Nairobi, Kenya — South Sudan is facing a “completely overwhelming” influx of refugees from war-torn Sudan as well as a rapidly growing cholera epidemic, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned Monday.

The medical charity said up to 5,000 people were crossing the border every day. The United Nations recently put the figure even higher at 7,000 to 10,000 a day.

Sudan is suffering one of the world’s worst humanitarian emergencies since conflict broke out between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in April 2023, with tens of thousands killed and millions displaced.

An MSF emergency coordinator in Renk town, near a transit center holding some 17,000 people, according to the U.N., said they were working with the International Committee of the Red Cross to provide care.

“But the situation is completely overwhelming, and it’s not enough,” said Emanuele Montobbio. 

Facilities are expanding, but “over 100 wounded patients, many with serious injuries, still await surgery,” he said.

Alhida Hammed fled to Renk after his village was attacked, and he was shot in Sudan’s Blue Nile state.

“The houses were blazing, and everyone was running in different directions,” he said.

He now has no shelter and is living under a tree but does not want to return to Sudan.

“Home is no longer a home. It is filled with bad memories,” he said.

‘Death’s door’

South Sudan is ill-equipped to handle the arrival of thousands seeking shelter from war, with the young country itself battling violence, endemic poverty and natural disasters.

Huge numbers of its own citizens are living in camps for internally displaced people, and many now face an “alarming and rapid increase” in cholera cases, MSF said.

It said 92 people had died following an outbreak in Unity state, and that it had treated over 1,210 people in just four weeks in Bentiu city.

In sprawling camps near the capital, Juba, home to tens of thousands, MSF said it had treated some 1,700 suspected cases, with 25 deaths reported by the community.

“What we are witnessing is not just a cholera outbreak — it is the result of systemic neglect,” said MSF’s South Sudan head of mission Mamman Mustapha.

He described “mountains of uncollected waste,” broken latrines and raw sewage in the camps, leaving behind a legacy of contaminated drinking water and infected inhabitants at “death’s door.” 

Without immediate action, Mustapha said, “we expect cholera cases to skyrocket in the coming days and weeks.”
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NAIROBI — Kenya’s security report this year has been dominated by the violence and killings of women and girls, with more than 7,100 cases of gender-based violence since September 2023. Included in that number are 100 documented cases of murder against women since August 2024.

Sarah Wambui said she was attacked one morning by her husband of 20 years.  

“He attacked me on Jan. 18, 2024,” she said. “He stabbed me all over — 38 stabs from my face, the entire body, even my internal organs, my kidney and liver, were affected. I have been in hospital. I was discharged in August.” 

Speaking last week, Foreign Affairs Minister and acting Interior Minister Musalia Mudavadi said the number of incidents of sexual and gender-based violence, or SGBV, against women worries security officers.  

“Nairobi County recorded the highest number of SGBV cases, while Samburu and Mandera counties had the lowest incidents,” Mudavadi said. “There were 100 murders of women from August to November 2024. So far, the Directorate of Criminal Investigation has completed the investigations on these, and the majority are pending before court.” 

Two weeks ago, hundreds of people took to the streets in Kenya, demanding an end to the killings of women. The protest was dispersed by police using tear gas and making arrests. 

The response by police angered demonstrators, human rights groups, and women’s organizations. They accused authorities of not taking the attacks and killings of women seriously. 

Wambui’s accused attacker is out of prison and has been threatening to kill her, she said. The mother of two has been moving from one place to another to avoid him. 

“Right now, my life is in danger,” she said. “The perpetrator is out, and he has vowed he will finish me, and the case will be discarded. So I am actually in hiding.”  

Human rights researchers say patriarchal views and a lack of protection are some of the reasons behind the attacks on women and girls. 

Njoki Gachanja, a human rights defender, said the number of abused women may be higher than reported.  

“Most of those numbers come from low-income areas where there is a lot of poverty and that is linked to a lot of violence. So, these numbers may sound staggering for people who are on the ground documenting these cases on a daily basis,” Gachanja said. “We know that there are more people who have not been covered by those who made the headlines, and this is a catastrophe that must be addressed by the government.” 

According to the Gender Violence Recovery Centre, one in three Kenyan women has experienced sexual violence before the age of 18, and 38% of married women have experienced physical violence. 

The government has set up a security team to address attacks on women and ensure justice for the victims. 
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Abuja, Nigeria — Stampedes during three Christmas charity events across Nigeria have left at least 67 people dead in the past week, many of them children. Families are struggling during the country’s worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.

At least 35 children were killed in southwestern Oyo state on Wednesday. And on Saturday, 22 people died in southeastern Anambra state while 10 died in the capital, Abuja, where more than 1,000 people had gathered at a church to receive clothes and food.

Here are some issues facing Nigerians.

Inflation at a 28-year high

“There is hunger in this Nigeria. Every Nigerian needs food,” one woman, in tears, told the local Arise television after the stampede in Abuja.

The economic crisis is blamed on the government’s policies to save money and attract investors, which have contributed to pushing the inflation rate to a 28-year high of 34.6%. Meanwhile, the naira currency languishes at record lows against the dollar.

At least 63% of Nigeria’s more than 210 million people population is poor, according to the government’s statistics office. The government has struggled to create jobs. And when people gather to protest hardship, security forces are quick to clamp down. In August, more than 20 people were shot dead by security forces during nationwide protests.

“The average Nigerian has seen food go out of their reach,” said Cheta Nwanze, managing partner at the Lagos-based SBM Intelligence research firm. In 2022, the firm found that about 97% of Nigerians spend up to 63% of their income on food, but that share must have grown since then, he said.

Some of those who died in Abuja had waited overnight outside the church in cold weather for the chance to enter early, according to Loveth Inyang, a witness who rescued a baby from the crush.

Security is costly, too

Deadly stampedes are not new in Nigeria and are often caused by lack of adherence to public safety measures. But analysts say people’s desperation to survive is making crowd control more difficult.

Accounts from witnesses and police in Abuja and Anambra showed that the stampedes occurred before the events started as people tried to secure prime positions.

In Abuja, the church was forced to cancel the event, leaving bags of rice and clothing items inside.

Organizers of such charity events often do not consider security a priority, said Ademola Adetuberu, who runs the Abuja-based Barricade Executive Protection security firm.

Meanwhile, the number of events is increasing as philanthropists and organizations try to meet the growing demand for food.

“If organizers of such events brainstorm more, get professionals to advise them and have a budget for security, this can be prevented,” Adetuberu said.

How authorities are responding

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has asked authorities to no longer tolerate “operational lapses” by organizers of such events, while police have made it mandatory for organizers to get prior permission before hosting them.

But such commitments are not new and usually difficult to enforce, analysts said.

“People’s incomes have been squeezed through the entire year. When they hear somewhere that food is being distributed, their natural instinct is to go,” Nwanze said. “Add this to our notoriously poor queue culture and you have the perfect storm that will lead to such a stampede.”
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ABUJA, NIGERIA — The death toll from stampedes during two Christmas charity events in Nigeria has increased from 13 to 32, police said Sunday. The victims, including at least four children, collapsed during crowd surges as people grew desperate for food items while the country grapples with the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.

The dead included 22 people in southeastern Anambra state’s Okija town, where a philanthropist on Saturday organized a food distribution, local police spokesman Tochukwu Ikenga said. Ten others died in the capital, Abuja, during a church-organized similar charity event.

Police said they were investigating the two incidents, only days after another stampede in which several children were killed.

Africa’s most populous country is seeing a growing trend by local organizations, churches and individuals to organize charity events ahead of Christmas to ease economic hardship caused by a cost-of-living crisis.

Witnesses of the Abuja stampede told The Associated Press there was a crowd surge at one of the church gates, as dozens tried to enter the premises at around 4 a.m., hours before gift items were to be shared.

Some of them, including older people, waited overnight to get food, said Loveth Inyang, who rescued one baby from the crush.

The stampedes prompted growing calls for authorities to enforce safety measures at such events. Nigerian police also mandated that organizers obtain prior permission.
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BAMAKO, MALI — Suspected Islamic militants killed more than 20 people in a string of attacks on villages in central Mali’s insurgency-hit Mopti region on Friday, two local sources said. 

The unidentified assailants struck during the day and into the evening, ransacking and burning six villages in the Bandiagara area, the sources said on Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity. 

One of the sources said the assailants had come in large numbers on motorcycles and attacked a village, where they killed everyone and destroyed everything. 

There was no immediate comment from the ruling military junta. 

The West African nation is battling armed groups with links to al-Qaida and Islamic State, which took root in its arid north following a Tuareg separatist rebellion in 2012. 

Militants have since spread to other countries in the Sahel region south of the Sahara, seizing territory, killing thousands of people, and uprooting millions in the process. 
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nairobi, kenya — Mwalola wa Mwalola, a longtime fisherman in the Indian Ocean on the Kenyan coast, vividly remembers the events of the deadly tsunami of 20 years ago.

Mwalola said the fisherfolk’s experience and knowledge of the ocean saved his life after they sensed danger and decided to keep off the ocean on the fateful day.

“My place of work was hit, but I was not affected because I heeded the warning,” he said. “We avoided losses because we warned our colleagues of the impending danger and asked everyone to keep off the ocean that day.”

On December 26, 2004, a powerful earthquake off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra generated a devastating tsunami that was observed worldwide and caused tremendous devastation and deaths throughout the Indian Ocean region, including in East Africa.

Out of the 228,000 people killed, more than 300 were from the East African countries of Somalia, Tanzania and Kenya, according to the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

The disaster raised awareness about the threat tsunamis pose to coastal communities around the world and the need for improved tsunami detection, forecasting, warning and preparedness.

Observers say more remains to be done in the East African countries that were affected.

Shamim Wasii Nyanda, an environmental activist at the Tanzania Ocean Climate Innovation Hub in Dar es Salaam, said, “There’s an increase of vulnerability due to climate change but also … limited adaptation funding. Most of the coastal cities lack sufficient financial resources to implement these climate adaptation measures, particularly in urban, under-resourced communities. They do not have that kind of technology or resources for them to be able to work on these problems that we are experiencing,” especially tsunamis.

Nyanda said increasing urbanization is compounding the risk.

“Coastal cities like Dar es Salaam itself have continued to expand, with informal settlements encroaching on vulnerable areas where facilities like disasterproof housing and infrastructure are not available.” People then build housing in areas where they shouldn’t, “so, when these disasters come, like the tsunami, they are not prepared. They do not have the technology. They do not have the infrastructure … and what happens? They are just swept away.”

As countries observe the 20th anniversary of the 2004 tsunami, experts say preparedness, prevention and mitigation measures are key in preventing such disasters in the future.
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UNITED NATIONS — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced $200 million in new humanitarian funding for the Sudanese people at a high-level Sudan meeting he chaired Thursday at the U.N. Security Council, bringing total U.S. support to Sudan to more than $2.3 billion since fighting began among rival generals in April 2023.  

U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello spoke to VOA U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer on the sidelines of the council meeting. He said the outgoing administration of U.S. President Joe Biden wants to consolidate humanitarian progress and move toward a ceasefire, even a temporary one, in its remaining weeks. 

Once allies in Sudan’s transitional government after a 2021 coup, Sudanese Armed Forces General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Rapid Support Forces General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo have become bitter rivals for power. Fighting erupted between their forces in the capital, Khartoum, last year. It has since spread across Sudan, causing widespread atrocities and killing, and one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises. 

The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.  

VOA: U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello, thank you for talking to VOA today. You have one month to go for the Biden administration. What do you realistically think you can achieve in the remaining weeks on Sudan? 

U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello: Well, one of the things that Secretary Blinken made clear today at the United Nations is that we’re going to use every second we’ve got, and we’ve got some momentum. We’re in the fifth straight month of breaking the largest humanitarian embargo in the world, but we have so much more to do. We’ve seen four times more food and medicine moving into Sudan than we saw just a few months ago, and each one of those is food and medicine reaching a mother or a child that’s been malnourished for months in places like Zamzam camp or Kadugli in South Kordofan. We’re getting the convoys moving, including the first convoy into parts of southern Khartoum since the war began almost two years ago. So, we have got a lock in those humanitarian gains that are saving lives. But ultimately, we’ve got to move towards a ceasefire, even a temporary ceasefire, from the parties, to give some relief to the horrific conditions that millions of Sudanese people are facing. 

VOA: And how do you hope to move toward that temporary ceasefire? Might you convene another meeting of the ALPS [Aligned for Advancing Lifesaving and Peace in Sudan] before January 20th? 

Perriello: I just came yesterday from Mauritania, where we were meeting with the African Union, the United Nations, the Arab League and others, about how we can move towards expanding both local and national ceasefire efforts. It was a big statement for Secretary Blinken to sit at the council today in the U.N. And you heard from the Algerians and the other African leaders this idea that we’ve got to give more urgency to this ceasefire. … This famine and this war was a war of choice by men who were willing to let the Sudanese people suffer, and those same men can help bring it to an end if we can get the regional actors in Africa and in the Gulf to align on an effort to put a pause in the fighting and restore the civilian transition. 

VOA: Would you say the two generals are the biggest obstacle to peace? Is this just about their egos? Or does it go deeper? 

Perriello: Well, certainly it was a big part of what started this war. But really, you have to go back a few steps and remember it was Generals Hemeti [Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo] and [Abdel Fattah] al-Burhan joining forces to overthrow the civilian transition that had inspired the world in 2019. And there are many forces behind both of them that want to prevent the people of Sudan from having the power over their future. And we continue to see that with extremist groups and others who want to profit from this war, whether it’s groups like the National Congress party of the former Bashir era, that know the people wouldn’t support them having power, and they’re using this war to come back to power. We see some of the tribal leaders who should be some of the strongest voices for peace, instead of figuring out how to profit off of the famine and off of the war, we see countries that have engaged and are willing to continue to see that suffering of the Sudanese people. But we’ve also seen neighboring countries show the welcomeness … to accept millions of refugees. We’ve seen efforts in the region to work with us on these local ceasefire efforts, including some of these humanitarian corridors. So, it’s important that we not use the level of the crisis as an excuse to do nothing, because when we’ve engaged, we’ve been able to make a difference. And I think that’s what Secretary Blinken was trying to remind the council today. 

VOA: What will it take to get the two generals to the negotiating table? 

Perriello: Well, first of all, I think we’ll continue to try to push them to the table, but what we showed with the ALPS efforts in Switzerland on humanitarian access is you don’t need a table anymore. We have telephones. We have proximity talks. What we need is the political will, and we appreciate that countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt and others are continuing to try to support these peace efforts. We think the African Union has a role to play. And the American people, in the same way we’ve seen Americans show just so much compassion in crisis after crisis around the world, we need folks to see these young people with the Mutual Aid Sudan and elsewhere that are risking their lives to get food and medicine into their communities. They need that support and attention from us. It’s also something, quite frankly, that has really strong bipartisan support on Capitol Hill, including from a recent letter this week from both Republican and Democratic senators trying to draw more attention to the crisis in Sudan. So, it needs all of us to pay more attention, but most of all, it needs the people with guns and the people supplying guns to all sides in Sudan, to put those down and become partners in peace. 

VOA: You mentioned, and Secretary Blinken mentioned in the council, that there’s a lot of external interference in the war in Sudan. There’s credible evidence the UAE has been fueling the violence and supplying the RSF with arms. Why has the Biden administration been reluctant to really exert significant public pressure on the UAE? 

Perriello: Well, you saw some powerful testimony today at the Security Council about this issue, about foreign interference and the role certain countries are playing to fuel this conflict. The Biden administration has really led the way on putting pressure on all of the external actors to stop fueling this war and inviting them to be partners in peace, both ending the famine and trying to end this war. [U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.] Linda Thomas-Greenfield helped push for an extension of the Darfur arms embargo — and also the first sanctions for violating that arms embargo in over 15 years. We are going to continue with our sanctions and with our diplomacy to raise the costs of those that are fueling this conflict, but also to continue to invite in those who want to be partners for not just peace for the Sudanese people, but how we rebuild Sudan and how we restore that civilian transition. Secretary Blinken announced today an additional $30 million with Congress to support civil society, particularly women and youth, who have continued to inspire us in Sudan, to help rebuild that political dialogue and that path — the only real path forward — which is a unified civilian front into peace and democracy. 

VOA: There are reports that the State Department is considering a genocide declaration. Why the reluctance to use the “genocide” word? 

Perriello: Far from reluctance, the State Department’s really been leading the way. I mean, as someone who was in Darfur more than 20 years ago when the genocide was happening. When I was out of government a year ago, I was proud that the State Department led the way on declaring the acts of ethnic cleansing that we heard about from the Sultan of the Masalit today. Called out the crimes against humanity. We’ll continue to look at where the facts lead in terms of other designations.
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In September, the U.S. military completed its withdrawal from Niger, where it had two bases that helped partners in the Sahel counter terrorism. The pullout came after members of Niger’s military staged a coup in 2023. The U.S. military says the withdrawal has had a major impact on efforts to fight terrorism in the region. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has more.
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The Somali government is “open” to a potential role for Ethiopian troops in an African Union mission scheduled to take over peacekeeping operations in the country next month.

A senior Somali government official on Thursday told VOA’s Horn of Africa Service that the Somali government has “secured” and “allocated” all troops needed from the four other AU-troop-contributing countries — Burundi, Djibouti, Kenya and Uganda — to participate in the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia, or AUSSOM. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he had not been cleared to speak with reporters.

But Somali leaders, he added, are now “ready to reconsider” Ethiopian involvement in AUSSOM following a conciliatory dialogue between the countries hosted by Turkey last week.

In recent months, Mogadishu had repeatedly demanded that Addis Ababa withdraw its troops from Somali territory unless Ethiopia canceled a controversial Memorandum of Understanding with Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland. The memorandum grants Ethiopia access to a 20-kilometer stretch of Red Sea coastline in return for potential recognition of Somaliland’s independence.

The anonymous official said although Somalia secured all troops from those four AU nations to compensate for the absence of Ethiopian troops, the recent diplomatic breakthrough has reopened the door for involving Ethiopia’s military support.

During the talks in Ankara, Ethiopia and Somalia agreed to respect each other’s sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity.

The possible breakthrough came just weeks after a spokesperson for Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nebiat Getachew, told media outlets that Ethiopia’s focus was on al-Shabab.

“Ethiopia’s key role, in any situation — in bringing al-Shabab to a level where it cannot be a threat to the region, as well as its role in the establishment and stability of the Somali government — is known both by the Somalis and the international community,” he said.

“It is an undeniable fact that the Ethiopian army has made sacrifices in blood and bones for this great result,” Nebiat added. “The work of weakening the [Somalia-based] al-Shabab terrorist group will continue under any circumstances so that it does not pose a threat to our national security and the victories achieved through the sacrifices made so far are not reversed.”

In a Thursday meeting, the AU’s peace and security council expressed concern about the threat posed by al-Shabab and condemned the group’s attacks on Somali and AU forces.

The AU appealed to the U.N. Security Council to explore financing options for AUSSOM.

“This is vital for #AUSSOM to fulfill its mandate & support the #Somalia Security Sector Development Plan (SSDP),” the AU said in a post on the X social media platform.

Starting in January, AUSSOM will have 11,900 personnel operating on the ground in Somalia, including soldiers, police and civilian support staff, according to Somali and AU officials.
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ABUJA — A stampede at a religious event in Ibadan, the capital of Nigeria’s southwest Oyo state, resulted in multiple deaths and injuries, Governor Seyi Makinde said on Wednesday. 

The incident occurred at an Islamic high school where a large crowd had gathered for a family event.  

“While investigations are ongoing, the primary organizers of the event that led to this stampede have been taken into custody,” Makinde said in a statement posted on X. 

Reuters could not immediately establish how many people had died or what caused the incident. 

Emergency services, including medical personnel and ambulances, were immediately dispatched to the scene, Makinde said.  

Security forces were also deployed to control the situation and prevent further casualties. The event has been halted, and the rest of the attendees have been safely evacuated from the venue, he said. 
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Abuja, Nigeria — Security officials in Nigeria are raising concerns after a National Bureau of Statistics survey revealed that more than 2 million people were kidnapped in the West African nation between May 2023 and April 2024, and that Nigerians paid a cumulative $1.42 billion to kidnappers within the same period.

The NBS released its Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey 2024 on Tuesday. The report said some 600,000 Nigerians were killed and 2.2 million others abducted across the country between May 2023 and April 2024.

Armed gangs, known locally as bandits, were mostly responsible for the escalation of violence in northwest and north central Nigeria, while terror-related violence was reported in the northeast region of Nigeria.

The report said 91% of the kidnappings were attributed to ransom demands, while other cases were due to political, criminal or terrorist motives. It also said Nigerians spent $1.4 billion cumulatively to free their loved ones from kidnappers at an average of $1,700 per incident.

Security analyst Senator Iroegbu said the report is no surprise.

“The figure is not surprising. The only difference is that the media focus has shifted, and that’s what makes it look as if it [insecurity] has reduced,” Iroegbu said. “So, this report has brought back to light what is going on.”

According to the NBS report, 82.1% of the kidnapped victims were released, 12.8% were killed, 3.3% remained in captivity and the outcome of about 1.3% of victims was unknown.

The report comes amid growing security concerns in Africa’s most populous nation already struggling to curb a range of insecurities that have stretched the security forces thin.

It also revealed that nearly seven out of 10 households in Nigeria reported murder cases to the police within the same period.

Security analyst Saheed Shehu said the trend is worrying.

“These figures should serve as a yardstick as a baseline for the president and commander-in-chief to hold his military, police, accountable,” Shehu said. “The figures should serve as a tool to hold the leaders of the security agencies accountable. We should not just be reading figures and then wait for the end of 2025 to release another figure.”

In November, Nigeria announced the discovery of a new terror group known as Lakurawa but said security forces were already on their trail.

Two weeks ago, Nigerian defense authorities said the military killed a total of 8,000 terrorists and apprehended over 11,000 suspects and rescued over 6,000 victims between January and December.

But Shehu is skeptical.

“This report coming from the National Bureau of Statistics — to be honest, it makes me to be at a quandary whether the reports we’re getting from security agencies of successes … it does not balance with this report,” Shehu said. “So, something must be wrong somewhere.”

Improving security is a major challenge for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government as it desperately seeks to attract foreign investments to grow the country’s struggling economy.

Nigeria allocated about $4 billion, or 12% of this year’s budget, to defense and security — the largest single allocation to any sector.
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WASHINGTON — The United States has transferred two Malaysian detainees at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. military prison to their home country after they pleaded guilty to charges related to deadly 2002 bombings in Bali and agreed to testify against the alleged ringleader of that and other attacks, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

Prosecutors say Mohammed Farik bin Amin and Mohammed Nazir bin Lep worked for years with Encep Nurjaman, known as Hambali, an Indonesian leader of al-Qaida affiliate Jemaah Islamiyah. That includes helping Nurjaman escape after bombings on Oct. 12, 2002, killed 202 people at two nightspots in Bali, U.S. officials said.

The two men entered guilty pleas to conspiracy and other charges in January. Their transfer comes after they provided testimony that prosecutors plan to use against Nurjaman, the alleged mastermind, the Pentagon said in a statement.

Nurjaman is in custody in Guantanamo awaiting resumption of pretrial hearings in January involving the Bali bombings and other attacks.

The two Malaysian men’s transfers leave 27 detainees in custody at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay. Then-President George W. Bush set up a military tribunal and prison after the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida attacks on the United States.

At its peak, Guantanamo detained hundreds of men, most of them Muslim, in the U.S.-led global war on terrorism after the attacks.

Just two of the men at Guantanamo are serving sentences. U.S. prosecution of seven others currently facing charges has been slowed by legal obstacles — including those presented by the torture of the men in their first years under CIA custody — and logistical difficulties.

Kenyan held 17 years

On Tuesday, U.S. authorities repatriated a Kenyan man, Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu, after 17 years at Guantanamo without charge.

His release leaves 15 other never-charged men awaiting release. The U.S. is searching for suitable and stable countries willing to take them. Many are from Yemen, a country split by war and dominated by an Iranian-allied militant group.

Amnesty International urged President Joe Biden to end the detention of those never-charged men before he leaves office. If not, the rights group said in a statement, “he will continue to bear responsibility for the abhorrent practice of indefinite detention without charge or trial by the U.S. government.”
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