United Nations, United States | AFP | A young Iraqi woman who survived rape and abuse as a sex slave of Islamic State fighters has became a UN goodwill ambassador for the dignity of survivors of human trafficking. Nadia Murad Basee Taha, a 23-year-old Yazidi woman, called for justice for the …
Read More »Russia says Syria situation ‘worsening’, blames US
Moscow, Russia | AFP | The situation in Syria is deteriorating, the Russian military said Saturday, blaming rebels for stepping up attacks and saying the United States would be responsible if the current ceasefire broke down. “The situation in Syria is worsening,” said Russian General Vladimir Savchenko in a briefing …
Read More »South Sudan fighting sends refugee numbers soaring past one million mark
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | Renewed fierce fighting has pushed nearly 200,000 people to flee South Sudan since July, sending the number of refugees from the war-scarred nation past one million, the UN said Friday. “The number of South Sudanese refugees sheltering in neighbouring countries has this week passed …
Read More »South Sudan paper shut down after it headlines govt corruption
Juba, South Sudan | AFP | The South Sudan government has shut down the country’s main English-language daily, which headlined news on a war profiteering report commissioned by actor George Clooney, the paper’s editor told AFP on Wednesday. Nation Mirror editor Simon Aurelious said officials from the National Security Service …
Read More »South Sudan says Clooney’s corruption report is ‘rubbish’
Juba, South Sudan | AFP | A report commissioned by actor-activist George Clooney alleging massive corruption and war profiteering by leaders of South Sudan, the world’s newest nation, is “completely rubbish”, the government said Tuesday. A spokesman for President Salva Kiir said the report released in Washington at a high-profile …
Read More »South Sudan’s ‘violent kleptocrats’ profit from deadly war
Washington, United States | AFP | South Sudan’s warring leaders and their cronies have amassed fortunes — including foreign properties and stakes in international firms — while prosecuting a murderous conflict, George Clooney charged Monday. After presenting the results of a detailed two-year inquiry to the media, Hollywood stars Clooney …
Read More »UN: Malong and Kiir to blame for Juba violence
United Nations, United States | AFP | A UN panel of experts has concluded that heavy fighting that engulfed South Sudan’s capital Juba in July, forcing vice president and ex-rebel leader Riek Machar to flee, was “directed by the highest level” of the country’s military. The confidential report seen by …
Read More »Do more for South Sudan refugees, says a top UN official
Adjumani, Uganda | AFP | The international community must respond to the refugee crisis caused by fighting in South Sudan in the same way it responded to the crisis in Europe, the UN refugee chief said in Uganda on Monday. The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, says 88,533 people have fled …
Read More »About 243,000 South Sudanese refugees in Sudan
Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | About 243,000 South Sudanese refugees have arrived in Sudan, including tens of thousands in war-torn Darfur, since a civil war erupted in their country in December 2013, the UN said Thursday. South Sudan won independence from Sudan in 2011 but two years later it fell …
Read More »Malian jihadist says sorry for destroying Timbuktu
The Hague, Netherlands | AFP | A Malian jihadist pleaded guilty Monday to attacking the fabled city of Timbuktu and begged forgiveness as the world was shown sickening videos of him and other fundamentalists tearing down centuries-old Muslim shrines with pick-axes. At the opening of his unprecedented war crimes …
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