An attack by suspected jihadists killed 33 soldiers in eastern Burkina Faso on Thursday, the army said.

A contingent of troops came across “a complex, large-scale attack” in the east region, which also left 12 soldiers wounded, according to an army statement.

The soldiers “neutralized at least 40 terrorists before the arrival of reinforcements” during the “particularly intense fighting,” it added.

The wounded troops were evacuated and were being treated by the health services, the army said.

Burkina Faso has been grappling with a bloody jihadist insurgency since 2015, when unrest spilled over from neighboring Mali.

Fighting between the security forces and groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group has left thousands dead and forced millions of people to flee their homes.

Anger within the military at the government’s failure to stem the jihadist attacks sparked two coups in 2022. Around 40 percent of the country’s territory lies outside state control.

Captain Ibrahim Traore, who has led the West African nation since seizing power last September, this month signed a decree for a yearlong “general mobilization” to give the state “all necessary means” to counter the militants. 
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Eleven female opposition lawmakers have been arrested in Uganda during a protest over what they allege is police brutality.

Dressed in black, the legislators took to the streets Thursday morning to voice their dissatisfaction over what they are calling a violation of the rights of women and a threat to their lives, which they say also violates the Constitution.

Scuffles erupted between the women and police as the legislators tried to make their way to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

One of the lawmakers, Joyce Bagala, detailed some of the women’s grievances. She said that during a recent Women’s Day event, one of her colleagues was roughed up by police.

“Susan Mugabi was beaten, was tear-gassed,” she said. “There were bullets fired. Her sister was beaten, fondled by police officers. Almost undressed her. Her mother was also arrested ahead of the celebrations. Her father was locked in the house. So, all these violations.”

Bagala also said she herself was tear-gassed and blocked from holding Women’s Day celebrations in her constituency.

Police officials were not readily available for comment. They were meeting with the speaker of parliament at the central police station where the legislators were being held.

The female opposition legislators are asking for parliament and the internal affairs ministry to acknowledge that the actions of security officers in blocking Women’s Day celebrations were illegal, irrational and an affront to the right to associate and assemble.

They also want all local district authorities involved in the assault on the legislators to be individually prosecuted before courts of law and security agencies to be restrained from blocking any other meeting or assembly permitted by law.
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The United States and African nations were racing to secure an extension of a ceasefire in Sudan on Thursday, with the Sudanese army giving an initial nod to an African proposal calling for talks even as fighting continued.

Hundreds of people have been killed in nearly two weeks of conflict between the army and a rival paramilitary force – the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – which are locked in a power struggle that threatens to destabilize the wider region.

An RSF statement accused the army of attacking its forces Thursday and spreading “false rumors”, making no reference to the proposal which the army said came from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an African regional bloc.

Gunfire could be heard  Thursday in the Khartoum area, a resident told Reuters.

The existing three-day ceasefire brought about a lull in fighting, without completely halting it, but was due to expire at midnight (2200 GMT) and many foreign nationals remained trapped in the country despite an exodus over the past few days.

The army late on Wednesday said its leader, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, had given initial approval to the plan to extend the truce for another 72 hours and to send an army envoy to the South Sudan capital, Juba, for talks.

The military said the presidents of South Sudan, Kenya and Djibouti worked on a proposal that includes extending the truce and talks between the two forces.

“Burhan thanked the IGAD and expressed an initial approval to that,” the army statement said.

Reuters could not immediately reach an IGAD spokesperson for comment.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat discussed working together to create a sustainable end to the fighting, the State Department said in a statement Wednesday.

At least 512 people have been killed and close to 4,200 wounded by the fighting since April 15.

The crisis has sent growing numbers of refugees across Sudan’s borders. The U.N. refugee agency has estimated 270,000 people could flee into South Sudan and Chad alone.

With air strikes and artillery unleashed during the fighting, the conflict has destroyed hospitals and limited food distribution in the vast nation where a third of the 46 million people were already reliant on humanitarian aid.

An estimated 50,000 acutely malnourished children have had treatment disrupted due to the conflict, and those hospitals still functioning are facing shortages of medical supplies, power and water, according to a U.N. update Wednesday.

Deadly clashes broke out in Geneina in West Darfur on Tuesday and Wednesday resulting in looting and civilian deaths and raising concerns about an escalation of ethnic tensions, the update said.

France said on Thursday it had evacuated more people from Sudan, including not only French nationals but also Britons, Americans, Canadians, Ethiopians, Dutch, Italians and Swedes — part of a wider exodus of expatriates.

Foreigners evacuated from Khartoum have described bodies littering streets, buildings on fire, residential areas turned into battlefields and youths roaming with large knives.

Tension had been building for months between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which together toppled a civilian government in an October 2021 coup.

The friction was brought to a head by an internationally backed plan to launch a new transition towards elections and a government led by civilian parties.

A final deal was due to be signed earlier in April, on the fourth anniversary of the overthrow of long-ruling Islamist autocrat Omar al-Bashir in a popular uprising.
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Leila Oulkebous’ research for her doctorate from one of France’s top universities was going well when the explosions started.

Oulkebous had stopped work on Ethiopia because of that country’s civil war, and her research in Sudan was going to be more straightforward, she thought.

Then Sudan exploded into violence. The chiefs of the country’s army and its rival Rapid Support Forces rose to power after a popular uprising in 2019 prompted them to remove longtime autocratic ruler Omar al-Bashir. They started fighting this month amid tensions over a new plan to re-introduce civilian rule.

The bombing shook the house where Oulkebous was living in the capital, Khartoum, investigating the effects of dams on rivers that cross borders.

“We were hiding all the time under the bed,” she said Wednesday at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport as hundreds of people arrived in harrowing evacuations. World powers were rescuing people from Sudan on planes and warships in operations prompted by the eruption of the fighting that sent thousands of foreigners and many more Sudanese people fleeing for safety.

A French frigate carrying hundreds of evacuees docked Wednesday morning in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as part of broader efforts involving several warships, in addition to airlifts.

French military spokesman Colonel Pierre Gaudilliere said France evacuated more than 500 civilians from 40 nations by plane over the weekend after securing the airbase north of Khartoum on Saturday, using its airbase in neighboring Djibouti for the airlift.

Gaudilliere said the French military was the first to land and organized the flow of its own and other nations’ planes.

“You still had airstrikes as the operation was going on, crossfire in the streets, artillery fire, so it was and still is very intense fighting,” Gaudilliere said. The French military had personnel on the ground to assess the situation during the operation, he said.

Several nations, including Japan, thanked France for rescuing their citizens.

More evacuations under way

Some other countries quickly joined evacuation efforts.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said Wednesday that three nationals had been evacuated with help from Germany, and his country was now working with Turkey to help evacuate two other citizens.

Greek national Christos Dedes, who was in Sudan for work, said he and his colleagues managed to leave their Khartoum hotel Tuesday via the Portuguese Embassy, which sent a car to drive them to the airbase where there were Italian, French and German soldiers.

“We just happened to leave with the Italians on a transport plane,” he said on Greek TV channel Mega on Wednesday, after he arrived in Athens.

From their Khartoum hotel, he said, they could see that “every day the battles were heavier. Both [sides] were using heavy weapons.” He said they would hear explosions at night and see bodies in the street.

More than 1,000 people from 58 countries were to arrive Wednesday by ship at Jeddah, including many on the French warship Lorraine.

Saudi Arabia on Saturday organized the first evacuation convoy by land, via cars and buses bringing people to Port Sudan, where a navy ship took them to Jeddah.

The French foreign affairs ministry said a flight carrying 184 French nationals and their families and about 20 other nationals returned from Djibouti and landed in Paris Wednesday morning.

Among them was Oulkebous, a Moroccan doctorate student at Bordeaux Montaigne University.

“The feeling I had since the first day of fighting was I felt really paralyzed, I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know how to get out, the airport was closed, we could not leave,” she said, describing “the explosions, the smoke, so really, I didn’t have the time to fully realize what was going on.”

A Royal Air Maroc plane arrived at Casablanca’s Mohammed V airport on Wednesday, carrying 136 Moroccan nationals evacuated from Sudan.

UK diplomats targeted

In contrast with France and some other nations, the United States and Britain didn’t evacuate nondiplomats at first.

The British government has come under growing criticism for its failure to airlift civilians. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak defended the government’s approach, saying diplomats had been evacuated first “because they were being targeted.”

The British government since said that 301 people had been evacuated on four U.K. flights from Sudan over the past 24 hours, and four more were scheduled Wednesday. Britain intends to keep running the flights for as long as possible. In addition, “rapid deployment teams” of U.K. officials are in Port Sudan assessing potential for a seaborne evacuation.

The Foreign Office says U.K. passport-holders are eligible, “and priority is given to family groups with children and/or the elderly or individuals with medical conditions.”

Officials have said there are as many as 4,000 British citizens in Sudan, 2,000 of whom have registered for potential evacuation.

The White House said Monday that the U.S. was helping from afar as thousands of Americans left behind in Sudan sought to escape fighting in the east African nation, after the U.S. Embassy evacuated all of its diplomatic personnel over the weekend and shut down.

The Biden administration was considering several options for assisting private American citizens in getting out of Sudan.

Two U.S. officials said one option being considered would be to send U.S. Navy vessels in, or en route to, the Red Sea to dock at Port Sudan and take Americans to Jeddah or another location. The officials said this would depend on the security situation and whether it was deemed safe for the ships to dock.

A U.S. official said the military has developed other options for getting Americans, including using an airfield that some European countries have used to fly out citizens. To date, it has not been told to do that, the official said.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive matters.
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The former head of South Africa’s national energy firm, Eskom, has refused to name the minister and politician who allegedly tolerated its corruption. Andre de Ruyter, who was answering lawmakers’ questions by video link due to death threats against him, cited security and legal risks.

A couple of months after de Ruyter alleged someone tried to poison him by putting cyanide in his coffee at his office, he engaged in an interview with a local news channel. His appearance Wednesday before parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts stems from what he revealed then about the level of corruption in Eskom.

De Ruyter told the committee in an affidavit this week that in his estimation, the company loses about $54 million per month to corruption. He called that number a “conservative estimate” based on losses that came to his attention.

Despite being offered parliamentary privilege Wednesday, de Ruyter wasn’t willing to name the politician he alleges is involved in the graft nor the government minister he claims tolerates it.

However, he didn’t object or correct this statement from Alf Lees, a member of parliament representing the main opposition Democratic Alliance: “It has become patently evident to me, certainly, that the minister who made the comment about letting other people feed was indeed Minister Gordhan.”

Pravin Gordhan is the minister of public enterprises under which Eskom falls. Gordhan has previously admitted to having a conversation with de Ruyter about criminality at the power company but has denied saying corruption should be tolerated.

When pressed Wednesday, de Ruyter said Gordhan knew the name of the politician involved.

“I think that is a question that will be able to be answered by Minister Gordhan. He should be able to answer that question,” de Ruyter said. “To my recollection I did mention it to him, and he would be best placed to respond to that.”

De Ruyter complained of Gordhan being extremely involved in Eskom’s operations and of by-passing him, his chief operating officer, and head of generation.

“There were examples of intervention in day-to-day operations,” de Ruyter said. “Whether that was to gain information or to verify information, I don’t know. But it, it made life as the responsible accounting officer quite difficult. Many cooks in the kitchen does not always result in a good meal.”

De Ruyter denied taking or carrying out any illegal instructions.

“The way that the organized crime works is that there is a network of people, some of them regrettably Eskom employees, who collude with criminals to ensure that through fraudulent activity they can extract money from Eskom,” he said.

The parliamentary committee’s chairperson, Mkhuleko Hlengwa, seemed unimpressed with de Ruyter’s testimony, saying they were still at “square one” as he revealed nothing more than in his television interview. Hlengwa said they would be calling him again.

De Ruyter’s appearance came on the eve of Freedom Day, when South Africa marks 29 years since the first democratic election after decades of apartheid rule, which oppressed people of color.

Political analyst Amanda Gouws, a professor at Stellenbosch University, said the level of corruption in South Africa is sad. 

“I mean there’s nothing to celebrate. We are doing really, really badly,” Gouws said. “What we are seeing is a process of deconsolidation of democracy, of back sliding of democracy with a government that’s really not governing. So for all the euphoria of 1994, there is nothing left. What we have is collective depression because we’re literally in the dark with an ANC government that’s not capable of governing.”

South Africa’s economy has been dealt a massive blow in recent months by daily rolling blackouts, which critics blame on mismanagement of Eskom. 
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Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of a Russian government-backed paramilitary group, has offered weapons to one of the warring parties in Sudan, according to several media reports.

Since the fighting began in April, there have been unconfirmed reports and diplomatic sources who spoke to news outlets saying that Wagner fighters are supporting the paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces and supplying them with weapons.

Cameron Hudson, a former U.S. State Department official and a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told VOA that the Wagner Group is supplying portable air defense systems, shoulder-fired rockets, tank busters and heavy armor. 

The RSF denies receiving support from Russia.

As news emerges, however, that the Wagner Group could be taking sides, experts warn such external involvement can only worsen the conflict, citing the group’s negative track record and trail of atrocities in Africa.

In a rare admission to the group’s involvement in Sudan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday that the decision to involve the Wagner Group is up to African leadership.  

“Central African Republic and Mali and Sudan, a number of other countries, whose governments, whose legitimate authorities turn for this kind of services [to Wagner Group], have the right to do so,” Lavrov told a news conference at the United Nations.

High-level U.S. officials continue to express concern over the involvement of the Wagner Group in Sudan, where it is involved in mineral extraction.

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said that the group’s involvement has the potential to further ignite the conflict. 

“Obviously, we don’t want to see this conflict expand or broaden, and we certainly wouldn’t want to see additional firepower brought to bear; that will just continue the violence and continue to escalate the tensions,” he said.

The fight to grab power is between two generals, General Abdel Fattah Burhan, head of the armed forces, and General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, or Hemedti, the leader of the RSF paramilitary group.

Hemedti traveled to Russia shortly after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and has sought to win support from the Wagner Group.

“Through this visit, we hope to advance relations between Sudan and Russia to broader horizons, and strengthen the existing cooperation between us in various fields,” Dagalo said in a Twitter post at the time of his Moscow visit.

Jacqueline Burns is a senior policy analyst with RAND Corporation, a global policy research group. She said by supporting Hemedti, Russia is seeking to protect its own interests.

“Russia and the Wagner Group, they benefit from gold concessions in Sudan and the illicit smuggling of gold out of the country,” she told VOA. “The Wagner Group is siding with the party they think is most likely to be able to continue to secure these interests, particularly in opposition to any civilian-led government.” 

The Wagner Group’s history in Sudan dates to the previous government of Omar al-Bashir. Prigozhin had a close relationship with the autocratic leader, who allowed Wagner-affiliated companies access to gold mining. 

After the army ousted al-Bashir in 2019 amid a popular uprising, Wagner continued to have a close relationship with the Sudanese military, particularly the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces headed by Hemedti. This replicates its model of engagement in other African countries.

“Wagner Group does seem to engage with African countries on a pretty predictable sort of pattern,” said Ben Dalton, a program manager at New America’s Future Frontlines, a Washington-based research group.

“Normally it starts with a cultivation of elites, or at least a subset of elites, and then that is followed up with a formal military technical agreement between the states. And this could be something like, you know, Russia will supply arms in exchange for concessions that allow them to do mining or other kinds of resource extraction.”

Russia views Sudan as a strategic location with vast mineral wealth and is eager to help install a friendly leader, say analysts. 

“We’ve seen a lot in recent months about Russia’s efforts to gain a port on the Red Sea in Sudan through an official military relationship and they’ve signed other official military relationships with other countries in the region,” said Hudson.

Wagner’s involvement in other parts of the continent, however, has only brought strife to the population, Dalton said.

“Engaging with this group tends to go pretty badly for the population that has to deal with them. They’ve been associated with widespread atrocities everywhere they go; you see civilian deaths and various atrocities,” Dalton said. 

“Russia’s interests are in extracting the continent’s resources so that it can strengthen its own position and build a web to resist … international sanctions. They don’t really have the interests of Africans at heart.”

Patsy Widakuswara and Cindy Saine contributed to this report.
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U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed Tuesday for the fighting between rival generals in Sudan to “stop immediately” and warned that it must not turn into a prolonged, full-scale war.

“This conflict will not and must not be resolved on the battlefield — with the bodies of Sudan’s people,” he told an evening meeting of the Security Council to discuss the situation.

He said the parties must respect the U.S.-brokered, 72-hour cease-fire that started at midnight Monday.

Both the Sudanese Armed Forces of General Abdel Fattah Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces led by General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo publicly pledged to uphold the halt in fighting.

The U.N.’s top diplomat in Sudan, Volker Perthes, told the council via a video briefing from the city of Port Sudan, where he and hundreds of U.N. staff have relocated from Khartoum, that the temporary cease-fire was holding only in some parts of the country, and that the army and RSF were each accusing the other of truce violations.

“However, we also hear continuing reports of fighting and movement of troops,” he told the council.

“In Khartoum, fighting around the Republican Palace, Khartoum international airport, the army headquarters, RSF bases and other strategic locations has largely continued or, in some cases, intensified,” Perthes said. “Airstrikes and heavy shelling have also continued, particularly in Bahri and Omdurman.”

Some tribes mobilizing 

Omdurman, north of the capital, is the largest city in Sudan, with more than 2.3 million residents.

The U.N. envoy said the situation in Darfur “remains volatile,” with fighting in the south and west. He expressed concern about reports that tribes are arming themselves in West Darfur to join the fight.

“Reports of mobilization by some tribes and some armed movements in Darfur who are taking sides is dangerous and could draw in Sudan’s neighboring countries,” Perthes warned.

Since fighting began on April 15, he said at least 427 people have been killed and up to 4,000 wounded, and the numbers are growing. Five aid workers are among the dead, as well as an Egyptian diplomat. Perthes called on the parties to allow civilians to safely leave conflict areas.

The U.N. envoy has been in regular contact with the rival generals.

“There is as yet no unequivocal sign that either is ready to seriously negotiate, suggesting that both think that securing a military victory over the other is possible,” Perthes said. “This is a miscalculation.”

Evacuations

The United Nations says it is not leaving Sudan, but it has temporarily relocated about 1,200 people from Khartoum to Port Sudan. Perthes said that includes 744 U.N. staff and their dependents, international NGO personnel and diplomatic staff from embassies.

“Today, this afternoon, I said farewell to 450 of them, when they boarded a French frigate that will take them to Jeddah through the night,” Perthes said. “The rest will be evacuated with commercial vessels over the next two days. A few international staff and their dependents are still in Khartoum and were not evacuated due to various reasons.”

Conflict deepens Sudan’s needs

Before fighting erupted 10 days ago, more than 15 million Sudanese needed humanitarian assistance.

“This conflict will not only deepen those needs, it also threatens to unleash an entirely new wave of humanitarian challenges,” U.N. deputy humanitarian chief Joyce Msuya told council members. “Fighting is massively impeding and imperiling aid operations. A humanitarian crisis is quickly turning into a catastrophe.”

Countries have rushed to evacuate their diplomats and citizens. In all, more than 4,000 people have fled Sudan in foreign-organized evacuations that began on Saturday, including by sea to Saudi Arabia and by aircraft to Jordan and Cyprus.

Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Ukraine and the United States are among the countries using aircraft and convoys to ferry foreign nationals out of the country.

The majority of U.S. government personnel who evacuated the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, arrived Monday afternoon in Washington.

Britain’s foreign office said it began an evacuation effort Tuesday with flights leaving from an airfield outside of Khartoum.

China’s foreign ministry said Tuesday that most of its nationals had been safely evacuated.

Sudanese nationals fending for selves

Sudanese nationals are fending for themselves amid power blackouts and loss of internet service.

Some Sudanese have made the decision to escape in cars and buses on the dangerous roads. The U.N. refugee agency said at least 20,000 Sudanese have arrived in Chad since fighting started and it has registered 4,000 South Sudanese refugees who have crossed back into their country from Sudan.

“We have received reports of tens of thousands of people arriving in the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan,” the deputy humanitarian chief said, adding it is critical to keep borders open.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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The accounts are horrific. Women killed while carrying babies on their backs, the wounded hunted down and villagers watching the execution of their neighbors, fearing they’d be next. These are some of the atrocities allegedly perpetrated by Burkina Faso’s security forces in the north of the country, according to a statement Tuesday by locals from the village of Karma where the violence took place.

It was early morning last Thursday when people in the village in Yatenga province awoke to a large group of armed men in military fatigues, driving motorcycles and armored pickup trucks.

“Some villagers, happy to see ‘our soldiers,’ came out of their houses to welcome them. Unfortunately, this joy was cut short when the first shots rang out, also causing the first casualties,” said the statement from the villagers.

At least 150 civilians may have been killed and many others injured in the violence, Ravina Shamdasani, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement Tuesday. The U.N. is calling for a prompt, thorough, independent and impartial investigation into what it called the “horrific killing of civilians.”

Earlier this week, Burkina Faso’s prosecutor said it had already opened an investigation into the killings, but put the death toll at 60, less than half the number estimated by the U.N. and local residents.

Jihadi fighters linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State have waged a violent insurgency in Burkina Faso for seven years. The violence has killed thousands of people and divided the country, leading to two coups last year.

Since Captain Ibrahim Traore seized power in September 2022 during the second coup, extrajudicial killings of civilians have increased, according to rights groups and residents.

This incident — one of the deadliest against civilians by security forces — comes amid mounting allegations against the military for committing abuses against those it believes to be supporting the jihadis.

Earlier this month, Burkina Faso’s government announced it was opening other investigations into allegations of human rights abuses by its security forces after a video surfaced that appeared to show the extrajudicial killing of seven children in the country’s north.

The Associated Press this month published its own findings about the video. AP’s investigation determined that Burkina Faso’s security forces killed the children in a military base outside the town of Ouahigouya.

Days before last week’s attack, some 40 security sources were killed near Ouahigouya. Survivors said the soldiers accused them of being jihadi accomplices by letting them pass through their town, according to the statement from the villagers.

Since the violence, people in the community haven’t been able to bury their relatives, as an army roadblock prevented them reaching the village, said the statement.

The abuses will create a backlash against Burkina Faso’s junta and drive people into the hands of the jihadis, say conflict analysts.

“The reported human rights abuses advance the playbook of militants. It gives them talking points against the security forces and helps their recruitment efforts in the north. This is an awful recipe of consequences,” said Laith Alkhouri, CEO of Intelonyx Intelligence Advisory, which provides intelligence analysis.
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The first phase of talks between Ethiopia’s government and the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) began in Tanzania on Tuesday, a spokesman for the rebel group told AFP. 

The foes kicked off preliminary negotiations in the semi-autonomous region of Zanzibar, said the spokesman Odaa Tarbii. 

“These initial talks are intended to establish a foundation for more extensive discussions in the very near future,” he said, adding that Kenya and Norway were mediating.

“The focus at this point is confidence building and clarifying positions.”

Ethiopia’s government in Addis Ababa could not be reached for comment.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had announced last week that talks with the OLA would begin on Tuesday, but gave no further details.

Tanzania’s Foreign Minister Stergomena Tax told reporters on Tuesday that they had accepted a request to host the talks and some delegates had begun arriving.

The OLA, an armed insurgent movement from the country’s Oromia region, has been fighting Addis Ababa since it split in 2018 with the historic Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) when it renounced armed struggle.

Since the OLA broke off and started fighting, a string of armed groups in Oromia have risen up claiming to be part of its cause, though are only loosely tied.

The OLA’s strength, estimated at a few thousand men in 2018, has increased significantly in recent years, though observers believe it is insufficiently organized or well-armed to pose a real threat to the federal government.

Oromia surrounds Addis Ababa and is Ethiopia’s largest and most populous region, and has suffered ethnic massacres in recent years carried out by unknown groups.

The OLA has been repeatedly accused by Abiy’s government of being responsible for these massacres, which it denies. 

The government is accused of waging an indiscriminate crackdown that has fueled Oromo resentment against the central government. 
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Fears were growing in Kenya on Tuesday that there could be more victims of a starvation cult as investigators resumed their searches after finding dozens of corpses in mass graves.   

Police have spent days scouring the Shakahola forest near the coastal town of Malindi after receiving a tip-off about a cult led by Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, who urged his followers to starve to death in order to find God.   

Police sources told AFP late Monday that the death toll was now 73, with several people rescued and taken to hospital.   

The grim discovery has sent shockwaves through the country, prompting President William Ruto to pledge a crackdown on “unacceptable” religious movements amid fears that the toll is set to climb higher.   

“We believe there are more,” Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome told reporters Monday.   

It is believed some followers of the Good News International Church could still be hiding in the bush around Shakahola and at risk of death if not quickly found.   

Hussein Khalid, executive director of the rights group Haki Africa that tipped off the police, urged the authorities to send more rescuers to scour the 325-hectare area of woodland for survivors.   

“Each day that passes by there is very high possibility that more are dying,” he told AFP.   

“The horror that we have seen over the last four days is traumatizing. Nothing prepares you for shallow mass graves of children.”    

Investigators said they found bodies squeezed into shallow pits — with up to six people inside one grave — while others were simply left outside on the ground.   

‘Unacceptable ideology’   

Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki has announced plans to visit the site on Tuesday, while Ruto has vowed to take action against rogue pastors like Nthenge “who want to use religion to advance weird, unacceptable ideology”, comparing them to terrorists.   

As the Kenyan authorities try to uncover the true scale of what is being dubbed the “Shakahola Forest Massacre”, questions have emerged about how the cult was able to operate undetected despite Nthenge attracting police attention six years ago.   

The televangelist was arrested in 2017 on charges of “radicalization” after urging families not to send their children to school, saying education was not recognized by the Bible.    

He was arrested again last month, according to local media, after two children starved to death in the custody of their parents.   

He was released on bail of $700 before surrendering to police following the Shakahola raid.   

The case is due to be heard on May 2.   

The Kenya Red Cross said 212 people had been reported missing to its support staff in Malindi, out of which two were reunited with their families.   

The case has prompted calls for tighter control of fringe denominations in a country with a troubling history of self-declared pastors and cults that have dabbled in criminality. 
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After Indian citizens made frantic appeals to the Indian government to help them flee Sudan over the past few days, New Delhi on Monday launched “Operation Kaveri” to evacuate the Indians stranded in the conflict-torn African nation.

Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar said India has begun the process of evacuating Indians from Sudan.

On Monday, he tweeted: “Operation Kaveri gets underway to bring back our citizens stranded in Sudan. About 500 Indians have reached Port Sudan. More [are] on their way. Our ships and aircraft are set to bring them back home. Committed to assist all our brethren in Sudan.”

The clashes in Sudan began when a power struggle between the country’s top two generals — army chief and military ruler General Abdel Fattah Burhan and commander of the state-sponsored militia Rapid Support Forces (RSF) General Mohammed Dagalo — erupted into warfare on April 15.

With military fighter jets bombing RSF positions in densely populated urban areas and both sides fighting pitched battles on the streets using guns and artillery fire, the violence is escalating. Tens of thousands of people, caught in an acute shortage of food, water and medicine, have fled their homes, according to the World Health Organization. More than 400 civilians have died and thousands have been wounded in the past nine days.

As Sudan rapidly descended into war, nations scrambled to evacuate thousands of foreigners, including diplomats and aid workers, who were stranded in the country.

With the Khartoum international airport lying in shambles, air evacuations have been limited. Some governments are attempting to evacuate their citizens by ship via Port Sudan, the country’s main port on the Red Sea.

About 4,000 Indians live in Sudan.

Soon after the fighting erupted on April 15, some Indians sent appeals via Twitter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the foreign minister urging them to evacuate them and loved ones from the conflict zones of the African country.

“Hi @narendramodi sir, I am here (in Sudan) with my colleagues. Please do something to take us out of this situation. @DrSJaishankar,” Rohan Bagul, an Indian stranded in Sudan, tweeted on April 15.

The appeals for evacuation prompted the Indian Embassy in Khartoum to open a telephone line that provides evacuation-related information to Indians in Sudan.

On Saturday, a stranded Indian in Sudan told the Indian news channel Mirror Now that the situation on the ground was “scary.”

“We’re not able to go outside. There is no power and water supply. This is the eighth day of the war in Khartoum and the miseries of the people are growing every day. We have just got a message from the Indian Embassy that they are planning to evacuate us,” the Indian man told Mirror Now, in a phone interview.

A statement Sunday from the Indian Foreign Ministry said that two military transport aircraft from the Indian Air Force were on standby in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah and an Indian Navy ship had reached Port Sudan with a plan to evacuate the Indians from Sudan.

“Government of India is making all-out efforts to ensure the safety and security of Indians stranded in Sudan. We are also coordinating closely with various partners for the safe movement of those Indians who are stranded in Sudan and would like to be evacuated,” the Foreign Ministry statement said.

Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said Sunday in Delhi, “Our embassy is in regular touch with the stranded Indians in Sudan and is advising them on the viability of safe movement and the need to avoid unnecessary risk. It is also coordinating all possible assistance including possible exit from Khartoum city as and when the security situation permits safe movement.”

Three Indians were evacuated Saturday to Saudi Arabia, along with 150 other people. Those three were crew members of the Saudi Arabian Airline aircraft that was fired on in Khartoum just after the fighting broke out. On Sunday, a French evacuation mission helped five Indians flee Sudan, along with citizens of 27 other countries.
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As continued fighting raises fears that Sudan could plunge deeper into chaos, foreign governments are scrambling to get their diplomats and other citizens safely out of the country. Most countries deployed military transport aircraft to fly people out, including France, which used its airbase in neighboring Djibouti for the airlift. But not all is going smoothly — about 2,000 British nationals remain in Sudan, and many complain that their government isn’t giving them enough information about evacuation plans.

Although some flights included people of various nationalities, here’s a country-by-country accounting of evacuation efforts based on information available so far:

United States

U.S. special operations forces used helicopters to ferry 70 U.S. embassy personnel out of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, early Sunday. The U.S. government has told some 16,000 U.S. citizens in Sudan that they need to fend for themselves and that there won’t be mass evacuations.

United Kingdom

Some 1,200 British soldiers who were part of a military operation out of a key British air base on the east Mediterranean island of Cyprus helped evacuate about 30 U.K. diplomatic staff and their families out of Sudan. Arrangements are being made to fly the evacuees back home from Cyprus. There’s been no word on exactly how many people were evacuated. Britain’s Middle East Minister, Andrew Mitchell, said about 2,000 U.K. citizens still in Sudan have registered with the embassy and that “intense planning” was underway for a “series of possible evacuations.”

France

France brought out 388 people, including citizens from 28 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and North America, on four flights to Djibouti, in the nearby Horn of Africa, two of them overnight Sunday.

Germany

Three German military transport planes flew 311 people from Sudan to Jordan from where they’ll head to their home countries. Germany’s Foreign Ministry said Monday about half of the 311 were foreign nationals. The dpa news agency said among the evacuees were citizens of Australia, Bulgaria, the U.K., Belgium, Norway, Czechia, Ireland, Sweden and Portugal. The Austrian government said 27 people were Austrian citizens.

Italy

Italian Air Force C-130 transport aircraft airlifted some 200 people out of Khartoum airport Sunday evening and flew them to Djibouti. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said among them were 140 Italians, as well as some Swiss nationals, other Europeans and personnel from the Vatican’s embassy in Khartoum.

Spain

Spain said so far it had evacuated approximately 172 people from the Sudanese capital to Djibouti so far, including 34 Spanish nationals and citizens of Argentina, Colombia, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Portugal and Poland.

Sweden, Denmark

Sweden said 25 of its embassy staff and their families were among the 388 people that French aircraft airlifted to Djibouti. Denmark said 15 of its citizens were among the group.

Finland

Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto tweeted that 10 Finns had been evacuated from Khartoum, including children. He said efforts were underway to evacuate several Finns who remain in the Sudanese capital.

Norway 

Norway’s Ambassador to Sudan Endre Stiansen has tweeted that he and two colleagues are “in a safe place outside the Sudan.”

Poland

Poland’s Foreign Ministry said 11 Poles — including the ambassador to Sudan, diplomatic staff and private citizens — have been evacuated as part of French and Spanish efforts. 

Netherlands

A Dutch air force C-130 Hercules flew out of Sudan to Jordan early Monday carrying evacuees of various nationalities, including Dutch. No exact numbers have been provided. 

Turkey

The Turkish government says it’s evacuating “hundreds” of its citizens by land to Ethiopia, from where they are scheduled to be flown to Istanbul. 

Greece

Greece’s Foreign Ministry said that 15 Greek nationals and their family members have been evacuated to Djibouti with the help of Italy.

Japan

Japan said transport aircraft on standby in Djibouti would be sent to Sudan to airlift Japanese nationals once preparations were completed. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said Monday the aircraft would be sent to an undisclosed location inside Sudan to get people out.

South Africa

The South African government says at least 77 South African nationals, including embassy staff, are on their way out of the Sudanese capital.

Kenya

Kenya’s Foreign Ministry says 29 Kenyan students have crossed into Ethiopia and are en route to Nairobi, while the air force has a transport plane ready to fly out 18 students now on the road to the South Sudan border. Another two aircraft are expected to ferry 300-400 Kenyans to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Palestinians

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates says some 72 Palestinians have relocated to Port Sudan while vehicle convoys are carrying about 200 Palestinians to Egypt.

South Korea

South Korea says a bus transporting at least 28 of its nationals, including embassy staff, has entered Port Sudan’s international airport where a South Korean military aircraft awaits to fly them out.

Jordan

Some 343 Jordanian nationals evacuated from Port Sudan arrived at Amman military airport aboard four transport aircraft.

Egypt

Egypt’s state-run MENA news agency says the country is urging the more than 10,000 Egyptian citizens in Sudan to head to consular offices in Port Sudan and Wadi Halfa in the north for evacuation. Buses carrying an undisclosed number of Egyptian citizens crossed into Egypt from the Arqin border crossing on Monday. 
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