Thousands of Sudanese demonstrated on Wednesday against the government in several parts of the country. The protesters marched against last October’s coup of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane that plunged the country in a serious political and economical crisis. In the capital, Khartoum, the security forces fired tear gas against the demonstrators. April 6 marks the…
Supporters and members of a committee that honours the memory of Thomas Sankara, Burkina Faso’s revolutionary leader, gathered at the monument built at the place of his 1987 assassination following a military trial that convicted several accused, including ex-president Blaise Compaoré, to life in prison. “It restores something at a global level and I think…
Deliveries of COVID jabs to Africa have been ramped up in recent months, but the poor provision of health services in rural areas threatens to undermine vaccination efforts. While we urge rich countries to quicken the pace of vaccine distribution to Africa – which remains unpredictable and erratic – there must be simultaneous efforts to…
Security forces and their allies in a disputed part of conflict-hit northern Ethiopia committed abuses against Tigrayans that amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity, two rights groups said Wednesday. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tigrayan civilians had been targeted in “a relentless campaign of ethnic cleansing” in the long-contested western Tigray region since the outbreak…
Suellen Tennyson, 83, was taken from her parish in Yalgo by unknown assailants on Monday night, the local diocese said. Armed men have kidnapped an 83-year-old American nun in northern Burkina Faso, the bishop of the local diocese has said. “Sister Suellen Tennyson was taken to an unknown destination by her kidnappers who, before leaving,…
Fresh fighting broke out on Wednesday in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s days after rebels had declared a unilateral ceasefire to make way for talks with the government In the last few days, about 6,000 refugees who had returned home in DR Congo have fled back to neighbouring Uganda. Sources say government forces are fighting…
ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan says at presser in The Hague that he wants to “close the situation” in Darfur, when asked whether former South Sudan president Omar al-Bashir would likely soon be in court. A former Sudanese militia chief oversaw murder, rape and torture across Darfur, the International Criminal Court heard on Tuesday, as…
Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, a key figure in the country’s 2011 revolution, began a hunger strike in prison over the weekend, his mother Laila Soueif said Monday. “He refuses to eat, because his prison conditions must change,” Soueif told AFP, adding that her son has been placed under “heavy supervision, in solitary confinement”. “He…
France said Monday that it was concerned by information that hundreds of civilians had been killed in the Malian village of Moura in an operation by elements of the armed forces joined by Russian mercenary allies. “France is deeply concerned by information of mass abuses in the village of Moura by elements of the Malian…
The first trial for atrocities committed in Darfur has opened at the International Criminal Court (ICC), nearly 20 years after violence tore through the Sudanese region. A suspected former leader of the pro-government Janjaweed militia has been charged with 31 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-al-Rahman denies the charges.…