‘They told us – you are slaves’: survivors give harrowing testimony of Darfur’s year of hell
With the war in Sudan poised to escalate and the humanitarian crisis growing, traumatised survivors of a blood-drenched summer in West Darfur tell of their ordeal
G amar al-Deen was visiting a friend when gunmen poured into his neighbourhood on 27 April 2023. “I came back to find they were all dead,” he says. “My mother, my father, uncles, brothers, sisters. I wanted to die myself in that moment.”
Deen, a teacher, lost a dozen members of his family that day. Several of his neighbours were killed too. At his friend’s during the carnage, he saw a group of fighters strip a woman naked and then rape her in the street. “They told us, ‘This area belongs to us, not you, you are slaves,’” he says.
The attack was one of many by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary organisation, and allied Arab militiamen in El Geneina, capital of Sudan’s West Darfur region, between mid-April and mid-June. Their fighters carried out almost daily raids against areas of the city populated by the Masalit, an African ethnic group, according to former residents.
Serbian students block roads to protest Vucic party victory
Hundreds of protesters — mostly students — gathered to block a major intersection in the Serbian capital ahead of a partial vote rerun on Saturday.
The action was the first day-long protest since parliamentary and local elections on December 17, which President Aleksandar Vucic’s party claimed it had easily secured.
What is the opposition claiming?
Opposition parties, such as the coalition Serbia Against Violence, allege that ethnic-Serbian voters from neighboring Bosnia had been allowed to vote illegally in Belgrade.
British warship arrives near Guyana, fueling Essequibo land dispute with Venezuela
Venezuela and Guyana have been locked in a land dispute over the oil-rich Essequibo region which makes up about two-thirds of Guyana‘s territory, but has long been claimed by Caracas.
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday ordered over 5,600 troops to join a “defensive” exercise near the Guyana border, in response to Britain sending a warship to the area in a show of support to its former colony.
Britain said Friday the Venezuelan military exercises were “unjustified and should cease.”
London diverted the patrol vessel HMS Trent to Guyana “as part of a series of engagements in the region during her Atlantic patrol task deployment.”
69 Japanese fraud suspects extradited and arrested in 2023
By SHIMPACHI YOSHIDA/ Senior Staff Writer
December 30, 2023 at 18:44 JST
A record 69 Japanese fraud suspects operating overseas were arrested by Japanese police in 2023 following extradition proceedings involving four Asian countries, the National Police Agency said.
In addition to the Philippines, where a group allegedly orchestrated a string of violent home robberies across Japan, local authorities uncovered fraud groups operating in Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand.
The NPA said there had been a growing trend in recent years for Japanese gangs to base their fraud operations elsewhere in Asia due to strengthened detection in Japan. It added that this year witnessed a marked increase in raids, seizures and arrests after suspects were deported back to Japan.
Ukrainian shelling kills 14 Russian civilians, officials say, a day after Russia launched largest aerial assault of war
Death toll climbs as Israel ramps up attacks in Gaza
- At least 165 Palestinians have been killed and 250 injured in the last 24 hours, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
- At least 14 people have been detained by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank in overnight raids, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said in a statement.
100,000 people moved into Rafah in last few days: UN
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates at least 100,000 people have moved into Rafah, the city located in the far south of the Gaza Strip, over the last few days.
This took place as Israeli shelling and air raids intensified in and around Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city, and elsewhere in the south.
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