#ongoing conflict

The Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has stepped up its attacks on the  Zamzam refugee camp near el-Fasher, capital of the North Darfur state. On Friday, residents and medics said the RSF attacked the camp, which it surrounded three times within a week. At least seven people were killed in the camp this week, Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, said, adding that medics were unable to perform surgeries in Zamzam. Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the United Nations secretary-general, said the renewed fighting included the use of heavy weapons and urged the warring parties to stop the violence. The RSF is said to be trying to tighten its grip on its Darfur stronghold, losing ground to the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in the capital, Khartoum.

Thousands of civilians remained trapped in Sudan's stricken city of El-Fasher, with fears growing for their safety, the United Nations and local groups said on Monday, after paramilitary forces claimed control of the army's last stronghold in the western Darfur region. Since May 2024, El-Fasher has been besieged by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who have been fighting a brutal war with Sudan's army for over two years. Footage shared by pro-democracy activists on Monday purportedly showed dozens of people lying dead on the ground alongside burned-out vehicles. AFP was unable to contact civilians in the city, where the Sudanese Journalists' Syndicate says communications, including satellite networks, have been cut off by a media blackout. The syndicate expressed "deep concern for the safety of journalists" in El-Fasher, adding that independent reporter Muammar Ibrahim has been detained by RSF forces since Sunday. The RSF said on Sunday they had seized control of the city, but the army and its allies did not respond to requests for comment. If confirmed, the city's capture would mark a significant turning point in Sudan's war, which has killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly 12 million people since April 2023. It would give the RSF control over all five state capitals in Darfur, consolidating its parallel administration in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur.

Burundi has "accelerated" the withdrawal of some troops from DR Congo, a senior military source told AFP Thursday, as the UN warned the small Great Lakes nation was seeing its biggest influx of refugees from its conflict-riven neighbour in 25 years. Rwandan-backed M23 fighters have made big gains in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, seizing the cities of Goma and Bukavu, prompting warnings to the UN Security Council and stoking fears of a regional conflagration. The United Nations warned on Wednesday that the M23 "continues to advance towards other strategic areas" in the eastern Congolese provinces of North and South Kivu. "Since yesterday, the army has accelerated the extraction of our soldiers deployed on the Rusizi plain in the DRC," a senior army officer told AFP on Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity. The officer did not specify how many troops were being withdrawn, but did note that one battalion had been sent to "secure the withdrawal of our soldiers" from an area in South Kivu. Since October 2023, Burundi has sent more than 10,000 soldiers to help the Congolese army against the M23 and other armed groups. However, the officer said the soldiers in the DRC were now facing "serious" re-supply issues, blaming the "disorganised" Congolese forces. Burundian soldiers were "at a total loss", he said, adding: "they have no more ammunition, no more food and have to make do." Earlier in the week reports that some Burundian troops were staging a "tactical withdrawal" were denied by the army.

Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi has intensified his accusations against Rwanda, issuing a scathing critique against decades of what he described as 'predatory aggression by Rwanda' on the Democratic Republic of Congo. While warning the international community of the consequences of inaction, Tshisekedi said that if the world "allows a country's borders to be violated in Africa by force, who will be next?" He spoke at the just-ended Munich Security Conference (MSC), which took place from February 14 to 16. Experts at the conference shared President Tshisekedi's sentiments on the dire humanitarian consequences of the conflict, but suggested local solutions to the war. "We see more and more suffering for civilians because of the protracted nature of these wars," Hichem Khadhraoui, Executive Director of the Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC) at the Hague, told DW. "We need to start at the local level… the parties to the conflict need to speak to each other," Khadhraoui added. A nation 'bathed in tears' As he addressed a room full of global dignitaries and policymakers, President Tshisekedi invoked the deep suffering of his people. "These men, women and children whose tears have bathed the soul of our country deserve more than a simple mention in international debates," he said, warning the leaders gathered that the conflict could trigger a regional crisis if left unresolved. "Do not be complicit in the silence, history is watching us. If we leave things to develop, then that will have repercussions well beyond the borders of the Democratic Republic of Congo," he said. For Khadhraoui, the insecurity challenge in eastern Congo is one of many that require urgent intervention. "We have so many conflicts in the world today happening that don't have the needed attention from the world," he told DW. But for some experts like Dr. Annette Weber, the European Union's Special Representative for the Horn of Africa, the existing conflicts require different strategies to resolve them. Weber told DW that a one-size-fits-all approach to dealing with these conflicts will likely be unsuccessful. "I think we always need to be very granular and specific. No country, no case is the same," Weber said, adding that, "for example, the terrible war we have seen in northern Ethiopia, three years ago, and if you're looking at the war in Sudan, it's very, different."

Several towns that fell to armed groups in eastern DR Congo’s North Kivu and South Kivu provinces have been recaptured by government forces, an army spokesman said. Eastern Congo has been in conflict for decades with more than 100 armed groups, most of which are vying for territory in the vast and mineral-rich region near the border with Rwanda. The conflict has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises with more than seven million people displaced, including 100,000 who have fled their homes this year. The Congolese army said some of the recovered towns have been occupied by rebels for months, including Ngungu, a key town in the Masisi territory that is near the North Kivu provincial capital, Goma.

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NEW DELHI: Russia is ramping up its military capabilities on the disputed Kuril Islands, strategically located off northern Japan, by constructing a network of surveillance bases. This development is seen as a response to Japan’s support for Ukraine amid the ongoing conflict there. The new bases are equipped with advanced surveillance systems similar to those used by the Russian Black Sea fleet…

Eight million people are in urgent need of assistance in conflict-wracked eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo with women and girls subjected to sexual violence on a massive scale, according to a senior UN official. UN humanitarian office operations director Edem Wororu said a visit to the African country was “shocking, heart-breaking and sobering” and had deteriorated alarmingly in the last 18 months. She described the situation in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri provinces as “frankly the worst situation we have ever seen” in a country where more than 26 million people are hungry and need food. She told a news conference gender-based violence is “being perpetrated on a massive and distressing scale” with more than 35,000 survivors seeking access to treatment and services after attacks in just the first six months of 2023 in the three provinces.