BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Updated 8:25 AM CST, February 2, 2024 Tigray region Ethiopia (VOA News) Eritrean troops are abducting farmers and stealing hundreds of livestock in border regions of Ethiopia’s Tigray region, 15 months after a cease-fire ended a civil war there and called for their withdrawal, according to an aid memo seen by The Associated Press. The memo prepared on Jan. 31 by the Ethiopia Health Cluster is based on an assessment of two districts near the Eritrean border by U.N. agencies and nongovernmental organizations. It documents several instances of kidnapping and livestock raiding by Eritrean forces. The memo was provided to the AP by an official from a U.N. agency on condition that its name not be disclosed. Yemane Gebremeskel, Eritrea’s information minister, denied the allegations, telling the AP on Friday that the reports of livestock raiding and abductions are “false.” In one incident, on Jan. 22, eight herders were abducted with their donkeys and camels. In another, on Dec. 6, six people were abducted along with 56 livestock. In a third, on Dec. 5, Eritrean soldiers stole 100 animals. The document notes that several parts of the two border districts are either “fully occupied or patrolled” by Eritrean’s military, meaning people displaced by the conflict can’t return to their homes and cultivate their land. In many areas, Ethiopia’s federal military has no presence and is failing to protect people, it says. The document also reports at least 50 starvation deaths in the subdistricts of Shimblina and Ademeyti, which are hit by drought and hard for humanitarians to access. Hundreds of hunger deaths are believed to have occurred across the region in recent weeks amid drought and the impacts of an aid suspension. Tigray’s authorities are warning that the situation could result in a full-blown famine. Eritrea was a key ally of Ethiopia’s government in the two-year war against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, Tigray’s former ruling party. Its troops stand accused of human rights abuses, including massacres of civilians and sexual enslavement. The peace deal that ended the war in November 2022 called for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Tigray. Eritrea wasn’t a signatory. It still occupies several areas along the border with Ethiopia, one of the world’s most contested frontiers. On the anniversary of the cease-fire, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for Eritrean troops to pull out. “More actions are needed to bring lasting peace and stability to Tigray,” he said. Although the cease-fire ended bloody fighting, its implementation has been sluggish. There has been little progress on transitional justice for war-time crimes, while a disarmament programme for hundreds of thousands of former rebels is yet to start. On Wednesday, the TPLF called on the international community to support the agreement’s implementation. The federal government responded Thursday by saying funds had been pledged to fulfill its commitments. Since the Tigray war ended, violence has gripped the neighboring state of Amhara, where the government is battling a military that had fought alongside it against the TPLF. On Thursday, Ethiopia’s federal parliament voted to extend a state of emergency introduced in August to quell the unrest. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends the Efes 2024 military exercise in Izmir, Turkey, Thursday, May 30, 2024. (Yavuz Ozden/DIA Photo via AP) ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey won’t hesitate to act against Kurdish-led groups in northern Syria that Ankara accuses of links to outlawed Kurdish militants, if they proceed with plans to hold local elections in the region, Turkey’s president said Thursday. A Kurdish-led autonomous administration that controls northern and eastern parts of Syria has announced plans to hold municipal elections on June 11. The vote to choose mayors will be held in the provinces of Hassakeh, Raqqa, Deir el-Zour and eastern part of Aleppo province. Turkey, which has launched military operations in Syria in the past, considers the move a step by Syrian Kurdish militants toward the creation of an independent Kurdish entity across its border. It has described the planned polls as a threat to the territorial integrity of both Syria and Turkey. “We are closely following the aggressive actions by the terrorist organization against the territorial integrity of our country and of Syria under the pretext of an election,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after observing military exercises in western Turkey. “Turkey will never allow the separatist organization to establish (a terror state) just beyond its southern borders in the north of Syria and Iraq,” he said. Turkey considers the Kurdish militia group, known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, as a terrorist group linked to an outlawed Kurdish group that has led an insurgency against Turkey since 1984. That conflict with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, has killed tens of thousands of people. The YPG, however, makes up the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF — a key U.S. ally in the fight against the Islamic State group. American support for the SDF has infuriated Ankara and remains a major source of contention in their relations. Turkey has carried a series of military operations in Syria to drive Syrian Kurdish militia groups away from its border since 2016, and controls a swath of territory in the north. Turkish leaders frequently speak of plans to establish a 30-kilometer (19-mile) deep safe zone along its border in Syria and Iraq, where the PKK has a foothold, to protect its borders. “We did what was needed in the past in the face of a fait accompli. We will not hesitate to act again if we encounter the same situation,” Erdogan said. “Where the territorial integrity of our country is concerned, we don’t listen to anyone and do not bow to any threat.” Copyright 2024 The Associated Press.

South Africa’s new coalition government has brought a Black president and a white opposition leader together in an image of unity By Gerald Imray South Africans gather ahead of the inauguration of South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa as president in Pretoria, South Africa, on Wednesday. (Jerome Delay / Associated Press) CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — In a country where racial segregation was once brutally enforced, South Africa’s new coalition government has brought a Black president and a white opposition leader together in an image of unity. Yet the power-sharing agreement sealed a week ago between President Cyril Ramaphosa’s African National Congress party and the Democratic Alliance, one of South Africa’s few white-led parties, has unwittingly renewed some racial rifts. In this photo provided by the South African Government Communication and Information System, (GCIS), South African Président Cyril Ramaphosa, right, greets opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) leader, John Steenhuisen, left, at the first sitting of Parliament since elections, in Cape Town, South Africa, Friday, June 14, 2024. (South African GCIS via AP) Many Black South Africans have expressed discomfort with a white-led party being back in power, even in a coalition. The country is haunted by the apartheid system of white minority rule that ended 30 years ago but is still felt by millions among the Black majority who were ruthlessly oppressed by a white government and remain affected by unresolved issues of poverty and inequality. South Africa is now faced with the likelihood of seeing more white people in senior government positions than ever since apartheid ended. White people make up around 7% of the country’s population of 62 million. The ANC liberated South Africa from apartheid in 1994 under Nelson Mandela, the country’s first Black president. Its three-decade political dominance ended in the landmark May 29 election, forcing it to form a coalition. The DA, with its roots in liberal white parties that stood against apartheid, won the second largest share of votes. Main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party leader, John Steenhuisen, delivers his speech at a final election rally in Benoni, South Africa, on May 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File) Both have promoted their coming together in a multi-party coalition as a new unity desperately needed in a country with vast socioeconomic problems. But history lingers. The DA suspended one of its white lawmakers Thursday, days after being sworn into Parliament, over racist slurs he made in a social media video more than a decade ago. Renaldo Gouws — reportedly a student in his 20s at the time — used an especially offensive term for Black people that was infamous during apartheid and is now considered hate speech. Gouws faces disciplinary action from his party, and the South African Human Rights Commission said it will take him to court. The DA, which previously fended off allegations of favoring whites, is again under scrutiny. The Congress of South African Trade Unions, an important political ally of the ANC, asserted that Gouws’ outburst was symptomatic of a DA that is “soft on racists.” The DA “needs to reflect on and address this if it wants to be accepted as a partner in the government of national unity by ordinary South Africans,” it said. Supporters of the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party attend a final election rally, in Benoni, South Africa, on May 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File) DA leader John Steenhuisen denied in a television interview that his party is dedicated only to white interests, saying it wouldn’t have won the second largest share of votes in a Black majority country if it was. The DA has Black and white lawmakers and supporters, but its only Black leader left the party in 2019, questioning its commitment to Black South Africans. Political analyst Angelo Fick said the DA does have a “sense of whiteness” in the eyes of many South Africans and has created that by being “utterly disinterested in speaking to the concerns about race from Black South Africans.” Shortly before Gouws’ case, racially charged language came from another direction when the MK Party of former President Jacob Zuma — once an ANC leader — called Ramaphosa a “house negro” for entering into the agreement with the DA. Zuma’s party also referred to white DA chairperson Helen Zille as Ramaphosa’s “slave master.” The MK Party and the Economic Freedom Fighters — the third and fourth biggest parties in Parliament — have refused to join what the ANC calls a government of national unity open to all. They said the fundamental reason is the DA, which they say is committed only to the well-being of South Africa's white minority. Leader of the main opposition Democratic Alliance John Steenhuisen, right, shakes hands with ANC’s Chairman Gwede Mantashe, left, after elections on a visit to the Results Operation Centre (ROC) in Midrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, on May 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File) “We do not agree to this marriage of convenience to consolidate the white monopoly power over the economy,” EFF leader Julius Malema said. Malema has sometimes provoked racial tensions in demanding change, once saying, “We are not calling for the slaughtering of white people, at least for now,” and that South Africa’s “white man has been too comfortable for too long.” He now says his party is not against white people but against a perceived “white privilege” that leaves 64% of Black people in poverty compared with 1% of white people, according to a 2021 report by the South African Human Rights Commission. Malema represents a new opposition to the ANC by many Black South Africans frustrated over the race-based inequality that’s evident after 30 years of freedom. White people generally live in posh neighborhoods. Millions of Black people live in impoverished townships on the outskirts. That frustration led many voters to give up on the ANC. The concerns about teaming up with the DA could weaken the party even further. In his inauguration speech Wednesday, Ramaphosa recognized the “toxic” divisions that remain decades after Mandela preached racial reconciliation. “Our society remains deeply unequal and highly polarized,” Ramaphosa said. The ANC is trying to use the coalition as a kind of reboot of Mandela's ideals. “To us, it doesn’t matter whether the cat is black or white," ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula said of the agreement with the DA. Mandela had used the phrase to signal he was open to all races serving in South Africa's government. “Fundamentally," Mbalula said, “the question is how do we move the country forward.” © 2024 The Associated Press.

Associated Press By Edith M. Lederer June 17, 2024 UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Activities of armed groups in the volatile Central African Republic have increased, complicating a security landscape that has seen a spillover of the conflict in neighboring Sudan, U.N. experts warn in a new report. The panel of experts cite confirmed reports of air raids by the Sudanese military around border areas and of fighters from the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces crossing over to recruit from armed groups in the Central African Republic. Sudan plunged into conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital Khartoum. Fighting spread to other regions including Darfur, which borders the Central African Republic’s northeastern Vakaga region. The U.N. says over 14,000 people have been killed and 33,000 injured in the Sudan fight. The expert panel, which monitors sanctions on mercenaries and armed groups in the Central African Republic, said the U.N. had registered almost 10,700 Sudanese refugees who had fled across the border by late March. It said 565 new refugees, the vast majority women and children, arrive at the Korsi refugee camp in the northern city of Birao every week. The war in Sudan has also disrupted the important trade and transportation route between the Central African Republic and Sudan’s Darfur region through the border at Am Dafok. That has left people in Vakaga and neighboring Haute-Kotto more insecure over the past year and aid deliveries slower and more expensive, the panel said. The Central African Republic remains one of the poorest countries in the world despite its vast mineral wealth, including gold and diamonds Rebel groups have operated with impunity across the country over the past decade, thwarting mining exploration by foreign companies. The country has been in conflict since 2013, when predominantly Muslim rebels seized power and forced then President Francois Bozize from office. Mostly Christian militias fought back. A 2019 peace deal did not end the fighting, and six of the 14 armed groups that signed later quit the agreement. The Coalition of Patriots for Change, an alliance of rebel groups aligned with Bozize, was founded in the aftermath of the agreement, but the experts cited no progress and the splintering of some rebel groups. Mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner group along with Russian military instructors have been working in the Central African Republic at the government’s request. The experts said that on Dec. 10, 2023, six waves of explosions were heard at the Russian instructors’ base in Kaga Bandoro in the west of the country, and three instructors were killed and seven people injured. They said the attack appeared to be in response to an assault three days earlier by the country’s military and Russian instructors on fighters from the UPC rebel group at the Bara mining site. A dozen UPC fighters were reportedly killed and 30 captured, the experts said in the report, which was released Friday. The panel said the Lord’s Resistance Army, a brutal armed group accused of mass killings, recruiting boys to fight, and using girls as sex slaves, has moved into the mountains bordering Sudan. The LRA is led by one of the world’s most wanted men, Joseph Kony, who formed the LRA in his native Uganda and then scattered his followers across parts of central Africa. “The group appears to have left its long-held bases in the disputed area of Kafia Kingi and moved to a mountainous zone in Haute-Kotto Prefecture,” the panel said. “This move brought LRA in proximity to towns in the eastern part of the Central African Republic and may have provided an opportunity for some group members, held against their will, to break free from the group.” The International Criminal Court said in March it will present evidence to back up charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity filed against Kony in the ICC’s first-ever hearing in absentia to start Oct. 15. The panel of experts said Kony’s son, Ali Kony, himself targeted with U.N. sanctions, arrived in Uganda last July. Their report quoted media reports as saying Ali Kony defected fron his father’s group in July 2021. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press.

FILE PHOTO: Supporters of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi dance on the seventh anniversary of the uprising that ended the 30-year reign of Hosni Mubarak in Tahrir square in Cairo, Egypt January 25, 2018. The proposals, submitted by Sisi supporters in parliament, have divided the country of nearly 100 million people, the most populous in the Arab world. CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt’s parliament is debating proposed constitutional changes that could allow President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to stay in power until 2034 and tighten his control over the judiciary. Supporters say the changes will allow the president to finalize economic reforms and major development projects. Opponents argue they will entrench authoritarian rule and further empower Egypt’s military. WHAT ARE THE KEY CHANGES BEING CONSIDERED? One central proposal would amend article 140 of the constitution to extend the presidential term to six years from four. It retains a two-term limit but includes a clause that would allow Sisi, whose second term expires in 2022, to seek two new six-year terms. The president would have more control over the appointment of judges and the public prosecutor. Lawmakers have also proposed introducing the post of vice president, allowing the head of state to appoint one or more deputies. A second parliamentary chamber known as the Council of Senators would be added. The president would appoint one-third of its members. Article 200 of the constitution would be amended to give the military a duty to protect “the constitution and democracy and the fundamental makeup of the country and its civil nature.” WHO IS BEHIND THE CHANGES? The amendments were initiated by the pro-government parliamentary bloc Support Egypt. Under the current constitution, which was approved by referendum in 2014, amendments may be introduced to parliament at the request of a fifth of the assembly’s 596 members, or by the president. Parliament speaker Ali Abdelaal has sought to distance Sisi from the plan, saying it was purely a parliamentary initiative and that Sisi may choose not to run in 2022. But the proposed changes are widely seen as driven by Sisi, his close entourage, and security and intelligence agencies who hold real power in Egypt. They follow months of speculation that the presidency was preparing to push constitutional changes through a pliant parliament. WHAT DO SUPPORTERS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES SAY? Supporters argue that Sisi came to power with a huge mandate after mass protests against Islamist President Mohamed Mursi’s one year in office. They say Sisi helped stabilize the country after three years of turmoil following the 2011 uprising, and has presided over economic reforms that put the country on the mend. With macro economic indicators improving, Sisi supporters say he deserves more time to build on the reforms. WHO OPPOSES THE CHANGES AND WHY? A handful of leftist and liberal members of parliament in the so-called 25-30 opposition bloc oppose the changes. But thousands of ordinary Egyptians, including lawyers, judges, actors, engineers, doctors and journalists have also signed a petition against them circulating on social media. As of Feb. 18, organizers said more than 21,500 had signed. Critics say that while article 226 of the constitution stipulates that article 140 can be amended, it clearly states that such changes can only be made to reinforce civic rights rather than weakening them, as critics contend these proposals would. “This assembly has no right to amend articles related to the presidential election or rights, freedoms and equality except to provide more guarantees,” Ahmed al-Tantawi, a member of the 25-30 bloc, said. Opponents argue that a central promise of the Jan. 25, 2011 uprising, when mass protests prompted former President Hosni Mubarak to step down, is at risk: the principle of the peaceful handover of power. Ahmed Galal, a former finance minister, said the amendments represented a return to the system that kept Mubarak in power for three decades. “Isn’t the principle of the transfer of power a precious goal in itself?” Galal wrote in a column published in Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper. Many Egyptians also worry that the amendments give the president powers to appoint judges and the public prosecutor, thrust the armed forces into political life by formally assigning them a role in protecting democracy, and establish further curbs on freedom of expression. Opponents say Sisi, first elected president in 2014 and reelected last year in a vote in which the only other candidate was an ardent Sisi supporter, has overseen the worst period of political repression in Egypt’s modern history and that his economic reforms are not benefiting average Egyptians. HOW DO WESTERN POWERS VIEW THE CHANGES? The United States and its Western allies have not publicly commented on the changes, which they see as an internal Egyptian matter. But they maintain that the stability of Egypt is crucial for the security and stability of the Middle East. During a regional tour last month, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo showered Sisi with praise as a key ally in the fight against terrorism. French President Emmanuel Macron said in Cairo last month that “things haven’t gone in the right direction since 2017,” pointing out that bloggers, journalists were in prison. “Because of that, Egypt’s image can find itself suffering,” he said. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? After two days of heated discussions on Feb. 14, parliament passed the amendments in principle by an overwhelming majority of 485 votes against 14. Nearly 100 MPs were absent. The head of parliament’s legislative and constitution committee, Bahaa Abu Shaqqa, said proposals and suggestions from outside parliament would be collected for one month, with two weeks of parliamentary discussions to follow, according to Al-Masry Al-Youm. Then parliament will hold a second, final vote. If approved, the proposals will be put to a referendum expected by the middle of this year, possibly before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan that starts in May. Copyright © Reuters February 2019

By Sam Mednick and Jean Fernand Koena April 12, 2024 Gender-based violence is increasing in the Central African Republic amid ongoing conflict, a weak legal system and the stigma of speaking up, locals and aid groups say. Since 2020, incidents have jumped from about 9,200 reported cases to 25,500, according to cases tracked by the United Nations and partners, but international funding for the country has dropped, with gender-based violence receiving little support. A 39-year-old security guard stands on the doorway at a clinic in Bangui, Central African Republic, Monday, March 11, 2024. She said she was sexually assaulted by a United Nations peacekeeper in November while on the night shift. Sexual assaults and other cases of gender-based violence are rising in Central African Republic. The alleged attackers include everyone from Wagner mercenaries to bandits to United Nations peacekeepers. Reasons include ongoing conflict in one of the world's most volatile countries, a weak legal system and the stigma of speaking up. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick). BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — It was too late for the mother to shield her children when the two masked and armed Russian fighters burst into her home, held her at gunpoint and took turns raping her. Her five children were forced to watch in the dark. Seated in a restaurant in Central African Republic’s capital, where she has since fled, she wiped away tears. Two years on, the assault has “stayed with me in my core,” she said. The Associated Press does not identify survivors of sexual assault. She blamed the Russians who are part of the Wagner mercenary group that operates alongside Central African Republic’s army and has been accused by locals and rights groups of abuses. She had seen them patrolling in her town of Bambari before. On the day of the assault, they were fighting rebels there. Gender-based violence is rising in Central African Republic amid ongoing conflict, weak legal and care systems and the stigma of speaking up, locals and aid groups say. Since 2020, incidents have jumped from about 9,200 reported cases to 25,500, according to cases tracked by the U.N. and partners. But international funding for the country has dropped, with gender-based violence receiving some of the least support. The humanitarian request for about $14 million received less than 15% of that, according to the U.N. Central African Republic has been in conflict since 2013, when predominantly Muslim rebels seized power and forced the president from office. Mostly Christian militias fought back. A 2019 peace deal only lessened the fighting, and six of the 14 armed groups that signed later left the agreement. Wagner, a U.N. peacekeeping mission and Rwandan troops are all on the ground to try to quell the violence. “More than 10 years on since this crisis unfolded, many people are still displaced, vulnerable and live at the mercy of armed groups,” said Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director for Human Rights Watch. “A new dynamic has emerged as well whereby mercenaries aligned with the government are also, at times, preying on the local population.” Doctors Without Borders, one of the main organizations working on gender-based violence, says it has seen an increase in patients due to the expansion of services and outreach. But it says the majority of survivors likely don’t come forward, often because help is not available where they live. The 37-year-old who fled to the capital, Bangui, said she received mental health treatment and assistance for her children from an international aid group. She’s too afraid to return home and survives by selling charcoal in the market and on handouts from friends. She never reported the attack to police because she thought it was futile. “Who can arrest the Russians in this country?” she asked. A local fighter who works with Wagner asserted that he saw six of the Russians rape a local woman in the tent where he was sleeping at their base in Bambari in early 2023. He said the Russians give women canned food like sardines or bottled water afterward. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. The Russian government didn’t respond to questions. Women don’t usually blame Wagner because its fighters are so entrenched in communities that they fear retaliation, aid groups said. During a visit by The Associated Press in March, Russians could be seen driving trucks around Bangui and walking in the western town of Bouar. Women who come forward find it hard to receive justice, said Lucie Boalo Mbassinga, vice president of the Association For Women Lawyers for Central Africa. She said they had 213 cases of sexual assault and rape reported in 2022 and 304 cases in 2023. Sometimes women open a case against local fighters but withdraw it because perpetrators’ families pay survivors not to proceed, she said. The challenges are compounded by funding cuts. In November, Mbassinga’s organization closed a program that was helping survivors across eight provinces, including in the capital, because there was no more money, she said. The cuts by the U.N. Development Program have prevented staff from reaching women in more rural areas, accompanying them to court and providing medical and mental health support, she said. “Victims are abandoned,” Mbassinga said. She suggested having mobile courts to better reach rural areas. Donor fatigue and multiple global crises are part of the reason for cuts in funding, but some diplomats and aid workers say the presence of Wagner mercenaries embedded so closely with the government and in communities makes it hard to justify giving aid. There are concerns that funding could be associated with Wagner. But not only Wagner fighters are accused of rape. The AP spoke with three women who said they had been sexually assaulted. One blamed Wagner. One blamed an armed bandit. One, a security guard, blamed a U.N. peacekeeper. The 39-year-old security guard said she was assaulted in November while on the night shift in Bangui at the peacekeeper’s home. He left her about $65 when it was over, she said. She asked her supervisor to be transferred to another house but never reported the attack. Her pastor cautioned against it to keep her job. The U.N. mission didn’t receive any allegation of sexual assault involving its personnel last November, spokesman Vladimir Monteiro said, and stressed that the U.N. takes such allegations seriously. The U.N. has long wrestled with allegations of sexual assaults by U.N. peacekeepers in Central African Republic and elsewhere. Three years ago, the secretary-general ordered the immediate repatriation of the entire U.N. Gabonese peacekeeping contingent following credible reports of sexual abuse. The government’s justice ministry didn’t respond to requests for comment. The new constitution has measures to tackle the issue, saying authorities must ensure that sexual assault is eliminated. But that comes as little comfort for survivors. In December, a 29-year-old woman said she was assaulted at a market about 124 miles (200 kilometers) from Bangui. Three men with knives and machetes robbed her and one raped her. She didn’t report it because she didn’t know the man and thought police would refuse to investigate. Now the mother of two wants to move on. She finds comfort in a program run by Doctors Without Borders, meeting weekly with a dozen other survivors. “The advice I’ve been given is not think about the aggressor and to stay busy,” she said. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press.

Associated Press By Jean-Fernand Koena May 12, 2024 Near Gaga, villagers search for scraps of gold and diamonds left by Chinese mining companies. (Reuters) BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Armed rebels on Sunday attacked a Chinese-run gold mining town and killed at least four people in Central African Republic, authorities said. Maxime Balalu, a local government spokesperson, told The Associated Press that the Coalition of Patriots for Change, an alliance of rebel groups aligned with former President Francois Bozize, had carried out the attack in Gaga, a village roughly 125 miles (200 kilometers) from the capital, Bangui. He said the death toll might rise and included several individuals who worked at the nearby mine. Several others were injured in the attack, Balalu said. Central African Republic has been in conflict since 2013, when predominantly Muslim rebels seized power and forced the President Francois Bozize from office. Mostly Christian militias fought back. A 2019 peace deal only lessened the fighting, and six of the 14 armed groups that signed later left the agreement. The Coalition of Patriots for Change was founded in 2020 in the aftermath of the agreement. The country remains one of the poorest in the world despite its vast mineral wealth of gold and diamonds among others. Rebel groups have operated with impunity across the embattled country over the past decade, thwarting mining exploration by foreign companies. Many of those now operating in the country are Chinese-run and have faced security challenges. Last year, nine Chinese nationals were killed at another gold mine in Central African Republic during an attack that the government blamed on the same rebel alliance. In 2020, two Chinese nationals died when local residents led an uprising against a Chinese-operated mine in Sosso Nakombo. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press.

July 10 2024: ROME (AP) — An aid group that rescues migrants in the Mediterranean says one of its missions was interrupted by armed bandits who boarded the overloaded smugglers’ boat and sped away with it after the migrants threw themselves into the sea. SOS Mediterranee filmed the incident Tuesday. The group said it occurred about 46 nautical miles north of Zuwara on Libya’s western coast, a frequent launching point for smuggling operations to bring migrants to Europe. According to the video, SOS Mediterranee volunteers were helping transfer the 93 passengers from the wooden boat onto their rescue vessel when two rubber dinghies approached. A masked bandit leapt onto the migrant boat, sparking panic among the remaining passengers, who threw themselves into the sea. The bandit took control of the empty boat and steered it away from the scene as the SOS Mediterranee crew plucked people from the sea. It wasn’t clear if the bandits were trying to recover the boat for future smuggling operations. Often, when Italian maritime authorities encounter such boats, they intentionally sink them as a matter of maritime safety. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

BY MIKE CORDER Updated 9:18 PM CDT, July 19, 2024 Palestinian foreign policy advisor Riad Malki speaks to media at the International Court of Justice, or World Court, in The Hague, Netherlands, Friday, July 19, 2024. The top U.N. court said Friday that Israel's presence in the Palestinian occupied territories is "unlawful" and called on it to end and for settlement construction to stop immediately, issuing an unprecedented, sweeping condemnation of Israel's rule over the lands it captured 57 years ago. (AP Photo/Phil Nijhuis) THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The top United Nations court said Friday that Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is unlawful and called on it to end, and for settlement construction to stop immediately, issuing an unprecedented, sweeping condemnation of Israel’s rule over the lands it captured 57 years ago. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly denounced the nonbinding opinion issued by the 15-judge panel of the International Court of Justice, saying the territories are part of the Jewish people’s historic homeland. But the resounding breadth of the decision could impact international opinion and fuel moves for unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. The judges pointed to a wide list of policies, including the building and expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, use of the area’s natural resources, the annexation and imposition of permanent control over lands and discriminatory policies against Palestinians, all of which it said violated international law. The court said Israel had no right to sovereignty in the territories, was violating international laws against acquiring territory by force and was impeding Palestinians’ right to self-determination. It said other nations were obliged not to “render aid or assistance in maintaining” Israel’s presence in the territories. It said Israel must end settlement construction immediately and that existing settlements must be removed, according to a summary of the more than 80-page opinion read out by court President Nawaf Salam. Israel’s “abuse of its status as the occupying power” renders its “presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful,” the court said, saying its presence must be ended as “rapidly as possible.” The court’s opinion, sought by the U.N. General Assembly after a Palestinian request, came against the backdrop of Israel’s devastating military assault on Gaza, which was triggered by the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7. In a separate case, the International Court of Justice is considering a South African claim that Israel’s campaign in Gaza amounts to genocide, a claim that Israel vehemently denies. The court said the General Assembly and Security Council — where staunch Israeli ally the United States holds a veto — should consider “the precise modalities” to end Israel’s presence in the territories. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will promptly transmit the advisory opinion to the 193-member world body and “it is for the General Assembly to decide how to proceed in the matter,” U.N. deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said. The secretary-general reiterates his call for Israel and the Palestinians to engage “on the long-delayed political path towards ending the occupation and resolving the conflict in line with international law, relevant U.N. resolutions and bilateral agreements,” the spokesperson said. Guterres also stressed that a two-state solution is “the only viable path” to seeing Israel and “a fully independent, democratic, contiguous, viable and sovereign Palestinian state” living side by side in peace and security, Haq said. Israel, which normally considers the United Nations and international tribunals as unfair and biased, didn’t send a legal team to the hearings. Instead, it submitted written comments, saying that the questions put to the court are prejudiced and fail to address Israeli security concerns. Israeli officials have said the court’s intervention could undermine the peace process, which has been stagnant for more than a decade. “The Jewish people are not conquerors in their own land — not in our eternal capital Jerusalem and not in the land of our ancestors in Judea and Samaria,” Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office, using the biblical terms for the West Bank. “No false decision in The Hague will distort this historical truth and likewise the legality of Israeli settlement in all the territories of our homeland cannot be contested.” Speaking outside the court, Riad Malki, an adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, called the opinion “a watershed moment for Palestine, for justice and for international law.” He said other nations must now “uphold the clear obligations” outlined by the court. “No actions of any kind … to support Israel’s illegal occupation.” Hamas welcomed the court’s decision and said in a statement that “serious steps on the ground” need to be taken in response. Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek all three areas for an independent state. Israel considers the West Bank to be disputed territory, the future of which should be decided in negotiations, while it has moved populations there in settlements to solidify its hold. It has annexed east Jerusalem in a move that isn’t internationally recognized, while it withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but maintained a blockade of the territory after Hamas took power in 2007. The international community generally considers all three areas to be occupied territory. The court’s decision strikes at the heart of the ambiguity of Israel’s administration of the territories. Israel hasn’t annexed the West Bank — though settler groups have pressed it to do so — but it calls it part of its homeland and has effectively treated it as an extension of the nation. Along with the settlements, it has appropriated large swaths of the territory as “state lands.” At the same time, Netanyahu’s government has repeatedly rejected the creation of any Palestinian state. Abbas’ Palestinian Authority has been restricted to control over divided enclaves scattered around the West Bank. The Palestinians presented arguments at hearings in February, along with 49 other nations and three international organizations. In the hearings, Malki accused Israel of apartheid and urged the United Nations’ top court to declare that Israel’s occupation of lands sought by the Palestinians is illegal and must end immediately and unconditionally for any hope for a two-state future to survive. Erwin van Veen, a senior research fellow at the Clingendael think tank in The Hague, said before the decision that a ruling that Israel’s policies breach international law would “isolate Israel further internationally, at least from a legal point of view.” He said such a ruling would remove “any kind of legal, political, philosophical underpinning of the Israeli expansion project.” It could also increase the number of countries that recognize a Palestinian state, in particular in the Western world, following the recent example of Spain, Norway and Ireland, he said. It’s not the first time the ICJ has been asked to give its legal opinion on Israeli policies. Two decades ago, the court ruled that Israel’s West Bank separation barrier was “contrary to international law.” Israel boycotted those proceedings, saying they were politically motivated. Israel says the barrier is a security measure. Palestinians say the structure amounts to a massive land grab, because it frequently dips into the West Bank. The court said that Israel’s construction of settlements in the West Bank violated international laws prohibiting countries from moving their population into territories they occupy. Israel has built well over 100 settlements, according to the anti-settlement monitoring group Peace Now. The West Bank settler population has grown by more than 15% in the past five years to more than 500,000 Israelis, according to a pro-settler group. Their residents are Israeli citizens governed by domestic law and served by government ministries, services, banks and other businesses — effectively integrating them into Israel. Israel also has annexed east Jerusalem and considers the entire city to be its capital. An additional 200,000 Israelis live in settlements built in east Jerusalem that Israel considers to be neighborhoods of its capital. Palestinian residents of the city face systematic discrimination, making it difficult for them to build new homes or expand existing ones. The international community considers all settlements to be illegal or obstacles to peace since they are built on lands sought by the Palestinians for their state. Netanyahu’s hard-line government is dominated by settlers and their political supporters. Netanyahu has given his Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, a former settler leader, unprecedented authority over settlement policy. Smotrich has used this position to cement Israel’s control over the West Bank by pushing forward plans to build more settlement homes and to legalize outposts. Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer contributed from the United Nations. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

FILE - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko attends a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council of the Eurasian Economic Union at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on May 8, 2024. Dozens of Nobel Prize laureates are calling in an open letter on Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko to free all the country’s political prisoners, following the release this month of 18 who are seriously ill. (Evgenia Novozhenina/Pool Photo via AP, File) TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — The head of a banned Belarusian opposition party who had been behind bars for two years was released on Monday as the authoritarian country frees a trickle of political prisoners, according to the respected human rights group Viasna. Mikalai Kazlou, who led the United Civic Party, was serving a 2 1/2-year sentence on allegations of organizing actions violating the public order. His arrest came amid a harsh crackdown on the opposition that began as mass demonstrations gripped the country. Those protests followed a presidential election in 2020 whose disputed results gave Alexander Lukashenko a sixth term. Many prominent opposition figures were imprisoned in the crackdown and others fled the country, including Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who was Lukashenko’s prime challenger in the election. The Belarusian Supreme Court banned the United Civic Party a year after Kazlou’s arrest. Lukashenko announced an amnesty in early July for some seriously ill political prisoners, and 19 have been released so far. But 1,377 remain imprisoned, according to Viasna. The prisoners include the group’s founder, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski. Activists say authorities have created conditions akin to torture in prisons, depriving political prisoners of medical care, transfers and meetings with lawyers and relatives. Lukashenko’s release of ill political prisoners indicates he may be trying to improve relations with the West ahead of seeking reelection next year, Belarusian analysts suggest. He also recently dropped visa requirements for European Union citizens arriving by rail and road. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

When Agnes Acayo escaped from the rebel group who had abducted her at the age of nine, she felt overjoyed to be free and back home at last. She had spent 10 years in captivity as a child soldier and later was forced to marry a member of the Lord’s Resistance Army(LRA) in Uganda. Now 30, Acayo, like many of her fellow female ex-combatants, is stuck in a cycle of poverty, despite government promises that they would be helped. Acayo, who still has a bullet embedded in her right hand from a battle with Ugandan army troops, lives in a rented mud-grass hut with her three children in Gulu, in the north of the country. Like other female returnees, she struggles to buy food, access healthcare, send her children to school or get a job as a result of the the failure of the government’s demobilisation, resettlement and reintegration programme. Critics say the programme is biased against female returnees because they are not considered to have been co-opted into the army, like men, and so miss out on any army payments. “It’s difficult to cope with life. We [ex-combatants] are marginalised and abandoned. I keep thinking whether I should go back to the bush or just commit suicide,” says Acayo. “I do all kinds of jobs, like washing people’s clothes, in order to get money to buy food, and pay school fees, house rent and for medical care. Despite the promises, the government has never provided any assistance. I got an amnesty [commission] certificate and a reintegration package.” Acayo was given 263,000 Ugandan shillings (£55), a mattress, blanket, hoe, machete, cups, and maize and bean seeds. Justice Peter Onega, chair of Uganda’s Amnesty Commission, appreciates Acayo’s frustrations. “Ex-LRA female combatants, abductees and other returnees in northern Uganda are right when they complain. We have failed them. Our hands as a commission are tied. We don’t have the necessary financial resources for proper resettlement and reintegration of these people into the communities,” he says. “When people face community stigmatisation, discrimination and rejection, they think of all sorts of things. Some think of violence, or returning to the bush, or committing suicide.” He says the commission needs 10bn Ugandan shillings (£2m) to reintegrate more than 28,000 former rebels – almost half of them ex-LRA fighters – granted amnesty since 2000. “We really can’t do much. We need 10bn [shillings] for reintegration purposes. But government allocates the commission about 1.2bn for its operations each year. We appeal for urgent funding to help us reintegrate and empower these people to forget about their past,” says Onega. Acayo says she feels “much pain, frustration and stigmatisation” at the way she is treated by people. “When the community knows you are a former rebel fighter, people finger-point and look at you as a killer. You are called all sorts of names. Rebel, rebel, Kony and killer, killer,” she says. “Our children face the same situation. They can’t play and interact with other children freely. They are always harassed and abused. The children are seen as a curse and burden to the community. “I didn’t wish to join the LRA. I was abducted. I was told I would be a babysitter. But after one year I was taken for military and started fighting in the frontlines. If I didn’t shoot dead, I would be shot.” Acayo fought in Uganda and Sudan. When she turned 14 it was decided she was old enough to be a wife for one of the commanders. “I was given to a man about 60 years old. When I refused to be his wife, I was beaten terribly. I was bleeding from the ears, nose and mouth. I was taken to the sick bay, where I stayed for a month. When I recovered I was taken back to the same old man. I had no option. I was forced to live and have sex with him as a wife for six years.” When Acayo’s “husband” was killed, she was forced into another marriage. “We kept fighting as I was planning to escape. One night I took the risk and managed to escape in Lubagatek, Sudan [now South Sudan]. I moved with my baby son for days without food and water. Fortunately, I bumped into some Arab fighters. They helped, and took me to Juba. Save the Children transported me to Khartoum,” says Acayo. “I was excited and overjoyed when I was flown back to Uganda. But it was a rude welcome. I found my father and mother [had been] killed. I couldn’t stay in the village and had to return to town because of community rejection. We are looked on as killers.” It is a common story, says Mahlet Woldetsadik, a doctoral fellow at Pardee Rand Graduate School in California, who is working on a research project in Gulu. “Most women survivors still continue to face a lot of challenges, including mental health problems related to their experiences, land inheritance issues related to their children born of war and [difficulties in] fully integrating back into their former communities and families,” she says. “Those who have chosen not to get remarried, or remain single after their return, face greater challenges in terms of supporting themselves financially, since it’s not easy for them to get a job or start their own businesses.” Woldetsadik and her team interviewed more than 50 female survivors who experienced sexual violence during captivity. Woldetsadik says the first step is to understand – from survivors themselves – their challenges and what they need for a sustainable livelihood and to be able to heal fully from their trauma. “Designing programmes based on their needs rather than donor or organisational priorities is, I think, the most useful way of addressing the needs in this community,” says Woldetsadik. “It’s important to support grassroots organisations, some of which, like the Women’s Advocacy Network, are led by survivors themselves. These organisations have a deeper understanding of this community and what is needed in order to effect change. These groups are also trusted by those they serve, and have direct access to women who might not seek formal services.” Acayo is clear about what she wants. “The government should sponsor and pay school fees for my children, buy land for me and construct a house. It should also create jobs for our children. Some of the children we came back from the bush with went to school and studied. At the moment, they are thinking about wanting to go back to the bush over lack of jobs,” she says. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jan/08/abducted-girl-soldier-joseph-kony-lra-lords-resistance-army-uganda (c) 2018 The Guardian

The UN has launched an inquiry into its conduct in Myanmar over the past decade, where it has been accused of ignoring warning signs of escalating violence prior to an alleged genocide of the Rohingya minority. UN sources have confirmed to the Guardian that the initially hesitant UN secretary general, António Guterres, decided to proceed with the investigation after a “build-up in pressure” within the organisation. It will be headed by Gert Rosenthal, a former foreign minister and Guatemalan permanent representative to the UN, who is thought to have begun overseeing meetings in the role. “This review is not directed at any particular individual or agency, but rather at how the United Nations as an institution works on the ground and possible lessons learned for the future,” said Stanislav Saling, a spokesperson for the UN in Myanmar, adding that Rosenthal had no plans to travel to Myanmar for his investigations. A senior UN official in New York, who asked not to be identified, said Rosenthal was chosen because “he’s considered to be a very serious and sober expert on UN workings. He knows the house from many different perspectives and is known to be someone who will speak his mind.” There have been multiple calls for a full inquiry into UN operations in Myanmar in recent years, which were described as “glaringly dysfunctional”in a memo written months before the military-led crackdown on the Rohingya in Rakhine state in August 2017. The violence, described by the UN as ethnic cleansing and possible genocide, included the killing of thousands of people, women and children raped, villages razed and forced more than 700,000 to flee over the border to Bangladesh. Marzuki Darusman, the chair of the UN fact-finding Mission on Myanmar, said late last year there was an “ongoing genocide” in Rakhine. Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said: “It’s good that the UN is planning to engage in some serious soul-searching to understand what went wrong with their handling of the Myanmar crisis. “Quite clearly, they failed to see and warn the world about what was clear to us and many others long before August 2017 – that the Burmese military was looking for an opportunity to launch a massive ethnic cleansing operation to get rid of the Rohingya.” Criticism of the UN’s response has focused on allegations against Renata Lok-Dessallien, a former resident coordinator of Myanmar, who was accused of downplaying concerns about worsening abuses against the Rohingya; discouraging public statements critical of the NLD government, led by the de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi; prioritising development strategies at the expense of human rights; and even suppressing internal reports that she did not like. The UN has denied most of these claims. However, several UN figures and diplomats said the emphasis on Lok-Dessallien was misplaced, and that the UN failings were a reflection of much bigger issues within the UN system and the diplomatic community in Myanmar as a whole. In 2017 the UN described Lok-Dessallien “as a tireless advocate for human rights”. The recent UN fact-finding mission to Myanmar, which concluded that the country’s military generals should be investigated for genocide and crimes against humanity for their actions against the Rohingya and other minorities, also called for a review into UN conduct in Myanmar, echoing a recommendation made months earlier by Yanghee Lee, UN special rapporteur for human rights to the country. “The review needs to be independent from the UN and made available publicly when finished,” Lee told the Guardian. Indeed, there are concerns that the inquiry will be purposefully limited in its scope and impact and it is not clear if the final report will be made public. According to insiders, there is a wariness within the upper levels of the organisation that amid a climate of increasing hostility towards the UN by governments such as the US, a more wide-ranging inquiry report could sow division and damage the organisation’s reputation and ability to continue its peacemaking and humanitarian work. The source in New York said moves to initiate the review were stalled by internal tensions. After a hiatus following the controversy around her leadership in Myanmar, Lok-Dessallien is widely expected to be appointed UN resident coordinator for India. She is likely to take up the post before the completion of the Myanmar inquiry, leading to further doubts over the chances it will prompt any individual accountability. Sources within the UN system said officials at the the organisation’s headquarters in New York did not want a repeat of the damning and internally controversial 2012 Petrie report, authored by the former UN assistant secretary general Charles Petrie. It concluded that during the endgame of the Sri Lankan civil war, where tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were killed, there had been a “systemic failure” by UN agencies on the ground to speak out for and protect civilians. Individuals and agencies singled out for criticism in the review objected strongly to how their actions were characterised, leading to rifts inside the world body over how to follow up to the investigation. “It’s hard not to say: ‘Here we go again’,” Robertson said. “There were supposed to be lessons learned after the fiasco in Sri Lanka in 2009 but apparently there weren’t.” The review headed by Rosenthal will use Sri Lanka as a reference point against which to judge what lessons have not been learned within the UN system, the Guardian has been told. Comparisons between Sri Lanka and Myanmar were made in a confidential report commissioned by the Office of the UN high commissioner for human rights in Myanmar in 2015. “The situation bears a striking resemblance to the humanitarian community’s systematic failure in the final stages of the war in Sri Lanka, during which hundreds of thousands of Tamils were held against their will in internment camps that were fully paid for and serviced by international humanitarian institutions,” the 2015 report says. Allegations of UN dysfunction in Myanmar have continued since Lok-Dessallien’s departure in 2017. The fact-finding mission report, which was released last August, noted that some UN entities in Myanmar had not cooperated with the investigation. “Things are not as dysfunctional as they were,” said a UN insider based in Geneva, who asked to remain unnamed. “But the fundamental problems and deep divisions in opinion, response and strategy remain unresolved. Hopefully the Rosenthal review might be the vehicle that enables them to be addressed.” © 2019 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.