RABAT, Morocco — Torrential downpours hit North Africa’s normally arid mountains and deserts over the weekend, causing flooding that killed more than a dozen people in Morocco and Algeria and destroyed homes and critical infrastructure.

In Morocco, officials said the two days of storms surpassed historic averages, in some cases exceeding the annual average rainfall. The downpours affected some of the regions that experienced a deadly earthquake one year ago.

Meteorologists had predicted that a rare deluge could strike North Africa’s Sahara Desert, where many areas receive less than an inch of rain a year.

Officials in Morocco said 11 people were killed in rural areas where infrastructure has historically been lacking, and 24 homes collapsed. Nine people were missing. Drinking water and electrical infrastructure were damaged, along with major roads.

Rachid El Khalfi, Morocco’s Interior Ministry spokesperson, said Sunday in a statement that the government was working to restore communication and access to flooded regions in the “exceptional situation” and urged people to use caution.

In neighboring Algeria, which held a presidential election over the weekend, authorities said at least five died in the country’s desert provinces. Interior Minister Brahim Merad called the situation “catastrophic” on state-owned television.

Algeria’s state-run news service APS said the government had sent thousands of civil protection and military officers to help with emergency response efforts and rescue families stuck in their homes. The floods also damaged bridges and trains in the area.
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Kenyan police officer Stephen Ominde has his way of fighting crime. In 2020, he started the Mathare soccer team to keep young people off the streets and out of trouble. Four years on, the team is still going strong. Reporter Joel Masibo has more from Mathare, Nairobi, Kenya. Camera: Joseph Kinyua, Joseph Munyiri. In collaboration with Egab.co.
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Cairo — More than 16 months of war in Sudan has killed more than 20,000 people, a senior United Nations official said Sunday, a grim figure amid a devastating conflict that has wrecked the northeastern African country. 

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, gave the tally at a news conference in Sudan’s Red Sea city of Port Sudan, which serves as the seat of the internationally recognized, military-backed government. He said the death toll could be much higher. 

“Sudan is suffering through a perfect storm of crisis,” Tedros said as he wrapped up his two-day visit to Sudan. “The scale of the emergency is shocking, as is the insufficient action being taken to curtail the conflict.” 

Sudan was plunged into chaos in April last year when simmering tensions between the military and a powerful paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, exploded into open warfare across the country. 

The conflict has turned the capital, Khartoum, and other urban areas into battlefields, wrecking civilian infrastructure and an already battered health care system. Without the basics, many hospitals and medical facilities have closed their doors. 

The conflict has created the world’s largest displacement crisis. More than 13 million people have been forced to flee their homes since fighting began, according to the International Organization for Migration. They include over 2.3 million who have fled to neighboring countries as refugees. 

The fighting has been marked by atrocities including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to the U.N. and international rights groups. 

On Friday, U.N.-backed human rights investigators urged the creation of an “independent and impartial force” to protect civilians, blaming both sides for war crimes including murder, mutilation and torture. 

Devastating seasonal floods in recent weeks have compounded the misery. Dozens of people have been killed and critical infrastructure has been washed away in 12 of Sudan’s 18 provinces, according to local authorities. 

A cholera outbreak is the latest calamity for the country. The disease has killed at least 165 and sickened about 4,200 others in recent weeks, the health ministry said in its latest update Friday. 

“We are calling on the world to wake up and help Sudan out of the nightmare it’s living through,” Tedros said, adding that an immediate cease-fire is urgently required. 

“The best medicine is peace,” he added. 
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KAJIADO, Kenya — The blood, milk and meat of cattle have long been staple foods for Maasai pastoralists in Kenya, perhaps the country’s most recognizable community. But climate change is forcing the Maasai to contemplate a very different dish: fish.

A recent yearslong drought in Kenya killed millions of livestock. While Maasai elders hope the troubles are temporary and they will be able to resume traditional lives as herders, some are adjusting to a kind of food they had never learned to enjoy.

Fish were long viewed as part of the snake family due to their shape, and thus inedible. Their smell had been unpleasant and odd to the Maasai, who call semi-arid areas home.

“We never used to live near lakes and oceans, so fish was very foreign for us,” said Maasai Council of Elders chair Kelena ole Nchoi. “We grew up seeing our elders eat cows and goats.”

Among the Maasai and other pastoralists in Kenya and wider East Africa — like the Samburu, Somali and Borana — cattle are also a status symbol, a source of wealth and part of key cultural events like marriages as part of dowries.

But the prolonged drought in much of East Africa left carcasses of emaciated cattle strewn across vast dry lands. In early 2023, the Kenya National Drought Management Authority said 2.6 million livestock had died, with an estimated value of 226 billion Kenya shillings ($1.75 billion).

Meanwhile, increasing urbanization and a growing population have reduced available grazing land, forcing pastoralists to adopt new ways to survive.

In Kajiado county near Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, the local government is supporting fish farming projects for pastoralists — and encouraging them to eat fish, too.

Like many other Maasai women, Charity Oltinki previously engaged in beadwork, and her husband was in charge of the family’s herd. But the drought killed almost 100 of their cows, and only 50 sheep of their 300-strong flock survived.

“The lands were left bare, with nothing for the cows to graze on,” Oltinki said. “So, I decided to set aside a piece of land to rear fish and monitor how they would perform.”

The county government supplied her with pond liners, tilapia fish fingerlings and some feed. Using her savings from membership in a cooperative society, Oltinki secured a loan and had a well dug to ease the challenge of water scarcity.

After six months, the first batch of hundreds of fish was harvested, with the largest selling for up to 300 Kenyan shillings each ($2.30).

Another member of the Maasai community in Kajiado, Philipa Leiyan, started farming fish in addition to keeping livestock.

“When the county government introduced us to this fish farming project, we gladly received it because we considered it as an alternative source of livelihood,” Leiyan said.

The Kajiado government’s initiative started in 2014 and currently works with 600 pastoralists to help diversify their incomes and provide a buffer against the effects of climate change. There was initial reluctance, but the number of participants has grown from about 250 before the drought began in 2022.

“The program has seen some importance,” said Benson Siangot, director of fisheries in Kajiado county, adding that it also addresses issues of food insecurity and malnutrition.

The Maasai share their love for cattle with the Samburu, an ethnic group that lives in arid and semi-arid areas of northern Kenya and speaks a dialect of the Maa language that the Maasai speak.

The recent drought has forced the Samburu to look beyond cattle, too — to camels.

In Lekiji village, Abdulahi Mohamud now looks after 20 camels. The 65-year-old father of 15 lost his 30 cattle during the drought and decided to try an animal more suited to long dry spells.

“Camels are easier to rear as they primarily feed on shrubs and can survive in harsher conditions,” he said. “When the pasture dries out, all the cattle die.”

According to Mohamud, a small camel can be bought for 80,000 to 100,000 Kenyan shillings ($600 to $770) while the price of a cow ranges from 20,000 to 40,000 ($154 to $300).

He saw the camel’s resilience as worth the investment.

In a vast grazing area near Mohamud, 26-year-old Musalia Piti looked after his father’s 60 camels. The family lost 50 cattle during the drought and decided to invest in camels that they can sell whenever they need cattle for traditional ceremonies. Cows among the Samburu are used for dowries.

“You have to do whatever it takes to find cattle for wedding ceremonies, even though our herds may be smaller nowadays,” said Lesian Ole Sempere, a 59-year-old Samburu elder. Offering a cow as a gift to a prospective bride’s parents encourages them to declare their daughter as “your official wife,” he said.
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ALGIERS, Algeria — Algerians head to the polls Saturday to cast votes for president and determine who will govern their gas-rich North African nation — five years after pro-democracy protests prompted the military to oust the previous president after two decades in power.

Since elections were scheduled in March — ahead of the predicted schedule — there has been little suspense about the result.

Although few doubt he will be named the winner by the time results are finalized, military-backed President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said Saturday after voting that he hoped “whoever wins will continue on the path towards a point of no return in the construction of democracy.”

Members of Tebboune’s government as well as his challengers have urged voters to cast ballots after boycotts and high abstention rates in previous elections marred the government’s ability to claim popular support.

“I call on Algerians to vote en masse to reinforce our country’s democratic processes,” Mohamed Larbaoui, Tebboune’s prime minister, said at the polls Saturday.

Algeria is Africa’s largest country by area and, with almost 45 million people, it’s the continent’s second-most populous after South Africa to hold presidential elections in 2024 — a year in which more than 50 elections are being held worldwide, encompassing more than half the world’s population.

The campaign — rescheduled to take place during North Africa’s hot summer — has been characterized by widespread apathy from the population, which continues to be plagued by high costs of living and a punishing drought that brought water shortages to some parts of the country.

On Saturday morning, many polling places sat mostly empty. Without crowds or lines of voters queuing to cast their ballots, administrators hoped things would pick up later in the day before polls close at 7 p.m.

“Residents generally vote in the afternoon,” said Rabah Belamri, poll station chief in Rouiba, a neighborhood east of downtown Algiers.

“Uncle Tebboune,” as his campaign has framed the 78-year-old, was elected in December 2019 after nearly a year of weekly “Hirak” demonstrations demanding the resignation of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Their demands were met when Bouteflika resigned that April and was replaced by an interim government of his former allies, which called for elections later in the year.

Protestors opposed holding elections too soon, fearing the candidates running that year each were close to the old regime and would derail dreams of a civilian-led, nonmilitary state. Tebboune, a former prime minister seen as close to the military, won. But his victory was stained by low turnout, boycotts and Election Day tumult, during which crowds sacked voting stations and police broke up demonstrations.

To cement his legitimacy, Tebboune hopes more of the country’s 24 million eligible voters will participate in Saturday’s election than in his first when only 39.9% voted.

But many of the last election’s boycotters remain unconvinced about elections ushering in change.

Activists and international organizations, including Amnesty International, have railed against how authorities continue prosecuting those involved in opposition parties, media organizations and civil society groups.

Some have also denounced this election as a rubber stamp exercise that can only entrench the status quo.

“Algerians don’t give a damn about this bogus election,” said former Hirak leader Hakim Addad, who was banned from participating in politics three years ago. “The political crisis will persist as long as the regime remains in place.”

Twenty-six candidates submitted preliminary paperwork to run in the election, although only two were ultimately approved to challenge Tebboune.

Neither political novices, they have avoided directly criticizing Tebboune on the campaign trail and, like the incumbent, emphasized participation.

Abdelali Hassani Cherif, a 57-year-old head of the Islamist party Movement of Society for Peace has made populist appeals to Algerian youth, running on the slogan “Opportunity!”

At his polling place Saturday, he thanked his opponents and said it was “an important election for the country’s future.”

Youcef Aouchiche, a 41-year-old former journalist running with the Socialist Forces Front, campaigned on a “vision for tomorrow,” and made appeals to those concerned about human rights and political repression. It’s the first time since 1999 that his party, which enjoys strong support among ethnic minorities in central Algeria, has put forth a candidate.

Voting in Kabylia on Saturday, Aouchiche called on Algerians to break with the system that rules the country “to give young people the confidence to put an end to the despair that drives them to take the boats of death in an attempt to reach the other side of the Mediterranean,” referencing many who elect to migrate to Europe in search of opportunity rather than remain at home.

Andrew Farrand, the Middle East and North Africa director at the geopolitical risk consultancy Horizon Engage, said both opposition candidates were more aimed at the 2025 legislative elections than the 2024 presidential contest. Because Algerian law funds political parties based on the number of seats they win in legislative elections, they hope campaigning positions them for a strong 2025 performance.

“It’s a long game: How can I mobilize my base? How can I build up a campaign machine? And how can I get into the good graces of the authorities so that I can be in a position to increase my seats?” he said. “We’ve seen that in their choice not to overtly criticize [the] president … paired with a very strong message to Algerians to come out and vote.”
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Kinshasa, Congo —  

Officials from the Democratic Republic of Congo will be heading home from the two-day Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing with limited success in their bid to expand economic relations beyond the mineral exports that have dominated trade, analysts say.

“The Chinese will continue to want to consolidate their position in Congo, including on minerals,” says Jean-Pierre Okenda, a Congolese consultant on mining issues.

Although the DRC has a trade surplus with China, while most African countries have large deficits, almost all of it is from minerals China is buying to feed its manufacturers that are hungry for raw materials.

The central African nation is the world’s largest producer of copper and cobalt, a metal used in electronics and a key material for batteries used in electric vehicles.  The DRC has about 70% of the planet’s cobalt reserves.

Expanding trade, investment?

China’s customs authority shows trade flows to the DRC dropped 13% last year to $18.75 billion compared to 2022, the vast majority of it due to China’s decreased imports from the DRC, which dropped by nearly 14% to $14.27 billion.

While the drop was largely due to fluctuating prices, it underscored how deeply the DRC, one of the poorest countries in the world, relies on China.  

China is by far its largest single trading partner, representing nearly half of its merchandise exports and more than a quarter of its imports, according to 2022 data from the World Trade Organization.

Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi was the first African leader to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of the conference. According to a statement from his office, Tshisekedi made it clear he wants to see bilateral trade expanded to other sectors “such as agriculture, renewable energy and especially industrialization through the local processing of the DRC’s mineral wealth.” 

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said ahead of the forum that Xi declared his nation is ready to “deepen cooperation in agriculture, mineral products processing, vocational training and other fields.”

Many in the Congolese leadership were hoping to come away from the conference with large pledges of Chinese investment in the country.

Julien Paluku, the DRC’s trade minister, on Thursday published a plea for Kinshasa to be given a large chunk of the $50 billion that Xi promised at the conference to invest in Africa over the next three years.

“We focused our arguments on DRC’s pivotal role in the Belt and Road Initiative, highlighting its strategic location as a connectivity point from North to South and East to West across the African continent,” he wrote on X.

Business climate

Christian-Geraud Neema, a Congolese researcher on China-Africa relations and the Francophone Africa Editor of the China Global South Project, says complaints about the investment climate in the DRC are an issue.

“There is a sort of reluctance to increase projects,” he says, referring to Chinese investments in Congo. “China will make promises, but not very committed promises.”

The DRC is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, ranking 162 out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index.

Chinese businesses have also come under increasing pressure under Tshisekedi’s administration, with the government working to renegotiate long-standing deals with Chinese mining firms.

In January, the Congolese government concluded talks on renegotiating a deal with the Chinese consortium running Sicomines, a copper-cobalt mine in Congo’s southeast. That renegotiation saw the investors behind the consortium agree to spend a massive $7 billion on developing infrastructure, such as badly needed roads and bridges, in the DRC.

Another Chinese company, CMOC, which runs the largest copper-cobalt mine in the world, situated in the DRC, agreed to pay $2 billion to the Congolese state last year after a commercial dispute.

Although many analysts believe those mining deals are still favorable to China, the uncertain business environment and the costs associated with rampant corruption have caused unease, say analysts.

“The operating conditions in Congo, everyone knows what they’re like,” says Okenda, explaining that Chinese firms were among the few willing to brave Congo’s tough business environment.

Defense cooperation

Defense is another area where some in the Congolese administration had been hoping for more cooperation in light of the country’s struggle to end the brutal conflict in eastern DRC.

Tshisekedi’s office said he discussed security concerns with Xi and that he “praised China’s influence on the lifting of the [U.N.] arms embargo on the DRC while it is unjustly attacked by Rwanda and M23 terrorists.”

The M23, a Rwandan-backed rebel group, has captured swathes of territory in the region since launching a rebellion in late 2021, and displaced more than 1 million people from their homes.

The DRC’s army, which critics say is weak and plagued with corruption, has struggled to fight back, losing battles and territory. But the DRC army did purchase nine high-tech Chinese CH-4 Rainbow attack drones, which it has used effectively in battle despite some being shot down.

Jean-Pierre Bemba, who was the DRC’s defense minister before moving to the transport portfolio in April, said in Beijing this week that he hoped China and the DRC could go beyond their traditional areas of cooperation and work more closely on defense.

Analysts are skeptical the defense relationship will go much further. Okenda, the mining consultant, said “China’s interest isn’t in defense,” and that Beijing’s overriding concern was natural resources.

Neema, the researcher, said the prospect of a minerals-for-arms deal with Chinese firms had been a vague idea for years, but that Congolese leaders had never pursued it for fear of angering the United States, another important diplomatic partner.

He said that closer defense cooperation remained unlikely, unless the situation in the eastern DRC deteriorates further.

“Expediting military factors could push the Congolese government to make a deal,” he said.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in their statement on Xi’s meeting with Tshisekedi indicated he made no reference to defense cooperation and gave only a boiler plate comment about working together for peace.  
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Russian mercenaries hired to provide security in Burkina Faso began leaving the country in late August — they say to resist Ukraine’s recent incursion into Russia. Data show the mercenaries have had little impact in the Sahel’s war against Islamic terrorist groups. As Henry Wilkins reports, Burkina Faso saw one of the deadliest militant attacks in recent years the same week the Russians left.
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tel aviv, israel — As the first Egypt International Air Show wrapped up Thursday, industry analysts debated the significance of China’s presence, which included the most complete demonstration of its advanced Y-20 transport aircraft and the first showcase of its J-10 fighter jets in Africa.

Analysts say the high-profile presence of the Chinese air force at the event held at Egypt’s El Alamein International Airport underscores China’s growing technological prowess, military ambitions, and expanding influence in the Middle East and North Africa.

But analysts also question how much demand the region will have for the Chinese military planes.

“China is expanding and targeting the [Middle East] regional market,” Kostas Tigkos, manager of mission systems and intelligence at global military intelligence company Janes, told VOA. “This marks another milestone in China’s military diversification and opens doors to more collaboration in security domains, encourages investment opportunities and opens new channels to developing trade beyond traditional ties.”

Tigkos said the Middle East’s ranking as the region with China’s highest bilateral trade growth rate, and source of half of its imported oil, gives it a strategic interest in fostering economic, security, supply route and energy source development.

Interest in Chinese equipment

Countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are increasingly turning to China for military equipment, such as drones, missiles and anti-drone systems. Egypt has expressed interest in acquiring the J-10 fighter jet to diversify its military suppliers and enhance its capabilities.

In July, Egypt’s air force commander, Lieutenant General Mahmoud Foaad Abdel Jawad, traveled to Beijing at China’s behest for a meeting with China’s air force commander, Star General Chang Dingqiu.

According to an Egyptian military statement, the visit was characterized by Egypt’s “keenness to enhance areas of military cooperation with brotherly and friendly countries.” The statement added that the talks “opened new prospects between the air forces of both countries.”

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi attended the opening ceremony for this week’s air show and visited the Chinese pavilion.

Images of the Chinese-manufactured Y-20 transporter trailed by six J-10 jets flying over Egypt’s Giza pyramids in formation last week drew global attention, demonstrating distance and performance capabilities in the 10,000-kilometer flight from China to Egypt. 

The Y-20 appearance at the airshow is significant, Wendell Minnick, editor of the “China in Arms” Substack newsletter, told VOA.

“This is their attempt to match the U.S. heavy lift, long-range transport or aerial-refueled aircraft,” Minnick said.

Capabilities

China says the Y-20 can lift up to 66 tons and carry several tanks over a distance of 7,800 kilometers. Nicknamed “Chubby Girl” by China’s aviation industry for its broad fuselage girth, the Y-20 has been in development for 17 years. 

Dubbed “Vigorous Dragon,” China’s Chengdu J-10C is a combat aircraft armed with air-to-air and surface attack weapons. Primarily an air-to-air combat aircraft that can perform strike missions, the J-10C has been compared to and contrasted with the U.S. F-16 Fighting Falcon. 

“China needs these to project force beyond the mainland for expeditionary warfare,” Minnick said, “like the U.S. with the C-5 Galaxy and the C-17 Globemaster.”

The C-5M Super Galaxy is the U.S. Air Force’s largest aircraft, strategically designed to transport cargo and personnel. With a cargo load of more than 127 tons, nearly double China’s Y-20, it can carry oversized cargo over oceans and take off and land on relatively short runways.

The C-17 Globemaster III is “the most flexible cargo aircraft to enter the airlift force,” according to a U.S. Air Force press release, with a maximum payload of 74 tons.

Nonetheless, China’s state media touted the Y-20’s performance debut and quoted the People’s Liberation Army Air Force saying it carried out six maneuvers on Tuesday, “including large angle ascension and dive, large slope turning and fast landing, showing the aircraft’s outstanding maneuverability.”

China’s Y-20 and J-10 appeared at last November’s Dubai Air Show, and the Y-20 took part in a joint drill in Russia in July and joint drills with Mozambique and Tanzania in August. But this was the first time the Y-20 had performed aerial maneuvers in a show outside China, and the first time the J-10 had performed in Africa.

“China wants to have an Africa footprint as part of their expansionist plans,” Minnick said.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in March reported, “China, which accounted for 19% of deliveries to sub-Saharan Africa, overtook Russia as the region’s main supplier of major arms.”  

US suppliers

Despite China’s military sales in the region, Middle East buyers won’t be cutting ties with U.S. suppliers in favor of China in the near future, according to defense experts, who note that while the Y-20 is cheaper than the U.S. C-17 or C-5, it is less impressive and more vulnerable to missile attacks.

Minnick questions whether there will be any demand from customers in Africa and the Middle East for China’s military aircraft.

The Chinese transporter requires “tremendous training, technical support and additional off-the-shelf parts and components that most Mideast countries can’t handle” on both technical and financial fronts, he said.

“Iran is too poor,” Minnick said. “Saudi prefers Western aircraft, and Jordan is far more focused on internal security.”

Other defense experts like Tigkos say the Y-20 and J-10 present opportunities for long-term business and relationships with training programs, spare parts and maintenance – if they can find buyers.

“When a country is successful in the aviation realm, it marks a significant difference and ‘upgrade,’ if you will, toward helping foster relationships of trust and wider markets for China,” he said.

The first Egypt International Air Show was held Tuesday through Thursday with about 50 aircraft on display and with representatives from 100 countries and 300 companies in attendance, including U.S. industry giants Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
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GENEVA — United Nations investigators are accusing both of Sudan’s warring parties and their allied militias Friday of an appalling range of human rights violations that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The report, the first by the three-member Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan, presents a harrowing account of large-scale violations, including “indiscriminate and direct attacks carried out through airstrikes and shelling against civilians, schools, hospitals, communication networks and vital water and electricity supplies.”

Mona Rishwami, expert member of the fact-finding mission, told journalists in Geneva that both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) “conducted hostilities in densely populated areas,” damaging and destroying infrastructure and objects that were “indispensable for the survival of the civilian population.”

“We found that there are reasonable grounds to believe that both SAF and RSF and their respective allies have committed the war crimes of violence against life and persons, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment, and torture, and committing outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliation and degrading treatment,” she said.

The 19-page report, which will be submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council next week, is based on over 700 submissions from various entities, organizations, individuals and experts.

Sudanese authorities refused to grant investigators access to the country, so they gathered information and evidence of violations through in-depth interviews with 182 victims, their families and other eyewitnesses during visits to Chad, Kenya, and Uganda.

“Since mid-April 2023, the conflict in Sudan has spread to 14 of 18 states impacting the entire country and the region,” Mohamed Chande Othman, chairperson of the fact-finding mission, said.

Over the past 17 months, the conflict has uprooted millions of people from their homes. U.N. officials estimate 10.7 million people are displaced inside Sudan with some 2 million others having fled to neighboring countries as refugees, making Sudan the world’s largest displacement crisis.

“It is our view that the conflict is protracted and has engulfed the territory, affecting the whole of Sudan,” Othman said, adding that the true scale of the devastation caused by the conflict and the extent of suffering of the population is yet to be known, but the impact from the horrors inflicted upon the Sudanese “will last for decades to come.”

“We have found that the Sudanese warring parties … have committed an appalling range of violations,” he said. “We found reasonable grounds to believe that many of these violations amount to international crimes.”

The report accuses the warring parties of targeting civilians through rape and other forms of sexual violence, arbitrary arrest and detention, as well as torture and ill-treatment.

Fact-finding mission expert Joy Ngozi Ezeilo observed that women and children are among the main victims.

“Conflict-related sexual violence in Sudan has a long and tragic history and often is used as a weapon of war to terrorize and control communities,” she said.

While both parties to the conflict are guilty of rape and sexual violence, Ezeilo said that members of the RSF in particular have perpetrated the crimes on a large scale in Darfur and the greater Khartoum area.

“Victims recounted being attacked in their homes, beaten, lashed and threatened with death or harm to their relatives or children before being raped by more than one perpetrator,” she said. “They were also subjected to sexual violence while seeking shelter from attack or fleeing.”

The report also found that the RSF and its allied militias “committed the additional war crimes of rape, sexual slavery, and pillage, as well as ordering the displacement of the civilian population and the recruitment of children below 15 in hostilities.”

Investigators condemned what they called the “horrific assaults” carried out by the RSF and its allies against non-Arab communities — specifically the Masalit in and around El Geneina, West Darfur — including “killings, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, destruction of property and pillage.”

The report describes in searing detail the abuse to which children are subjected. Beyond recruitment for battle, children have been “killed, injured, forcibly displaced, detained with adults, tortured, subjected to sexual violence and deprived of healthcare and education.”

“The rare brutality of this war will have a devastating and long-lasting psychological impact on children in Sudan,” Ezeilo said.

Mission chairperson Othman warned that “The gravity of our findings and failure of the warring parties to protect civilians underscores the need for urgent and immediate intervention.

“Our report therefore calls and recommends for the deployment of an independent, impartial force to protect civilians in the country,” adding that both sides to the conflict must comply with their obligations under international law and “immediately and unconditionally cease all attacks on the civilian population.

The people of Sudan, he added, “have suffered greatly and the violations against them must stop.”

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Beijing — China’s years of splashing cash on big-ticket infrastructure projects in Africa may be over, analysts say, with Beijing seeking to shield itself from risky, indebted partners on the continent as it grapples with a slowing economy at home.   

Beijing for years dished out billions in loans for trains, roads and bridges in Africa that saddled participating governments with debts they often struggled to pay back.   

But experts say it is now opting for smaller loans to fund more modest development projects.   

“China has adjusted its lending strategy in Africa to take China’s own domestic economic troubles and Africa’s debt problems into account,” Lucas Engel, a data analyst studying Chinese development finance at the Boston University Global Development Policy Center, said.   

“This new prudence and risk aversion among Chinese lenders is intended to ensure that China can continue to engage with Africa in a more resilient and sustainable manner,” he told AFP.   

“The large infrastructure loans China was known for in the past have become rarer.”   

 

As African leaders gathered this week for Beijing’s biggest summit since the pandemic, President Xi Jinping committed more than $50 billion in financing over the next three years.   

More than half of that would be in credit, Xi said, while the rest would come from unspecified “various types of assistance” and $10 billion through encouraging Chinese firms to invest.   

Xi gave no details on how those funds would be dished out.   

Loans redirected 

China has for years pumped vast sums of cash into African nations as it looks to shore up access to crucial resources, while also using its influence as a geopolitical tool amid ongoing tensions with the West.   

But while Beijing lauds its largesse towards the continent, data shows China’s funding has dwindled dramatically in recent years.   

Chinese lenders supplied a total of $4.6 billion to eight African countries and two regional financial institutions last year, according to Boston University research.   

The key shift concerns those on the receiving end: more than half of the total amount went to multilateral or nationally owned banks — compared with just five percent between 2000 and 2022.   

And although last year’s loans to Africa were the highest since 2019, they were less than a quarter of what was dished out at the peak of nearly $29 billion eight years ago.   

“Redirecting loans to African multilateral borrowers allows Chinese lenders to engage with entities with high credit ratings, not struggling individual sovereign borrowers,” Engel said.   

“These loans reach private borrowers in ailing African countries in which African multilateral banks operate.” 

Modest approach  

China coordinates much of its overseas lending under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the massive infrastructure project that is a central pillar of Xi’s bid to expand his country’s clout overseas.   

The BRI made headlines for backing big-ticket projects in Africa with opaque funding and questionable impacts.   

But China has been shifting its approach in the past few years, analysts said.   

It has increasingly funneled money into smaller projects, from a modestly sized solar farm in Burkina Faso to a hydropower project in Madagascar and broadband infrastructure in Angola, according to Boston University’s researchers.   

“The increased volume of loans signals Africa’s continued importance to China, but the type of loans being deployed are intended to let Africans know that China is taking African concerns into account,” Engel told AFP.   

This does not mean that Beijing is “permanently retrenching its investments and provision of development finance to the continent,” Zainab Usman, director of the Africa Program at the US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said.   

“Development finance flows, especially lending, (are) now starting to rebound,” she said.    

No ‘debt traps’  

African leaders have this week secured deals with China on a range of sectors including infrastructure, agriculture, mining and energy.   

Western critics accuse China of using the BRI to enmesh developing nations in unsustainable debt to exert diplomatic leverage over them or even seize their assets.   

A chorus of African leaders — as well as research by leading global think tanks like London’s Chatham House — have rebuked the “debt trap” theory.   

“I don’t necessarily buy in the notion that when China invests, it is with an intention of… ensuring that those countries end up in a debt trap,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said in Beijing on Thursday.   

One analyst agreed, saying that for many Africans, China has “become synonymous” with life-changing roads, bridges and ports and the debt-trap argument ignores the “positive impact” Beijing has had on infrastructure development on the continent.   

“The reality is some [African] countries have had a tough time fulfilling their debt repayment commitments due to a multiplicity of factors,” Ovigwe Eguegu, a policy analyst at consultancy Development Reimagined, said.   

Engel, of the Boston University research center, said the argument mistakenly assumes that “China solely has short-term objectives in Africa.”   

That, he said, “vastly underestimates [its] long-term vision… to shape a system of global governance that will be favorable to its rise.” 
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ADDIS ABABA, ethiopia — The Ethiopian government has freed seven Oromo Liberation Front, or OLF, members who have been in prison for more than four years.  

A spokesperson for OLF Lemi Gemechu told VOA’s Horn of Africa Service that the seven were released on Thursday from the different prisons where they had been held.    

He identified the seven as Abdi Regassa, Dawit Abdeta, Lammi Begna, Michael Boran, Kenessa Ayana, Gada Gabisa and Gada Oljira. 

“Before their release, there was a process that took all day,” Lemi said.  

“Just now, the Oromo Liberation Front leaders who have been imprisoned for over four years at different sites have been released, including Abdi Regassa, members of the executive committee and other officials well-known among the people, all seven of them, are now released and here at home,” he said. 

Abdi is a prominent member of the OLF who once was the commander of the military wing of OLF.    

The release took place at Burayu police station outside Addis Ababa.    

Some of the released detainees are members of the executive committee while others are central committee and executive members of the OLF.  

Lemi said they welcomed their release and congratulated their supporters and those who advocated for their release.     

On his Facebook page, Lemi posted a picture of the seven standing with the leader of OLF, Dawud Ibsa.  

In a statement issued Thursday on Facebook, OLF said the members were released on bail. OLF said they were detained for “exercising their legitimate political rights” and said their detention was “unjust.” 

The opposition members were detained in 2020 for what rights groups at the time described as “purely political” reasons.  

The Ethiopian government has not yet officially commented on the release of the opposition figures.  

The United States has also welcomed the release of OLF detainees. 

“We remain ready to support negotiations aimed at ending the violence and promoting durable peace for all Ethiopians,” the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs said in a post on X. 

Human Rights Watch had been calling on the Ethiopian authorities to release the seven senior members of the opposition political party.  

Meanwhile, the family of Taye Dendea, the detained former Ethiopian state minister of peace, has expressed their disappointment with the Supreme Court’s decision to deny him bail.    

Taye’s wife, Sintayehu Alemayehu, told VOA’s Horn of Africa Service that she is sad because of the decision of Ethiopia’s federal Supreme Court.    

The court on Wednesday upheld the decision by a lower court to reject the bail request by Taye.    

Taye appeared before a court in Addis Ababa on Wednesday to find that his bail request had been rejected. The former state minister was arrested in December last year after he posted comments criticizing Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.    

Police accused him of collaborating with groups aiming to destabilize Ethiopia. It also accused him of using social media platforms to endorse violence.  

A lower court acquitted Taye of these charges without requiring him to present a defense but ordered him to defend against the third charge concerning the illegal possession of firearms.  

This story originated in VOA Horn of Africa Service.   
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Johannesburg — South Africa’s Ukrainian Association has expressed outrage that a Russian naval vessel was recently allowed to dock for several days at Cape Town harbor. Critics say the incident calls into question Pretoria’s purported neutral stance on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The Ukrainian Association in South Africa said it was dismayed to learn the Russian naval training ship Smolnyy had anchored at the Port of Cape Town in late August.

While the vessel was docked in South Africa, Russian bombardments in Ukraine killed scores of people, including children, the association’s Dzvinka Kachur said.

“Meanwhile, a Russian military training ship docks in Cape Town reportedly strengthening military ties between the countries,” said Kachur.

The Russian consulate general in Cape Town said on its X account August 30 that the ship’s command had met with South African naval counterparts and hosted a reception “aimed at strengthening bilateral ties.”

Russian state news agency Tass also reported the ship’s “unofficial” port call. It said the ship had undertaken a long-distance voyage that included stops in Cuba and Venezuela so that 300 cadets from the Russian Ministry of Defense could conduct a maritime practice.

“The Ukrainian Association of South Africa urges the government to stop all military cooperation with Russia immediately,” said Kachur.

Some South African officials appeared taken by surprise when asked to comment on the ship’s visit. The mayor of Cape Town told the local Daily Maverick newspaper that he had been unaware of the port call and said it “seems to have been under the radar.’’

In response to a request from VOA for comment, the South African National Defense Force issued a statement confirming the vessel had been docked in Cape Town for re-supply purposes. It added that South Africa “as a sovereign state has a right and responsibility to accept the docking of foreign vessels as a maritime nation.”

The statement noted, “There are currently three foreign vessels in South African waters, including a Ukrainian vessel,” that is here for repairs.

But the Democratic Alliance, the former opposition party that is now part of South Africa’s new coalition government, condemned the incident as “cozying up to Russia.”

Chris Hattingh is a member of parliament for the Democratic Alliance.

“The latest incident, the berthing of Smolnyy, a Russian navy Baltic Fleet training vessel in Cape Town after visiting Venezuela and Cuba, underlines the contradiction of President [Cyril] Ramaphosa’s utterances of non-alignment in the Russia-Ukraine conflict,” he said.

The African National Congress, which has the most seats in parliament, has ties with Moscow dating back to when the former USSR backed its struggle against apartheid. They are also both BRICS members.

Pretoria has been criticized for not condemning the invasion of Ukraine and for hosting Russian warships in controversial joint exercises last year. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also visited and was warmly welcomed in 2023.

In May of last year, U.S. Ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety alleged that South Africa had covertly provided arms to Russia when a different ship docked in Cape Town.

The South African government set up an independent investigation into the matter, which ultimately found no evidence of that.
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