‘These events are extremely serious and must be investigated diligently, independently and impartially,’ Amnesty International says. Riot police officers clash with demonstrators protesting against the government of Colombian President Ivan Duque in Bogota on June 29, 2021 [Raul Arboleda/AFP] Bogotá, Colombia — Colombian authorities unlawfully detained, tortured, and used lethal weapons against peaceful protesters during the demonstrations that have swept the country since April, said a new report from Amnesty International. Through an “exhaustive digital verification” of images and videos, Amnesty also confirmed that National Police officials permitted acts of violence and urban paramilitarism by armed civilians against demonstrators and human rights activists. The protests, which reached their peak in May, have since calmed, although they saw a resurgence on July 20, Colombian Independence Day. Since the start of the demonstrations, the National Police and the Mobile Anti-Riot Squad (ESMAD) have been criticised for excessive force and repression of peaceful protests. The largest protests took place in Cali, which has the largest Afro-descendant population in Colombia and the second largest in Latin America, and where racism, classism, as well as the country’s internal armed conflict have taken a toll. The Amnesty report documented some of the worst of the allegations levelled against authorities. “​​[P]olice officers and armed civilians, acting with their acquiescence and tolerance, attacked the protesters, committing acts of torture in some cases,” the report argued. “[I]n a country battered by decades of paramilitary violence, these events are extremely serious and must be investigated diligently, independently and impartially.” The report analyses, in particular, a violent police incursion into the Cali neighbourhood of Siloé, an attack on the Indigenous Minga by armed civilians as police looked on, as well as attacks by police and civilians against protesters at Valle University, where several demonstrators allege torture and inhumane treatment during their unlawful detention. Three protesters described in detail how police beat them, pressured them to confess to crimes they had not committed, and threatened to “disappear” them. These practices are not isolated incidents, but rather reflect a pattern of violent repression by Colombian authorities including President Iván Duque, who fuelled protests by sending military units “shaped by more than six decades of armed conflict” into city streets, the report concluded. Amnesty’s report came three weeks after the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), an autonomous body in the Organization of American States, concluded the Colombian government used “excessive and disproportionate” force during the protests. The IACHR called on the government to make structural changes to its police force. Human Rights Watch last month also called out “egregious” police abuse during the protests and demanded the government “take urgent measures to protect human rights”. In an interview with Al Jazeera, the Amnesty report’s author, María José Veramendi, pointed to a pattern of police violence during the past two years, including the death of Dilan Cruz during protests in 2019 and Javier Ordoñez, whose death in police custody after being repeatedly tasered by officers sparked deadly protests last year. An official source from the National Police pointed out the violence and destruction caused by protesters, pointed to proposed police reforms and stated that any crimes committed by police were isolated incidents and not representative of a systemic issue. “While there were some policemen who were committing mistakes and abuses, which as I say should be punished with total severity, there is a difference,” the source wrote in a message. “And that is that those gentlemen did not get up from their beds with the intention of murdering and assaulting, as those who caused the terrible excesses that the country experienced for weeks did in a premeditated way.” Calls for police accountability Veramendi said that while Amnesty also made an effort to document crimes committed by demonstrators, that responses like this from authorities are an attempt to avoid accountability. “Unfortunately, what we have seen is, every time when faced with this evidence of human rights violations the government immediately shifts the focus to blockages, attacks on the police, attacks on bus stations etc,” she said. “And all of those harm and damages to public goods to bus stations to police stations, of course, they need to be duly investigated. But the government cannot shift the conversation and needs to address their responsibility for human rights violations.” The report also made a series of recommendations including trying human rights violations in ordinary courts instead of military tribunals and to cease the stigmatisation of protesters and accusations of alliance with armed groups without evidence. “What we found is that we see this [violence] with the intention of causing fear, and to cause these peaceful protesters to cease the protest,” said Veramendi. “And we’ve been seeing this, unfortunately, during the past three months of the national strike in Colombia.” This police repression achieved its intended effect, to some extent, said Andres Carmona, a 25-year old resident of Melendez, one of Cali’s main protest points, who saw several friends killed and injured in the demonstrations. “There are many people who suddenly do not have the same adrenaline to continue putting up with these things. And only the boys remain, the ones who were always ready to fight,” he told Al Jazeera by phone from Melendez. “But the rest … are not going to want to be shot for simply being there. A lot of support from the people was lost due to the question of fear. And at the moment the only ones there are not afraid of anything.” Normality has more or less returned to Siloé, said Diego “Largo” Leiter, an activist in Cali, in which the state is largely absent unless there is a disturbance like the blockade. “There is still the same crime, there is still the same violence, it continues to have the same margins of poverty and inequality,” he said. “So that has made people have a bigger resentment because they feel that much of what they did has not been seen by the state and that they don’t really matter.” © Copyright 2021 Al Jazeera

Call comes after more than 1,000 unmarked graves found at institutions Indigenous children were forced to attend. Recent discoveries of unmarked graves on the grounds of former residential schools have renewed pain and trauma for Indigenous people in Canada [File: Shannon VanRaes/Reuters] Warning: The story below contains details of residential schools that may be upsetting. Canada’s Indian Residential School Survivors and Family Crisis Line is available 24 hours a day at 1-866-925-4419. Hundreds of people took part in a rally in the Canadian capital on Saturday to demand an independent investigation into the “residential schools” that Indigenous children were forced to attend for nearly a century and where hundreds of unmarked graves have been discovered in recent weeks. The March for Truth and Justice rally on Parliament Hill in Ottawa was led by New Democratic Party legislators Charlie Angus and Mumilaaq Qaqqaq, who represents the northern territory of Nunavut. “We need to come together and tell the federal institution and Justin Trudeau that enough is enough: Indigenous Peoples need truth and justice,” Qaqqaq wrote in an Instagram post ahead of the event. “That means a special prosecutor and a fully-funded independent investigation, with international observers present, into Canada’s crimes against Indigenous peoples." More than 1,000 unmarked graves have been discovered on the grounds of former residential schools across Canada since late May, renewing intergenerational trauma and pain for Indigenous people. Between the late 1800s and the 1990s, more than 150,000 First Nation, Metis and Inuit children were forcibly separated from their families and forced to attend residential schools, which aimed to “assimilate” them into white Canadian society. The government-funded, church-run institutions were rife with abuse and more than 4,000 children are believed to have died there. Indigenous community leaders have said there is little doubt that more unmarked graves exist, and they have called on the Canadian government and the Catholic Church, which operated most of the institutions, to help them fund searches for more unmarked graves. They also demanded that Canada and the church release any documentation that could help identify any remains that are discovered at the sites. A federal commission of inquiry found that Canada had committed “cultural genocide” through its residential schools system and, in 2015, it issued 94 Calls to Action to address the lasting harms of the policy. But very few of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s recommendations have been completed to date – and Indigenous people in Canada, as well as international observers, have called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to do more. Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada told Al Jazeera in an email last month that the 2019 budget provided 33.8 million Canadian dollars ($28m) over three years to support the recommendations on deaths at the schools specifically. Trudeau and his ministers also have reiterated that they remain committed to supporting First Nation communities in their efforts. Still, a group of United Nations experts last month urged Canada and the Catholic Church to conduct “prompt and thorough” investigations into the deaths, including forensic examination of the remains, and work to identify and register the missing children. “The judiciary should conduct criminal investigations into all suspicious death and allegations of torture and sexual violence against children hosted in residential schools, and prosecute and sanction the perpetrators and concealers who may still be alive,” they said at that time. Indigenous community leaders also have called on police to lay criminal charges against the Canadian government, churches and individual perpetrators of crimes committed in the institutions. Others have encouraged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to open an investigation. © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network

Francois Bozize did not satisfy morality clause due to international arrest warrant and UN sanctions against him. Published by Al Jazeera on December 3, 2020. A soldier takes position at daybreak in Bangui. (Andreea Campeanu/Reuters) The top court in the Central African Republic (CAR) has rejected the candidacy of former President Francois Bozize in the December 27 election. Bozize planned to run against President Faustin-Archange Touadera. But the Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday that Bozize, 74, did not satisfy the “good morality” requirement for candidates because of an international warrant and United Nations sanctions against him for alleged assassinations, torture and other crimes. Bozize, a former general who seized power in a 2003 coup and was overthrown in a 2013 rebellion, has denied the accusations against him. His lawyer said the opposition coalition led by Bozize would now meet to consider its options. Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque, reporting from Dakar in Senegal, said the announcement comes as “no surprise” and paved the way for Touadera to win a second mandate. “The judges of the Constitutional Court said [Bozize] is in breach of Article 103 of the constitution which says that in order to be candidate for president you need to have good morals and a clean criminal record,” Haque said. “Judges believe he has neither.” The court validated the candidacies of Touadera and 16 others, according to the order read by the court’s president. Ongoing crisis CAR has experienced an acute humanitarian crisis since Bozize’s overthrow, which led to fighting between mainly Muslim and Christian armed groups. Touadera, 63, was elected in February 2016 with two-thirds of the vote. But he struggled to stem vicious inter-communal strife in a country where armed groups control two-thirds of the territory. A peace accord signed in February 2019 between the government and 14 armed groups has led to a lower level of violence, although it remains entrenched. Bozize returned to CAR late last year and announced his presidential candidacy in July, saying an experienced leader was required to restore peace. Even though Touadera’s government sought the warrant for Bozize’s arrest, it has not sought to detain him since he returned to CAR. © 2020 Al Jazeera Media Network.

UN peacekeeping mission says casualties resulted from ‘large-scale attack’ by 3R armed group against army positions in a northeastern village. The UN MINUSCA mission has about 12,000 troops in the CAR [File: Florent Vergnes/AFP] The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (CAR) says six civilians were killed in a rebel attack in the country’s northeast. “This morning at dawn elements from the 3R (Return, Reclamation, Rehabilitation) launched a large-scale attack against Central African army positions in the village of Mann,” the spokesperson for the UN’s 12,000-strong MINUSCA mission was quoted as saying by AFP news agency on Saturday. Several civilians were also wounded in the attack, the spokesperson said. The situation in Mann, some 550 kilometres (340 miles) from the capital, Bangui, is now “under control and patrols are under way”, Lieutenant Colonel Abdoulaziz Fall later said. The 3R is one of several armed groups to have emerged in the CAR, which has been mired in violence since a brutal civil conflict erupted in 2013. President Faustin-Archange Touadéra was re-elected in a December 2020 election that saw a turnout of fewer than one in three voters amid rising insecurity. The ballot was hampered by armed groups – including the 3R – that at the time controlled approximately two-thirds of the country, and rebels mounted an offensive in the run-up to polling day. Since then, the army, backed by UN peacekeepers, Rwandan special forces and Russian paramilitaries, has wrested much of the territory from rebel control. On Thursday, the UN Security Council extended an arms embargo on the country for 12 months as members voiced alarm at the “deteriorating” situation. The extension, which aims to prevent armed groups from acquiring weaponry, is virtually the same as the last embargo but includes an exemption on mortars. Russia has been aiding the CAR’s poorly-equipped national army since 2018, when Moscow first acknowledged sending personnel to help train its beleaguered forces. The Russian paramilitaries supplied small arms, gaining exemption from the weapons embargo, and are credited with helping strengthening the CAR’s forces. Last month, UN experts accused the Russians of having carried out “indiscriminate killings” and looting. Moscow insists the personnel are unarmed and not involved in fighting. Russia has acknowledged the deployment of about 500 instructors but UN experts estimate there could be up to 2,000. © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network

The US and the UK accuse the Taliban of killing dozens of civilians in possible ‘war crimes’ in Spin Boldak, south Afghanistan. Afghan forces battled to stop a first major city from falling to the Taliban as the United States and the United Kingdom accused the group of “massacring civilians” in a Kandahar town they recently captured near the Pakistan border. “The Taliban massacred dozens of civilians in revenge killings. These murders could constitute war crimes,” the embassies of Washington and London said in separate tweets on Monday regarding the alleged atrocities committed in Spin Boldak. “The Taliban’s leadership must be held responsible for the crimes of their fighters. If you cannot control your fighters now, you have no business in governance later.” Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban negotiating team member based in Doha, told Reuters news agency that tweets containing the accusations were “baseless reports." The US and UK diplomatic condemnations come after Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission also said Taliban fighters had indulged in revenge killings in Spin Boldak. “After taking over Spin Boldak district, the Taliban chased and identified past and present government officials and killed these people who had no combat role in the conflict,” the group said, adding at least 40 people had been killed by the Taliban. Meanwhile, Taliban fighters continued to assault at least three provincial capitals – Lashkar Gah, Kandahar and Herat – after a weekend of heavy fighting that saw thousands of civilians flee. The war has intensified since early May, with the Taliban capitalising on the final stages of the withdrawal of the US-led foreign forces after almost 20 years in the country. ‘Relentless’ fighting Fighting continued in the southern Afghan city of Lashkar Gah overnight as Afghan forces beat back a fresh assault from the Taliban. “Afghan forces on the ground and by air strikes repelled the attack,” the military in Helmand said. Resident Hawa Malalai told the AFP news agency that there was a growing crisis in the city: “There is fighting, power cuts, sick people in hospital, the telecommunication networks are down. There are no medicines and pharmacies are closed.” Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) said casualties were mounting in Lashkar Gah. “There has been relentless gunfire, air strikes and mortars in densely populated areas. Houses are being bombed, and many people are suffering severe injuries,” said Sarah Leahy, the aid group’s coordinator for Helmand, in a statement. Helmand for years was the centrepiece of the US and British military campaign in Afghanistan – only for it to slip deeper into instability. The loss of Lashkar Gah would be a massive strategic and psychological blow for the government, which has pledged to defend provincial capitals at all costs after losing much of the countryside to the Taliban over the summer. Fighting also surged in some districts of Kandahar province, the former bastion of the Taliban, and on the outskirts of its capital. In the west, hundreds of commandos were also defending Herat after days of fierce fighting. Kabul has repeatedly dismissed the Taliban’s steady gains over the summer as lacking strategic value, but has largely failed to reverse their momentum. The capture of any important city by the Taliban would take their current offensive to another level and fuel concerns about the ability of the Afghan military. The Taliban has seized Afghan cities in the past but has retained them only briefly. Ghani blames US Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani blamed the country’s deteriorating security on the US deciding “abruptly” to withdraw its troops. Presenting his security plan before parliament on Monday, Ghani said the situation in the war-torn nation will be “under control within six months”, adding that the US has pledged its full support. “The reason for our current situation is that the decision was taken abruptly,” he told parliament, adding he had warned Washington the withdrawal would have “consequences." The president added that “protection of the people” is a duty he will maintain. Al Jazeera’s James Bays, reporting from Kabul, said while Ghani was addressing the security problems in the country, he was “not really talking about solutions”, causing concern among members of the international community. “We have not heard a detailed plan … I’ve spoken to many members of the international community and diplomats here [Kabul], who are concerned,” Bays said. “They believe the president really does need to set out a plan – not only a plan in order to execute it, to solve the military problems on the ground, but also because they say the Afghan people need to hear that he has a plan because morale is slumping,” he said. Meanwhile, the US said it will take in thousands of more Afghan refugees as violence surged across the country. “In light of increased levels of Taliban violence, the US government is working to provide certain Afghans, including those who worked with the United States, the opportunity for refugee resettlement,” the State Department said in a statement on Monday. These will include current and former employees of the US-based news organisations, US-based aid and development agencies and other relief groups that receive US funding. Current and former employees of the US government and the NATO military operation who do not meet the criteria for a dedicated programme for such workers are also covered. Washington has already started evacuating thousands of interpreters and their families who worked with the military and embassy over the past 20 years. © Al Jazeera 2021

Cabinet backs draft bill to join founding treaty of The Hague-based court, but the decision needs approval by sovereign council. Al-Bashir is wanted by the ICC to face trial on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection to the Darfur conflict [File: Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters] The Sudanese cabinet has voted to ratify the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court (ICC), a move bringing closer the possibility of former longtime President Omar al-Bashir facing trial for genocide. Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said in a statement on Twitter the draft bill to join the Rome Statute of The Hague-based court was passed “unanimously”. Following the military’s overthrow of al-Bashir in 2019, in the wake of mass protests against his rule, Sudan has been led by a transitional civilian-military administration that has pledged to bring justice to victims of crimes committed under the former president. Sudan is yet to appoint a legislative body, but the decision still needs the approval of the sovereign council, a joint military-civilian body that is the country’s highest authority and is tasked with leading it to free and fair multiparty elections. Hamdok said there would be a joint meeting between the ruling council and the cabinet to “to pass it into law”. The cabinet did not offer a time frame for ratification. “Justice and accountability are a solid foundation of the new, rule of law-based Sudan we’re striving to build,” Hamdok said but gave no further details as to what joining the ICC might mean in terms of putting al-Bashir and other Sudanese wanted by the court on trial, either in Sudan or in The Hague. Al-Bashir is wanted by the ICC to face trial on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection to the Darfur conflict. The United Nations says 300,000 people were killed and 2.5 million displaced in the war, which broke out in 2003 when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated central government in the capital, Khartoum, accusing it of political and economic marginalisation. Al-Bashir’s government responded by unleashing a notorious government-linked militia known as the Janjaweed, recruited from among the region’s nomadic peoples. Human rights groups have long accused al-Bashir and his former aides of using a scorched earth policy, raping, killing, looting and burning villages. Al-Bashir has denied the allegations against him and had escaped previous attempts to send him to The Hague tribunal. He is currently being held in the high-security Kober prison in Khartoum, along with former aides also wanted by the ICC. The former president was convicted in December 2019 for corruption and has been on trial in Khartoum since July 2020 for the 1989 coup that brought him to power. Sudan’s transitional administration is in talks with the ICC about options for trying al-Bashir and his former aides. One stumbling block was that Sudan was not party to the Rome Statute. In late May, former ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda visited Darfur and pressed Sudanese officials to hand over al-Bashir and other wanted leaders. Last year, alleged senior Janjaweed militia leader Ali Kushayb, who was wanted by the ICC, surrendered to the court. ICC judges said in July he will be the first suspect to be tried over the Darfur conflict on multiple counts of rape, murder, and torture. © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network

© 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network Indigenous people protested in June against commercial agriculture and mining on protected tribal reservations in Brasilia, Brazil [File: Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters] Far-right president has led ‘an explicit, systematic’ anti-Indigenous policy since taking office in 2019, group alleges. An Indigenous organisation in Brazil has asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro for “genocide” and “ecocide”, accusing him of persecuting native peoples and destroying their homelands. The Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) alleged in a case filed with the Hague-based court on Monday that the far-right president has led “an explicit, systematic and intentional anti-Indigenous policy” since taking office in 2019. “We believe there are acts in progress in Brazil that constitute crimes against humanity, genocide and ecocide,” Eloy Terena, the group’s legal coordinator, said in a statement. “Given the inability of the justice system in Brazil to investigate, prosecute and judge these [crimes], we denounce them to the international community,” Terena said. Bolsonaro, 66, has presided over a surge of destruction in the Amazon rainforest, slashed environmental protection programmes and pushed to open Indigenous reservations and other protected lands to agribusiness and mining. Indigenous rights activists further accuse him of exacerbating the devastation that COVID-19 has wrought on their communities with his stance against stay-at-home policies. The estimated 900,000 Indigenous people in Brazil are particularly vulnerable to outside diseases, including COVID-19, which has killed at least 1,166 of them, according to the APIB. It is not the first time Indigenous leaders have accused Bolsonaro of attacking their people and homelands. In January, iconic Indigenous chief Raoni Metuktire filed a separate case to the ICC asking the court to investigate Bolsonaro for crimes against humanity, saying the “destruction of the Amazonian forest has accelerated without measure” under his government. The ICC’s chief prosecutor must now decide whether to pursue the cases. Official figures released on Friday show deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon reached near-record levels for the year through July, destroying an area nearly the size of Puerto Rico.

Three separate attacks come after helicopter carrying President Ivan Duque was fired at near border with Venezuela on Friday. The government of Colombia's President Ivan Duque (C) has offered nearly $800,000 for any information about an attack on a helicopter Duque was travelling in on Friday near the Venezuelan border [File: Colombia Presidency/Handout via Reuters] At least nine people, including four police officers, have died in three separate attacks across Colombia, which has seen a recent surge in violence and instability in several parts of the country. Three off-duty police officers died in an attack by armed men in the northeastern town of Pailitias, a police statement said on Sunday. One of the officers’ pregnant wife was also injured. In the country’s south, five men were found murdered in San Vicente del Caguan, Mayor Julian Perdomo told the AFP news agency. A fourth police officer also died in “an incursion by an armed group” in a neighbourhood of the city of Cali in the southwest, said Mayor Jorge Ivan Ospina. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for any of the three attacks, though authorities often blame armed groups – including dissidents who rejected a 2016 peace deal between the government and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels – for such violence. The mark of a projectile impact is seen on a helicopter that Colombian President Ivan Duque was travelling in, after it suffered an attack during an overflight in Cucuta [Colombia Presidency/Handout via Reuters] The wave of attacks comes after a helicopter transporting President Ivan Duque and other government officials was shot at near Colombia’s border with Venezuela on Friday. No one on board was injured, but photos released by Duque’s office showed the tail and main blade had been hit. The government has offered a nearly $800,000 reward for any information about who was responsible. Earlier this month, car bomb explosions in a military base in the northeastern city of Cucuta – the same city Duque’s helicopter was flying towards when it was fired upon – also injured 36 people. Colombian observer group Indepaz says there have been 45 massacres – the killing of three or more people in a single event – so far this year. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a report in March that Colombia had seen a resurgence of violence last year, as well, as at least five conflicts with armed groups were ongoing. The ICRC said 389 people – mostly civilians – were killed by explosive devices last year, the highest number since 2016. More than 27,000 people were displaced across Colombia in the first quarter of 2021, the country’s human rights ombudsman said in April, a jump of 177 percent compared with the same period a year earlier. The ombudsman said people were forced from their homes amid threats, murders, forced recruitment by armed gangs and clashes between armed groups. Colombia has also seen regular anti-government protests since April, when a proposed tax reform that critics said would disproportionately harm the middle and working classes pushed thousands into the streets. Demonstrators have since demanded government action to tackle poverty, inequities in healthcare and education and increasing violence across the country. Rights groups have raised concerns about police violence linked to those protests. © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network

At least 244,000 people internally displaced since May, says the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Internally displaced Afghan families being sheltered at a school in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province [Anadolu Agency] Afghanistan is seeing an enormous rise in the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) since the withdrawal of foreign troops began in May, according to data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). At least 244,000 people have been internally displaced since the beginning of May, when the Taliban group began multiple offensives against the Western-backed Afghan government, an increase of more than 300 percent compared with the same period last year. According to the report, most of the people are fleeing from northeastern and eastern Afghanistan. Nearly all lack adequate shelter, access to medical care and sufficient food, it said. Many initially fled their homes in rural areas due to fighting, seeking refuge in provincial capitals. However, the fighting has shifted to urban centres in recent weeks as the Taliban closes in on many of Afghanistan’s larger cities. In the last few days alone, the resurgent Taliban has assumed control of five Afghan provincial capitals, mainly in the north of the country, including Kunduz, the sixth-largest city in Afghanistan, which fell to the group on Sunday. As the Taliban advance across Afghanistan shows no sign of slowing, IDP numbers are expected to increase further. Afghanistan’s internally displaced families at a temporary shelter in Kunar province [Anadolu Agency] At present, heavy fighting is continuing between the government and Taliban forces around the capitals of Helmand, Kandahar, Herat, and Badakhshan provinces. Attempted peace talks between the two sides held in Qatar last year have made little progress and have now mostly stalled. President Joe Biden has confirmed that United States troops will end their 20-year military invasion in Afghanistan by the end of August, while NATO has already ended its mission in the country. A spokesman for the Taliban’s political office in Qatar has told Al Jazeera that there is no agreement on a ceasefire with the Afghan government, and warned against further US intervention in Afghanistan. “Our response is clear. We want a peaceful solution to the Afghan issue,” said Suhail Shaheen, international media spokesman for the Taliban. “If they focus on military strategy and military offensives, then we will have a reaction.” SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

Gunmen riding on motorbikes attacked several villages late on Sunday, ‘shooting at anything that moved’, officials said. Gunmen have attacked several villages in northern Mali, “shooting at anything that moved” and killing at least 51 people in apparent retribution for the recent arrest of several rebel leaders, authorities said. The latest violence took place in the volatile area along the borders of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso where fighters linked to ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda are active. A note from the Asongo district administrator to the governor of the Gao region, seen by the Reuters news agency, said houses were ransacked and burned to the ground and herds of livestock carried away. “Provisional toll is 51 killed, several other injured,” the note said. No group has yet taken responsibility for the attacks. Mali’s army spokesman Colonel Souleymane Dembele confirmed the attacks on Monday but gave no further details. The attackers arrived on Sunday around 6pm local time (18:00 GMT) in the communities of Ouatagouna and Karou, local official Oumar Cisse said. “Most of the victims were in front of their houses; others were going to the mosque,” he told The Associated Press. A local official, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, told the AFP news agency that “20 civilians were massacred in Karou. Fourteen civilians were killed in Ouatagouna, and other civilians were killed in the hamlet of Daoutegeft”. The assailants arrived on motorbike, taking the villagers by surprise, the official said. The attack came a week after the Malian army arrested two rebel leaders who had been denounced by residents of Ouattagouna and Karou. Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris, reporting from the Nigerian capital Abuja, said the 51 dead is a provisional figure and officials have said the death toll could rise. An unspecified number of people were injured in the attacks. “Families have also been asking security forces for security protection so that they can pick up and bury their dead,” Idris said. “These areas have seen numerous attacks since the start of this year and things seem to be getting worse and worse and worse.” Rebel fighters have been a threat in the area for years. Fighters first seized control of cities in northern Mali back in 2012. Although a French-led military drive forced the rebels out of the urban centres the following year, they quickly regrouped in rural areas and have continued to launch devastating attacks on military targets. Civilians are increasingly coming under attack as well, with hundreds killed since January in a series of mass killings in villages near the border of Niger and Mali. France, the former colonial power in the region, announced last month that it would be withdrawing more than 2,000 troops by early next year from the Sahel region, the vast area below the Sahara Desert that stretches across several countries. A statement from MINUSMA, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali, condemned the “barbaric attacks” on Sunday and said the courts could prosecute such attacks on civilians as crimes against humanity. In Burkina Faso, meanwhile, 12 troops were killed and eight were wounded on Sunday in an ambush near the border with Mali, the government said. “Members of the ground forces and the rapid intervention force GARSI were ambushed” in the northwest Boucle du Mouhoun region, Communications Minister Ousseni Tamboura said Monday. The attack occurred near the village of Dounkoun in Toeni district. © Al Jazeera 2021

Ashraf Ghani leaves Afghanistan hours after the Taliban ordered its fighters to wait on the outskirts of the capital. Local media reported that Ghani has left for Tajikistan [Afghan Presidential Palace/Handout via Reuters] Afghanistan’s embattled president has left the country, joining his fellow citizens and foreigners in a stampede fleeing the advancing Taliban and signalling the end of a 20-year Western experiment aimed at remaking Afghanistan. Abdullah Abdullah, the head of the Afghan National Reconciliation Council, confirmed in an online video that President Ghani had left on Sunday. “The former president of Afghanistan left Afghanistan, leaving the country in this difficult situation,” Abdullah said. “God should hold him accountable.” Ghani flew out of the country, two officials told The Associated Press news agency, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief journalists. Local media reported that Ghani left for Tajikistan. Abdullah said he wants security forces to continue providing security for Kabul and asked the Taliban to wait for talks before entering the city. But the Taliban, which for hours had been on the outskirts of Kabul, announced soon after that they would move further into a city gripped by panic throughout the day as helicopters raced overhead to evacuate personnel from the US embassy. Smoke rose near the compound as staff destroyed important documents. Several other Western missions also prepared to pull their people out. Civilians fearing that the Taliban could reimpose the kind of brutal rule that all but eliminated women’s rights rushed to leave the country as well, lining up at cash machines to withdraw their life savings. The desperately poor – who had left homes in the countryside for the hoped-for safety in the capital – remained in their thousands in parks and open spaces throughout the city. In a stunning rout, the Taliban has captured 26 of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals since August 6, despite the billions of dollars spent by the US and NATO over nearly 20 years to build up Afghan security forces. Just days earlier, an American military assessment estimated it would be a month before the capital would come under the Taliban pressure. Instead, the Taliban swiftly defeated, co-opted or sent Afghan security forces fleeing from wide swaths of the country, even though they had some air support from the US military. On Sunday, the Taliban reached the outskirts of Kabul but apparently remained outside the city’s downtown. Sporadic gunfire echoed at times though the streets were largely quiet. Transfer of power Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told Al Jazeera that the group is “awaiting a peaceful transfer of Kabul city”. He declined to offer specifics on any possible negotiations between his forces and the government. But when pressed on what kind of agreement the Taliban wanted, Shaheen acknowledged that they were seeking an unconditional surrender by the central government. Taliban negotiators were in Kabul on Sunday to discuss the transfer of power, an Afghan official who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals told the AP. It remained unclear when that transfer would take place and who among the Taliban was negotiating. The negotiators on the government side included former President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah. Abdullah has been a vocal critic of Ghani, who long refused to give up power to get a deal with the Taliban. Ghani appeared increasingly isolated before fleeing the country. The strongmen he negotiated with just days earlier have surrendered to the Taliban or fled, leaving him without a military option. Negotiations in Doha, the capital of Qatar – the site of a Taliban office – have failed to stop the group’s advance. Still, acting Defence Minister Bismillah Khan sought to reassure the public that Kabul would remain “secure”. The Taliban also tried to calm residents of the capital, insisting their fighters would not enter people’s homes or interfere with businesses. They also said they would offer an “amnesty” to those who worked with the Afghan government or foreign forces. “No one’s life, property and dignity will be harmed and the lives of the citizens of Kabul will not be at risk,” the group said in a statement. But there have been reports of revenge killings and other brutal tactics in areas of the country the Taliban has seized in recent days. Afghan officials said the Taliban also took the capitals of Maidan Wardak, Khost, Kapisa and Parwan provinces on Sunday. Taliban fighters also seized the land border with Pakistan at Torkham, the last not in their control, on Sunday. Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told local broadcaster Geo TV that Pakistan halted cross-border traffic there after the Taliban seized it. Later, Afghan forces at Bagram airbase, home to a prison housing 5,000 inmates, surrendered to the Taliban, according to Bagram district chief Darwaish Raufi. The prison at the former US base held Taliban and ISIL (ISIS) group fighters. SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

Taliban fighters surrounded Kabul as the US hastily evacuated diplomats from its embassy by helicopter. With many people panicking, Afghans stand along the roadside as they wait for taxis in Kabul [Wakil Koshsar/AFP] Taliban fighters encircled the Afghan capital on Sunday and said they were awaiting a “peaceful transfer” of the city after promising not to take it by force. Here is what we know so far: What happened? Taliban fighters amassed on the outskirts of Kabul and were on the brink of a complete military takeover of Afghanistan. But a spokesman said they were ordered not to enter the capital. “Our forces have not entered Kabul city, and we just issued a statement saying that our forces will not enter Kabul city,” Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told Al Jazeera. “We are talking and awaiting a peaceful transfer – a transition of the capital city.” A tweet from the Afghan presidential palace account said gunfire had been heard at a number of points around Kabul but security forces – in coordination with international partners – remained in control of the city. What about Afghanistan’s president? Afghan President Ashraf Ghani promised via a television address on Sunday to take responsibility for the security of the people of Kabul and meet anyone disturbing the law and order with “full force”. Officials say the Taliban is seeking the unconditional surrender of the central government. Officials say the Taliban is seeking the unconditional surrender of the central government. Who is in charge? Afghan Interior Minister Abdul Sattar Mirzakwal said there would be a “peaceful transfer of power” to a transitional government. “The Afghan people should not worry … There will be no attack on the city and there will be a peaceful transfer of power to the transitional government,” he said in a recorded speech. An Afghan official told The Associated Press news agency that Taliban negotiators were heading to the presidential palace to prepare for a “transfer” of power. There was no immediate word on the situation from President Ghani. A palace official said he was in emergency talks with US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and top NATO officials. Kabul residents reported seeing Taliban fighters peacefully enter some of Kabul’s outer suburbs. What was the international reaction? Russia said it was working with other countries to hold an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting on Afghanistan as the Taliban completes its takeover, foreign ministry official Zamir Kabulov told Russian news agencies. “We are working on this,” Kabulov said. Kabulov also said Moscow does not plan to evacuate its embassy in Kabul, saying the Taliban had offered Russia security assurances for its missions in Afghanistan. US officials said diplomats were being ferried by helicopter to the airport from its embassy. More American troops were being sent to help in the evacuations. US President Joe Biden said it was up to the Afghan military to hold its own territory. “An endless American presence in the middle of another country’s civil conflict was not acceptable to me,” Biden said on Saturday. Pakistan foreign officer spokesman Zahid Hafeez Chaudhry said there were concerns “about the increasingly deteriorating situation”, but “we have not taken any decision to close our embassy”. SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES