Whether Sudan’s warring parties stick to the latest U.S.-Saudi Arabian-brokered cease-fire agreement remains an open question. What is not in doubt is that Saturday’s 24-hour truce has capped another murderous week of intense fighting in which civilians were the main victims. 

Since fighting between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces erupted April 15, Sudan’s Federal Ministry of Health says nearly 800 people have been killed and 5,800 wounded. 

The U.N. refugee agency said Friday 1.42 million people have become internally displaced and nearly half a million have crossed borders as refugees. 

This past week alone, fighting between Sudan’s rival factions in and around the capital, Khartoum, has taken a heavy toll on civilian lives. Attacks against a busy livestock market, residential areas and a refugee center reportedly killed dozens of people. 

While people are dying from shelling and gunfire, the lack of humanitarian aid and a rapidly deteriorating human rights situation are compounding their misery. 

Jeremy Laurence, UNHCR spokesman, said Friday his office has received concerning reports of conflict-related sexual violence. 

“Since the fighting began, our office has received credible reports of 12 incidents of sexual violence related to the conflict against at least 37 women—although the number could be far higher. 

“In at least three incidents, the victims were young girls. In one case, 18 to 20 women were reportedly raped.” 

Laurence said growing reports of apparent enforced disappearance and arbitrary detention were another cause for concern. He said that journalists were at heightened risk “amid a rise in online hate speech and disinformation.” 

“Our office has learnt of a list circulating on social media accusing certain journalists of being supporters of the RSF. We have observed comments on Facebook calling for the killing of the journalists on the list,” he said. 

Alfonso Verdu Perez, the outgoing head of delegation for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Khartoum, said Friday he was present when the conflict began in mid-April and since has witnessed the heavy toll combat and violence have taken on the civilian infrastructure of the densely populated city. 

“Electricity and water levels have been severely damaged. We fear outbreaks of diseases because many residents have had no choice but to use unsafe drinking water from the river, from the Nile and other sources. At the same time, food and fuel prices have skyrocketed and the situation has been made worse for many people by the fact that they cannot even access their money in their banks.” 

Perez said the situation in Darfur was equally worrying. He said robberies and looting were on the rise, power stations and markets have been looted. He said more than 200 people reportedly were killed in the town of El Geneina in western Darfur in just a few days early last month. 

He warned that this flare-up of violence could easily escalate and worsen the already dire humanitarian situation in the region. 

“Health care may collapse at any moment, despite the best efforts of Sudanese doctors and nurses who have continued working in extremely difficult conditions caring for the wounded and providing other essential health care services to communities.” 

The Red Cross official said conditions in Khartoum were no better, saying that only an estimated 20% of the city’s health facilities were still functioning. Those facilities, he said, were facing severe shortages of water, power, food, and essential medical supplies were running low. 
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The Sudanese capital, Khartoum, was relatively calm Saturday morning as a U.S.- and Saudi-brokered 24-hour cease-fire took effect, providing a window for humanitarian assistance and giving the public a break from the intense fighting. 

The short cease-fire follows a string of violated truces between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, whose power struggle erupted into violence eight weeks ago, sparking a humanitarian crisis. 

The U.S. and Saudi Arabia said they shared frustration over the violations in a statement announcing the latest truce, and they threatened to adjourn the talks, which have continued indirectly, if fighting continues. 

The fighting has turned the metropolitan area including Khartoum and its sister cities Bahri and Omdurman into a war zone and led to conflict in the Darfur and Kordofan regions to the west. 

Before the start of the truce at 6 a.m. local time (0400 GMT), residents reported anti-aircraft missiles firing in southern Khartoum and the Sharg el-Nil district across the Nile, which also saw airstrikes. 

Nearly 2 million displaced

The fighting has displaced more than 1.9 million people, 200,000 or more of whom have crossed the border into Egypt.  

Those who have taken the long journey have complained of poor conditions and long wait times. 

On Saturday two people attempting to cross the Ashkeit border said they had been turned back as a new rule had come into effect requiring all Sudanese to obtain a visa before entering Egypt, reversing a longtime exemption for women, children, and the elderly. 

“We spent two nights in the neutral territory and now they are turning us back,” said Sundus Abbas, a doctor speaking to Reuters by phone from between the countries’ checkpoints. “Some people are refusing to leave,” she said. 

Confirming the new rule, Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said authorities had detected “the spread of unlawful activities by some individuals and groups on the Sudanese side” including issuing fraudulent visas. 

Egypt did not aim to prohibit entry but to organize it, he said, adding the necessary equipment had been provided for the visas to be issued promptly. 

Satellite monitoring 

In the week since the last cease-fire lapsed on June 3 there has been intense fighting, including around crucial army bases. 

The U.S. State Department said late Friday it was supporting a platform called the Sudan Conflict Observatory that would release results of satellite monitoring of the fighting and cease-fires.  

An initial report by the observatory documented “widespread and targeted” destruction of water, power and telecom facilities. 

It also documented eight systematic arson attacks that razed villages in Darfur and several attacks on schools, mosques and other public buildings in El Geneina, the country’s westernmost city, which has seen fierce militia attacks amid a telecom blackout. 

A doctors’ union in the city called it a ghost town and alleged several human rights abuses, including blockading the city, depriving civilians of water, and killing the elderly. 

Citizens have said that some of the men who have attacked the city wore RSF uniforms. 

Previous cease-fires had allowed some humanitarian access, but aid agencies reported still being impeded by the fighting, bureaucratic control and looting. 

Medical charity MSF said Saturday its staff had been stopped by RSF soldiers and obliged to make a statement that was later circulated by the forces. 

Sudan’s army and the RSF, a parallel force that has operated legally since 2017, fell out over plans to integrate their troops and reorganize their chain of command as part of a transition toward civilian rule four years after a popular uprising ousted strongman President Omar al-Bashir. 
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The Somalia government says an attack launched Friday by al-Shabab militants on a Mogadishu hotel has ended.   

State media report that security forces successfully neutralized the militants who stormed the Pearl Beach hotel on Friday evening and rescued a large number of civilians.  

Somalia police said nine people were killed and 10 others injured in the attack.  

In a statement, Somali Police Command said those killed were six civilians and three security forces. 

The police also said that 84 people, including children, women and the elderly, were rescued from the scene of the attack. 

Somalia security forces had engaged in ongoing efforts to neutralize al-Shabab militants who launched the attack at the beachfront hotel. 

Witnesses told VOA’s Somali Service that the assault began with at least two explosions outside the Pearl Beach Hotel, followed by gunmen storming the hotel. 

Gunfire was heard with an unknown number of people trapped inside the building, witnesses said, while others managed to escape through the back doors and windows. 

“Special elite forces gained access to the entry into the upper floors of the hotel,” one witness told VOA Somali. 

Al-Shabab group, affiliated with al-Qaida, has claimed responsibility for the attack. 

“The mujahideen managed to enter the Pearl Beach hotel and are still fully in control” the group said in a statement.  

The hotel at the center of the attack is near Lido Beach, a popular destination for politicians and members of the Somali diaspora visiting the capital city. 

This incident occurred during a period of relative calm for Mogadishu after the government in mid-April deployed newly trained military police in and around the city. However, violence by the group has wreaked havoc in other parts of the country. 

In a separate incident on Friday, at least 27 people including children were killed and more than 50 were injured in a massive blast from unexploded ordinance in the village of Muraale, located between Qoryooley and Jannaale districts. 

“Some individuals had retrieved unexploded explosives from a nearby field and used it for fire to cook food, but tragically, the device exploded, resulting in the deaths of 27 people, including children, mother, father, and youths,” Abdirahman Yusuf Abdinur, the mayor of Jannaale, told Somalia state media agency.  

Earlier on Friday, Somalia announced its readiness to take over security responsibilities from the African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission in the country, with 2,000 AU troops set to leave Somalia by the end of June, in line with U.N. Security Council Resolutions 2628 and 2670. 

Somalia’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement that it has recruited enough security forces who will assume control of the security responsibilities currently handled by the outgoing AU troops. 

The AU peace mission is expected to fully exit Somalia by December 31, 2024. 

This story originated in VOA’s Somali Service.  
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In the heart of Maryland, the Frederick Keys baseball team introduced its newest player last week, one unlike any other the team has seen in its 35-year history.

Dennis Kasumba, 18-year-old catcher. From Uganda.

Kasuma recently turned what seemed like an impossible dream into a reality, making the leap from the rough fields of his home country to the manicured grass of American professional baseball stadiums. For those following his journey, he stands as a symbol of resilience.

Just three days after flying to the U.S., Kasumba took his first official steps onto an American baseball diamond on June 1 with the Keys. Batting in the ninth inning, he struck out on three pitches, but was able to make contact on the first pitch, fouling it off.

The young player who once honed his skills on muddy streets using old tires and oil drums in Uganda, now finds himself playing high-quality amateur league baseball, one step below the professional minor leagues.

“My first game was very, very good because I faced a pitcher who threw 95 [miles per hour – about 153 kph], yeah. And I hit it,” Kasumba told VOA. “I need to hit because I am here to hit, to show my skill, I am ready to hit. I want to show I can hit. I want to show them I can throw.”

Kasumba’s story extends beyond his on-field skills. His journey from Uganda to the U.S. has captured the imagination of thousands on social media who have marveled at his intense workouts. In one, he practices his catching drills with a tire strapped to his back.

One of these admirers was Joshua Williams, an American attorney and baseball enthusiast who helped make Kasumba’s dream a reality.

“It all just started because I saw a video of him hitting off of a tire, hitting a baseball off of the tire with a Coke bottle,” Williams said. “So, I reached out to him on Facebook, started talking to him. We talked about his dreams and aspirations.”

It took Kasumba almost two years to get a contract with an American team and several attempts at the U.S. Embassy in Uganda to secure a travel visa.

Williams and some friends intensified their efforts after his third visa request was denied.

“We started making our application a lot stronger. Several immigration attorneys at my firm jumped in and they were like, ‘Let’s figure this out,’” Williams told VOA. “And so, we just kind of put our heads together. So, he was denied on Friday. And on Tuesday we got a call from the embassy, and they said, ‘Be there Thursday at 2 o’clock.’”

Kasumba is not the first Ugandan to try his hand at baseball. Last year, the Los Angeles Dodgers signed two Ugandans, Umar Male and Ben Serunkuma, to contracts. Both have played some games in the low minor leagues.

In his debut, Kasumba showed that he too may have a future in baseball, and also underscored his desire to learn.

“When I saw my pitchers throwing in 88, 95, 98. I thought, ‘Can I hit these guys? They are faster.’ But when I got to my first batting, in my heart I said, ‘I can hit, because I believe in myself,’” he said.

For Frederick Keys Manager Rene Rivera, Kasumba is already giving the team a jolt.

“This guy has so much energy, he brings so much to the other guys, you know, he’s hardworking,” Rivera said. “We all saw some of his videos on Instagram, the passion he puts behind him so he can be good. And I think that the players already see that, they come and work.”

Kasumba, who grew up an orphan in Wakiso, Uganda, is determined to make the most of the opportunity.

“There are a lot of kids, uh, people calling my name, my jersey number: Kasumba! Kasumba! Kasumba! This is my first time, to have someone asking me for a signature, photos,” he said. “I was so surprised. It makes me feel very, very good. I think I am blessed.”

The months ahead will bring challenges and opportunities alike for Kasumba. And to face these head-on, the young man has a few people he can count on, starting with his manager.

“We helped him come over here. And now he’s here,” Rivera told VOA. “So, I think that my job is to be his role model, to show him what I know and what I know from many years playing baseball, help him get to the next. I think that’s my main goal right now.”

Catching is baseball’s most complicated and physically arduous position, but Rivera can teach Kasumba a lot – he spent 13 years as a catcher in the major leagues.

As Kasumba steps onto the field, bat in hand, he believes he’s not just playing for the Frederick Keys — he’s playing for his country, his thousands of online supporters around the world and every dreamer who’s ever dared to dream big.
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Attackers killed one U.N. peacekeeper and seriously injured eight others Friday in Mali’s Timbuktu region, an area where extremists continue to operate, the United Nations said. 

The peacekeepers were part of a security patrol that was targeted first by an improvised explosive device and then by direct fire in the town of Ber, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. 

The United Nations joined the head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali, El-Ghassim Wane, in strongly condemning the attack, Dujarric said. 

Mali has been ruled by a military junta since a 2020 coup against an elected president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. It has faced destabilizing attacks by armed extremist groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group since 2013. 

In 2021, France and its European partners who were engaged in the fight against extremists in Mali’s north withdrew from the country after the junta brought in mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group. 

The United States warned Mali’s military government in April that it would be “irresponsible” for the United Nations to continue deploying its more than 15,000 peacekeepers unless the western African nation ended restrictions, including on operating reconnaissance drones, and carried out political commitments toward peace and elections in March 2024. 

The warning came as the U.N. Security Council considers three options proposed by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for the peacekeeping mission’s future: increase its size, reduce its footprint, or withdraw troops and police and turn it into a political mission. Its current mandate expires on June 30. 

Dujarric said the peacekeeper killed on Friday was the ninth to die in Mali this year. 

“This tragic loss is a stark reminder of the risks that peacekeepers in Mali and other places around the world face while tirelessly working to bring stability and peace to the people of Mali,” he said.
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Amnesty International on Friday called on Zimbabwe’s president not to sign into law the so-called “Patriotic Act” that lawmakers approved this week.

The government says the proposed law, which would authorize penalties against people found guilty of damaging Zimbabwe’s sovereignty and national interests, is justified and must be enacted. Critics say the law will curb freedom of expression during the August elections.

Amnesty International urged President Emmerson Mnangagwa not to sign the measure, known officially as the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Amendment Bill 2022.

The bill, if made law, would authorize jail terms of up 20 years against those found guilty of “willfully injuring the sovereignty and national interest of Zimbabwe.”

It would also allow the death penalty for a person found to have advocated for international sanctions that harm the country or its people.

Amnesty said the proposed law would effectively give authorities greater power to unduly restrict human rights and silence those perceived as being critical of the government, such as political activists, human rights defenders, journalists, civil society leaders, opposition parties and whistle-blowers.

Lucia Masuka, Amnesty’s executive director in Zimbabwe, said her organization was deeply concerned by this week’s passing of the bill by the Senate.

“The weaponization of the law is a desperate and patent move to curtail the rights to freedom of expression and to public participation in elections due in August this year,” she said. “The bill’s deliberately vague and overly broad provisions on damaging Zimbabwe’s interest and sovereignty, including by calling for economic sanctions, flies in the face of Zimbabwe’s international human rights obligations. All laws must be defined precisely, allowing people to know exactly which acts will make them criminally liable.”

But Ziyambi Ziyambi, Zimbabwe’s justice minister, said the proposed law would target only citizens who plan on harming the nation with the help of foreigners.

“The provision says this: If you go and meet a foreign government or an agent of a foreign government, and [the intention of the meeting] is to ensure that particular country imposes a trade embargo on Zimbabwe or sanctions, and you fully participate and you urge them to do that, knowing fully well that your action will injure the sovereignty of the country, you are guilty of an offense,” Ziyambi said. “Are you saying it is good?”

He added that even if the measure was enacted, Zimbabweans would still be allowed to say anything and even criticize Mnangagwa.

“The law has nothing to do with Mnangagwa,” Ziyambi said. “You can insult him as long as you do not infringe on existing laws; you won’t be arrested. We are saying we can disagree, but not to the extent of advocating for the generality of the population to suffer.”

Musa Kika, a constitutional lawyer who heads the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, said enactment of the legislation would be unfortunate.

“The government has committed itself to certain governance reforms in light of arrears and debt clearance process,” Kika said. “Under governance there are issues to do with constitutionalism and civic space, et cetera. This kind of law takes back or takes away whatever commitments it has made in that process. This is an unconstitutional law – it infringes on all sorts of civil and political rights that the constitution gives.”

He added that the bill could be struck off Zimbabwe’s statutes if challenged in court.

But Rutendo Matinyarare, chairman of the Zimbabwe Anti-Sanctions Movement, disagreed.

“Amnesty International is not a multilateral human rights institution,” Matinyarare said. “So they do not qualify to speak on human rights issues. That is the prerogative of the U.N. Human Rights Council. Secondly, Amnesty International is paid, so it is not an independent institution; it is an institution paid to advance American and Western interests over Third World interests and African interests.

“On the issue of the Patriotic Bill, they have not given any evidence how the Patriotic Bill is going to close down dissent, because there is nowhere in the Patriotic Bill that it says Zimbabweans are not allowed to criticize their government.”

Mnangagwa has not said when or whether he will sign the bill into law.
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Two very different cases in South Africa this week have both confirmed the country’s position as a bastion of the free press, and conversely also shown how the media is under threat.

In the latter case, investigative news website amaBunghane was slapped with a gag order after an influential businessman went to court alleging leaked documents — which amaBunghane had used in reporting critical of his company — had been stolen.

AmaBhungane was ordered by a judge to return the documents and cease any further reporting on the company, Moti Group – which is alleged to have been involved in wrongdoing and then orchestrating a PR blitz to try and cover it up. The company denies the charges.

When amaBhungane was informed of the judge’s order, which had been heard in secret, the media group sought an urgent reconsideration, and a second judge decided they would not be forced to hand over the leaked documents. The second judge expressed surprise and consternation at the first judge’s decision.

However, the journalists are still barred from further reporting on the Moti group until the case is heard in court.

“Were this order to stand, it would set a dangerous precedent. … Such an order undoubtedly has a chilling effect, especially on investigative journalism,” Sam Sole, a journalist with amaBhungane, told VOA.

Angela Quintal, head of the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Africa Program, echoed his concerns.

“We hope that when the matter is fully ventilated in open court, investigative journalism in the public interest and the protection of confidential sources that are key to exposing massive, alleged corruption in South Africa and elsewhere will be vindicated and not eroded,” Quintal said.

“Not to do so would mean any party can stop investigative journalists from exposing corruption or any other matter of public interest by claiming that the information relied upon is stolen, endangering the lives of whistleblowers or confidential sources by forcing disclosure,” she added.

Investigations essential to democracy

From being one of the countries with the most censored press during the apartheid regime, the advent of democracy in 1994 saw South Africa – which now has one of the world’s most liberal constitutions – become one of the globe’s best places for journalists to work.

Reporters Without Borders’ 2023 Press Freedom Index ranked South Africa as the 25th most free country for press in the world, out of 180 countries. It beat the U.S., which ranked 45th, as well as the U.K.

South African journalists work to expose wrongdoing with strong investigative units at outlets like amaBhungane, Daily Maverick and elsewhere, informing the public about the numerous corruption scandals in government – especially under former President Jacob Zuma.

Without the digging by the media, the influence peddling and assault on state institutions during Zuma’s tenure that became known in South Africa as “State Capture,” might never have come to light. Zuma is currently on trial in a separate corruption case.

A lot of that reporting relied on leaks and whistleblowers, which is why the Moti Group’s gag order poses such a threat, according to independent experts.

“The original judge set a very worrying precedent – of the sort we have not seen since the apartheid days,” Anton Harber, professor of journalism at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, told VOA.

“If you label leaks like this as stolen goods then you would put an end to most journalism-based leaks,” he added, pointing to the Pentagon Papers and Edward Snowden’s revelations as examples.

Sole said the Moti Group’s allegation that the documents were stolen was unproven.

“And we maintain that the constitutional protection of free expression entails, inter alia, that regardless of the manner in which information has been obtained by a source, it is not unlawful for journalists to hold any information provided by a source, provided they do so in the public interest,” he added.

The South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) is supporting amaBhungane in the case, with executive director Reggy Moalusi telling VOA, “The gag is certainly a threat to press freedom as it seeks to stop any publication of the work that amaBhungane does, despite this being in the public interest.”

A court date to try to overturn the entire initial order is set for June 27.

The pen is mightier than … the president

While experts agree the amaBhungane case is concerning, there was also a positive story this week relating to journalism in South Africa.

One of the country’s most renowned legal reporters, Karyn Maughan, was victorious when a court prohibited former President Zuma from continuing his private prosecution of her.

Quintal said the throwing out of the case was “a legal smackdown for former South African President Jacob Zuma and a massive victory for Karyn Maughan.”

Zuma had tried to prosecute Maughan, who writes for online publication News24, along with state advocate Billy Downer, after Downer allegedly leaked the ex-president’s confidential medical records to the reporter. The court found that the information was already public.

Such so-called SLAPP lawsuits (strategic litigation against public participation) are often aimed at silencing whistleblowers or preventing media from reporting.

But the court found Zuma’s private prosecution amounted to an “abuse of power,” which stemmed from his “personal animosity” toward the reporter. The judges also said Maughan’s constitutional right to freedom of expression had been violated.

“I’m very grateful that I live and operate in a constitutional democracy that recognizes the right to freedom of the press, and that that right has been explicitly referenced in this judgment,” Maughan told VOA.

“I think it’s a victory for all the people living in South Africa, because ultimately if you want an effective democracy, you need a free press that’s able to operate without fear or favor, and that’s what this judgment recognizes,” she added.
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U.S. officials tasked with tracking Islamic State are seeing worrisome signs that the terror group’s core leadership is strengthening control over its global network of affiliates despite a series of key losses.

Specifically, the United States is raising concerns about the group’s General Directorate of Provinces, a series of nine regional offices set up over the past several years to sustain the group’s reputation and global capabilities.

The U.S. State Department on Thursday highlighted the threat posed by these regional offices, designating the leaders of the offices in Iraq and in Africa’s Sahel region as Specially Designated Global Terrorists.

‘Not yet done’

“We remain focused on cutting off ISIS’s ability to raise and move funds across multiple jurisdictions,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, speaking to a meeting in Riyadh of the global coalition that has been working to defeat Islamic State, also known as ISIS, IS or Daesh.

“For all our progress, the fight is not yet done,” Blinken added.

A separate State Department statement Thursday noted the terror group maintains connections to the global financial system and that IS’s core leadership has “relied on its regional General Directorate of Provinces offices to provide operational guidance and funding around the world.”

The new designations specifically name Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rufay’I, the former emir of IS’s Iraq province, as the leader of the Iraq-based Bilad al-Rafidayn Office, and Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Ali al-Mainuki as the leader of the al-Furqan office, which oversees operations in the Sahel.

Concern about the regional offices has been growing for more than a year, with a U.N. report warning in July 2022 that the offices were key to the terror group’s plans for “reviving its external operational capability.”

 

The U.N. report cited the al-Furqan office, located in the Lake Chad Basin and charged with overseeing the terror group’s efforts in and around Nigeria and the western Sahel, as one of “the most vigorous and best-established [ISIS] regional networks.”

The report further warned that the Al-Siddiq office in Afghanistan and the Al-Karrar office in Somalia were likewise playing critical roles in Islamic State’s expansion.

Intelligence shared by U.N. member states at the time, however, suggested some of the other regional offices, including those in Turkey, Libya, Yemen and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, were struggling, and in some cases nonfunctional.

And despite a series of high-profile leadership losses, including the deaths or captures of at least 13 senior officials since early 2022, time seems to have worked in the terror group’s favor.

The regional office model, answering to the group’s core leadership, “has really enabled a lot of these groups to rapidly gain capability,” said Anand Arun, a U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency senior officer and analyst.

“They’re pooling resources. They’re sharing TTP [tactics, techniques and procedures]. They’re sharing guidance,” Arun told a forum hosted by George Washington University’s Program on Extremism on Wednesday. “We’re seeing ISIS’s local and regional attack capabilities in Africa increase.”

Enhanced internet ties

Others are also seeing IS affiliates, like IS West Africa Province, maximize these connections by using enhanced internet connections for what one expert described as “real-time communication.”

“We also saw conference calls, sometimes conference calls between ISIS central and African groups but also amongst African groups,” said Bulama Bukarti, a researcher and vice president at the Bridgeway Foundation, a charity that aims to prevent mass atrocities.

“They also share intelligence information, best practices,” he said, speaking at the same forum as Arun. “So, for example, if one affiliate looted a particular weapon they don’t know how to operate, they just would take a photo of it, put it in the group [chat], and then someone would send them instructions, would send them a YouTube link with instructions on how to operate it.”

Bukarti also warned that IS’s adoption of advanced technologies has extended to other areas, with IS West Africa Province conducting trials on how to arm commercial drones to be used in attacks.

U.S. officials share the concern.

“I’m very much concerned about that and kind of the trajectory,” said the DIA’s Arun, calling the possibilities “exponential.”

“I think there’s a lot of ways that they can harness what’s coming with AI [artificial intelligence] and drones and other things,” he said.

Already, the United States has been leading efforts to crack down on these networks.

Last November, the Treasury Department sanctioned a smuggling network in Somalia that may have been linked to IS’s Al-Karrar regional office.

And in January, U.S. special operations forces killed Bilal al-Sudani, a key IS financial facilitator, during a raid on a mountainous cave complex in a remote part of northern Somalia.

 

But some of the information turned up during that operation has given U.S. officials cause to worry about IS’s growing technological prowess.

“If Bilal al-Sudani can access the internet from a cave in the Puntland of Somalia, I think they can figure it out,” Arun said.  
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About 300 infants, toddlers and older children have been rescued from an orphanage in Sudan’s capital after being trapped there while fighting raged outside, aid officials said Thursday. The evacuation came after 71 children died from hunger and illness in the facility since mid-April.

The tragedy at the Al-Mayqoma orphanage made headlines late last month as fighting raged outside between Sudan’s military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

The deaths have highlighted the heavy toll inflicted on civilians since mid-April when the clashes erupted between forces loyal to Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan and RSF forces led by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo.

About 300 children at the Al-Mayqoma orphanage in Khartoum were transferred to a “safer location” elsewhere in the northeastern African nation, said Ricardo Pires, a spokesman for the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF.

Sudan’s ministries of social development and health have taken charge of the children, while UNICEF has provided humanitarian support including medical care, food, educational activities and play, Pires said in an email to The Associated Press.

He said the children had received medical checks following their long journey to their new location, adding that “any child requiring hospitalization will have access to healthcare.”

The International Committee of The Red Cross, which helped with the evacuation, said the children, aged between 1 month to 15 years, were relocated after securing a safe corridor to Madani, the capital of Jazira province, about 135 kilometers (85 miles) southeast of Khartoum. Seventy caretakers have been transferred with the children, the ICRC said.

“They (the children) spent incredibly difficult moments in an area where the conflict has been raging for the past 6 weeks without access to proper healthcare, an especially hard situation for children with special needs,” said Jean-Christophe Sandoz, the head of the ICRC delegation in Sudan.

Nazim Sirag, an activist who heads the local charity Hadhreen, said in a phone interview that the children were ferried late Tuesday to a newly established facility in Madani.

Sirag, whose charity led humanitarian efforts to help the orphanage and other nursing homes in Khartoum, said at least 71 children died at the Al-Mayqoma since the war in Sudan began on April 15.

Among the dead were babies as young as three months, according to death certificates obtained by the AP. The certificates listed circulatory collapse as a cause of death, but also mentioned other contributing factors such as fever, dehydration, malnutrition, and failure to thrive.

Their relocation followed an online campaign led by local activists and international charities, which intensified after the death of 26 children in two days at the orphanage in late May. The children had been trapped in the fighting for over seven weeks as food and other supplies dwindled. The facility was inaccessible because of the war had turned the capital and other urban areas into battlefields.

“The safe movement of these incredibly vulnerable children to a place of safety offers a ray of light in the midst of the ongoing conflict in Sudan,” Mandeep O’Brien, UNICEF Representative in Sudan, said in a statement. “Many millions of children remain at risk across Sudan.”

Local volunteers, meanwhile, evacuated 77 other children earlier this week from separate foster homes in the coastal, Sirag of Hadhreen said. The children have temporarily sheltered along with 11 adults in a school in the town of Hasahisa, also in Jazira province, he said.

The fighting has inflicted a heavy toll on civilians, particularly children. More than 860 civilians, including at least 190 children, were killed and thousands of others were wounded since April 15, according to Sudan’s Doctors’ Syndicate which tracks civilian casualties. The tally is likely to be much higher.

The conflict has forced more than 1.9 million people to flee their homes, including around 477,000 who crossed into neighboring countries, according to the U.N.’s migration agency. Others remain trapped inside their homes, unable to escape as food and water supplies dwindle. The clashes have also disrupted the work of humanitarian groups.

There have been reports of widespread looting and sexual violence, including the rape of women and girls in Khartoum and the western Darfur region, which have seen some of the worst fighting in the conflict. Almost all reported cases of sexual attacks were blamed on the RSF, which didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment.
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Artificial Intelligence tools like ChatGPT are presenting problems in Kenya’s education system, as in so many others. Some writers who offer academic assistance to students say AI tools are cutting into their business, while professors worry students have new ways to cheat. Mohammed Yusuf reports.
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After his May 29 inauguration, Nigerian president Bola Tinubu announced he would soon end a decades-old fuel subsidy, saying the country can no longer afford the cost. His comments sparked panic buying of gas and raised concerns about inflation in one of Africa’s top oil-producing countries. Gibson Emeka has this report from Abuja.

Camera: Gibson Emeka
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Rwandan President Paul Kagame has embarked on a major shakeup of the country’s military, with a round of dismissals announced Wednesday after the appointment of a new defense minister, army chief and head of internal security.

Army spokesman Ronald Rvivanga told local media that two long-serving generals, Major General Aloys Muganga and Brigadier General Francis Mutiganda, had been sacked for “indiscipline.”

“According to the law, this means that they have to hand over military equipment and leave the army without any benefits, because of what they did,” he said, without elaborating.

Another 14 officers were also dismissed along with more than 200 others, the Rwanda Defense Force said in a statement.

On Tuesday, Kagame had announced a reshuffle in several top security posts, without giving any reasons for the move.

He said Juvenal Marizamunda had been appointed defense minister, replacing Albert Murasira who had served in the post since 2018.

The 58-year-old Marizamunda was previously the head of Rwanda’s correctional services, and also a former deputy inspector general of police.

Kagame also appointed Mubarak Muganga as the new chief of defense staff, and Vincent Nyakarundi as army chief of staff, a statement from his office said.

Jean Bosco Ntibitura was named director general in charge of internal security in the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS).

Other changes were also made to command roles in the Rwandan force which has been deployed in Mozambique since 2021 to counter a jihadist insurgency.

Of the sacked generals, Muganga had been appointed commander of mechanized forces in 2019, while Mutiganda had been in charge of external security at the NISS until October 2018 when he was called back to RDF headquarters in an unspecified role, local media reports said.

“He [Kagame] has also authorized the dismissal of 116 other ranks and approved the rescission of 112 other ranks,” the RDF statement said, adding that the moves were effective immediately.

Last week, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s army accused the Rwandan military and the M23 rebel group of planning to attack the eastern Congolese city of Goma.

The Tutsi-led M23 has captured swathes of territory in North Kivu province since taking up arms in late 2021 after years of dormancy, with over one million people displaced by the fighting.

The DRC has repeatedly accused neighboring Rwanda and its Tutsi-led government of backing the M23, a charge backed by several Western countries and independent UN experts, but one that Kigali denies.
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