30 million people need aid in war-torn Sudan, says UN

PORT SUDAN, Sudan: More than 30 million people, over half of them children, are in need of aid in Sudan after twenty months of war, the United Nations said on Monday.

The UN has launched a $4.2 billion call for funds, targeting 20.9 million people across Sudan from a total of 30.4 million people it said are in need in what it called “an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.”

Sudan has been torn apart and pushed to the brink of famine by the war that erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than eight million internally displaced, which, in addition to 2.7 million displaced before the war, has made Sudan the world’s largest internal displacement crisis.

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A further 3.3 million people have fled across Sudan’s borders to escape the war, which means over a quarter of the country’s pre-war population, estimated at around 50 million, are now uprooted.

Famine has already been declared in five areas in Sudan and is expected to take hold of five more areas by May, with 8.1 million people currently on the brink of mass starvation.

Sudan’s army-aligned government has denied there is famine, while aid agencies complain that access is blocked by bureaucratic hurdles and ongoing violence.

Both the army and the RSF have been accused of using starvation as a weapon of war.

For much of the conflict, the UN has struggled to raise even a quarter of the funds it has targeted for its humanitarian response in the impoverished northeast African country.

Sudan has often been called the world’s “forgotten” war, overshadowed by conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine despite the scale of the horrors inflicted upon civilians.

30 million people need aid in war-torn Sudan, says UN

ARAB NEWS

Chinese nationals arrested with gold bars, $800,000 cash in DR Congo

Three Chinese nationals have been apprehended with gold bars and $800,000 in cash in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

According to the BBC, the trio were nabbed with 12 gold bars and the stash of cash hidden under the seat of a vehicle they were travelling in.

Jacques Purusi, the governor of South Kivu province, confirmed the arrest of the suspects, saying that the operation was kept secret after the recent release of another group of Chinese nationals accused of running an illegal gold mine in the area.

Mr Purusi explained that some of the dealers in the ‘previous metals’ had been enjoying good relations with the influential people in the capital, Kinshasa, adding that it was the reason why the latest arrests had to be kept quiet.

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Although he did not give exactly how much gold had been seized so far, Mr Purusi said they had been acting on a tip-off.

According to him, the gold bars and money were only found after a meticulous search of the vehicle in the Walungu area near Rwanda’s border.

Last year, Mr Purusi told journalists that he was shocked to hear that 17 Chinese nationals, who had been arrested on allegations they had been running an illegal gold mine, were freed and allowed to return to China.

He said the development undermined the efforts to clean up DR Congo’s notoriously murky mineral sector.

“They owed $10 million in taxes and fines to the government,” Mr Purusi was quoted to have said by Reuters.

Chinese nationals arrested with gold bars, $800,000 cash in DR Congo

Fulani herdsmen from Nigeria kill five Cameroonian soldiers, says MP

Gunmen from Nigeria have killed at least five Cameroonian soldiers and wounded several others in the village of Bakinjaw on Cameroon’s border with Nigeria, a member of parliament for the district and a traditional leader said.

It is the latest in a series of attempts to seize territory in the area.

Aka Martin Tyoga, MP for the district of Akwaya in southwestern Cameroon, where the incident took place, told Reuters the attack happened early on Friday, when hundreds of armed Fulani herdsmen crossed the border from Taraba State in Nigeria to attack a military post.

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He said it was a retaliation after Cameroonian soldiers killed several herdsmen the day before.

Agwa Linus, traditional ruler of Bakinjaw, said the attackers also burnt down his home.

“This is not the first time they are attacking – it’s very unfortunate,” he said.

Fulani herdsmen from Nigeria kill five Cameroonian soldiers, says MP