A boy sits at a camp for displaced people who fled from el-Fasher to Tawila, North Darfur, on October 27, 2025 [Mohammed Jamal/Reuters] The Genocide Working Group, a coalition of the 130 organization Alliance Against Genocide and the global International Religious Freedom Roundtable , has proposed a United Nations General Assembly Resolution on Sudan that: Demands an immediate ceasefire by all sides in the Sudan civil war; Demands unhindered access to food and medicine for all persons in El Fasher and elsewhere in Sudan; Condemns ethnically targeted attacks and starvation as acts of genocide and war crimes; Calls for accountability throughout Sudan and cooperation with the International Criminal Court; Establishes an independent investigative commission on Sudan to report to the General Assembly; Urges the re-establishment of a UN mission to protect civilians and support aid delivery. Member organizations of the Alliance and the IRF Roundtable are meeting with UN Missions in New York and with Foreign Ministries around the world seeking co-sponsorship of the resolution. The resolution is proposed under the United Nations Uniting For Peace Procedure, which empowers the UN General Assembly to recommend collective action by UN Members when UN Security Council action is blocked by a veto by any of the Permanent Five members of the Security Council. In November 2024, Russia vetoed a UN Security Council Resolution supported by 14 out of 15 members of the Security Council that condemned RSF ethnically motivated killings. sexual violence, and destruction, called for a ceasefire, demanded unhindered access to humanitarian aid, demanded an end to the seige of El Fasher, demanded protection of humanitarian hospitals and personnel, called for an end to sexual violence, and called for safe routes for civilians to flee the city. It did not call for an armed protection force. But Russia vetoed even that hortatory resolution, reportedly at the urging of General Burhan and the Sudan Armed Forces, which are also committing genocide and crimes against humanity in Sudan. The proposed UN General Assembly resolution must gather many more cosponsors before it is introduced. Missions consulted so far have emphasized the strong need for support from African nations. This resolution must not be seen as support for imposition of non-African intervention in Sudan. We urge all persons, churches, mosques, temples, synagogues, human rights NGOs, national and state legislatures and other organizations to contact the Foreign Ministries of their governments to ask them to cosponsor the resolution. We will be circulating a letter to all UN Missions for signatures by individuals and organizations that support introduction and adoption of this UN General Assembly resolution on Sudan. The proposed draft UN General Assembly resolution on Sudan is attached here: The IRF Roundtable - Alliance Against Genocide letter to UN Missions is attached here: The Russian vetoed draft UN Security Council resolution on Sudan, November 2024 is attached here:

By Reuters October 31, 2025 A man walks on a deserted street, following a protest a day after a general election marred by violent demonstrations over the exclusion of two leading opposition candidates at the Namanga One-Post Border crossing point between Kenya and Tanzania, October 30, 2025. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya Oct 31 (Reuters) - Tanzania's main opposition party said on Friday hundreds of people had been killed in protests over elections this week, as the U.N. secretary-general called for an investigation into allegations of excessive use of force. The U.N. human rights office said credible reports indicated at least 10 people were killed in protests in three cities, the first public estimate of any fatalities by an international body since Wednesday's vote. The foreign ministers of Britain, Canada and Norway issued a joint statement expressing concern over the situation and urging the Tanzanian authorities to act with maximum restraint and to respect the right of assembly and of free expression. Speaking to Reuters in some of the government's first public comments on the unrest, Foreign Affairs Minister Mahmoud Thabit Kombo said the opposition's death toll was "hugely exaggerated" but that the authorities had not yet tabulated casualties. He denied that security officers had used excessive force. Reuters could not independently verify the casualty figures. Protesters have taken to the streets since Wednesday, angered by the exclusion of President Samia Suluhu Hassan's two biggest challengers from the race and what they described as widespread repression. Witnesses have said police fired tear gas and gunshots to break up some demonstrations . Police have imposed an overnight nationwide curfew over the past two nights after government offices and other buildings were set ablaze. Internet access has been disrupted since Wednesday. In a statement issued by his spokesperson, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called "for a thorough and impartial investigation into all allegations of excessive use of force" and deplored the loss of life. Partial election results announced on Thursday and Friday showed Hassan winning commanding majorities across the country, and complete results were expected in the coming hours. HEAVY SECURITY PRESENCE The unrest presents a test for Hassan, who won praise after taking office in 2021 for easing repression but has more recently faced criticism from opposition parties and activists after a series of arrests and alleged abductions of opponents. Hassan has denied allegations of widespread rights abuses. She said last year she had ordered an investigation into reports of abductions, but no official findings have been released. Soldiers and police patrolled the streets of the commercial capital Dar es Salaam on Friday, preventing people from moving around without a valid reason. John Kitoka - a spokesperson for the CHADEMA party which was barred from the election for refusing to sign a code of conduct and had its leader arrested for treason in April - said the party had documented about 700 deaths since Wednesday based on accounts from health workers. He said protests continued on Friday in several cities, although they had waned in some due to the heavy security. "We are calling for the protests to continue until our demands for electoral reforms are met," Kitoka told Reuters. GOVERNMENT SAYS VIOLENCE LIMITED Foreign Affairs Minister Kombo said there had only been a "very few small pockets of incidents during the election period" and that the violence was caused by criminal elements. "Most Tanzanians are so much disappointed with what has happened and they are calling for their government to end this impunity," he said. U.N. human rights spokesperson Seif Magango told reporters there were credible reports of at least 10 people killed in Dar es Salaam, Shinyanga and Morogoro. One Dar es Salaam resident, who asked not to be named for safety reasons, told Reuters a family member had been shot dead outside a hospital when he was mistaken for a protester. A police spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment. Writing by Vincent Mumo Nzilani and George Obulutsa; Editing by Aaron Ross, Ros Russell, Andrew Heavens and Gareth Jones © 2025 Reuters. All rights reserved.

By Declan Walsh Nov 3, 2025 A woman who fled El Fasher in the Darfur region of Sudan last week. (Agence France-Presse — Getty Images) A new struggle on an old battlefield Since the city of El Fasher in Sudan fell to a paramilitary force last week, verified images and witness accounts have pointed to an unfolding massacre in the country’s Darfur region. Residents were shot as they tried to flee the city. Videos show paramilitary forces casually executing civilians. Those who made the arduous escape to a town 65 kilometers away brought accounts of terror, starvation and death. Two decades ago, the word “Darfur” rippled across the world as a symbol of unchecked atrocities in a distant land. Today, it is happening again . A wave of killings is sweeping one of the region’s biggest cities. The same ethnic rivalries seem to be fueling the chaos. The paramilitaries unleashing the terror descended from the Janjaweed, the predominantly Arab militias that ran rampant two decades ago. The first time Darfur tipped into chaos, there was at least some degree of Western pressure. This time, there’s little celebrity activism or political attention, and impunity for abuses is rife. Then and now The fighters rampaging across Darfur are armed, organized and funded better than ever. And they are backed by one of the wealthiest countries in the wider region, the United Arab Emirates, which is also a close partner of the United States. (The Emirates has denied backing either side in the conflict.) Then, fighters rode mainly on horses and camels; today, they drive armored vehicles and pickups. Before, they torched villages; now, they fire heavy artillery and fly sophisticated drones. In the last war, the paramilitaries fought on the same side as the Sudanese Army. Now, though, the paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces, or R.S.F., is fighting the national army in a battle that has ripped Sudan apart and caused, by many measures, the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The civil war between the Sudanese Army and the R.S.F., which erupted in April 2023, stemmed in part from the political ambitions of the group’s leader, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan. He has declared his own parallel government in the state of South Darfur. His troops have perpetrated atrocities that the United Nations calls war crimes and the Biden administration called genocide, often targeting members of the Zaghawa ethnic group. Sexual violence is also widespread, the U.N. says. Until this week, El Fasher was the only city in Darfur that the R.S.F. did not control. A contingent of Sudanese soldiers and allied Darfuri militiamen clung to a garrison near the airport, their last foothold in the region. As the R.S.F. tightened its siege, fighters built a high earthen berm that looped around the city, trapping about a quarter-million residents inside. Civilians who tried to smuggle food or medicine over the berm were beaten or killed. Residents began to starve. In the city’s last functioning hospital, doctors resorted to giving malnourished children animal feed. “Everybody knew what would happen when El Fasher fell — that in addition to the horrors of a starvation siege, the R.S.F. would massacre people,” said Michelle Gavin, a senior fellow for Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Limited Outrage Twenty years ago, celebrity activists like George Clooney made Darfur a cause célèbre. The crisis there was a foreign policy priority for President George W. Bush and became a source of friction with China, which had oil investments in Sudan. The latest atrocities have brought strident condemnation, but it has been largely limited to policy circles — the U.N. Security Council, some members of the U.S. Congress and a handful of politicians elsewhere. President Trump’s special adviser to Africa is trying to broker a cease-fire. But so far there has been little sign of success. One reason is that participants include diplomats from the Emirates, Egypt and Saudi Arabia — the same Arab powers that are fueling the conflict. Despite the American accusations of genocide, few officials have been willing to openly criticize the Emirati role in stoking the conflict, Gavin said. “The U.A.E. is arming and supporting a genocidal force,” she said. But there has been complete unwillingness to acknowledge it. © 2025 The New York Times. All rights reserved.

Families shot down, held at ransom as they flee Darfur’s killing fields The Washington Post November 1, 2025 by  Katharine Houreld   and Hafiz Haroun   A woman rests in Tewila, in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region, on Oct. 28 after fleeing El Fashir in the wake of the city's fall to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. (AFP/Getty Images)   Sudan’s RSF paramilitary and its allies have carried out mass ethnic killings and hostage taking in the captured city of El Fashir, survivors told The Post.   NAIROBI — Families gunned down as they huddled for safety. Young children weeping over their mother’s body in the desert. Doctors seized for ransom and executed.   Such are the stories trickling out of El Fashir, the Sudanese city  conquered  by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on Sunday. The vast majority of people inside the city are still unreachable; only a few traumatized people have been able to escape and testify to the horrors unfolding there.   Sudan’s civil war, which erupted in 2023 after a power struggle between the head of the RSF and the army chief, has become a sprawling conflagration, sucking in global and regional powers and leaving much of the country in ruins. The RSF is backed by the United Arab Emirates; Sudan’s army has received weapons from  Iran ,  Turkey  and Russia.   Now, a war that has already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives has entered one of its darkest chapters. The Washington Post interviewed nine civilians, doctors, aid workers and combatants in and around El Fashir, who described a frenzied and indiscriminate campaign of ethnic killings and hostage taking by the RSF and allied fighters.   As international outrage mounts, even the head of the RSF, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti, has admitted to abuses by his forces. On Thursday, the group released a  video  showing the arrest of one of its commanders, who was  filmed  taunting and executing large groups of civilians.   The United States has already  sanctioned  Hemedti and other RSF leaders, as well as top figures in the Sudanese military (SAF), which has also been accused of war crimes. On Thursday, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators  urged  the American government to go further in light of what they called “the genocide in Darfur.”   “The RSF’s long-predicted ethnically targeted assault on the civilian population of El-Fasher makes clear that the United States must consider the designation of the RSF as a potential Foreign Terrorist Organization or Specially Designated Global Terrorist organization,” the senators, including James E. Risch (R-Idaho) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire), the most senior members of the Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement.   The statement was also notable for criticizing the UAE, a key U.S. ally, which has denied backing the RSF despite extensive  evidence  that it has provided the group with weapons and other military support.   “Foreign backers of the RSF and SAF — including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Russia, Iran, China and governments in the immediate region — have fueled and profited from the conflict and legitimized the monsters destroying Sudan,” the statement said.   Smoke billows from fires burning around the El Fashir airport on Oct. 26. (Vantor/AFP/Getty Images)   ‘Death is everywhere’   A report from the  Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab  said images from El Fashir’s former Children’s Hospital — inoperable for a year and used as an RSF detention site — and the nearby Saudi hospital indicated mass killings this week. About 460 people were reportedly killed in the Saudi hospital, according to the World Health Organization.   A doctor who worked in the maternity ward of the Saudi hospital said he was taken hostage by the RSF on Sunday and released Wednesday after he paid a $50,000 ransom. He was too heartsick to describe the killings he had witnessed, he said, and begged for help in securing the release of his fellow doctors. Like others interviewed for the article, he spoke on the condition of anonymity for safety reasons.   The RSF “have been killing people for years, and we haven’t seen anything done against them, so what’s the point of talking to you?” the doctor asked. “Just pay the Rapid Support Forces to release our colleagues. … Anyone who doesn’t [pay] will be killed.”   An RSF fighter told The Post that some of the doctors taken hostage were sent south to the town of Nyala, while others were executed alongside civilians. Nearly all the wounded patients in the Saudi hospital and other health centers in El Fashir had been killed, he said.   “The city was in complete chaos,” he said. “Fighters came from different areas, and no one could stop them.” Armed gangs from the countryside would probably be looting El Fashir for the next month, another RSF commander said. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.   “The accounts coming in are horrifying,” said an aid worker whose organization has spoken to more than 100 people who managed to escape the city and reach the town of Tewila, the nearest point offering aid and refuge.   “One person told us of three little children — all under the age of 4 — clustered crying around their mother’s body,” the aid worker continued. “Another man said civilians were running from the west of town and they were being shot at as they ran. One man said there was a body every 10 meters. … One man described running past another man, half his body had been blown away and he was begging for help.”   Displaced El Fashir residents arrive in Tewila on Oct. 28. (AFP/Getty Images)   Aid workers are deeply concerned about how few people have reached Tewila. Almost all El Fashir residents left as their city was falling; only a very small number have arrived since its capture. For months, starving Sudanese trying to escape the RSF siege of El Fashir  were killed, raped or kidnapped . Aid groups fear the same fate has befallen those trying to escape now — on a much larger scale.   The United Nations said 260,000 people were left in El Fashir when RSF forces stormed the city; less than 5,000 people had made it to Tewila in the week since, according to Mathilde Vu of the Norwegian Refugee Council.   “People say there are so many bodies on the road and the smell of death is everywhere,” she said. Around a tenth of the families arrived with children who were not their own, she said, including one that showed up with a 6-month-old baby and another young child after their parents had been killed. Everyone who arrives is malnourished, Vu said.   One of the rare men to make it out of El Fashir told The Post that he had been spared only because starvation during the 18-month RSF siege had made him appear much older than his 55 years — he was stick-thin, with white hair and shriveled skin.   As RSF forces swept through the city, he recalled, hundreds of families sought shelter at the local university, which had sturdier buildings. “Everyone able to run or walk” was there, he said, “women, children, wounded and elderly.” As they huddled together, they were shelled and attacked with drones, he recounted. Then the gunmen came. “First we were bombed, and then there was shooting,” he said. “More than 200 people killed, blood, everyone trying to escape. If there is a word to describe it, it must be genocide.”   Footage from the university verified by The Post shows a hallway strewn with bodies and men in RSF uniforms picking their way through, casually finishing off survivors with single shots. The white-haired man fled to a hill behind the university with his cousin and around 15 women and their children, he said, but RSF fighters were waiting for them.   “They robbed the women, took money and phones, then opened fire,” he said.   The man was detained and interrogated but released with five other men because of his elderly appearance, he said. “On all the villages and roads around, there were bodies,” he said, as his small group staggered toward Tewila.   Two days after arriving, a male cousin — whom he had left for dead — showed up, too, wounded in the head and unable to talk, he said. An aid worker in the camp verified his condition. Displaced families shelter in Tewila on Oct. 27. (Mohammed Jamal/Reuters)   ‘They must be killed'   Another man described leaving El Fashir as fighting raged, joining other desperate civilians until the group numbered nearly 600, including many children. RSF soldiers shot at them along the road, he said, killing at least five and scattering the group.   Then, he recounted, an RSF commander “approached us and told us to shout at the top of our lungs, ‘The Rapid Support Forces are above us! Hemedti is above us!’” Then he told us, “'You are civilians, go!’” But before they could move, the man said, an RSF armored vehicle began driving toward them, crushing everyone in its path.   “The commander kept repeating, ‘These are civilians, don’t kill them!,’” the man said, but “they ignored his words.” Eighteen people were killed, the man said, including one of his female cousins. Another cousin was badly injured, he said, and they had to leave her behind. The group made it only about 500 yards before being targeted again.   “‘These are slaves; they must be killed,’” he remembers the fighters saying before they opened fire. An additional seven people were killed, he estimated.   When the shooting stopped, the man said, an RSF soldier gave water to the survivors and told them to turn around because there was more killing ahead. But the group kept going, reaching an area known as Um Jalbakh, a stronghold of Arab tribes, many affiliated with the RSF. Many of the last remaining inhabitants of El Fashir, by contrast, come from African tribes affiliated with militias that have supported the military. Displaced Sudanese in Tewila on Oct. 28. (Str/AFP/Getty Images)   Twenty years ago in Darfur, a mainly Arab militia — the precursor of the RSF — hunted down African villagers from the same ethnic groups in a mass killing campaign later recognized as genocide. Survivors say it’s happening again.   “Arab women and men attacked us on horseback and camels, whipping us,” the man said. “One of the Arabs shot a man and his wife. The man was walking with us, and the bullet hit his stomach. He was saying to us, ‘Please save my wife!’ We couldn’t do anything; we just prayed for him before he died, and we left his wounded wife.”   The group was ultimately loaded into vehicles by the RSF, he said, and taken to Zamzam camp, which had been home to nearly half a million people before paramilitary fighters  captured  it in April, slaughtering civilians and aid workers. The group arrived as around 20 men were being executed, the man said. A boy of about 12, wearing an RSF uniform, was the first to shoot, he said. The man said he began praying as the group was brought to an area marked “Prison.”   “They told us to stay put and that tomorrow morning they would bring a Starlink device so we could contact our families” for the ransom demands, the man remembered. “They threatened to kill anyone whose family didn’t answer.”   Originally, he said, the fighters demanded $28,000 from each person, a staggering sum, but the group was able to negotiate the figure down.   “In the morning, when the device arrived, I called my family,” the man said, and the fighters demanded $14,000. “If they didn’t pay it, they would kill me right then,” he said the fighters told his loved ones. His family sent the money, the man said, and he was released. Four others were unable to pay.   “I don’t know what happened to them,” he said.   Meg Kelly in Washington contributed to this report. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/11/01/sudan-darfur-el-fashir-rsf-genocide/   Copyright 2025 The Washington Post

By Omar Kausar and Grace Harris People displaced following Rapid Support Forces (RSF) attacks on Zamzam displacement camp shelter in the town of Tawila, North Darfur, Sudan on April 15, 2025. Stringer/Reuters Since April 2023, the Republic of Sudan (Sudan) has been engulfed in one of the deadliest civil wars of the 21st century . The civil war is between two opposing factions of the Sudanese Military: the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the legitimized paramilitary group composed of the former Janjaweed militia responsible for the 2003 genocide. During the war, the SAF and RSF have attacked civilians with airstrikes and heavy artillery in densely populated areas. According to the OHCHR, the damage to civilian objects and civilian lives continues. Both parties have committed large-scale human rights abuses and violated International Humanitarian Law (IHL), which may constitute War Crimes and/or Crimes against Humanity.     Additionally, the SAF and RSF have perpetrated numerous international crimes including sexual and gender-based violence, rape, sexual slavery, abduction, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and ill-treatment, looting, pillaging, ethnically and gender-motivated attacks on civilians, and conscripting children into hostilities. Sexual and gender-based violence is among the most significant crimes. According to the United Nations (UN) Fact-Finding Mission in Sudan , it has long been used as a weapon of war, particularly in Sudan. The crisis has continued to escalate in 2025 with a significant rise in civilian killings, executions, ethnic violence, and a worsening humanitarian situation. An estimated 3,384 civilians have been killed in the first half of 2025 alone, while estimates of the total death toll from all conflict-related causes range from 20,000 to 150,000 . However, the actual figure is unknown.     Moreover, civilians continue to bear the brunt of this devastation. It has killed tens of thousands of people, forced 12 million from their homes , and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis. Last August, the Famine Review Committee declared that famine is occurring in Sudan , particularly in the North Darfur region. Conditions have only worsened since then, with famine confirmed in 5 areas, 24.6 million or half the nation’s population experiencing acute food insecurity, 8.6 million internally displaced, and 4 million forced to flee as refugees. Furthermore, the RSF has directly targeted Darfur’s ethnically non-Arab populations, the Masalit, Fur, and Zaghawa . This is a resurgence of the same genocidal intent of the 2003 Darfur Genocide .    In recent news, while the state of Sudan filed a case at the International Court of Justice against the UAE for alleged violations of the Genocide Convention, this was dismissed in May . In June, the RSF set fire to several villages and brutally massacred 300 people, including pregnant women and children, in the North Kordofan region. More recently, 84 people were killed at prayer in an RSF missile strike on a mosque , becoming the bloodiest day the city of el-Fasher has seen since the onset of conflict. Well into the third year of outright war , the SAF controls much of western Sudan, while the RSF controls the eastern regions, including Darfur.    Because of the targeted nature of violence and the lingering tensions from the 2003 genocide, Genocide Watch deems the war in Sudan has escalated to stage nine of the Ten Stages of Genocide: Extermination.   Genocide Watch Recommends the Following   An immediate and long-lasting ceasefire in Sudan.   The UN Security Council to re-create the Sudan Commission of Inquiry to report on crimes being committed in Sudan.   The UN Security Council to implement an arms embargo on Sudan and to sanction those countries that violate the embargo.   The UN Security Council to compel Sudan to comply with the existing ICC Arrest Warrants for Sudan.

Responding to a report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel published today concluding that Israel has systematically used sexual, reproductive and other gender-based violence against Palestinians since October 2023 and carried out “genocidal acts” against Palestinians in Gaza by destroying women’s healthcare and reproductive health facilities and blocking access to reproductive healthcare, Amnesty International’s Senior Adviser on gender, conflict and international justice, Lauren Aarons, said: “These damning findings are another clear illustration of the devastating impact of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its use of gender-based violence to oppress Palestinian women and girls across the Occupied Palestinian Territory and to use sexual violence to perpetuate oppression on Palestinians of all genders, especially in Israeli detention centers. “The report exposes yet again the horrors of Israeli atrocity crimes in Gaza, and how they specifically impact women. They follow the findings of Amnesty International’s own December 2024 report which concluded that Israeli authorities committed and are committing genocide in Gaza. Acts that formed part of Israel’s genocide documented by Amnesty International included the ​killing and seriously injuring tens of thousands of women and girls and deliberately subjecting them to conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, in whole or in part.   These damning findings are another clear illustration of the devastating impact of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its use of gender-based violence to oppress Palestinian women and girls across the Occupied Palestinian Territory Lauren Aarons, Senior Adviser on gender, conflict and international justice “Palestinian women in Gaza have been subjected to a range of gendered forms of bodily and mental harm, including reproductive and other gender-based violence. ​​“Even after the first phase of the ceasefire came into force horrific conditions of life inflicted by Israel during the offensive have continued to disproportionately affect women and girls. This includes damage and destruction of homes, medical facilities including maternity wards, maternal care clinics and other life-sustaining infrastructure as well as shelters protecting women and girls from gender-based violence. Israel’s decision to completely block entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza for the past 12 days has already exacerbated the catastrophic conditions facing women and girls. Even prior to the imposition of these measures as a clear form of collective punishment, Israel had banned the entry of mobile homes and heavy machinery to remove the rubble. This means that hundreds of thousands of women and girls continue to live in dire conditions in tents or crowded schools, exposed to violence and with scarce access to clean water contributing to a hygiene crisis. ​​“Palestinians released from Israeli detention centers have also told Amnesty International that they were subjected to torture and sexual violence while in detention. “The publication of the COI report must prompt the international community to take urgent action to protect the rights of​ Palestinian​ women and address gendered crimes being committed against women and men. In addition to a long-lasting ceasefire, urgent measures are needed to repair hospitals, clinics and sanitation facilities, Israel must lift its genocidal siege on the occupied Gaza Strip and restore the electricity supply. It must also repeal its ban on UNRWA, whose work is vital to addressing the humanitarian catastrophe including the needs of women and girls. “No discussion of human rights is possible without tackling Israel’s decades long impunity for its violations against Palestinians.  The world must act to ensure justice is a reality for all Palestinians and to restore some faith in international law for all.” Background : In a December 2024 report Amnesty International documented how Israel during its military offensive has carried out acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza. These acts include killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction The organization has also documented evidence of war crimes by Israeli forces in Gaza including indiscriminate attacks resulting in mass civilian casualties wiping out entire families and destroying residential neighbourhoods. The organization has also documented violations of international law by Hamas and other armed groups including launching indiscriminate rocket attacks into Israel as well as deliberate killings of civilians and hostage-taking since 7 October 2023. © 2025 Amnesty International

Sudanese who fled el-Fasher city, after Sudan's paramilitary forces killed hundreds of people in the western Darfur region, speak at their camp in Tawila, Sudan, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Muhnnad Adam) By Samy Magdy CAIRO (AP) — Sudan’s paramilitary forces killed hundreds of people at a hospital, including patients, after they seized the provincial capital of North Darfur over the weekend, according to the U.N., displaced residents and aid workers, who described harrowing details of atrocities. The 460 patients and their companions were reportedly killed Tuesday at Saudi Hospital by fighters from the Rapid Support Forces in the city of el-Fasher, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization. As part of their assault on el-Fasher, RSF fighters also went from house to house, beating and shooting at people, including women and children, witnesses told The Associated Press. Many died of gunshot wounds in the streets, some while trying to flee to safety, witnesses said. Two years of fighting for control of Sudan has killed over 40,000 people — a figure rights groups consider a significant undercount — and has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis with over 14 million displaced. The capture of el-Fasher by the powerful Arab-led force raises fears that Africa’s third-largest nation may split again, nearly 15 years after the oil-rich South Sudan gained independence following years of civil war. Sudanese residents and aid workers revealed harrowing details of atrocities by the RSF after they seized the army’s last stronghold in Darfur following more than 500 days of siege. Fighters from the RSF “cold-bloodedly killed everyone they found inside the Saudi Hospital, including patients, their companions, and anyone else present in the wards,” according to the Sudan Doctors Network, a medical group tracking the war. “The Janjaweed showed no mercy for anyone,” said Umm Amena, a mother of four children who fled the city on Monday after two days, using a Sudanese term for the RSF. RSF commander Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, who is sanctioned by the U.S., on Wednesday acknowledged what he called “abuses” by his forces. In his first comments since the fall of el-Fasher, posted on the Telegram messaging app, he said an investigation was opened. He did not elaborate. The Associated Press has not been able to independently confirm the hospital attack and death toll. ‘It was a like a killing field’ Mini Minawi, the governor of Darfur, shared a video online that purported to show RSF fighters inside the Saudi Hospital. The minute-long footage shows bodies lying on the floor in pools of blood. A fighter fires a single shot from a Kalashnikov-style rifle into a lone man sitting up, who then slumps to the floor. Other bodies could be seen outside. The AP could not independently verify the date, location or condition under which the video was recorded. Amena was among three dozen people, mostly women and children, who were detained for a day by RSF fighters in an abandoned house close to the Saudi Hospital in el-Fasher. The AP spoke with Amena and four others who managed to flee el-Fasher and arrived exhausted and dehydrated early Tuesday in the nearby town of Tawila, around 60 kilometers (37 miles) west of el-Fasher, which already hosts over 650,000 displaced. The U.N. migration agency said more than 36,000 people have fled el-Fasher, mostly to rural areas around it, since Sunday. U.N. refugee agency official Jacqueline Wilma Parlevliet said that the new arrivals told stories of widespread killings motivated by ethnic and political differences, including reports of people with disabilities shot dead because they were unable to flee, and others shot as they tried to escape. “It was a like a killing field,” Tajal-Rahman, a man in his late 50s, said over the phone from the outskirts of Tawila. “Bodies everywhere and people bleeding and no one to help them.” Both Amena and Tajal-Rahman said that RSF fighters tortured and beat the detainees and shot at least four people on Monday who later died of wounds. They also sexually assaulted women and girls, they said. In Tawila, a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders received many patients since Oct. 18 suffering from injuries related to bombings or gunshots, according to Giulia Chiopris, a pediatrician at the hospital. She said the hospital also received a high number of malnourished and severely dehydrated children, many of them unaccompanied or orphaned, who had fled el-Fasher. “We are seeing a lot a lot of cases of trauma related to the last bombing and a huge number of orphans,” she said. She recalled receiving three young siblings, ranging in age from 40 days old to 4 years, whose family were killed in the city. They were brought to the hospital Monday night by strangers, she said. Satellite imagery shows mass killings In a report late Tuesday, the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab said that RSF fighters continued to carry out mass killings since they took over el-Fasher. The report, which relied on satellite imagery from Airbus, said it corroborated alleged executions and mass killing by the RSF around the Saudi Hospital, and at a detention center at the former Children’s Hospital in the eastern part of the city. It also said that “systematic killings” took place in the vicinity of the eastern wall, which the RSF built outside the city earlier this year. Sheldon Yett, the UNICEF Representative to Sudan said in an interview that the situation in el-Fasher, was “an absolute catastrophe,” with thousands of children already suffering from disease and famine before the takeover of the city by the RSF. “Now it’s hell on Earth with lots of guns,” Yett said. Aid groups said a death toll has been difficult to determine since RSF overran el-Fasher, given a near communication blackout. The report from Yale said satellite imagery can’t show the true scale of the mass killings, and that an estimated death toll is likely an undercount. Before the latest bout of violence, some 1,850 civilians were killed in North Darfur, including 1,350 in el-Fasher, between Jan. 1 and Oct. 20 this year, according to U.N. spokesperson Farhan Aziz Haq. Global outrage Footage of the attacks triggered a wave of outrage around the world. France, Germany, the U.K. and the European Union all condemned the atrocities. Mohamed Osman, Sudan researcher with Human Rights Watch, said that footage coming out of el-Fasher “reveals a horrifying truth: the Rapid Support Forces feel free to carry out mass atrocities with little fear of consequences.” “The world needs to act to protect civilians from more heinous crimes,” he said. Sen. Jim Risch, chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Tuesday denounced the RSF attacks on the city, and called for it to be designated as a foreign terrorist organization. “The RSF has waged terror and committed unspeakable atrocities, genocide among them, against the Sudanese people,” he wrote on X. ___ AP reporter Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report. © 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces are accused by the UN and impartial international rights monitors such as the Yale University Humanitarian Research Lab of attacking civilian infrastructure with impunity. Four years ago, Sudan’s military coup crushed a new civilian government before democracy could take root. Sadly, the international community believed the generals when they promised to honour the will of the people’s revolution of 2018-19. The diplomats’ lack of sustained pressure on Sudan opened the door to the current bloodshed claiming an estimated 150,000 lives. According to Lord David Alton, who has campaigned for human rights in Sudan for years, "Anyone paying attention to Sudan knows that the military leaders who did General Bashir's dirty work for decades would not be our partners in the search for peace. The men responsible for the Darfur genocide were never going to be the midwives to a democratic future. Yet, our diplomats chose to take the generals' word that they would respect the demands of Sudan's popular revolution for a truly secular, pluralist civil administration. Because of its indifference to Sudan, the international community inadvertently signalled to the men with guns that the world would stand aside as they crushed democracy. It's no surprise these same generals are now laying waste to the country." Background to a Catastrophe Since independence, Sudan has mostly been ruled by dictatorships, often by fundamentalist Islamists. Corruption and the persecution of ethnic and religious minorities were the cornerstone of Field Marshall Omar Bashir’s long-running regime. People’s anger boiled over in 2018-19 when a popular revolt brought down Bashir. The Islamist regime was replaced by a Sovereignty Council led by technocrat Abdalla Hamdok. It established a “Commission for Dismantling the 30 June 1989 Regime, Removal of Empowerment and Corruption, and Recovery of Public Funds”. Michelle Gavin of the US Council on Foreign Relations believes that when the commission began to investigate the massive extortion racket operated by Sudan’s generals and Islamist politicians, the generals Hemedti and Burhan feared they would be held to account for the Darfur genocide, as well as losing control of the budget. Hence, they launched a coup against Hamdok’s transitional government on October 25 th 2021. Maddy Crowther of Waging Peace says the international community’s response was meek, even while killings and atrocities continued unabated. “Sudan’s current war is a continuation of the generals’ complete and utter disregard for Sudan’s people, their wishes and aspirations for good governance.” The generals Hemedti and Burhan turned on each other in April 2023, with an estimated 150,000 killed and half the population displaced as they bomb civilians indiscriminately. The war is now concentrated in Darfur and the Kordofans where Sudan’s Black African minority groups are being selected for elimination. Both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces are accused by the UN and impartial international rights monitors such as the Yale University Humanitarian Research Lab of attacking civilian infrastructure with impunity. Both sides are also allegedly responsible for sexual and gender-based violence on a massive scale, and the deliberate targeting of civilians . El Fasher in North Darfur has endured more than 550 days of siege during which no food has been allowed to enter. The Rapid Support Forces have built a 57 km earthen wall around the city , preventing people from escaping or delivering much needed aid. Within El Fasher, 250,000 people are starving . Across Sudan, the UN says 30 million people are in need of urgent humanitarian aid. The Sudanese Diaspora expresses bewilderment that there is so little concern about the siege of El Fasher, while international attention remains focused on Gaza and Ukraine. Abdallah Abugarda of the UK Darfur Diaspora Association says, “The Sudanese people do not trust any military government or general in power. The international community should support the rise of a strong, democratically elected civilian government that can end genocide and rebuild the social fabric, and protect innocent lives being stolen in Sudan.” Four years ago, the international community missed a chance to dismantle to the old power system in Sudan. According to Michelle Gavin, “Supporting democratic forces fighting authoritarianism requires intensive and careful consultation–and that entails a sustained and engaged diplomatic presence….it is painfully obvious that in Sudan there is no path to stability that doesn’t confront a fundamental governance model that serves only a privileged and violent few.” Lord Alton says, “In 2019, when Sudanese 'people power' overthrew the Bashir regime, the international community should have given robust and sustained support to the civilian transitional government. Instead, the diplomats stepped back, and Sudan's corrupt and brutal generals took advantage. It would have been much less expensive to help establish a democratic Sudan than to try to stop the conflict now and rebuild a devastated nation." *Rebecca Tinsley is author of   When the Stars Fall to Earth - a novel of Africa ©2025 PAV-Pan African Visions

Guineans have reacted with shock after it was announced that presidential candidates would need to pay a deposit of 875m Guinean francs ($100,000; £75,000) to contest December's election, which should see the military leaders hand power to civilians. By Nicolas Negoce Published Oct. 24, 2025 Junta leader Mamady Doumbouya has not announced if he is running for president. Guineans have reacted with shock after it was announced that presidential candidates would need to pay a deposit of 875m Guinean francs ($100,000; £75,000) to contest December's election, which should see the military leaders hand power to civilians. Guinea has been under military rule since Colonel Mamady Doumbouya seized power in a 2021 coup. The elections are being held under a new constitution that allowed Doumbouya to run for the presidency – although he has not announced if he plans to. While the previous deposit was almost as high - 800m francs - some analysts had hoped it would be reduced to encourage more people to stand in these historic elections. "This amount is huge," political analyst Kabinet Fofana told the BBC. "This decision adds to the growing criticism against the general direction of elections." Candidates who get more than 5% of the vote in the first round of the election will get their deposit repaid. The authorities say the high amount is needed to ensure only credible candidates take part. But presidential candidate Faya Millimono says the deposit used to be much lower. "Until 2005, the deposit never exceeded 50 million [Guinean francs]. The madness began in 2010, when it was thought necessary to block certain candidates. The amount went from 50 million to 400 million, and today we're talking about 900 million." The costs of participating in the elections are some of the highest in the region. In 2022, the Nigerian electoral commission set a fee of 100m naira ($67,000 at the current rate - at the time it was more than $200,000) sparking widespread criticism. In Cameroon, the deposit is $53,000 and Ivory Coast $90,000. The electoral body also set a campaign spending limit of 40bn Guinean francs ($4.6m; £3.5m) per candidate. One candidate believes these amounts "send a clear signal - only the very wealthy or those who have already benefited from state resources can truly compete". Some 50 candidates from political parties and 16 independent candidates have been approved so far. The largest opposition parties, the Rally of the People of Guinea (RPG Arc-en-Ciel), led by former President Alpha Condé, and the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG), headed by former Prime Minister Cellou Dalein Diallo, are not included on the provisional list but they still have time to register. Guinea is heading into an election without Condé, who was ousted by Doumbouya, as well as Diallo and former Prime Minister Sidya Touré of the Union of Republican Forces (UFR). All three leaders are currently living outside the country. Copyright © 2025 BBC

A new investigation found the 1944 Thiaroye attack on ‘unarmed’ African soldiers was ‘premeditated’, and far deadlier than previously recorded By Will Barker Published Oct. 23, 2025 Historians believe between 300 and 400 black soldiers were killed, compared to the official number of 35 (Image credit: Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images) A new report into the 1944 Thiaroye massacre of African infantrymen by French soldiers in Senegal found that the shooting over pay disputes was “premeditated”, said France24 . Substantial evidence surrounding the attack was covered up by French authorities in the months and years after, the report concluded. The events at Thiaroye make it “one of the worst massacres during French colonial rule”, said Le Monde . Its effects are still felt, and mark a point of tension in relations between the two countries. ‘Significant’ new details Today, “questions remain” about the number, identities and burial locations of soldiers who were killed, with the modern estimates of deaths 10 times higher than the official 35 recorded at the time, said Le Monde. Documents of the time show that around 1,300 soldiers from several west African countries, who had been called up to fight for France, were transported from France to a camp in Thiaroye, Senegal, following liberation from German capture in 1944. Upon arrival, “discontent mounted” over owed back pay and unmet “demands to be treated on a par with white soldiers”, said Radio France Internationale . The soldiers were due to be paid a “quarter of the back pay” in mainland France, and “the rest” upon their arrival in Africa, experts told Afrique XXI . After a month with no sign of payment, and the soldiers’ refusal to leave the camp until they had been fairly recompensed, “tense” meetings took place between French commanders and the African infantrymen. Days later, authorities opened fire, accusing the “unarmed” soldiers of “mutiny”, though only one Frenchman suffered a gunshot wound: a “significant detail” which “seems to corroborate the innocence of the accused”. ‘Smouldering tensions’ The 301-page report was submitted to Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye last week, and “urges France to formally apologise to the riflemen’s families and communities”, said France24. There is a “significant absence” of source evidence linked to the massacre stored in Dakar, due to documents being transferred to France, the report showed. Excavations at a Thiaroye cemetery have been under way since May. Further results from the investigation, led by historian Mamadou Diouf, threaten to “reignite smouldering tensions between France and the former colony”, said The Associated Press . In June, Biram Senghor, the son of one of the “Tirailleurs Sénégalais”, or Senegalese infantrymen corps, “lodged a complaint against the French state”, claiming it was concealing information about his father’s death, said Le Monde . “They lied to his family. They pretended Senghor was a deserter, that he did not die in Thiaroye, and then they admitted that he had,” Senghor’s lawyer told the outlet. “They need to tell us where his remains are.” France first acknowledged Thiaroye as a “massacre” in November 2024, just days before the 80th anniversary of the shooting. The killings have risen to public consciousness, and have been a “point of contention” between the two countries, said Damian Zane on the BBC . This acknowledgement came at a time where Faye – who was elected eight months earlier – was considering a “reassessment of the countries’ relationship”, added the broadcaster. Despite praising President Emmanuel Macron’s “courage” for acknowledging the massacre, and believing “relations remain very good”, in July the Senegalese president welcomed the removal of French troops from Senegal, said Le Monde . “What country can have foreign troops on its soil and still claim independence?” © Future Publishing Limited Quay House

More than 1,500 people in Morocco are facing prosecution after weeks of youth-led protests calling for an end to corruption and improvements in health and education, according to the Moroccan Association for Human Rights on Friday. Hundreds of those connected to the protests have already been given prison sentences, with some facing up to 15 years in prison, the NGO said. People take part in a youth-led protest against corruption calling for healthcare and education reform, in Rabat, Morocco on October 4, 2025. © Mosa'ab Elshamy, AP More than 1,500 people are facing prosecution in Morocco over recent GenZ 212 protests demanding better public education and health care, a local NGO said Friday. About a thousand of the suspects are currently in custody, and 240 have already been sentenced by a court in Agadir, in the south – 39 of them to prison terms of between six and 15 years – according to Souad Brahma, president of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH). Hundreds more have been handed sentences ranging from three months to a year by other courts, she said. The main charges include organising unauthorised protests, possession of bladed weapons, property damage, and insults or violence against security forces, said Brahma, who urged authorities "to guarantee fair trials for all those being prosecuted". She also called for "impartial investigations into (rights) violations that took place during the protests". Starting late last month, the online GenZ 212 collective organised a series of demonstrations seeking reforms in the health and education sectors, as well as "an end to corruption ". In the initial days of the protests, when the gatherings were banned, police made hundreds of arrests. Two nights were marked by violence, including in Agadir, where three people were killed in clashes, though organisers insisted on their commitment to nonviolent protest. They have called for fresh "peaceful" protests on Saturday and Sunday. For two weeks, the demonstrations were held on a near-daily basis, but they have gradually waned in both frequency and turnout, particularly after a speech by Morocco's king calling for social reforms and the announcement of a draft budget laying out improvements to health and education. Social inequalities have been a major challenge in Morocco, where deep regional disparities persist alongside a gap between the public and private sectors. © 2025 Copyright France 24

Croatia's Defence Ministry said the aim is to teach young people basic skills and knowledge that are "needed in crisis situations, so they would contribute to national security." By Gavin Blackburn Published 24/10/2025 Croatian troops participate in a military parade marking 30 years since a key war victory in Zagreb, 31 July, 2025 -  Copyright  AP Photo Croatia's parliament voted to reintroduce compulsory military service on Friday against a backdrop of heightened tensions in Europe following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Lawmakers approved legal changes in a 84-11 vote and with 30 abstentions in the 151-member parliament. The army service will last two months and provide "basic military training," public broadcaster HRT said. This decision marks a return to conscription, which was suspended in 2008 when the country shifted to a volunteer system. Croatia's Defence Ministry said the aim is to teach young people basic skills and knowledge that are "needed in crisis situations, so they would contribute to national security." Authorities will start calling conscripts born in 2007 for medical checkups by the end of the year. Conscripts will receive a salary, and conscientious objectors can choose civilian service instead, the HRT report said. Croatia has been boosting its armed forces at a time when many European countries are currently discussing or reforming their military service policies. Rethinking conscription In the wake of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the debate over compulsory military service has resurfaced across the continent, with many countries reconsidering whether conscription could bolster their national security. In 2015, Lithuania partially reintroduced it and Norway became the first European country to introduce compulsory military service for women. Two years later, Sweden reimposed the draft. France began trailing its newly-reintroduced national service, known as the SNU, in 2019. In January, French President Emmanuel Macron urged young volunteers to "reinforce" army ranks in an address to French military personnel. While in April, Belgium's Minister of Defence, Theo Francken, said he wanted to increase the number of the country's reservists from around 6,600 to 20,000 and to do so hoped to recruit young people to voluntary military service. That follows a similar initiative recently announced in the Netherlands. And in August, Germany's government approved a bill proposing a new law aimed at promoting voluntary recruitment. "A strong army - in terms of personnel and equipment - is the most effective means of preventing wars," Defence Minister Boris Pistorious explained. Copyright © euronews 2025