The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) carried out ethnically targeted killings, widespread sexual violence and enforced disappearances during their late-October takeover of El Fasher in Sudan’s Darfur region — acts that a UN fact-finding mission said show “hallmarks of genocide” against the Zaghawa and Fur communities and signal an ongoing risk of further atrocities.
Tag Archives: ethnic
Chad’s Amdjarass hosts major international Saharan culture festival
The International Festival of Saharan Cultures has transformed Amdjarass, Chad, into a vibrant crossroads of desert traditions, uniting dozens of ethnic groups with Niger as guest of honor.
Sudan: Atrocities ‘repeated town by town’, ICC prosecutor tells UN Security Council
Atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur region are spreading from town to town in an organized campaign of violence that includes mass executions, rape and ethnic targeting, amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court told the UN Security Council on Monday.
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.
Reports that first white South African ‘refugees’ due to arrive in US next week
The first group of white Afrikaans-speaking South Africans is reportedly due to arrive in the United States early next week.
They claim to be persecuted in their home country and have been granted “refugee status” by President Donald Trump.
The US president in February signed an executive order halting all aid to South Africa, accusing the government of doing “terrible things” to Afrikaners.
He described them as the victims of “unjust racial discrimination” saying their land was being taken away from them.
Trump’s view appears to stem from a recent law that allows land expropriation without compensation in extremely rare cases.
South African officials say the policy is part of efforts to address land-ownership disparities that are one of the starkest legacies of apartheid.
A large percentage of the country’s private land is still white-owned and, in reality, not a single expropriation has taken place.
The Afrikaner ethnic group are mostly descendants of Dutch colonialists and have a long history in the agricultural sector.
They make up about 60 per cent of the country’s white minority, which itself makes up about 7.2 cent of the population.
Those that have applied to for refugee status in the United States also say they are hoping to move to escape crime, and particularly farm murders.
Police statistics show that out of 26,000 murders last year, just 44 were linked to farming communities. Crime researchers say the overwhelming majority of murder victims are black.
According to the SA Chamber of Commerce in the US, over 67,000 people have expressed interest in Trump’s offer.
The assertion that white South Africans are discriminated against has spread in far-right circles for years and been echoed by Trump’s white South African-born ally, Elon Musk.
Many prominent Afrikaners and other South Africans have shouted down the US president’s statements saying they are patently false.
Trump’s executive order came after he suspended all US refugees admissions, citing security and cost concerns.
Capoeira transforms lives in Nairobi’s Kibera
The beat of the atabaque drum echoes through the streets of Kibera. It’s accompanied by the twang of the berimbau and is the soundtrack to this rhythmic dance display. Here in one of Africa’s largest slums, on the outskirts of Kenyan capital Nairobi, capoeira is taking root. The Afro-Brazilian martial art that blends elements of dance, music, acrobatics and combat. Inside the circle, two bodies sway, dodge and leap with power and grace.
The mestre leads with songs, others echo in vibrant chants and melodies. “The roots of capoeira come from Angola and Congo and it was established by the enslaved Africans who were brought from that region of central west Africa to Brazil,” explains Salim Rollins, the founder of Capoeira Angola Centre in Kibera. “It was a form of resistance of using martial forms that are from Africa as a form of resistance to the institution of slavery and the oppression that these different ethnic groups experienced.” Rollins, popularly known by his students as Mestre Salim, founded Capoeira Angola Centre in this area of Nairobi where he trains local children and adults.
Nasri Babu, a 25-year-old capoeirista, started learning in 2019. He says it’s a good way to manage the stresses in his life. “From the community I come from, there is a lot going on and capoeira has always played a big part like a therapy thing, it has always been like a therapy to me,” he says. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Brazilian authorities outlawed capoeira as it became associated with vagrancy and street gangs. In the 1930s, capoeira was developed into a structured system, called Capoeira Regional, which incorporated traditional movements with new techniques and emphasized self-defence, helping to legitimize Capoeira as a respected martial art.
“It has also helped me with self awareness, self discipline and it has also helped with self defence,” says Beckham Otieno, an 18-year-old capoeirista. “When somebody attacks me, I know how to use the capoeira moves. I can’t be damaged because capoeira helps me with those skills and I apply them in the streets,” In 2014, UNESCO declared Capoeira Circle an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, acknowledging its significance as a symbol of resistance, identity, cultural expression and unity.
“There’s also a ritual element that’s really important within capoeira,” adds Rollins. “You see, we practice in a circle, and you see there’s call-and-response songs. So, that’s the idea of creating an energy within that circle and also sort of feeding and contributing to the two practitioners.” Movement and discipline, being embraced by a new generation of Kenyans.
Red Cross escorts hundreds of stranded Congolese soldiers from rebel-controlled city to capital
Hundreds of stranded Congolese soldiers and police officers, along with their families, were being transferred from the rebel-controlled city of Goma in eastern Congo to the capital, the International Committee of the Red Cross announced Wednesday.
The soldiers and police officers have been taking refuge at the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Congo’s base since January, when the decades-long conflict in eastern Congo escalated as the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels advanced and seized the strategic Goma.
The operation is the result of an agreement reached between the Congolese government, the rebels, the U.N. mission and the ICRC, which was called upon as a neutral intermediary, the Red Cross said in a statement. Upon arrival in Kinshasa, the soldiers, police officers and their families will be taken in by Congolese authorities, it added.
Myriam Favier, the ICRC chief in Goma, said during a press briefing Wednesday that the transfer from Goma to Kinshasa, about 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) to the west, is expected to last several days.
The announcement was greeted with profound relief.
“We were disarmed because we had no choice, but we hope to reach Kinshasa,” a Congolese soldier told The Associated Press over the phone, ahead of his transfer. “As soldiers, we are always ready to defend our homeland. We lost a battle, not the war,” he said.
He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was still in the rebel-controlled area and not allowed to speak to reporters.
Sylvain Ekenge, spokesperson for Congo’s armed forces, welcomed the initiative in a statement on Wednesday.
“The Congolese Armed Forces hopes that this operation will be carried out in strict compliance with the commitments made,” he said, thanking the ICRC for its role.
For security reasons, no media outlets were allowed to film or photograph the operation.
The news of the ICRC’s escort comes amid persistent tensions in eastern Congo, where fighting between Congo’s army and M23 continues, despite both sides having agreed to work toward a truce earlier this month.
On Saturday, residents of Kaziba in the South Kivu province reported clashes between Congolese armed forces, supported by an allied militia, and M23.
M23 is one of about 100 armed groups vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo near the border with Rwanda, in a conflict that has created one of the world’s most significant humanitarian crises. More than 7 million people have been displaced.
The rebels are supported by about 4,000 troops from neighbouring Rwanda, according to U.N. experts, and at times have vowed to march as far as Kinshasa.
In Feburary, the U.N. Human Rights Council launched a commission to investigate atrocities, including allegations of rape and killing akin to “summary executions” by both sides.
Conflict in eastern Congo is estimated to have killed 6 million people since the mid-1990s, in the wake of the Rwanda genocide. Some of the ethnic Hutu extremists responsible for the 1994 killing of an estimated 1 million of Rwanda’s minority ethnic Tutsis and Hutu moderates later fled across the border into eastern Congo, fueling the proxy fighting between rival militias aligned to the two governments.
Sudanese midwives deliver hope amid war and ruin
In war-ravaged Khartoum, midwives like Hawaa Ismael are risking their lives to deliver babies and care for mothers despite Sudan’s crumbling health care system.
With fewer than 25% of medical facilities still functioning due to the ongoing conflict, pregnant women are forced to walk for hours, or even days, to find care. Some never make it in time. “The hardest case I faced was delivering a woman in a car,” says Ismael, a midwife at the UNFPA-supported Karari Health Centre. “We were stuck. She had complications. I’ve cried many times especially when women camn’t reach us.”
Since fighting erupted, over 750,000 people have received reproductive health services in Sudan, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Yet recent funding cuts threaten to leave nearly half a million women in Sudan and neighboring countries without maternal or gender-based violence support services.
Despite the danger, Ismael continues to deliver up to four babies a day. She visits homes, crossing frontlines in what she calls a mission of necessity: “We examine pregnant women, guide them, and do monthly follow-ups.”
The war has displaced over 13 million people and claimed at least 24,000 lives. Human rights organizations say the conflict, marked by famine, mass rape, and ethnic violence, has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.
For women in Sudan, midwives are often their only lifeline.
The Sunday Story: Arresting Your Brothers and Sisters
In the Xinjiang region of western China, the government has rounded up and detained at least hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic groups. Many haven’t been heard from in years, and others are still desperately searching for their families. Western governments have called this crackdown a cultural genocide and a possible crime against humanity.
NPR Correspondent Emily Feng has been reporting on Uyghurs inside and outside of China for years. In this episode, she profiles two Uyghur men who have found themselves sometimes unwilling actors within the Chinese state’s systems of control over Uyghurs. As they work to silence others, they sometimes find themselves silenced as well.
Additional Context:
Listen to Emily Feng’s 2022 reporting, “The Black Gate: A Uyghur Family’s Story” part one and part two.
For more on the history of the Uyghur people, listen to the episode “Five Fingers Crush The Land” from NPR’s Throughline podcast.
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