by tyler | Apr 26, 2023 | africa, CNN
For years, the people in the villages around Chingola in Zambia endured frequent health challenges and dead fish floating around in their water source, but that was just the beginning of their nightmare.
In 2006, their once-clear river water suddenly turned a vivid blue, tainted by waste from the copper mine owned by the Zambian subsidiary of UK-headquartered mining giant, Vedanta Resources, according to a 2015 Zambian Supreme Court ruling.
Villagers suffered nose bleeds, rashes, and abdominal pain, and some even had blood in their urine, which was a result of contamination by the Zambian subsidiary Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), said Chilekwa Mumba, the son of a former miner who has been fighting for justice on behalf of the communities.
The Supreme Court ruling found that KCM was in contravention of its license and that the “final straw” was the bursting of slurry pipes which “discharged” acidic effluent into the tributaries of the Kafue River, which provides almost half of the country’s drinking water.
But attempts by residents to get compensation for damages caused to their environment had been unsuccessful in Zambia.
In 2015, Mumba launched an epic David versus Goliath fight to try to secure compensation for the community.
The community organizer, led a six-year legal battle in the UK that eventually led to Vedanta Resources and its subsidiary Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) paying compensation to 2,500 Zambian villagers, although the companies admitted no liability.
Along the way, Mumba helped to set a new precedent, allowing a British company to be sued for the actions of its subsidiary in another country.
On Monday, Mumba, 38, was awarded the 2023 Goldman Environmental Prize for Africa for his work for the community and setting legal precedent.
“It’s a wonderful feeling to receive this award,” he told CNN. “It’s the culmination of work which was done, not just by me but even the community themselves … who stood up against injustice and stood with us for six years.”
Mumba, a father of three, is one of six global winners of the prestigious award, which honors grassroots environmental activists.
The prize is awarded each year by The Goldman Environmental Foundation, with ceremonies in San Francisco and Washington, DC.
Zambia is Africa’s second-biggest copper producer and its economy relies heavily on copper mining, which generates more than half of its revenue from exports, according to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).
KCM is one of Zambia’s largest mining operations and also one of the country’s biggest private employers, according to its website.
CNN has reached out to Vedanta and KCM for comment but has not received a response.
Mumba said he faced a battle getting justice for Chingola communities suffering the effects of pollution.
In 2011, the Lusaka High Court ordered KCM to pay $2 million to 2,000 Chingola villagers for polluting Mushishima, a tributary of the Kafue River, with toxic chemicals.
The Environmental Council of Zambia, a body set up to protect the environment, provided evidence to the court that KCM violated its license by discharging acidic mine water waste into the river.
While the Supreme Court of Zambia later upheld the verdict that KCM polluted the villagers’ water source, it overturned the ruling on compensation, as the lower court had not fully assessed the extent of injury and damages for each of the 2,000 people.
Only six villagers had provided evidence to the high court of health complications, according to the Supreme Court ruling.
Determined to get justice for affected Chingola communities despite setbacks in the Zambian courts, Mumba approached English law firm Leigh Day in 2015 to launch a legal challenge against KCM’s parent company Vedanta in the UK.
No UK parent company had been held liable for environmental damages caused by their overseas operations at the time.
Vedanta Resources, founded by Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal, has had a controlling stake over KCM since 2004, with the Zambian government retaining minority control. CNN has contacted Vedanta and the Zambian state mining company for comments.
Mumba said he played the role of facilitator between community members and Leigh Day lawyers. He said he managed to convince the claimants to provide blood samples for analysis of the health impacts of the pollution, overcoming people’s concerns that their blood samples would be misused.
He recounted nearly being attacked by reptiles while wading through a flooded river during the rainy season to gather water quality samples for the case.
“It was just sheer will,” he told CNN. “The very first day we were collecting samples, we saw a snake just fall out of a tree. We laughed about it and moved on because we knew what we were trying to achieve. We also had to go close to a crocodile infested river, so there was always that threat.”
Mumba said he faced other challenges, including being arrested by local police in 2017 for not having the required permission from authorities to address thousands of villagers from polluted communities.
“I did feel threatened at certain times,” he said.
The road to compensation was lengthy.
A breakthrough came in 2019, when a landmark ruling from the UK Supreme Court held that the Zambians could sue Vedanta in the English courts, finding that Vedanta, as the parent company of KCM, owed the villagers a duty of care.
The ruling added that “even if Zambia would otherwise have been the proper place in which to bring the claims, there was a real risk that the claimants would not obtain substantial justice in the Zambian jurisdiction.”
The ligation was eventually settled. In January 2021, Vedanta announced in a joint statement with Leigh Day: “Without admission of liability, Vedanta Resources Limited and Konkola Copper Mines Plc confirm that they have agreed, for the benefit of local communities, the settlement of all claims brought against them by Zambian claimants represented by English law firm Leigh Day.”
A Leigh Day spokesperson, Caroline Ivison, told CNN that the amount paid as compensation was “confidential under the terms of the settlement agreement.”
Leigh Day attorney Oliver Holland, who worked on the Vedanta case, said in an email to CNN, that the 2019 UK Supreme Court ruling has established “an important precedent for providing access to justice for foreign claimants in transnational corporate liability litigation.”
Following the Vedanta case, the UK top court also ruled in the same year that two Nigerian communities could sue oil company Royal Dutch Shell and its Nigerian subsidiary in the English courts.
Peter Sinkamba, a prominent environmentalist in Zambia, said KCM’s now restricted operations due to a legal dispute over liquidation, have reduced pollution in the Copperbelt area. Zambian authorities handed control of the firm to a liquidator in 2019, sparking a legal dispute with Vedanta, the company’s largest shareholder.
Sinkamba, was among those who helped repeal a law preventing Zambian communities from suing mines for pollution in 1996, said the country’s judiciary is now building expertise in handling environmental cases. CNN has reached out to the office of the chief registrar of the Zambian judiciary.
Despite the risks posed to communities and wildlife in Zambia, mining operations are still being approved. The government, however, says that approved projects will follow environmental policies set by the Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA).
Environmentalists were angered when Zambian authorities supported a huge open-pit mine for copper in Lower Zambezi National Park last year. Sinkamba says they fear that the project will harm the vital wildlife conservation area.
For Mumba, who now runs an orphanage in the Zambian capital Lusaka with his wife, the battle is far from over.
“I’m still working to make sure that our communities live in better ways in terms of the extractive industry. We want pollution and environmental degradation minimized if we cannot stop it,” he told CNN.
“We remain focused in holding those companies accountable … and the communities must be seen to get some justice.”
by tyler | Apr 26, 2023 | africa, CNN
A once powerful member of the former Sudanese government wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity has been freed from prison in the capital Khartoum.
Ahmed Haroun was the head of the ruling National Congress Party and among dozens of Sudanese officials who were arrested in 2019 following a popular uprising and military coup that toppled the regime of former President Omar al-Bashir.
Haroun is charged by the ICC with more than 40 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity – including murder, rape, torture, attacks on civilians and destruction of property – allegedly committed in Darfur in the early-2000s, while he served as Sudan’s State Minister for the Interior and later State Minister for Humanitarian Affairs.
Sudan has been plunged into chaos since fighting between two military factions broke out 12 days ago.
At least 459 people have been killed and more than 4,000 injured, according to the World Health Organization, while parts of the capital Khartoum have become a war zone.
In an audio message circulated on social media on Tuesday, Haroun said he and a number of former regime figures, who he did not name, left Kober prison in Khartoum after chaos hit the facility on Sunday.
Prisoners of Kober prison were released by authorities after inmates protested the lack of food and water by burning two cars inside the prison grounds, two Sudanese police sources told CNN.
Haroun claimed in the audio message he and other figures decided to leave the prison with the help of prison guards and armed forces, and they have been relocated to a safe place. He said he would turn himself into authorities when the situation returned to normal.
Unconfirmed reports claimed the former President al-Bashir was among the prisoners released from Kober prison.
However, the media office of Sudan’s Police and sources familiar with the matter told CNN Bashir remains in the custody of the Sudan Armed Forces at a military hospital in Omdurman, west of Khartoum.
Sources told CNN that Bashir was transferred to Alia Specialized Hospital a year ago due to health problems.
“Al-Bashir is still in the hospital, all the former regime leaders were evacuated from Kober prison before the other inmates were released yesterday,” the media office of Sudan’s Police told CNN on the phone on Monday.
Sudan has been racked with violence since a power struggle between two rival generals spilled into the open, with forces loyal to each man engaging in combat on the streets of Khartoum and in towns around the capital.
Water supplies are scarce and food is “running out” in Khartoum state, a witness told CNN on Tuesday. The WHO also on Tuesday warned of a “huge biological risk” after Sudanese fighters seized the National Public Health Laboratory in the capital.
Countries are racing to evacuate their citizens as an uneasy 72-hour ceasefire, announced on Tuesday, raised hopes that escape routes could be opened for civilians desperate to flee.
The ceasefire appeared to be holding “in some parts” on Tuesday, however, “reports of sporadic shooting are still coming in as well as reports of relocation of troops,” the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Sudan said.
Both Sudan’s Armed Forces (SAF) and Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have released statements acknowledging Haroun’s audio message and accused each other of helping him to escape.
“Today, the facts were revealed in a blatant manner after the statement issued by Ahmed Haroun, wanted by the Criminal Court, on behalf of the leadership of the defunct regime, who left Kober prison at the hands of the coup forces (SAF),” RSF said in a statement on Wednesday.
In his audio message, Haroun has also urged RSF fighters to join SAF in their fights and praised SAF across the country.
SAF said in a statement Wednesday they have nothing to do with Haroun and are “not concerned with any statements issued by any group or individuals who were released from these prisons in this way, including the statement of Ahmed Haroun.”
“We are very surprised that he referred to the armed forces, as they have nothing to do with Ahmed Haroun, his political party, or the administration of prisons in the country that fall under the responsibility of the Sudanese Ministry of Interior and Police,” SAF added in the statement.
The UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Sudan warned on Tuesday that “with supply lines running out and destroyed in airstrikes, fear of increased criminality is mounting. Reports of prisoners being released from detention centers across Khartoum have compounded these fears.”
The conflict in Darfur began around 2003 when several rebel groups in Darfur, a western region of Sudan, took up arms against the government in Khartoum. They had grievances over land and historical marginalization.
In response, the government launched a brutal counterinsurgency operation to target opposition groups but which also reportedly expanded to target tribes associated with the insurgents. The government-backed Janjaweed militia was mobilized to crush the revolt and unleashed a wave of violence that Washington and activists said amounted to genocide.
The UN estimated that 2.5 million people were displaced and 300,000 people may have died in the Darfur conflict, although experts say that figure has likely risen since then.
Sudan’s then-President, Omar al-Bashir, was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity by the ICC, including genocide, related to the Darfur conflict in 2009.
Under his 30-year iron grip an entire generation grew up in the shadow of war, where the threat of torture in infamous “ghost houses” was never far away, and press freedom was nonexistent. He was ousted in a military coup in April 2019 following a lengthy popular uprising and jailed in Khartoum.
Haroun was among the senior leadership in Bashir’s regime and was sanctioned by the US government in 2007.
At the time, the US Department of the Treasury said Haroun acted as a liaison “between the Sudanese government and the Government-supported Janjaweed militias, which have attacked and brutalized innocent civilians in the region.”
While serving as State Interior Minister, Haroun “played a central role in coordinating and planning military operations in Darfur between 2003 and 2005,” the statement said.
The US Treasury Department said Haroun was also responsible in the 1990s “for massacres in the Nuba Mountains and was nicknamed ‘the Butcher of Nuba’.”
Haroun has previously denied the ICC charges.
by tyler | Apr 25, 2023 | africa, CNN
Police have now recovered 89 bodies from mass graves in a forest in eastern Kenya, believed to be linked to a cult that allegedly encouraged its followers to starve themselves to gain salvation, the country’s government said.
Kithure Kindiki, the Kenyan interior minister, said three people were found alive and rescued on Tuesday.
In all, 34 people have been rescued since the graves were discovered last Friday at an 800-acre forest.
They are said to be members of the Good News International Church, which allegedly taught its members that they would go to heaven if they starved themselves.
Paul Mackenzie Nthege, the leader of the cult, was arrested after police received a tip-off that his vast land on the Shakahola forest in the Kilifi County of eastern Kenya, contained mass graves.
Mackenzie was seen shouting “Praise Jesus” as he was escorted by police following his arrest.
There are fears the numbers could rise as the Kenya Red Cross said more than 200 people had been reported missing to its staff in the coastal town of Malindi.
Hassan Musa, Regional Manager for Kenya’s Red Cross told CNN Tuesday: “The number of family members who have come to report people missing has increased from 210 in the morning to 259 now (as of Tuesday afternoon). Out of this 259, 130 of them are children,” Musa said, adding that a local morgue at Malindi has been stretched beyond capacity.
He added that survivors recovered from the site were “very weak and traumatized.”
Police clad in overalls have been scouring the site since Friday where they have found increasing number of bodies each day.
“The purported use of the Bible to kill people, to cause widespread massacre of innocent civilians cannot be tolerated,” Kindiki said, adding that he wanted to “assure the people of Kenya and the world, that we will do whatever it takes to get to the bottom of this matter and establish the truth.”
“The government has nothing to hide,” Kindiki added.
The case has sent shockwaves through Kenya and the government has vowed tighter regulations on religious bodies and organizations.
President William Ruto branded Mackenzie a “terrible criminal,” whose actions were “akin to terrorists.”
Kenya is a deeply religious country and has had problems in the past with unregulated churches and cults.
by tyler | Apr 25, 2023 | africa, CNN
The World Health Organization warned Tuesday of a “huge biological risk” after Sudanese fighters seized the National Public Health Laboratory in the capital Khartoum, as Western and Asian nations raced to mount rapid evacuation efforts from the country and violence punctured a fragile US-brokered ceasefire.
Gunfire and the roar of fighter jets was heard by CNN journalists in Khartoum on Tuesday, half a day after the announcement of a 72-hour truce raised hopes of opening up escape routes for civilians desperate to flee. Heavy clashes erupted between the Sudanese military and the Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group battling the army for control of the country, in the northern part of Khartoum state, eyewitnesses told CNN.
The two warring sides accused each other of violating the agreement.
A high-ranking medical source told CNN that the lab, which contains samples of diseases and other biological material, had been taken over by RSF forces. The WHO did not appoint blame for the lab seizure but said medical technicians no longer had access to the facility.
Nima Saeed Abid, the WHO representative in Sudan, described the development as “extremely dangerous because we have polio isolates in the lab, we have measles isolates in the lab, we have cholera isolates in the lab.”
“There is a huge biological risk associated with the occupation of the central public health lab in Khartoum by one of the fighting parties,” he added.
The WHO said in a statement to CNN that “trained laboratory technicians no longer have access to the laboratory” and that the facility had suffered power cuts, meaning “it is not possible to properly manage the biological materials that are stored in the laboratory for medical purposes.”
The power cuts also mean there is a risk of spoilage of depleting stocks of blood bags, according to the director-general of the laboratory.
The medical source told CNN that “the danger lies in the outbreak of any armed confrontation in the laboratory because that will turn the laboratory into a germ bomb.”
“An urgent and rapid international intervention is required to restore electricity and secure the laboratory from any armed confrontation because we are facing a real biological danger,” the source added.
CNN has reached out to the RSF for comment.
The United Kingdom, France, South Korea and a host of other countries confirmed Tuesday that they were pulling out nationals after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that a three-day ceasefire had been agreed.
The White House is meanwhile considering a plan to send US troops to Port Sudan to help with the evacuation of American citizens, a US official with knowledge of the operations told CNN on Monday. Two US warships are also being deployed toward Port Sudan, the USS Truxtun and the USS Lewis B Puller, according to the official.
CNN’s team in Djibouti obtained images released by the US military showing personnel arriving in that country. France and Pakistan both said they had evacuated hundreds of nationals, while China said most of its citizens had also been pulled out of the country.
As many as 500 people fleeing the fighting have begun boarding the French frigate “Lorraine” in Port-Sudan on Tuesday afternoon, a spokesman for the French Chief of Defense Staff told CNN.
Previous ceasefires have collapsed within hours of being struck since clashes first gripped Sudan in mid-April. But the latest agreement, which Blinken said followed two days of “intense negotiation,” has raised hopes that it would open a window in which foreign nations could hurry citizens and staff to safety. According to a statement from the Sudanese Armed Forces, Saudi Arabia was also involved in mediating the truce.
On Tuesday, both sides of the conflict accused each other of breaking the truce. The armed forces said the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) were moving military convoys to the capital in order to carry out a large scale military operation, had deployed snipers in parts of Khartoum, and were conducting operations near embassies. The army did not provide evidence for the claims.
The RSF blamed the army for violating the truce by “continuing to attack Khartoum by planes.” Eyewitnesses told CNN that fighter jets were heard over Omdurman to the north of the capital.
As the conflict rages on through its second week, water supplies are scarce and food is “running out” in Khartoum state, a witness told CNN on Tuesday.
“Shops are running out of food completely” and several food factories in the state had been looted, the witness, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons, told CNN.
“As for the water supplies, we don’t have water for the eleventh day continuously. We only get water from a well nearby. So you have to go all the way to the well with barrels or stuff if you have a car or stuff. If not you have to take something small to get enough water for you,” the witness said.
Saif Mohamed Othman, 51, a freelancer who resides in Shambat, North Bahri, told CNN on Tuesday that food stocks have run out in stores, made worse by the complete burning of the central market, which supplies large parts of Bahri with vegetables, meat and other food.
Residents are also struggling financially because state employees had not received their wages since before the Eid al-Fitr holiday at the end of last week, and the bank’s ATMs have stopped functioning, Othman told CNN.
Othman told CNN there are patrols in place to protect the neighborhood from the widespread looting and robbing that large areas in Khartoum have been exposed to due to the lack of security and police presence.
On Monday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) warned that shortages of food, water, medicines and fuel are becoming “extremely acute” in Khartoum and surrounding areas.
“Access to health care, including sexual and reproductive health care, has been critically impacted by the conflict,” UNOCHA added. “Displacement of civilians continues to be reported in Khartoum, Northern, Blue Nile, North Kordofan, North Darfur, West Darfur and South Darfur states, as well as cross-border movements to surrounding countries.”
Many Sudanese people caught in the middle of the fighting have attempted to make their own perilous escapes from the capital, taking advantages of brief breaks in combat to rush to safety.
Sudan has been racked with violence since a bloody power struggle between two rival generals spilled into the streets, with forces loyal to each man engaging in combat on the streets of Khartoum and in towns around the capital.
Over the course of fighting, the RSF and Sudanese military have issued statements discrediting one another, with unsubstantiated claims of their control over key posts of the capital and accusations of each side targeting civilians.
On Monday, the Sudanese military claimed that the RSF killed an Egyptian diplomat, while the RSF claimed the army targeted civilians in an airstrike on a Khartoum neighborhood. Both groups did not provide evidence for the claims.
by tyler | Apr 19, 2023 | africa, CNN
The Sudanese army said it agreed to a 24-hour ceasefire on Wednesday following an attempt by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to seize the army’s headquarters.
But it is unclear the ceasefire would hold after a similar truce crumbled on Tuesday.
Wednesday saw fierce fighting in central Khartoum as well as serious clashes at the capital’s main airport, which has been closed since Saturday as RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, battles for power against Sudan’s military chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
Hemedti is commanding his troops from the city’s Hai Al Matar neighborhood, which is close to the military headquarters, a high ranking military official and an eyewitness told CNN.
The military official chose to remain anonymous as they were not authorized to speak. The eyewitness, who saw Hemedti’s convoy, requested anonymity out of fear for their safety.
The Sudanese armed forces said in a statement Wednesday that it “repelled and defeated” RSF’s attempt to seize the army’s headquarters, saying they have seized “quantities of ammunition, a number of medium and light machine guns, personal weapons, and 24 Land Cruisers that they [RSF] left behind.”
It admitted that since the outbreak of fighting on Saturday, RSF has managed to seize a number of government headquarters including the Ministry of the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of the Interior and the Civil Registry Department and are using these “civilian institutions to manage their combat activities.”
The army said that RSF seized a number of “weapons stores from police stations.”
Later on Wednesday, internet watchdog NetBlocks said an internet outage was “registered on Sudan internet provider Canar Telecom amid ongoing clashes between military and paramilitary forces; power outages and disruptions have continued since the outbreak of the conflict this week.”
The agreed ceasefire on Wednesday started at 6 p.m. local (12 p.m. ET) and will end at the same time the following day, and if it holds, will provide respite for civilians, caught in the middle for control of the country.
It comes a day after both factions accused the other of breaking a truce on Tuesday, with clases re-erupting in the capital. Sudan’s armed forces accused RSF of assaulting civilians, looting and “burning the market on Bahri in Khartoum,” said Sudanese Armed Forces spokesperson Brigadier General Nabil Abdallah Ali Moussa.
“The real problem is that there does not seem that there is control over the RSF from its leadership. They are acting similar to gangs, and they are threatening people’s lives,” Moussa said.
The RSF accused the armed forces of breaching the truce “in the first hours” after it came into effect, and said the army continues to engage in “heavy weapons attacks and indiscriminate bombing.”
Civilians have meanwhile been caught in the chaos. “The situation today is worse than yesterday,” Amal, a Sudanese woman who has been trapped in her home, told CNN.
“We can hear heavy artillery and smell and see the smoke rising from burning buildings,” she said.
Eman, a British-Sudanese doctor visiting Khartoum who has been trapped in her home since Saturday, told CNN that a number of her friends and family members have had to evacuate their homes, seeking shelter from indiscriminate bombing which has hit some residential buildings.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called for immediate humanitarian access in a statement Wednesday.
“Fierce clashes continued overnight in the capital Khartoum with reports of rising numbers of civilian casualties. Hospitals in the capital are running dangerously low on medical supplies, while damage to the water and energy infrastructure has also left medical facilities without power and clean water,” the ICRC said.
Patrick Youssef, Africa regional director for the ICRC, called for “unimpeded” access.
“It is highly distressing hearing reports of civilian casualties and bodies left lying in the streets of Khartoum,” he said. “They need to be collected and treated with dignity.”
Half of the hospitals in Sudan’s capital are “out of action” due to intensifying clashes, according to a leading aid organization – even as the number of casualties rise and many of the injured are in dire need of medical attention.
“According to the information we have in Khartoum, 50% of hospitals have been out of action in the first 72 hours,” said Abdalla Hussein, the Médecins Sans Frontière (MSF) operational manager for Sudan. “This is because the staff weren’t feeling safe to go there or the hospitals themselves have been subject to shelling or bombing,” he said.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least 296 people have been killed and more than 3,000 have been injured since fighting erupted on Saturday.
International governments have been calling for a truce so authorities can distribute aid and coordinate evacuations.
On Wednesday, Japan said it was preparing to send its military to evacuate nationals from Sudan.
Japan has been able to contact all 60 of its nationals in Sudan, including embassy staff, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said during an emergency news conference. There are no reports of injuries among them, though food and water are scarce, and power cuts have become frequent as the security situation deteriorates.
The United States has not announced any plans for an evacuation operation for Americans in Sudan, but has urged its nationals to stay indoors, shelter in place, and stay away from windows.
Other countries have published advisories to their nationals in Sudan. China has asked its citizens there to stay vigilant and to register their information online with the Chinese Embassy in Khartoum. The Indian Embassy in Sudan also issued an advisory on Tuesday asking its citizens to stay indoors and ration supplies due to looting.
The advisories come as reports emerge of attacks on foreign nationals and staffers.
Armed personnel stormed the homes of people working for the UN and other international organizations in downtown Khartoum, according to reports in an internal UN document seen by CNN.
According to the document, the gunmen sexually assaulted women and stole belongings including cars. One incident of rape was also reported. These armed personnel, “reportedly from RSF, are entering the residences of expats, separating men and women and taking them away,” read the report.
CNN has not been able to independently verify the alleged attacks. The RSF denied the claims, blaming Sudan’s armed forces for committing the crimes while wearing RSF uniforms. The armed forces have denied involvement in the violations, and reiterated accusations that the RSF has committed crimes against humanity.
In separate incidents cited in the document, two Nigerian men working for an international organization were abducted and later released; a building housing the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs was targeted; and a rocket-propelled grenade hit the home of a local UN staff member in Khartoum.
On Wednesday, medical charity MSF said its compound in Nyala, South Darfur, had been raided by armed men who “stole everything including vehicles and office equipment.”
“Our warehouse – holding vital medical supplies – was also raided, we do not know to what extent as we have no access,” MSF said on its official Twitter account.
“We request again respect for the protection of humanitarian organisations and their premises. Our priority now is to ensure the safety of our staff,” the post added.
Other incidents in recent days include a US diplomatic convoy coming under gunfire, the EU ambassador to Sudan being assaulted in his Khartoum residency, and three workers from the UN’s World Food Programme killed in clashes.
by tyler | Apr 18, 2023 | africa, CNN
South African prosecutors have dropped a murder charge against Zolile Sekeleni, the father of the girlfriend of high-profile convicted murderer Thabo Bester, who is accused of escaping from a South African prison after faking his own death in a fire, officials told CNN Monday.
Sekeleni’s daughter, Nandipha Magudumana, a prominent medical doctor and personality in South Africa was arrested on April 7 while on the run in Tanzania with Bester.
Dubbed “The Facebook rapist” in South Africa, Bester was serving a life sentence for the murder and rape of a model in 2012.
Bester, 35, allegedly faked his death by placing the charred remains of another man in his prison cell, officials said.
The couple were arrested with a Mozambican national by Tanzanian authorities last week in the border town of Arusha after fleeing South Africa and was subsequently deported to South Africa.
Magudumana’s father Sekeleni, 65, was arrested on April 8 alongside a former prison warden and a former security camera technician, with the trio accused of being accomplices in Bester’s escape, according to the police and prosecutors.
He had initially been charged with “defeating the ends of justice, fraud, murder, and arson,” but that has now been dropped, a spokesperson for South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Phaladi Shuping, told CNN.
A murder investigation by authorities had earlier concluded that the burned body found in Bester’s cell had died before the fire began.
An autopsy report also found that the deceased had died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head.
Shuping said the murder charge was dropped in light of new evidence, but added Sekeleni, a former educator, would face other charges.
“The state will no longer be proceeding with a charge of murder against Zolile Sekeleni because new evidence came forth, which made us take this decision. He will still face charges of assisting an inmate to escape, defeating the ends of justice and fraud,” NPA spokesperson Shuping said.
He added that “Sekeleni was released on bail of R10,000 ($550) due to compelling circumstances that were considered by the prosecution, relating to his health.”
Sekeleni will make another appearance in court on May 16, while a bail hearing for his daughter Magudumana as well as other accused will be held early next month.
CNN has reached out to his and Magudumana’s lawyer for comment.
Magudumana was charged with murder and fraud, including aiding and abetting Bester’s escape.
According to police, he faces new charges of escaping from lawful custody, defeating the ends of justice, violation of a dead body and fraud.
