World

PARIS — Extensive war crimes are being committed by both sides in the conflict that has been raging in Sudan since April, Amnesty International said on Thursday.

The Britain-based human rights group said in a report that the crimes committed by the warring parties, led by two feuding generals, included sexual violence against girls as young as 12 and the indiscriminate targeting of civilians.

Since April 15, regular army chief Abdel Fattah Al Burhan has been locked in a war with his former deputy, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

"Civilians throughout Sudan are suffering unimaginable horror every single day as the Rapid Support Forces and Sudanese Armed Forces recklessly vie for control of territory," said Amnesty secretary general Agnes Callamard.

"The RSF and SAF, as well as their affiliated armed groups, must end their targeting of civilians and guarantee safe passage for those seeking safety," she added.

Burhan came to power, with Daglo as his number two, in an October 2021 coup that derailed a fragile transition to civilian rule after the military's ouster of long-ruling autocrat Omar Al Bashir in April 2019 following a popular uprising.

But the two men then fell out in a bitter feud.

The fighting, concentrated in Khartoum and the western region of Darfur, has killed more than 3,900 people, according to the NGO ACLED and displaced more than 3.3 million, according to the UN.

“Extensive war crimes are being committed in Sudan as the conflict... ravages the country,” Amnesty said, adding there were “mass civilian casualties in both deliberate and indiscriminate attacks by the warring parties”.

It said men, women and children have been caught in the crossfire as both sides launch frequent attacks in densely populated residential neighbourhoods, often using explosive weapons with wide area effects.

Amnesty said scores of women and girls, some as young as 12, have been subjected to sexual violence, including rape, with some held for days in conditions of sexual slavery.

In most of the cases documented by Amnesty International, survivors said the perpetrators were fighters of the RSF or its Arab militia allies.

For its report, Amnesty said it had interviewed more than 180 people, primarily in eastern Chad where refugees from Darfur have fled, or remotely via secure calls. 

The group said it had put its allegations to the army and the RSF, who had both responded “claiming adherence to international law and accusing the other side of violations”.

NIAMEY — Thousands of people rallied Thursday in Niger's capital in support of the coup that toppled the democratically elected government, as security concerns mounted among Western nations.

Demonstrators in the heart of Niamey, some brandishing giant Russian flags, chanted anti-French slogans at the demonstration called to mark the anniversary of the west African nation's 1960 independence from France.

Issiaka Hamadou, one of the demonstrators, said that it was "only security that interests us", irrespective of whether it came from "Russia, China, Turkey, if they want to help us".

"We just don't want the French, who have been looting us since 1960, they've been there ever since and nothing has changed," he said.

Britain and the United States have announced the pulling back of embassy personnel in Niger as a precaution a week after the internationally condemned toppling of elected President Mohamed Bazoum.

US President Joe Biden demanded Bazoum's immediate release, calling for the "preservation of Niger's hard-earned democracy".

The clock is ticking down on the demand made Sunday from West African regional bloc ECOWAS for the coup leaders to restore Bazoum to power within a week or face the possible "last resort" of military intervention.

Paris, which said Thursday it had completed its evacuation flights, urged the junta led by General Abdourahamane Tiani to "fully guarantee" the safety of embassies in Niamey ahead of Thursday's independence protests.

European citizens have been evacuating from Niger, which has had a key role in French and Western strategies to combat a jihadist insurgency that has rampaged across the Sahel since 2012.

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) leaders on Sunday imposed trade and financial sanctions, with Nigeria cutting off the electricity supplies that account for some 70 percent of Niger's grid.

West African military chiefs were meeting in Nigeria's capital Abuja to frame a response while an ECOWAS team headed by former Nigerian leader Abdulsalami Abubakar was in Niger for talks. 

West Africa's pre-eminent military and economic power Nigeria, the current chair of ECOWAS, has vowed a firm line against coups that have proliferated across the region since 2020.

Junta-ruled Mali and Burkina Faso have warned any military intervention in their neighbour would be tantamount to a "declaration of war" against them.

Russia on Wednesday called for “urgent national dialogue” in Niger and warned that threats of intervention “will not help ease tensions or calm the domestic situation”.

Europeans leave 

Bazoum, 63, was feted in 2021 after winning elections that ushered in Niger’s first-ever peaceful transition of power.

He took the helm of a country burdened by four previous coups since independence from France in 1960.

But after surviving two attempted putsches, Bazoum was overthrown on July 26 when members of his own guard detained him at the presidency.

Their commander, Tiani, has declared himself leader, but his claim has been condemned internationally.

France organised evacuation flights from Niamey following hostile demonstrations at the weekend. 

But in a televised address on Wednesday, Tiani said French nationals had nothing to fear, insisting they had never been subject “to the least threat”.

He rejected the international sanctions imposed in response to the coup, saying he “refused to give in to any threat”.

Western nations have taken action as the standoff between the coup plotters has grown more tense.

The US State Department “ordered the departure of non-emergency US government employees and eligible family members from Embassy Niamey”, it said Wednesday.

Germany has urged its citizens to leave, but the United States, which has 1,100 troops stationed in Niger — has opted to not evacuate all Americans for now.

Under Bazoum and his predecessor Mahamadou Issoufou, Niger has had a key role in French and Western strategies to combat a militants insurgency that has rampaged across the Sahel since 2012.

After joining a regional revolt in northern Mali, armed Islamists advanced into Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015 and now carry out sporadic attacks on fragile states on the Gulf of Guinea.

Countless civilians, troops and police have been killed across the region, while around 2.2 million people in Burkina Faso alone have fled their homes.

The impact has contributed to army takeovers in all three Sahel countries and inflicted devastating damage to economies at the very bottom of the world’s wealth table.

France’s anti-terrorist Burkina Faso mission had at its peak about 5,400 troops, supported by fighter jets, helicopters and drones.

But the mission was refocused on Niger last year, when France pulled out of Mali and Burkina Faso after falling out with their juntas. 

Today, the reconfigured force has around 1,500 men, many of them deployed at an air base near Niamey.

STOCKHOLM — Seven people were injured and dozens detained in Stockholm on Thursday as clashes broke out at an Eritrean pro-government festival, police and health officials said, with anti-government protesters trashing property at the site.

“Another public gathering took place close to the festival site, during which a violent riot broke out,” police said, adding in a statement they had detained “around a hundred people”.

Police said they remained at the scene in a suburb northwest of Stockholm and were “continuing their efforts to disrupt criminal acts and restore order”. They said they had also opened an investigation into violent rioting and arson as well as obstructing the work of police and rescue services.

Around 1,000 anti-government demonstrators authorised to hold a protest nearby broke through a police barrier as they stormed the festival, the tabloid Expressen reported.

They tore down festival tents and used tent spikes as weapons against police as well as throwing stones at officers, the paper said.

By 5:00 pm (15:00GMT) seven people had been taken to hospital, regional healthcare authority Region Stockholm said in a separate statement.

Four of them had “serious injuries”, with the other three having sustained “minor injuries”, according to the authority, which added it had multiple units at the scene.

“It is a complicated and extensive operation. There are a lot of people in motion at the site and the total number of injuries is still unclear,” Patrik Soderberg, chief physician at Region Stockholm, was quoted saying.

Footage from the scene showed cars and at least one tent on fire, sending large clouds of black smoke into the air.

Police shut down a section of the nearby E18 motorway in both directions as people fleeing the scene blocked the road.

The Eritrea-Scandinavia festival, which has been held for many years, features seminars, debates and lectures, as well as music, a bazaar and a fairground.

It is schedule to run from Thursday to Sunday.

PARIS — The coup in Niger represents a major setback for French President Emmanuel Macron, raising questions about France’s military presence in the country but also the future of his wider strategy in Africa, analysts said.

The coup against Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum is the third such putsch in the region in as many years, following similar actions in Mali and Burkina Faso in 2021 and 2022 that forced the pullouts of French troops.

But the Niger coup is particularly bruising for Macron after he sought to make a special ally of Niamey, and a hub for France’s presence in the region after the Mali coup.

The situation presents Macron with a string of dilemmas as he retreats to the French presidential Mediterranean residence of Fort Bregancon for a summer holiday that is set to be dominated by the crisis.

In December 2018, Macron vowed that France would remain engaged in the fight against jihadists in the Sahel region of Africa “until the victory is complete”, a vow that now appears on shaky ground.

“History repeats itself, the setbacks are accumulating,” Pascal Boniface, director of the French Institute of International and Strategic Affairs, told AFP.

“If the putschists stay in power in Niamey, it will be very difficult to leave our soldiers there.”

‘Bet everything’ 

France has 1,500 soldiers posted in Niger, and another 1,000 in neighbouring Chad.

The military said this week that evacuating soldiers from Niger — as was the case with civilians — was “not on the agenda”.

And unlike Mali and Burkina Faso previously, the junta in Niger has not put into question defence agreements with Paris so far.

But “it is a mistake to have bet everything on Niger and Chad” for redeploying French troops after the Burkina and Mali coups, said Francois Gaulme, researcher at the French Institute of International Relations.

He also said the departure of French soldiers from Niger was “inevitable” if the putschist General Abdourahamane Tiani remained in place.

The Le Monde daily described the coup as a “new heavy blow” for France’s military strategy in the Sahel region.

“Paris had placed Niamey at the heart of its fight against militant groups on a regional scale. With the coup, the entire French strategy could be called into question.”

Actions not words 

Macron — the first French head of state to be born after former French colonies won independence — had in 2017 in a famous speech in Ouagadougou vowed a new approach towards the continent.

Since then, he has repeated pleas for a change of method, a partnership of equals, telling magazine Jeune Afrique in 2020 that “between France and Africa, it must be a love story”.

But anti-French sentiment in the region has only continued to rise, often whipped up by Russia which over the last years has taken an increasingly prominent presence through the Wagner mercenary group.

Hundreds of people backing the coup protested on Thursday in Niamey’s Concertation Square to mark the country’s 1960 independence from France, some brandishing giant Russian flags.

Last week thousands of demonstrators gathered outside the French embassy in Niamey, chanting anti-French slogans and waving Russian flags. Paris then ordered the evacuation of its nationals which is still in progress.

Analysts say Macron himself bears some responsibility, even if other factors are also at work.

“He has been criticised since his first five-year term for being arrogant, especially in his relations with certain African heads of state,” Gaulme said.

He said the problem above all lies in the gulf between “words and acts” as despite the strong statements “the French system has in fact not changed as it remains focused around military bases and development aid”.

‘Very mobilised’ 

Macron “remains very mobilised”, an Elysee source said on Tuesday, adding he was talking with regional and European partners “to look at different ways to get out of the crisis”.

A French diplomatic source, who asked not to be named, said France was taking several actions to have a less military focus in relations with Africa, notably fighting poverty and global warming while encouraging growth.

“Emmanuel Macron wanted to make an ambitious reset in our relationship with African countries. All of this can only be done over the long term,” said the source.

Macron organised in Paris in June a summit on a new global financing pact that is to be at the centre of such efforts.

He notably hosted Bazoum at the Elysee Palace for bilateral talks on the sidelines of that summit.

“We must go beyond the anti-Macron obsession if we want to make a correct analysis of the situation”, said the Cameroonian intellectual Achille Mbembe, who teaches history and political science at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

“We are facing a historic backlash which relates to the failure of decolonisation”.

KYIV — Russian drones on Wednesday damaged infrastructure at an Ukrainian port on the Danube, as Moscow targeted facilities vital for grain shipments from Ukraine following the collapse of a key export arrangement.

Turkey, which along with the United Nations brokered the deal to allow Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea, urged Russia after the port strike not to take steps that would escalate tensions.

Russia struck a grain elevator in the port of Izmail which sits just across the Danube River from Romania, damaging silos, warehouses and administrative buildings, Kyiv said.

Izmail is now the main export route for Ukrainian agricultural products via Romania, following Russia's withdrawal last month from the Black Sea grain agreement.

The deal had allowed around 33 million tonnes of grain to leave Ukrainian ports, easing fears of global food shortages after the start of the conflict.

Russia has been pounding the seaports in the Odesa region that were key for the grain exports granted safe passage under the deal.

"No steps should be taken that will escalate tensions in the Russia-Ukraine war," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Russian leader Vladimir Putin in a phone call.

Erdogan emphasised to Putin the significance of a grain deal that he called a "bridge for peace", the Turkish leader's office said.

'Unacceptable' 

Failure to reestablish the grain deal "will not benefit anyone" and nations in need will suffer the most, Erdogan said.

In the same call, Putin asked Erdogan to aid Russia export its grain to African countries vulnerable to food shortages.

“The mood for cooperation with Turkey and other interested states on this issue was expressed,” the Kremlin said in statement.

But Paris accused Moscow of “pursuing its own interest at the expense of the most vulnerable”, putting global food security at risk with the strikes on grain infrastructure. 

With the Black Sea route effectively blocked, the formerly obscure ports of Izmail and Reni on the Danube have become crucial to global food supplies. 

But the transit hubs are struggling to process all the arriving grain, causing massive bottlenecks, and have been targeted by Russia.

The overnight strike damaged nearly 40,000 tonnes of grain destined for Africa, China and Israel, Ukraine’s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said that Russia’s repeated attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure along the river were “unacceptable”.

Ukraine needed “more air defence” to repel Russian attacks, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, said on Wednesday on Telegram.

In Kyiv, more than 10 Russian drones were downed during an overnight strike that left several floors of a glass high-rise damaged, the city’s military administration said.

“Groups of drones entered Kyiv simultaneously from several directions,” said Sergiy Popko, head of the administration.

Popko said Russia had used a barrage of Iranian-made drones, with debris hitting several areas.

Naval drills 

In the Golosiivsky district, “parts of a drone fell on a playground” and a fire broke out in a non-residential building, he said, adding that emergency services were on the scene.

Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko had said earlier that the attack on the capital had damaged several areas, including the busy Solomyansky district. 

The attacks came a day after Russia said it downed a wave of Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow and vessels in the Black Sea. 

A skyscraper in Moscow’s business district housing government offices was struck for the second time in a few days. 

Russia also said Wednesday it had launched naval drills on the Baltic Sea, involving 30 warships and boats, amid rising tensions with European countries over the Ukraine conflict.

During the drills, the navy will practise how to protect sea lanes, transport troops and military cargo, and defend the coastline, the defence ministry said.

MOSCOW — Russia said on Tuesday it had downed another wave of Ukrainian drones aimed at vessels in the Black Sea and Moscow, as an office block in the capital's main business district was struck for the second time in a few days.

"Two Ukrainian (unmanned aerial vehicles) were destroyed by air defence systems over the territory of the Odintsovo and Narofominsk districts of Moscow region," the Russian defence ministry said. 

"Another drone was suppressed by electronic warfare and, having lost control, crashed on the territory of the Moscow City," the capital's main commercial district, the ministry said.

On Sunday, Russian defences downed drones in that same district, with debris damaging two office towers, blowing out several windows and scattering documents on the pavement below.

"One flew into the same tower in [Moscow] City as last time," Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Tuesday on Telegram.

"The facade on the 21st floor was damaged," and a number of windows were smashed, the mayor said.

He added that emergency services had gone to the scene and that there was no information on any casualties.

"We heard a big explosion, there was no panic," local resident Arkady Metler, 29, told AFP.

"Nobody should be scared... we cannot do anything but stick together," said Metler.

'In shock' 

Other residents were more shaken by the renewed explosion in their neighbourhood. 

"After the last attack, everyone was saying, 'They don't hit the same place twice'. But when we woke up this morning we were in shock," Anastasia Berseneva, 26, told AFP.

"I'm not sure whether I will move out or not but I'm thinking probably yes."

Shortly after the drone attack, Moscow's Vnukovo international airport was briefly closed, TASS state news agency reported.

"Vnukovo was temporarily closed for arrivals and departures, the planes are redirected to other airports," emergency services said, according to TASS, which later reported that it had resumed normal operations.

The same airport, to the southwest of Moscow, was briefly closed after Sunday’s attack and earlier this month, a volley of drone attacks disrupted air traffic at Vnukovo.

Moscow and its environs, located about 500 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, had rarely been targeted during the conflict in Ukraine until several drone attacks this year.

The Russian defence ministry said Tuesday it also foiled a Ukrainian drone attack targeting patrol boats in the Black Sea.

‘Act of desperation’ 

“During the night, Ukrainian armed forces tried without success to attack with three drones the ‘Sergei Kotov’ and ‘Vasily Bykov’, patrol boats of the Russian fleet,” the defence ministry said in a statement.

The three drones were trained on the ships, navigating in waters 340 kilometres southwest of Sevastopol, the base of Russia’s Black Sea fleet on the annexed Crimea peninsula.

Tuesday’s attacks were the latest in a series of drone assaults, including on the Kremlin and Russian towns near the border with Ukraine, that Moscow has blamed on Kyiv.

On Monday, a missile strike on a residential building killed six and wounded dozens in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown of Kryvyi Rig.

Without mentioning a particular attack, Zelensky warned Sunday that the conflict was coming to Russia.

“Gradually, the war is returning to the territory of Russia — to its symbolic centres and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process,” Zelensky said Sunday.

The Kremlin on Monday called the recent strikes on the capital an “act of desperation” by Ukraine following setbacks on the battlefield. 

Ukraine began its long-awaited counteroffensive in June but has made modest advances in the face of stiff resistance from Russian forces on the frontline.

MENTOUGOU, China — At least 20 people were killed and 19 were missing after heavy rains lashed Beijing and surrounding provinces, state media said on Tuesday, in downpours that have submerged roads and deluged neighbourhoods with mud.

Storm Doksuri, a former super typhoon, swept northwards over China after hitting southern Fujian province on Friday, following its battering of the Philippines.

Heavy rains began pummelling the capital and surrounding areas on Saturday, with nearly the average rainfall for the entire month of July dumped on Beijing in just 40 hours.

Swaths of suburban Beijing remain badly hit by the rains, some of the city's heaviest in years.

On the banks of the Mentougou river, one of the worst affected areas, AFP reporters saw muddy debris strewn across the road. 

One man told AFP he had not seen flooding this bad since July 2012, when 79 people were killed and tens of thousands evacuated.

"This time it's much bigger than that," he said, declining to give his name.

“It’s a natural disaster, there’s nothing you can do,” a 20-year-old man surnamed Qi, who was waiting for a taxi with his grandmother outside a hospital, told AFP.

“[We] still have to work hard and rebuild.” 

On Tuesday, state broadcaster CCTV said that the rains had killed at least 11 people in Beijing, two of whom were workers “killed on duty during rescue and relief”.

Thirteen people were still missing, but another 14 had been found safe, the broadcaster said. 

In neighbouring Hebei province, nine people were killed and six were missing, it said.

Another two casualties were reported in northeastern Liaoning province over the weekend.

President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for “every effort” to rescue those “lost or trapped” by the rains.

More than 100,000 people deemed at risk across Beijing have been evacuated, according to state-owned Global Times newspaper. 

Authorities have allocated 110 million yuan ($15.4 million) for disaster relief work in the capital and surrounding provinces, CCTV said. 

On Tuesday, emergency vehicles and workers were spotted on the road between Shijingshan and Mentougou districts. 

In Shijingshan, next to the 2022 Winter Olympics Big Air jump, the Yongding River had completely flooded a park, burying benches in mud.

In Mentougou, 62-year-old florist Wang Yongkun had piled sandbags around the door of his shop, but the floor inside was still coated in mud.

He said in 15 years working there he had never experienced anything like the last few days.

“We started cleaning up in the afternoon yesterday... and woke up again at seven today to continue,” he said.

“You just have to deal with it... We will endure what we can.”

Further south in Fangshan district, the Dashi River had also overflowed, with trees along the riverbank partially submerged, and some sections of the road cordoned off. 

Roads were caked in mud, foliage and various debris, including an upturned armchair. 

AFP reporters saw collapsed bridges at two locations, with locals saying the damage had happened during the rains. 

Earlier social media videos tagged in Fangshan had shown multiple cars being swept along roads turned into fast-flowing streams. 

Live images from broadcaster CCTV on Tuesday morning showed a row of buses half submerged in floodwater.

In the parking lot of a high-rise apartment complex, cars were piled on top of each other, alarms still sounding, while people lined up with buckets and other containers to collect fresh water.

Parts of Hebei remain under red alert for rainstorms, with authorities warning of potential flash floods and landslides.

In Zhuozhou, a city of around 655,000, local media reported the roof of an underground carpark had fallen through. 

Accompanying video showed the neighbouring building almost completely encircled by what looked like a raging waterfall falling into the sinkhole created by the collapse. 

Zhuozhou’s police department said the entire city’s water supply had been cut off, with some areas also affected by power outages. 

In Handan, Hebei province, rescuers lifted by crane reached a man trapped on top of his car in floodwaters, lifting him to safety before the car was flipped and washed away by the current.

China has been experiencing extreme weather and posting record temperatures this summer, events that scientists say are being exacerbated by climate change.

The country is already preparing for the arrival of typhoon Khanun, the sixth such storm of the year, as it nears China’s east coast.