April 17, 1975: the Khmer Rouge enter Phnom Penh  Phnom Penh Post 17 April 2025 By  Hong Raksmey How history has changed; today, April 17, 2025, as Chinese President Xi Jinping visits Cambodia to deepen diplomatic and economic ties, the contrast is stark.  On April 17, 1975, Cambodia witnessed a turning point in its history that would forever change the lives of its people.  This date marked the fall of the Khmer Republic and the triumph of the Khmer Rouge, as the forces of Pol Pot marched into Phnom Penh, signalling the start of a brutal regime that would claim the lives of millions. “April 17, 1975, remains one of the darkest days in the nation's history, as it was the day the Khmer Republic, under the leadership of General Lon Nol, officially crumbled and the Khmer Rouge took control of the capital,” explained Youk Chhang, Director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam).  Military activities of the Khmer Republic The Khmer Republic's final moments on April 17 were marked by desperate attempts to negotiate peace with the advancing Khmer Rouge.  At 1.00am, two jeeps, flying white flags, left Phnom Penh’s boundary with an announcement urging all forces to drop their weapons and engage in talks with the rebels.  By 1.30am, General Lon Nol ordered a symbolic artillery salute with 105mm cannons, acknowledging the peace process.  At 2.15am, military personnel along the Phnom Penh front lines began demobilising, placing weapons into designated units. By 6.00am, helicopters began flying westward, their passengers leaving Phnom Penh as Khmer Rouge forces, led by their ubiquitous black-clad soldiers, took control of the skies. The fate of the capital was sealed.  The Khmer Rouge takes Phnom Penh At 6.15am, the Khmer Rouge soldiers entered Phnom Penh. Dressed in black with Chinese-made rifles and tyre sandals, the soldiers marched in a disciplined formation along the streets, positioning themselves towards Wat Phnom, in Daun Penh.  The Khmer Rouge, following the directives of their party, were everywhere — on foot, on vehicles and in the air. At 6.45am, the first of several announcements was broadcast over the Phnom Penh Radio Station by the Khmer Rouge from the Southern Zone.  The broadcast declared, “Our party has gained a hundred per cent victory throughout the country. Our party seeks peace by peaceful means, and we invite all officials, including those from the Khmer Republic, to gather in front of the Ministry of National Propaganda for peaceful negotiations.”   By 7.15am, the Western Zone of the Khmer Rouge issued a second, more chilling broadcast, announcing, “Our party has obtained victory at gunpoint, and no negotiation will take place. Traitors will be defeated, and no one will be held responsible for their loss.” At 7.30am, a third wave of announcements came over loudspeakers mounted on Lambretta scooters, urging the citizens of Phnom Penh to remain calm, stay inside their homes, and prepare for a temporary evacuation from the city.  The message was clear: “Move out of the city within three days, but don’t bring too many things.”  The evacuation: Angkar’s mandate The evacuation of Phnom Penh was set in motion by the Khmer Rouge under the guidance of the Angkar, the party’s governing body.  The reasons behind the mass expulsion were rooted in the Khmer Rouge’s desire to consolidate power, expel perceived enemies and prepare the city for an eventual attack by foreign forces, including the US. At 7.45am, Khmer Rouge soldiers began patrolling narrow alleys, expelling residents from their homes. Those who resisted or refused to leave were shot on sight.  The evacuation was not just a political manoeuvre but a signal of the beginning of a violent social reordering that would leave no room for dissent. “The Khmer Rouge's decision to empty the city was justified with a claim of duty to protect the people and secure the future of Cambodia,” noted the DC-Cam director.  “However, it was also a calculated move to ensure the regime’s absolute control over the population,” he added. The reason given for the evacuation was the threat of American airstrikes, though many historians now view this as a pretext for a broader purge and a calculated attempt to instil fear and obedience within the populace.   The legacy of April 17, 1975 For the people of Cambodia, April 17, 1975, marked the beginning of an unimaginable nightmare.  The evacuation led to the forced relocation of millions of Phnom Penh residents to rural areas, where they were subjected to forced labour, starvation and executions.  “The Khmer Rouge regime would last for nearly four years, during which an estimated 1.7 million people would perish from execution, starvation, and overwork in what is now known as the Cambodian Genocide,” said Chhang.  The legacy of this day still resonates throughout Cambodia, with survivors and their families carrying the trauma of those years.  Fifty years later, the memory of April 17, 1975, remains a poignant reminder of the destructive power of totalitarian regimes and the human cost of ideological extremism. Photo documentary of the Angkar, the Khmer Rouge governing body, evacuating people from Phnom Penh: DC-Cam Copyright 2025 Phnom Penh Post

Port Sudan (Sudan) (AFP) – Clashes between Sudanese paramilitaries and the regular army have killed at least 57 civilians in the besieged Darfur city of El-Fasher, a medical source and a volunteer aid group said Thursday. Refugees in the Gorom settlement in South Sudan last year. File pic: AP via Sky News The local resistance committee, a grassroots aid group, said the civilians were killed on Wednesday in clashes and shelling of the city by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, at war with the army since April 2023. The violence came just days after the RSF killed more than 400 people in attacks on North Darfur's capital of El-Fasher and nearby displacement camps, according to the United Nations. El-Fasher, which the RSF has besieged for nearly a year, is the last major urban stronghold in Darfur still under army control. It is a strategic target for the paramilitary group, which has sought to consolidate its hold on Darfur following the army's recapture of the capital Khartoum last month. In an earlier statement, the army put Wednesday's death toll at 62, including 15 children ages three to 10, and dozens more wounded. It said it had repelled the "fierce" assault on the city's east in a coordinated response with "allied armed movements, intelligence services, the police" and volunteer fighters. El-Fasher has been defended in large part by a coalition of army-allied groups known as the Joint Forces. Hundreds of thousands flee The war, which entered its third year on Tuesday, has killed tens of thousands, uprooted 13 million and created what the UN describes as the world's largest hunger and displacement crises. It has also fractured the country essentially in two, with the army holding the centre, north and east while the RSF controls nearly all of Darfur and, along with its allies, parts of the south. After Friday's major offensive in Darfur, the RSF announced that it had taken full control of Zamzam refugee camp -- which is one of Sudan's largest. Zamzam -- home to about one million displaced people according to aid sources -- was the first area of Sudan where famine was declared in August last year. By December, famine spread to two nearby displacement camps in Darfur as well as parts of the south, according to a UN-backed assessment. About 400,000 people were displaced from Zamzam after the RSF seized the camp, the UN's migration agency said on Monday. In the past two weeks, an estimated 450,000 people have arrived in Tawila alone, a town about 60 kilometres (37 miles) west of Zamzam, according to the local Emergency Response Room -- one of hundreds across Sudan coordinating frontline aid. The newly displaced, they added, are suffering from acute shortages of food, clean drinking water and shelter materials, with barely any humanitarian aid available in the area. © 2025 AFP

Cameroonian migrants fear for their safety after Trump ends US protected status. A sign in southwestern Cameroon. Giles Clarke/File Photo/UNOCHA via Getty Images. By Semafor Staff Cameroonian migrants in the US who face deportation after President Donald Trump terminated their protected status told Semafor they feared for their lives due to ongoing conflict in the central African country. On Friday the US Department of Homeland Security said it was ending the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program for an estimated 7,900 Cameroonians from June amid a sweeping immigration crackdown. Tensions in Cameroon’s minority Anglophone regions have resulted in more than 638,000 people being internally displaced and left at least 1.7 million others in need of humanitarian aid, according to a 2024 Human Rights Watch report. One Cameroonian migrant, who said he fled to the US in December 2022 after his father was murdered, told Semafor he fears for his safety if he was forced back: “President Trump knows there’s war in the Anglophone regions but he wants to deport us.” A DHS spokesperson was not immediately available for comment. “[President Trump is] forcibly returning people to violence, human rights violations, and a humanitarian crisis in Cameroon that continues to place its citizens at severe risk,” said Gustavo Torres, executive director of CASA, a Maryland-based migrant advocacy group. “Cameroon clearly meets the statutory basis for the redesignation of TPS.” Another Cameroonian migrant, who spoke to Semafor on condition of anonymity, urged the US government to help resolve the crisis in Cameroon before sending Cameroonians back. He said that he decided not to return to the country when he traveled to the US with a visitor visa in 2022 because he faced repeated police harassment in his hometown of Bamenda, one of the southwestern cities affected by the war. “Police always accused me of manufacturing local weapons for Anglophone fighters,” the former welding technician said. He said some welders in the town fabricated arms for the separatists. Thousands of Cameroonians have entered the US since the separatist conflict — widely known as the Anglophone crisis — broke out in the country’s English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions in 2016. It is the result of decades-long claims by Anglophones, who make up 20% of the majority French-speaking country, that they are being marginalized by the Francophone-led government. Protests by Anglophone lawyers and teachers, who called for greater autonomy for the regions, met a heavy response by government forces. Their demonstrations later morphed into calls for separation from Cameroon, sparking an even more deadly response from government forces. At least 6,000 people have died due to the constant clashes between government forces and Anglophone separatists since 2016. The US TPS revocation is part of a wide-scale crackdown on US immigration, one of Trump’s flagship campaigns. His move to expel 500,000 Venezuelans, Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans, who were granted humanitarian parole by former US President Joe Biden, has been blocked by a federal judge . In March, Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, deporting more than 200 Venezuelan men to an infamous mega-prison in El Salvador. The men were labeled as members of the Tren de Aragua gang. Cameroonian authorities have criticized citizens trying to leave the country. President Paul Biya, in power since 1982, said it should not even be an option . But the number of Cameroonian migrants worldwide has risen sharply, hitting 440,000 in 2020, compared to 250,000 in 2013, according to the Scalabrini Institute for Human Mobility in Africa . Just this month the US ambassador to Cameroon warned in a local newspaper: “Don’t risk your future: the US is cracking down on illegal immigration .” © 2025 Semafor Inc.

Burkina Faso's volunteer militias implicated in 'systematic extermination' A Burkina Faso soldier. Photo Credit: Sgt. Steven Lewis, U.S. Africa Command By Africa Defense Forum Graphic videos of a massacre in villages surrounding the western Burkina Faso town of Solenzo spread rapidly on social media in March. Dozens of lifeless bodies — most of them women, children and elderly — were scattered on the ground with their heads covered, their hands and feet bound. Armed with assault rifles and blood-stained bladed weapons, the perpetrators wore uniforms and T-shirts that identified them as a mix of Burkinabe security forces, local self-defense groups and the government-backed militia known as the Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP). Many took photos and videos on smartphones as they walked among the bodies. “Entire families of Fulani shepherds were killed in the bushes of Solenzo, in the Bema and Ban areas,” a local told Agence France-Presse on condition of anonymity. “It happened between March 10 and 11. Members of this community who had lived in Solenzo for decades were massacred by VDPs and the defense and security forces.” Witness and survivor testimonies and at least 11 videos posted on social media platforms detailed executions, burnt corpses, mass graves and homes burned to the ground. Burkina Faso’s ruling military junta denied the reports and called the videos fake. According to the Burkinabe Democrats Panel, a civil rights group, the massacre targeted the Fulani people, a primarily West African ethnic group that is known for seminomadic herding. The Fulani have long been accused of supporting the violent extremist insurgent groups that have spread throughout the region. “We have seen this before,” acting panel president Aboubacar Tall told security analyst Zagazola Makama. “This is a continuation of the systematic extermination of civilians under the guise of counterterrorism.” The massacre fits a pattern of revenge attacks by insurgents, security forces and the VDP. In fact, al-Qaida affiliate Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) responded with a wave of retaliatory attacks, including a major assault on March 28 against a base in Diapaga. JNIM reportedly killed 30 soldiers and 20 members of the VDP and captured three military vehicles, 13 motorcycles, and hundreds of weapons and boxes of ammunition. In an April 8 video claiming the attack, a JNIM leader called Diapaga “the beginning of revenge for Solenzo.” These latest spasms of violence have reignited a Burkinabe debate on the ethnic makeup of VDP militias and whether they are predisposed to violence against rival groups, regardless of whether they are aligned with terrorists. “Often composed of ill-disciplined and poorly trained men with a strong desire for revenge, the VDP has massively exacerbated cycles of ethnic conflict by systematically targeting communities it believes are complicit in extremist violence and activity,” analyst Charlie Werb wrote in a March 28 post for The African Insight. “The violence committed against [the Fulani] by state forces has pushed more members of the community seeking revenge or protection into the arms of terrorist groups, while others decide to live or cooperate with extremists due to a lack of better alternatives.” In detailing the Solenzo massacre, nongovernmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) spoke with an ethnic Fulani man who fled the Solenzo area more than a year ago. “Every jihadist attack comes with a reprisal,” he said. “Being a Fulani today is synonymous with being a terrorist. … My family members are still around Bèna [16 kilometers from Solenzo], and I fear some of them might have been attacked, too.” HRW senior Sahel researcher Ilaria Allegrozzi said the Solenzo massacre underscores a lack of accountability for the VDP and other government-aligned militias. “As the armed conflict in Burkina Faso enters its ninth year, security forces and their allied militias and Islamist armed groups are committing serious crimes against an exhausted population without fear of consequence,” she said in a March 14 statement. “A concerted response by the authorities to the information implicating the militias in Solenzo would send a message that the government takes ending impunity seriously.” Copyright Eurasia Review. (ISSN 2330-717X) All rights are reserved.

by Lucy Pakhnyuk April 17, 2025 Russian soldiers patrol a street in Volnovakha, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, on April 11, 2022. (Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images) Russian independent media outlet, Mediazona, in collaboration with the BBC   Russian service, has confirmed the identities of 101,833 Russian military personnel killed in Ukraine. Mediazona's latest report covers the period of February 24, 2022 to April 7, 2025. Since it was last updated at the end of March, 1,882 additional Russian military personnel have been killed . The list of deceased Russian military personnel is compiled from verified, publicly available sources, including social media posts, local news reports, and official announcements from regional authorities. However, as the Russian government does not publicly disclose casualty information, journalists note that the total number of casualties is likely higher than reported. Mediazona estimates that at least 165,000 military personnel have been killed in the invasion. Of the total confirmed casualties, at least 4,897 officers have been killed. More than 24,800 volunteers have been killed as well, accounting for 24.3% of the total Russian losses. The media outlet publicly released   the full list of named casualties for the first time in February, commemorating the third-year anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. As of April 16, Russia has lost a total of 936,210 troops since the full-scale invasion began, Ukraine's General Staff reported . The estimate, which is broadly in-line with estimates made by Western intelligence agencies, likely includes those killed, captured, wounded, and missing. Author: Lucy Pakhnyuk Copyright © 2025 The Kyiv Independent

How Beijing Is Manipulating Civil Conflict to Secure Regional Dominance Ye Myo Hein YE MYO HEIN is a Senior Fellow at the Southeast Asia Peace Institute and a former visiting scholar at the United States Institute of Peace and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. April 17, 2025  A member of Bamar People’s Liberation Army in Karen State, Myanmar, February 2024  Stringer/Reuters  Four years into Myanmar’s civil war, the conflict remains far from a resolution. The military regime, reeling from devastating losses, is in deep trouble. It has lost effective control of roughly three-quarters of the country’s territory; surrendered key strategic bases, including two regional military commands, to advancing resistance forces; and now faces a hollowing out of its ranks as defections and demoralization spread. But even though opposition forces have made significant gains nationwide, they have yet to penetrate the military’s stronghold in the center of the country. Opposition forces share the amorphous goal of making the country a federal democratic union, an arrangement that might accommodate the interests of the diverse factions arrayed against the junta. But these groups’ ties remain loose and fragile. With the opposition dispersed throughout the country and lacking both the capacity for reliable communication and the ability to meet safely in person, there are divisions within the resistance that will endure even should victory on the battlefield be in sight. Meanwhile, the country’s roughly 54 million people continue to suffer. The junta depends on indiscriminate air assault on population centers to compensate for its increasing weakness in ground forces and territorial control. The increasing use of airstrikes against opposition forces has led to a surge in civilian deaths, which reached close to 10,000 by the end of 2024. Over 3.5 million people have been internally displaced, and about a third of the country needs humanitarian aid. The economy is nearing collapse. Natural disasters have compounded what is already a dire situation. A severe typhoon ravaged Myanmar last September, killing hundreds and flooding many areas, and a devastating 7.7-magnitude earthquake rocked the country in late March, killing more than 3,500. In the aftermath of the earthquake, the warring parties announced a temporary humanitarian pause in the fighting, but that did not hold. The regime launched fresh airstrikes and ground offensives just hours after the quake—and it has continued its assaults ever since. According to local media, the military carried out 108 air and artillery attacks between March 28 and April 6—including 46 attacks after the cease-fire was announced—killing around 70 civilians. Fierce clashes continue to rage on the ground. Only one actor stands to gain from this tragedy: China. In the West, Myanmar’s civil war is often described as a “forgotten conflict.” But for China, the country is a key battleground where Beijing’s regional ambitions, economic interests, and security concerns intersect. A weakened Myanmar is central to China’s goal of establishing uncontested regional hegemony. If Beijing can dominate the country, it constitutes both a strategic barrier against India’s “Act East Policy,” which aims to link India with the fast-growing Southeast Asia region, and a vital foothold for China in mainland Southeast Asia and on the shores of the Indian Ocean. In public statements, Chinese officials insist that they want to restore stability to Myanmar and promote fraternal relations between the two countries. In practice, China props up the faltering junta while simultaneously trying to draw ethnic armed organizations into its orbit, in the process sidelining pro-democracy forces that it believes are too closely aligned with the West. The lack of genuine Western interest in Myanmar has created a vacuum that China is only too happy to fill. Whereas Western powers did very little in the aftermath of the March earthquake, for instance, China rushed assistance to areas hit hard as part of a high-profile charm offensive. In truth, China finds opportunity in chaos: it is consolidating control in Myanmar by propping up the faltering regime and enabling its brutal operations, undermining resistance unity, expanding sway over several resistance forces, sidelining Western influence, and disregarding the political aspirations of the Myanmar people. A divided Myanmar under lasting military rule will be easier for Beijing to control. CHINA’S DOUBLE-DEALING Myanmar is more than just another of China’s neighbors. It provides Beijing with a vital overland gateway to the Indian Ocean, offering a crucial alternative to the chokepoint of the Malacca Strait. Developing this economic conduit is a key objective for the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing’s vast overseas infrastructure investment program. The China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) is a key component of Beijing’s BRI strategy, linking China’s Yunnan Province with Myanmar’s vast energy reserves, natural resources, and access to the Indian Ocean. Myanmar also possesses important resources that China wants. These include critical minerals, natural gas, hydropower, and agricultural commodities. Myanmar provides well over half of China’s heavy rare earth imports, which are essential inputs to high-technology and defense industries. China has long partnered with armed groups to extract these resources with little regard to environmental or social consequences. In 2024, Myanmar supplied China with 50,000 metric tons of rare earth oxides, surpassing China’s domestic production of these materials. Myanmar is also the source of 79.9 percent of China’s tin ore imports, an essential input in the production of semiconductors and other critical technologies. Myanmar is of interest to Chinese officials for security reasons as well. China does not want external powers, particularly in the West, to gain a foothold in Myanmar   and thereby challenge Beijing’s regional dominance. Beijing harbors deep anxiety that if a government or political force aligned with the West were to come to power, it could open the door to a sustained Western presence near China’s border—posing a long-term security threat. This security-driven mindset has shaped China’s approach to Myanmar’s civil war, with Beijing fearing that the fighting could encourage Western interference in Myanmar’s internal affairs. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi recently insisted that barring other outside powers from meddling in the conflict is one of his main goals; he sees Myanmar as part of China’s exclusive sphere of influence. A senior editor at People’s Daily,  the flagship newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, underscored this point in a 2012 Global Times opinion piece, by comparing the significance of sites in Myanmar to that of disputed maritime territories in the South China Sea: “The economic and social stability in Kyaukphyu [China’s deep-sea port currently under construction in Rakhine State in Myanmar] and its surrounding region is no less important than the sovereignty disputes between China and the Philippines over Huangyan Island.”  China has no genuine interest in peace or stability in Myanmar. China has devoted a great deal of attention to events in Myanmar, at least since the 2021 military coup that toppled an elected government. Given that much of the CMEC runs directly through active conflict zones, the post-coup conflagration has disrupted many of Beijing’s investments in the country. It also presented an opportunity, however, for Beijing to strengthen its control over Myanmar. Chinese officials initially downplayed the coup as a “cabinet reshuffle,” and they have maintained active diplomatic ties with the junta when most other countries have marginalized the regime. China has always been suspicious of Myanmar’s pro-democratic forces, including especially the National Unity Government, which is primarily composed of individuals deposed in the 2021 coup. Beijing views this group as too close to the West, even though Western powers have provided minimal support. Chinese paranoia deepened after the NUG opened an office in Washington in 2022 and the United States passed the BURMA Act in late 2023, which promised much assistance—aid that it ultimately failed to deliver.   Beijing also sought to dissuade other ethnic armed organizations from working with the NUG and instructed them to negotiate with the junta. To be sure, Beijing allowed backchannel communications with the NUG, primarily to protect Chinese commercial assets, but it kept these dealings discreet and noncommittal. As the junta lost more territory, some Chinese companies paid taxes or partnered with ethnic armed organizations and armed groups affiliated with the NUG to maintain business operations. SEIZING THE MOMENT For a few years, this double-dealing allowed China to protect critical investment projects while also deepening its influence even as Myanmar became engulfed in violence. Then, in late 2023, an anti-junta coalition of ethnic armed organizations with ties to China, but also including armed forces associated with the NUG, launched Operation 1027, a large-scale coordinated offensive. In the year since the offensive began, rebels have captured two of the junta’s regional commands, six operational commands, over 160 battalion bases, and 93 towns. Once seen as unbeatable, the military today teeters on the brink of collapse. The fall of the junta’s Northeastern Regional Command in Lashio in August 2024 set off alarm bells in Beijing, which felt the resistance forces had gone too far. China subsequently abandoned its hedging strategy in favor of aggressive intervention on behalf of the regime. This pivot became evident when Foreign Minister Wang visited junta officials in August 2024, signaling Beijing’s clear support. Soon after, junta chief Min Aung Hlaing traveled to Kunming for his first visit to China since the 2021 coup. At the same time, Beijing attempted to pressure ethnic armed organizations along the China-Myanmar border to cease their hostilities. It tried to coerce factions that did not comply, including by closing border posts and shutting off access to cross-border flows of electricity, water, internet, and essential supplies. In its most drastic move, in late 2024, local news reports claimed that China detained the leader of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) in an attempt to force the group into a cease-fire and withdrawal from Lashio. Touting itself as a peace broker and guarantor of stability, in the wake of Operation 1027, Beijing mediated multiple rounds of talks between the junta and several ethnic armed organizations. These negotiations have failed to foster peace because the military insists on regaining control of lost territory and the ethnic factions refuse to give up their hard-won gains. At the same time, though, China has deepened its influence in the country by pressuring all sides to acknowledge and accommodate its role in shaping Myanmar’s future. It has propped up the junta by providing diplomatic cover in the international community and supplying it with heavy weapons, fighter jets, surveillance technology, and financial lifelines.   China has also worked to exacerbate divisions within Myanmar’s resistance forces, by pressuring ethnic armed groups under its sway—particularly those along the northern border—not to cooperate with the NUG or allied pro-democracy forces it sees as Western-backed. These interventions have fueled instability and prolonged the war. In response, some resistance groups have felt compelled to issue public assurances of their commitment to protecting Chinese interests in Myanmar—or even to temporarily halt planned offensives to avoid provoking Beijing’s ire.  A divided Myanmar under lasting military rule will be easier for Beijing to control. The March earthquake has given Beijing another opportunity to expand its influence in Myanmar and chip away at its biggest challenge: widespread anti-China sentiment. Where Western powers have offered only limited support amid Myanmar’s humanitarian catastrophe, China has stepped in. As it cultivates its soft power, China has expanded its security presence in Myanmar. Citing concern that the junta is not equipped to protect Chinese assets, Beijing has pressured the junta to form joint-venture security firms that are now deployed at the Kyaukphyu deep-sea port in the west and in Muse in the east along the Chinese-Myanmar border. These operations are led by Chinese state security companies and constitute China’s first official armed presence in Myanmar. The long-term implications of expanded military presence in Myanmar are unclear, but it could significantly reshape the country’s internal conflict and the broader regional security landscape. Simply put, Beijing’s involvement is prolonging Myanmar’s destructive war. Emboldened by China’s support, the regime has escalated airstrikes on resistance-held areas, indiscriminately targeting civilians. But the junta is not strong enough to launch ground offensives to reclaim lost territory, so it now focuses on preventing the resistance from consolidating control in newly seized areas. Even amid the widespread devastation caused by the March earthquake, the regime prioritized airstrikes over rescue and relief operations. China has delivered additional warplanes and drones to the junta to abet this effort. The opposition continues to advance on the battlefield regardless of whether it has the political cohesion needed to replace the junta. For now, the regime’s opponents are trying to expand urban operations across the country, aiming ultimately at the major cities in the center. As long as the military regime still controls Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city, and Naypyidaw, its capital, the advances by opposition forces will weaken the junta but likely fall short of delivering a decisive blow.Without a strong united front within the opposition, the regime will probably continue to stagger on. As Western interest in Myanmar has waned, China has seized the opportunity to expand its strategic footprint by exploiting the country’s chaos and political fragmentation. It now holds considerable sway over key actors on all sides of the conflict and has systematically sidelined Western influence by alienating groups aligned with the West. And Beijing has already secured several tangible gains, including retaining its access to strategic resources such as rare earth elements and establishing a military presence on Myanmar’s soil. These moves give China not only privileged access to economic assets but also political leverage over a pliant neighbor within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), tightening its grip on a region central to its ambitions. China’s growing influence in Myanmar is not an isolated case; it is a critical front in Beijing’s larger campaign for regional hegemony. For Western and regional powers, this should sound an alarm. A reactive approach will not suffice. Containing Beijing’s advance must begin where China is expanding at a rapid pace—at its base perimeter in Myanmar. WHAT BEIJING DOESN’T WANT A political solution to the crisis remains a distant prospect. The junta has pledged to stage elections within a year, even though its capacity to hold a vote—even a sham one—seems hugely circumscribed, both by war and by the March earthquake. With most of the country racked by conflict, the regime has been forced to repeatedly postpone elections that it had originally planned for 2022. The opposition groups and public would not recognize a vote organized by the junta as legitimate, in any case. At this point, attempting to stage elections will only further inflame conflict and exacerbate the country’s humanitarian crisis. Many outside powers, including ASEAN, China, and India, have called for a negotiated settlement, though they have not prescribed specific terms. But this remains unrealistic for two main reasons. First, given the junta’s weakness, members of the resistance and the public see this as a historic opportunity to finally expel Myanmar’s military, the primary perpetrator of their suffering, from a position of power. Second, Myanmar’s generals have never engaged in meaningful political dialogue. Even minor concessions that might threaten their grip on power are intolerable to them. Instead, they dictate terms, expecting their counterparts to capitulate, and operate within a framework that guarantees military dominance. Even in the aftermath of the earthquake in March, the regime prioritized airstrikes against opposition forces and leveraged increased international engagement—particularly through humanitarian aid—as a tool to bolster its legitimacy while countless victims remained trapped beneath rubble without meaningful assistance. And with the unwavering support of China and Russia, the regime feels emboldened and sees little reason to pursue genuine negotiations. The only way the junta would accept some negotiated end to the war would be if it had absolutely no other choice. That would require greater cooperation and political cohesion among the rebel forces, and then for those united forces to turn the tide on the battlefield decisively against the regime, threatening its hold on the center of the country. Beijing does not want this to happen. It will continue under any future circumstance to undermine the very cooperation among the rebels that is necessary to one day form a peaceful, stable, and federal democratic Myanmar. China has no genuine interest in peace or stability in Myanmar; it wants strategic dominance. And if Beijing can best grow its influence by playing Myanmar’s factions off one another, keeping them weak, fragmented, and dependent on China, then that is what it will do. Published by The Council on Foreign Relations, Inc. © 2025 Council on Foreign Relations, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

© Mohamed Khalil Destruction at a school in West Darfur that had been serving as a shelter for displaced people. (UN file photo) By Dr. Bhaswati Bhattacharjee and Dr. Gregory Stanton Genocide Watch In the heart of Africa lies Darfur, a region plagued by a history of war and genocide. The "international community's" eyes should again turn toward the resurgence of genocide in Sudan. But the UN and African Union seem to be either blind, deaf, or paralyzed. The Call for Action The ghostly echoes of past genocide still reverberates in the hills and valleys of Darfur. In 2003 - 2005, a genocide that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. The mass graves serve as stark reminders of the consequences of inaction. As Sudan is now engulfed by an even more deadly crisis, the time for proactive measures is now. Genocide prevention cannot be a mere slogan; It must be a concrete commitment to forceful action. A History of Genocide Darfur's history is marred by ethnic bloodshed. The Darfur conflict, rooted in longstanding struggles for resources and power, has led to a humanitarian catastrophe of immense proportions. Despite futile efforts to broker peace agreements and stabilize the region, the specter of mass atrocities looms like death over Darfur. The "international community's" failure to honestly address the root causes of the Sudanese conflict has only exacerbated the civil war. The war in Darfur is driven by racism and imperialistic greed. Arab Sudanese led by the Arab Gathering, an Arab supremacist elite that has ruled Sudan since 1982, intend to drive black Africans out of Darfur, take control over their grazing and farm land, and exploit Darfur's rich deposits of gold, rare earths, and oil. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the renamed murderous Arab Janjaweed of the 2003 - 2005 genocide, are again carrying out genocidal massacres of the Massalit, Fur, and Zaghawa black African ethnic groups in Darfur. They are led by the same leader who led the Janjaweed, the billionaire former camel trader General Hamdan (Hemedti). RSF massacres have terrorized hundreds of thousands of people from black African ethnic groups into forced displacement into Chad, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic. Russia's mercenary Wagner Group profits from gold mines in Darfur owned by the United Arab Emirates and the RSF and also from the ancient gold mines of Kush controlled by the Sudanese government east of Khartoum. With these dual interests, Russia is arming and financing both sides in the civil war. The Sudanese government thanked Russia for its veto of a weak UN Security Council Resolution in December 2024 that called for more humanitarian aid to Sudan. Russia invoked Sudanese national sovereignty to reject such aid. The Imperative of Accountability Accountability is the cornerstone of preventing genocide. Holding perpetrators responsible for their actions sends a powerful message that crimes against humanity will be punished. By establishing robust accountability mechanisms and supporting international tribunals, we can deter future atrocities and break the cycle of war and genocide that plagues Darfur. The leaders of the genocide in Sudan should be charged with genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. They should be arrested by police that are authorized by the United Nations as part of a 10,000 troop UN/African Union Force with a mandate to protect civilians, not just observe while they are slaughtered. When the current Sudanese military government is overthrown and replaced by an elected civilian government, these genocidal leaders should also be tried and convicted by courts in Sudan. Genocide and crimes against humanity are crimes of Universal Jurisdiction in Europe, Senegal, Argentina, the USA, Canada, Australia, and other countries. If these war criminals flee to countries with Universal Jurisdiction, they should be immediately arrested and tried for their crimes. Embracing Early Warning Systems Early warning systems are the linchpin of effective genocide prevention. By monitoring indicators of potential genocide, international and regional organizations can take preemptive action to avert catastrophe. Investing in intelligence gathering and analysis is not just a strategic imperative; it is a moral imperative. The lessons of history have taught us that ignoring early warning signs only leads to atrocities. Darfur stands at a crossroads between hope and despair. The path the UN, African Union, ECOWAS, the US, the EU, and NATO choose will define not only the fate of this region but also our commitment to upholding human rights and human dignity. As we confront the crisis in Darfur, let us remember that the prevention of genocide is not just a lofty ideal—it is a moral duty that we owe to our fellow human beings. Let Darfur not again be a symbol of our failure, but a testament to our resolve to prevent genocide and safeguard the sanctity of human life.

Nearly 60,000 people have crossed back into Afghanistan since the start of April. A truck filled with Afghan refugees and loaded with their belongings waits to depart for Afghanistan at a holding centre near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Chaman, April 11, 2025 [Abdul Basit/AFP] 15 Apr 2025 Pakistan has ramped up the forced mass deportation of Afghan refugees and migrants, with nearly 60,000 having crossed the border since the start of April, the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. Nearly three million Afghans in Pakistan are facing deportation after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced in October a three-phase plan to send them back to their home country. The IOM said in a statement on Tuesday that it has assisted more than one million people returning from Pakistan and Iran. Amid the second phase of the plan, the IOM said it had registered a sharp rise in forced returns. Between April 1 and April 13, nearly 60,000 individuals crossed into Afghanistan through the Torkham and Spin Boldak border points, it noted. “With a new wave of large-scale returns now underway from Pakistan, needs on the ground are rising rapidly – both at the border and in areas of return that are struggling to absorb large numbers of returnees,” said Mihyung Park, head of the agency’s Afghanistan mission. In March, Islamabad set an early April deadline for some 800,000 people carrying Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC) issued by Pakistani authorities to leave the country. Families with their belongings in tow have crowded key border crossings of Torkham in the north and Spin Boldak in the south, recalling scenes in 2023 when tens of thousands of Afghans fled deportation threats in Pakistan. Many of the Afghans have been living in Pakistan for decades after fleeing successive conflicts in their country and following the Taliban’s return to power in 2021. The deportation order came amid a dramatic increase in armed attacks across Pakistan, with the government blaming groups and nationals based in Afghanistan, an allegation the Taliban government in Kabul has rejected. Among those facing deportation is Afghan journalist Freshta Sadid, who holds a valid exit permit, according to the Joint Action Committee for Refugees. The group is calling for “urgent action” to protect Sadid, warning that she is on the Taliban “hit list”. Pakistan is not a signatory to the UN’s 1951 Refugee Convention that protects the rights of refugees. The country also lacks domestic laws to protect refugees, as well as procedures to determine the status of individuals seeking international protection within its borders. Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies © 2025 Al Jazeera Media Network

Sudanese Paramilitary Group Declares Parallel Government as 400,000 Flee Offensive The New York Times April 16, 2025 By Declan Walsh Reporting from Nairobi, Kenya The United Nations said that at least 300 people were killed when the armed group, the Rapid Support Forces, stormed a camp in Darfur. People who fled the Zamzam camp resting in a makeshift encampment in Tawila in western Darfur on Sunday.Credit ...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images A Sudanese paramilitary group declared its own government on Wednesday, even as its fighters pressed an all-out offensive on a city in the western Darfur region that has sent hundreds of thousands of civilians fleeing from a famine-stricken camp. The announcement of a parallel government by the Rapid Support Forces , or R.S.F., stoked fears that Sudan’s two-year civil war is rapidly pushing the country toward a potentially disastrous territorial split. The R.S.F. controls much of western and southern Sudan, while the military holds the north and east, including the capital Khartoum. Both sides have been accused of atrocities. The R.S.F. leader, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan , gave few details about the composition of what he called his “government of peace and unity,” other than to say it would include a wide range of ethnic groups reflecting “the true face of Sudan.” Such calls for inclusivity echo longstanding demands by Sudanese pro democracy activists, who oppose the military’s tightfisted grip on power. But as often in Sudan’s brutal conflict, the R.S.F.’s high-minded rhetoric was at odds with the actions of its troops. The paramilitaries launched a large-scale offensive on Friday, storming the Zamzam camp in El Fasher , the last major city in Darfur that the R.S.F. does not control, as part of a broader assault. On Tuesday, the United Nations said that at least 300 people had been killed and as many as 400,000 others forced to flee the camp in a matter of days. Zamzam, which housed at least 500,000 people and where a famine was declared last August, is now largely empty, according to aid workers. They say that at least 30,000 people have fled to Tawila, 50 miles by road to the west — with many arriving dehydrated, malnourished and traumatized by the scenes they witnessed in the camp. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, pictured here in 2022, gave few details about the composition of what he called his “government of peace and unity,”Credit...Ashraf Shazly/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images “They have nothing but the clothes they’re wearing, nothing to eat, nothing to drink,” Marion Ramstein, an emergency field coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, said in an email. “Many were in shock. They spoke of so many killings and corpses.” Doctors Without Borders closed its own operations in Zamzam in February, saying that shelling, attacks on ambulances and a tightening siege had made it impossible to work there. On Tuesday, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said the United States “condemns in the strongest possible terms” the R.S.F.-led violence in El Fasher. But she declined to say whether the Trump administration would affirm the Biden administration’s determination that the R.S.F. had committed genocide. The latest violence coincided with the second anniversary of the conflict, which started in April 2023 when fighting erupted between the Sudanese military and the R.S.F., a paramilitary group it once fostered. The war took a sharp turn in recent weeks when the army drove R.S.F. fighters out of the capital, Khartoum. Many fled to Darfur, where the R.S.F. has regrouped and is now redoubling its yearlong effort to capture El Fasher. Surging violence and poor communications have made it hard to get an accurate picture of the situation, but the estimate from the United Nations that nearly half a million people had been displaced in a matter of days was striking, even by the standards of the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. The devastation has renewed focus on the role of the United Arab Emirates in the conflict. American and U.N. officials have accused it of supplying weapons, drones and other military assistance to the R.S.F. The Emirates has consistently denied providing any help to the R.S.F. Sudan’s military-dominated government has brought a case against the Emirates, which opened last week at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, accusing it  of complicity in genocide. The Emirates asked for the case to be thrown out.   People who fled the Zamzam camp wait for food rations in a makeshift encampment in an open field near the town of Tawila.Credit ...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images In Washington, members of Congress renewed calls for the United States to stop supplying weapons to the Emirates until it stops supporting the R.S.F. “The U.A.E. should stop its materiel support to the R.S.F. now,” Rep. Sara Jacobs of California wrote Tuesday on social media. American officials have said that senior Emirati leaders were more candid about their role in Sudan, including tacit admissions of support to the R.S.F., during private talks with Biden administration officials last year. On Tuesday, hundreds of Sudanese massed outside the Emirati embassy in London  to protest the alleged Emirati role in the war, in a demonstration that coincided with a major conference on Sudan hosted by the British government. The European Union and Britain pledged $830 million in additional aid at the London conference, although Sudanese officials criticized the presence of Emirati officials who continued to press their denials about supporting the R.S.F. In a statement, Lana Nusseibeh, assistant minister for political affairs at the Emirati foreign ministry, accused both sides in the war of atrocities, and said the U.A.E. was issuing “an urgent call for peace.” More on Sudan   Sudanese RSF Murders Entire Clinic Staff in Famine-Struck Camp   Declan Walsh  is the chief Africa correspondent for The Times based in Nairobi, Kenya. He previously reported from Cairo, covering the Middle East, and Islamabad, Pakistan. Copyright 2025 The New York Times Company

ANI I Updated: Apr 16, 2025 12:34 IST Representative Image (Image Credit: X/@paank_bnm) Balochistan  [ Pakistan ], April 16 (ANI): Paank , the human rights division of the Baloch National Movement  (BNM), has said that there were at least 181 cases of enforced disappearances  and 12 extrajudicial killings  recorded in Balochistan  during the month of March. The group reported that Pakistan i security forces, along with allied armed groups known locally as "death squads," carried out widespread abductions and enforced disappearances , primarily targeting students, activists, and civil society members. Many of these arrests were allegedly made without warrants or any judicial process, The Balochistan  Post reported. Out of those who were forcibly taken, 87 individuals were eventually released. Several of them reportedly endured harsh physical mistreatment while in custody, as reported by the Balochistan  Post. The highest number of enforced disappearances  in March was reported in Quetta and Kalat, with 37 cases. Other areas affected included Dera Bugti (18 cases), Gwadar (15), Nushki (13), Dera Ghazi Khan (10), Kech (9), Barkhan (8), Awaran (7), Karachi (6), Lasbela (5), Mastung (4), Panjgur (3), and Naseerabad (2). Single cases were also reported from Islamabad , Kachhi, Jaffarabad , Jacobabad, and Khuzdar , The Balochistan  Post reported. According to Paank , several of those killed extrajudicially had previously been reported as forcibly disappeared. One such case was Nizam Baloch , who was abducted from Gilli, Buleda, on March 11 and found dead the following day. His brother, Shah Nawaz Baloch, was subsequently shot and killed in Kech. Another victim, Shah Jahan Kurd--the brother of Zahid Baloch, a forcibly disappeared leader of the Baloch Students Organisation (BSO)--was killed in the Naal region of Khuzdar , the Balochistan  Post reported.   On March 21, three people were shot and killed during a protest demanding the release of missing persons. Paank identified the victims as 12-year-old Naimat Baloch, Habib Baloch, and Imdad Baloch, describing Naimat's death as "a symbol of state oppression." On March 23, Ehsan Baloch--a Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) activist and shopkeeper--was killed in Khuzdar . Paank referred to his death as "a premeditated targeted assassination." Three days later, the mutilated bodies of Tohseef, Zaheer, and Irshad Baloch--who had reportedly been abducted earlier--were discovered in Mashkay, as reported by Balochistan  Post. Additionally, the bodies of Saif Baloch and Anas Baloch, who had been missing for several months, were found during the same month. Paank also denounced the continued detention of BYC leaders Mahrang Baloch, Beebow Baloch, Bebarg Baloch, and Shah Ji Sibghatullah Baloch under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) law. The group expressed concern over the secret burial of 13 unidentified bodies in Quetta's Qasi Graveyard, suggesting they could be victims of enforced disappearance and called for immediate forensic investigations, the Balochistan  Post cited. Paank condemned the ongoing crackdown as a breach of international human rights law and urged the United Nations and global human rights organisations to take action and hold the Pakistan i government accountable. (ANI) copyrights © aninews.in

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy (AFP) UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy unveils £120m aid package at summit in London on the Sudan conflict. RSF massacres unfold in Darfur. a million people in el-Fasher plead for protection. The UK and western powers are not likely to give them any military protection. Britain is co-hosting Tuesday's summit alongside the African Union, the European Union, France and Germany. The UK announced a £120m aid package as the conference kicked off. Aid workers and analysts on Tuesday said the summit must prioritise protecting civilian lives instead of just being a pledging conference. "Protection of civilians cannot be allowed to slip between the cracks," Kate Ferguson, co-executive director of NGO Protection Approaches, told journalists ahead of the meeting. [Since July 2024, Genocide Watch and the Alliance Against Genocide/ International Religious Freedom Genocide Working Group have called for re-establishment of a UN/AU Military Force in Sudan with 10,000 troops and 715 police to arrest ICC indictees.] On Monday night, multiple sources in and around el-Fasher told Middle East Eye that the RSF is preparing to invade the city, which is the capital of North Darfur state and the only place in western Sudan still held by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and its allies. The death toll from various areas of North Darfur since the RSF began its offensive on Thursday is over 800 people, according to activists and officials. The bloodiest scenes were witnessed in Zamzam, a camp for Sudanese displaced during the 2003-05 Darfur genocide just south of the city. “What I have seen is very brutal: they killed all the young men who are younger than 50 years old, they burnt the majority of the houses, they raped unknown numbers of women and intentionally displaced the people from the camp itself,” Mohamed Adam, a Zamzam resident who fled to el-Fasher on Sunday evening, told MEE. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: "As I saw earlier this year on a visit to Chad’s border with Sudan, the warring parties have shown an appalling disregard for the civilian population of Sudan." The British government has unveiled a £120m food and aid package for Sudan  ahead of the conference. The new funding aims to reach more than 600,000 people and comes on the back of a £113m aid package announced last November. However, humanitarian workers said much of the aid money already pledged for Sudan is yet to be released due to restrictions on the ground.  Earlier this year, the Labour government announced it would cut UK aid spending from 0.5 to 0.3 percent of gross national income (GNI) by 2027. The move  triggered the resignation of development minister Anneliese Dodds , who said important programmes in places like Sudan could not be protected despite promises from Lammy. Meanwhile, US aid cuts have left an $800m black hole in the humanitarian budget for Sudan. Mukhtar Elsheikh, who works in the grassroots Emergency Response Room (ERR) in northern Khartoum's Bahri, said 80 percent of the EERs' work across Sudan was previously funded by US aid. "We need support politically and financially," he said. "This conference couldn't come at a more critical moment. It cannot afford to fail." No Sudanese Ali Youssef al-Sharif, Sudan’s foreign minister, said on Monday that the RSF’s offensive is intended to coincide with the conference, and that the paramilitary force will use its capture to declare a parallel government. The summit has attracted controversy after the UK decided not to allow Sudan's government, based in army stronghold Port Sudan, or members of Sudanese civil society from attending. The RSF, which has been sanctioned by the British government, has also not been invited. Sharif has condemned the British government for excluding his government while extending invitations to countries accused of supporting the RSF, including the United Arab Emirates , which has been accused of complicity in genocide at the International Court of Justice. "Inviting the UAE doesn't correspond to the message that this conference is about peace," Sharif said. Eva Khair, director of the Sudan Transnational Consortium, said pressure must be placed at the conference on the UAE and other states backing the warring parties. "What is unforgivable is there not being any Sudanese in the room," she said, noting that local initiatives like the 2,500 ERRs across Sudan were the people actively working on relief efforts. "Who is providing the aid and why are they not in the room?" War broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF on 15 April 2023 over plans to fold the paramilitaries into the regular army. The UN calls it the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Famine has been identified in eight areas of the country, including Zamzam. The army retains control over large swathes of territory in the east and north, while RSF holds most of Darfur in the western half of the country and parts of the south. Last year an independent inquiry carried out by the  Raoul Wallenberg Centre  found that there is  “clear and convincing evidence”  that the RSF and its allied militias “have committed and are committing genocide against the Masalit”, a Black African community.  The United States has also accused the RSF of genocide and sanctioned its leader, Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemeti. Washington has similarly sanctioned SAF leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, accusing the military of war crimes such as indiscriminate bombing and obstructing aid. Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary general,  said ahead of the conference that the United Nations wants to see Sudan's "neighbours and the international community move in unity of purpose towards peace instead of fuelling the conflict" Copyright © 2014 - 2025. Middle East Eye. All rights reserved.

Paramilitary Rapid Support Forces declares rival authority in areas under its control, as the United States expresses alarm over its alleged targeting of civilians in Darfur. Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces commander, General Mohamed Hamdan 'Hemedti' Dagalo [File: Ashraf Shazly/AFP] Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has announced the formation of a rival government, two years since the country descended into a brutal war that has left tens of thousands dead and triggered what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo — also known as Hemedti — declared on Tuesday the establishment of the “Government of Peace and Unity” in areas under its control. The move directly challenges the army-led administration headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. On this anniversary, we proudly declare the establishment of the Government of Peace and Unity, a broad coalition that reflects the true face of Sudan,” Dagalo said on Telegram. The RSF and its allies had already signed a charter in Nairobi in February, laying out their intention to form an alternative authority. Dagalo said they had now endorsed a transitional constitution, which he described as a “roadmap for a new Sudan”. The document proposes a 15-member presidential council representing all regions of the country. Experts have long warned that the protracted conflict risks permanently fracturing Sudan. Sharath Srinivasan, a Sudan specialist at the University of Cambridge, told the AFP news agency that the RSF’s entrenchment in Darfur could result in “de facto separation.” Since war erupted on 15 April 2023, nearly 13 million people have been displaced, with no political solution in sight. The fighting began after months of tension between Sudan’s military and the RSF, once close allies who jointly led the 2021 coup that derailed a civilian-led transition. US condemns RSF violence in Darfur As the RSF seeks to consolidate control in western Sudan, the paramilitary and its allied militias are facing renewed international scrutiny over their conduct in the war. The United States on Tuesday criticised the RSF for attacking civilians in and around the Zamzam and Abu Shouk camps – home to hundreds of thousands of displaced people – in the North Darfur region in recent days. The UN said at least 300 civilians were killed in the RSF attacks on the camps on Friday and Saturday. “We are deeply alarmed by reports the RSF has deliberately targeted civilians and humanitarian actors,” said US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce. She called for all parties to respect international humanitarian law and face accountability for violations. Donor conference With Sudan’s humanitarian crisis deepening, the United Kingdom hosted a donor conference in London, where international partners pledged to ramp up support. The European Union pledged over $592m, while the UK committed an additional $158m. “We do need patient diplomacy,” UK Home Secretary David Lammy said. “We cannot resign ourselves to inevitable conflict. We cannot be back here, one year from now, having the same discussion.” Sudan’s military-aligned government criticised the gathering, noting that no representatives from either faction were invited. The conference’s co-chairs issued a unified call for an immediate ceasefire and a transition to civilian rule, stressing the importance of preventing Sudan’s partition and keeping external actors from interfering. SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES