Hindutva Watch report says the ruling BJP is linked to an ‘escalating trend’ of anti-Muslim hate speech in the country. The report says 80 percent of hate speech events took place in states governed by the BJP [File: Amit Dave/Reuters] Anti-Muslim hate speech incidents in India averaged more than one a day in the first half of 2023 and were seen most in states with upcoming elections, according to a report by Hindutva Watch, a Washington-based group monitoring attacks on minorities. There were 255 documented incidents of hate speech gatherings targeting Muslims in the first half of 2023, said the report published on Monday. There was no comparative data for prior years. The group used the United Nations’ definition of hate speech as “any form of communication … that employs prejudiced or discriminatory language towards an individual or group based on attributes such as religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, color, descent, gender, or other identity factors”. About 70 percent of the incidents took place in states scheduled to hold elections in 2023 and 2024, according to the report. It added that 80 percent of the hate speech events took place in states governed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat states witnessed the highest number of hate speech gatherings with Maharashtra accounting for 29 percent of such incidents, the report found. The majority of the hate speech events mentioned conspiracy theories and calls for violence and socioeconomic boycotts against Muslims. Hindu mob threatens to expel Muslims from India’s Haryana State Hindutva Watch said it tracked online activity of Hindu right-wing groups, verified videos of hate speeches posted on social media and compiled data on isolated incidents reported by media. Modi’s government denies the presence of minority abuse. The Indian embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment. Abu Asim Azmi, a Muslim legislator from Mumbai, capital of Maharashtra, told Al Jazeera the “anti-terror law should be invoked” to control hate speech. “The Supreme Court has already made strong observations about hate speech. Have the governments become so impotent that they can’t act on it?” he asked. “If the law and order situation has deteriorated in the country, 70 percent of it is because of hate speech.” Azmi said hate speeches are being made even inside the Indian Parliament. He was referring to last week’s incident when a BJP parliamentarian made Islamophobic and racist remarks against a Muslim MP during a debate. “The people who have taken oaths on the constitution are making such remarks. There could be nothing more shameful than this,” Azmi told Al Jazeera. Rights groups also alleged mistreatment of Muslims under Modi, who became the prime minister in 2014. They point to a 2019 citizenship law described as “fundamentally discriminatory” by the UN Human Rights Office for excluding Muslim migrants, anti-conversion legislation challenging the constitutionally protected right to freedom of belief and the 2019 revocation of Muslim-majority Kashmir’s semiautonomous status. There has also been demolition of Muslim properties in the name of removing illegal construction and a ban on wearing the hijab in classrooms in Karnataka when the BJP was in power in that southern state. In response, BJP spokesman Tom Vadakkan blamed the opposition parties for allegedly “promoting hate speech”. “If you talk about the hate speech made by a BJP MP in parliament, it’s a matter with the [parliamentary] speaker who will take action,” he told Al Jazeera. “On what basis is the report saying 80 percent of hate speeches were made in the BJP-rule states?” he added. But activist and journalist Teesta Setalvad said hate “flows from the top” in India. “Hate is a state policy and used for political mobilisation,” she said. Setalvad said elected officials in constitutional positions have used slur, stigma and abuse against India’s minorities, mainly Muslims. “States going to polls are predominantly the sites of such instigatory speech,” she told Al Jazeera, adding that there is little action against the perpetrators despite the outrage. “It’s the silence of complicity. It is this silence and the impunity enjoyed by criminal perpetrators of hate that has made the everyday lives of Indian minorities fragile and vulnerable.” Additional reporting by Waquar Hasan from New Delhi, India © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network

Russia has vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution based on a UN report condemning Iran for violating an arms embargo by sending weapons to Yemen's Houthi rebels. Backed by the United States and France, the British-drafted resolution was supported with 11 votes in favour on Monday, before Russia used its veto and other member states abstained from voting. The US had repeatedly called for the imposition of a renewed embargo on Iran, claiming it was sending Iranian manufactured missiles to Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. It also claimed that these missiles were used to launch an attack on neighbouring Saudi Arabia - which along with several Sunni Arab countries - have been fighting against the Houthis since March 2015, when the Kingdom intervened to push back the rebels and reinstate the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. The draft resolution specifically condemned a Houthi missile strike that was targeted at Riyadh in December 2017. It determined that Iran did not comply with a 2015 UN arms embargo on Yemen as it did not take action in preventing the direct or indirect flow of missiles to the Houthis. The draft also urged members of the council to take further action against Iran for breaching the arms embargo. Instead, the UNSC unanimously adopted a Russian-proposed resolution that did not mention Iran. Although the Russian-proposed one passed unanimously, criticism was traded among the council's members. Kelley Currie, the US representative to the UN, said the UK-drafted resolution was a "simple, commonsense one" which called out Iran. Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, said the wording in the British draft would have had "destabilising ramifications" if adopted, and warned about the effect it would have on Yemen and the region as a whole. "Russia doesn't like the outcome of certain expert panel reports," Jonathan Allen, UK deputy ambassador to the UN, told reporters before the vote was scheduled to take place. "We'll be urging our colleagues for the good of the United Nations system, to vote in favour of our resolution." Earlier on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed with his Saudi counterpart Adel al-Jubeir the drafting of a new UNSC resolution on Yemen, Anadolu news agency reported. (c) 2018 Al Jeezera

As Israel’s bombing of the Gaza Strip continues and people flee south, international laws will be tested, experts say. By Areesha Lodhi According to a 2022 report, 95 percent of children living in Gaza showed symptoms of anxiety, depression and trauma [Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images] Thousands of Palestinians are fleeing to already overwhelmed areas in the south of Gaza through unsafe conditions that could especially pose a risk to children, at least 447 of whom have already been killed in Israeli air strikes since Saturday. “Moving from Gaza to Khan Younis is a long way, it’s something that’s very risky especially when you have kids with you and need to move very quickly, the roads are not very stable and there’s a lot of bombardment on the way,” Al Jazeera’s Youmna ElSayed reported on Friday. As some families in the northern part of the Gaza Strip make their way south with hopes of finding a safer place and basic necessities, here is a look at international laws that are meant to protect children. What laws of war protect civilians and children? The main pillars of protection for children during armed conflict are the Geneva Conventions. The Geneva Conventions form the core of international humanitarian law. Their four conventions were adopted over a series of treaties between 1864 and 1949. The fourth Geneva Convention, adopted in 1949 in the aftermath of World War II, is centred on affording protection to civilians, including in occupied territories. On July 6, 1951, the still newly formed state of Israel ratified the Geneva Conventions – one of 196 countries to have done so. How do the Geneva Conventions apply to Palestinian children? Several articles and additional protocols, particularly in the fourth convention, afford protection to children during armed conflict. These include: Establishing hospitals and safety zones for children under the age of 15 Ensuring access to “essential foodstuffs, clothing and tonics” for children in areas that are under siege Special care for children who are orphaned or separated from their families Evacuating children to safe areas and reuniting them with their families When children are evacuated, ensuring that “ministers of all religions, medical personnel, and medical equipment” are available where children are moved. Articles and additional protocols generally concerning humanitarian relief and medical support also apply to the protection of children, according to Ka Lok Yip, assistant professor at the College of Law, Hamad Bin Khalifa University. “The main source of protection for children in armed conflicts derives from the children’s status as ‘civilians’ assuming that they are not taking a direct part in hostilities,” said Lok Yip. So how is Israel faring on these different requirements of international law? How are children affected by Israel’s attacks on Gaza? In addition to the hundreds of children who have been killed by Israeli air strikes, children in Gaza are also being deprived of food and medicine – in violation of the fourth Geneva Convention. That is because Israel announced a “total blockade” of Gaza after the Hamas attack in southern Israel last Saturday, making clear that it would not allow food, medicines, fuel and other essential commodities into the coastal enclave. “We barely have enough food to feed our children,” Zainab Matar, a mother of four, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday. “We can’t keep our children warm at night because we lack proper clothing.” International organisations have been calling for the establishment of a humanitarian corridor, claiming that Gaza’s medical facilities are at “breaking point“. So far, Israel has refused to budge, and has bombed the Rafah crossing that connects the enclave to Egypt. Power and generators that have stopped working are also putting newborns in incubators at risk, according to a statement from Fabrizio Carboni, the International Committee of the Red Cross regional director for the Near and Middle East. Experts have said that the widespread chaos children have experienced is already going to have a grave and long-lasting effect on their psychological and emotional wellbeing. What about education? The fourth Geneva Convention says that children have a right to the protection of their cultural environment and their education. Yet, already, Israel has bombed dozens of schools in the Gaza Strip, including several run by the United Nations, which were also serving as shelters where people moved after their houses and neighbourhoods were attacked in missile strikes. In all, at least 90 educational institutions have been damaged in Israeli bombing so far. International law also requires occupying forces to ensure the education of those living under their control. If Israeli forces launch a ground invasion into the Gaza Strip, as they have declared they will, it will be hard for them to live up to this requirement under law, since many schools and universities are now little more than bombed-out shells. Who can prosecute violations of international law? Courts such as the International Criminal Court at The Hague can launch an investigation to determine whether casualties in Palestine and Israel are in violation of international law. Activists have called on the ICC to break its silence on Israeli aggression in Gaza. The ICC has, in the past, begun investigations into potential war crimes committed by Israeli forces in Palestinian territories, but has not held anyone accountable to date. Some countries also have domestic proposals from lawmakers that relate to making assistance to Israel contingent on its adherence to international laws. Bill number HR 2407 or “Promoting Human Rights for Palestinian Children Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act” was reintroduced to the US Congress in May. It calls on banning Israel’s government from using US tax dollars in the occupied West Bank for violations including “the military detention, abuse, or ill-treatment of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention”. Betty McCollum, a congresswomen behind the bill, said that the United States was providing billions to Israel’s government each year – money that should not go towards actions that violate international law and cause harm but instead to “Israel’s security”. What has happened to past violators of war laws? Although the Geneva Conventions require violations to be punished, prosecutions have rarely occurred in the past for a variety of reasons, including that “the State officials themselves have been implicated, the accused persons are not within the jurisdiction of the States,” or because of “other political sensitivity,” said Lok Yip via email. In the event of potential violations, investigations and prosecutions are handled by the ICC. In some cases, special courts may also be set up. However, Israel, the United States, and Russia are among countries that do not recognise the jurisdiction of the ICC. In March, the ICC indicted Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes in Ukraine, including the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia – a move that the Kremlin claimed was for the children’s safety. Since the court relies on member states for this, it has not been able to arrest Putin. © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network

Sudan’s medical sector is on the verge of complete collapse, humanitarian organisations say, along with rising hunger. Women and their children have fled to Renk County of Upper Nile State, South Sudan [File: Jok Solomun/Reuters] As Sudan’s civil war enters its sixth month, civilians are facing a colossal humanitarian crisis as relief funding dwindles and army-imposed restrictions strangle its delivery, aid groups and activists told Al Jazeera. Duaa Tariq, a Sudanese activist still in the capital Khartoum, told Al Jazeera about the perceptible change as the lack of adequate nutrition sets in, saying that many people can only eat one meal a day. “People’s faces are becoming very pale and the hunger is striking,” she said. “And there is no news of aid [coming]. INGO [international non-governmental organisation] support is also very low and it has killed the spirit of our volunteers.” Along with rising hunger, Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French acronym MSF, warns that Sudan’s medical sector is on the verge of complete collapse. MSF provides five hospitals across Khartoum with either medical supplies or international specialists, or both. Abandoning local volunteers The war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has fractured the country and put at least 24 million people – more than half the population – in dire need of assistance, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Nearly six million people have been uprooted from their homes and are now internally displaced or have fled the country. As soon as the fighting began in April, Sudan’s resistance committees – a network of neighbourhood groups at the heart of the pro-democracy movement – established makeshift clinics. These “emergency rooms” are staffed by volunteers who administer first aid, find medications and transport the wounded and sick to the few hospitals still operating in the capital Khartoum. The volunteers at first relied on friends and relatives in the diaspora to fund their activities, as well as money from international relief groups. But as funding dries, up some local activists are fleeing Khartoum – where fighting intensified in recent weeks – after losing hope that aid groups will support their efforts. “Only a third of the overall humanitarian appeal has been funded and we’re in the final weeks of the year,” NRC’s Carter said about aid funding. “Many resources are already exhausted … front-line responders and operational organisations simply don’t have resources,” he added. Choking aid supplies Many of Sudan’s displaced fled to army-controlled cities in the east where some aid is available, but those living under the RSF have been abandoned, three aid workers told Al Jazeera. All three blamed the army, which has consolidated control over the aid response from its de facto administrative capital in Port Sudan on the Red Sea and is further restricting access to RSF areas, the impediments putting countless lives at risk. “Most of the aid is reaching people in army-controlled areas in the east of Sudan and very little is permitted [into RSF-controlled areas],” said William Carter, the country director for the Norwegian Refugee Council in Sudan. “What does get across is just a drop in the ocean.” The violence in western Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan has led to over a million people fleeing into neighbouring countries like Chad [File: Zohra Bensemra/Reuters] For example, MSF said in a news release on October 18 that they had to suspend support for surgical operations at Bashair Teaching Hospital in south Khartoum after the army stopped the delivery of surgical equipment. Hundreds of patients needing trauma surgery are out of luck, and pregnant women needing c-sections have been referred to the Turkish hospital, which only has supplies to last two to three weeks, warned Michel Hofman, MSF operations coordinator. Army spokesperson Nabil Abdullah did not respond to questions from Al Jazeera about whether the military was restricting aid deliveries. No alternative The restriction of aid into areas under the RSF is pushing civilians to rely on the group for handouts despite its role in creating the humanitarian crisis in the first place, said Tariq, the volunteer in Khartoum. “[The RSF] are advancing everywhere [in the city] and they are now also feeding people and fixing power [stations],” she told Al Jazeera. “They even give people money.” Since the start of the war, the RSF has indiscriminately killed civilians and looted homes, banks and businesses. They have even turned hospitals into military outposts. Most civilians from Khartoum detest the group for their actions. But the RSF appears to be trying to restore some of its credibility by giving people aid, according to Kholood Khair, a Sudanese expert and the founding director of the Confluence Advisory think tank. “I think the RSF are creating the conditions [where people must rely on them] and the group is absolutely relying [on this strategy] as a pathway to [earn] back some kind of legitimacy again,” she told Al Jazeera. On October 15, the RSF posted a video on X showing its fighters opening a hospital and distributing medical aid in Omdurman, which is part of greater Khartoum. Three days later, the US accused the RSF of shelling residential neighbourhoods in the area, as well as elsewhere in the country. Despite their abuses, Tariq expects more people in Khartoum to accept aid from the group. “After a traumatic six months, people forgot how [the war with the RSF] started,” she said. “People are now just trying to survive.” © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network

Daniel Halemba, 22, was part of a fraternity that was raided in September on suspicion of having Nazi symbols. A supporter waves a flag with the party logo during an election campaign event of the far-right AfD party in Munich, Germany [File: Christof Stache/AFP] Al Jazeera and News Agencies 30 Oct, 2023 A newly elected lawmaker for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has been arrested on suspicion of owning Nazi symbols. Prosecutors said Daniel Halemba, 22, was arrested in the Stuttgart area and is under investigation on suspicion of incitement and using symbols of unconstitutional organisation, German news agency dpa reported. The youngest politician to be elected to the Bavarian parliament, Halemba is a member of the Teutonia Prague student fraternity. It was raided in September on suspicion that there might be objects featuring Nazi insignia and racist documents on its premises. Officials reported that forbidden symbols were discovered, while neighbours complained of having heard calls of “Sieg Heil” (Hail Victory). AfD had announced on Friday that an arrest warrant had been issued for one of its deputies. The public prosecutor’s office then confirmed that Halemba was the target. Four other members of the fraternity are also under investigation. The prosecutor’s office said the allegations against the lawmaker had been corroborated by further examination of the evidence. Halemba is expected to be brought before a judge in the city of Wuerzburg on Monday or Tuesday at the latest. Halemba has denied all the allegations. His lawyer, Dubravko Mandi, insisted there is “no truth in any of the accusations”. During state elections on October 8 in Bavaria and the neighbouring Hesse, the AfD saw significant gains. The anti-migrant party finished third in Bavaria, taking 14.6 percent of the vote. Recent national polls have put its support at about 20 percent. Co-leader Alice Weidel said the results showed the party had a right to participate in government and “further exclusion and discrimination would show an undemocratic disregard for voters”. She added that AfD is “no longer perceived only as a protest party”, and that if the party comes second at national elections in 2025, in line with current opinion poll rankings, it would stake a claim to lead the country. Members of parliament have immunity in Germany. However, Halemba’s exemption will not take effect until the Bavarian parliament meets for the first time following the election in a plenary session this afternoon. © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network

Social media warriors have sprung up to share their community’s views and put down the others’ in this ethnic conflict. By Angana Chakrabarti 27 Oct 2023 An ethnic conflict between the Kuki-Zo and the Meitei people has engulfed Manipur state in northeast India since early May [File: Amit Dave/Reuters] Churachandpur, India – In early June, two men sat hunched over, working on laptops inside a partially constructed building in the Churachandpur district of northeastern India’s Manipur state. A fire had been raging across Manipur since May 3. Several parts of the state, including Churachandpur, were engulfed in an ethnic conflict between the Kuki-Zo and the Meitei people, who are among the largest ethnic groups in the state, which borders Myanmar. The Kuki-Zo people are a majority in Churachandpur and some other hilly areas while the Meitei dominate the state capital, Imphal, and a few adjoining towns and rural areas. On May 4, the state government blocked access to the internet across all of Manipur. Yet in June, on the 37th day of the violence when a leader of a Kuki-Zo civil society organisation led me into the building in a residential area of Churachandpur, to my surprise, the internet was up and running on his phone and that of the other Kuki men in the room. The leader told me, “We pay hackers up to 1 lakh rupees [$1,200] to 1.5 lakh rupees [$1,800] for the internet. We were without internet for 15 to 20 days before these connections were set up.” The internet had been restricted by the state to some phone lines for the use of the state machinery. The hackers helped the group get online by connecting to these lines. For what? “It was important to do this for students who had to fill [online] forms for exams, etc,” the leader said. But there were other, more important, reasons. “Before we got hackers [and access to the internet], we had given access to our social media accounts to people outside the state … Social media has become important to tell people what is happening here,” the leader said. Violence was happening on the ground but hundreds of people like the Kuki-Zo leader and his associates as well as people from the Meitei community took on the task of running the message machine, providing powerful ammunition in the battle to shape narratives on social media. An analysis of social media over two months by The Reporters’ Collective revealed a significant surge in new accounts on X, formerly known as Twitter, voicing views on their respective sides and a proliferation of narratives about the conflict via Instagram and Facebook posts. Social media posts from handles claiming to be affiliated with the Kuki or Meitei communities flowed freely, brimming with information, disinformation, hate, claims of victimhood and requests for solidarity. Reportage and opinions that did not square with theirs were trolled, and journalists were grouped into pro- and anti-camps. As of mid-September, 175 people had died and 1,118 injured as per the latest data available. Manipur has seen worse ethnic clashes. From 1992 to 1997, fighting between the Kuki and Naga communities reportedly caused greater loss of life, damage and destruction. But what sets the recent violence apart is that it is probably the first armed conflict in India being fought hard on social media, as well. The narratives spread from each community have closely followed the events on the ground and sometimes provided the first evidence of incidents that later made it into the news. In at least two instances of violence – the first of two Kuki-Zo women being paraded naked, a video of which went viral, and the second of two Meitei students being killed, images of which also went viral – added to the vitriol being spread over social media. In both cases, the situation was aggravated with protests being held in the state. Disinformation campaigns by these social media warriors have also reinforced the hostilities. For instance, in the early part of the conflict, a picture of a woman’s body wrapped in plastic was shared widely with a claim that it was the body of a Meitei woman who had been sexually assaulted. Fact-checking websites like BOOM later reported that the body was that of a woman killed by her parents in Delhi. A month later, another video claimed that a Christian Kuki woman was assaulted by armed civilians. BOOM later found the video had originated in Myanmar. Manufactured narratives Actual violence and street protests in Manipur have added to the social media vitriol [File: AFP] Two separate studies by the Delhi-based Narrative Research Lab, as well as Joyojeet Pal of the University of Michigan and independent researcher Sheyril Agarwal, revealed patterns of how the narratives were being manufactured and organically built on X. They shared their findings with The Reporters’ Collective. Most media reports suggested that the conflict began with a sudden and unexpected outbreak of violence on May 3. Similar to the situation on the ground, social media users were quick to respond, the research suggested. More than 100 handles were created in the first few days of the violence. Violence broke out in Kuki-dominated Churachandpur on May 3. This was followed by days of widespread violence against the Kuki community in the capital, leading to an exodus of Kuki people from Imphal and of the Meitei from Churachandpur and other Kuki-dominated areas as they sought refuge in other parts of the state. The violence soon spread to the rural areas where the valley meets the hills, and Kuki, Meitei and other communities exist cheek by jowl. While the number of people dying has eased up in the last few days, the bunkers are still very much in place and civilians from both sides continue to be trained on how to use arms. Pal and Agarwal’s research showed that initially, handles sympathising with or affiliated with the Kuki community mushroomed and tweeted actively with well-coordinated messaging. Meitei-associated handles got into the narrative game later but quickly came up to speed and were actively tweeting, including with aggressive attacks on opposing views and disinformation campaigns. The Kuki-Zo leader who accessed the internet sitting in the partially constructed building gave me a glimpse of how the civil war in Manipur motivated people and the leadership of the two communities to tell the world “their truth” as they saw it. The new warriors The battles are largely being fought on X. Siam Phaipi, a 33-year-old lawyer from the Kuki-Zo community, is among those who started tweeting after the conflict began. He told me, “I opened this account because of people’s suggestion that it is easier to spread awareness on Twitter than on FB [Facebook] or [other] social media, especially because all politicians use this Twitter platform more than other social media pages/profiles.” From May, hundreds of handles like Phaipi’s began tweeting on behalf of one or the other community on X. The Reporters’ Collective identified nine prominent handles each posting in favour of Kuki and Meitei narratives and shared them with the Narrative Research Lab in the last week of July. Using these 18 handles, the lab mapped 2,722 other handles – 875 of the handles were followers of these 18 handles and 1,847 of the handles were followers of the 875 handles. The lab scanned through their meta-data – information that describes and helps make sense of data – for trends. Of these 2,722 handles, 455 were clearly identified as Kuki-affiliated and 487 as Meitei-affiliated. More than half of the Kuki-affiliated handles (51 percent) were created on or after May 3. In the case of Meitei-affiliated handles, 40 percent were created on or after May 3. The rest were in an ambiguous category: 1,733 were classified as “others” whose affiliations could not be discerned manually or through algorithmic methods; 47 handles were protected, no longer existed, belonged to officials (including police and media) or had been suspended or withheld. The platform does not provide accurate data on where the tweets originate, so it is possible that the Kuki leader and his friends were exceptions who had hacked into the internet while in Churchandpur. There are also allegations that despite a ban on the internet, a few people in Imphal had internet access because they were close to the government. People from Manipur could also have been tweeting remotely because many people from the two communities study and work in the rest of India and abroad. Opposing handles The Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF), a key political association of Kuki leaders that has accused Manipur’s chief minister, the state police and sections of Meitei people, including armed militia, of carrying out a genocide against their community, has had a strong presence on X since the start of the conflict. At the time, the Meitei community did not have such a singular voice reflecting political and civil society leadership on social media. The ITLF ran an active WhatsApp group from June 4 to share posts and updates on the hardships faced by the Kuki-Zo community, putting them in front of many journalists from across India. The Reporters’ Collective was able to find evidence of at least one group, COCOMI Media, formed by political actors from the Meitei community, which became active in July. It was purportedly started by leaders of the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), a conglomerate of Meitei civil society organisations. The Narrative Research Lab mapped the frequent use of standard hashtags by many handles. The hashtag #SeparateAdministration4Kuki highlights the demand by Kuki-Zo groups for a separate state, which intensified since the conflict started. In return, the Meitei-affiliated handles accused the Kuki community of “narcoterrorism” and of being undocumented migrants on the back of a history of a narcotics trade and the inflow of people from Kuki-Chin-Zo communities from Myanmar. Since the start of the conflict, social media warriors of each community kept asserting that the other community was not nationalistic or Indian enough. Patterns of mobilisation University of Michigan’s Pal and independent researcher Agarwal noted that the first bump in social media activity was seen around April 28, fired up by the burning of a gym in Churachandpur that the state’s chief minister was due to inaugurate. The next spurt happened on May 3 following the violence triggered after several tribal groups held a protest against a demand by Meitei groups for scheduled tribe status, which would accord them privileges. “First, we see that the shutdown of internet services meant that there was very little direct access to the voice of people in Manipur, and the engagement was limited to those who have families in Manipur but are currently living outside the state,” the two researchers said. As the graph highlights, the pro-Kuki-Zo community was quicker to organise. “We also see evidence of better collective action on both sides in terms of when highly engaged accounts were set up,” the researchers noted in their analysis titled ‘What the early days of a social media war tell us about the framing of conflict’ that was shared with The Reporters’ Collective. For instance, they said, 86 new accounts with high activity from the pro-Kuki-Zo side were set up in the first week of May. Pro-Meitei content saw 24 new accounts. To study the patterns and differences between how members and backers of each community have tweeted about the ethnic riots, they also looked at a set of highly engaged X users: The pro-Meitei set contained 77 accounts with 6,339 original tweets and 7,837 retweets whereas the pro-Kuki set had 308 accounts, 31,462 tweets and 94,909 retweets. “Pro-Kuki-Zo make more callouts to media accounts as compared with Pro-Meitei users. Two things stand out – Kuki calling out to the UN and other human rights organisations juxtaposed with Meitei calling out the Spearcorps account [a formation of the Indian army],” the researchers wrote in their analysis. This played into the stance of the two communities – the Kukis said the rights of the Indigenous people were being impinged on by the Meiteis, hence the callouts to the United Nations seeking its intervention. Similarly, the Meiteis accused the Assam Rifles, a paramilitary force under the Indian army, of being in favour of the Kukis and have tweeted about it. The researchers tied that to how the groups mentioned political parties. In the case of the Meitei, tweets skewed towards the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) because Chief Minister Biren Singh, a BJP member, was in the first month of the conflict seen as someone they could rely on, “whereas Kuki-affiliated accounts have a more even distribution between major political parties”, they noted. The researchers analysed 2,765,151 tweets relating to Manipur from May 1 to June 5 and found evidence of coordinated activity. Only 11.6 percent, or 322,094 tweets, out of that total were original posts. “We observe a considerable amount of copy-paste in our dataset with 788 tweets copy-pasted more than five times without any modification from the source text,” the researchers said. The researchers also found that the Kuki-affiliated accounts had a higher retweet-to-impression ratio. In other words, there was more concerted activity on X by the Kuki-affiliated handles than the Meitei-affiliated ones. “If you narrow it down by scenario and look at this kind of narrative exchange and narrative battle, you usually have a mix of genuine users with accounts and some amount that is synthetic,” meaning bots, said Prateek Waghre, policy director at the Internet Freedom Foundation, a Delhi-based non-governmental organisation that advocates for digital rights. Researcher and technologist Rohini Lakshane listed reasons why so many accounts may have been created since the conflict started: “To give out information of the local goings-on firsthand – information of the sort that would otherwise not make its way to the intended audience, at least not quickly,” she said. “It could be for mobilisation, peaceful or otherwise, and lastly to create a narrative. The intent behind the narrative could range from voicing their own story or opinion to intentionally spreading misinformation.” The research shows “a pattern of Intelligent actors affiliated with the respective communities trying to define the moral contours of the conflict for the rest,” said Sarabjot, a co-founder of the Narrative Research Lab. Such “concerted efforts” to push narratives during the conflict, “can have a long-term impact, engender hate and animosity and diminish the space for peacebuilding,” he added. The two studies used different methods to collect data, their periods of observation differ and the method of analysis also differs, so the findings of the two cannot be conflated. A manual review of the data throws up several examples of dubious handles used to push the narrative of one or the other side. Take the example of this account of user Yamkhongam Touthang (@YTouthang). Before August, it would repost cryptocurrency-related advertisements. After August 8, it began reposting comments about the conflict, favouring the Kuki community. While sections of both communities, their political leaders and armed groups fought it out on the ground, the war on social media became sophisticated. Well-produced videos and drone footage made it onto social media, the latter more often on Instagram Superspreaders There have been at least two instances of superspreader events on social media during the conflict. On September 25, two images went viral over several social media platforms in which 20-year-old Phijam Hemanjit and 17-year-old Hijam Linthoingambi, residents of Imphal who had gone missing, were depicted as dead. In the first image, Linthoingambi and Hemanjit are seen sitting next to each other. The subsequent image shows them slumped on the ground, presumably dead, with Hemanjit’s head missing. On X, Meiteis wrote scathing tweets against the Kuki-Zo community. Meanwhile, Kukis criticised the government’s decision to put the Central Bureau of Investigation in charge of the case. The Kuki handles contended that such a “quick” response had been lacking in cases in which people from the Kuki-Zo community were allegedly killed. Some also questioned if there was sufficient evidence to say whether the two had been killed at all. Soon after the images emerged in late September, protests erupted in Imphal, compelling the state government to snap shut the internet that had been restored just days before following a five-month-long suspension. Earlier in July, a video of two Kuki-Zo women being paraded naked led to a similar response from the Kuki community. Huge rallies were held by Kuki women in Kangpokpi, Churachandpur and Mizoram. For the first time since the conflict started, Prime Minister Narendra Modi commented on the situation in Manipur condemning the incident of sexual violence and said the incident “has made 140 crore Indians hang their heads in shame”. At the time, Kuki handles on X renewed calls for a separate administration and their posts were reposted hundreds of times. “Countering” narratives The users behind the most popular Kuki and Meitei handles say their main motivation is to counter the narratives propagated by the other side. I reached out to three handles that are sympathetic to the Kuki community’s narrative and claim to be Kuki as well as five handles from the Meitei, to understand their motivations. People behind two of the Kuki-affiliated handles and two of the Meitei-affiliated handles spoke with me. Some preferred to remain anonymous. Others either had disclosed their identity in public or agreed to do so with me. Each one who spoke pointed to the need for their community’s voice to be heard better. It was not possible for Al Jazeera to verify their stories. ManipurTalks, which is now suspended, spoke to me in August on Discord, an instant messaging application, without disclosing his identity. He claimed to be living in Imphal. “My account has been active since 2010, I’ve been doing news updates and what not, including satire,” he said. Once the conflict started, he began increasingly tweeting about it, he said. “In the beginning, I was accusing government officials for not controlling the conflict … I was angry at the government because they seemed to have had all the intelligence but had still not done anything,” he said. Expectedly, he blamed the Kuki-affiliated handles for propaganda. “I saw a lot of propagandist spin on the narrative. I asked my Kuki brothers and sisters to resolve this but later, I got to know that their intention wasn’t to curtail the conflict. Later, I realised they had been influenced by a separatist agenda. I saw them sharing one-sided propaganda. That’s when I decided to drop my guard and discuss Meitei’s side of the story, as well.” “Even if one person sees it, that is good enough. I need to tell the story. Earlier, in the beginning of this conflict, there was a one-sided narrative. After seeing my tweets, they’re realising there is another side,” he said. Until August 10, ManipurTalks had amassed more than 11,500 followers. ManipurTalks’s X account was withheld on 15 August “in response to a legal demand“. According to X’s guidelines, “it means X was compelled to withhold the entire account specified (e.g., @username) in response to a valid legal demand, such as a court order”. The users usually are not told who asked for their account to be withheld. Phaipi, from the Kuki community, has the same explanation. “Ninety-nine percent of all my tweets are about spreading awareness about what’s happening in Manipur and about the ethnic cleansing that has been going on against the Kuki-Zo community,” he said. Since launching his account on X in May, Phaipi has amassed more than 9,200 followers. These accounts were not just looking to win over the locals but the global community too. “I’m trying to convey my views to each and everyone in India as well as all over the world … It [X] has a bigger outreach and circle as compared to insta [Instagram] and FB [Facebook],” Phaipi said. Of the civil society and political outfits representing the two communities, the ITLF proved nimble on X. It launched an account in May 2023 when the conflict began and by June 18, had amassed more than 5,800 followers. When its handle @ITLFMediaCell was withheld in June “in response to a legal demand”, it opened another, @ITLFMediaCell(A), raking up almost double the number of followers in a little more than three months. Al Jazeera spoke about it with Ginza Vualzong, the organisation’s spokesperson. “We started the ITLF account after the conflict because our voices were not heard. The narrative was dominated by the Meitei media,” he said. “There was no internet in Manipur. So I asked volunteers from outside the state to start the social media handles… We use Twitter [X] to put up our voices and to counter-narrative by the other side,” he added. In a similar vein, the Meitei Heritage Society, which describes itself as “a group of like-minded individuals working to present ethical news, fighting false narratives against Meiteis”, told me that the society came together in the wake of the violence in Manipur. According to the member I spoke with, there was a “pre-planned false narrative that followed in sections of the national media and the social media to malign the image of Manipur and split the state.” “The plan”, said the member, “was to weave a false story around minority tribals Christian Vs majority Meiteis to hide the real issues of the violence: illegal immigration from Myanmar, Illegal poppy cultivation & drug business and deforestation/encroachment into forest land.” Handles from both communities had the same story to tell: Their respective communities had been wronged and the truth, as they believed it, had not reached the rest of India and the world. At the time of writing this piece, the incidents of firing between the two sides has subsided for the time being, but the people continue patrolling the “borders” between the Kuki and Meitei areas. The internet ban has been lifted only partially with mobile internet still officially shut. That has not stopped the social media warriors of the two communities to continue to battle for the hearts and minds of the rest of the world. Angana Chakrabarti is an associate member of The Reporters’ Collective. © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network

Rights groups said Friday’s ruling sends a dangerous message that Indigenous peoples can be evicted from their land in the name of conservation. Maasai rights activists from the Maa Unity Agenda group march to protest outside the Tanzanian high commission in Nairobi, Kenya (Ben Curtis/AP) The regional East African Court of Justice has ruled that Tanzania’s decision to cordon off land for wildlife protection was legal, dealing a blow to the Maasai Indigenous group who had protested against the move, accusing the government of trying to force them off their ancestral land to promote tourism. The government claims it wants to “protect” 1,500 square kilometres (580 square miles) of the area from human activity, but rights groups said Friday’s ruling sent a dangerous message that Indigenous peoples can be evicted from their land in the name of conservation. Tensions have soared in recent months with violent clashes breaking out in June in Loliondo in the Ngorongoro district – one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations – between police and Maasai demonstrators. Four Maasai villages are located within the boundaries of the Serengeti National Park, according to the government. The boundaries were originally demarcated under British military rule but redrawn for conservation by subsequent administrations. The Arusha-based East African Court of Justice ruled that the Maasai had failed to prove the eviction had taken place outside the park, and that much of the evidence of alleged violence and brutality was hearsay or inconsistent. But a representative of the Maasai community said the villagers would appeal. “We are not satisfied with the ruling and we believe the court has erred in analysing the evidence we had provided,” said Jebra Kambole, who represented the Maasai in the interim ruling. Tanzania has historically allowed Indigenous communities such as the Maasai to live within some national parks, including the Ngorongoro conservation area, a UNESCO World Heritage site. But authorities say their growing population is encroaching on wildlife habitats. Maasai say that “they were forcefully evicted by the government forces and their property was destroyed,” said Al Jazeera’s Catherine Soi. Soi explained that the government argues that the Maasai community has been destroying the park as their population has been growing quickly. “I think it is important to understand that many Maasais, that’s up to 50,000, in that area have already been relocated to other parts that have been set aside by the government for that purpose,” Soi said. She added that this disputed area is very important for tourism. The land disputes between the national park management and the Maasai villagers arose in 2012 but the government ordered them to leave in 2017. Security forces later evicted them by force. The court ordered to halt the evictions in 2018, pending a final judgement. The Maasai had asked the court to “stop the evictions, the arrest, detention or persecution” of their members and demanded a billion Tanzanian shillings ($430,000) as damages. The three-judge bench said no compensation was due, Esther Mnaro, a lawyer for the Maasai, told AFP. Fiore Longo from Survival International, an indigenous rights advocacy, said the judgement was a blow for the Maasai and for Indigenous peoples across the world. “The court has given a strong signal to the international community that evictions and human rights abuses against Indigenous peoples should be tolerated if they are done in the name of protecting nature,” Longo said. Tanzania has long been criticised by the international community for violence against the Maasai. In 2015, the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning the government for violating their human rights. The government rejects that it has violated their rights. There was no immediate comment from Tanzania’s government, which depends on tourism for a significant part of its economy. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic system around tourism was the largest foreign exchange earner, the second largest contributor to gross domestic product and the third largest contributor to employment, according to a World Bank report in 2021. © 2022 Al Jazeera Media Network

One round of talks convened by international parties already collapsed, making some sceptical about imminent peace in Sudan. Sudan's General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan salutes as he listens to the national anthem after landing in the military airport of Port Sudan on August 27, 2023 [Ibrahim Mohammed Ishak/Reuters] Six months after civil war broke out in Sudan, its warring parties have restarted peace talks in Saudi Arabia, although cracks are already beginning to appear in the process. In a statement on Sunday, the US Department of State urged both sides to “approach the talks constructively”. The Jeddah talks which began on Thursday, are being steered by Saudi and United States officials. The two countries helped broker short ceasefire deals in May between the opposing sides: the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Thousands of people have died and more than 5.7 million others have been displaced within and outside Sudan, leading to a situation that United Nations officials have called a “humanitarian nightmare”. Still, deadly fighting continues in Sudan’s capital Khartoum, and other parts of the country. Previous talks yielded modest results. This time, representatives of the regional East African IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development) bloc – of which Sudan is a member – are joining the peace talks. The bloc will act on behalf of the African Union (AU). Here’s a breakdown of how things got to this point. Who are the two sides fighting in Sudan? The SAF is led by General Abdul Fattah al-Burhan, the Sudanese Army chief and de facto leader of the military-led government. In 2019, al-Burhan became the head of the Sovereign Council following a popular uprising that removed former president Omar al-Bashir. Al-Burhan was supposed to oversee a civilian-military transitional government with then-Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. But in October 2021, a few months before al-Burhan was to concede power to a civilian government, he spearheaded a military coup and dissolved the civilian-military partnership. The RSF, on the other hand, is a paramilitary force headed by Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo and operating independently of the army. It’s a formalised version of the feared Popular Defence Forces, or “Janjaweed” militias that al-Bashir outsourced to fight mostly non-Arab rebel groups in the western Darfur region in the early 2000s. Human rights groups accused the militias of ethnic cleansing, mass rapes and even genocide. After al-Bashir’s exit from power, Dagalo became al-Burhan’s deputy in the Sovereign Council. The RSF leader is considered one of Sudan’s most powerful men, controlling several gold mines and gold export businesses. Thousands of Dagalo’s forces also fought for Saudi Arabia, alongside Emirati troops, in the 2016 Yemeni civil war. After six long months, analysts say the fighting, which has now attracted other militias and armed tribal groups, is at an impasse. US officials told Reuters both sides had privately reached out for the latest talks. While the RSF appeared to have the upper hand in Khartoum early in the war, it’s unclear now which side has seized more territory, according to Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan, reporting from Khartoum. SAF forces control some territory outside Khartoum, including the important Port Sudan in the east. But recent offensives by the RSF have put the army on the back foot. RSF seized Nyala, Sudan’s second-largest city and a major SAF stronghold, early on Thursday, the same day the Jeddah talks were scheduled to start. Now, SAF is threatening to pull out of the talks, according to Morgan. “It’s where the army has one of its largest military bases,” Morgan said, referring to the overrun city following two days of heavy fighting. “And that’s the reason why the army is intending to withdraw from the talks, as per sources.” What do the two sides want? A power struggle between the two strongmen is at the heart of the crisis, as forces loyal to either side vie for ultimate control of the country. Tensions reportedly rose following the UN-backed framework agreement inked by both parties and a coalition of civilian groups in December 2022. The agreement aimed to restore a civilian government more than a year after al-Burhan’s coup, which Dagalo also supported. But then, with Dagalo’s ambitions growing, a rivalry developed between them. Then the matter of jumpstarting the process of security sector reform before the transition to civilian rule became a subject of contention. Western diplomats attempted to accelerate the complex process in just a couple of weeks by overseeing talks over how the RSF would integrate into the Sudanese army. However, disagreements arose over proposed timelines: the RSF sought autonomy for another 10 years while the SAF wanted the paramilitary forces to dissolve in two years. Questions of hierarchy, of who would answer to whom, spiralled into war. It is less clear what each side now wants for a negotiated peace in Sudan. For talks to move on, the SAF has previously demanded that RSF forces embedded in civilian homes and institutions in Khartoum leave, in line with an earlier agreement. It is not clear if the RSF is now prepared to remove its troops. The RSF has also painted itself as a freedom fighter, demanding that al-Burhan step down.“The only key to resolving the conflict in Sudan right now is bringing al-Burhan to justice,” Dagalo told Al Jazeera in April. Are any civilians involved in the peace process? Last week, Sudanese pro-democracy groups convened as the coalition Civil Front to Stop the War in Ethiopia to chart a vision for post-war Sudan. According to Reuters, the coalition is not expected to be included in the Jeddah negotiations, at least not in the early stages. Hamdok, who was part of the conference, said in a Thursday post on X, formerly Twitter, that a preliminary meeting had led to an agreement to form a “preparatory leadership body”. Shaza Elmahdi, Sudanese director of the Centre for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), one of the groups at the Addis Ababa talks, told Al Jazeera that a bigger conference in two months would seek to formalise plans to merge civilian representatives, all behind Hamdok. Ex-rebels who signed a peace agreement in Juba in 2020 also participated. “The aim is to unify the civilian front, stop the war, and get back to a democratic transition,” Elmahdi said, speaking from Addis Ababa. The US State Department in a statement recognised the meeting and praised the conveners. Whether the warring factions have paid any attention to it is yet to be seen. Alan Boswell of the Crisis Group, who told Al Jazeera that “the world has responded to Sudan’s collapse with an astonishing lack of diplomatic urgency” said there was still “no clarity on how the ceasefire talks in Jeddah will connect with a theoretical political process in Addis Ababa”. What is on the agenda in Jeddah? The Jeddah talks will mainly be about ceasefires, facilitating humanitarian access and conditions for a broader peace process. It builds on an earlier agreement in May termed the Jeddah Declaration of Commitment to Protect the Civilians of Sudan. Political talks are reportedly off the table, as the US appears to favour a return to civilian rule. The conflict has resulted in huge numbers of casualties from what many say are indiscriminate shelling campaigns on residential areas. At least 58 hospitals have been hit. Videos on social media show medical staff being tortured by RSF fighters. In addition to the high number of fatalities and displacements, Sudan is also facing a cholera, measles and dengue fever outbreak. “It is not clear that we will yet see a serious push to try and end the fighting or if mediators will focus instead on smaller humanitarian wins,” Boswell said. Is this meeting expected to make a difference? Attempts by the US and Saudi Arabia to come to a resolution allowed aid to get into Sudan, but those talks were also derailed by ceasefire violations from the warring sides. In June, weekslong talks collapsed after SAF pulled out. After that, the US suspended the negotiations altogether and imposed sanctions on companies and officials linked to both sides for their part in the conflict. Based on previous developments, expectations are not high for the Jeddah talks. Egypt has historically allied with the SAF, while the RSF is reportedly supported by the UAE; experts say any lasting peace will depend on these external influences, and remain sceptical. “To be realistic, I don’t see this stopping any time soon,” Elmahdi of CIPE said, citing how disunited factions of the RSF are, adding that many might not agree to agreements in faraway Jeddah. “I think it will take more than peace talks. It would take effort, peace deals, and time for the war to stop permanently,” she said. © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network

Canadian parliamentary committee says China’s policies in Xinjiang amount to ‘genocide’ against Muslim Uighur minority. China has slammed Canada after a parliamentary committee this week concluded the Chinese government’s policies against the country’s Muslim Uighur minority in Xinjiang amounts to “genocide”. The committee on Wednesday called on Ottawa to condemn Beijing’s policies against the Uighurs, which it said included “mass detentions, forced labour, pervasive state surveillance and population control”, and to impose sanctions against all Chinese government officials involved. “Witnesses were clear that the Government of China’s actions are a clear attempt to eradicate Uighur culture and religion,” the committee said. On Thursday, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry rejected the allegations as “groundless” and accused Canada of trying to interfere in the country’s internal affairs. “The sub-committee of the Canadian parliament neglects the fact of political stability, economic growth, ethnic solidarity and social harmony in Xinjiang,” Zhao Lijian told reporters during a news conference. “Its groundless statement is full of lies and disinformation. This is blatant interference in China’s internal affairs and reflects those Canadian individuals’ ignorance and prejudice. China firmly deplores and rejects that,” the spokesman said. Relations between China and Canada deteriorated in December 2018 when Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, an executive with Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, on an extradition request by the United States, where she is wanted on fraud charges. Two Canadians – former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor – were arrested in China soon thereafter and accused of spying. Earlier this month, Canadian defence minister Harjit Sajjan described the continuing detention of Kovrig and Spavor as “hostage diplomacy”. “This type of hostage diplomacy is not what good rules-based-order nations do,” Sajjan said on October 7, as reported by The Canadian Press. A war-of-words between the two countries has steadily worsened in recent months, as Canadian officials including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have criticised China’s human rights record as it relates to the Uighurs, as well as protesters in Hong Kong, among other things. Those critiques have drawn the ire of Beijing, which says Ottawa is meddling in its internal affairs. Last week, China also dismissed a report in The Economist that characterised its policies in Xinjiang, where most of the country’s Muslim Uighur population lives, as a crime against humanity. Activists say China has implemented a mass detention policy, imprisoning about one million Uighurs and other Turkic people in so-called “re-education” camps. © 2020 Al Jazeera Media Network

By: Federica Marsi and Ruwaida Amer Israel’s assault on Gaza could spell the end of the Christian community’s long history in the enclave. Gaza Strip – When Israeli bombs began pummelling the once-bustling streets of Gaza City, Diana Tarazi and her family fled to the Holy Family Church, the only Roman Catholic place of worship in the Gaza Strip. The 38-year-old Palestinian Christian, her husband and three children huddled alongside fellow churchgoers and Muslim neighbours and friends, lulling their children to an exhausted sleep amid the sounds of bombing, muttering soft words of encouragement to each other. “Together, we try to get through the war until it ends – and we survive it,” Tarazi told Al Jazeera. Their sense of safety was shattered on October 19, when Israel bombed the nearby Church of Saint Porphyrius, Gaza’s oldest, killing at least 18 people. The Israeli army said in a statement that the church was not the target of the attack. “The missile fell directly on it,” Tarazi said of the Greek Orthodox site. “We cannot believe that the church was not their aim.” Two days earlier, an explosion at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital – an Anglican institution located a few blocks away – killed and injured hundreds, according to Palestinian health authorities. Hamas blamed the blast on an Israeli air raid, while Tel Aviv claimed it was caused by a malfunctioning rocket fired by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an armed group based in Gaza. Despite Gaza City and adjacent refugee camps being surrounded by Israeli ground forces, and air raids pounding the area, Tarazi is refusing to leave. “We do not accept displacement from our country, our land and our churches,” she said. “I will not leave the church except to the grave.” ‘Threat of extinction’ At least 10,569 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. Only 800 to 1,000 Christians are believed to still live in Gaza, constituting the oldest Christian community in the world, dating back to the first century. Mitri Raheb, an Evangelical Lutheran pastor and founder of Dar al-Kalima University in Bethlehem, said it was conceivable that the current conflict would spell the end of its long history in this strip of land. “This community is under threat of extinction,” Raheb told Al Jazeera. “I’m not sure if they will survive the Israeli bombing, and even if they survive, I think many of them will want to emigrate.” “We know that within this generation, Christianity will cease to exist in Gaza,” he added. The broader region of historic Palestine is the birthplace of Christianity, as well as the setting for many of the events in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. In the fourth century, Gaza, located along a major trade route with access to a vibrant port and a cosmopolitan city, became a major Christian mission hub. After 1948, when the state of Israel was established and 700,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes in what became known as the Nakba, or “catastrophe”, more Palestinian Christians joined the community on the coastal enclave. Estimates have indicated that the number of Christians in Gaza dropped in recent years from the 3,000 registered in 2007, when Hamas assumed complete control of the strip, triggering Israel’s blockade and accelerating the departure of Christians from the poverty-stricken enclave. Attacks in West Bank ‘quadrupled’ In the West Bank, Christians are on a stronger footing with more than 47,000 people living there, according to a 2017 census. But violence and persecution have unsettled the community there too. “Attacks on clergy and churches had quadrupled this year compared to last year,” Raheb, whose academic institution documents such events, said. On January 1, days after Israel swore in the most far-right government in the country’s history, two unidentified men broke into Jerusalem’s Protestant Mount Zion Cemetery and desecrated more than 30 graves, pushing over cross-shaped tombstones and smashing them with rocks. On January 26, a mob of Israeli settlers attacked an Armenian bar in the Christian quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, shouting “Death to Arabs … Death to Christians.” A couple of days later, Armenians leaving a memorial service in the Armenian Quarter were attacked by Israeli settlers carrying sticks. An Armenian was pepper-sprayed as settlers scaled the walls of the Armenian convent, trying to take down its flag, which had a cross on it. The attacks have continued to escalate, in tandem with Israeli attempts to “silence any voices coming from Palestinians inside Israel”, Raheb said. “They are Jewish terrorist settlers, but the international community doesn’t recognise them as such because it is part of the same colonial [mindset],” he said, adding that he worried the constant threat of violence would eventually drive out Christianity from the Holy Land. ‘My children were disfigured, dead’ Back in Gaza, Ramez al-Souri is trying to wrap his head around the deaths of his three children, Suhail, Majd and Julie, in the Church of Saint Porphyrius bombing. “The building contained civilians who did not belong to them,” he said, referring to the Palestinian group Hamas, which launched the surprise attack in southern Israel on October 7 that led to Israel’s bombing. Al-Souri had hoped his loved ones would be safe in a holy site, but not even the sanctity of its premises could shield his family from Israeli bombardment. The Israeli army is known to have also targeted UN schools sheltering displaced women and children, as well as hospitals, ambulances and aid supplies. “My three children came out disfigured from the effects of the missile and shrapnel,” he said, still visibly in shock days later. “I cannot believe that I will not talk and play with them again in my life.” SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

By Ingrid Formanek, Kareem El Damanhoury and Sana Noor Haq, CNN (CNN) — More than 10,000 people have been killed in the Sudanese region of West Darfur in the past two months, tribal leaders say, amid a deadly conflict between two warring factions that has triggered a mass exodus of refugees from the country and displaced millions internally. Approximately 80% of residents have fled the West Darfur capital of El Geneina, according to the head of the ethnic Masalit tribe Saad Abdelrahman Bahr Al-Din. A force of about 16,000 people attacked the city and killed civilians, looted houses and robbed banks, Bahr Al-Din said in an interview with Sudanese news outlet Ayin Network Sunday. After fighting erupted between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April, West Darfur became the site of rampant violence and reported atrocities that have led to accusations of war crimes against RSF fighters and their allied militias. ‘Ghost town’ Bahr Al-Din called El Geneina a “ghost town that is devoid of life,” adding that the majority of refugees from the city, which had a pre-war population of over 500,000 people, have fled to Chad. More than 300,000 Sudanese nationals crossed the border into the neighboring central African country since the conflict broke out, according to recent data from the UN’s migration agency. The same research found that about 2,686,434 have been internally displaced as a result of the fighting. Earlier this month, human rights campaigners accused the RSF and allied Arab fighters of executing dozens of people, and “the total destruction” of a town in West Darfur, saying the violence wrought on ethnic Massalit communities amounted to war crimes. The RSF and Arab militias frequently target the Massalit and other non-Arab communities, the Human Rights Watch report said. Sudanese refugees cross into Chad on May 1, 2023, where thousands have fled amid the conflict between the Sudanese army and the RSF. Gueipeur Denis Sassou/AFP/Getty Images/File Satellite imagery and fire detection data from June 2, 2023 shows that six other towns and villages in West Darfur, including Molle, Murnei, and Gokor, have been burned down. Planet Labs PBC At least 87 people were discovered in a mass grave in West Darfur in July after they were allegedly killed by the RSF and their allied militias, according to the United Nations. A Darfuri source working in an internally displaced camp speaking on condition of anonymity due to security reasons shared more local accounts on the situation in the neighboring central Darfur state. “The RSF have forced all residents of the Hasahisa neighborhood [in Central Darfur’s capital city of Zalingei] to leave and vacate their homes,” a local resident who was able to flee recounted. According to those who fled Zalingei, RSF and allied Janjaweed militias “have placed snipers on roofs on tops of some buildings.” CNN has previously reported similar accounts of snipers placed in El Geneina, where water, food, and electricity shortages and a lack of medical aid have devastated local communities. Residents of other central Darfur localities say the RSF prevented farmers from working in their lands and ordered them to leave large areas of their farms to be grazed by the camels and horses of the Janjaweed. Further south, at least 16 people were killed during clashes between the Sudanese army and RSF fighters alongside allied militias on Friday, due to indiscriminate gunfire and shots, the Darfur Bar Association (DBA) said. Local authorities cautioned the rise in chaos resulting from the civil war in Sudan, as neighborhoods in the center of the South Darfur state capital Nyala were evacuated, resulting in residents being displaced to areas south of the city, according to DBA. The International Criminal Court (ICC) launched a new investigation into alleged war crimes in Sudan in July, with ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan saying, “we are in the midst of a human catastrophe.” © 2024 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved.

Members of Mexico’s third-gender community used their annual celebration to push for answers after two prominent LGBTQ deaths. Felina Santiago, centre, wears a blue headdress as she parades alongside fellow activist Mistica Sanchez Gomez, right, during the annual muxe celebration in Juchitán, Mexico [Credit: Mirja Vogel/Al Jazeera] Gordon Cole-Schmidt November 30, 2023 Juchitán, Mexico – Felina Santiago was cutting hair in her salon when she heard that one of her oldest friends, Oscar Cazorla, had been stabbed to death at the age of 62. “I was paralysed with pain,” she recalled. “I knew we had lost a pillar of our community that day.” Santiago and Cazorla both belong to Mexico’s muxe community, pronounced “mu-shay”, made up of people who identify as a third gender, neither male nor female. Traditionally, in Indigenous Zapotec society, muxes have been respected, even celebrated. But Cazorla’s murder in 2019 — along with the death of another prominent non-binary figure this month — has left the community shaken, fearful of further violence. The latest high-profile incident came on November 13, when Jesus Ociel Baena, Mexico’s first openly non-binary magistrate, was found dead at home with multiple wounds. “Hatred is harming our cities, our towns and the people in our communities,” Santiago said. “When one hears about tragic deaths, like that of Jesus, who was well-known — an academic, smart and very influential — it makes us think we need even more protection.” The news of Baena’s death broke just four days before the biggest muxe event of the year, called the “Vela de las Auténticas Intrépidas Buscadoras del Peligro”. The name loosely translates to the Vigil for the Authentic and Fearless Seekers of Danger. Taking place in Juchitán, a town in the southern state of Oaxaca, the three-day festival brings together thousands of revellers each year. But for Santiago, the president of the festival, the latest celebration was particularly poignant. It was a chance to show “no fear” in the face of the violence. “The sadness affects us all deeply, but we must show our resistance to stop the feeling of fear growing. We stand together in solidarity to show society we are one and we want justice.” High rates of violence Violence and threats have haunted the muxes and other members of Mexico’s LGBTQ community for years. From 2018 through 2022, homicide claimed at least 453 LGTBQ people in the country, according to the advocacy group Letra S. In the last year alone, the group estimated that, on average, seven LGBTQ people were murdered each month, with transgender and non-binary people at particular risk. Studies suggest the violence is a regional issue. Earlier this month, the Trans Murder Monitoring project found that 74 percent of all documented murders of transgender or gender-diverse people took place in Latin America. In the region, Brazil registered the highest number of murders, but Mexico came in second, with 52 homicides between October 2022 and September 2023. Part of Zapotec tradition, the muxes are their own distinct community, similar to but separate from categories like “transgender”. They are often described as representing a “duality” that embodies both sides of the gender spectrum. Many are declared male at birth but embrace feminine roles and characteristics, sometimes wearing dresses and makeup. Calling for justice The annual “vela” festivity was conceived in the mid-1970s as a celebration of muxe identity, full of dancing, opulent gowns and round-the-clock music. Cazorla, the muxe who was murdered in 2019, was one of a few key figures who founded the event. But Cazorla’s death — and that of Baena — cast a shadow over this year’s celebration, the 48th edition of the “vela”. Justice remains elusive: No arrests have been made in either case. Authorities have said that Baena’s partner Dorian Herrera may have killed him in a murder-suicide. But that suggestion has sparked outrage among LGBTQ leaders, who question how such a conclusion could be reached so quickly after Baena’s and Herrera’s deaths. “A huge number of crimes perpetrated against our community go unanswered,” said one muxe attendee at this year’s “vela”, Valkis Lopez. “And this is just the crimes that are reported to the authorities in the first place.” Even at one of the high points of the festivity — the crowning of a victor in the muxe beauty pageant — cries for justice rang out from the stage. Elvis Guerra, a muxe poet, accepted the towering, jewel-encrusted tiara with a speech that acknowledged the violence LGBTQ people face. “There are still those who, from behind the shield of ignorance, continue to murder us today,” Guerra said. A place of power But the founders of the “vela” have created a space where muxes can demand respect, Guerra explained in the speech. “Today, we can go out into the street and look straight ahead, bending only when you put the crown on us,” Guerra said. “Why? Because of social warriors like the matriarch Felina [Santiago] and the late Oscar Cazorla, whose devious and dastardly murder remains unpunished to this day. We owe freedom to them.” Another attendee, muxe activist Mistica Sanchez Gomez, said the violence was likely aimed at suppressing LGBTQ identity. “Hateful murders seek to provoke fear in us,” she told Al Jazeera. But for Santiago, the “vela” remains a moment of joy first and foremost. Every year, the festivity begins with street parades, with muxes sailing through the streets atop wooden carts pulled by bulls. Fireworks and seemingly unending brass-band music provide the soundtrack to the carnivalesque atmosphere, while local muxes and tourists dance side by side until sweat drops from their breathless faces. Santiago believes this year’s vela brought more attendees than ever before, a sign of popular support and greater awareness despite the high-profile murders. That fact makes her smile, but her stare remains pensive as she thinks of the friend she lost: “Oscar would have been very proud.” © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network