Church leaders in South Sudan say peace process is fragile – World Council of Churches
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Africa Watch
Sudan war: Torture, rape and forced starvation as paramilitaries suffocate besieged city | World News– news.sky.com
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The battle for Al Fashir – and Sudan
Al Fashir is being suffocated to death by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) as they push to claim full control of the Darfur region as a base for their parallel government, after the military recaptured the capital Khartoum and other key sites in central Sudan.
Close to a million people are facing famine in Al Fashir and surrounding camps as the RSF enforces a full blockade, launching armed attacks on volunteers and aid workers risking their lives to bring in food.
Inside the city, thousands are bombarded by almost daily shelling from surrounding RSF troops.
The RSF have physically reinforced their siege with a berm – a raised earth mound. First spotted by Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, the berm is visible from space.
China Launches Coordinated Media Campaign to Promote New Global Governance Initiative in Africa – The China-Global South Project
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Rwanda’s proxy invasion of DR Congo through “rebels” is accelerating after an attack in the eastern Congo leaves 141 mostly Hutus dead. The Rwandan-backed group M23 allegedly conducted the attack. These Hutus are the same Hutus that escaped to the Congo after the Rwandan Genocide that saw their tribe kill 800,000 Tutsis.
At least 140 killed by Rwanda-backed rebels in eastern DR Congo, rights group says– www.france24.com
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Human Rights Watch said 141 people, predominantly Hutus, were feared to have been killed in eastern Congo in July in attacks believed to have been carried out by the Rwanda-backed M23 group, the most prominent of the armed groups fighting for control of the region.
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Christians in Nigeria have faced sporadic persecution since the 1950s, but the past 25 years have seen a wave of violence that is swiftly becoming a slow-motion genocide. Despite that, the international community has for the most part turned a deliberate blind eye on the weekly killings; when pressed for comment, everything from conflicts over grazing land to climate change have been cited as the real reasons behind the ongoing persecution.
Persecution of Christians in Nigeria began to spike after 1999, when 12 northern states adopted Sharia law; the rise of the terrorist group Boko Haram in 2009 marked a dramatic escalation. Famously, Boko Haram kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls in 2014. Christian girls were targeted for forced conversion and marriage to Muslim fighters; 87 of the girls are still cited as “missing” 11 years later.
More than two years into the civil war, the Sudanese paramilitary group is attempting to gain recognition of their “government” in regions they control, one the UN Security council has rejected.
The UN Security council “unequivocally reaffirmed” the sovereignty of Sudan, including its estranged government. The 15-member council warned the decision to legitimize the paramilitary group will lead to “fragmenting the country and worsening an already dire humanitarian situation.”
UN rejects plans by Sudan’s paramilitary group for a rival government amid civil war – Imperial Valley Press Online
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The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday rejected plans by Sudan’s paramilitary group to establish a rival government in areas it controls, warning that the move threatens the country’s territorial integrity and risks further exacerbating the ongoing civil war.
The strongly worded statement by the U.N.’s most powerful body “unequivocally reaffirmed” its unwavering commitment to Sudan’s sovereignty, independence and unity. Any steps to undermine these principles “threaten not only the future of Sudan but also the peace and stability of the broader region,” the statement said.
The 15-member council said the announcement by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces also risks “fragmenting the country and worsening an already dire humanitarian situation.”
Sudan plunged into conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other regions, including western Darfur. Some 40,000 people have been killed, nearly 13 million displaced and many pushed to the brink of famine, U.N. agencies say.
The RSF and their allies announced in late June that they had formed a parallel government in areas the group controls, mainly in the vast Darfur region where allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity are being investigated.
The deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said last month that the tribunal believes war crimes and crimes against humanity are taking place in Darfur, where the RSF controls all regional capitals except el-Fasher in North Darfur.
The Security Council reiterated that its priority is a resumption of talks by both parties to reach a lasting ceasefire and create conditions for a political resolution of the war, starting with a civilian-led transition that leads to a democratically elected national government.
Council members recalled their resolution adopted last year demanding that the RSF lift its siege of el-Fasher, “where famine and extreme food insecurity conditions are at risk of spreading.” They expressed “grave concern” at reports of a renewed RSF offensive on the besieged city.
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Al Fashir is being suffocated to death.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has held the capital of North Darfur hostage in a 14-month siege – blocking food or fuel from entering the locality and forcing starvation on its 900,000 inhabitants.
The entire city is currently a militarised zone as Sudan‘s army and the Darfur Joint Protection Force fend off the RSF from capturing the last state capital in the Darfur region not currently under their control.
Rare footage sent to Sky News from inside al Fashir town shows streets emptied of cars and people.
The city’s remaining residents are hiding from daytime shelling inside their homes, and volunteers move through town on donkey carts distributing the little food they can find.
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The treason trial of the former president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Joseph Kabila, has begun in a military court in the capital, Kinshasa.
He also faces other charges, such as murder, linked to his alleged support for M23 rebels – who control a large part of the mineral-rich east of the country. He denies the charges and has snubbed the hearing.
Kabila’s successor, President Félix Tshisekedi, has accused him of being the brains behind the rebels.
The former president has rejected the case as “arbitrary” and said the courts were being used as an “instrument of oppression”.
A ceasefire deal between the rebels and the government was agreed last week, but fighting has continued.
Kabila had been living outside the country for two years, but arrived in the rebel-held city of Goma, in eastern DR Congo, from self-imposed exile in South Africa in May.
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Sudan’s oil-rich Kordofan region has turned into a major front line in the war between the army and rival paramilitary forces, as both sides try to gain the upper-hand in a conflict that has devastated the vast African state for more than two years.
Attacks that killed hundreds of civilians earlier this month have shifted attention to the battle for this part of the country.
“Whoever controls Kordofan effectively controls the country’s oil supply, as well as a huge chunk of Sudan,” Amir Amin, an analyst with risk consultancy Oasis Policy Advisory, told the BBC.
The region is also vital for landlocked South Sudan, as its oil flows through pipelines in Kordofan, before being exported. So, it has a vested interest in Kordofan’s stability.
Despite Billions in Aid, Somalia’s Army Crumbles as Al-Shabaab Resurgence Gains Ground, Donors Losing Faith – Garowe Online
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Despite billions of dollars in international support, Somalia’s army has melted in the face of a months-long offensive by the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab insurgency, and donors are running out of patience.
Using hundreds of fighters and a vehicle packed with explosives for a suicide attack, Al-Shabab retook the town of Moqokori on July 7, the latest in a wave of defeats this year for the government.
It has given them a strategic geographical position to launch attacks into the Hiiraan region. Still, it was also a powerful symbolic victory over a local clan militia that had been the government’s “best fighting force” against Al-Shabab, according to Omar Mahmood of the International Crisis Group.
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MBALE, Uganda — Wilson Watira offered his hand when he met his political rival at a funeral, gesturing for a proper handshake. The man didn’t want contact, instead folding a piece of paper that he aimed at Watira.
“He looked at me and picked that piece of paper of the program. He folded it and greeted me,” Watira said. “He’s just afraid of me simply because I am not afraid of him.”
Watira, who seeks a seat in Uganda’s Parliament, remembered the recent event as a vivid example of the rampant fear of witchcraft as politicians seeking office try to outmaneuver each other in this east African country.
In public, political contests often entail spectacles where rivals rent cars to mount raucous processions in the streets, offering cash and other inducements to voters. Behind the scenes, the struggle for victory can be intensely spiritual, with faith figuring in incidents ranging from ritual sacrifice to visits with traditional healers, according to Watira and others who spoke to The Associated Press.
Watira, a leader of a group uniting Uganda’s Bamasaba people, said the incumbent legislator who refused to shake his hand may have worried that would somehow give Watira the upper hand or provoke misfortune. Watira said he wasn’t surprised by the man’s behavior.
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At least 21 people were killed in a road accident in Nigeria’s northwestern Kano state on Sunday, said the Federal Road Safety CorpsPreliminary investigations revealed that a commercial passenger vehicle was driving against the traffic on the Zaria-Karo expressway, violating established road safety regulations. The vehicle then collided head-on with a heavy-duty truck.The commercial driver “contravened established traffic regulations, drove against traffic flow, resulting in a fatal head-on collision with the oncoming truck,” reported AP quoting the Federal Road Safety CorpsOf the passengers, only three survived the crash with injuries. The victims included 19 men and two women.Deadly road accidents are a frequent occurrence on Nigeria’s highways. According to the agency’s 2024 data, 5,421 people have died in 9,570 road incidents across the country so far this year.
While the world remains silent, the rise of Islamism in Nigeria is causing death for Nigerian Christians, who see their government fail to protect them while it also prevents them from protecting themselves. The latest slaughter happened in the Yehewata village in the Benue State. Over 100 men, women and children were slaughtered by raiding Islamists.
BLOODBATH: Muslims Slaughter Hundreds of Christians in Nigeria, Families Wiped Out– gellerreport.com
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The dying legacy media continues to keep shtoom about Islamic atrocities against non-Muslims. Opposition to Islamic genocide is ‘islamophobic.’ And when the media does report on the carnage, all references to Islam are scrubbed and censored.
The latest bloodbath in the ongoing jihad against Christians in Nigeria, Muslims slaughtered over a hundred Christians in the Yelewata village in Benue, Nigeria.
Families were locked in their homes and burned alive.
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Children woke up to silence.
The great Islamic genocide of Christians on the African continent is the great, grievous news story censored and ignored by the sharia-compliant left-wing media.
These attacks are not only causing death and injury, but also poverty, internal displacement, human trafficking, refugee crises and human rights violations. This is particularly devastating for women and children, who are often left without a home, livelihood or family, making them vulnerable to trafficking and sexual violence.
There’s a grief that lingers when lives are taken so senselessly.
What happened in Yelewata village, Guma LGA, Benue State on the night of June 13th is both tragic and devastating.
Families were locked in their homes and burnt alive.
Children woke up to silence.
Mothers are… pic.twitter.com/o6VZwvtabZ— Paul Adefarasin (@pauladefarasin) June 16, 2025
https://twitter.com/Drmopaul/status/1934485143420571853
The Nigerian chapter of the rights organization reported that the massacre took place between Friday night and early Saturday in Yelewata, a village situated in Guma Local Government Area of Benue State.https://t.co/6R0ZDxrruq#HomeOfHardTruths pic.twitter.com/DGNfUVcAa6
— Radio Generation (@RadioGenKe) June 15, 2025
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Deep beneath Earth’s surface, hot mantle rock slowly rises, fueling massive volcanic activity, tearing continents apart, and opening new oceans. But where these upwellings form, what they’re made of, and how shifting tectonic plates shape them still remains a puzzle.
The Afar region in East Africa is a rare geological crossroads—a triple rift zone where three tectonic plates are pulling away from each other. Scientists think a rising plume of hot mantle lies below it, offering a unique chance to study how such forces reshape our planet from the inside out.
Deep under Africa, scientists from the University of Southampton have found that hot mantle rock is rising in steady pulses—almost like the Earth has a beating heart. This hot material is pushing up beneath the Afar region in Ethiopia, slowly pulling the continent apart and setting the stage for a brand-new ocean.
The research shows that this rising heat is shaped by the movement of tectonic plates—huge slabs of Earth’s crust that float above the mantle. As these plates stretch and thin over time, especially at places like Afar where three rifts meet, they eventually split. That split is how a new ocean begins to form.
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In another welcome sign of the Trump Administration’s focused prioritization of American interests in foreign policy, the State Department’s Senior Bureau Official for African Affairs recently rolled out a clear-eyed approach to U.S. engagement in Africa. As part of a long-overdue restructuring of the State Department, the Trump Administration articulated a directive to U.S. diplomats that puts enhanced trade and commercial diplomacy at the forefront of advancing U.S. interests, with the American private sector squarely in the lead as the engine of mutual prosperity and expansive growth. As highlighted throughout a hearing by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee recently, threats from Chinese activities across Africa, especially commercial activities, directly undermine U.S. interests across the continent.
Subcommittee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-TX) laid out the challenge directly, calling China “the most significant long-term strategic threat to the United States” and highlighting that throughout Africa, “China is exercising its military, economic, and political power and advancing its authoritarian agenda, all while undermining the sovereignty of African nations and the strategic interests of the United States.” To help confront this harmful influence directly, the Trump Administration’s updated strategy prioritizes the need to reduce barriers to entry for U.S. companies and level the playing field for American businesses. Fair, clear, and equal rules of doing business, coupled with strengthened institutions and the rule of law to uphold those standards, are the opportunity the private sector seeks as it evaluates prospective markets. Coupled with broader Trump Administration reforms at trade promotion and enhanced prioritization ensuring American competitiveness in Africa, this strategic focus on “trade, not aid” is what both our African partners and the American people want.
The success of this strategy goes beyond the ongoing reorganization and strategic restructuring of the state. As Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch (R-ID) noted during another recent hearing focused on issues in East Africa, “There are countries where meaningful engagement is possible—but only with sober judgment and clear-eyed realism. We must stop building U.S. policy in Africa around individual leaders and instead focus on strengthening institutions, expanding private sector ties, and empowering the region’s young and dynamic populations.” That clear focus requires careful analysis of the various ways China’s coercive activities have been successful in the past to help inform what is needed to expand commercial relationships in Africa.
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ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Police arrested on Sunday 22 suspects accused of a mob attack that left at least a dozen people killed two days ago in central Nigeria.
A passenger bus was mobbed in the Mangu area of the state of Plateau, according to a police statement released Saturday. The passengers traveled from Zaria, in north-western Kaduna state, about 400 kilometers (about 249 miles) from Mangu and were on their way to a wedding when the attack happened Friday night after they lost their way.
Police said 21 were rescued from the “angry mob,” and that some passengers were killed, without providing further details. Nigeria’s police, a federal authority, often provide lower death tolls than local authorities and witnesses.
Meanwhile, rights group Amnesty International said 12 people were instantly killed and 11 others injured in the attack.