Africa
Sudan: 435 children killed, 2,000 injured in 100 days – UNICEF
Sudan: 435 children killed, 2,000 injured in 100 days – UNICEF
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Monday reported that no fewer than 435 children had been killed and more than 2,000 others injured in 100 days of fighting in Sudan.
UNICEF stated that the figure is based on credible reports, noting that the true figure was likely to be far higher.
The UN agency added that there had been more than 2,500 severe violations of children’s rights – an average of more than one per hour – in a country where 14 million youngsters need aid relief.
“As we reach more than 100 days since the conflict in Sudan escalated, we know that it is taking an absolutely horrific toll on children and on families,” Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, Farhan Haq quoted UNICEF as saying.
Haq told journalists at UN headquarters in New York that the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has also reported that nearly 300 displaced children had died from measures and malnutrition in White Nile State.
According to UNHCR, conditions are “harrowing” for those reaching shelter in neighbouring countries, where displacement camps are overcrowded and the rainy season has made relocation and aid deliveries harder.
To date, more than 3.3 million people have been displaced within Sudan and across its borders, including to Egypt, where UNHCR said that most children continue to arrive without their parents.
READ ALSO:
-
Police arrest 2 suspects as Atiku escapes death, PDP demands investigation
-
Chinese coach apologises for slapping referee
-
8 escape death as two-storey building collapses in Oyo
Despite intense diplomatic efforts to end the fighting – notably by the African Union, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) regional body, the League of Arab States and the UN – clashes involving the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) milita have continued across multiple fronts.
To date, the UN response inside Sudan is only 23 per cent funded.
Both UNHCR and UNICEF have urgently appealed for more donor support to assist vulnerable populations who have endured three months of fighting, concentrated around the capital Khartoum, but spreading far into restive Darfur and other regions.
Healthcare inside Sudan has reached “gravely serious levels” of collapse, with more than 67 per cent of the country’s hospitals out of service and with increasing reports of attacks on facilities and personnel, according to the UN World Health Organisation.
There are now 51 recorded attacks on healthcare verified by WHO, resulting in 10 deaths and 24 injuries.
“It is a tragedy and an outrage that in the middle of this deepening crisis fighters continue to attack health facilities and workers, denying life-saving services to innocent civilians when they are at their most vulnerable”, said the statement.
WHO warned that diseases such as malaria, measles, dengue and acute diarrhea, which hitherto were well under control, were increasing due to the disruption of basic public health services.
The disrupted services include disease surveillance, functioning public health laboratories and rapid response teams.
“As the rainy season begins in Sudan, outbreaks are likely to claim more lives unless urgent action is taken to curtail their spread.” (NAN)
Africa
Suspected witchdoctors arrested over attempt to ‘bewitch’ Zambia’s President
Suspected witchdoctors arrested over attempt to ‘bewitch’ Zambia’s President
Two men were detained in Zambia on charges of being “witchdoctors” tasked with attempting to bewitch the president.
The police stated they had arrested Jasten Mabulesse Candunde and Leonard Phiri in Lusaka.
“Their purported mission was to use charms to harm” President Hakainde Hichilema, according to the police statement issued on Friday.
Many individuals in the southern African country believe in and dread witches.
The police stated Mr. Candunde and Mr. Phiri were hired by Nelson Banda, MP Emmanuel “Jay Jay” Banda’s younger brother.
The MP was reportedly arrested last month in nearby Zimbabwe on robbery allegations, which he denies, but he has not been seen in public since.
He is also accused of escaping from detention in August while waiting to appear in court.
The opposition Patriotic Front (PF), led by z, has previously claimed that the charges are politically motivated.
READ ALSO:
- Farotimi: Advocacy group wants UK college to break ties with Afe Babalola
- Yahaya Bello walks home after release from Kuje prison Friday evening
- Fire kills family of three in Ibadan
Emmanuel Banda, who has been an independent MP since 2021, previously worked with Lungu, who lost the presidency to Hichilema that same year.
The police stated the MP’s younger brother, Nelson, was “currently on the run” in their statement.
Mr. Candunde and Mr. Phiri face charges under Zambia’s Witchcraft Act for “possession of charms,” “professing knowledge of witchcraft,” and “cruelty to wild animals.”
The pair was found with “assorted charms,” including a live chameleon, according to the authorities.
According to the police statement, they claimed they had been given more than 2 million Zambian kwacha (£58,000; $73,000) for their “mission.”
The accused are in jail and will appear in court “soon,” according to the police, although no specific date has been set for the hearing. They have not yet responded in public to the charges.
Suspected witchdoctors arrested over attempt to ‘bewitch’ Zambia’s President
Africa
South African man sentenced to six life terms for killing his relatives
South African man sentenced to six life terms for killing his relatives
Africa
Military airstrike kills over 100 in Sudanese market
Military airstrike kills over 100 in Sudanese market
A Sudanese military air strike on a market in North Darfur killed more than 100 people on Monday, a pro-democracy lawyers’ group said Tuesday, in a war marked by claims of atrocities on all sides.
The emergency Lawyers said Monday’s air strike also left hundreds injured in Kabkabiya, a town about 180 kilometres (112 miles) west of El-Fasher, the state capital that has been under siege from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since May.
Tens of thousands have been killed and millions displaced in a 20-month war between the RSF and Sudan’s military that has left the northeast African country on the brink of famine, according to aid agencies.
“The air strike took place on the town’s weekly market day, where residents from various nearby villages had gathered to shop, resulting in the death of more than 100 people and injury of hundreds, including women and children,” said the lawyers’ group, which has been documenting human rights abuses during the conflict.
In footage sent to AFP purporting to show aftermath of Monday’s strike, people were seen sifting through rubble as the charred remains of children lay on scorched ground.
The footage was supplied by civil society group the Darfur General Coordination of Camps for the Displaced and Refugees and AFP has not been able to verify its accuracy.
The lawyers group said in a separate incident on Monday evening three neighbourhoods were hit with barrel bombs in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, without reporting casualties.
READ ALSO:
- UCL: Salah scores as Liverpool beat Girona to reach last 16
- 7 men arrested for allegedly raping 4 minors in Katsina
- Naira depreciates to N1,585/$ in parallel market
Darfur, a region the size of France, is home to around a quarter of Sudan’s population but more than half of its 10 million are displaced.
A UN-backed report in July said famine had taken hold in a major refugee camp in North Darfur after a months-long RSF siege disabled nearly all trade and aid access.
‘Escalation campaign’
The lawyers group said they “condemn in the strongest terms the horrendous massacres committed by army air strikes” in Kabkabiya.
They flagged another incident in North Kordofan state in which drone that had crashed on November 26 exploded on Monday evening, killing six people.
They said recent strikes across Sudan were part of an “escalation campaign… deliberately concentrated on densely populated residential areas”, contradicting claims by warring parties that they only target military objectives.
Both the army and the RSF have been accused of indiscriminately targeting civilians and deliberately bombing residential areas.
Last week, UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher called for immediate international action to address Sudan’s deepening crisis.
Fletcher said he had heard “heart-rending stories” from refugees fleeing the conflict during a recent visit.
Nearly 26 million people — about half the population — face the threat of starvation, with both sides accused of using hunger as a weapon of war.
“These numbers are staggering, and we cannot turn our backs,” Fletcher said.
Military airstrike kills over 100 in Sudanese market
-
metro1 day agoCourt stops customs from seizing imported rice in open market
-
metro3 days agoCourt orders Minister, NIS to pay N3m compensation, issue passport to complainant
-
metro2 days agoFG transfers electricity market regulatory oversight in Lagos to LASERC
-
metro1 day agoAfe Babalola: Court grants Dele Farotimi bail, barred from media interviews
-
News1 day agoAdebayo Ogunlesi, 2 other Nigerians make Forbes 50 wealthiest Black Americans list 2024
-
metro2 days agoAbuja demolition: Soldiers attack FCTA officials, seize vehicles
-
metro1 day agoIbadan stampede: Tinubu orders probe as death toll hits 40
-
metro1 day agoNAFDAC seizes N5bn fake rice, seals factory in Nasarawa