations, such as security guarantees for protesters, had not been met. Protest leaders are expected to respond to the government’s new offer later this week. The protests are being staged as coronavirus infections reach record levels in Colombia, where more than 78,000 people have died from COVID-19, the disease that can be caused by the virus. Over the past week Colombia has averaged more than 15,000 new infections a day. The current rate of infections is five times greater than at the beginning of March. © Copyright 2021 The Associated Press

At least 24 people killed and scores more injured in series of attacks in rebel-held areas of country By Bethan McKernan The scene of the bombing in Azaz on Sunday. Photograph: INA Photo Agency/Rex/Shutterstock At least 24 people have been killed and scores wounded across parts of rebel-held Syria after a weekend of violence that included several car bomb attacks. Eleven people died and 30 more were injured in the town of Azaz, when a car bomb detonated on Sunday near a building used by Turkish-backed fighters as an administrative headquarters. Pictures from the scene showed black smoke rising from the mangled remains of the car, damaged buildings and a street covered in debris from the explosion. Also on Sunday, another car bomb went off at a checkpoint near the town of Beza’a, killing five fighters from the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) umbrella group and injuring another four, military sources said. Ahmad Ali, 33, was passing by when the Azaz car bomb detonated about 100 metres away. “It sounded like thunder, the doors and glass of the buildings around me shook and broke. As a first reaction I was on the floor and I was temporarily deaf from the tremendous sound,” he said. “It happened in such a busy place, near the market and the building where people come to register births and marriages …. I saw the burnt car and rescuers trying to help, and the dead bodies. It was a horrifying day.” After a decade of war, Syria is now roughly divided into three zones of control. Around 3 million civilians, the majority of whom are afraid to return to their homes in regime-held areas, as well as the remains of the Syrian opposition, Turkish-backed Syrian forces and Islamist groups, are now crammed into the north-west corner of the country. The oil and wheat producing north-east is controlled by Kurdish-led, US-backed forces, but most of Syria is now once again ruled again by Bashar al-Assad, who has clawed back all of the country’s major cities from the opposition with the help of Russia and Iran. Sunday’s attacks added to an already violent weekend across parts of Syria outside regime control: on Saturday, the de-facto Turkish controlled town of Afrin was rocked by a car bomb which killed eight people, including four children. On Sunday in Hasekeh, a town controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Kurdish security forces opened fire on pro-Syrian government demonstrators, killing one and injuring four. The explosions in Azaz and Afrin were not claimed by any group, but the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), which has links to the SDF, is believed to be responsible for what Syrian Civil Defence statistics show is a growing number of IED, motorcycle and car bomb attacks in both cities. Afrin was emptied of its majority Kurdish population after a 2018 offensive on the town by Turkey, while Azaz serves as the Turkish-backed forces’ administrative headquarters. Islamic State sleeper cells have also been linked to bombings in the area. The Syrian Civil Defence, a volunteer rescue group operating in rebel-held parts of Syria also known as the White Helmets, says it has already responded to 13 explosions in the country’s north-west since the beginning of the year. The surge in violence so far in 2021 adds to north-west Syria’s already severe wintertime problems: an increase in coronavirus cases is stretching an already broken healthcare system to breaking point, and heavy rains and flooding have affected 67,600 people living in displacement camps. © 2021 Guardian News & Media Limited