United News of Bangladesh

The United Nations has warned that South Sudan is at serious risk of returning to full-scale war unless urgent action is taken to end violence, abuses and long-standing impunity. The warning came in a new report released on Friday by the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan at a session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva. The report said civilians are facing grave abuses, including killings, sexual violence, arbitrary detention, forced displacement and denial of basic needs, as fighting intensifies across the country. It described the humanitarian situation as worsening in one of the world’s poorest nations. The commission said rising risks of mass atrocities and the collapse of political safeguards make urgent preventive action necessary. It urged regional and international actors to apply diplomatic pressure, impose sanctions and strictly enforce the UN arms embargo until clear progress is made on human rights and accountability. According to the report, actions by political and military leaders have weakened the 2018 peace agreement. These include the detention of opposition figures, erosion of power-sharing arrangements and attempts to alter the terms of the peace deal. The report highlighted the arrest and removal of First Vice President Riek Machar last year, saying it undermined key guarantees of the peace agreement and triggered armed clashes on a scale not seen in nearly a decade. South Sudan plunged into civil war in 2013, two years after independence, following a power struggle between President Salva Kiir and Machar. The conflict killed an estimated 400,000 people before a fragile peace was reached in 2018. The UN report also noted a dangerous shift in military tactics, including air strikes on areas populated by civilians. It raised concerns over the deployment of forces from neighbouring Uganda, saying their involvement may have violated the UN arms embargo. Sexual violence remains widespread and systematic, the report said. Women and girls continue to face constant risk, with rape and other abuses used as tools to terrorise communities, force displacement and break social bonds. The commission said senior commanders and political leaders are rarely held accountable for serious crimes, allowing a culture of impunity to persist. It also noted shrinking civic space, with journalists, activists and opposition members facing harassment, surveillance and detention. The UN urged the government to stop violations by its forces, free those held without cause and guarantee basic freedoms. It also called for the immediate establishment of long-delayed transitional justice mechanisms to prosecute war crimes committed since 2013. Fighting has intensified in recent months, especially in Jonglei state, where opposition forces seized several government positions from December. In response, the army launched a major military operation in late January, ordering civilians and aid groups to leave parts of the area. The United Nations said earlier this month that about 280,000 people have been displaced since late December. More than 235,000 of them are from Jonglei alone. UNICEF has warned that over 450,000 children are at risk of acute malnutrition due to displacement and disruption of health services. Nearly 10 million people across South Sudan now need life-saving humanitarian assistance. Aid operations have been badly affected by violence and looting, while access to vulnerable communities remains restricted. The report said civilians continue to bear the heaviest cost of the conflict, as violence, displacement and abuse deepen an already severe humanitarian crisis.   With inputs from ALJAZEERA

Congolese authorities and a civil society group said Thursday that mass graves were found in part of eastern Congo that the M23 rebel group has recently withdrawn from, as fighting in the region escalates despite a U.S.-mediated peace deal. The governor of South-Kivu province, Jean-Jacques Purusi, said authorities found two mass graves with at least 171 dead bodies in the Kiromoni and Kavimvira neighborhoods on the outskirts of the eastern city of Uvira. “At this stage, we have identified two sites: one mass grave containing approximately 30 bodies in Kiromoni, not far from the Burundian border on the Congolese side, and another in Kavimvira where 141 bodies were found,” Purusi told The Associated Press over the phone. The Associated Press could not independently verify the claim. M23’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Executive Secretariat of the Local Network for the Protection of Civilians, a civil society group in the region, said Thursday it wanted to visit the mass graves but was prevented from doing so by the Congolese military. Information gathered so far indicates that the victims were killed by M23 rebels, said Yves Ramadhani, the group's vice president. The governor and the civil society group alleged that the rebels killed the individuals because they suspected them of belonging to the Congolese army or a pro-government militia. Both the Congolese military and M23 have been accused of extrajudicial killings and abuses by rights groups. M23 had taken control of Uvira in December following a rapid offensive. More than 1,500 people were killed and about 300,000 displaced, according to regional authorities. The rebel group later announced it would withdraw from the city, in what it said was a “unilateral trust-building measure” requested by the U.S. to facilitate the peace process. Congo, the U.S. and U.N. experts accuse Rwanda of backing M23, which has grown from hundreds of members in 2021 to around 6,500 fighters, according to the U.N. More than 100 armed groups are vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo, near the border with Rwanda, most prominently M23. The conflict has created one of the world’s most significant humanitarian crises, with more than 7 million people displaced, according to the U.N. agency for refugees. Despite the signing of a deal between the Congolese and Rwandan governments brokered by the U.S. and ongoing negotiations between rebels and Congo, fighting continues on several fronts in eastern Congo, claiming numerous civilian and military casualties.  

At least 50 people were killed and a significant number of others abducted after a group of armed men launched a brutal attack on a village in Nigeria's northwestern state of Zamfara, a local lawmaker said. The raid on Tungan Dutse village, located in the Bukkuyum Local Government Area, reportedly began Thursday evening and continued into Friday morning, Hamisu Faru, a lawmaker representing the affected area at the Zamfara State House of Assembly, told local media on Saturday. The attackers arrived on more than 150 motorcycles, moving through the community, shooting indiscriminately at residents and razing some buildings, Faru said, citing a preliminary assessment of the incident. "The attackers invaded the village in large numbers, leaving at least 50 people dead," the local official said, noting that the exact number of people abducted during the attack remained unclear, as many fled into nearby bushes for safety. The victims of the attack included traders and farmers, with many of the abducted reported to be women and children, according to Faru. No security agency has so far confirmed the incident. 

More than 6,000 people were killed during a three-day offensive by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on the Darfur city of El-Fasher in late October, the United Nations said in a report released Friday. The UN Human Rights Office described the assault as a wave of violence “shocking in its scale and brutality,” citing widespread killings, executions, sexual violence, abductions, torture and enforced disappearances that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. According to the report, RSF fighters and allied Arab militias overran El-Fasher — the Sudanese army’s last major stronghold in Darfur — on Oct. 26 after an 18-month siege. At least 4,400 people were killed inside the city between Oct. 25 and Oct. 27, while more than 1,600 others died as they tried to flee. The findings were based on interviews with 140 victims and witnesses, supported by satellite imagery and video analysis. The report warned the actual toll was likely “significantly higher.” It said around 500 people were killed when heavy weapons were fired at civilians sheltering in a university dormitory, while about 600 others — including dozens of children — were executed in university facilities on the same day. The report also cited separate attacks, including the killing of at least 460 people when RSF fighters stormed a maternity hospital on Oct. 28, and about 300 deaths in shelling and drone strikes on a displaced persons’ camp earlier that week. Sexual violence was described as widespread, with women and girls from non-Arab communities particularly targeted. Survivors told investigators that rape and gang rape were systematically used as a weapon of war. Thousands were reportedly abducted or detained in facilities run by the RSF, including a children’s hospital converted into a detention center, with many people still missing. UN rights chief Volker Türk called for accountability, warning that continued impunity risks fueling further cycles of violence in Sudan’s ongoing conflict, which began in April 2023 and has triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

A passenger ferry capsized on the Nile River in Sudan on Wednesday, leaving at least 15 people dead, a medical group said. The ferry, with at least 27 people on board, including women and children, sank in the Shendi district in northern Nile River province, said the Sudan Doctors Network, a medial group that tracks the country’s ongoing war. The group said at least 15 bodies have been recovered, while residents and rescue teams were still searching for at least six other people. Six people survived the tragedy, it said. The group urged authorities to deploy specialized rescue teams and equipment to accelerate search efforts. Such tragedies on overloaded boats are not uncommon on waterways in the African nation, where safety measures are often disregarded.

At least 30 people have been killed and an unspecified number injured in a road accident in northwest Nigeria, authorities said. The accident occurred on Sunday in Kwanar Barde in the Gezawa area of Kano State and was caused by “reckless driving” by the driver of a truck-trailer, Gov. Abba Yusuf said in a statement. He did not specify what other vehicles were involved. Yusuf described the accident as “heartbreaking and a great loss” to the affected families and the state. He did not provide further details about the accident. Africa’s most populous country recorded 5,421 deaths in 9,570 road accidents in 2024, according to data by the country’s Federal Road Safety Corps. Experts say a combination of factors including a network of bad roads, lax enforcement of traffic laws and indiscipline by some drivers produce the grim statistics. In December, boxing heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua was in a deadly car crash that injured him and killed Sina Ghami and Latif “Latz” Ayodele, two of his friends, in southwest Nigeria. Adeniyi Mobolaji Kayode, Joshua’s driver, was charged with dangerous and reckless driving and his trial is scheduled to begin later this month. Africa has the highest road fatality rate in the world despite having only about 3% of the world’s vehicles, mainly due to weak enforcement of road laws, poor infrastructure and widespread use of unsafe transport.

A drone attack by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces struck a vehicle carrying displaced families in central Sudan on Saturday, killing at least 24 people, including eight children, doctors said. The Sudan Doctors Network said the attack took place near the town of Rahad in North Kordofan province. The vehicle was transporting civilians who had fled fighting in the Dubeiker area. Among the dead were two infants, the group said. Several others were injured and rushed to medical facilities in Rahad, where hospitals are facing acute shortages of medicine and equipment, similar to much of the wider Kordofan region. The doctors’ group urged the international community and human rights organisations to take immediate steps to protect civilians and hold the RSF leadership accountable for what it described as grave violations. There was no immediate response from the RSF, which has been fighting the Sudanese military for nearly three years for control of the country. The attack came a day after an aid convoy of the World Food Programme was targeted in North Kordofan. The strike killed one person and wounded several others, said Denise Brown, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Sudan. Brown said the convoy was on its way to deliver life-saving food assistance to displaced people in the city of Obeid when it was hit. The trucks were burned and the food aid destroyed. “Attacks on humanitarian operations undermine efforts to reach people suffering from hunger and displacement,” Brown said in a statement. She added that last week another drone strike landed near a WFP facility in Blue Nile province, injuring a WFP staff member. The Emergency Lawyers group, which documents abuses in Sudan, blamed the RSF for the aid convoy attack. The Sudan Doctors Network described it as a serious breach of international humanitarian law and a possible war crime. US adviser for African and Arab affairs Massad Boulos condemned the attack, saying the destruction of food aid and killing of humanitarian workers was unacceptable and called for accountability. Kordofan has emerged as a key battleground in recent months. Earlier this year, the Sudanese army managed to break RSF sieges on two major cities in the region. Sudan has been in turmoil since April 2023, when tensions between the military and the RSF erupted into open war. According to UN estimates, more than 40,000 people have been killed, though aid groups say the true toll is far higher. The conflict has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, forcing more than 14 million people from their homes, spreading disease and pushing parts of the country into famine as fighting continues unabated.

Famine is tightening its grip on Sudan’s western Darfur region, with two additional towns now confirmed to be suffering from extreme hunger, according to a global food security monitoring body, as the country’s devastating war continues unabated. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said on Thursday that famine conditions have been identified in Umm Baru and Kernoi in Darfur. The warning comes months after the group reported famine in el-Fasher, the region’s largest city, which has been under siege for about 18 months and at times overrun by Sudanese paramilitary forces. Sudan has been engulfed in conflict since April 2023, when a power struggle between the national military and the Rapid Support Forces erupted into full-scale fighting. The war has displaced millions and pushed the country into what the United Nations has described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The IPC had earlier said famine was also present in Kadugli, a city in South Kordofan province, and warned that at least 20 other areas across Sudan were at high risk of slipping into famine. The latest IPC report coincided with a deadly attack on Thursday in South Kordofan, where paramilitary forces struck a military hospital in the town of Kouik. At least 22 people were killed, including the hospital’s medical director and three other medical staff, according to the Sudan Doctors’ Network, which monitors the conflict. Eight others were wounded in the attack, though it was not immediately clear how many of the casualties were civilians. As fighting continues across large parts of the country, humanitarian groups have repeatedly warned that access constraints, insecurity and collapsing health and food systems are accelerating hunger and preventable deaths, particularly in conflict-affected regions such as Darfur and South Kordofan.

Sought by the Ethiopian government, Oromo rebel commander Jaal Marroo remains on the move to evade drone surveillance targeting him from the air. Marroo heads the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) from a network of remote forest hideouts in Oromia, Ethiopia’s largest region, home to an estimated 40 million people. The government has labelled the former student a terrorist, accusing the OLA of carrying out ethnically driven attacks that have killed civilians. However, speaking in a rare interview from one of his concealed locations, Marroo denied allegations that his forces deliberately target civilians. “Our war is not against the people,” he told The Associated Press. “It is against the brutal regime that has occupied and oppressed the nation for generations.” The Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) has been fighting Ethiopia’s federal government since 2018, although the conflict has often been overshadowed by other crises, including the 2020–2022 war in the northern Tigray region. U.N. investigators have accused the group of grave abuses such as killings, rape and abductions. Human rights organizations, while documenting violations by the OLA, say government forces have also committed serious abuses. Indiscriminate drone strikes, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances are described as key features of the counterinsurgency campaign. “The research that we conducted puts both the OLA and the government forces in the middle of the conflict in terms of summary executions, in terms of torture, in terms of abductions, in terms of rape of women,” said Sarah Kimani, Amnesty International’s regional spokesperson. “Our report is able to point to both groups having been responsible for the atrocities that are being carried out in the Oromia region and that continue to be carried out against civilians in the region,” she told the AP. Read More: Eritrea withdraws from regional bloc as UN expresses concern over tensions with Ethiopia Civilians report widespread fear and displacement. Ayantu Bulcha said members of her family were killed after being accused of supporting the OLA, while others described harassment, extortion and ransom demands by armed groups. “Movement from place to place has become increasingly restricted,” said Lensa Hordofa. “It’s almost impossible to travel.” Access restrictions have limited reporting from Oromia, where aid delivery has been disrupted, schools closed and health facilities looted or destroyed. Analysts say insecurity persists despite recent government gains, leaving civilians trapped between multiple armed actors. “Oromia is very insecure,” said International Crisis Group’s Magnus Taylor, citing criminal groups alongside the insurgency.

At least 200 miners have died following the collapse of multiple shafts at coltan mines in Rubaya, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, a spokesperson for the March 23 Movement rebel group confirmed Friday. The majority of the victims were artisanal miners trapped underground, and the casualties also included women and children, the spokesperson added. The collapses took place on Wednesday and Thursday across several coltan mining sites in Rubaya, an area under rebel control since April 2024. At least 11 killed in minibus taxi-truck crash in South Africa Coltan, or columbite-tantalite, is a key source of tantalum, a rare metal essential for manufacturing advanced electronics. The United Nations estimates that Rubaya’s mines alone supply around 15 percent of the world’s tantalum.