JUBA, March 29, 2024 (AFP) – Oil-dependent South Sudan is at risk of economic and political turmoil over the shutdown of a key pipeline in its war-torn neighbour, Sudan, experts have warned. Analysts voiced deep concern at the loss of crucial oil revenue in one of the poorest countries on the planet, and the possibility it may force South Sudan’s first ever elections to be delayed once again. In a letter dated March 16, Sudan’s […]
Africa
More than 130 kidnapped Nigerian schoolchildren released
By Laurie CHURCHMAN ABUJA, March 24, 2024 (AFP) – More than 130 schoolchildren seized by gunmen in a mass kidnapping in northwestern Nigeria earlier this month were released unharmed on Sunday, officials and the army said. The kidnapping in Kuriga, Kaduna state on March 7 was one of the biggest such attacks in years and prompted a national outcry over insecurity. Teachers and residents previously said around 280 pupils were kidnapped, but the army said […]
Sudan among ‘worst humanitarian disasters in recent memory’: UN
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) – After nearly a year of war, Sudan is suffering one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent history, the United Nations warned Wednesday, slamming the international community for its lack of action. Fighting between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has since April killed tens of thousands and led to acute food shortages and a looming risk of famine. “By all measures — […]
Gangs make advances as conditions in Haiti worsen
UNITED NATIONS, United States, March 22, 2024 (AFP) – Haiti’s gangs have made advances in Port-au-Prince, a UN official reported Thursday, with political parties inching toward forming a transition government and new bloodshed roiling the troubled Caribbean nation. Police in Port-au-Prince confirmed that a major gang leader, Ernst Julme, known as Ti Greg, was slain in a clash with security forces. Julme led the Delmas 95 gang. Addressing a news conference from Haiti via videolink, […]
Bodies found in Haitian suburb as gang violence rages for third week
PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 18, 2024 (AFP) – Fourteen bodies were found in an affluent suburb of Haiti’s capital Monday, as international efforts accelerated to fill a political vacuum created by weeks of gang violence that has forced the impending departure of the prime minister. Local residents told AFP they did not know the circumstances of the deaths but said that the Laboule and Thomassin neighborhoods, in the suburb of Petion-Ville, had been under attack by what […]
Gunfire booms in Haiti as politicians seek to form interim gov’t
By Jean Daniel SENAT with Ines BEL AIBA in Washington PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 14, 2024 (AFP) – Gunfire rang out Thursday in Haiti’s capital and “bandits” set a police official’s house ablaze, ending three days of relative calm as politicians pressed on with talks to form an interim governing body. The country has been convulsed for two weeks by a gang uprising, with the well-armed groups saying they wanted to topple Prime Minister Ariel Henry, an […]
Nearly 230,000 children, new mothers risk dying of hunger in Sudan: NGO
PORT SUDAN, Sudan, March 13, 2024 (AFP) – Without critical action, nearly 230,000 children and new mothers in war-ravaged Sudan are “likely to die from hunger”, Save the Children warned on Wednesday. Nearly 11 months of fighting between the forces of two rival generals has killed thousands and displaced eight million people in the northeast African country, the United Nations says. The bombing and destruction of fields and factories have plunged Sudan into “one of […]
Dozens abducted in new Nigeria kidnapping: sources
KADUNA, Nigeria, March 13, 2024 (AFP) – Gunmen abducted dozens of people from a northwestern Nigerian village on Tuesday, according to two local representatives and a UN source, just days after the kidnapping of more than 250 pupils from a school in the same region. Criminal gangs often carry out mass kidnappings in northwest Nigeria, targeting schools, villages and highways where they can quickly snatch large numbers of people for ransom payments. Tuesday’s abductions in […]
Haiti PM agrees to leave in regional push to end crisis
By Shaun TANDON KINGSTON, Jamaica, March 12, 2024 (AFP) – Haiti’s prime minister agreed late Monday to step aside as armed gangs plunge his country into anarchy, as he accepted a regional push for a transition that sets the stage for international intervention. Caribbean nations secured Ariel Henry’s resignation at an emergency meeting in Jamaica where US Secretary of State Antony Blinken offered another $100 million to pave the way for the security force, […]
EU says all diplomatic personnel evacuated from Haiti
BRUSSELS, Belgium, March 11, 2024 (AFP) – The European Union has evacuated all its diplomatic personnel from Haiti because of “the dramatic deterioration of the security situation” there with armed gangs taking control of much of its capital, a spokesman said Monday. “Currently we have removed and evacuated all the EU staff from Haiti,” said European Commission spokesman Peter Stano. The European Union is “extremely concerned” about developments in Haiti over recent days, he added. […]
How Haiti’s gangs grew into ‘Frankenstein’ monsters
By Aziz EL MASSASSI WASHINGTON, March 11, 2024 (AFP) – The latest violence in Haiti underscores the powerful sway of armed gangs, which have profited from collusion with the authorities, institutional negligence and political chaos since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021. The gangs sowing terror in the impoverished Caribbean island have morphed into de facto overlords. Now they are demanding the ouster of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, whose successor would have been […]
US staff, German ambassador evacuated as gang violence torments Haiti
PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 10, 2024 (AFP) – With Haiti’s capital spiraling deeper into gang violence, members of several diplomatic missions, including staff from the United States and the German ambassador, began leaving Port-au-Prince Sunday. Beleaguered residents were scrambling for safety following the latest spasm of unrest, with a UN group warning of a “city under siege” after armed attackers targeted the presidential palace and police headquarters. Criminal groups, which already control much of Port-au-Prince as well […]
