World

KINSHASA — International courts have failed to stop three decades of atrocities in conflict-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, showing a special tribunal is needed, the International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor said Wednesday.

The eastern DRC, scene of decades of relentless conflict, has been plunged into fresh turmoil as fighters from the M23 group backed by Rwanda seize swathes of territory in the provinces of North and South Kivu.

In an interview with AFP during a visit to Kinshasa, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan admitted the international justice system's failure to stem the gruesome atrocities that have accompanied decades of conflict in the region, and said he was "extremely concerned by the escalation of violence".

The ICC, which has convicted three people of atrocities in eastern DRC and is currently investigating further crimes in the region, is "focusing on the awful accounts that are coming from the east", he said.

He gave his backing to a proposal from the government in Kinshasa to create a special tribunal for the DRC, which is set to be discussed in April at an international conference in the capital.

Such a body is "absolutely" needed, he said.

'Several different conflicts'

Despite the ICC's efforts to address the situation in the DRC, "cycles of violence have continued", Khan told AFP.

"We can't just scratch the surface. It requires a more holistic approach. I think it requires a better-resourced, credible mandate dealing with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

"What we're looking at is not just accountability in specific cases -- that's the basic responsibility -- but one is trying to have a wider effect, a more profound effect that stops these cycles of violence that have bedevilled this extraordinary, diverse and rich land," he added.

"That requires more justice and more consistently applied justice in all parts of the country."

Khan underlined the complexity of coming to grips with the decades of violence that have racked the sprawling country.

"There's not only one armed group. There's many. It's not only one part of the country. There's several different conflicts going on and I think we need to address it holistically," he said.

 'International institutions under siege'

The format of a special tribunal would be defined in April, but it "will be on the soil of the DRC" and "be DRC-owned", Khan said, mentioning the possibility of a "hybrid" court including international and local judges, as has been tried in Colombia and the Central African Republic.

"We are going to do our best to make sure that justice is not something we say before the television cameras. It's something that is felt by the people that are in terror," he said.

His comments came at a time when the ICC and other international institutions face a crisis of confidence and sharp criticism, notably from the United States, which sanctioned Khan this month over investigations targeting US personnel and alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

"We are in the middle of a storm in which different international institutions are under siege," Khan said.

"Unless we can prove that they mean something to people in the DRC and in other parts of the world, there is going to be an erosion because we are under attack. By we, I mean the rules-based system," he added.

"What we're trying to do... is to show that the flag of justice that has been planted, that has been promised since Nuremberg, is not going to be taken or will not be allowed to fall lightly. We're going to try our best to stand up for justice."

GENEVA - Mpox remains an international public health emergency, the World Health Organization said Thursday after deciding the epidemic still merits the highest level of alert, with cases rising and its geographic spread widening.

"The mpox upsurge continues to meet the criteria of a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC)," said a WHO statement.

The emergency committee on mpox met for the third time on Tuesday and advised WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus that the situation still constituted a PHEIC.

The decision was "based on the continuing rise in numbers and geographic spread, the violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo -- which hampers the response -- as well as a lack of funding to implement the response plan", said the brief statement.

Tedros concurred with the committee's advice, extending the PHEIC first declared on August 14 last year.

A PHEIC is the highest level of alarm under the International Health Regulations, which are legally binding on 196 countries.

The UN health agency's chief had declared the emergency amid a rapid spread of the disease, formerly known as monkeypox, in Africa and especially in the DR Congo.

15 countries so far 

Mpox is caused by a virus from the same family as smallpox. It can be transmitted to humans by infected animals but can also be passed between people through close physical contact.

The disease, which was first detected in humans in 1970 in the DR Congo, then known as Zaire, causes fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions, and can be deadly.

It has two subtypes: clade 1 and clade 2.

The virus, long endemic in central Africa, gained international prominence in May 2022 when clade 2 spread around the world, mostly affecting gay and bisexual men.

Nearly 128,000 mpox cases have been laboratory confirmed across 130 countries since then, including 281 deaths, WHO data shows. 

The WHO declared a global health emergency in July 2022, but thanks to vaccination and awareness drives that helped stem the spread, that declaration was lifted in May 2023.

Just a year later, however, a new two-pronged epidemic broke out mainly in the DR Congo, with both the original clade 1a strain and a new strain, clade 1b.

This prompted the WHO's new emergency declaration last August.

To date, community spread of the clade 1b strain has been confirmed in the DRC and five other African nations, and it has been detected in another 15 countries around the world in connection with travel, WHO data shows.

The DRC confirmed more than 13,000 mpox cases and 43 deaths in 2024, and the country confirmed more than 2,000 cases in the first five weeks of this year -- more than half of the cases confirmed globally.

MOSCOW — The Kremlin on Thursday ruled out any negotiation over the status of five Ukrainian regions it claims to have annexed despite not fully controlling four of them.

"The territories which have become subjects of the Russian Federation, which are inscribed in our country's constitution, are an inseparable part of our country," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"This is undeniable and non-negotiable," he said in a phone briefing attended by AFP.

Russia in 2014 annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula following a brief military operation and a referendum that was criticised as illegitimate by Kyiv and Western powers.

After launching its full-scale offensive, Russia in September 2022 declared the annexation of four Ukrainian regions -- Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

Russian forces control most of the Donetsk and Lugansk region but only parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

Moscow also occupies part of the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine.

Ukraine has seized hundreds of square kilometres of Russia's Kursk region and President Volodymyr Zelensky has raised the possibility of an "exchange" of territory with Moscow -- a notion ruled out by Russia.

Russian forces have been pushing further into eastern Ukraine in recent months and have seized back territory in the Kursk region.

The Russian defence ministry on Friday said it had re-captured the village of Nikolsky near the Ukrainian-held town of Sudzha.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis, battling pneumonia in both lungs, slept well and is resting, the Vatican said Thursday, after revealing the 88-year-old's condition was slightly improving.

The pontiff, who had part of one of his lungs removed as a young man, has suffered increasing health problems in recent years.

He was admitted to Rome's Gemelli hospital on February 14 and this is the longest hospitalisation in Francis's papacy.

"The pope slept well last night and is now resting", the Vatican said in a morning bulletin on the health of the pontiff.

The clinical conditions of the Argentine, admitted to Gemelli with breathing difficulties, "in the last 24 hours have shown a further, slight improvement," the Holy See said late Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday ruled out offering US security guarantees or NATO membership for Ukraine as his counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky prepared to visit to seal a deal on handing over natural resources.

Trump, who has upended US policy by reaching out to Russia and seeking a quick end to the three-year war, said that European allies would bear responsibility for Ukraine's security.

Addressing reporters at a cabinet meeting, Trump said Zelensky would visit Friday and sign the agreement after intense US pressure to hand over rare earths used in aerospace and other technology.

"It's a great deal for Ukraine, too, because they get us over there," Trump said.

"We'll be on the land and, you know, in that way, it's this sort of automatic security, because nobody's going to be messing around with our people when we're there," Trump said.

But Trump ruled out the United States providing more formal security guarantees, as sought by Kyiv.

I'm not going to make security guarantees beyond very much," Trump said. 

"We're going to have Europe do that," Trump said. "Europe is their next-door neighbor, but we're going to make sure everything goes well."

Asked what concessions would need to be made to end the war, he ruled out Ukrainian membership in NATO, again repeating Russia's stance that the issue was behind its invasion.

"NATO -- you can forget about," Trump said. "I think that's probably the reason the whole thing started."

Former president Joe Biden backed Ukraine's eventual membership in NATO without offering a concrete timeframe.

The United States on Monday sided with Russia at the United Nations and against nearly all its European allies with a resolution that called for an end to the war without stressing the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

"We're going to do the best we can to make the best deal we can for both sides," Trump said Wednesday.

"But for Ukraine, we're going to try very hard to make a good deal so that they can get as much back as possible."

Trump insisted that his diplomacy was bringing a new spirit of compromise from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who earlier "wanted the whole thing" in Ukraine.

"He's a very smart guy. He's a very cunning person," Trump said of Putin.

"I think we're going to have a deal. If I didn't get elected, I believe he would have just continued to go through Ukraine."

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday told Trump that the Europeans would consider sending troops to protect any deal but that US support was critical as a means to guarantee security.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to deliver a similar message when he meets Trump on Thursday. 

WASHINGTON — Israeli representatives were en route Tuesday to talks on the next phase of a Gaza ceasefire deal following an agreement on exchanging Palestinian prisoners for the bodies of Israeli hostages, a US envoy said.

Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump's point person on the Middle East, repeated that he was also ready to head back to the region to boost diplomacy.

"We're making a lot of progress. Israel is sending a team right now as we speak," Witkoff told an event in Washington for the American Jewish Committee.

"It's either going to be in Doha or in Cairo, where negotiations will begin again with the Egyptians and the Qataris," he said.

Egypt, Qatar and the United States, in an unusual joint effort between Trump's diplomatic team and the administration of former president Joe Biden, sealed an agreement in January after months of diplomacy to pause more than a year of bloodshed in Gaza.

Mediators said Tuesday they restored a swap that was part of the first phase of the deal, which is set to end on March 1.

Israel agreed to release 600 Palestinian prisoners, who had been due to be freed last week, in exchange for the bodies of four Israeli hostages.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier held off on the deal due to what he described as "humiliating ceremonies" to free the hostages by Hamas, which opened the war with an attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Witkoff said the focus of the new talks will be to "put phase two on tracks and have some additional hostage release, and we think that's a real possibility."

Witkoff said that "maybe" he will join the negotiations on Sunday "if it goes well." He earlier spoke of travelling to the region this week.

KYIV — Ukraine has agreed on the terms of a minerals deal with the United States and could sign it on Friday, a Ukrainian official said, in a move Kyiv hopes will lay the ground for future security guarantees from Washington.

US President Donald Trump had demanded that Ukraine give access to its rare earth minerals to compensate for the billions of dollars of wartime aid it received under Joe Biden.

The deal would see the United States jointly develop Ukraine's mineral wealth, with revenues going to a newly created fund that would be "joint for Ukraine and America", a senior Ukrainian source told AFP on the condition of anonymity late Tuesday.

The source said the draft of the deal included a reference to "security", but did not explicitly set out the United States's commitments, one of Kyiv's prior demands for an agreement.

"There is a general clause that says America will invest in a stable and prosperous sovereign Ukraine, that it works for a lasting peace, and that America supports efforts to guarantee security."

"Now government officials are working on the details," the source said, adding that President Volodymyr Zelensky could sign it on a trip to Washington as early as Friday.

Trump has upended US foreign policy since taking office last month, opening dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin while making threats against Washington's traditional allies.

The United States sided with Russia twice Monday at the United Nations, as they sought to avoid any condemnation of Moscow's invasion of its neighbour three years ago.

Relations with Trump 

Ukraine hopes the minerals deal will improve relations with the Trump administration, which have soured amid a war of words between Zelensky and Trump.

Last week, the Republican branded his Ukrainian counterpart a "dictator" and called for him to "move fast" to end the war, a day after Russian and US officials held talks in Saudi Arabia without Kyiv.

Then on Saturday, at a high-profile conservative conference, Trump said he was trying to get "money back" for the billions of dollars of aid sent to support Ukraine in the war with Russia.

Zelensky had earlier accused Trump of living in a Russian "disinformation space".

Trump had previously asked for "$500 billion worth" of rare earth minerals to make up for aid given to Kyiv -- a price tag Ukraine had balked at and which does not correspond with published US aid figures.

The source said Washington had cut this clause, as well as others that were unfavourable to Ukraine.

"They removed all the clauses that did not suit us," the source said.

The United States has given Ukraine more than $60 billion in military aid since Russia's invasion, according to official figures,  the largest such contribution among Kyiv's allies, but substantially lower than Trump's $500 billion figure.