The move is meant to place interpreters and others who worked with departing American forces somewhere safe until visas for them to enter the United States are processed. 24 June 2021 | By Helene Cooper and Eric Schmitt U.S. soldiers spoke with villagers through an interpreter in Afghanistan’s Kunar Province in 2009. More than 18,000 Afghans who assisted the United States during the war have been trapped in bureaucratic limbo after applying for special immigrant visas.Credit...David Guttenfelder/Associated Press WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is preparing to relocate thousands of Afghan interpreters, drivers and others who worked with American forces to other countries in an effort to keep them safe while they apply for entry to the United States, senior administration officials said. With the American military in the final phases of withdrawing from Afghanistan after 20 years of war, the White House has come under heavy pressure from lawmakers and military officials to protect Afghan allies from revenge attacks by the Taliban and speed up the lengthy and complex process of providing them special immigrant visas. On Wednesday, administration officials started notifying lawmakers that they will soon begin what could be a wholesale move of tens of thousands of Afghans. Officials said the Afghans would be moved out of Afghanistan to third countries to await the processing of their visa requests to move to the United States. The officials declined to say where the Afghans would wait, and it is not clear whether third countries have agreed to take them. The opportunity to move will be given to people who have already begun the application process. More than 18,000 Afghans who have worked as interpreters, drivers, engineers, security guards, fixers and embassy clerks for the United States during the war have been trapped in bureaucratic limbo after applying for special immigrant visas, available to people who face threats because of work for the U.S. government. Those applicants have 53,000 family members, officials said. A senior administration official said that under the plan, family members of applicants would also be moved out of Afghanistan to a third country to await visa processing. Transportation out of Afghanistan will not come with any assurance that a visa to the United States will be granted. It was unclear whether people who somehow do not qualify would be sent back to Afghanistan or left in a third country. The officials spoke on grounds of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly about the decision. The decision comes as President Biden prepares to meet on Friday with President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan amid a worsening security situation in the country. Aides said Mr. Biden would press Mr. Ghani on the need for unity among the country’s leaders, urging them to stop fighting among themselves when the country is in crisis and government forces are at risk of losing control of the nation to the Taliban. They said he would assure Mr. Ghani of continued financial support from the United States to the Afghan government and people, including a $266 million humanitarian assistance package and $3.3 billion in security assistance, as well as significant aid to help combat the coronavirus pandemic with vaccines, testing kits and personal protective equipment. Officials said the administration has been working to streamline the visa process for Afghans who worked with U.S. forces, and has added people to handle the applications. Pressure on the administration to act swiftly on the Afghans’ behalf has grown steadily in recent weeks in both the House and the Senate. Lawmakers pressed Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a Pentagon budget hearing on Wednesday. “These brave Afghan partners, these Afghan and American heroes, people who we asked to risk their lives not just for Afghanistan, but for America because we had their backs, their future is in your hands,” said Representative Seth Moulton, Democrat of Massachusetts and a former Marine officer. “This much is certain,” Mr. Moulton said during the hearing of the House Armed Services Committee. “The Taliban will kill them if they can. And they will rape and murder their wives and kids first, if they can.” Mr. Austin appeared to hint at the plans. “I am confident that at some point, we’ll begin to evacuate some of those people soon,” he said. General Milley said the military was ready to begin moving Afghans who had applied for the special visas. “I consider it a moral imperative to take care of those that have served along our side,” he said. “We are prepared to execute whatever we are directed.” Chronic delays and logjams have plagued the special immigrant visa program for more than a decade. Democrats have accused former President Donald J. Trump of exacerbating the problem by starving the program of resources and staffing. The coronavirus pandemic did not help matters; a surge in cases at the embassy in Kabul shut down in-person interviews and vetting. A State Department report in January cited “limited staffing” and “local safety conditions directly related to the Covid-19 pandemic” as “severely” affecting the visa application process. In recent weeks, Democrats and Republicans in Congress have introduced bills to speed up the process and waive certain requirements, such as mandating applicants to undergo costly medical examinations. And in December, as part of a huge catchall spending bill, Congress raised the total cap for the visa program by 4,000, to 26,500. The Biden administration has also come under pressure from several nonprofit groups and advocates for refugees to do more. About 70 organizations recently wrote a letter to Mr. Biden urging his administration to “immediately implement plans to evacuate vulnerable U.S.-affiliated Afghans” — a step the White House is now taking. © 2021 The New York Times Company

By Edith M. Lederer UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States, Britain and France accused Russian mercenaries on Wednesday of operating alongside Central African Republic forces and committing human rights violations against civilians and obstructing U.N. peacekeeping -- charges immediately denied by Russia which denounced the Western nations for engaging in an “anti-Russia political hit job.” MINUSCA/Herve Cyriauqe Serefio. UN peacekeepers patrol Bakouma in the Central African Republic. Copyright © United Nations The exchanges took place at a U.N. Security Council meeting after the U.N. special representative for the conflict-wracked Central African Republic, Mankeur Ndiaye, expressed serious concern at the military counter-offensive by the country’s security forces and “bilateral forces and other security forces” against a coalition of rebel groups which supports CAR’s former president Francois Bozize. Ndiaye called the situation in CAR “among the most dangerous in the world,” saying violations of human rights and international law allegedly committed by CAR forces “and bilateral and other personnel ...have never equaled those recently committed and detailed by MINUSCA,” the 15,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force in the country. As one example, he said, the number of sexual violence-related incidents in the first quarter of 2021 was five times higher than the number reported in the last quarter of 2020. While Ndiaye didn’t identify “the bilateral forces and other security forces,” Russia has troops in CAR training its military at the invitation of the government. A recent report to the council by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly criticized CAR’s security forces and bilateral forces for an “unprecedented increase in hostile threats and incidents” targeting U.N. peacekeepers and alleged human rights abuses. He said people in the country continue to face an “unacceptably high level of violence.” The mineral-rich Central African Republic has faced deadly inter-religious and inter-communal fighting since 2013. A peace deal between the government and 14 rebel groups was signed in February 2019, but violence blamed on former president Bozize and his allies threatens to nullify the agreement. It erupted after the constitutional court rejected Bozize’s candidacy to run for president in December. Faustin Archange Touadera won a second term with 53% of the vote, but he continues to face opposition from rebel forces linked to Bozize. U.S. deputy ambassador Richard Mills noted secretary-general Guterres’ report of a 28% increase in incidents of human rights violations and abuses and violations of international humanitarian law over the past four months. He said the United States is deeply concerned at the increased targeting of Muslims, and the alarmingly sharp increase in abuses committed by national and bilateral personnel. “I think we need to be clear about these bilateral personnel -- the individuals committing what many are now referring to as atrocities’ are not independent actors -- they are operating as extension of Russia’s Ministry of Defense,” he said. Mills said the Biden administration is “deeply disturbed” that Russia has failed “to prevent its mercenaries from impeding MINUSCA’s freedom of movement on a daily basis.” He condemned an “appalling incident in which these bilateral Russian actors threatened” MINUSCA’s deputy special representative and a U.N. delegation on a humanitarian mission to Bang, which is close to CAR’s border with Chad and Cameroon, on May 28. France’s U.N. Ambassador Nicolas De Riviere called the situation in CAR “dramatic,” pointing to extrajudicial executions, gang rapes, torture, occupation of schools and violence particularly targeting Muslim communities, “as shown by the murder of a traditional chief a few days ago.” “Let us be clear: Central African armed groups are no longer the only threat to the Central African population,” De Riviere said. He said reports by the secretary-general and U.N. experts monitoring sanctions against CAR “point to the responsibility of a new actor, who is operating alongside the Central African armed forces and whose status is a mystery.” “Some will try to deny the presence of the Wagner company,” De Riviere said, calling on MINUSCA to provide details of who the men are fighting in CAR and who they are accountable to for their actions. The Wagner Group is a Kremlin-backed security company that was implicated in the conflict in Libya. Britain’s deputy ambassador James Roscoe said the armed groups are “fomenting instability, frankly, in order to line their own pockets.” “And now, a new factor of instability: Russian private military companies acting in concert with the national armed forces to obstruct MINUSCA and to violate the rights of the civilians and citizens of the Central African Republic,” he said. Roscoe said human rights violations, including acts of sexual violence, are not only being committed by armed groups “but also by members of the national armed forces and the Russian private military personnel accompanying them.” He said the Russians will deny this, “but the evidence is increasing and overwhelming, and I hope they will reflect on the role they want to play in the Central African Republic and their responsibilities as a permanent member of this council.” Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Anna Evstigneeva countered that Russian instructors “are successfully enhancing the professional expertise of the Central African security forces without taking part in military actions against illegal armed groups.” She said there are constant “dubious” attempts to discredit them without any evidence, especially in the U.S. and French media which use anonymous sources. “This looks more like an anti-Russian political hit job,” Evstigneeva said. “As for the unfounded allegations coming from the US, they’re not done by chance,” she said. “Our colleagues seem to see Russian instructors or mercenaries everywhere.” © copyright 2021 The Associated Press.

Letters on a main street in Bogota, Colombia, last month read “disappeared.” (Daniel Munoz/AFP/Getty Images) By Ana Vanessa Herrero Juan Esteban Torres left his home on the afternoon of May 18 to join an anti-government protest in Caldas, Colombia. Millions across the country had taken to the streets in daily demonstrations against rising poverty, inequality and police brutality. Torres, his brother says, believed they deserved support. Security camera footage gathered by his family shows the 27-year-old walking between the protest and his home. No one has seen him since. “We said goodbye,” Daniel Torres said, “and we never saw him again.” While many of the thousands of demonstrations that have roiled Colombia over the last two months have been peaceful, security forces have responded to some with force. The government ombudsman reported 548 human rights violations through June 7, and 20 deaths. Now protesters and human rights advocates say they’re seeing the revival of another familiar tactic from Colombia’s long civil conflict: disappearances. Hundreds of people in the South American nation have gone missing since the protests erupted in late April. According to the attorney general’s office, 84 remain unaccounted for. Advocates say this is the first time they’ve seen so many disappearances associated with demonstrations. Friends of Juan David Montenegro comfort each other last week at a vigil in his honor. Montenegro died during clashes with riot police in Cali. (Paola Mafla/AFP/Getty Images) José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director of Human Rights Watch, called that number “terrifying.” “These cases have occurred in a context of brutal abuses by the police, including massive arbitrary detentions,” he said. “Prosecutors need to urgently redouble their efforts to look for these people in police stations, in hospitals, and in the streets, and investigate any police involvement.” Luz Marina Monzón is director of the Unit for the Search of Disappeared Persons, established to account for the people who went missing during the half-century-long conflict. “Patterns that happened during the conflict years ago seem to be reproducing,” she told The Washington Post. “In a democratic country, this should not be normal.” Mourners participate in the funeral this month of Angelvis Gregorio Bello, a demonstrator who was found dead on the road between Cali and Palmira. (Luis Robayo/AFP/Getty Images) The White House has taken notice. Spokeswoman Jen Psaki urged authorities last month to “continue to work to locate all missing persons as quickly as possible.” The government of President Iván Duque has said it’s doing all it can. The Colombian attorney general’s office says it received 572 reports of people “not located” from April 28 to June 15. Of those, the office said, 335 people have been found and 153 reports were inadmissible. In most cases, the office told The Post, the reports “correspond to the normal dynamics of people who voluntarily left their family circle, or who, due to circumstances different from those presented in the demonstrations, lost contact with close people.” Human rights groups say they’ve recorded up to 700 cases, with some difficulty. Many families, they say, are not coming forward; most of the cases on their list have been gathered from social media. “Some people, when they are arrested, shout out their name and ID and sometimes, we only have that information and photos or videos that protesters manage to get with their phones,” said Gloria Gómez, coordinator of the Association of Families of the Detained and Disappeared. “This makes locating them very difficult.” The attorney general’s office is investigating 84 cases of missing persons, four of them as forced disappearances. The others lack the necessary elements to meet the legal definition, the office says. Indigenous Misak people clash with riot police this month in Bogota. (Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images) Juan Esteban Torres is one of the four. He participated in protests near his house on May 18 — “a day filled with tension between protesters and authorities,” according to Liberty Legal Corp., a legal advocacy group that’s advising the family. After running from police, the group said, Torres and others sought refuge in a house nearby. He was last seen by a friend between 10 and 11 p.m. Torres’ supporters say they have reviewed footage showing him near his home at 2 a.m. May 19. Three weeks after Torres’s disappearance, his family still hopes to see him walk in. They were recovering from the death of his mother when he disappeared. “It’s like a movie,” Daniel Torres said. “We have been everywhere — hospitals, police — and I still don’t know what happened to him.” Demonstrators confront riot police during an anti-government protest this month in Medellín. (Joaquin Sarmiento/AFP/Getty Images) © Copyright 2021 The Washington Post

22 June 2021 | By David Zucchino and Fatima Faizi With U.S. troops leaving, the Taliban advancing, and a steady collapse of security force bases and outposts, the Hazara and other ethnic groups in Afghanistan are raising militias. Members of the Resistance for Justice Movement, an armed militia of Hazara fighters, preparing to patrol in Wardak Province in January.Credit...Wakil Kohsar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images KABUL, Afghanistan — The slaughter of students, mostly teenagers, at a tutoring center. The deaths of young athletes in a suicide bombing at a wrestling club. Mothers shot dead with newborns in their arms. These relentless killings of Hazaras, a persecuted minority in Afghanistan, finally proved too much to bear for Zulfiqar Omid, a Hazara leader in the central part of the country. In April, Mr. Omid began mobilizing armed men into militias to defend Hazara areas against the Taliban and the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan. He said he now commands 800 armed men at seven staging areas mustered into what he calls “self-protection groups.” “Hazaras get killed in cities and on highways, but the government doesn’t protect them,” Mr. Omid said. “Enough is enough. We have to protect ourselves.” As U.S. and NATO forces withdraw from Afghanistan, and talks falter between the Taliban and the American-backed government, ethnic groups across the country have formed militias or say they plan to arm themselves. The rush to raise fighters and weapons evokes the mujahedeen wars of the early 1990s, when rival militias killed thousands of civilians and left sections of Kabul in ruins. A concerted and determined militia movement, even if nominally aligned with Afghan security forces, could fracture the unsteady government of President Ashraf Ghani and once again divide the country into fiefs ruled by warlords. Yet these makeshift armies may eventually serve as the last line of defense as security force bases and outposts steadily collapse in the face of a fierce onslaught of attacks by the Taliban. Since the U.S. troop withdrawal was announced in April, regional strongmen have posted videos on social media showing armed men hoisting assault rifles and vowing to fight the Taliban. Some militia leaders fear the flagging peace talks in Doha, Qatar, will collapse after foreign troops depart and the Taliban will intensify an all-out assault to capture provincial capitals and lay siege to Kabul. “For the first time in 20 years, power brokers are speaking publicly about mobilizing armed men,” the Afghanistan Analysts Network, a research group in Kabul, wrote in a June 4 report. A bombing at a high school in a predominantly Hazara neighborhood in Kabul in May killed at least 73 people. Credit...Kiana Hayeri for The New York Times Hazaras have the most to fear from a return to power by the Taliban, which massacred thousands of the predominately Shiite group when the Sunni Muslim militants governed most of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. The Taliban consider Hazaras heretics. The most prominent Hazara militia commander is Abdul Ghani Alipur, whose militiamen in Wardak Province, a mountainous area that borders Kabul, have clashed with government forces. Mr. Alipur had been implicated in the shooting down of a military helicopter in March. In an interview, he denied any involvement, although an aide said at the time that Mr. Alipur’s militiamen had shot at the aircraft. “If we don’t stand up and defend ourselves, history will repeat itself and we will be massacred like during the time of Abdul Rahman Khan,” Mr. Alipur said, referring to the Pashtun “Iron Emir” who ruled in the late 19th century, massacring and enslaving Hazaras. Afghan folklore says he displayed towers built from severed Hazara heads. “They forced us to pick up guns,” Mr. Alipur said of the government, which has failed to protect Hazaras. “We must carry guns to protect ourselves.” Over the past two decades, Hazaras have built thriving communities in west Kabul and in Hazarajat, their mountainous homeland in central Afghanistan. But with no militias of their own, they have been vulnerable to attack. Armed Hazara militiamen in Wardak Province in January.Credit...Wakil Kohsar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Hazara demands for an army escalated after up to 69 schoolgirls were killed in a bombing in Kabul on May 8. Less than a month later, three public transport minivans were bombed in Kabul’s Hazara neighborhoods, killing 18 civilians, most of them Hazara. Among them was a journalist and her mother, the police said. Since 2016, at least 766 Hazara have been killed in the capital alone in 23 attacks, according to New York Times data. “Tajik have weapons, Pashtuns are armed,” said Arif Rahmani, a Hazara member of Parliament. “We Hazaras must also have a system to protect ourselves.” Mahdi Raskih, another Hazara member of Parliament, said he had counted 35 major attacks against Hazaras in recent years — a campaign of genocide, he said. He said he had lost patience with government promises of protection for Hazara schools, mosques and social centers. “If they can’t provide security, be honest and admit it,” Mr. Raskih said. “People believe the government feels no responsibility for them, so our people must pick up guns and fight.” Hazara soldiers, police and intelligence officers have quit or have been forced out of the security forces because of discrimination, Mr. Raskih said, providing militias with a valuable source of trained men. Many Hazara politicians, including Mr. Ghani’s second vice president, Sarwar Danesh, have called on the government to stop what they call a genocide of Hazaras. Hundreds of Hazaras have taken to Twitter, at #StopHazarasGenocide, to demand government protection. Even as some Hazaras mobilize, some Tajik and Uzbek groups never completely disbanded the militias that helped U.S. forces topple the Taliban in 2001. Other ethnic commanders have recently begun forming militias as the Taliban continue to overrun government bases and outposts. Many of these power brokers are locked in an enduring struggle with the Ghani administration, vying for control, while trying to gain the upper hand in a post-withdrawal Afghanistan. Nationally, one prominent leader to maintain a militia is Ahmad Massoud, 32, son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, a charismatic commander of the Northern Alliance that helped U.S. forces rout the Taliban in late 2001. Ahmad Massoud has assembled a coalition of militias in northern Afghanistan. Calling his armed uprising the Second Resistance, Mr. Massoud is purportedly backed by a few thousand fighters and about a dozen aging militia commanders who fought the Taliban and the Soviets. Ahmad Massoud, son of the late military commander and politician, Ahmad Shah Massoud, has assembled a coalition of militias in northern Afghanistan.Credit...Wakil Kohsar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Some Afghan leaders say Mr. Massoud is too inexperienced to effectively lead an armed movement. But some Western leaders view him as a valuable source of intelligence on Al Qaeda and Islamic State groups inside Afghanistan. Elsewhere, the roll call of regional leaders who appear to be mobilizing reads like a who’s who of the country’s civil war in the 1990s. But their forces are nowhere near as commanding now. The brutal Uzbek strongman, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, has long maintained a private army of thousands from his base in Jowzjan Province. General Dostum, who has been accused of war crimes and sodomizing an Uzbek rival with an assault rifle, would nonetheless be a central figure in any armed uprising against the Taliban. Another power broker whose actions are being watched closely, Atta Muhammad Noor, is a former warlord and commanding figure in Balkh Province, which includes Afghanistan’s commercial hub, Mazar-i-Sharif. He said on Tuesday that he would mobilize his militia forces alongside government troops to try to retake territory that had fallen to the Taliban in recent days after the insurgents’ rapid offensive in the north. In Herat Province in the west, the former Tajik warlord Mohammed Ismail Khan, another Northern Alliance commander who helped defeat the Taliban, recently broadcast a raucous gathering of armed men on his Facebook page. Mr. Khan told supporters that a half-million people in Herat were poised to take up arms to “defend you and keep your city safe” — a clear signal that he intended to mobilize his militia if peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban collapsed. Also in Herat, Kamran Alizai, a Pashtun who leads the provincial council, said he commanded a large number of armed men ready to mobilize at a moment’s notice. “I don’t want to tell you how many armed people I have, but everyone is armed in Afghanistan,” Mr. Alizai said. If government forces were unable to hold Herat, he said, “We will stand by them and fight the Taliban.” The Afghanistan Analysts Network reported that Abdul Basir Salangi, a former militia commander and an ex-police chief in Kabul, said in a speech in January that militias were forming in the Salang district in north-central Afghanistan in case talks collapsed. “Such talk has become more blatant since the U.S. troop withdrawal announcement,” the report said. Members of a Hazara militia on patrol against Taliban insurgents in Wardak Province in January.Credit...Wakil Kohsar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images For Hazara militias, a wild card are thousands of Hazara former fighters of the Fatemiyoun Division, trained by Iran and deployed to Syria in 2014 through 2017, ostensibly to protect Shiite Muslim religious sites from the Sunni Muslim-dominated Islamic State. Others were sent to Yemen to fight alongside Houthi rebels against the Saudi-backed government. Many Fatemiyoun fighters have returned to Afghanistan, raising fears they will be incorporated into Hazara militias, providing Iran a proxy force inside the country. But analysts and Hazara leaders say former Fatemiyoun have been turned away because of their Iranian ties and potential prosecution by the Afghan government. In Kabul, many Hazaras say they are ready to take up guns. Mohammad, a shopkeeper who like many Afghans goes by one name, said he crossed a ditch flowing with blood when he ran from his shop to help after explosions rocked the neighboring Sayed Ul-Shuhada high school on May 8, killing the dozens of schoolgirls as they left for home. “I’m 24, and there have been 24 attacks in my lifetime” against Hazaras, he said. In May 2020, he said, he was visiting his pregnant mother in a maternity ward when gunmen killed 15 people, including mothers cradling newborns. Mr. Mohammad said several of his friends have recently joined militias led by Mr. Alipur and Mr. Omid. “If this situation continues,” he said, “I’ll pick up a gun and kill whoever kills us.” Asadullah Timory contributed reporting from Herat Province, Farooq Jan Mangal from Khost Province and Taimoor Shah from Kandahar Province. A version of this article appears in print on June 22, 2021, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: As Taliban Attack, Civilians Are Taking Up Arms © 2021 The New York Times Company

Claire Moses and Vivian Wang | The New York Times In the year since China passed a sweeping national security law for Hong Kong, the mainland government has steadily tightened its grip on the city, quashing the pro-democracy movement. Officials said they would censor Hong Kong films that they considered a threat to Beijing’s sovereignty, a sharp slap to the city’s artistic spirit. In March, Pro-Beijing lawmakers called for work by the dissident artist Ai Weiwei to be barred from a museum. Courts have sentenced pro-democracy activists to prison. And last week, the police raided Apple Daily, the biggest openly pro-democracy newspaper in the city, arrested its top editors and froze its bank accounts. Today, the newspaper said it would close this week. Vivian Wang, who covers Hong Kong for The Times, updates us on the situation. Claire: Last time we talked with you about Hong Kong in this newsletter was in March. What’s happened since? Vivian: A lot has changed, but all in line with a general trend: increasingly harsh, and overt, suppression of the rights that made Hong Kong different from mainland China. An annual vigil on June 4, to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre against pro-democracy protesters in Beijing, was banned. Tell us about China’s involvement in Hong Kong’s elections. China has overhauled Hong Kong’s election system. Before anyone can run for office, they will have to pass a screening committee set up by Beijing. The central government had gotten worried that pro-democracy residents were going to try to sweep the upcoming legislative elections. So Beijing passed another top-down order, as it had with the security law. There are a few major changes. Only “patriots,” defined by a screening committee, will be allowed to run for office. Also, in the past, half of the seats in the legislature were directly elected (the other half were reserved for representatives of industry groups, often dominated by pro-Beijing candidates). Now, less than a quarter will be directly elected. Many pro-democracy leaders are in prison. What does that mean for the movement? Those sentenced range from some of the most veteran pro-democracy leaders to people in their 20s who had been considered the next generation. The government is sending a message: Anyone who becomes too prominent, or too vocal, is putting themselves at risk. These figures were definitely important in boosting public morale and giving people someone to rally around. On a logistical level, this may not change much. There basically haven’t been any protests or organized pro-democracy events in the past year, and the pro-democracy political parties are limited in what they can do, especially with the new election system. You mentioned censorship. What does that mean for pop culture in Hong Kong? Hong Kong has historically had a strong film industry, and it’s been trying to turn itself into an arts hub. But with the new rules around movie censorship, and other recent attempts to get artwork banned from museums, it’s hard to imagine how the city could keep up the reputation it wants. There are still attempts to keep Hong Kong’s cultural world alive, notably through independent bookstores. But the mainland Chinese market is so big that many creators, especially in the corporate world, don’t want to alienate it. That will probably mean a shrinking space for anything critical. What’s the mood inside the pro-democracy movement? It’s still bleak. Some people say protesters will come out again when the pandemic fully ends and social distancing rules can’t be used anymore to ban public assembly. But many people I talk to say they are really scared. For more: A 23-year-old protester is the first person charged under the security law to stand trial. He could face life in prison. © Claire Moses and Vivian Wang for the New York Times, 2021

Simon Marks and Abdi Latif Dahir | New York Time The attack hit a busy market in Tigray, where there has been fierce fighting as Ethiopian forces pursue the region’s former leaders. Dozens of people were killed after an airstrike hit a busy market in northern Ethiopia on Tuesday, according to three doctors and a United Nations official, as fighting renewed in the restive Tigray region and vote counting got underway after parliamentary elections. At least 80 people were killed and 43 others wounded in Togoga town, roughly 15 miles west of the Tigray capital, Mekelle, according to an official government report shared by a United Nations official. On Wednesday, the U.N. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, also said several ambulances operated by the Ethiopian Red Cross had been denied access to the scene of the bombing by troops in Mekelle. A spokeswoman for the International Committee for the Red Cross confirmed an “ongoing operation” at the scene of the bombing but declined to comment further. A spokeswoman for Ethiopia’s prime minister referred questions to the military. A spokesman with Ethiopia’s military could not immediately be reached for comment. Separately, a doctor working at the emergency ward at Ayder Hospital in Mekelle confirmed that 30 people had been confirmed dead as of Wednesday afternoon. At least 8 injured people, including both women and children, arrived at the hospital with orthopedic and burn wounds. The doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution, said the hospital had prepared at least 20 ambulances to depart for Togoga town, but that military officers stopped them from leaving the hospital compound. “They are not allowed to leave the hospital,” the doctor said in a phone interview on Wednesday. “The ambulances are ready, and we’re still negotiating.” Another doctor later on Wednesday said that a handful of ambulances had managed to leave Mekelle after persuading troops at certain checkpoints and using different roads to reach the area. The airstrike hit a day after Africa’s second-most-populous nation went to the polls in an election beset by logistical challenges, opposition boycott, ethnic violence and the war in Tigray. The elections, which were delayed last year because of the coronavirus pandemic, was seen as a crucial test for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed whose rise to power in 2018 was lauded both at home and abroad. Initially, Mr. Abiy freed journalists and political prisoners, promised to open up key sectors of the economy and made peace with longtime foe Eritrea — a move that led to his receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019. But the war he ordered in Tigray last November tarnished Mr. Abiy’s reputation. The fighting in the northern region has killed thousands of people, displaced more than 2 million people and pushed the region into the throes of famine — the worst in any country since a 2011 famine gripped neighboring Somalia, according to a senior United Nations official. Government forces, along with allied Eritrean forces, have also been accused of ethnic cleansing, massacres and sexual assault in the ongoing conflict — accusations that could amount to war crimes. Mr. Abiy’s administration denies those accusations. Fighting in Tigray has escalated in recent days, as fighters belonging to the rebel Tigray Defense Forces scale up their operations, officials said. Getachew Reda, an executive member of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the party that previously governed the region before federal forces invaded, said in an interview late on Monday that Tigray forces targeted four divisions of the Ethiopian Army. He also claimed that Ethiopian troops and their allies had “abandoned many towns and cities.” United Nations documents also confirm an escalation of violence in recent days. Throughout the course of last week, U.N. officials reported large-scale troop movements in northwestern and central Tigray, according to a confidential U.N. security document seen by The New York Times. On Tuesday, U.N. officials also received reports that rebel Tigrayan forces had taken control of the strategic town of Adigrat. It was not immediately clear whether rebels continued to hold the city. Last month, the United States announced visa restrictions on all people involved in the Tigray conflict — including current or former Ethiopian or Eritrean government officials, ethnic Amhara militias or Tigrayan rebels. Ethiopia’s foreign ministry lashed out at the restrictions, saying it “will be forced to reassess its relations with the United States, which might have implications beyond our bilateral relationship.” “This latest atrocity against civilians raises the stakes further in Tigray,” said William Davison, senior Ethiopia analyst with the International Crisis Group. With Mr. Abiy and the ruling Prosperity Party set for a win, Mr. Davison said the prime minister “will have to decide whether to use the mandate to prioritize preventing mass starvation in Tigray, or whether he doubles down on a war that looks unwinnable and is certain to lead to more mass civilian suffering.” © Simon Marks and Abdi Latif Dahir for the New York Times, 2021

At least 31 people killed since start of June amid government attacks on Idlib area. Funeral of a White Helmets member, reported killed after a missile attack on the group’s centre in Qastoun, 19 June 2021. Photograph: Omar Haj Kadour/AFP/Getty Images. About 5,000 civilians in the north-west of Syria have once again been forced to flee their homes after a new wave of government shelling targeting the contested area, a local aid agency said. At least 31 people have died since the beginning of June as Bashar al-Assad’s forces have hit civilian infrastructure in southern Idlib province, including a hospital, displacement camp school, and a civil defence headquarters. The number of dead includes three children and a civil defence worker who was killed in an attack on the town of Qastoun on Saturday. “We were getting ready to start our morning shift when our centre was targeted with three highly explosive missiles. I joined the White Helmets [the civil defence rescue service] in 2014, and throughout those years I’ve never witnessed such destructive missiles. “Our colleague Dahham al-Hussein was killed, and five of our volunteers were injured, including Dahham’s brother Ahmad,” said Samer Nassar, head of the group’s Qastoun centre. “The centre was completely destroyed and we lost a lot of equipment that we use to save lives and pull people from under rubble. “Dahham is the 290th volunteer to have been killed on duty. Our hearts break for his family and four children he leaves behind. We will continue to carry his legacy through our work.” The rise in violence over the last three weeks is the latest violation of a ceasefire deal brokered by Turkey and Russia in March 2020, saving the area from a brutal regime offensive that forced one million people to flee north towards the Turkish border. “People are worried enough to have to leave their homes again … they are afraid of advancing forces on the ground as well, who will seize their villages,” said Rima Hallabi, a 21-year-old student. “There is no place to go. Idlib cannot handle massive numbers of people fleeing again.” Idlib and the surrounding countryside is mostly ruled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, an Islamist group which seized control from other opposition factions in 2019. While HTS has made efforts to distance itself from its al-Qaeda origins, the group tolerates little dissent and enforces religious edicts on the people living in its territory. After 10 years of war the area remains the last pocket of Syria outside the regime’s control other than the Kurdish-held northeast. The region is home to about 3.5 million people, around three-quarters of whom fled there to escape fighting in other parts of the country. Living conditions are dire, and have worsened since last year’s collapse of the Syrian currency, which sent food prices soaring. About 75% of the population is now dependent on aid to meet basic needs, according to UN agencies. Covid-19 has also stretched healthcare services already decimated by war: a recent International Rescue Committee report found that 59% of civilians in northwest Syria have been directly impacted by attacks on hospitals and clinics. 59% of civilians in northwest Syria have been directly impacted by an attack on health care facilities. The new fighting has been focused on the villages of Ihsim and Barah, on the southern edge of Idlib, where dozens of artillery shells fired by Syrian government forces over the weekend killed at least nine people. According to Taher al-Omar, an opposition activist, the dead included a local HTS commander. In return, insurgents shelled the government-held village of Joreen, killing a child, the state news agency Sana reported. Salem Abdan, Idlib’s health director, said: “June has brought many attacks on civilian homes and buildings, putting a lot of pressure on our hospitals, which are already struggling. The increase in attacks now, combined with the [UN security council vote on cross-border aid] approaching, poses a threat that the health and relief sector could collapse completely.” On 10 July the UN is due to vote to renew the authorisation of aid delivery to north-west Syria through the Turkish border. Closing the last direct aid corridor would put millions of already vulnerable people in Idlib at further risk, but Russia has repeatedly threatened to use its veto power to shut down all UN cross-border aid to areas outside the Syrian government’s control, saying it must instead be coordinated through its allies in Damascus. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, reportedly hinted in remarks to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres this week that Moscow is planning to once again block renewing the border crossing mandate. “The world must stand with us, and aid across the Turkish border must continue,” Abdan added. “If [Damascus] is already bombing us now, why would they allow the entry of any medicine or aid?” Afrin, another northwest town, was also hit by violence over the weekend: two separate artillery attacks attributed to the Syrian affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) killed at least 18 people after hitting a residential neighbourhood and hospital. Afrin was held by Kurdish forces until it was seized by the Turkish army and Turkish-backed Syrian fighters early in 2018. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the US-backed umbrella of mainly Kurdish forces fighting in Syria, said Kurdish groups were not responsible for the attacks. © 2021 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.

Published 15 June 2021 Getty Images | Mr Protasevich sat next to uniformed military chiefs at the briefing Authorities in Belarus have paraded the detained opposition blogger Roman Protasevich at a news conference in Minsk, where they gave their version of the Ryanair plane diversion of 23 May. A BBC reporter who was initially at the media briefing says Mr Protasevich, 26, was clearly appearing under duress. An alleged bomb threat forced the plane to land in Minsk, where passengers Mr Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega were arrested. Belarus denies it was a forced landing. Mr Protasevich, who is being held at a KGB prison in Belarus' capital, said he was feeling fine and had not been beaten. He also said he had caused damage to Belarus and now wanted to rectify the situation. Before his arrest he said he feared a possible death penalty as he has been put on a Belarus terrorism list. And he would anyway face a long prison sentence if found guilty of inciting unrest. At the briefing on Monday the head of state investigations, Dmitry Gora, said Ms Sapega - who is Russian - had been charged with inciting social discord and enmity. She is also in the KGB jail in Minsk. The diversion of the Athens-Vilnius flight outraged the EU, UK and other Western nations. They reacted by banning state carrier Belavia from their airports and urging airlines to avoid Belarusian airspace. Flatly contradicting independent accounts of what happened, Belarus air force chief Igor Golub told the briefing: "There was no interception, no forced diversion from the state border or forced landing of the Ryanair plane." Authoritarian Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994, has cracked down hard on opponents since claiming victory in an August election widely condemned as rigged. Opposition leaders have been jailed or forced into exile. Getty Images | Top state officials defended Belarus's disruption of the Ryanair flight Detainee's staged appearance in official show for media By Jonah Fisher, BBC correspondent in Minsk As we arrived at the briefing we were handed an annotated map of the route that Ryanair FR4978 took on 23 May. On that day the Belarus authorities insisted the plane divert from its flight plan and land in Minsk. As we looked over the map for new information, a name card was changed at the front of the room. There would be a new, previously unannounced speaker. Alongside the five government officials would be Roman Protasevich, the journalist and activist seized off the flight. Quite what the Belarus authorities hope to achieve by parading Mr Protasevich is far from clear. Their argument remains that diversion of the Ryanair plane had nothing to do with him and was because of an emailed bomb threat. In recent weeks Mr Protasevich has been put several times in front of TV cameras to toe the official line, confess to his supposed crimes and deny that he's been mistreated. With Mr Protasevich having been brought from detention to the briefing, and almost certainly having no say in the matter, we decided to leave. Shortly afterwards several of the foreign diplomats also followed suit. The Ryanair plane resumed its journey to Lithuania after being kept at Minsk airport for several hours. A Belarusian MiG fighter had escorted it down. No bomb was found, but when passengers reboarded, both Mr. Protasevich and Ms Sapega were kept in custody. Earlier this month, in a tearful appearance on Belarus state TV, Mr Protasevich praised Alexander Lukashenko and admitted attempting to topple him. Marks were visible on his wrists. Human rights and opposition campaigners say he was tortured. Mr Protasevich was editor of the opposition Nexta channel on the Telegram messaging app until last year. Nexta had a huge following in Belarus during mass street protests against Mr Lukashenko. The Belarusian opposition and Western governments say Mr Lukashenko rigged the 9 August election. He is isolated in Europe, but has the support of Russian President Vladimir Putin. © 2021 BBC

Celebrations become ‘month of mourning’ after three murders in a week, with calls for urgent state reform Sandra Cuffe Fri 18 Jun 2021 11.30 BST Tributes to Andrea González, the murdered activist and LGBTQ+ leader, at her funeral in Guatemala City, 13 June 2021. Photograph: Johan Ordóñez/AFP/Getty Guatemala’s LGBTQ+ community is in mourning after two transgender women and a gay man were murdered in less than a week during pride month. Andrea González, a prominent activist and leader in the transgender women’s organisation Otrans Reinas de la Noche (Queens of the Night) was shot dead on 11 June in the street near her home in Guatemala City. Her murder followed the killing of another Otrans member, Cecy Ixpatá, who was assaulted and died from her injuries on 9 June in a hospital in Salamá, about 50 miles north of Guatemala City. José Manuel Vargas Villeda, a 22-year-old gay man was also shot and killed on 14 June in Morales, 150 miles north-east of the capital. “It sends a message of terror and fear to the entire LGBTQ+ community around the country,” said Henry España, of the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman, an autonomous state institution. “It should be a month for celebration but ends up being a month of mourning,” he said. The killings take the total number of LGBTQ+ people murdered this year to 13, compared with 19 in all of 2020. In the absence of reliable government tracking, a network of LGBTQ+ groups set up a national observatory to record the killings. Pandemic restrictions limited attendance at González’s wake and burial on Sunday, with only her closest relatives, friends and colleagues present. “She was someone who was full of strong conviction,” said España, a friend of González through their years of LGBTQ+ rights work. “She was very funny. She always made you laugh.” González, 28, grew up in Guatemala City and went on to study nursing. She joined Otrans in 2013 as a community health promoter, worked as a nurse at the group’s trans women’s health clinic, was the organisation’s executive director, and ultimately became its legal representative. “That allowed her to take part in spaces at the national level … and also at the international level, always working for the defence of the human rights of trans women,” said Aura Rodríguez, communications coordinator at Otrans. “Every day the human rights of trans people are being violated,” she said. “The killings reveal how a state that does not ensure recognition of gender identity can not only violate rights every day through a lack of conditions for access to health, education, work and security, but also fails to protect its citizens.” Aldo Dávila, a longtime LGBTQ+ activist and the first openly gay man in Guatemala’s congress, does not think it is a coincidence that the spate of killings occurred during pride month. “It is truly worrisome. There has been an escalation of violence [against LGBTQ+ people],” he told the Guardian. To Dávila, the violence is tied to homophobic and transphobic discourse, including from public officials, but also reflects a broader discrimination and violence against other marginalised groups, including indigenous people and women. “There is persecution and criminalisation of human rights defenders,” he said. “In Guatemala we are experiencing democratic backsliding that we have not seen since the 1980s.” There are no legal protections in Guatemala from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Proposed LGBTQ+ rights bills have been spiked in congressional committees before they can make it to a vote. A rally for trans rights outside Guatemala’s constitutional court, 17 May 2021. There are no legal protections from discriminations based on gender identity in the country. Photograph: Sandra Cuffe "Discourse has so much to do with it," Dávila said of the violence he and other LGBTQ+ people face. Threats, assault and discrimination are the crimes most reported by LGBTQ+ people in Guatemala and the Public Prosecutor’s Office receives roughly 150 criminal complaints a year, said España. The Public Prosecutor’s Office and National Institute of Forensic Sciences now have designations for LGBTQ+ victims of violence and killings, but their use has been erratic. “It is very difficult to have exact numbers,” said Yahir Zavaleta, the Mexico City-based coordinator of Diversxs, an Amnesty International LGBTQ+ rights project. While some Latin American countries such as Mexico, Brazil and Argentina have standarised procedures and more reliable official statistics for killings and violence against LGBTQ+ people, Guatemala and many other countries do not, he said. Guatemala’s LGBTQ+ movement has cancelled this year’s pride march due to rising Covid-19 cases. The country’s vaccination rate is one of the lowest in the Americas and many public hospitals are under strain. Otrans has been calling for the state to create conditions that enable LGBTQ+ people to lead dignified lives, and to pass a comprehensive trans rights law. The group is also calling for unity within the LGBTQ+ community. “These killings are not going to stop, unfortunately,” said Rodríguez, “in a state that displays hate toward its population.” See article here. © 2021 The Guardian

Drag queen Elona Musk attends with his partner a demonstration against the latest anti-LGBTQ law in Budapest, Hungary, June 14, 2021. REUTERS/Marton Monus BUDAPEST, June 18 (Reuters) - Daniella Milla Tokodi says she feels finally free as she dances in spectacular costumes in a drag show at a Budapest bar popular with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. Asssigned male at birth, the 31-year old Hungarian said after having an operation in 2018 to complete her gender transition she broke into tears when she saw herself in the mirror and that she felt "whole". "It was a relief ... Since then I am able to look into people's eyes. I can communicate with people, I feel whole." That feeling is now overshadowed by worry over a string of laws passed by Prime Minister Viktor Orban's right-wing government that critics say undermine LGBT+ rights, with the latest this week that bans the "display and promotion" of homosexuality and gender change among under-18s, in schools and in the media. It follows another law last year banning gender change in identity documents, something Daniella was able to do after she started her transition in 2014. "I am obviously concerned by it and how the next generation will grow up. It is not by chance that there are a lot of gay, transgender suicides because if someone cannot become fulfilled what can they do? Should they hide?," Daniella said. A survey of 2,000 people by the HATTER society, a Hungarian LGBT+ group, showed that 42% thought about suicide while 30% had attempted it. Suicide thoughts occurred mostly among teenagers, about 64% of respondents, it said. Orban defended the new legislation on Thursday, writing on his website in English that it "does not conflict with any lofty ideals or European laws. The new Hungarian law simply states clearly that only parents can decide on the sexual education of their children". His critics say Orban, who faces an election next year, has grown increasingly radical on social policy, railing against LGBTQ+ people and immigrants, which has deeply divided Hungarians and upset the LGBT+ community. "HUGE TABOO" Orban's Fidesz party, which promotes a Christian-conservative agenda, tacked the proposal banning school talks on LGBT+ issues to a separate, widely-backed bill that strictly penalises paedophilia. The move, which critics say wrongly conflates paedophilia with LGBT+ issues, prompted a mass rally on Monday, while rights groups have called on Fidesz to withdraw the bill and the European Commission has opened an inquiry into it. The new law also sets up a list of organisations allowed to provide education about sex in schools. Drag queen "Elona Musk", who did not want to use his real name, has worked in a volunteer group that visits schools to educate children about diversity. Elona himself had a tough time in high school, feeling that he had to hide that he was gay. He grew up in Romania where he said homosexuality was a "huge taboo". He moved to Hungary from Transylvania 10 years ago and in his day job, he works for a multinational company. The new law scares him as he fears he will not be able to continue his volunteer work. "I think this is just one step and it will continue with new and new laws." Critics have likened the new legislation to Russia's 2013 law that bans disseminating "propaganda on non-traditional sexual relations" among young Russians. It also affects the LGBT+ community's main media outlet, Humen magazine and online news portal. Its editor Zsolt Erdei says it is still unclear whether they will be able to display their free printed magazine in public places. The online version will have to be preceded by an age 18 warning. Writing by Krisztina Than; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise © Copyright 2021 Reuters

South Sudan, the UN’s youngest Member State, is marking its tenth anniversary of independence amid languishing political progress and a range of humanitarian challenges, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative told Security Council members on Monday. Peacekeepers serving with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) conduct a firewood patrol for women from the Mission’s Protection of Civilians’ site (POC) in Bentiu on December 10, 2018. UN Photo/Isaac Billy Nicholas Haysom, who also heads the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan, known as UNMISS, recalled the broad international optimism that surrounded the country’s independence on 9 July 2011. A decade later, however, pervasive insecurity – in particular intercommunal violence – continues to obstruct the realization of a durable and sustainable peace. Political progress Reporting some notable achievements on the ground since his predecessor's last briefing to the Council in March, Mr. Haysom said South Sudan’s Government has reconstituted the national legislature and appointed 550 new members. It also established a taskforce to oversee and coordinate transitional justice and other judicial reforms. Importantly, the Government also launched a “permanent Constitution-making process”, based on an inclusive national conversation that aims to lay the foundation for a new social contract between South Sudan’s citizens. “Drafting a national Constitution is a quintessential act of sovereignty”, said Mr. Hayso m. “It expresses the highest aspirations of a nation and its most cherished values.” For its part, UNMISS recently deployed the needs assessment mission requested by the Council, for the conduct of free and fair elections. A detailed report will be submitted shortly. Slow strides That progress notwithstanding, the overall implementation of South Sudan’s Revitalized Peace Agreement – adopted in 2018 against the backdrop of multiple security and political crises – remains slow. While the Revitalized Agreement provides a clear roadmap for peace through reform, political transformation, security, development and national reconciliation, many of its requirements have not been met nearly three years later. In particular, the constitution of the Council of States and the nomination of the legislative assembly speaker, are pending. Transitional security arrangements remain behind schedule, and pervasive insecurity continues to impede sustainable peace from taking root. Mr. Haysom told Council members that, so far in 2021, more than 80 per cent of civilian casualties have been attributed to intercommunal violence and community-based militias. Violence and food shortages Among many critical tasks, UNMISS continues to support the Government in protecting displaced populations. However, weak or absent state governance institutions throughout South Sudan have enabled spoilers to “exploit perennial communal and ethnic cleavages”, Mr. Haysom warned. Entrenched insecurity has also hindered the cultivation of crops and contributed to a vicious cycle of livestock raiding, leaving many communities dangerously short of food. Noting that the UN and regional actors all share a deep concern over the resumption of violence between communities in the country’s Greater Pibor district, he underlined the need for the Government to take concrete steps to address root causes of the conflict. UNMISS continues to collaborate with local authorities and communities to promote reconciliation, secure the release of abducted women and children, and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance. Global support critical In addition, Mr. Haysom sounded alarms about worryingly weakened rule of law institutions and deteriorating economic conditions, which have led to increased criminality and the targeting of humanitarian workers. In 2021 alone, four humanitarian workers have been killed in South Sudan and millions of dollars of humanitarian supplies have been looted or destroyed. Pledging that UNMISS will continue to take the lead in promoting and advocating for safe humanitarian aid delivery, Mr. Haysom called for “irreversible progress towards peace”, which will require tangible progress against the benchmarks of the Revitalized Peace Agreement. Those include elections, a new Constitution and the establishment of democratic institutions, he said, drawing members’ attention to the sense of jubilation across the UN upon South Sudan’s induction into the community of nations in 2011. “The international pledged its support to South Sudan then,” he said. “This commitment remains as important and as urgent today as the world’s youngest nation strives to deliver peace and security to its citizens.” © United Nations

General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo,attends the signing ceremony of the agreement on peace and ceasefire in Juba, South Sudan October 21, 2019. He is currently deputy head of Sudan's sovereign council. REUTERS/Samir Bol/File Photo KHARTOUM, June 18 (Reuters) - Sudan's military has announced plans to create a joint force to "crack down on insecurity" and assert the state's authority in the capital and nationwide as an economic crisis and regional tensions plague a fragile transition period. The announcement was made in an order from General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, deputy head of Sudan's ruling sovereign council, that was published late on Thursday. Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, is head of the Rapid Support Forces which will be part of the new force with the police, armed forces, General Intelligence Service and "representatives" of rebel groups and the public prosecutor, the order said. In a speech this week defending reforms meant to tackle a deep economic crisis and stabilise a political transition towards elections, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said there was a danger of chaos or civil war fomented by loyalists of the previous leadership. The latest of those reforms was the removal of fuel subsidies last week at a time when annual inflation has risen to 379%, causing a public outcry. Sudanese authorities have warned about "gangs and criminal groups" which they blame for disturbances in the capital, Khartoum, in recent days. Sudan's Darfur region has seen an uptick in deadly violence, as has the country's eastern region, since the installation of a military-civilian power-sharing government in mid-2019. A peace agreement signed late last year called for the integration of rebel groups into a unified national army which has not yet begun. U.N. special representative Volker Perthes told a news conference he was concerned about the delay, adding that he considered the police to be best suited to protect civilians. Dagalo's Rapid Support Forces, which emerged out of the janjaweed militias in Darfur's conflict of the early 2000s, are viewed with mistrust by many in the country. The force announced on Thursday would be formed "immediately", under the leadership of sovereign council member General Yasser al-Atta, according to the order. Dagalo also ordered the signatory rebel groups to get their members under control and designate gathering places. Many rebel troops had moved towards Khartoum as their leaders joined the government following the signing of the agreement. Reporting by Ahmed Tolba and Khalid Abdelaziz, writing by Nafisa Eltahir, editing by Timothy Heritage © Copyright 2021 Reuters