Kanyabayonga, DR Congo — The M23 militia group continued to gain ground in the war-torn east of DR Congo, with more towns falling into the hands of the rebels, sources told AFP Sunday.   

Kinshasa accuses Rwanda of backing the Tutsi-led M23 rebel group which has seized swathes of eastern DR Congo in an ongoing offensive launched in 2021 — something Kigali denies.   

On Sunday the M23 (March 23 Movement) moved into the town of Kirumba, in North Kivu province, which has been rocked by violence since 2021 when the group resumed its armed campaign in the region.    

Kirumba is the biggest town in the south of the Lubero territory, where the group has been advancing, and a big commercial center with more than 120,000 residents.    

“We regret that the large entity [the town] has since yesterday evening been in the hands of the M23,” a local official, who did not wish to be named, told AFP on Sunday.   

He said the group is now heading north from the town.   

‘They are numerous’ 

“They are numerous, some arrived on foot and others in vehicles,” a civil society leader who asked to remain unnamed told AFP.   

Another local official, who also said the rebels had arrived in the town, said they are “waiting for the government’s reaction.”  

President Felix Tshisekedi held a meeting of DR Congo’s defense council on Saturday.   

During a speech to mark the country’s independence day, Tshisekedi said “clear and firm instructions have been given for the safeguarding of the territorial integrity of our country”, without giving more details.   

On Saturday M23 seized the strategic town of Kanyabayonga, as other surrounding areas also fell into the hands of the rebels.   

Kanyabayonga is home to more than 60,000 people and tens of thousands of people have fled there in recent months, driven from their homes by the advance of the rebels.    

The town is considered a pathway to Butembo and Beni in the north, strongholds of the Nande tribe and major commercial centers.    

It is in the Lubero territory, the fourth territory in the North Kivu province that the group has entered after Rutshuru, Nyiragongo and Masisi.   

Other towns near Kanyabayonga have also been seized by M23, according to officials and security sources.   

Five people including three civilians and two soldiers have been killed in the town of Kayna where the rebels took control on Saturday, Console Sindani vice president of Kayna civil society, told AFP on Sunday.   

The mayor of the commune of Kayna, Clovis Kanyauru told AFP on Sunday there had been three deaths.   

DR Congo’s mineral-rich east has been the scene of violence for 30 years by armed groups, both local and foreign-based, going back to regional wars of the 1990s. 

 
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NAIROBI, Kenya — In the heart of the crowded Kibera neighborhood in Kenya’s capital, Jacinter Awino shares a small tin house with her husband and four children. She envies those who have escaped such makeshift homes to more permanent dwellings under the government’s affordable housing plan.

The 33-year-old housewife and her mason husband are unable to raise the $3,800 purchase price for a one-room government house. Their tin one was constructed for $380 and lacks a toilet and running water.

“Those government houses are like a dream for us, but our incomes simply don’t allow it,” Awino said.

The government plans to build 250,000 houses each year, aimed at eventually closing a housing deficit that World Bank data puts at 2 million units. The plan was launched in 2022, but no data is available on the number of houses already completed.

Kenya’s urban areas are home to a third of the country’s total population of more than 50 million. Of those in urban areas, 70% live in informal settlements marked by a lack of basic infrastructure, according to UN-Habitat.

Some urban Kenyans have moved into a government housing project on the outskirts of the capital, Nairobi, where one-bedroom units sold for $7,600 last year.

Felister Muema, a 55-year-old former caterer, paid a deposit of about 10% through a savings plan and is expected to pay off the balance in 25 years.

“This is where I have started living my life,” she said. “If I do something here, it is permanent. If I plant a flower, no one is going to tell me: ‘Uproot it, I don’t want it there.’ This gives me life.”

But experts say construction and financing need to change and speed up for Kenya’s housing deficit to be met.

“We cannot rely on the traditional mortgage route,” said UN-Habitat’s head of East Africa, Ishaku Maitumbi, who recommended a cooperative savings system that is popular with Kenyan businesses.

For home construction, some are exploring the emerging technology of 3-D printing. A machine layers special mortar to form concrete walls and cuts the building time by several days compared to traditional brick and mortar work.

A company, 14Trees, has used the technology to build a showcase house in Nairobi and 10 houses in coastal Kilifi County.

Company CEO Francois Perrot said the technology can help address the huge housing need on the African continent, but it will take time.

“If we want to clear that backlog, we need to build differently, we need to build at scale, with speed, and with low-carbon materials, and this is what construction 3-D printing makes possible,” Perrot said.

The company’s homes, like many traditionally built ones, remain beyond the reach of most Kenyans. A two-bedroom house costs $22,000 and a three-bedroom one costs $29,000. But Perrot asserted that acquiring a printer locally and making mortar locally would help bring down costs.

“People don’t really worry or care about technology. What they care about is the design, the price, the way it is set up, the layout of the building,” he said.

Nickson Otieno, an architect and founder of Niko Green, a sustainability consulting firm, said such new technology has great potential but remains limited.

“It will still take a long time for it to compete with brick and mortar,” he said. “Brick and mortar, everybody can build their house anywhere they are. They are able to access the materials, they are able to access the tradesmen who build the house and they can plan the cost.”

Financing remains a challenge. In June 2023, Kenya’s parliament passed a finance law with a new housing tax of 1.5% on gross income, to be used to build affordable housing. The law is being challenged in court. Critics argue the tax is discriminatory as it applies only to those with formal employment.

If the tax is rejected, Kenya’s government would need to look elsewhere for funding to build affordable housing.

The housing tax is one of the issues causing discontent among young people who have organized a series of protests that included the extraordinary storming of parliament Tuesday. More than 20 people were killed as police opened fire.

President William Ruto has defended the need for the tax.

“We have said that affordable housing, social housing is a right,” he said earlier this year in response to the legal challenge.
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Port Sudan, Sudan — Paramilitary forces battling Sudan’s regular army for more than a year said Saturday they had taken a key state capital in the southeast, prompting thousands to flee, witnesses said.

“We have liberated the 17th Infantry Division from Singa,” the capital of Sennar state, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced on the social media platform X.

Residents confirmed to AFP: “The RSF have deployed in the streets of Singa,” and witnesses reported aircraft from the regular army flying overhead and anti-aircraft fire.

Earlier Saturday, other witnesses said there was fighting in the streets and “rising panic among residents seeking to flee.”

Sudan has been gripped by war since April 2023, when fighting erupted between forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

The conflict in the country of 48 million has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

The latest RSF breakthrough means the paramilitaries are tightening the noose around Port Sudan on the Red Sea, where the army, government and U.N. agencies are now based.

The RSF controls most of the capital Khartoum, Al-Jazira state in the center of the country, the vast western region of Darfur and much of Kordofan to the south.

Sennar state is already home to more than 1 million displaced Sudanese. It connects central Sudan to the army-controlled southeast.

Posts on social media showed thousands of people fleeing in vehicles and on foot, and witnesses told AFP, “Thousands of people have taken refuge on the east bank of the Blue Nile” river east of Singa.

RSF forces are also besieging the town of El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state.

On Thursday, a report cited by the United Nations said nearly 26 million people in war-torn Sudan are facing high levels of “acute food insecurity.”  
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NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania — Mauritanians went to the polls Saturday to elect their next president, with the incumbent Mohamed Ould Ghazouani widely expected to win after positioning Mauritania as a strategic ally of the West in a region swept by coups and violence. 

Ghazouani, who is seeking reelection on the pledge of providing security and economic growth, is a former army chief and the current president of the African Union. He came to power in 2019 following the first democratic transition in the country’s history, and Saturday promised to respect the results of the vote. 

“The last word belongs to the Mauritanian voters,” Ghazouani said after voting in Ksar, the suburb of the capital. “I commit myself to respecting their choice.” 

Although his opponents accused him of corruption and mismanagement, he remains popular among Mauritanians who see him as a beacon of stability. The vote is taking place in a particularly tense regional climate, with Mauritania’s neighboring countries shaken by military coups and jihadi violence. 

“We must not let ourselves be fooled by the slogans of the candidates who are not reassuring,” said Marieme Brahim, a 38-year-old company executive, who voted for Ghazouani. “Mauritania must vote for continuity and stability and its security in a troubled environment, and it is not these candidates without experience in governance who will give us confidence.” 

Some 2 million people are eligible to vote in a nation of 5 million. Ghazouani is facing six opponents, including an anti-slavery activist, leaders of several opposition parties, and a neurosurgeon who accused the government of corruption and clientelism. 

Mauritania is rich in natural resources such as iron ore, copper, zinc, phosphate, gold, oil and natural gas. It is poised to become a gas producer by the end of the year, with the planned launch of the BP-operated Greater Tortue Ahmeyin offshore gas project at the border with Senegal. 

Yet almost 60% of the population live in poverty, according to the United Nations, working as farmers or employed in the informal sector. With few economic opportunities for young people at home, many are attempting to cross the Atlantic to reach Europe, and some are even trying to get to the United States through Mexico. 

Mohamed Lemine Ould Moktar, 45, who voted for an opposition candidate, has two young sons who remain unemployed despite having university diplomas. 

“I just voted for change, we have had enough of identical regimes which squander the people’s assets and maintain corruption,” said Ould Moktar. “Just look at more than 40,000 young Mauritanians take the path of immigration to the United States by jumping the border wall between Mexico and the United States. This is why I am voting for change.” 

Saturday’s vote was unfolding peacefully, according to observers, with the polls due to close at 7 p.m. Partial results were expected Sunday. 

“We have not noticed any anomalies or problems,” declared Taghiyouallah Ould Ledhem, spokesperson for CENI, the independent electoral commission. “People are voting smoothly and easily, we have not received any complaints so far.” 
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Blantyre, Malawi    — Malawi’s Constitutional Court on Friday dismissed the case of two applicants who wanted it to legalize same-sex relationships. State lawyers welcomed the ruling while lawyers for the applicants expressed disappointment.

The applicants, Jan Willem Akster from the Netherlands and a Malawian transgender man, Jana Gonani, brought their case to the Constitutional Court for interpretation of Malawi’s anti-homosexuality laws following their arrest in 2021.

Akster is currently facing nine charges of sexual abuse and sodomy, while Gonani is charged with unnatural offenses.

They said Malawi’s laws violate their fundamental rights, including a right to privacy and dignity.

However, Judges Joseph Chigona, Vikochi Chima and Chimbizgani Kacheche rejected their arguments.

Chigona said the applicants failed to bring evidence of how the provisions in the country’s laws discriminated against homosexuals.

Chigona also said Akster failed to prove that Malawi’s laws violated his right to health.

“The first applicant was asked in a cross examination if he had ever accessed a public hospital and replied that he had gone to Zomba Central Hospital after he had been involved in a car accident,” Chigona said. “When he was asked about his experience there, especially if he was asked about his sexual orientation before he was assisted, he said he was not. He actually said that he was medically assisted so well. The only complaint he had about the facility were spiders in the ward.”

Chigona said the court also dismissed claims that Malawi police violated Gonani’s right to privacy when they ordered him to undress, to confirm his claims that he was transgender.

“We know that by Section 24 of Criminal Procedure and Evidence Code that police are empowered to search a suspect who is reasonably suspected of having committed a particular offense and who has been arrested,” the judge said. “The caveat is that the search only extends as it is reasonably required for discovering a thing upon this person in connection to the offenses he was suspected of.”

Minority rights activists and religious leaders attended the delivery of the judgment, which took over six hours.

Rights activist Michael Kaiyatsa of the Center for Human Rights and Rehabilitation said he was not happy with the ruling but would comment more after going through the written judgment.

Defense attorney Bob Chimkango said, “To be honest, we are satisfied with the process, but the only thing that we may not be agreeing with is the judgment itself. But it’s too early to comment as you will notice it’s a 135-page document. We were just listening — we were not working on it. So we will be waiting for it to be given to us, analyze it and then advise the client accordingly.”

A spokesperson for Ministry of Justice, Frank Namangale told reporters outside the court that the government was happy with the ruling.

Same-sex marriages have been a controversial issue in Malawi.

In July 2023, religious leaders led street protests across the country against the potential legalization of same-sex marriage.

Friday’s judgment means homosexuality remains an offense in Malawi, punishable by a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.

The Constitutional Court said Friday that the applicants were free to ask parliament to amend the country’s homosexuality laws if they were not satisfied with its judgment.
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Johannesburg — “Kenya is not IMF’s lab rat,” was just one of many slogans condemning the International Monetary Fund that was seen this week on demonstrators’ placards at protests in Kenya against proposed tax hikes. 

The protests, fueled by tech-savvy youth on social media, were sparked by the Kenyan government’s plans to significantly raise taxes to pay off its enormous debt. 

The government did a U-turn after things turned deadly Tuesday when protesters broke into parliament in Nairobi and police opened fire, killing over 20 people, according to rights groups. 

Embattled President William Ruto announced he was listening to the protesters’ concerns and was scrapping his controversial finance bill. He said he would instead introduce budget cuts and austerity measures to try to shore up the country’s finances.   

But the chaotic events in one of Africa’s major economies, also a key U.S. ally, have led to questions about the debt choking many developing countries, and who is to blame. 

International financial institutions  

Kenya owes $80 billion in domestic and foreign debt. Its debt stands at 68 percent of GDP, well above the World Bank and IMF’s recommended maximum of 55 percent. 

The tax hikes in Ruto’s unpopular bill were aimed at avoiding default and came after an agreement earlier this month between Kenya and the IMF on a comprehensive reform package.   

Most of Kenya’s debt is owed to international bondholders, while its biggest bilateral creditor is China, to which it owes $5.7 billion.    

Washington frequently accuses Beijing of “debt trap diplomacy” — unscrupulous lending that leaves developing countries overly burdened. China, which has undertaken large infrastructure projects across Africa under President Xi Jinping’s global Belt and Road Initiative, vehemently rejects the allegations. 

Experts have different takes on whether China or Western monetary institutions are to blame for Kenya’s current woes. Kenya owes billions of dollars to Western countries and the IMF as well as China. 

“The key culprit is the lack of a well-functioning global financial safety net,” said Kevin P. Gallagher, director of Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center.  

“Programs from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank made the situation worse, rather than better, and the flaws in the G20 Common Framework to work out debt problems were seen as too risky for Kenya to enter into,” he said, referring to the debt restructuring mechanism that other indebted African countries like Zambia and Ghana have been using. 

China’s role 

Gallagher said China’s loans to Kenya have decreased in recent years, according to his university’s data, and it has little to do with the East Africa country’s debt woes. 

“Indeed, the Kenyan case disproves accusations of ‘debt-trap diplomacy’ on the part of China. If China was doing debt trap diplomacy it would be seizing Kenyan assets, instead Chinese capital has been the most patient during these rough times,” Gallagher told VOA. 

David Shinn, a former U.S. diplomat, said the blame couldn’t be placed on any one factor. 

“China is the largest bilateral lender, but its loans are quite modest when compared to the international financial institutions and holders of Eurobonds,” he told VOA. 

“All of these players share the blame for too much debt. The Kenyan government should not have allowed itself to take on so much debt and those who offered loans should have been more circumspect,” he continued.  

Alex Vines, director of the Africa Program at Chatham House, was also even-handed, saying, “China is part of the debt burden, but private equity is also contributing to the overall burden.”  

Aly-Khan Satchu, a Kenya-based economist, said Kenya was “in a perfect debt storm.”  

“You know you’d get whiplash for looking at Kenya’s politics. From a period of looking east, we’re back to looking west again … and therefore a big decision has been made to wrestle Kenya away from the Chinese orbit, with the support of the World Bank and the IMF.” 

However, Satchu said, one of the problems is that Kenya has had to reroute some of the IMF and World Bank’s money in order to pay its debts to China, particularly for a Chinese-built railway.  

Harry Verhoeven, a senior researcher at Columbia University, told VOA neither China nor the IMF is uniquely responsible for Kenya’s problems. 

“I think the IMF is not wrong in its diagnosis that there’s not enough revenue being raised, I think that’s certainly right,” he said. “Where you can be more critical of the IMF is, so far at least, that it hasn’t spoken up very much … about the distributional effects of how that revenue should be raised, or what the government has proposed to raise it.” 

Other factors 

Analysts note it wasn’t just loans that got Kenya into its fiscal predicament. The country was hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and has also suffered from the fallout of Russia’s war on Ukraine — which has seen global food and energy prices rise. Climate change-induced floods have also hurt the country’s economy. 

Samuel Misati Nyandemo, a senior economics lecturer at the University of Nairobi, said the Kenyan government, having withdrawn the controversial finance bill, now has a tough road ahead.  

“The government should try to balance between raising revenues and address the cost of living and doing business in the midst of entrenched corruption, impunity and wastage of public resources,” he said. 

Kenya, he warned, might not be the last African country where frustrations boil over and citizens take to the streets.  

In impassioned remarks in April, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “the world cannot afford to continue throwing developing countries’ plans and futures onto a raging bonfire of debt.” 

He said around 40% of the world’s population now live in countries that spend more on interest payments than health or education.
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PROVIDENCE, Guyana — India thumped defending champion England by 68 runs to reach the final of the Twenty20 World Cup on Thursday.

India will face South Africa on Saturday at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados in a battle of the two unbeaten teams of the tournament.

Captain Rohit Sharma’s (57) second half-century helped India compile 171-7 and Suryakumar Yadav also blunted the England pace and spin with a vital knock of 47 off 36 balls after more than 2-1/2 hours of second semifinal was lost due to rain and wet outfield.

Spinners Axar Patel and the Kuldeep Yadav then combined in for 6-42 through some sharp turners as England got bowled out for 103 in 16.3 overs on a skiddy, low pitch devoid of grass to bow out of the tournament.

“If bowlers and batters adapt, things fall in place,” a beaming Sharma said. “Axar and Kuldeep are gun spinners. (It was) tough to play shots against them in these conditions (and) they were calm under pressure.”

Captain Jos Buttler smashed four boundaries in his 23 off 15 balls, but once he top-edged reverse sweep off left-arm spinner Patel’s first ball inside the power play and lobbed a simplest of catches to wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, England kept on losing wickets with regular intervals.

“I’ve bowled in the powerplay in the past many times,” Patel said after being adjudged player of the semifinal. “Knew the wicket was assisting and didn’t try too many things.”

England had collapsed to 88-9 when Liam Livingstone and Adil Rashid both got run out but Jofra Archer hit 21 off 15 balls before Jasprit Bumrah (2-12) finished off England by having Archer leg before wicket.

The win was sweet revenge for India, which got hammered by England by 10 wickets in the 2022 World Cup semifinal at Adelaide, Australia.

“India outplayed us,” Buttler said. “We let them get 20-25 runs too many on a challenging surface … they had an above-par total and it was always a tough chase.”

Earlier, Sharma and Yadav combined in a 73-run third wicket stand on a wicket where batters struggled to negotiate the variable bounce of pace and spin.

Virat Kohli’s below-par tournament continued after a wet outfield delayed the toss for 80 minutes and Buttler won the toss and elected to field.

Kohli took his run tally to disappointing 75 runs in seven games with run-a-ball knock of nine before Reece Topley cramped him for a big shot and hit the top of leg stump.

“We understand his (Kohli’s) class,” Sharma said in defense of his ace batter. “Form is never a problem when you’ve played for 15 years, probably saving for the final.”

Sharma continued his sublime form in the tournament on difficult pitches and countercharged on a yet another tough wicket for batters before heavy rain took the players off the field for another 73 minutes when India had reached 65-2 after eight overs.

Sharma reached his 50 after resumption of play with a swept six over fine leg off Sam Curran, and Yadav hammered the left-arm fast bowler to point for a six before both exited in successive overs.

Sharma was undone by a googly from Adil Rashid (1-25) in his last over and was clean bowled, while Yadav was deceived by Archer’s slower ball and ballooned a catch to long off.

Chris Jordan picked up 3-37 that included the wickets of Hardik Pandya (23) and Shivam Dube off successive balls, but India had piled up enough runs for its spinners to defend.
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HARARE, ZIMBABWE — The head of U.S. Africa Command denied Thursday claims by Zimbabwean government officials that Washington is setting up a military base in neighboring Zambia and wants to move AFRICOM operations there from Germany.

At an online press briefing, General Michael Langley, head of AFRICOM, rejected Zimbabwe’s claims that the United States is establishing a base in neighboring Zambia.

“That’s absolutely false,” Langley said from an African Chiefs of Defense Conference in Botswana. “We have no bases in Zambia. We have no plans to put one there.”

He said the U.S.’s approach on the continent is “African-led and U.S.-enabled.”

“We have a deep partnership with Zambia,” he said. “We have increased security cooperation with them. But there is no footprint. There’s no posture. There’s no base.”

Zimbabwean officials declined to comment to VOA about Langley’s remarks. But Rutendo Matinyarare, chairperson of the pro-government Zimbabwe Anti-Sanctions Movement, alleged that Langley held a briefing in Lusaka and that the U.S. was setting up the AFRICOM hub in Zambia.

Matinyarare claimed that several businesspeople who have flown into the country have seen a substantial amount of American military equipment at Zambia’s airport.

“And so, the question is, ‘What are these weapons doing in Zambia?’” he said.

Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema denies that his country is being militarized by the U.S. He says Zambia’s army has exchange programs with a number of countries, including the U.S., which should not be mistaken for the U.S. establishing a base.

Zambia says it has called on two regional bodies — the African Union and the Southern African Development Community — to mediate talks with Zimbabwe. Zambia and Zimbabwe are members of both organizations.

Zambian officials have also said the fallout stems from comments that Zimbabwean President Emerson Mnangagwa made during a recent trip to Russia — namely, the accusation that the U.S. has been militarizing Zambia to consolidate power in the region and isolate Zimbabwe.

Western countries imposed travel and financial sanctions on Zimbabwe’s leadership and affiliated companies in the early 2000s for alleged election rigging and human rights abuses. The U.S. recently removed sanctions on most Zimbabweans, but a few prominent figures — including Mnangagwa — remain on the list.

Meanwhile, Langley told reporters that top regional security challenges throughout Africa were discussed at the just-ended defense conference.

“Our African partners want this conference here because they want to own it. But we are AFRICOM, and the U.S. government is here because we have common values, common objectives, that will affect stability, security and prosperity on the continent,” he said.

This year’s conference provided a “valuable wealth of information” and lessons ahead of talks next year, Langley said.
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United Nations — A new U.N.-backed report says hunger in war-torn Sudan is at unprecedented levels, with more than 25 million people experiencing emergency levels of hunger, 755,000 in catastrophic conditions, and the risk of famine in several regions.

“WFP’s team in Sudan is working day and night in perilous conditions to deliver lifesaving assistance, yet these numbers confirm that time is fast running out to prevent famine,” Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Program, said in a statement Thursday. “For each person we have reached this year, another eight desperately need help.”

McCain said humanitarians urgently need more funding and also for access to be massively expanded so they can scale-up relief operations.

Food security experts gathered the data between April 21 and June 13. Their latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, report says Sudan is facing the worst levels of acute food insecurity ever recorded by the IPC in the country. The IPC was established in 2004.

The experts concluded that more than half of the population — 25.6 million people — are projected to experience crisis levels of hunger or worse during the lean season, which runs from now through September.

In 10 of Sudan’s 18 states, 755,000 people are facing IPC 5 – or catastrophe levels. That includes all five states comprising Greater Darfur, South and North Kordofan, Blue Nile, Al Jazirah, and Khartoum states.

The food experts warned that if the conflict escalates further, there is a risk of famine in 14 areas, including Greater Darfur, Greater Kordofan, Al Jazirah states and some hotspots in the capital, Khartoum.

The IPC says its latest findings “mark a stark and rapid deterioration” of the food security situation compared to their last report in December. The report said 17.7 million people were facing acute hunger, including nearly 5 million people in emergency levels of hunger. Now, the IPC says that emergency level has risen to a projected 8.5 million people.

Children are at particular risk.

“Hunger and malnutrition are spreading at alarming rates, and without concerted international action and funding, there is a very real danger the situation will spiral out of all control,” Catherine Russell, executive director of the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF, said in a statement.

“There is no time to lose,” she said. “Any delay in unfettered access to vulnerable populations will be measured in the loss of children’s lives.”

A power struggle between the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the head of the Sudanese Armed Forces for the last 14 months has created a massive humanitarian crisis. More than 6 million people have been internally displaced, on top of the nearly 4 million who were displaced before the current conflict. Another 2 million have fled to neighboring countries, including Chad, South Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia.

The WFP says it has reached more than 3 million displaced and vulnerable people in Sudan since January, and it is scaling up to reach 5 million more by the end of this year. The food agency also is working to expand access and open new humanitarian routes, from neighboring countries and across conflict front lines.

Additionally, the Food and Agriculture Organization is working to assist the country’s farmers and pastoralists with seeds, animal vaccinations and other critical supplies to restore domestic food production.

While UNICEF is scaling up nutritional screening, malnutrition therapies and vaccinations, it also is distributing clean drinking water to upwards of 5 million people, as part of a multi-pronged effort to prevent famine and disease.
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Nairobi, Kenya   — Kenya braced for more protests in the capital, Nairobi, Thursday, despite an announcement by President William Ruto to put on hold an unpopular tax bill that sparked deadly riots.

Witnesses in the capital reported police set up roadblocks on streets leading to the presidential palace.

In an address to the nation Wednesday, Ruto defended the move to raise taxes on basic goods such bread and cooking oil, saying it was necessary to reduce the country’s massive debt of nearly $80 billion. But he admitted the public did not support the finance bill and decided not to sign it.

He spoke one day after more than 20 people were killed during protests against the bill that led to clashes with police.

“I concede and therefore I will not sign the 2024 finance bill. It shall subsequently be withdrawn and that shall be our collective position,” Ruto said in a statement to lawmakers from the State House on Wednesday.

The bill won approval in Parliament on Tuesday, but lawmakers fled the scene as clashes between police and protesters mounted and hundreds of demonstrators stormed the complex. Parts of the Parliament were set on fire and burned for hours.

Late Tuesday evening, the Kenyan president condemned protesters’ storming of the Parliament as treasonous and a threat to national security.

On Wednesday, human rights defenders and good governance organizations gathered at Kenya Human Rights Commission to condemn the violence against the protesters and accused the president of being accountable for what had happened on Tuesday.

“There’s absolutely nothing wrong with Kenyans getting on the streets to voice themselves. This is a constitutional provision as part of the Kenyan constitution 2010,” said Grace Wangechi, a human rights and social development expert and the executive director of Independent Medico Legal Unit, an organization created in 1993 to protest against torture in Kenya.

Lorna Dias, a human rights defender and executive coordinator of Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya, said, “There’s nothing that justifies the use of live bullets on protesters. The destruction of property that happened on the streets was a security failure and this regime should take the blame,” Dias said.

Deputy President of Kenya Rigathi Gachagua, who also addressed the nation from the coastal city of Mombasa, said he sympathizes with the president but blamed the National Intelligence Service chief, Noordin Haji, for Tuesday’s violence.

Gachagua said that had the National Intelligence Service “briefed the president that this bill was unpopular with the Kenyan people, there would not have been deaths and … mayhem,” he said.

There was no immediate response from the intelligence service.

The deputy president asked the protesters to call off other planned protests tomorrow, saying that when that happens, “we can begin an honest conversation on how to work on our country.”
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New York — A Congolese teenager appealed to the U.N. Security Council Wednesday to protect children in his country, where conflict between the military and armed groups in the country’s east is exacting an appalling toll on children.

“I ask you all to take up the cause of defending children’s rights internationally and in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” the 16-year-old boy, whose identity was protected, told a meeting focusing on children and armed conflict through an interpreter.

Last year, the United Nations verified almost 4,000 grave violations against children in the Central African nation, where armed groups have been vying for years with the military for control over the country’s vast natural resources.

More than 1,800 children were recruited by armed groups last year, according to the annual U.N. report that verifies violations against children.

Sixteen armed groups operating in the country were named and shamed for a range of offenses, from abducting and forcibly recruiting children, to maiming and killing them.

The Congolese armed forces were listed for committing rape and other forms of sexual violence against children, but the U.N. noted they have taken formal steps aimed at preventing such abuses.

More than 650 children were verified to have been killed or maimed last year, the majority by three armed groups — CODECO, the Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, and M23. Thirty child casualties were attributed to the army and police.

The teenager who addressed the Security Council spoke of how he was abducted, beaten and forcibly recruited by an armed group on his way to school one day with two friends.

“We cried and trembled, begging them to let us go home to our families, but they wouldn’t listen,” he recounted. “That’s when they started whipping us and keeping us in the bush. We were heavily guarded, and they had orders to kill anyone who tried to flee. I had to leave school to serve this armed group by force.”

His job was to steal food from farmers’ fields.

“During the fighting, many [child recruits] were exposed to being killed by the enemy, and others were killed by their groups themselves, for fear they would divulge their secrets if caught by the military,” he said.

After three years in the bush and losing hope of ever seeing his family again, one day he took his chance and escaped while out searching for food. Found by the army, he was taken into custody and briefly sent to a military prison. He went through demobilization rehabilitation and has now returned to school. But not all children are as fortunate.

“Girls were also abducted,” he said. “Some became wives of the chiefs, while others were taken by other soldiers.”

Spiraling sexual violence

The United Nations report says sexual violence was perpetrated against 279 girls and two boys last year — including rape, gang rape, forced marriage and sexual slavery.

“The use of sexual violence as a modus operandi of armed groups is spiraling,” Ted Chaiban, UNICEF deputy executive director, told the council.

“During my recent visits to the DRC, I met with adolescent girls who had run away with their siblings when their villages were attacked, and who now headed their households,” he said.

Chaiban said it is especially worrying that the conflict is intensifying at the same time the large U.N. peacekeeping mission is beginning to leave the country, at the government’s request.

“There is a very real risk that the humanitarian crisis in the DRC could soon become a catastrophe,” he said.

It is not just children who are experiencing horrific abuse. Women are also subjected to staggering rates of sexual violence.

In Goma, capital of North Kivu province, instances of sexual violence in the first half of 2024 were double the amount recorded over the same time last year, from 7,500 reported cases to 15,000, said Francois Moreillon, the International Committee of the Red Cross’s head of delegation in DRC.

“Anyone with a gun feels that he can do whatever he wants,” he told reporters.

Moreillon recounted how a woman that the ICRC had treated after being raped told caregivers that she and other women were taking condoms with them into the forest when they went to collect firewood — a prime time for women to be attacked.

She said they hoped to persuade their potential rapists to wear them so they could prevent sexually transmitted diseases and lessen the anger of their husbands, who often leave women after finding out they have been raped.

The Congo has one of the largest internal displacement crises in the world, with more than 7 million people affected.
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