UN agencies are stepping up relief operations to help civilians fleeing the escalating violence in Sudan’s North Darfur state, where fighting has triggered widespread abuses and mass displacement, Deputy UN Spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters in New York on Wednesday.
Tag Archives: Abuses
DR Congo: Human rights violations could amount to war crimes, UN experts say
In the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwandan-backed rebels, Congolese troops, and allied militias have all committed human rights abuses, some possibly amounting to war crimes, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said in Geneva on Monday.
Key witnesses recall Sean “Diddy” Combs’ violent outbursts in sex traffcking trial
The second week of the sex trafficking trial of Sean Combs began in Manhattan federal court in New York on Monday.
The 55-year-old hip hop mogul, known as Diddy, faces five charges of sex trafficking and racketeering, with accusations including kidnapping, drugging, and coercing women into sexual activities. He has pleaded not guilty.
During the first week of trial, Combs’ former girlfriend of 10 years, R&B singer Casandra Ventura described graphic details of alleged sexual and physical abuses.
Ventura, also known as Cassie, recalled sordid experiences during Sean Combs’ drug-fuelled sex events, which he called “Freak Offs.”
The prosecution now hears other key witnesses connected to Ventura.
Singer Dawn Richard told jurors that Combs had threatened to kill her if she told anyone she saw him physically abusing his longtime girlfriend.
Richard said she witnessed Combs attack Ventura multiple times when the young woman spoke up for herself.
Ventura’s longtime best friend Kerry Morgan also recalled Combs’ many violent outbursts.
She said she herself suffered violence when he allegedly choked her and hit her with a hanger in 2018. Morgan said the incident caused the end of her 17-year friendship with Ventura.
Both Kerry Morgan and Dawn Richard said Sean Combs had complete control over Ventura’s singing career.
David James, who served as Combs’ personal assistant from 2007 to 2009, testified that he suggested Cassie leave Combs if she was uncomfortable, to which he said she replied: “I can’t. I can’t get out. You know, Mr. Combs oversees so much of my life.”
James, who will be back on the witness stand on Tuesday, said Combs described Ventura as “very moldable.”
Former employees of Sean Combs, as well as Cassie’s mother, Regina Ventura, are set to testify in upcoming days.
Congo’s coltan miners dig for world’s tech amid struggles
Nestled in the green hills of Masisi territory in Congo, the artisanal Rubaya mining site hums with the sound of generators, as hundreds of men labor by hand to extract coltan, a key mineral crucial for producing modern electronics and defense technology — and fiercely sought after worldwide.
Rubaya lies in the heart of eastern Congo, a mineral-rich part of the Central African nation which for decades has been ripped apart by violence from government forces and different armed groups, including the Rwanda-backed M23, whose recent resurgence has escalated the conflict, worsening an already acute humanitarian crisis.
As the U.S. spearheads peace talks between Congo and Rwanda, Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi has sought out a deal with the Trump administration, offering mineral access in return for American support in quelling the insurgency and boosting security.
While details of the deal remain unclear, analysts said Rubaya might be one of the mining sites which fall under its scope.
Eastern Congo has been in and out of crisis for decades. The conflict has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises with more than 7 million people displaced, including 100,000 who fled homes this year.
The Rubaya mines have been at the center of the fighting, changing hands between the Congolese government and rebel groups. For over a year now, it has been controlled by the M23 rebels, who earlier this year advanced and seized the strategic city of Goma and Bukavu in a major escalation of the conflict.
Despite the country’s exceptional mineral wealth, over 70% of Congolese live on less than $2.15 a day.
Metals for ‘modern life and military preparedness’
For the men working in the Rubaya’s mines, who rely on the mining for their livelihoods, little has changed over decades of violence.
One of them is Jean Baptiste Bigirimana, who has worked in the mines for seven years.
“I earn $40 a month, but that’s not enough,” he said. “Children need clothes, education and food. When I divide up the money to see how I will take care of my children, I realize it’s not enough,” he said, adding that he doesn’t know where the minerals he mines go once they leave Rubaya.
The mines produce coltan — short for columbite-tantalite — an ore from which the metals tantalum and niobium are extracted. Both are considered critical raw materials by the United States, the European Union, China and Japan. Tantalum is used in mobile phones, computers and automotive electronics, as well as in aircraft engines, missile components and GPS systems. Niobium is used in pipelines, rockets and jet engines.
Congo produced about 40% of the world’s coltan in 2023, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, with Australia, Canada and Brazil being other major suppliers.
The National Energy Emergency executive order, issued by Trump, highlighted the significance of critical minerals — including tantalum and niobium — and called for securing U.S. access to ensure both “modern life and military preparedness.”
A ‘murky’ global supply chain
According to a U.N. report, since seizing Rubaya in April last year, the M23 has imposed taxes on the monthly trade and transport of 120 tonnes of coltan, generating at least $800,000 a month. The coltan then is exported to Rwanda, U.N. experts said. But even before M23 seized control of the mine, analysts said that the mineral was sold to Rwanda, the only difference being it was done through Congolese intermediaries.
Experts say that it is not easy to trace how coltan arrives in Western countries.
“The global coltan supply chain is pretty murky,” said Guillaume de Brier, a natural resources researcher at the Antwerp-based International Peace Information Service. “From eastern DRC, coltan is bought by traders, mostly Lebanese or Chinese, who will sell it to exporters based in Rwanda. Exporters will then ship it to the UAE or China, where it will be refined into tantalum and niobium, and sold to Western countries as metals from UAE or China.”
The M23 has previously controlled Rubaya for periods of time, and the U.N. asserted that, even before the takeover of Goma, the group was facilitating the smuggling of these minerals to Rwanda. Since M23 took control of the mine, Rwanda’s official coltan exports have doubled, according to Rwandan official figures.
At times the mines were also under control of the Wazalendo, a militia allied with the Congolese army.
Alexis Twagira said he feels some things have improved under M23. “I’ve been working in this mine for 13 years, and I’ve worked under the Wazalendo. When they were here, they would harass us, sometimes taking our minerals and demanding money,” he said.
The U.N. has accused both the Congolese army and the M23 rebels of human rights abuses.
‘We can’t continue like this’
Congo is the world’s largest producer of cobalt, a mineral used to make lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and other products, but U.S. access is complicated by the fact that Chinese companies control 80% of its Congolese production. Congo also produces gold.
In recent weeks, two U.S. companies opened doors to production in the region. Nathan Trotter, a U.S. firm, signed a letter of intent with Rwanda-based Trinity Metals, which owns Rwanda’s largest tin mine. And KoBold Metals, which uses Artificial Intelligence to further energy transition and is backed by billionaire Bill Gates, brokered a deal to buy Australia’s AVZ Minerals’ interest in Congo’s Manono lithium deposits.
Analysts warn that the implementation of a minerals deal in eastern Congo, if one was to materialize, will face many hurdles — especially with U.S. investors largely abandoning Congo in the last two decades.
“Turning a headline announcement into sustainable progress will require resolving deep suspicions between Rwanda and the DRC,” Chatham House, a research institute, said in a recent report. “A deal will also need to account for complex local political problems of land access and identity, wider security challenges in a region that hosts myriad non-state armed groups, and issues of asset scarcity.”
If the deal were to include Rubaya, where all mining is currently done manually, U.S. companies would have to contend with both security concerns and a severe lack of infrastructure.
“With coltan, you’re dealing with hundreds of thousands of miners, and not just M23, but other so-called auto-defense armed groups and individuals who rely on mining for survival,” said de Brier from the International Peace Information Service. “You have to build all the infrastructure, you have to start from scratch. You will even have to build the roads.”
Bahati Moïse, a trader who resells coltan from Rubaya’s mines, hopes that, regardless who controls the mines, the workers who labor to extract the minerals will finally be valued as much as the resources themselves.
“The whole country, the whole world knows that phones are made from the coltan mined here, but look at the life we live,” he said. “We can’t continue like this.”
South Africa urges white farmers to stay amid U.S. refugee controversy
South Africa’s Deputy President Paul Mashatile has urged white farmers, particularly Afrikaners, to remain in the country and work with the government to overcome challenges facing rural communities. His comments come in response to the departure of 49 white South Africans who were resettled in the United States as refugees this week under a policy initiative driven by President Donald Trump.
Speaking at the National Maize Producers Organisation (NAMPO) Show – Southern Africa’s largest agricultural exhibition – Mashatile sought to reassure the farming community of the government’s support.
“The farmers that we have met here today are saying they are happy to stay in South Africa,” Mashatile said. “All they need is for us to work with them to address the challenges they face. One of them is rural roads… Then there’s rural safety because we know over the years, people in the farming communities have been attacked, and crime has been rife. They want us to work with them on that.”
Mashatile emphasized that the government does not want Afrikaner farmers to leave the country, highlighting their essential role in agriculture and national development.
“We’re not going anywhere, and we do encourage those who are leaving to please stay. There’s no need to leave — let’s build this beautiful country,” he added.
U.S. Refugee Policy Reignites Controversy
The latest migration of white South Africans to the United States has reignited a long-standing controversy over race, violence, and political rhetoric. According to the U.S. State Department, the group of 49 Afrikaners brought to the U.S. as refugees qualifies under asylum laws and fulfills priorities set by President Trump.
“This has been a concern that the President has had for a very long time,” said Tommy Pigott, Principal Deputy Spokesperson at the U.S. State Department. “He’s been clear about that for years – about the abuses we are seeing in South Africa. So this is a priority outlined by the president.”
Pigott insisted that the recent refugee arrivals “met the same standard that is across the board for refugees.”
Trump’s Genocide Claim Sparks Diplomatic Tension
Earlier this week, President Trump made headlines by accusing South Africa’s government of allowing a “genocide” of white farmers – his harshest statement yet since returning to office. The claim, which has been widely disputed, represents an escalation in Trump’s broader criticism of South Africa’s Black-led government, which he has repeatedly accused of enabling anti-white racism.
South African officials have rejected these accusations, calling them inflammatory and inaccurate. The government maintains that while rural crime is a national concern, violence affects all communities regardless of race, and policies are aimed at addressing security for everyone.
Historical and Political Context
The issue of white farmers in South Africa remains a sensitive topic in the country’s post-apartheid landscape. Land ownership, rural development, and safety have long been at the center of political debates. While crime in farming communities is a documented problem, analysts caution against using it to draw racially charged conclusions or justify migration narratives without nuance.
Amnesty International criticizes Rwanda’s deportation deal with the U.S.
Rwanda’s move to accept immigrants from the United States has drawn criticism from Amnesty International.
The rights group now says that the deal contravenes the Refugee Convention. They also faulted the asylum process, claiming it is a risk of violating international law on migration and that there is still no certainty in its success.
“What we have raised as a concern with the UK deal, for instance, over the past years was the fact that there was a risk of refoulement of people who were deported from the UK to Rwanda,” stated Christian Rumu, who is the Senior Campaigner at Amnesty International.
“That is in contravention of the refugee convention and that risk is still there right now. We also had an issue around the asylum processes in Rwanda, in particular with regard to appeal opportunities. They tried to fix that with the reform that happened last year but that hasn’t been tested yet. So in all, there is a real risk of violation of international law that Rwanda is putting migrants through with this deal,” concluded Rumu.
Rwanda has argued it has space to help alleviate what many countries in Europe – and the United States Human rights advocates have long raised concerns over the deaths in Rwandan custody of some perceived government critics, as well as the alleged killings of others who sought exile in places like South Africa.
Rwanda at times has responded with angry denials to reports documenting human rights abuses – including the abduction and imprisonment of a U.S. resident who was tricked onto a Kigali-bound aircraft while visiting Dubai. He was later freed after Biden administration pressure.
Rwanda is also criticized over its aggressive military actions in the region. United Nations experts have documented Rwandan support for the rebel uprising that this year seized two cities in neighboring eastern Congo, an area rich in mineral wealth.
The unrest led to fears of a resurgence of regional war, and a number of Western countries cut relations or restricted aid. Rwanda has said it is defending ethnic Tutsis in Congo.
The Trump administration, which sanctioned a Rwandan government minister and cited links to the rebels, is trying to broker a peace deal. Agreeing to take in deportees from the U.S. could improve Rwanda’s standing with Washington and others.
Rwanda in 2019 struck a deal with the U.N. refugee agency to help take in migrants removed from Libya, where many people trying to reach Europe have reported abuses in detention.
The U.N. says the transit center in Rwanda has capacity for 700 evacuees. Late last year, it said over 2,400 people had been assisted in what is meant to be a temporary stay during efforts to find “long-term solutions” including resettlement elsewhere.
Before its deal with Britain collapsed, Rwanda showed off another transit center, a refurbished hostel in Kigali, that could host 100 people, with more accommodation made available as needed.
Rwanda said migrants would have their papers processed within three months. People could stay or authorities would assist those who wished to return to their home countries. Rwanda said it would bear full financial responsibilities for five years.
It is not clear whether such terms would be part of a deal with the United States.
Burkina Faso forces killed 100 civilians in March – HRW
At least 100 civilians were killed by Burkina Faso government forces in March near the western town of Solenzo, Human Rights Watch said Monday.
According to victim testimony and videos shared on social media gathered by the rights group, the attackers were Burkina Faso special forces and members of a pro-government militia, the Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland.
The victims were all ethnic Fulani, a pastoralist community that is widespread across the region, which the government has long accused of supporting Muslim militants.
An earlier report from Human Rights Watch stated that the government’s involvement was likely, because of video evidence on social media, although the findings were not definitive.
The government issued a sharp denial when first reports surfaced, saying in a statement it “condemned the propagation, on social media, of images inducing hate and community violence, and fake information aimed at undermining social cohesion” in the country.
“The viral videos of the atrocities by pro-government militias near Solenzo sent shock waves through Africa’s Sahel region, but they told only part of the story,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Further research uncovered that Burkina Faso’s military was responsible for these mass killings of Fulani civilians, which were followed by deadly reprisals by an Islamist armed group. The government needs to impartially investigate these deaths and prosecute all those responsible.”
Burkina Faso authorities did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the group’s new report.
The landlocked nation of 23 million people has symbolized the security crisis in the arid Sahel region south of the Sahara in recent years. It has been shaken by violence from extremist groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, and the governments fighting them.
The military junta, which took power in 2022, failed to provide the stability it promised. According to conservative estimates, more than 60% of the country is now outside of government control, more than 2.1 million people have lost their homes and almost 6.5 million need humanitarian aid to survive.
The attack in the western Boucle du Mouhoun region, including Solenzo and other towns, began on Feb. 27 and lasted until April 2, involving hundreds of government troops and drones, according to eyewitnesses quoted in the report.
“The VDPs shot at us like animals, while drones were flying over our heads. Many women and children died because they could not run,” said a Fulani herder, 44, from Solenzo, referring to the pro-government militias.
After the attack, hundreds of Fulani residents fled across the border into neighbouring Mali, the report said.
“Today, in the whole province, there are no more Fulani — they all fled or were killed or taken hostage,” said a 53-year-old man from Solenzo. “But the other (ethnic) communities remain.”
After the government forces left, the report said that jihadist fighters from a group known as JNIM reentered the towns and carried out reprisal killings against residents, targeting the men whom it considered to be military collaborators.
“All the men had been executed in front of the health center,” said a 60-year-old woman who witnessed JNIM abuses in Tiao village, a town to the northeast of Solenzo on April 5. “I counted up to 70 bodies.”
According to analysts, the junta’s strategy of military escalation, including mass recruitment of civilians for poorly trained militia units, has exacerbated tensions between ethnic groups.
It it impossible to get an accurate picture of the situation in the country since the military leadership has installed a system of de facto censorship, rights groups said, and those daring to speak up can be openly abducted, imprisoned or forcefully drafted into the army.
Uganda elections: Bobi Wine to run for president again
Ugandan opposition leader and pop star Bobi Wine has announced he will run for president again in the upcoming 2026 elections, scheduled for January. The 43-year-old whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, will challenge long-serving President Yoweri Museveni, who is expected to seek re-election at 80.
Wine previously ran in 2021, coming second, but rejected the results, alleging widespread fraud, ballot stuffing, and violence against his supporters. Government officials have denied the allegations. In his announcement, Wine emphasized that the election would be a “fighting opportunity” to expose what he calls the regime’s corruption and injustices, and to galvanize Ugandans to stand up for their freedom. He also sharply criticized Western governments for not speaking out against human rights abuses in Uganda, including the torture and illegal detention of his supporters.
If elected, Wine says his top priorities will include restoring political freedoms, cracking down on corruption, and addressing the regime’s abuses of power.
Reports of US plans to deport migrants to Libya spotlight rights abuses
News that the US may be planning to deport migrants to Libya has been met with consternation by rights groups.
The Trump administration continues to expand its efforts to remove migrants to third-party countries, despite legal challenges. On Wednesday, a US judge ruled that migrants could not be deported without being given the opportunity to challenge it in court.
Libya’s rival governments have also both said they would refuse to accept the deportees and the country’s highly restrictive asylum procedures also raise questions about the deportees status on arrival.
Libya is a major transit hub for asylum seekers trying to reach Europe and each year, thousands attempt a dangerous Mediterranean crossing. An estimated 800,000 migrants are currently in Libya and their mistreatment has been widely documented.
A United Nations-backed, independent fact-finding mission in 2024 found evidence that crimes against humanity had been committed against migrants in Libya. Victims were subjected to enslavement, forced disappearance, torture and murder, among other crimes, the investigators found. Dead migrants have been found in mass graves across the country, while tens of thousands of others have drowned trying to escape Libya on smugglers’ boats.
Deterrent factor
Libya’s brutal reputation for migrants may be part of the reason it appeals to Washington, says Camille Le Coz, Director of the Migration Policy Institute Europe.
“What’s striking about the choice of Libya is that this is a country where the conditions are particularly challenging for refugees and other migrants.
“Many migrants end up in detention centres, centres that are managed by militia or the government, where they get tortured, where their families get blackmailed to secure their release. There’s been repeatedly reports of mass graves, most recently in February, in different parts of the country. In 2024 International Organization for Migration reported that there’d been about 1,000 migrants who’d been killed in Libya, but we know the figures are likely to be much higher.”
“This type of operation is expensive, it’s difficult to set up, and so, we can speculate that it might be, you know, to show that if you get to the US you might be sent to this place that is extremely dangerous for migrant populations and that this may deter people from coming.”
Both the Tripoli-based government of Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah and its rival administration in eastern Libya controlled by military commander Khalifa Hifter have denied signing a deportation deal with the Trump administration.
Despite documented abuses in Libya, the European Union and Italy have for years funded, trained and equipped Libyan groups, including the coast guard, to stop migrants from reaching European shores.
Demonstrators angry at ICJ’s decision to dismiss Sudan’s genocide case against UAE
A handful of pro-Sudan demonstrators protested outside the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on Monday.
They were angry about a decision made by the top United Nations court to throw out Sudan’s genocide case against the United Arab Emirates.
The ICJ found that it does not have jurisdiction in the case, although it noted deep concern about the spirally violence in Sudan.
While both countries are signatories to the 1948 Genocide Convention, the UAE has a “reservation” to the part of the treaty that allow countries to sue others at the ICJ over disputes.
Sudanese protester Mustafa Dar expressed his disappointment and said they are only asking for justice.
“Justice will never stop in one place, we go further and we will always be looking for our justice. So, what is happening today, this is not the end of the game,” he said.
Khartoum had accused the UAE of complicity in genocide in the ongoing civil war in Sudan through its alleged support for the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
It said the Emiratis were arming and funding the rebel paramilitary in its deadly war against the Sudanese army.
As many as 150,000 people are believed to have died in the over two years of conflict between the two sides, and more than 14 million others have been displaced.
The UAE, which has denied the accusations, applauded the court’s decision.
Following the hearing, a senior UAE foreign affairs official, Reem Ketait, told reporters that her country “bears no responsibility for the conflict in Sudan”.
“On the contrary, the atrocities committed by the warring parties are well documented,” she said.
Both the RSF and Sudan’s military have been accused of human rights abuses. Meanwhile the civil war shows no sign of easing.