Sudan’s People Tortured and Killed in ‘Slaughterhouses’, Rights Probe Says
Shortly after presenting a mandated report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday, chair of the Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan, Mohamed Chande Othman, insisted that both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia had carried out atrocity crimes. Among the testimonies gathered for the report, survivors from RSF detention sites described the locations as “slaughterhouses”. In one notorious RSF facility, dozens of detainees have died since June after being tortured, denied food and medical care, the independent rights expert said. … Highlighting the lack of diplomatic solutions to the conflict which began in April 2023, and its massive impact of the war on civilians, report co-author Mona Rishmawi insisted that “everybody knows you cannot rape, you cannot loot, you cannot destroy property. You cannot starve people…But if there is no accountability, of course they will continue doing it.” UN News
Somali Youth Minister, UN Counterterrorism Chief Discuss Preventing Extremist Ideologies
Somali Minister of Youth and Sports Mohamed Abdulqadir Ali on Wednesday held a virtual meeting with Natalia Gherman, Executive Director of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (UNCTED), to discuss strategies for preventing violent extremism and addressing radical ideologies among young people. The talks focused on countering extremist narratives, tackling the root causes of terrorism, and strengthening cooperation between Somalia and international partners. … Somalia has one of the youngest populations in the world, with nearly 70 percent under the age of 30. Al-Shabaab and other extremist groups have historically exploited this demographic by using both coercion and propaganda to recruit young fighters. Experts warn that without strong prevention measures — including education, employment opportunities, and community engagement — youth remain highly vulnerable to extremist influence. Radio Dalsan
EU Sahel Envoy Warns Liberia on Regional Spillover Risks
The European Union’s top envoy for the Sahel warned Tuesday that Liberia cannot afford to ignore the region’s spiraling instability, urging tighter border controls, vigilance against disinformation and sustained engagement as Monrovia prepares to take a seat on the U.N. Security Council. “Liberia is not the Sahel, and it is not immediately affected by Sahelian dynamics,” João Gomes Cravinho, the EU Special Representative for the Sahel, told reporters in Monrovia. “But the truth is the whole region is destabilized, and this can in the near or medium term have very negative consequences for Liberia.” … [Cravinho, a former Portuguese foreign minister appointed EU envoy in December 2024] said his mission was to hear Liberian perspectives on the Sahel, assess areas for EU-Liberia cooperation and understand the country’s own security pressures. … He also highlighted the corrosive impact of disinformation, avoiding direct commentary on Liberia but stressing the global stakes. “We’re seeing the results of disinformation having a destructuring impact on societies around the world,” he said. “This is a threat to democracies … aimed at destabilizing and weakening democratic structures and promoting non-democratic forms of government.” The Liberian Investigator
Malawians Head to Polls in Economic Despair
Malawians vote for a new president next week in an election clouded by economic hardship as incumbent Lazarus Chakwera squares off against his predecessor in a race where few voters see a real alternative. Three of the 17 candidates for the September 16 polls have already served as president of the southern African nation and another is the current vice president. While the list of contenders is unusually crowded, voters have lost faith in the political class to deliver meaningful change to one of the poorest countries in the world, analysts say. Optimism that accompanied Chakwera coming to power has long since been eroded by runaway inflation of around 30 percent, chronic fuel and foreign exchange shortages and corruption scandals touching senior government figures. … According to a survey of 2,400 voters by the Institute of Public Opinion and Research (IPOR) released last week, Mutharika leads with 41 percent ahead of Chakwera at 31 percent. As outright victory requires 50 percent plus one vote, analysts say a second round is all but inevitable. AFP
As Fighting Escalates, Kidnappings of Aid Workers Surge in South Sudan
The number of aid workers kidnapped in South Sudan has more than doubled this year, according to two senior humanitarian officials working for international groups. Aid agencies are concerned about the well-being of their staff and the disruption of their life-saving services in a region suffering one of the most severe humanitarian crises. Several of those kidnapped have been released after ransom payments, said three people with knowledge of the negotiations, but one aid worker died in captivity earlier this month, according to several sources familiar with the incident, including Edmund Yakani, a prominent civil rights activist in the country. The United Nations has long designated South Sudan as one of the most dangerous places for aid workers. However, analysts say that the spike in kidnapping for ransom is a new and worrying trend. … Over 30 South Sudanese aid workers have been kidnapped this year, according to the two humanitarian officials. That is more than double the number of aid workers abducted in all of 2024, according to both officials. … Fighting in South Sudan between the national army and opposition factions has surged this year, marking some of the worst violence since a 2018 peace deal ended a civil war that killed an estimated 400,000 people and formed a fragile unity government. AP
New Push to Revive Stalled South Sudan Peace Deal
Key South Sudanese stakeholders to the 2018 Revitalized Peace Agreement convened for a two-day meeting this week aimed at restarting dialogue to resolve the country’s ongoing political crisis, according to a communique released on Wednesday. The meeting, held from September 9–10 in the capital, Juba, was facilitated by the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) and supported by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). The gathering brought together signatories to the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS) from various non-governmental sectors. In the communique, participants committed to fostering an inclusive, South Sudanese-led political dialogue to overcome the current impasse hampering the peace process. … The 2018 peace agreement was intended to end a five-year civil war that killed nearly 400,000 people. Its implementation has faced repeated delays, missing key deadlines and heightening political tensions. … General elections are scheduled for December 2025, but observers say key pre-election tasks remain significantly behind schedule. Critical deadlines for drafting a permanent constitution and unifying the country’s various armed factions into a single national army have been missed, with no clear roadmap in place to complete them before the vote. Radio Tamazuj
HRW Condemns Egypt’s Tightening Grip on Social Media
Egypt has arrested or prosecuted about 40 people in the past month for social media posts, targeting them with charges ranging from indecency to undermining family values, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday. The interior ministry reported 29 cases between late July and late August, including at least 19 women and one child, while independent sources documented eight additional cases during the same period, said HRW. Most of the targeted accounts, which remain largely accessible, featured a wide range of content, including comedy videos, lip-sync montages, low-cost cosmetic promotions and snapshots of everyday life. … “Egyptian authorities’ campaign against online content creators seems intended to quell the last vestige of space for free expression in the country,” said Amr Magdi, senior Middle East and North Africa researcher at HRW. .. The rights group described Egypt’s 2018 cybercrime law as “one of the key tools for criminalising free expression in recent years”. It said the authorities had also used a “combination of broad and poorly defined laws” to enable prosecutions. AFP
Kenya Plans Pioneering $1 Billion ‘Debt-for-Food’ Swap
Kenya aims to carry out a pioneering $1 billion debt-for-food security swap by March next year, a finance ministry document showed on Tuesday, as the country looks to novel solutions to ease its hefty debt burden. The plan is expected to work in a similar way as so-called debt-for-nature swaps carried out by several countries in recent years that offered lower interest rates in exchange for nature protection. A debt-for-food swap would likely allow a country to replace costly existing debt with lower-cost financing on condition it channelled the savings towards programmes to boost food security, finance experts say. … President William Ruto’s government spends roughly one-third of its revenue on interest payments – one of the highest ratios in the world – and is eager to bring debt spending down. Reuters
Kenya Police Put Spyware on Detained Filmmakers’ Phones: CPJ
Kenyan filmmakers detained by police allegedly had spyware installed on their phones, a press freedom group said Wednesday, saying it was “gravely alarmed” by the move. Four independent filmmakers — Nicholas Wambugu Gichuki, Bryan Adagala, Mark Karubiu and Chris Wamae — were arrested on May 2 in capital Nairobi and charged with “publishing false information”. The men were released a day later without charge, but their devices — including their phones, hard drives and laptops — were kept by police until July 10. The Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) quoted a researcher at Toronto University’s Citizen Lab, which tracks digital threats against civil society, who said spyware had been installed on devices belonging to two of the detained reporters. Such software would give “the operators silent, secret access to all sorts of private business and information about their journalism” the senior researcher told CPJ. AFP
More Than 200 Corruption Cases Opened in Ghana Anti-Graft Drive
More than 200 corruption cases have been opened in Ghana as the administration of John Mahama attempts to recover stolen state assets, the president said Wednesday. Mahama, who assumed office in January, has vowed to tackle corruption and retrieve misappropriated state funds as the west African nation emerges from a severe economic crisis. … Corruption investigations this year have tripped up the country’s chief justice, a former head of the petroleum regulator and a former finance minister. In May, the president punished more than 40 of his ministers and appointees for failing to declare their assets, docking their salaries. However, opposition politicians protested earlier this year when a senior leader of the New Patriotic Party — which Mahama defeated in last year’s elections — was investigated for financial irregularities. … Corruption allegations trailed Mahama’s previous tenure as president, from 2012 to 2017, although no charges were formally filed against him. AFP
Congo Brazzaville and China’s Wing Wah Sign $23B Oil Deal
Congo Brazzaville and Chinese company Wing Wah struck a new $23 billion deal to boost oil production in the African country. Under the agreement, Wing Wah will develop three oil fields to drill 200,000 barrels per day in Congo Brazzaville by 2030. The company already operates in the country, extracting about 45,000 barrels per day from the Banga Kayo onshore field. Italy’s Eni and France’s TotalEnergies are also exploring oil production opportunities in Congo Brazzaville, as the government tries to harness its hydrocarbon reserves to solve economic challenges. Semafor
7 Chinese Sentenced to 20 Years Each for Trafficking and Forced Labor in South Africa
A court in Johannesburg sentenced seven Chinese nationals on Wednesday to terms of 20 years in prison each for trafficking people from Malawi and forcing them to work at a factory in South Africa. The group was convicted on Feb. 25 of trafficking 91 undocumented Malawian nationals from 2017 to 2019 to work at a cotton fabric factory in Village Deep, an industrial area in the south of Johannesburg. The Chinese nationals had been arrested on Nov. 12, 2019 when police raided the factory and found the Malawians confined under inhumane conditions with armed guards controlling their movements. The factory had a high wall and razor fence. Prosecutors had sought life sentences. They said the victims were forced to work 11-hour shifts, seven days a week, without proper training or safety equipment. Many had previously worked at Chinese-owned factories in Malawi, and were recruited to go to South Africa under false pretenses, the prosecutors said. AP
Africa Feeding 20 Million More Children with School Meals, WFP Says
Governments in sub-Saharan Africa have provided school meals to roughly 20 million extra children over the past two years, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday … The region saw the biggest rise in school feeding of any region, by nearly a third to 87 million in 2024. Ethiopia, Rwanda and even severely impoverished Madagascar and Chad all managed to feed six times as many over the period. “Government investments in school meals … (signal) a significant shift from reliance on foreign aid to recognising school meals as a strategic public investment in children’s education (and) health,” the report said. … The WFP report found that local farmers had also benefited from the school feeding. The government of Benin’s buying local food for these programmes contributed over $23 million to the economy in 2024, it said. More than a third of school meals in Sierra Leone came from food produced by smallholder farmers. It warned, however, that millions of children, especially in some of the lowest income African countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Somalia, and South Sudan, still lacked access to school meals, as donor support continued to fall. Reuters