Muslim women removing ruins of Muslim shop destroyed by Hindutva mob PERSECUTION OF MUSLIM WOMEN IN MODI’S INDIA: Hindutva Violence Against India’s Muslim Women From Gujarat 2002 to 2025 By Olivia Cash Genocide Watch India Task Force Leader   GLOSSARY   Terms in order of appearance: ·       Hindutva :  A far-right ethno-nationalist ideology that believes in a cultural Hindu identity and the establishment of India as a Hindu nation.   ·       Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sang (RSS) : A Hindutva organisation established in 1925 providing paramilitary training to raise the next generation of Hindu men with ‘discipline’ and physical strength. Has previously been banned by the Indian government for allegedly encouraging communal violence. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a member of the organisation.   ·       The Mughal Empire: An Islamic dynasty that ruled an area spanning from now-Afghanistan to Bangladesh, between 1562 and 1856. Its leaders have been accused of destroying Hindu temples, raping Hindu women, and forcing conversions to Islam.   ·       The Sangh Parivar: A collective term for organisations linked to the RSS, including Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).   ·       First Information Report (FIR) : A formal document written and filed by the police to initiate the criminal justice process when a crime has allegedly been committed.   INTRODUCTION Muslim women in India today face a significant genocidal threat from the rise of Hindu Nationalism. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership, patriarchy and religious discrimination intersect to drive sexual violence against India’s minority ethnic women. Whilst the use of women’s bodies as battle grounds is neither new nor unique to India, it is a fundamental characteristic of India’s communal violence. This is a sad reality explored by Megha Kumar’s book, Communalism and Sexual Violence in India: The Politics of Gender, Ethnicity and Conflict  (2017).   Addressing three major pogroms that took place in Gujarat in 1969, 1985, and 2002, Kumar’s work brought to light the critical facilitators of sexual violence in India’s communal conflicts. Taking up from where Kumar left off, this report draws comparison between Gujarat 2002, the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, and the current culture of Modi’s India. Three key conditions for religiously motivated sexual attacks against Muslim women are presented in their 21st century contexts: ·       Hindutva ideology ·       Political coordination ·       Impunity Manifesting in rising levels of hate speech, social media abuse, and conspiracies like ‘Love Jihad’, together these factors create fertile ground for future sexual violence against Muslim women. Genocide Watch deems Hindu nationalism’s treatment of Muslim women to constitute classification (stage 1), discrimination (stage 3), dehumanisation (stage 4), polarisation (stage 6), persecution (stage 8), and denial (stage 10).     SEXUAL VIOLENCE ANG GENOCIDE: LEGAL UNDERSTANDING   “Sexual violence devastates the minds and spirits of its victims through the decimation of the most previous fact of existence, their sexuality. When sexual violence is intentionally destined to destroy a people, it moves from a crime against humanity to genocide.” - Sitkin As this report intends to demonstrate, Hindu nationalist ideologies and their proponents encourage sexual violence with the purpose of morally and physically devastating India’s Muslim community. Hindutva gender-based violence therefore contravenes clauses B, C and D of Article II of the Genocide Convention (1948): Genocide constitutes any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy , in whole or in part , a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (A) Killing members of the group  (B) Causing serious bodily or mental harm  to members of the group (C) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction  in whole or in part;  (D) Imposing measures intended to prevent birth within the group  (E) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group    SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND GENOCIDE: GENDER AND HINDUTVA IDEOLOGY   During an interview with Genocide Watch, communal politics specialist and author, Ram Puniyani stressed the importance of misogyny to Hindu nationalism. Since the movement’s conception in the 1920s, gendered constructions of the Muslim ‘other’  have provided the backbone of Hindutva’s religious eliminationist ideology.   Kumar explains that to refute  colonial representations  of Indian men as submissive and weak, the founder of Hindu nationalism, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, looked to restore Indian identity through a new depiction of Hindu masculinity.   Refined and honourable, Savarkar’s ideal of ‘the Hindu Man’ was reinforced by its juxtaposition against Muslim masculinity – portrayed as hypersexual, violent, and invasive of Hindu purity.   As a beacon of the religion’s virtue, the chaste Hindu woman was equally distinguished from Muslim femininity, demonised as sexually perverse  and integral to the immorality of its masculine counterpart.   Savarkar and his prodigy, Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar (leader of the RSS 1940-1973), theorised that Hindu’s must revenge Muslim men’s alleged aggressions by damaging their honour in the same way the Mughal Empire purportedly did so to Hindus: by raping their women.   Hindutva ‘justification’ for sexual violence against Muslim women was therefore threefold: ·       A need for vengeance ·       A need to curtail the reproduction of an ‘invasive’ Muslim population through the destruction of Muslim women’s organs ·       A need to impregnate Muslim women to strengthen the Hindu population  in India, informed by Hindu nationalism’s upholding of patriarchal lineage The genocidal intention is clear:  through the sexual violation of Muslim women, Hindus could restore their honour; dismantle the moral core of the Muslim community; and ensure the physical erasure of the Muslim presence in India by disrupting their reproductive continuity. Here rape becomes a political instrument to take revenge against the enemy .” -  Ram Puniyani   SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND GENOCIDE: INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON   Sexual violence has been used as a weapon of conflict across the world since time immemorial. The UN’s special representative for End Rape in War, Pramila Patten, stated in 2023  that sexual violence and rape have been a feature of every single recorded war. Rape’s strategic importance in the elimination of a ‘people’ has been recognised in the recent genocides of the Tutsis in Rwanda, Bosnian Muslims in Former Yugoslavia, and the Yazidis in Iraq and Syria. In all three atrocities, gendered ideologies similar to that of Hindu nationalism incited the mass rape and sexual assault of minority women. Ø  RWANDA: Wide-spread rape and gang rape of up to 500,000 Tutsi wome n .  An investigation by Human Rights Watch in 1996 concluded: “ The targeted use of sexual violence against Tutsi women was fuelled by both ethnic and gender stereotypes; Tutsi women were targeted on the basis of the genocide propaganda which had portrayed them as calculated seductress-spies bent on dominating and undermining the Hutu .”   Ø  FORMER YUGOSLAVIA: ‘Rape Camps’ of up to 50,000 Bosnian wome n.   Studies assert mass rape was a planned strategy to, “ create the rejection of raped mothers and their children and thus destabilize their social and ethnic group... to prepare victims to hate and eventually to destroy their own children or be destroyed by them, and to create a situation where the paternal lineage of the child... would perpetuate and increase the ethnic group of the aggressor ”   Ø  YAZIDI WOMEN: T housands of women captured for sexual slavery by ISI S.   ISIS believed that, as a closed religion, Yadizi communities would be broken down by ‘outsiders’ raping their women. Much like the Serbians, they sought to forcefully impregnate Yadizi women to stop the reproduction of Yadizi people, believing in the superiority of paternal lineage.   The following section of this report looks at how sexual violence has played a similar role in Hindutva campaigns against India’s Muslim population.     GUJARAT 2002   The 2002 genocidal massacres in India’s Gujarat state witnessed over 1000 people murdered across three days , in what would become one of India’s most deadly religious ‘riots’. The vast majority of the victims were Muslim, targeted by Hindutva mobs who burnt and looted their properties whilst police stood back to watch the violence unfold. Among the worst atrocities committed during the pogrom were the coordinated mass rapes   of Muslim women . Whilst there remains a distinct lack of data on the number of rape victims from the massacre, Shabnam Hashmi, an activist and former social worker who worked extensively with the Gujarat survivors, estimates that at least 400-500 gang rapes took place.  Only three went to court. Of the 38 women Hashmi interviewed after the attacks, each recounted the same story of being stripped naked, made to run or dance, and then gang raped by 8 – 10 men,  sometimes with iron or wooden rods. Every woman Hashmi spoke to knew of up to ten others who were sexually assaulted during the riots. Many were burnt alive following the rapes.   IDEOLOGY Megha Kumar’s  analysis of Gujarat 2002 presents ideology as a key facilitator of the widespread rape. In the lead up to the violence, propaganda circulating in the form of newspapers, speeches, and pamphlets urged Hindus to ‘respond to bricks with stones’ against the alleged sexual threat of Muslim men. The ‘Jehad’ publication was among the most vicious pamphlets to incite the genocidal rape of Muslim women in India: POLITICAL ORGANISATION   The Gujarat 2002 massacres are infamous for their coordination by the state’s leadership at the time: then-Chief Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who now serve respectively as the Prime Minister of India and the country’s ruling party. Key figures of the BJP, Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Banjrang Dal parties were accused of participating in the anti-Muslim violence, supplying voting and tax lists   to the state’s newspaper outlets to help Hindutva mobs locate and target Muslim households. The Indian police, who Hashmi asserts have ‘political patronage’, were ordered by BJP leaders to permit the attacks on Muslim households.  For this reason, Hashmi and most commentators on the violence deem Gujarat 2002 to have been a ‘ state-sanctioned’ massacre rather than a ‘communal riot’. ORGANISED SEXUAL VIOLENCE On the 28th of February 2002, a Hindu nationalist mob of 25,000 men  led by BJP politician and close aid to Modi, Maya Kodnani, sexually attacked Muslim women in Naroda Patiya, Gujarat. Bearing swords, chemicals and homemade bombs, the men shouted, ‘Burn the Muslims alive’  and cornered Muslims attempting to flee the violence. The mob proceeded to assault and rape the trapped women over many hours. 97  Muslims were killed, the majority of whom were women and children. In 2018,  the Indian courts overturned Maya Kodnani’s conviction for her facilitation of the massacre.  She served just four years of a 28 year sentence. Genocide Watch deems the events of the Gujarat 2002 Massacre to constitute classification (stage 1), discrimination (stage 3), dehumanisation (stage 4), organisation (stage 5), and persecution (stage 6) in the Ten Stages of Genocide.   IMPUNITY “ Give me back my right to live without fear and in peace .” - Bilkis  Banos , Gujarat 2002 Gang Rape Survivor In 2022, the BJP Home Ministry, under Amit Shah’s direction, released Banos’ attackers. The freed rapists received a ‘hero's welcome’ from BJP politicians and were celebrated by the Gujarat leader, C.K Rauli, as ‘Brahmins’ with ‘good sankaar ’ (religious values). While the decision to grant the men early release was eventually overturned by the Indian Supreme Court, the BJP’s message was made clear: under their leadership,  rape of Muslim women would go unpunished. The case of Bilkis Banos demonstrates not only Hindu nationalist denial of the Gujarat  genocide, but also the sense of triumph that accompanied it. The murder and rape of Muslim women during the massacre was glorified as much as it was overlooked, with perpetrators honoured by Hindutva leaders as saviours of ‘the Hindu nation’.   MUZAFFARNAGAR RIOTS 2013 In the summer of 2013, India witnessed another deadly Hindu-Muslim conflict that claimed at least 65 lives  – the vast majority Muslim. 51,000 residents  of the Muzaffarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh were displaced because of the violence. Once  Muslim-majority villages  were purged of all Muslims. An estimated 100 women  were raped  over the course of the conflict.  Most were gang raped by 3 or more men. One Muslim woman,  who has remained anonymous, was gang raped by a Hindu nationalist mob whilst her child was held at gunpoint. She recalls the attackers chanting, “slaughter these Mullah’s*... rape their women.”   IDEOLOGY Hindu nationalist rhetoric around the ‘threat of Muslim men’ was a key driving force of the Muzaffarnagar pogrom. Accounts describe  escalating religious tensions in the region over ‘community honour’ , with women’s ‘dignity and bodily integrity’  constituting key themes of Hindutva propaganda circulating in the lead up to the violence. Then, in late August 2013, reports document that a Muslim man was murdered in Muzaffarnagar for having allegedly harassed a Hindu woman.  His two attackers were targeted in a revenge killing. Complaining of the police’s handling of the murders, Hukum Singh, Uttar Pradesh Assembly’s BJP leader, delivered a speech  to thousands of Hindu farmers just hours before the conflict erupted, inciting anti-Muslim fervour. Singh had previously used the slogan ‘ Bahou-beti bachou’  (save our daughter-in-laws) and labelled Muslim men as rapists. He told journalists that day, “ There has been discrimination against Hindus for the last year and a half... No action is being taken on complaints.. girls are being harassed. ” The call for Hindu vigilante ‘revenge’ was made.   POLITICAL ORGANISATION “Orchestrating communal violence is not easy. It requires planning and forethought, the  protracted targeting of a community and a commensurate mobilisation of divisive sentiments among the communities that make up the majority .” - Shiva Mogha The BJP has been accused of  coordinating the Muzaffarnagar violence for electoral gain. A report by the  Indian political journal, the Caravan , details how the BJP once held little ground in the Muzaffarnagar region. The party thus sought to garner support from young, poor, Hindu Jats by portraying Muslims as a threat to their agrarian caste . Touring the region, the BJP spread rumours about the corruption of Hindu chastity by Muslim masculinity . S a njeev Baylan repeatedly spoke at BJP events  to express concern about the honour of Hindu ‘daughter-in-laws' and their sexual assault by Muslim men. Former Muzaffarnagar resident,  Shiva Mogha , recalls how, “ Cases of sexual harassment became omnipresent in the newspapers we got... Many in my locality genuinely believed there was a nefarious conspiracy by Muslims to marry and convert Hindu women . ” One BJP leader, Sanjeet Som, circulated a false video of Hindu men being attacked by Muslims  as the communal tensions began to rise, fanning the flames of the pogrom that would follow. Election Successes In the subsequent Lok Sabha general election (2014), the BJP enjoyed a sweeping victory across Uttar Pradesh, boasting 43.3% of the vote  thanks to the Hindu Jat support  gained from the riots. Local court cases brought against BJP politicians for incitement of communal violence were d ropped by 2019, following a government plea.   IMPUNITY Despite estimates of up to 100 Muslim women being sexually assaulted during the Muzaffarnagar riots, only seven women  reported the gang rapes to the police. Human Rights Watch attributed this significant underreporting  to a   “fear of reprisals, stigma, and a lack of faith in state institutions. ” Of the 25 men accused of gang rape and sexual assault during the Muzaffarnagar conflict, 22 evaded justice. Victims   faced death threats,  extensive legal delays, and inaction by the state police,  resulting in only one woman successfully bringing her attackers to court. After an immense struggle for justice, the anonymous survivor’s rapists were sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2023 - a whole decade since the First Information Report (FIR) was filed: ·       It took four months and the Indian Supreme Court’s intervention for the survivor's complaint to be officially lodged. ·       It wasn’t until November 2021 that the police interviewed all seven prosecution witnesses. ·       Significant harassment by the accused’s families forced the survivor to transfer her case outside of Muzaffarnagar, causing further delays. With little trust in India’s criminal justice system, both Shabnam Hashmi and Ram Puniyani told Genocide Watch that s sexual assault victims are generally met with disregard and disbelief from the Indian police. Due to political bias and religious discrimination, Muslim women reporting gender-based violence are treated with particular contempt. For Hashmi, the pogroms of Muzaffarnagar 2013 and Gujarat 2002 demonstrate that, when it comes to the rape of Muslim women, attackers face “ total impunity .” For attempts to conceal evidence, undermine witness testimonies and significantly delay the course of justice, Genocide Watch deems the UP police and BJP to have committed stage 10 of genocide: denial.     MODI’S PREMIERSHIP   The following section analyses how ideology, political organisation, and impunity facilitate the sexually violent targeting of Muslim women under BJP leadership today. It will address : ·       The 2020 Delhi pogroms ·       Hate speech and the ‘Love Jihad’ conspiracy ·       Online sexual harassment of muslim women   DELHI 2020 In December 2019, Narendra Modi’s government introduced the Citizen Amendment Ac t (CAA), allowing only non-Muslim undocumented immigrants to become legal citizens of India. Muslims who took to the streets of Delhi to protest the discriminatory law were met with vicious repression by state police and the Indian media. After months of inflammatory BJP speeches – in which the anti-CAA movement was frequently called ‘jihadist’ - BJP politician Kapil Mishra ordered the clearing of protesters on the 23rd of February 2020. Sparking widespread communal clashes, Hindu extremists attacked the Muslim protesters with stones, making “provocative speeches” and “claiming themselves as victims and Muslims as aggressors.” Mosques were set on fire and Muslim homes and shops were vandalised. Over 50 people , mostly Muslims, were killed as the riots escalated. Sexual violence was a feature of the riots, but it remains under-acknowledged. Several women  told journalists they were threatened with rape during the pogrom and knew of neighbours who were sexually assaulted. However, very few came forward about their own victimisation as they “ did not want to tarnish their own name.”   IDEOLOGY One of the Muslim women threatened with rape during the pogrom alleges being chased by a Hindu nationalist mob.  The men were shouting, “ we will catch you and make you give birth to Shri Ram’s progeny”, harking back to Hindutva ideological aspirations around strengthening India’s Hindu population through raping Muslim women. A single mother of three recounted the abuse she faced, with the crowd having reportedly cornered the victim and threatened, “ give us your daughters and we will spare you. ” The woman managed to escape, but reiterates that, “ There are many others who have been molested but they are not admitting it out of shame.” Accounts report that p regnant women  were also targeted by the mobs. Women seeking aid from Delhi’s Al Hind hospital recalled their stomachs being kicked by Hindu Nationalists, endangering the lives of Muslim women and attempting to erase the very potential of a future Muslim generation. Such testimonies of targeted attacks against Muslim women’s bodies suggest that the same genocidal ideological fervour driving mass sexual violence in  Gujarat 2002 and Muzaffarnagar 2013 permeated the Delhi pogroms.   POLITICAL ORGANISATION  Indian political journal, the Caravan, reports BJP leaders to have allegedly participated in, and even have ‘orchestrated’ , the Delhi pogroms. The politicians implicated include member of parliament Satya Pal Singh, member of legislative assembly Nand Kishore Gujjar, and party leader Kapil Mishra who was seen leading a violent group whilst chanting ‘Mullas belong in Pakistan.’ Kapil Mishra was also accused of ordering the police and ambulance services to refrain from helping victims of the violence for three days . Muslim survivor testimonies recount the Delhi police not picking up the phones during this period, whilst the attacks escalated. The Delhi police are reported to have joined in the violence , stoning Muslims,   burning Islamic shrines, and even beating up the women and children who were protesting. The Delhi police dropped all of the allegations made against the  BJP for its involvement in the 2020 pogroms,  as well as those made against officers who were witnessed contributing to the attacks. Muslims who reported state participation in the violence were threatened and intimidated by the police , allegedly told that the reports would only be filed if the officers’ names were removed . The BBC uncovered that among the 62 murder cases from the pogroms , only 1 has resulted in a conviction . Conversely, at least 12 Muslim protesters remain in prison as ‘conspirators’ of communal violence. Hundreds more anti CAA activists remain in jail  after arbitrary arrests. Human Rights Watch reported in 2022 that the Indian police and political leadership arrested Muslims en masse after the pogroms, whilst Hindu nationalists who incited the violence remain free. In what Shabnam Hashmi calls a “culture of diluting women’s rights to reporting in general” by Modi’s government, no instances of rape or sexual assault in the pogrom were officially reported. Genocide Watch deems the events of the Delhi 2020 massacre to constitute classification (stage 1), discrimination (stage 3), dehumanisation (stage 4), organisation (stage 5), persecution (stage 6), and denial (stage 10) in the Ten Stages of Genocide.    HATE SPEECH AND THE LOVE JIHAD CONSPIRACY   “ While not every use of genocidal hate speech leads to genocide, all genocides have been preceded by genocidal hate speech .” - Anne Applebaum, Historian Genocidal sentiment against Muslims in India is  stirred by an alarming rise in hate speech under Modi’s leadership, as reported by  the Centre for the Study of Organised Hate  (CSOH). The CSHO’s most recent report showed that hate speech in India increased considerably between 2023 and 2024, with 98.5% of all hate speech events targeted towards Muslims. Playing a key role in the dissemination of hate speech in India, the BJP were responsible for 39.7%  of all recorded cases.   The Love Jihad Conspiracy A significant proportion  of the BJP’s hate speech centred around, and legitimated, the ‘Love Jihad’ conspiracy. An ideology of Hindu nationalism first propagated in the early 2010s, ‘Love Jihad’ refers to the alleged organised efforts of Muslim men to seduce and convert Hindu women .The Caravan exposed the Love Jihad conspiracy for what it really is in 2014: “the Sangh Parivar’s sexual politics in another name. ”   In other words, just like early Hindutva ideology, it incites revenge violence on Muslim men, and in turn Muslim women, for their alleged threat to Hindu purity. Renowned New-Delhi journalist, Ismat Ara, told Genocide Watch that Love Jihad is, “ simply the latest label for this historical anxiety...” yet, “ What sets the present moment apart is the scale of institutional backing. Through laws, state-sanctioned rhetoric, and a complicit media, private relationships have been reimagined as matters of national security.” Under the guise of a new ‘anti-conversion’ law professing to tackle , “deception, fraud and misrepresentation”,  the BJP are successfully criminalising inter-faith marriages they deem to constitute acts of Love Jihad. Laws introduced and utilised by the BJP to criminalise those accused of ‘Love Jihad’ constitute dehumanisation (stage 6) and polarisation (stage 6).   HINDUTVA HATE SPEECH AND SEXUAL POLITICS: EXAMPLES   ·       In 2024,   Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to Muslims as ‘intruders’, claiming, “ they are stealing your food, daughters, and your land. ..”   ·       Uttar Pradesh’s BJP leader,  Lakshmikant Bajpai,  wrongly   declared that Muslims committed 99% of rapes in the state.   ·       BJP Minister of Home Affairs, Amit Shah , has referred to Muslims as, “ those who violate our women”  and ‘infiltrators’ who are causing the Hindu Adivasi population to be “ on the verge of extinction . ”   ·       About Rohingya Muslim refugees in India, the Secretary for Agriculture,  Shivraj Singh Chouhan , told India’s Hindu population, “ Your women are in danger because of these infiltrators .”   ·       BJP politician and member of the legislative assembly, Raja Singh ,  vowed that, “ If [Muslims] take one Hindu girl, we’ll take ten of theirs .”   ·       He instructed Hindus last year to , “ Learn to use weapons so you can shoot in the chest of people who do love jihad. Don’t be afraid of going to jail for killing a ‘love jihadi.’ ”   ·       Yogi Adityaneth , Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and the political figure responsible for the most cases of hate speech in 2024, had previously spent time in jail for  threatening that, “ If one Hindu girl marries a Muslim man, then we will take 100 Muslim girls in return ... If they [Muslims] kill one Hindu man, then we will kill 100 Muslim men. ”   ·       Hindu Monk, Uttar Pradesh Temple Leader and Hindu Extremist,  Bajrang Muni Das announced to an applauding crowd, “ I am telling you this [Muslims] ... if a single girl is teased by you in Khairabad, I will openly bring your daughter and daughter-in-law out of your home and rape he r.”   ·       Former BJP leader in Uttar Pradesh, Mahila Morcha,   wrote on Facebook in 2021 : “ There is only one solution for them (Muslims). Hindu brothers should make a group of 10 and gang rape their (Muslims) mothers and sisters openly on the streets and then hang them in the middle of the bazaar for others to see...” Shabnam Hashmi warned Genocide Watch that it is now common for Hindutva leaders to claim that “ by a certain year Hindu men will be married to a certain number of Muslim women ”. Hashmi noted the irony of Love Jihad accusing Muslims of seducing Hindu women in an organised way, when rhetoric to eliminate the Muslim population by marrying, impregnating, and raping its women poses a realistic genocidal threat in India . With this ideology having trickled down to the electorate, The National Convention of Women  reported a video in 2022 of a woman calling for Hindu men to “ rape and impregnate Muslim women if Muslim men cast even a glance at Hindu girls” at the Dharma Sansad, Raipur.   IMPUNITY The Centre for the Study of Organised Hate reported that deliverers of  hate speech faced little reprecussion in 2024, emphasising   judicial inaction and the normalisation of hate: “ By routinely declining  to take direct action or issue clear guidelines to the ECI* regarding its inaction, the judiciary failed to uphold its constitutional duty to protect citizens and address the growing issue of hate speech.” Hateful propaganda against Muslim women and the wider Muslim population constitutes stage 4 of genocide: Dehumanisation.   SOCIAL MEDIA AND SEXUAL HARASSMENT In Modi’s India, social media is crucial to the targeting and sexual harassment of Muslim women by Hindu nationalists. A report by Professor Mohan.J Dutta published in 2022 found that Muslim women in India are face alarming levels of “ cyberstalking, bullying, harassing, trolling, doxing, death and rape threats ”  in the wake of Delhi 2020 and the Love Jihad conspiracy.  In the same year, Butler’s investigation into ‘Islamophobia in the digital age’ found that m any of the 3.7 million Islamophobic tweets made between 2019 and 2021 attacked prominent Muslim women , of which Indian Muslim journalists, Rana Ayyub and Arfa Khanum Sherwani were the second and fourth most abused online. Cyber harassment of Muslim women in India is usually of a sexual nature, with Rana Ayyub documenting over 26,000 death and rape threats   she received on X (formerly Twitter), predominantly from Hindu nationalist accounts. This abuse plays into well-established Hindutva ideologies of Muslim women being sexually perverse. For example, Ladeeda Farzana is just one of many   female anti CAA protesters whose face has been pasted onto pornographic photos  by Hindu nationalist internet users. A Reddit community called ‘Muslimah for Hindu Men’ was recently exposed as a platform over which  15,000 people described degrading and violent sexual fantasies about Muslim women . As technology evolves, so do Hindu nationalist methods of demeaning Muslim women. Prominent activist organisation, Feminism in India, discovered AI to be increasingly harnessed by Hindutva groups to create  and share ‘ultra realistic’pornographic images of Muslim women online.   THE AUCTION OF MUSLIM WOMEN ONLINE The most widespread instances of online harassment against Muslim women in India took place via the creation of the ‘Bulli Bai’ and ‘Sulli Deals’ apps in 2021. Invented by young Hindu extremists and named after Islamophobic slurs, these apps used Muslim women’s photos and information to auction them online. Over 180 women, mostly activists, journalists, and artists critical of Modi’s politics, were sold in the fake auction as  “deals of the day.” The apps served to silence outspoken Muslim women in India, with one victim asking, “ What if someone just comes and claims their deal of the day? I don’t see anything stopping them from doing that. ” Research by Bebaak Collective  shows Hindutva efforts to surpress Muslim voices are working, as many Muslim women are coming off social media to avoid the misogynistic abuse.   IMPUNITY While the Sulli Deals and Bulli Bai creators, Aumkareshwar Thakur and Niraj Bishnoi  respectively, were arrested in 2022, the men were swiftly released on bail and are yet to face justice.  . Citizens for Justice and Peace note  that Hindutva social media users, who mostly remain anonymous, “know that  there is hardly any precedent for anyone in India from being prosecuted for misogynistic or hate speech.” Sexual harassment is only taken down from digital platforms if it is reported, and perpetrators create new profiles if they are successfully banned. For Ismat Ara, accountability for online hate remains “ alarmingly inadequate .” Ara deems the creators of the Sulli Deals and Bulli Bai apps to be, “ products of a larger ecosystem that normalises anti-Muslim hatred and rewards misogyny with virality. ” Adding, “I ndia needs serious political will to treat digital hate crimes against Muslim women as urgent and systemic issues, rather than one-off aberrations .”   REPERCUSSIONS Activists  across India express serious concern about the proliferation of hate speech and sexual harassment towards Muslim women under Modi’s leadership. They recognise similarities between such trends and the propaganda that facilitated mass rape in Gujarat 2002 and Muzaffarnagar 2013. Having reported extensively on the Bulli Bai and Sulli Deals apps, Ismat Ara warned Genocide Watch that, “ The violence of these acts lies in their intent to strip Muslim women of dignity and autonomy. And when this kind of dehumanisation becomes routine online, it emboldens real-world violence. The internet is not a vacuum. It reflects and reinforces social attitudes. The threats become more specific, the stalking more aggressive, and the boundary between digital and physical harm starts to blur. ” The BJP’s normalisation, and indeed glorification, of anti-Muslim misogynistic rhetoric and online abuse  serves to strengthen genocidal Hindutva ideology, putting Muslim women across India at risk of sexual violence.   VIOLENT ATTACKS ON MUSLIM WOMEN  The following examples demonstrate the recurrence of violent attacks against Muslim women by Hindu nationalists across Modi’s India: January 2025 : Kushnigar, Uttar Pradesh, three Muslim women were stripped naked, beaten and paraded round the village because one of their sons was accused of eloping with a non-Muslim woman. The women were filmed and put online.  October 2023 : Mumbai, a 12-year-old Muslim was girl assaulted, sexually harassed, and touched inappropriately by Hindu Nationalist men and women.  July 2023: In Madhya Pradesh, a Muslim woman named Zarrin Khan, was attacked by a mob of Hindu extremists. She was sexually assaulted and hit with swords, bats, rods whilst called anti-Muslim slurs. December 2022:   The IAMC reported a leaked WhatsApp chat of a student faction of RSS planning a genocide of Muslims through “buying or kidnapping” Muslim women and mass sterilising them. January 2018:  In Kathua, an 8 year old Muslim girl was kidnapped, drugged, gang-raped and killed to “drive out the Gujjar-Bakerwals”, who are of Muslim faith. The rapists were aided by a police officer, who along with other members of the police attempted to cover up the murder. The Kathua Bar Association tried to stop the filing of an FIR against the rapists.   CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS   ·       Over the past 20+ years, Narendra Modi and the BJP have brought hateful, gendered Hindutva ideology into the mainstream, putting Muslim women across India at risk of ‘retaliatory’ sexual violence for the perceived threat of Muslim masculinity. ·       Hindu Nationalist hate speech undermining women’s bodily autonomy and demonising the sexuality of the Muslim community has become proliferate in India. This trend is exacerbated by the rise of social media. ·       Political leaders, internet users, and communalist rioters who encourage or participate in the sexual assault of Muslim women face impunity under Modi’s leadership, serving to normalise conditions for genocidal sexual violence present during the Gujarat 2002 and Muzaffarnagar 2013 conflicts. ·       Rape during these pogroms was not opportunistic – it was charged with genocidal intention to destroy the Muslim population and reproduce an exclusively-Hindu nation. ·       Euphemised through terms such as ‘Love Jihad’, a similar gendered eliminationist ideology permeates Hindutva culture today. Such ideologies create fertile ground for future organised sexual violence against India’s Muslim women.   RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PREVENTION:   ·       Gender neutral, the Genocide Convention (1948) currently fails to prevent and punish acts of genocidal sexual violence. The Genocide Convention must therefore be revised to incorporate Gender Based Violence, in line with the Rome Statute (1998) and UN Security Council Resolution 1820 (2008). ·       India is a state-party to the 1948 Genocide Convention. The central government has a duty to enforce its anti-hate speech laws and prosecute leaders’ calls for violence and rape against Muslim women. ·       The central government must publicly condemn attacks against Muslims by Hindus, acknowledging the entrenchment of gendered ideologies in religious hatred driving such attacks. ·       Meta (Instagram and Facebook) and X (formerly Twitter) must reinstate independent fact checkers and strengthen their policies around hate speech dissemination to account for cultural and linguistic variety in hate speech messages. ·       Using its special powers under Article 142, the Indian Supreme Court should establish clear, binding guidelines on social media content moderation and platform liability, including penalties for non-compliance. ·       India’s police force must undergo reform by adopting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) hiring systems. Latest figures show that only 6.91%  of the total police force is Muslim and over half of India’s police officers  are bias against Muslims. ·       The US Congress should address India's denial of religious freedom during U.S.-India bilateral meetings and convey growing concern about the demonisation of Muslim culture, the targeted attacks on Muslim communities, and Hindutva’s use of sexual violence against Muslim women. ·       US opposition to Hindutva hate speech and discrimination against Muslims must be expressed in public hearings, briefings, letters, and congressional delegations, specifically drawing attention to its gendered nature. United States Senator Cory Booker spoke out  against the display of bulldozers at the India Day Parade in New Jersey in August 2022. American political leaders must continue to issue statements and condemn instances where hate is displayed against Muslims by the Indian community in the U.S.   RECOMMENDATIONS FOR JUSTICE: ·       The UN should launch an official fact-finding mission into Hindutva discrimination and sexual assault against Muslim and ethnic minority women in India today. ·       The Indian Supreme court must appoint an independent commission to thoroughly investigate the events of the Delhi 2020 pogrom, specifically through the lens of gender based violence. ·       The Delhi High Court must reverse its decision to stay court proceedings against Kapil Mishra for his role in the Delhi 2020 violence. ·       The Indian central government should instate official relief and reparation plans for future instances of communal violence. These plans should be shaped through a gendered lens, ensuring victims of sexual violence are provided proper rehabilitation and a secure environment to seek justice. ·       In the immediate aftermath of a communal violence outbreak, the Indian authorities should adhere to the World Health Organization guidelines for medico-legal care for victims of sexual violence. These emphasize that the health and well-being of a sexual violence survivor must take precedence over forensic services. ·       The US should impose Magnitsky sanctions on officials of the Modi government and leaders of Hindutva groups for crimes against humanity and for undermining religious freedom and minority rights in India. Contents in PDF of Special Report (attached): Page 3: GLOSSARY Page 4: INTRODUCTION Page 5: SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND GENOCIDE Page 6: GENDER AND HINDUTVA IDEOLOGY Page 7: INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON Page 8: GUJARAT 2002 Page 12 : MUZAFFARNAGAR 2013 Page 15: MODI’S PREMIERSHIP: Page 16: DELHI 2020 Page 19: HATE SPEECH AND LOVE JIHAD Page 22: SOCIAL MEDIA HARASSMENT Page 25: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Page 27: REFERENCES CANVA DOCUMENT:   https://www.canva.com/design/DAF8gSaeLYY/C-3m6RHkUu2cp1rdeWdRcw/edit

M23 consolidates control over Goma, DR Congo source: Bellingcat DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO GENOCIDE EMERGENCY 2025 By Omar Kausar   Since 1996, wars and ethnic conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have caused six million deaths .  The First Congo War began after the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsis in Rwanda when up to  two million Hutus crossed into the DRC  and sought refuge in camps in North and South Kivu. Perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide formed militias in the DRC, where they continued killing Congolese Tutsis, the Banyamulenge. In response, Congolese Tutsis formed the M23 militia.   During the First and Second Congo War (1996-1997, 1998-2003), millions of civilians were killed and over 100 armed militias emerged.  These militias fight primarily to control the DRC’s abundant natural resources . One of the most active groups is the March 23 Movement (M23), composed mainly of ethnic Tutsis and backed by the Rwandan government .   In January 2025, M23 launched a new offensive  against the Congolese Security forces and recaptured Goma, the regional hub of eastern DRC. The offensive involved 3000 to 4000 troops and displaced over 100,000 people.   According to the United Nations (UN),  Up to 2000 civilians have been killed as M23 captured rich mining areas. M23 and other ethnic militias have committed numerous massacres.   As a result, one million Congolese have sought refuge abroad, and 21 million people in the country require urgent aid , creating one of the world’s deadliest humanitarian disasters. As of 30 April 2024, the UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO)  ended operations in South Kivu by transferring several bases to Congolese authorities.   In the DRC, hundreds have died of cholera, with 9 out of 11 health zones affected and over 1450 confirmed cases, according to the UN . There is widespread displacement and a severe hunger crisis .   The UN International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF)  reports a surge in sexual violence against women and children, with thousands of new cases in two months.  Of 10,000 documented cases of rape and sexual violence, children make up 45% of victims  – equivalent to one child raped every 30 minutes.   Under International Humanitarian Law (IHL), the wounded and sick must be protected, yet M23 stormed a hospital in Goma and took hundreds of patients hostage, according to Amnesty International . Journalists and aid workers have been killed. M23 and other ethnic militias have committed  international crimes, including arbitrary arrests and detention, rapes, and many massacres, and mass graves.     On 27 June 2025 Rwanda and the DRC signed a peace agreement.  But M23 has not signed or disarmed.   Genocide Watch  deems the DRC to be at Stage 3: Discrimination, Stage 4: Dehumanization, Stage 5: Organization, Stage 6: Polarization, Stage 8: Persecution, and Stage 9: Extermination.     Genocide Watch Recommends: •    Rwanda and DRC must demand that M23 sign the 27 June 2025 peace agreement  and disband. •    The UNSC should reauthorize a UN and AU peacekeeping operation in the DRC. •    Rwanda must cease supporting and financing the M23 militia and oversee its disarmament. •    Rwanda and DRC must launch a joint military operation to disband and disarm militias in eastern DRC.  •    The International Criminal Court (ICC) should investigate the leadership of M23 and other militias.

AU Should Urge Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger to Reconsider Leaving Court The leaders of Niger, Gen. Abdourahamane Tiani (C), Mali, Col. Assimi Goita (L), and Burkina Faso, Capt. Ibrahim Traore (R), show the documents of the Confederation of Sahel States, which they signed during their first summit in Niamey, Niger, July 6, 2024. © 2024 Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images by Human Rights Watch (Nairobi) – The decision of Burkina Faso , Mali , and Niger to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC) will jeopardize access to justice for victims of atrocity crimes, putting all civilians at greater risk, Human Rights Watch said today. On September 22, 2025, the military leaders of the three Sahel countries signed a joint statement announcing their countries’ withdrawal from the ICC. The announced withdrawal comes during a period of turmoil in the Sahel region. Increasingly repressive military juntas in the three countries have been engaged in armed conflicts with Islamist armed groups. Both government and insurgent forces have carried out war crimes and possible crimes against humanity against civilians. The victims of serious abuses and their families have struggled to obtain redress through national and regional courts. “The leaders of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, in announcing their departure from the International Criminal Court, are depriving their populations of an important international avenue for justice and redress,” said Liz Evenson , international justice director at Human Rights Watch. “The ICC is a global court of last resort, when victims have nowhere else to turn, with investigations in countries around the world.” Under the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding treaty, countries can withdraw by depositing a notification with the United Nations secretary-general. The three Sahel countries have not yet taken this step. Withdrawals take effect one year later. Until then, countries remain bound by their ICC obligations. For over a decade, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have faced insurgencies from Islamist armed groups linked to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State. These armed groups have committed widespread atrocities against civilians, including killing and executing villagers ; attacking schools , mosques, and humanitarian convoys; and besieging towns . The militaries of the three countries, assisted by abusive militias and foreign mercenaries, have engaged in brutal counterinsurgency operations, killing , unlawfully detaining, and forcibly displacing tens of thousands of civilians. The military juntas that have taken power in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger in a wave of coups since 2020 have cracked down on the political opposition , media , and dissent , shrinking civic and political space. They have consolidated their power without elections, delaying the return to democratic civilian rule. The authorities in these countries have not met their international legal obligations to investigate serious violations of the laws of war by their security forces and by Islamist armed groups, allowing impunity to fester and emboldening abusers. In January, the three countries officially left the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional bloc, having served notice a year earlier, depriving victims of abuses of redress in the West African regional court. The ICC has 125 member countries. The court has opened investigations into alleged crimes in 17 situations , including in Afghanistan, Darfur in Sudan , Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya, Palestine, Ukraine , and Venezuela . Following a referral by the Malian government in 2012, the ICC prosecutor opened an investigation into the situation in Mali that has played a crucial role in checking impunity. The cases brought thus far before the ICC involved three commanders of the abusive Islamist armed group Ansar Dine. In September 2016, the court sentenced Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi to nine years in prison after he pleaded guilty to participating in the destruction of religious and historic buildings in Timbuktu, northern Mali, in June and July 2012. In November 2024, the court sentenced Al-Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz to 10 years in prison following his conviction for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including torture, committed between April 2012 and January 2013 in Timbuktu. In June 2024, an ICC pretrial chamber unsealed an arrest warrant against Iyad Ag Ghaly for war crimes , including sexual violence, and crimes against humanity in northern Mali between January 2012 and January 2013. Ag Ghaly, currently the head of the Al Qaeda linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimeen, JNIM) remains at large. The ICC is facing politicized threats from those opposed to accountability. The administration of United States President Donald Trump has authorized sanctions against ICC officials, a UN human rights expert, and three Palestinian human rights groups to thwart the court’s work in Palestine.  Russia has issued arrest warrants against the ICC prosecutor and eight of the court’s current and former judges in retaliation for the court’s March 2023 warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin for alleged war crimes in Ukraine. ICC member countries and civil society organizations have spoken out against efforts to obstruct the court’s work. Two countries with active ICC investigations have left the ICC: Burundi in 2017 and the Philippines in 2019. On March 11, 2025, Philippine authorities acting on an ICC arrest warrant , arrested former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and transferred him to the ICC, where he has been charged with crimes against humanity in relation to alleged extrajudicial killings between 2011 and 2019. “The announced withdrawal from the ICC treaty by Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger will undermine accountability and deprive people in the Sahel of a critical layer of human rights protection when national courts are unable to check impunity for the worst crimes,” Evenson said. “The African Union and ICC member countries should urge Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger to uphold justice and the rule of law and remain members of the court.” © 2025 Human Rights Watch

'Vidhayak putra' Aklavya Singh Gaur also wants all Muslim traders to vacate rented shops in 2 months. His aide says this is a bid 'cleanse' market of those involved in ‘love jihad’. By Vidhi Bhutra Aklavya Laxman Singh Gaur during a special screening of The Bengal Files he orgainsed for the members of his Hind Rakshak Sangathan. | X/@aklavyagaur New Delhi: There is a sense of anxiety at Indore’s biggest garments market, Seetlamata Market, which has close to a thousand shops. BJP leader and Indore-4 MLA Malini Gaur’s son, Aklavya Singh Gaur, has told the traders to terminate the services of all Muslim salesmen by 25 September. The “ vidhayak putra ” (MLA’s son), as his followers call him, also wants all Muslim traders to vacate rented shops in the next two months.  Aklavya issued the directions during a meeting with the Seetlamata Bazaar Vyapari Association in the first week of September, arguing that the area has witnessed an increasing number of ‘love jihad’ cases.  The meeting was attended by market association president Hema Panjvani and general secretary Atul Neema, apart from Ram Babu Rathore, the husband of the ward councillor.  “Muslim salesmen would stand on the road to call in customers and would stare at women passing by. Now Aklavya bhaiya has tightened the noose on these men. Nobody should have rented their shops out to Muslims in the first place, all of them will have to vacate,” Panjvani told ThePrint.  Panjvani added that they want to carry out such an exercise across markets in the city once it is successfully executed in the Seetlamata Market. Pappu Maheshwari, a senior member of the market association, told ThePrint, “ Bhaiya has requested us to talk to the retailers politely and ask them to remove Muslim salesmen.”  ThePrint reached Aklavya through phone calls, but he refused to give a formal response.  He did confirm though that he had issued such a direction. Checking Aadhaar details  Anil Sharma, a member of the market association and a close aide of Aklavya, said they will check the Aadhaar details of employees at all the shops, noting down their names and addresses.  “The second step would be to investigate each Muslim employee’s involvement in ‘love jihad’ cases,” said Sharma, adding the campaign has been named “bazaar ka shuddhikaran” because the agenda is to “cleanse” the market of those who are involved in ‘love jihad’ cases. The group coordinates with the Bajrang Dal and Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) for a host of activities, including screening films like Kerala Story and Bengal Files . While Aklavya is not an elected representative, his words seem to carry weight in the market. He is the convener of Hind Rakshak Sangathan. “We do not want to send a message that love jihad is rampant in this market. So it’s better to fire Muslim workers and also encourage more Hindu workers by giving them employment,” said Maheshwari. Asked about what they will do if shopkeepers do not implement the directions by the 25 September deadline, Maheshwari added, “We are aware that some shop-owners do not want to fire their salesmen, we will listen to their concerns and talk to them. But, the order has to be followed, Aklavya bhaiya has proposed this for our own good.” Market association general secretary Atul Neema alleged Muslim salesmen exchange numbers with Hindu women customers under the guise of sending “latest designs”, and then begin texting them at odd hours.  Mohammad Shahid, who has been working in the market for 28 years, said phone numbers are taken by shop owners. “We don’t take any numbers, the seth and the customer exchange numbers if needed.”  “In my shop, only the seth is Hindu, all three salesmen are Muslim. He doesn’t want to fire us but he says his hands are tied amid pressure,” he added. Additional Commissioner of Police (Law & Order) Amit Singh said, “If a complaint is filed, we will take the appropriate action based on the law and the Constitution.”  ‘Love jihad’ The trigger for the Aklavya’s direction appears to have come from an alleged ‘love jihad’ case involving a Congress leader in the city. Congress Councillor Anwar Qadri was booked in June for allegedly giving money to two Muslim men to befriend and marry Hindu women. According to the police, the two men—Sahil Sheikh and Altaf Shah—named Qadri while being questioned about sexual assault cases against them. The case made headlines in Indore, drawing the ire of many, including Indore BJP president Sumit Mishra who alleged that Qadri was “funding love jihad”. There is panic among Muslim workers over Aklavya’s order. They are calling meetings, holding deliberations and trying to figure a way out of the situation. Some Muslim salesmen working in the market also met with Bhim Army Azad Samaj Party’s state president Abid Hussain Barkati over the issue. “We will first try to sit with the traders and explain our position to them. We don’t support love jihad, and if someone is found guilty of ‘love jihad’, we would boycott them,” said Hussain. He said they would take the legal route if discussions on the matter do not lead to the right decision. “This order violates Articles 14, 15, 16, 25, and 29 of the Indian Constitution. We will approach the civil court, if needed, we will take it to the higher courts,” said Hussain. Article 14 and 15 ensure equality before the law and prohibit discrimination on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth. Article 16 guarantees equality of opportunity in public employment. Article 25 protects the freedom of religion, while Article 29 safeguards the cultural and educational rights of minorities. Some shop owners are holding secret meetings as they do not want to let their employees go right in the middle of the festive season. A sizable percentage of the customers is Muslim women and traders are afraid the move would alienate them. Congress city President Chintu Chaukse has written to the police commissioner of Indore on the diktat. “If no action is taken against the order, we will organise a citywide protest. We will call activists, party workers and several respected men of the city to protest this communal order,” said Chaukse. (Edited by Ajeet Tiwari) Copyright © 2025 Printline Media Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.

Image Credit: X/@drassagheer In Sudan, a drone strike by the UAE-backed Rapid Support Forces killed at least 85 people worshiping in a mosque in Darfur on Friday. The attack took place in El Fasher, which has been under siege for more than a year as the RSF battles the Sudanese army for control of the city. There have been reports of starvation as hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced in the fighting. Sudan has been in a state of civil war since April 2023. Here’s United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres sounding the alarm about the situation in Sudan. “The suffering of the Sudanese people is horrible. So, I think it’s time for the Security Council to be able to take, with the agreement of all the key powers, very tough measures on Sudan.” -Secretary-General António Guterres

By Fredrick Nzwili Pastor Daramali Abudigin, of the St. Mathew congregation, keeps the church open amidst war and famine in El-Fasher, Sudan. — Courtesy photo [Religion News Service – Nairobi, Kenya] In the besieged Sudanese city of El-Fasher, the Rev. Daramali Abudigin is staying on, even as random bombs, stray bullets and hunger kill members of his flock. The 44-year-old priest has kept St. Mathew, of the Anglican Church of Sudan, open to all Christians, after increased fighting has forced other pastors and priests to flee. Here, people live one day at a time, and if stray bombs and bullets do not kill them, hunger does not spare them, especially children. In May, the priest lost five church members who were living with him after the armed men randomly shot at the church compound. The deaths nearly moved him to abandon the city. “I didn’t leave the church. In a while, I considered leaving, but I changed my mind. I am still staying with my flock. Whenever we lose a person, it makes me very sad,” said Abudigin, who lives in the city with his wife and three sons. El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, one of five states in the Darfur region, has been under a blockade from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces since April of last year. The group declared a blockade after local militia declared allegiance to the Sudan Armed Forces. The fighting in Sudan began in April 2023, four years after the two groups that worked together to overthrow the dictator, Hassan Omar al-Bashir, disagreed on the direction the country should take. The two forces, both largely consisting of Muslims, have battled for control of the country since then. Beginning in March, the battle shifted to Darfur, the RSF’s base in the west of the country, after the army pushed the paramilitary out of the capital, Khartoum, and other areas. Recently, the RSF has intensified attacks on the city to capture it from the army. The force has carried out ground and aerial assaults, launching missile attacks, and has constantly shelled the city. Its battlewagons have also attempted to storm the city. At least 57 people died in the city on Aug. 11 after the militias opened fire on homes and streets. “The bombs and the bullets strike homes,” Abudigin told Religion News Service in an online interview. “The markets are very dangerous. One can lose their life anywhere and any time.” The Rev. Luka Jomo, the pastor of a Catholic church in El-Fasher, was struck by a stray bullet when paramilitary militias attacked the city in June. Abudigin, who knew Jomo well, rushed him to the hospital, but too late to save his life. Two young men staying with him were also killed. Catholic Church sources said they had tried to help Jomo leave, but with RSF militia encircling it, he remained trapped. Abugidin has welcomed any Christian who wants to worship in the city. “There are no other pastors in Darfur in general. I am the only one in El-Fasher, and I usually combine worshippers in one church to save them from random bombings and shootings,” said Abudigin. Abudigin, who was ordained in 2010, grew up in the Nuba Mountains, a region bordering South Sudan that is protected by another militia, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, and has become home to some 700,000 refugees. El-Fasher has its own displaced persons camps, Abu Shouk and Zamzam. Of the 57 killed on Aug. 11, at least 40 were residents of Abu Shouk. In April, the RSF struck both camps, killing more than 100 people, including 20 children and 10 aid workers. Apart from stray bullets and bombs, Abudigin said many die from hunger, as people cannot afford what little  food there is in the city. “Many children have malnutrition, and we are going to see many of them dying if they do not get help urgently. There is food in the market, but the people cannot afford it, because they do not have any money now. Again, the food is too expensive,” said the priest. The church, he said, is not able to help the people because it is also struggling with resources. “As a pastor, I am struggling to cope because what the church sends for upkeep is not enough,” he said. “They used to send me 200,000 Sudanese pounds (USD 330) per month, but now this cannot feed me for two days,” he said. The United Nations last year declared famine conditions in Zamzam, a camp of displaced persons in the city, but workers for its World Food Program have not been able to get to the city to offer assistance. The militias have also blocked trade and food supply channels, forcing an escalation of food prices. Abudigin called on the international community and the global Christian community to act quickly to save Sudan from the war, especially El-Fasher. “Food is urgently needed because hunger is killing people every day. As I am talking to you about hunger, we have lost a child because of it, and another two because of disease, since there are no medicines,” he said. © Episcopal News Service 2025. All Rights Reserved.

By Declan Walsh A doctor who spoke with The Times last week was among those killed when a missile hit a mosque on Friday as paramilitaries stepped up their brutal siege of the city of El Fasher. Dozens of people were killed in the besieged Sudanese city of El Fasher early Friday when paramilitary forces fired a missile into a mosque during morning prayers, local medics and aid workers said. The strike was among the deadliest in months in El Fasher, in the western region of Darfur, where the paramilitaries have intensified a brutal, nearly 18-month siege by bombing neighborhoods where tens of thousands of hunger-stricken civilians are sheltering. At least 84 bodies were pulled from the wreckage of the mosque, including several women and children, said Suleman, a senior doctor at the nearby Al Saudi hospital, who spoke by phone after visiting the site. Minni Minnawi, the regional governor of Darfur whose troops are fighting in the conflict, put the toll at “over 60.” “The scene was harrowing beyond description,” said Suleman, who asked to be identified by one name to protect his family from reprisals. By The New York Times A missile hit the Al Jamia mosque during early morning prayers, when it was packed with worshipers, the doctor said. Videos circulating on social media of the aftermath, showing bloodied bodies trapped under rubble and steel girders, were accurate, he said. “I saw all of this and more,” he said. Among the dead was Omar Selik, a doctor who spoke with The New York Times last week about the dire conditions for an estimated 260,000 civilians trapped in El Fasher, trying to survive bombardment in a city with vanishingly little food. His death was confirmed on Friday by a relative and by Suleman. The siege is led by the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group fighting Sudan’s military since the country was engulfed by civil war in April 2023. After being ejected from the capital, Khartoum, in March, the R.S.F. has fallen back on its stronghold of Darfur, where many of its fighters come from. El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, is its last hurdle to complete control of the region. Residents waited for free meals in El Fasher, Sudan, last month. The city has been besieged by paramilitary Rapid Support Forces since April 2024.Credit ...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images After the Times story published on Monday, Dr. Selik sent a text message to say that R.S.F. bombing had intensified around his home, which is situated less than a mile from an embattled contingent of Sudanese military forces and allied fighters. “Now we are under attack again,” he wrote. “Too much killing of people.” In May, R.S.F. fighters began to build an earthen wall around the city that is now 20 miles long, and partially encircles it. They have prevented food and medicine from entering El Fasher and beaten or shot dead some civilians who tried to flee. Colombian mercenaries are fighting alongside the R.S.F. in El Fasher, according to videos posted to social media and the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro . “They are specters of death,” he said in a social media post last month. Earlier this month, U.N. human rights investigators said that R.S.F. atrocities in El Fasher amounted to crimes against humanity . In a statement on Friday, Denise Brown, the top U.N. official in Sudan, called the mosque attack a potential war crime, and called for the perpetrators to be brought to account . The R.S.F. recently announced that it had formed its own government in Nyala, 110 miles south of El Fasher, led by its leader Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan. The paramilitaries did not respond to questions for this article. Satellite photos and other evidence indicate that the R.S.F. now controls most of El Fasher, the Yale School of Public Health reported on Thursday . A battle was raging around a former U.N. peacekeeping base where ethnic militias fighting alongside Sudan’s military had established a base, researchers said. The R.S.F. offensive is being backed by advanced Chinese-made armed drones, some of which appeared to be captured in satellite images taken over El Fasher on Thursday. Citing witnesses, Suleman of the Al Saudi hospital said an R.S.F. drone had fired on the mosque on Friday morning. “Right now, the drone is still moving in the sky,” he said. “I can see it.” The United Arab Emirates, the main foreign backer of the R.S.F., has supplied its fighters with artillery, medical care and Chinese-made drones, some of which have been used in the siege of El Fasher, The Times has reported . Sudan’s government has accused the U.A.E. of hiring the Colombian mercenaries fighting alongside the R.S.F. in El Fasher. In an email, the U.A.E. denied backing either side in the war, and said it supported international efforts to broker peace “and ensure accountability for violations committed by all warring parties.” Last week the Emirates signed a joint statement with the United States, Egypt and Saudi Arabia calling for a three-month truce in the war, followed by transition toward an “independent, civilian-led government.” To many in El Fasher, though, with little to eat as bombs continued to fall, international diplomacy seemed a distant prospect. “Those thugs have declared repeatedly that they intend to wipe us out,” Taha Khater, an aid worker, said in a text message on Friday, referring to the R.S.F. He added: “Please, we are dying before the eyes of the whole world and no one is speaking up.” © 2025 The New York Times Company

Gaza destroyed. source: The Cairo Review The Double Genocide in Gaza By Dr. Gregory Stanton Founding President, Genocide Watch   In Israel’s disproportionate response to Hamas’ October 7, 2023 genocidal massacre of Israelis, Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians.   On  October 7, 2023,  Hamas massacred over 1200  Israelis and kidnapped 251  hostages. Twenty  remaining hostages are still alive in Gaza, 148 have been rescued or released, and 75 died or were murdered by Hamas. Hostages who have been released have reported  torture, beatings, and murder during their time in captivity.    In its original charter,  Hamas openly declared its  intent to destroy the nation of Israel. While Hamas removed this outright declaration of its genocidal intent from its revised 2017 charter, Hamas still declares that it is at war against all Zionists.   The revision in Hamas’ charter is belied by Hamas’ continuing attacks on Israel. Statements from Hamas’ leadership, its unrelenting missile attacks, and the October 7 massacre prove that Hamas is still a genocidal terrorist organization that must be defeated.   Claiming its right to self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter,  Israel justifies its invasions in Gaza and Lebanon as intended to destroy the bases of Hamas and Hezbollah before they could be used for more attacks on Israel.   Israel also justifies its invasion of Gaza as necessary to free Israeli citizens who are being held hostage. This right to protect national citizens  has long been a doctrine of international law.   Israel’s military retaliation against Hamas would be justified as self-defense if it were proportionate  and distinguished  Hamas combatants from Palestinian civilians.   But Israel’s continuous bombing and destruction of all of Gaza and its starvation of Palestinians make no distinctions between combatants and civilians.   Bombing hospitals and shooting civilians are war crimes . Forced deportation  and starvation  are crimes against humanity .   But defeating Hamas’ genocidal terrorists does not justify  committing genocide against Palestinian civilians.   I s Israel also committing the crime of genocide?   To prove that Israel is committing genocide, three elements must be conclusively proven: destruction of a protected group; acts of genocide; and intent.   1.     Are Palestinians a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group?   The existence of a group is proven from the point of view of the perpetrator . Israel’s leaders themselves recognize that Palestinians are a national and ethnic group. In October 2023,  Israeli President Herzog stated, “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible.”   In Israel and worldwide, Palestinians are considered a national and ethnic group with their own language and culture. Palestine is increasingly recognized as a state in international law and institutions.   2.     Has Israel committed acts of genocide?   The crime of genocide is defined in the Genocide Convention , the international convention adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948:   “Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:(a) Killing members of the group;(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”   Determining whether Israel has committed genocide requires evaluating whether Israel has systematically committed acts of genocide enumerated in Article II.     (a) Has Israel intentionally killed a substantial part of the Palestinian national and ethnic group?   The UN estimates that 62,000  Palestinians in Gaza have died since October 7, 2023. At least 17,000 of the Palestinian dead were children.   Israel claims that casualty figures from the UN and the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry are unreliable exaggerations. A study in the Lancet  estimates that the death toll is actually far higher than the UN’s.   (b) Has Israel intentionally caused serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group?   As an occupying power, Israel has a legal  obligation  to provide basic needs to Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank. Not only has Israel failed to provide for basic needs, but Israel actively blocks aid into Gaza. 2 million  Palestinians in Gaza are on the brink of starvation.   Palestinians in Gaza face starvation , lack adequate medical supplies , and are showing severe levels of mental trauma .   Israel claims  it has permitted enough food aid, but the aid is stolen by Hamas. This claim is intended to convince Israelis that Israel is obeying the laws of war. It is not. Israel has pursued a policy of starvation.   The truth is that Israel has allowed under twenty percent  of necessary food to be delivered to Gaza. Since the beginning of the war, Israel has blocked over   eighty percent  of food aid from entering Gaza.   Israel blockaded  all food, water, medicine, and fuel to Gaza for three months in 2025 and blocked all food and aid distribution from the United Nations, while simultaneously refusing to open more aid crossings.   On August 27, 2025, all the members of the UN Security Council except the United States issued a statement condemning the starvation caused by Israel in Gaza as a “man-made famine.”   Starvation is the crime against humanity of Extermination under Article 7 (1)(b) of the ICC statute : “the intentional infliction of conditions of life, inter alia the deprivation of access to food and medicine, calculated to bring about the destruction of part of a population.” Starvation is also an act of genocide under Genocide Convention Article 2(c) .   (c)   Has Israel deliberately inflicted on the Palestinian group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part?   Israel intentionally bombs schools ,  homes ,  hospitals , and designated  humanitarian zones . Israel has used 2000-pound bombs  that level entire apartment buildings and throw shrapnel that kills and maims people 360 meters away. Over 174,000  buildings in Gaza have been destroyed and over 19,000  have been severely damaged. Over ninety percent (436,000 homes)  of the dwellings in Gaza are uninhabitable.   Every hospital in Gaza has been bombed by Israel on the pretext that Hamas hides under them. Of the damaged hospitals still standing, the UN reports that all Gaza hospitals  lack water, fuel, staff, and medical supplies. Directing attacks against hospitals is a war crime that violates  ICC statute Article 8(2)(b)(ix).   Israel is blowing up  the remaining buildings in Rafah, where it says it will build a cynically named “humanitarian city” to confine Gazans. They will be guarded by IDF troops and won’t be allowed to leave. Israel is planning to build a concentration camp.   Israel is apparently applying the Dahiya (Dahya) doctrine developed in its war against Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006. It is an Israeli military strategy involving the large-scale destruction of civilian infrastructure that supports an enemy organization. It is intended to force the civilian population to turn against militants.   The Dahiya doctrine is directly contrary to the laws of war that prohibit attacks on civilians. It is Israel’s excuse for committing war crimes.   3.     Do Israel’s actions have the intent to destroy the Palestinian group, in whole or in part.   I ntent of a state can be proven in two ways: 1.     by statements or orders from leaders or military commanders, or 2.     by a systematic pattern of the acts of genocide  enumerated in the Genocide Convention.   A popular belief regarding genocide is that it requires the intent to eliminate a group “in whole.” Many supporters of Israel reject any claim that Israel’s destruction in Gaza approaches the horror of the Holocaust, which attempted to kill all  Jewish people.   But the Genocide Convention only requires the intent to destroy a group “in part”. Intentionally killing, starving, or destroying conditions of life of members of a group because of their group identity qualifies as the intent to destroy a group “in part.”   Have Israeli leaders made statements indicating intent to destroy the Palestinian group, in part?   Israeli leaders have repeatedly made statements that express the intent to destroy conditions of life for a substantial part of the Palestinians in Gaza.   Israeli leaders have led a  dehumanizing  campaign of anti-Palestinian propaganda that claims there is no distinction between Hamas combatants and Palestinian civilians. Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant claim that there are “ no innocents ” among Palestinians. Israeli President Herzog stated,” “It is not true, this rhetoric about civilians being not aware, not involved.”   Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invoked  the Biblical command in Deuteronomy 24 and 1 Samuel 15: 2-3 to kill every Amalekite, a nation that had launched a surprise attack against the Jewish people as they migrated into Israel. Netanyahu invoked a divine order to commit genocide.   In October 9, 2023, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said,” I have ordered a complete siege of the Gaza Strip… We are fighting human animals. ”   Israel’s Denial   Israel employs four classic denial  tactics against accusations of genocide:   1.     Minimize the statistics. 2.     Attack the truth tellers. 3.     Claim civilian deaths were mistakes or “collateral damage”. 4.     Deny intent.   1.     Minimize the statistics.   Israel claims that casualty figures from the UN and the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry are exaggerated lies.   A scientific study published in The Lancet , a respected peer-reviewed medical journal, in January 2025 estimated that approximately 64,260 Palestinians died from traumatic injuries in Gaza between October 7, 2023 and June 30, 2024. This figure is 40 percent higher than the 37,877 deaths reported by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry during the same period.   2.     Attack the truth-tellers.   Netanyahu portrays opposition to Israeli bombing in Gaza as a pro-Hamas campaign aimed at destroying Israel itself. Netanyahu claims that the United Nations, International Criminal Court, and protests against Israel’s war crimes are “antisemitic” , conflating opposition to Israel’s war with antisemitism. For Israelis, he is invoking memories of the antisemitism that led to the Holocaust.   Israel allows only Palestinian journalists to report from Gaza. No foreign journalists  have access except on IDF escorted tours.Israel regularly accuses Gazan journalists of being Hamas operatives, using these claims to justify the targeted killing of Palestinian journalists  in Gaza. This policy allows Israel to claim that reports of its war crimes and crimes against humanity come from biased sources, a tactic of denial.   Israeli Defense Forces have intentionally targeted  media  and  aid groups . As of July 18, 2025, at least 1,513 humanitarian workers  have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, including 237 UN staff members.   3.     Claim civilian deaths were mistakes or “collateral damage” in a just war against Hamas.   Israeli leaders say they have no intention to destroy the Palestinian national and ethnic group, as such.  Israel only wants to defeat Hamas. Civilian deaths are “collateral damage” in this war.   Israel says its Defense Forces (IDF) take all necessary precautions to diminish the toll on civilian life. Hamas fighters hide among Palestinian civilians,  making civilian deaths unavoidable.   Explanations of civilian deaths by Israel are blamed on acts of individual soldiers rather than on the orders of military leaders. This tactic denies that mass murder and destruction are Israeli state policies. War crimes against Gazans are described as acts of individuals, not acts by the state of Israel.   Israel’s rules of engagement permit killing twenty civilians  for each Hamas fighter killed, the highest “collateral damage” percentage in any modern war. These rules of engagement give Israeli Air Force and IDF troops a license to carpet bomb Gaza and commit war crimes with impunity.   When confronted with evidence of atrocities by IDF troops, Israeli bombing or missile strikes, Israel frequently claims they were “mistakes” or that Israel “is investigating.” After Israel struck Nasser Hospital on August 25, killing five journalists, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was responsible and that it "deeply regrets the tragic mishap" . In fact, BBC verify , showed that Israel struck the Hospital balcony where the journalists stood in a “double tap,” waiting until rescuers came and then striking again, hitting with four shells. This was an intentional assassination, not a “mishap.”   If defeating Hamas is really Israel’s only intent, why has Israel bombed all  of Gaza? Why did Israel blockade food, water, medicines, and fuel to all Palestinians for three months? Why does Israel continue to restrict shipments of food into Gaza to a tiny percentage of what is needed to sustain civilian lives?   If Israel’s claim of its intent to spare the lives of civilians were true, why have Israeli marksmen shot over 1400 Palestinians seeking food from distribution sites established by Israel?   4.     Deny that Israel’s destruction of Gaza and killing of Palestinians have the intent required to prove genocide.   Many supporters of Israel say that  this is a war, not a genocide . If it is a genocide, they argue, why hasn’t Israel killed many more Palestinians?  Such deniers make the mistake of limiting genocide to destruction “in whole” of a group, ignoring the explicit language in the Genocide Convention that includes destruction “in part.” They also make the mistake of thinking that war and genocide are mutually exclusive. But war and genocide are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, most genocides occur during wars.   The Final Proof of Israel’s Genocidal Intent: The Murders of Palestinians Seeking Food   Since May, Israel Defense Force soldiers have shot and killed over 1400  Palestinian civilians seeking food from distribution sites in Gaza established by Israel. Many of those killed were children who were shot in the head or the back.   These murders and the destruction of hospitals and medical clinics  by Israeli Defense Forces are war crimes and also are the crime against humanity of “extermination .” They are also acts of genocide.   In the New York Times on July 15, 2025, Dr. Omar Bartov , a renowned Holocaust and genocide expert, noted that many Holocaust scholars have been reluctant to call Israel’s war crimes in Gaza by the powerful G-word, Genocide. Dr. Bartov, himself, had been unwilling to call Israel’s crimes against humanity “Genocide.”   Dr. Bartov changed his judgment of Israel’s intent based on Israel’s continuing destruction of Gaza and its intentional bombing of hospitals and the tents of displaced people, its blockade of food, and Israel’s forced displacement of Palestinians from one part of Gaza to another without food for themselves or their starving children.   The Israel Defense Force’s shootings of over 1400 starving Palestinian civilians,  including women, the elderly, and children seeking food finally proved Israel’s genocidal intent for Dr. Bartov and the International Association of Genocide Scholars,  the most respected organization of genocide scholars in the world.   The events of the past two years, especially since March 2025, have finally proven Israel’s intentional destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national and ethnic group.   Both Hamas and Israel have committed genocide.   Israel’s genocide continues today.   This war and genocide can be stopped only when Hamas releases all hostages and Israel withdraws from Gaza. Scores of Palestinian civilians are being killed daily by bombing, shelling, and Israeli marksmen. Hundreds are dying of starvation. Any hope for peace between Israel and Palestinians depends on ending this war.   The only way to stop war crimes and genocide in Gaza is to stop this war.     Dr. Gregory H. Stanton  is Founding President of Genocide Watch  and the Alliance Against Genocide . He founded the Cambodian Genocide Project . He was Professor in Genocide Studies at George Mason University and was James Farmer Professor in Human Rights at the University of Mary Washington . He was a law professor at Washington and Lee University . In the State Department, he wrote UN Security Council Resolution 955  that established the  International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.  He wrote the rules of the Khmer Rouge Tribuna l. He was President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars . Published under Creative Commons copyright. May be freely republished in its entirety with credit to the author. https://www.thecairoreview.com/essays/the-double-genocide-in-gaza/

Hattiesburg attorney Vanessa Jones speaks at a press conference at Living Faith Miracle Temple Church of God in Christ in Grenada, Miss., regarding the death of Trey Reed (inset) on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. Photo by Kevin Edwards, Mississippi Free Press GRENADA, Miss.—The family of Demartravion “Trey” Reed is seeking an independent autopsy following the Delta State University student’s death on Monday, when his body was found hanging in a tree on campus. At a press event at Living Faith Miracle Temple Church of God in Christ in Grenada late Tuesday afternoon, Vanessa J. Jones of the Jones Law Firm, who is representing the Reed family, told the media that the family is still waiting for answers. “The family does not know exactly what happened on September the 15th of 2025,” she said. “We are seeking answers from Delta State University. We’re seeking answers from the coroner’s office.” Delta State University staff discovered Reed’s body hanging from the tree at 7:05 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 15, in the middle of the campus, where the 21-year-old had just begun attending college. Hours after his discovery, Delta State University Police Chief Mike Peeler said in a press conference that no foul play was currently suspected. The same day, two officials from the Bolivar County Coroner’s Office said Trey Reed had no other visible injuries that would indicate an attack prior to his hanging. ‘The Media Knew Before the Family Did’ Vanessa Jones criticized Delta State University and Bolivar County officials, telling the Mississippi Free Press that both had left the Reed family completely in the dark after the discovery of Trey Reed’s body, failing to properly communicate with them in their darkest moment. “The media,” the lawyer said, “knew about Trey’s death before the family did.” “ That’s one of the reasons for the urgency of this press conference,” Jones continued, “because the family is getting all of their information secondhand through the news.” And a confusing incident occurred the morning of Trey’s death, she said. “The Grenada County Sheriff’s Department arrived at Trey’s family’s home … at approximately 9:15, and informed the family that Trey was found dead in his dorm room, in his bed,” she said. Not long after, the family would learn that Trey had died in the center of campus, hanging from a tree. The family needs clarity on the moments leading up to Trey’s death, Jones said. “ If this young man was on the campus of Delta State University with all these cameras and all this modern technology, from the moment he left his dorm room or entered the campus, there should be surveillance of all his actions,” Jones said. “That’s what we want. Bring the surveillance, bring the cameras so that we’ll know exactly what happened.” Jones did not allege that Reed’s death had been violent, but demanded a full and independent investigation. “We’re not here to point fingers—yet. But we will have answers. The possible constitutional violations of releasing Trey’s name to the media immediately after it happened—we’ll get to that. But for now, the family is asking for answers.” Speaking at the same press event, Pastor Jerry Reed, Trey’s uncle, told the media that his nephew had been a “happy young man,” filled with purpose and excited for a new chapter at Delta State University. “  When I talked to him, he always told me that he had a plan for his life, and many things he wanted. He wanted to go to college,” Jerry Reed said. “He wanted to be a truck driver. Because that’s what I was, for nearly 30 years, and that’s what he wanted to be.” Civil Rights Attorneys, Mississippi Leadership Respond Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump will also join the Reed family in seeking a full and independent investigation of the death of Reed. “Trey Reed was a young man full of promise and warmth, deeply loved and respected by all who knew him,” Crump wrote in a media statement on Tuesday afternoon. “His family and the campus community deserve a full, independent investigation to uncover the truth about what happened. We cannot accept vague conclusions when so many questions remain. I stand with this family, and I will lead a team of civil rights leaders and organizations in pursuing transparency and answers for Trey’s family.” U.S. House Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat whose district includes Bolivar and Grenada counties, called for a federal investigation into Reed’s death by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. “It is always a tragedy when a young life is cut short,” Thompson said in the statement Tuesday afternoon. “We must leave no stone unturned in the search for answers. While the details of this case are still emerging, we cannot ignore Mississippi’s painful history of lynching and racial violence against African Americans. My deepest condolences and prayers are with Trey’s family during this difficult time.” Trey Reed’s death set off alarms across social media, with countless concerned observers fearing Reed’s death was intentional—a painful echo of the many lynchings of Black men in Mississippi’s past. One persistent rumor falsely asserted that Trey’s limbs had been broken, rendering suicide impossible. Monday afternoon, the Mississippi Free Press spoke to Bolivar County Deputy Coroner Murray Roark, who said he assisted his colleague, Deputy Coroner Dwayne Proctor, in the examination of Reed’s body. Roark insisted he had seen no evidence of broken limbs on Reed’s body. Later, Bolivar County Coroner Rudolph Seals elaborated, confirming that examiners found no evidence of assault on the body of the deceased. “Based on the preliminary examination, we can confirm that the deceased did not suffer any lacerations, contusions, compound fractures, broken bones, or injuries consistent with an assault,” Seals said. “At this time, there is no evidence to suggest the individual was physically attacked before his death.” © 2025 Mississippi Journalism and Education Group. All rights reserved

By Ahmed Al-Haj Two Yemeni men inspect the rubble of a house that was destroyed in Wednesday’s Israeli airstrikes, in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman) ADEN, Yemen (AP) — Israel’s deadly airstrikes this week targeting Iran-backed rebels in Yemen have damaged residential areas in the country’s capital of Sanaa, leaving many houses in ruins and residents without help from authorities and unable to afford repairs on their own. Wednesday’s strikes killed 46 people — including 11 women and five children — and wounded 165, according to a toll released late Thursday by the rebel-run health ministry in Sanaa. Most of the casualties were in Sanaa. Rebel officials said 11 local journalists were also killed in the strikes. The strikes followed a drone launched by the Houthi rebels that breached Israel’s multilayered air defenses and slammed into a southern Israeli airport , blowing out glass windows and injuring one person. In Yemen, a military headquarters and a Sanaa fuel station were also hit, the rebels said previously, as well as a government facility in the city of Hazm, the capital of northern Jawf province. The National Museum of Yemen was also damaged, according to the rebels’ culture ministry, with footage from the site showings damage to the building’s façade. In Sanaa, where Yemen’s yearslong civil war has impoverished many, residents told The Associated Press they cannot afford any major repairs and that the local authorities are not offering compensation or help with reconstruction. Dozens of homes in Sanaa’s central Tahrir area were damaged. One of the residents from there, Um Talal, said she has no faith the authorities will help repair the house where she lives with her daughter and two sons. The airstrikes knocked out their living room walls and damaged the kitchen, leaving dirt, debris and rubble, speaking to The Associated Press over the phone. “Everything was lost in the blink of an eye,” she said. “Authorities haven’t even called us to this day. ” Despite the destruction, she said the family will fix what they can and continue living in their home. Another resident, Ahmed al-Wasabi, said he and his family — luckily — were not home when one of the airstrikes partially destroyed their house. “The explosions terrified people who went running and children and women were crying and screaming,” said Khaled al-Dabeai, a grocery shop owner who added that the force of the explosions knocked products off his shelves. Israel has previously launched waves of airstrikes in response to the Houthis’ firing missiles and drones at Israel. The Houthis say they are supporting Hamas and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The Houthis have launched missiles and drones toward Israel and targeted ships in the Red Sea for over 22 months, saying they are attacking in solidarity with Palestinians amid the war in Gaza . Houthi leader Mahdi al-Mashat vowed on Wednesday to continue the attacks, warning Israelis to “stay alarmed since the response is coming for sure.” ___ Associated Press writer Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

Prisoners freed after Trump appeal were near end of terms and should have right to stay, say exiled opposition leaders Reuters in Vilnius Released prisoners attend a press conference in Vilnius with the exiled Belarusian opposition leader, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, centre, and members of a group of Belarusian opposition artists. Photograph: Kacper Pempel/Reuters Belarusian prisoners released from jail and exiled to Lithuania in a US-brokered deal have said they were confused over having to leave Belarus – especially as many were almost due to be freed anyway. Belarus freed 52 prisoners including an EU employee on Thursday after an appeal from Donald Trump as Washington and Minsk consider a rapprochement that many European leaders have viewed with scepticism. The exiled opposition says freed political prisoners should have the right to stay in Belarus rather than submit to what it says are in effect forced deportations. “I wanted to go home, to my home in Belarus. They brought me here,” one of the released prisoners, Aleksandr Mantsevich, told Reuters outside the US embassy in Vilnius, where he had been driven from the Belarus jail. About half of the prisoners released on Thursday by the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko , were almost at the end of their jail terms, said Franak Viačorka, a senior opposition official. “Just imagine, they were looking forward to getting free soon and suddenly they find themselves deported, separated from family, they don’t have passports and they can’t go back,” he said. Mikola Statkevich, an opposition politician and one of the most high-profile of those released, refused to enter Lithuania on Thursday and went back to Belarus. His wife, Marina Adamovič, who is in Belarus, told Reuters on Friday that she had had no contact with him since then. Viačorka said that Statkevich would probably be rearrested. “Lukashenko’s regime has a problem, because he was officially released from jail but they cannot allow him to go home in Belarus. They will probably give him another criminal case,” Viačorka said. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the leader of the opposition, who lives in exile, said the west should demand that Lukashenko allow former political prisoners to stay in the country. “People have to have the right to stay in Belarus,” she said. Outside the US embassy in Vilnius, many said they sympathised with Statkevich’s decision not to leave. “I want to go back home. I cannot imagine my life without Belarus. I want to go home,” Iryna Slaunikava, an opposition journalist who spent two years and eight months in jail, told Reuters. “I don’t know if this is safe, but I really want to go home. I served out almost all of my sentence, with four months remaining. Haven’t I earned the right to live at home?” she asked. Pavel Vinogradov, another former prisoner, said he had been due to meet his son for the first time in four years on Saturday, but instead found himself in Lithuania. “Yesterday, when they put a sack on my head and took me somewhere, I knew I am getting out,” he said. “I hope my wife eventually comes here, and I meet my son in the European Union.” © 2025 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. (dcr)

Picture showing Community Guards operational Hilux vehicle burned by Lakurawa terrorists. P icture Courtesy: Elder Afolabi ‘We are trapped in fear’ –Community Leader By Onibiyo Segun (Eruku, Kwara State) Marks of fire and blood remain on the red earth of Isanlu Isin, Kwara State. Charred motorcycle frames sit beside burned homes. Villagers whisper of missing loved ones and unanswered prayers. Dr. Jacob Ayanda, Vice-President of the Isanlu Isin Development Association, said his people are living in fear, according to The Daily Post. “We have been abandoned to face armed terrorists alone,” he said. The attack happened on Saturday, September 14, 2025, police sources told reporters. Eyewitnesses described the assault as swift and merciless. Terrorists stormed the village at dusk, firing into the air. Villagers fled into bushes. Local vigilantes, known also as community guards, attempted defense but were ambushed. Two men were killed. Six others vanished. “We heard gunshots everywhere,” said Grace Oladimeji, a widow who fled with her two children. “My neighbor was shot dead. The terrorists set fire to motorcycles. We ran into the forest and slept there.” The onslaught lasted hours. At least 27 motorcycles belonging to community guards were burned, said leader Sunday Ajibola. “We had no advanced weapons. We carry hunting guns. They came with AK-47s and should be more than 30 terrorists. We fought, but we were outgunned. Some of my men are still missing.” Oladimeji added. Police in Kwara confirmed the killings. Chief Superintendent Mohammed Sani, spokesperson for the state police command, acknowledged the attackers were heavily armed and suspected to be members of the Lakurawa terrorist group, an Al-Qaida affiliated insurgency first reported by TruthNigeria in November 2024. “We are combing the forests. We are working with hunters and the community guards. The terrain is challenging, but we will not rest until the perpetrators are arrested,” he said. Who are the Lakurawa? The Lakurawa are a violent terrorist insurgency first observed infiltrating Sokoto communities in 2023 and more recently in Zamfara’s forests. According to security experts, they are believed to have splintered from Fulani Ethnic Militia gangs in the Northwest. Over time, they forged loose ties with extremist groups linked to Islamic State of West Africa (ISWAP). Known for brutal raids on farming villages, the group attacks for ransom, livestock, and territorial control. Lakurawa fighters have been spotted in Niger, Kebbi, and now Kwara. “They combine organized terror with opportunistic banditry,” Dr. Aliyu Musa, a terrorism analyst told TruthNigeria. “Their expansion into Kwara signals a broader national threat. Another unit is troubling Western Kogi – Egbe, Odo Ape, Kabba, Isanlu. Soon, the terrorists will get to Lagos,” he warned. Kwara is a state in Nigeria’s northcentral region, bordered to the west by Benin Republic and less than 300 kilometers from Lagos. The state is majority Muslim, especially around Ilorin, its capital, but its southern belt, including Isanlu Isin and Eruku, is predominantly Christian. Isanlu Isin lies near the Omu Aran region, surrounded by forests stretching toward Kogi. Just west of Isanlu Isin is Eruku, a historic Christian town on the Ilofa–Egbe road. Locals say these same forests that connect farming settlements provide cover for terrorists. Similar violence has struck nearby communities. In Ganmu-Alheri, Ifelodun county (Local Government Area), terrorists invaded at night, killing farmers and displacing households. Survivors reported that attackers came from forests near Kwara’s border with Niger State. In Egbe, Yagba West, in Kogi State, TruthNigeria documented how Fulani Ethnic Militia terrorists stormed the town earlier this month, leaving police officers and community guards dead. Families fled across state lines for safety. The day after Isanlu Isin’s attack, villagers blocked the Oke Onigbin-Omu Aran highway, demanding protection from state and federal governments. Angry youths waved placards reading: “We are dying. Where is the government?” “This is not just about Isanlu Isin,” said elder Kehinde Afolabi, who joined the protest. “If terrorists can enter our land, they can enter anywhere. We recently paid 20 million Naira (about US$13,300) for the release of 2 kidnapped sons. They kidnapped 4 more and demanded another 20 million. We contacted the county chairman and security agents, but they are yet to respond.” Worsening Threat of Attacks Security experts warn Kwara’s terror threat is deepening. Dr. Musa said Lakurawa fighters are spreading south from Niger and Zamfara, taking advantage of porous forest borders and weak policing. “These forests have become highways for armed groups,” he said. “They move from Kaduna to Niger, then down into Kwara and even Kogi. Without aerial surveillance, they will keep striking.” Retired Colonel Tunde Alade added that community guards cannot substitute for the military. “They mean well but cannot match AK-47s with hunting guns. Only combined police and military patrols, backed by drones, can protect towns like Isanlu Isin effectively.” Residents say they feel forgotten. Community schools remain half-empty. Farmers avoid their fields. Families gather in one room at night to pray against another raid. “We are trapped in fear,” said youth leader Emmanuel Adedayo. “If we farm, they will kidnap or kill us. If we travel, they will ambush us. We cannot live like prisoners.” The federal government recently announced new operations against terrorist groups in Northcentral Nigeria. But local leaders argue these efforts rarely reach rural villages. Without a permanent security presence, communities remain exposed. “Government must put boots on the ground,” Dr. Ayanda told TruthNigeria. “We don’t need promises anymore. We need soldiers here, now, before more lives are lost.” As the sun set over Isanlu Isin, community guards patrolled dirt tracks on foot. Their burned motorcycles lay as mute testimony to the night of horror. Families waited, wondering if their missing would return. Experts agree that unless Kwara receives sustained attention, the community may face another assault. For now, Isanlu Isin stands wounded, calling for rescue in a nation still struggling for answers. © Newspaper WordPress Theme by TagDiv