JOHANNESBURG — The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic says 18 civilians are dead and 23 wounded after an armed group opened fire during a funeral ceremony. The statement on Tuesday says the gunmen with the Union for Peace armed group carried out the overnight attack on Friday in the central town of Ippy. The peacekeeping mission condemns “this terrible massacre” that occurred as a new round of peace talks on Central African Republic began in Sudan. Central African Republic, one of the world’s poorest nations, has faced interreligious and intercommunal fighting since 2013. The violence has intensified and spread in recent months. The 13,500-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission has struggled to protect civilians and contain the fighting since its arrival in 2014. Copyright 2019 The Associated Press

The party of Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has decided to indefinitely postpone its general convention which was to elect a new chief after the veteran leader handed the party's leadership to his deputy. The general convention of the National Congress Party (NCP), held once in four years, was scheduled for next month, but the exact dates had not been announced. "The party's shura council ... decided to indefinitely suspend the holding of the general convention because of the current situation in the country," Mohamed el-Hassan el-Amien, an NCP leader, told reporters on Saturday. Bashir, who normally attends meetings like the one held Saturday, was not present. Sudan has been rocked by deadly protests since December, with demonstrators calling for an end to Bashir's 30-year rule. Bashir has remained defiant, and on February 22 imposed a nationwide state of emergency after an initial crackdown failed to quell the protests. But on March 1 he handed his powers, as head of NCP, to his deputy, Ahmed Harun, making him acting chief until the general convention, where a new president of NCP was to be elected. Sudan is scheduled to hold its next presidential election in 2020, and according to the charter of NCP, the chief of the party becomes its candidate in the election. The NCP was formed a few years after Bashir swept to power in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989, and he had been party chief up until this month. Protesters continue to stage regular demonstrations that first erupted on December 19 after a government decision to triple the price of bread. The protests swiftly turned into nationwide rallies against Bashir's government, accusing it of mismanaging the country's economy. Officials say 31 people have died in protest-related violence, but Human Rights Watchhas put the death toll at 51. Copyright 2019 AFP, Al Jazeera

KIGALI, Rwanda — Twenty-five years ago, Rwanda descended into an orgy of violence in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by the majority Hutu population over a 100-day period in what was the worst genocide in recent history. The massacres, mostly by gangs wielding machetes, swept across Rwanda and groups of people were killed in their homes and farms and where they sought shelter in churches and schools. The mass killings started after a plane was shot down on April 6, 1994, in the capital, Kigali, killing President Juvenal Habyarimana. The killers were encouraged by hate messages broadcast on radio stations. Rwandan police, military and other government authorities did not stop the killings. Scores of thousands of terrified Tutsis fled Rwanda for neighboring countries including Congo, Tanzania and Uganda. The waves of murders continued until the rebel forces of the Rwandan Patriotic Front took control of the country. Paul Kagame, who led the rebels, helped re-establish order in the country and served as vice-president and defense minister from 1994 until he became Rwanda’s president in 2000. Under Kagame’s leadership Rwanda has achieved stability and economic growth, although he is widely accused of being intolerant of criticism and of running a repressive government. The scale of the killings in 1994 was unimaginable but the reporting and photographs taken at the time, for which AP won Pulitzer prizes, helped to inform the world of the horrors of the genocide. Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

The UN warns that South Sudan's crisis is worsening and that removing the label of famine doesn't mean the situation has actually improved. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images) South Sudan no longer has areas in famine, but almost two million people are on the brink of starvation and an estimated six million people — half the population — will face extreme food insecurity between June and July, according to reports by the government and the United Nations released Wednesday. South Sudan's famine was the first to be formally declared anywhere in the world since 2011's crisis in Somalia. The situation remains critical, according to reports by South Sudan's National Bureau of Statistics and the UN's updated food and security analysis. "People are in a catastrophic situation," said Serge Tissot of the Food and Agricultural Organization. In February, South Sudan declared two counties in Unity State to be in famine. Although those areas are still in critical condition, early detection and a rapid response succeeded in pulling them out of famine, a Phase 5 classification, the World Food Program said. The UN warned that South Sudan's crisis is worsening and that removing the label of famine doesn't mean the situation has actually improved. "Even though we've taken it (famine) off the table, we have more people in Phase 4 than ever before," said Joyce Luma, WFP's country director. "If we don't assist this population, 1.7 million people will soon be in famine." Famine is declared when three conditions are found in a single location: At least 20 per cent of the population faces extreme food shortages, at least 30 per cent of children under five years old suffer from acute malnutrition and people are dying at double the normal rate. An estimated 45,000 people still face starvation in Leer, Koch and Mayendit counties with additional areas across the country having deteriorated as well. In former Jonglei state, an area that previously had one of the lowest levels of acute malnutrition, roughly 20,000 people are experiencing catastrophic food insecurity. A Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) worker holds a South Sudanese baby while two little girls wait for treatment at the MSF hospital in Juba in 2014. 'If we don't assist this population, 1.7 million people will soon be in famine,' the UN says. (Charles Lomodong/AFP/Getty Images) "It's when people don't know where their next meal will come from," WFP spokeswoman Bettina Luescher said. At a recent food distribution in the town of Old Fangak in Greater Jonglei, 10,000 people came to register for a WFP food drop and 30,000 more are expected to come within the week. "All I eat are vegetables and leaves," said Nyatang Toy as she waited in line last week to receive her ration cards. The skinny seven-year-old walked for three hours from her village to collect food for her parents and five siblings who were too weak to come with her, she said. "How can we be at this stage, where people are starving and we're dropping bags of food from the air?" Marie-Claude Bibeau, Canada's minister of international development, told The Associated Press during a trip last week to the area. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 The Associated Press

Douala (AFP) - Thirteen civilians, eight of them children, died Friday when a woman suicide bomber blew herself up in a jihadist attack on a village in northern Cameroon, a traditional chief and a police officer told AFP. Cameroon's Far North region is grappling with deadly incursions from neighbouring Nigeria, where an insurgency launched by Boko Haram in 2009 has killed tens of thousands of people. Mahamat Chetima Abba, the traditional chief, or lamido, in the village of Mozogo, said the attackers arrived in the middle of the night, shouting "Allah Akbar" ("God is greater") and brandishing machetes. The panicked villagers tried to run off into the nearby forest, and in the stampede the suicide bomber detonated her device, he said. The account was confirmed by a member of the local defence committee, who said his group had tried to repel the attack. "Thirteen civilians died, two of them children aged four and five as well as six teenagers," a regional police officer told AFP by phone, speaking on condition of anonymity. The lamido confirmed the number, saying that a woman and her three children were among the dead. Both attributed the attack to Boko Haram. The police source said that in addition to the suicide bomber, the other fatality among the attackers was a man who was killed by the self-defence force. "They infiltrated the population -- Boko Haram is inflicting more and more damage here," Chetima Abba said. "However, it seems that they no longer have the means to carry out mass attacks using guns," he said, noting that the assailants had carried machetes. "They are using home-made bombs more and more," he said. On Monday, three members of a self-defence force in the nearby village of Kaliari were killed. More than 36,000 people have been killed, most of them in Nigeria, and three million people have fled their homes since Boko Haram launched its insurrection in northeastern Nigeria in 2009. Boko Haram and a splinter group called the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) have stepped up attacks in recent years in Nigeria and neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon. Niger is also being hit by jihadists crossing from Mali. An attack on two villages in the western Niger region of Tillaberi on Saturday left 105 dead, the highest civilian toll in the Sahel since the jihadist insurgency began in the region in 2012. © AFP 2021

Two families filed petition against US gov't over 'unlawful' killing of 34 relatives between 2013 and 2018. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that his top priorities would include addressing the catastrophe for civilians in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia, a US ally, has been bombing the Houthi rebels [Khaled Abdullah/Reuters] Two Yemeni families have filed a petition against the US government over the “unlawful” killing of 34 relatives, including nine children, in counterterrorism operations between 2013 and 2018. Human rights group Reprieve, submitted the petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of the families on Tuesday, said the families suffered enormous loss of life and property in six drone strikes and a special operations raid. Of those killed, 34 were members of the Al-Ameri and Al-Taisy families, who are requesting the commission urge the US government to take immediate measures to prevent further harm as it reviews the files – often a long process that could take years. “It is averred that the seven attacks at issue have resulted in the unlawful killing of at least 48 people, including 17 children, and serious injury of at least seven others, as well as the destruction of their personal property and livelihoods,” said the petition seen by AFP news agency. The first strike, which took place in December 2013 under the administration of Barack Obama, targeted a wedding procession convoy, killing at least 12 people, including seven Al-Ameri family members and five people from the Al-Taisy family, according to the filing. A local security official at the time told AFP some of the dead were suspected members of al-Qaeda. The Al-Ameri and Al-Taisy families deny any connection to the armed group. The petition comes just days after US President Joe Biden took office and it puts the spotlight on America’s long-running bombing campaign against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), on which the US rarely comments. ‘Last resort’ According to analysts, AQAP’s capabilities on the ground have largely diminished over the past decade, apart from a brief uptick of activity amid the ongoing war between the internationally recognised Yemeni government and Iran-aligned Houthi rebels that broke out in 2014. Since the 2013 incident, six other operations were carried out, all under Donald Trump, during whose administration the US stepped up its campaign in Yemen, according to US Central Command (CENTCOM) data published by US media. “What the families are hoping for from the commission is, first and foremost, recognition of the harm that’s been done to them,” Jennifer Gibson, a lawyer with Reprieve, told AFP on Thursday. “They’ve tried time and time again to engage the Yemeni and US governments to stop the strikes, and yet they’ve continued. The commission, for them, is a last resort to try to put forward evidence to say ‘you’re making a mistake, whatever you think it is we’ve done, we’ve not done, please stop the strikes’.” On Wednesday, the Biden administration signalled a fresh look at US policy in the Middle East. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that his top priorities would include addressing the catastrophe for civilians in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia, a US ally, has been bombing the Houthi rebels. The State Department said it was temporarily pausing arms sales authorised by Trump, including munitions to Saudi Arabia and a $23bn package of cutting-edge F-35 jets to the United Arab Emirates. © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network

KONGOUSSI, Burkina Faso (AP) — Armed only with a knife, Issa Tamboure was no match for gun-wielding jihadists who attacked his village in northern Burkina Faso in March. So Tamboure, 63, rounded up his family — including his 13 children — and ran, eventually reaching a camp for people displaced by violence. But Tamboure was not a typical civilian fleeing the extremists linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State organization who have been dramatically escalating their attacks in the West African nation in recent years. He is among the volunteers who signed up with Burkina Faso’s military to help fight the militants. But his plight shows the program’s weakness: With little training, few weapons, and dwindling means amid an economic downturn fueled by the coronavirus pandemic, volunteers now say they are unable to adequately battle the well-armed extremists. “When you don’t have enough to eat, you don’t have enough strength to use a rifle,” said Tamboure, running his fingers over the family’s tattered tent in a makeshift displacement camp in Kongoussi, about 15 miles (25 kilometers) from his home. He said the number of volunteers who patrol a swath between his village and the camp at night has fallen in recent months to around 200 from 500. For years, Burkina Faso was spared the kind of Islamic extremism that hit neighboring Niger and Mali, where a 2013 French-led military intervention dislodged jihadists from power in several major towns. But deaths from attacks in the country have risen from about 80 in 2016 to over 1,800 in 2019, according to the United Nations. Burkina Faso’s military has struggled to contain the violence despite training and aid from the French and U.S. militaries. In an attempt to bolster the army, the government passed a law to arm civilians in January. Many towns have no government or military presence, leaving only this corps of volunteers to protect their villages. Armed with a few hunting rifles and knives, the fighters patrol the surrounding bush and escort displaced civilians back to their villages to plant crops or pick up belongings or to other areas to visit relatives. In Kongoussi last month, residents told The Associated Press they were grateful for the patrols. “Even if I’m a little afraid, I feel safer with the volunteers,” said Souleiman Soule, 44. But several volunteer fighters in hard hit areas in the north and west of the country told the AP that because of the economic downturn caused by the pandemic they no longer have money to buy gas for their motorbikes to conduct patrols. Analysts are concerned that restrictions on movement imposed to control the virus will make it harder for the volunteer fighters to receive equipment and supplies, thus emboldening the militants, especially in rural areas. “The security forces are already overwhelmed, under-resourced, and have a bad reputation,” said Laith Alkhouri, an intelligence specialist who researches violent extremists in West Africa. “Any shortage or delays in manpower will require the army to divert important resources to fill the gap of the volunteer groups, making them unable to get in front of the violence.” Meanwhile, the volunteers have been targeted by the jihadists. In the western region of Boucle du Mouhoun last month, several people told the AP that volunteer fighters were being killed in the markets. Such attacks were predictable, say experts. “As long as you decide to establish community defense mechanisms, they’re systemically going to become threats and the targets of these (extremist) groups,” said William Assanvo, senior researcher with the Institute for Security Studies. A ragtag group of volunteers won’t be able to stop Burkina Faso’s cycle of violence, he said. And there’s some evidence they are contributing to it. The proliferation of armed men across the country — including the military, the government-sanctioned volunteers, and also ad hoc community defense groups — has led to an increase in extrajudicial killings, say rights groups. Graves containing at least 180 bodies and remains were found in Djibo, and there is evidence suggesting government security forces were involved in the slayings, Human Rights Watch said this week. Djibo is home to many Fulanis, an ethnic group whose members are predominantly Muslim and have been targeted over allegations they are affiliated with Islamist groups. Allegations of human rights abuses by volunteers have also been “rampant,” said Ousmane Diallo, West Africa researcher for Amnesty International. “Volunteer fighters are problematic and have led to more violence and reprisal,” said Diallo. Neither the government nor the army responded to repeated requests from the AP for comment. But fighters struggling to protect their communities say they need more government support. In the northern town of Ouahigouya, an 18-year-old said his community received arms to help the army fight extremists in November — before the government officially began its volunteer program — but then soldiers took back the weapons, leaving villagers with little to defend themselves and now marked as targets for retaliation. The teen, who helped fight, spoke on condition of anonymity because he is afraid for his safety. “These tactics make us vulnerable to terrorists,” he said, hanging his head. “We think the soldiers are creating more problems than solutions.” © Associated Press News 2020

KABUL (Reuters) - The United Nations on Monday denounced attacks on Afghan journalists and human rights activists at a time when dialogue was needed more than ever amid talks to try to end two decades of war. The Afghan government and Taliban militants began peace talks in Doha last September, but negotiations have largely stalled. Washington is reviewing a deal that would have seen Western troops leave the country by May. “The Afghan people need and deserve a flourishing civic space - a society where people can think, write and voice their views openly, without fear,” said Deborah Lyons, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan. “The voices of human rights defenders and the media are critical for any open and decent society.” Between Jan. 1, 2018, and Jan. 31, 2021, 65 human rights defenders and media professional were killed, the UN report said. Five human rights activists and six journalists were killed in the four months after the peace talks began. Afghanistan is experiencing a new wave of “intentional, premeditated and deliberate targeting of individuals with perpetrators remaining anonymous”, prompting professionals to quit their jobs and leave their homes, and journalists to exercise self-censorship. Many of the attacks involve small improvised explosives called “sticky bombs,” which are typically attached to the underside of vehicles. Few have ever been claimed by any warring party, although the government has said the Taliban are responsible. The group says it only targets government officials. The Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, are seeking to topple the Western-backed government in Kabul and reimpose Islamic rule. Islamic State militants also operate in Afghanistan, and government officials have said they have ties to the Taliban, another charge the Taliban denies. Afghanistan’s spy agency said it broke up two cells in the past week in Kabul that were jointly operating between Islamic State and the Taliban-linked Haqqani network. It said they were responsible for assassinations of officials and activists and rocket attacks in the capital. Writing by Umar Farooq; Editing by Nick Macfie © Reuters 2021

Kyaw Moe Tun, who has defied regime attempts to sack him, tells UN it must take action over killings in remote Sagaing area A protest in the Sagaing region this year against the military coup in Myanmar. It is alleged that troops tortured and killed dozens villagers in the region. Photograph: Facebook/AFP/Getty Images Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations, who has refused to leave his post despite being fired by the junta after the February coup, has alerted the world body to a “reported massacre” by the military. Kyaw Moe Tun sent a letter to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, on Tuesday saying 40 bodies had been found in July in the Sagaing area of north-western Myanmar. The junta has denied the massacre in the township of Kani, while news agencies have not been able to independently verify the reports due to mobile networks being cut in the remote region. The representative wrote that soldiers tortured and killed 16 men in a village in the township around 9-10 July, after which 10,000 residents fled the area. He said a further 13 bodies were discovered in the days after clashes between local fighters and security forces on 26 July. Kyaw Moe Tun added that another 11 men, including a 14-year-old boy, were killed and set on fire in a separate village on 28 July. In the letter, the ambassador repeated his call for an arms embargo on the ruling junta and “urgent humanitarian intervention” from the international community. “We cannot let the military keep on doing this kind of atrocity in Myanmar,” Kyaw Moe Tun said. “It is time for the UN, especially the UN security council, to take action.” It came as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) on Wednesday appointed an envoy to Myanmar after a months-long delay in diplomatic efforts to resolve the coup crisis. Asean’s foreign ministers said in a joint statement, delayed by internal wrangling, that they welcomed the appointment of Brunei second foreign minister, Erywan Yusof, as the bloc’s special envoy. Asean, which operates on a premise of consensus and non-interference, has been under global pressure to help resolve the crisis. The appointment of an envoy is expected to clear the way for Asean to send emergency aid to help authorities cope with a severe Covid-19 outbreak. Myanmar has been in turmoil since the army ousted the civilian leadership on 1 February, launching a crackdown on dissent that has killed hundreds of people. Kyaw Moe Tun has passionately rejected the coup and brushed aside the junta’s claims that he no longer represents Myanmar. The United Nations still considers him as the rightful envoy. The representative was sacked by the junta in February a day after he gave a three-finger salute at the UN general assembly following an impassioned speech calling for the return to civilian rule. The “Hunger Games” gesture was widely used by pro-democracy demonstrators. Kyaw Moe Tun, who has repeatedly called for international intervention to help end unrest in Myanmar, said on Wednesday that US authorities had boosted his security after an apparent threat was made against him. “There was a reported threat against me,” he said. “The police and the security authorities here in New York are working on it,” he added, without giving details about the nature of the threat. Myanmar’s junta chief said on Sunday elections would be held and a state of emergency lifted by August 2023, extending the military’s initial one-year timeline announced days after the coup. © 2021 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies.

Agence France-Presse | The Guardian Thursday, July 22, 2021 00.33 EDT Books tried to explain the pro-democracy movement, portraying supporters as sheep surrounded by wolves. Li-Kwai-wah, senior superintendent of Police National Security Department, poses with evidence including three children's books on stories that revolve around a village of sheep which has to deal with wolves from a different village, before a press conference in Hong Kong Thursday, July 22, 2021. Hong Kong's national security police on Thursday arrested five people from a trade union of the General Association of Hong Kong Speech Therapists on suspicious of conspiring to publish and distribute seditious material, in the latest arrests made amid a crackdown on dissent in the city. Photograph by Vincent Yu. Five members of a Hong Kong union behind a series of children’s books about sheep trying to hold back wolves from their village have been arrested for sedition. The arrests by the new national security police unit, which is spearheading a sweeping crackdown on dissent, are the latest action against pro-democracy activists since huge and often violent protests convulsed the city two years ago. Police said on Thursday that the two men and three women aged between 25 and 28 had “conspired to publish, distribute, exhibit or copy seditious publications”. The group was attempting to stir up “the public’s – and especially young children’s – hatred towards Hong Kong’s government and judiciary and to incite violence and illegal acts,” police said in their statement. The five arrested people were members of a union and HK$160,000 (US$20,600) in funds had been frozen under a new national security law China imposed on Hong Kong last year, police added. A police source told AFP that the arrested men and women were members of The General Union of Hong Kong Speech Therapists. In recent months the union published three illustrated ebooks that try to explain Hong Kong’s democracy movement to children. Democracy supporters are portrayed as sheep living in a village surrounded by wolves. The first book, titled Guardians of Sheep Village explains the 2019 pro-democracy protests that swept through Hong Kong. Janitors of Sheep Village, the second book, sees cleaners in the village go on strike to force out wolves who leave litter everywhere. The book’s introduction explains it is a reference to Hong Kong medical workers striking last year in a bid to force the government to close the border with mainland China at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The final book in the trilogy – The 12 Braves of Sheep Village – is about a group of sheep who flee their village by boat because of the wolves. It is a direct reference to 12 Hongkongers who made a failed bid to escape by speedboat last year to Taiwan but were detained by the Chinese coastguard and jailed. Sedition is a colonial-era law that until last year had not been used since Hong Kong’s 1997 handover to China. It carries up to two years in jail for a first offence. Police and prosecutors are now regularly using it alongside the national security law to clamp down on political speech and views. Most of those arrested for such crimes are denied bail. “Residents must see the facts clearly, must not condone or beautify violence and should not let the next generation be incited and misled by untrue and biased information,” police said. © 2021 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies.

Agence France-Presse in Cetinje | The Guardian Sun 5 Sep 2021, 09.10 EDT Clashes during inauguration of Balkan state’s new church leader at historic monastery of Cetinje Demonstrators at a barricade in Cetinje on Sunday. The decision to inaugurate Bishop Joanikije in the town has aggravated ethnic tension. Photograph: Savo Prelevic/AFP/Getty Images Police in Montenegro have fired teargas at protesters as the new head of the Serbian Orthodox church in the country arrived by helicopter for his inauguration. The decision to anoint Bishop Joanikije as the new metropolitan of Montenegro at the historic monastery of Cetinje has aggravated ethnic tension in the tiny Balkan state. Protesters had blocked roads since Saturday in an attempt to prevent access to the small town, both the headquarters of the Serbian Orthodox church (SPC) and a symbol of sovereignty for some Montenegrins. Montenegro broke away from Serbia in 2006, but a third of its 620,000 inhabitants identify as Serbs and some deny Montenegro should be a separate entity. Opponents accuse the SPC of serving Belgrade’s interests. Advertisement According to images released by the SPC, Joanikije was dropped off by helicopter on the monastery’s lawn and rushed in under the sound of bells. A security perimeter had been set up by police around the 15th-century building to protect the brief enthronement ceremony, and police fired teargas and sound bombs to clear the protesters from the monastery. Metropolitan Joanikije was named to his new post in May, after the death of his predecessor Metropolitan Amfilohije from Covid-19. Thousands of protesters had on Saturday used cars or piled up rocks to block roads, with many spending the night huddled around fires to keep warm. “I am here to show my love for the country,” said one protester, Saska Brajovic, 50. “We are not asking for anything from anyone else, but we are dismissed by the occupying Serbian church. We are here defending our dignity.” The protesters are backed by the Democratic party of Socialists of President Milo Đukanović, which has accused neighbouring Serbia and the SPC of “dismissing Montenegro and Montenegrins, as well as the integrity” of his country. Djukanovic had been eager to curb the SPC’s clout in Montenegro and build up an independent Orthodox church but his party lost elections in August 2020 and the current government led by the prime minister, Zdravko Krivokapić, has accused him of deliberately stoking the recent tensions for political purposes. © 2021 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies.

The case, which the UN says could amount to genocide, was brought under the legal premise of universal justice Protesters show support for the Rohingya outside the Peace Palace in the Netherlands on 10 December 2019. Myanmar is facing legal challenges from all over the world, including Argentina. Photograph: Sem van der Wal/EPA Argentina’s justice system will investigate allegations of war crimes committed by the Myanmar military against that country’s Rohingya minority under a court ruling upholding the principles of “universal justice”. The appeals court decision, which Agence France-Presse has seen, overturns a lower court ruling rejecting a request for an investigation by the British-based Burmese Rohingya Organisation (BROUK). A 2017 army crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, which the UN says could amount to genocide, has triggered an exodus of more than 740,000 members of the community, mainly to Bangladesh. The legal premise of “universal justice” holds that some acts – including war crimes and crimes against humanity – are so horrific they are not specific to one nation and can be tried anywhere. Argentina’s courts have taken up other universal jurisdiction cases in the past, including in relation to ex-dictator Francisco Franco’s rule in Spain and the Falun Gong movement in China. Proceedings against Myanmar and its leaders are already under way at the international criminal court and the UN’s international court of justice. Six Rohingya women, refugees in Bangladesh, had given remote testimony to the court in Argentina. One of the complainants said they “had all been sexually assaulted and that many of their family members had died as a result of the repression they had suffered” in August 2017, the court recalled. In their decision, the appeals judges said that “the investigation and eventual judgment of this type of crime is the primary responsibility of states”. The president of BROUK, Tun Khin, said in a statement the ruling represented hope “not just for us Rohingya but for oppressed people everywhere”. He added: “The decision in Argentina shows that there is nowhere to hide for those who commit genocide – the world stands firmly united against these abhorrent crimes.”