GOMA: Congo’s security forces were fighting on Tuesday against Rwanda-backed rebels who advanced into a key eastern city in a major escalation of a decadeslong conflict.
Residents reported gunfire overnight in Goma, a city of 2 million people which the rebels claimed to have captured on Monday. Explosions and gunfire were heard near the now-shut Goma airport.
Goma is a regional trade and humanitarian hub holding hundreds of thousands of the more than 6 million people displaced by eastern Congo’s prolonged conflict over ethnic tensions that have resulted in one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.
The M23 rebels are one of about 100 armed groups vying for a foothold in the mineral-rich region in the conflict, one of Africa’s largest. The rebels temporarily took over Goma in 2012 before being forced to pull out under international pressure, and resurfaced in late 2021 with increasing support from Rwanda, according to Congo’s government and United Nations experts. Rwanda has denied such support.
It was unclear how much of Goma is controlled by the rebels, who marched into the city early Monday to both fear and cheers among residents. It was the culmination of weeks of fighting during which the rebels captured several towns in a shocking advance.
“Since morning we have heard bomb explosions and crackling bullets,” said Sam Luwawa, a resident of Goma. “So far we cannot say who really controls the city.”
Three South African peacekeepers were killed on Monday when the rebels launched a mortar bomb toward the Goma airport which landed on the nearby South African National Defense Force, while a fourth soldier succumbed to injuries sustained in fighting days ago, the South African Department of Defense said Tuesday.
That makes 17 peacekeepers and foreign soldiers who have been killed in the fighting, according to UN and army officials.
The humanitarian situation in Goma “is extremely, extremely worrying, with a new threshold of violence and suffering reached today,” Bruno Lemarquis, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Congo, told reporters in a video news conference on Monday. He said hundreds of thousands of people were attempting to flee the violence.
There were active combat zones in all areas of the city, with civilians taking cover and heavy artillery fire directed at the city center on Monday, Lemarquis said. He said several shells struck the Charité Maternelle Hospital in central Goma, “killing and injuring civilians, including newborns and pregnant women.”
“What is unfolding in Goma is coming on top of what is already one of the most protracted, complex, serious humanitarian crises on Earth, with close to 6.5 million displaced people in the country, including close to 3 million displaced people in North Kivu,” Lemarquis said.
Aid groups are reporting they are unable to reach displaced people who rely on them for food and other necessities.
“Key roads surrounding Goma are blocked, and the city’s airport can no longer be used for evacuation and humanitarian efforts. Power and water have reportedly been cut to many areas of the city,” said David Munkley, head of operations in eastern Congo for the Christian aid group World Vision.
In addition to the UN, several countries including the United States, United Kingdom and France have condemned Rwanda for the rebel advance. The country, however, blames Congo for the escalation, saying it failed to honor past peace agreements, necessitating Rwanda’s “sustained defensive posture.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the advance by the Rwanda-backed rebels in a call with Congo President Félix Tshisekedi on Monday during which both leaders agreed on the importance of advancing efforts to restart peace talks between Congo and Rwanda “as soon as possible,” US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.
The Congolese leader will address the nation on the conflict, authorities said, amid growing pressure to act on the escalation and as protests broke out in the capital of Kinshasa, with demonstrators condemning Rwanda for its role in the conflict.
Opposition leader Martin Fayulu appeared to suggest the president was not doing enough to respond to the crisis. In a statement, Fayulu called for protests against Rwanda and for support for Congo from the international community, adding: “If Mr. Félix Tshisekedi persists in standing in the way, he will be held solely responsible for the decline of our nation and will have to resign.”
Congo’s forces try to slow Rwanda-backed rebels in the east as protests break out in the capital
https://arab.news/8t2xs
Congo’s forces try to slow Rwanda-backed rebels in the east as protests break out in the capital
- The M23 resurfaced in late 2021 after years of dormancy and began seizing large swathes of North Kivu province
- The M23 rebels are one of about 100 armed groups vying for a foothold in the mineral-rich region in the conflict
- Goma is a regional trade and humanitarian hub holding hundreds of thousands of the more than 6 million people displaced by eastern Congo’s prolonged conflict over ethnic tensions that have resulted in one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises
UN calls for Myanmar support as quake death toll reaches 3,354
Myanmar’s neighbors, such as China, India and Southeast Asian nations, are among those that dispatched relief supplies and rescuers
BANGKOK: The United Nations called for the world to rally behind quake-hit Myanmar on Saturday as the death toll rose to 3,354.
In addition to those killed by the March 28 earthquake, 4,850 people were injured and another 220 are missing, state media said.
During a visit to Myanmar’s second-biggest city, Mandalay, which was near the epicenter of the 7.7 magnitude quake, United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher appealed for international support.
“The destruction is staggering. Lives lost. Homes destroyed. Livelihoods shattered. But the resilience is incredible,” he said in a post on X. “The world must rally behind the people of Myanmar.”
Myanmar’s neighbors, such as China, India and Southeast Asian nations, are among those that dispatched relief supplies and rescuers to aid the recovery effort in quake-hit areas that are home to about 28 million people over the past week.
The United States, which was until recently the world’s top humanitarian donor, had pledged at least $9 million to Myanmar to support earthquake-affected communities, but current and former US officials say the dismantling of its foreign aid program has affected its response.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Friday the junta was restricting aid supplies to quake-hit areas where communities did not back its rule.
The UN office also said it was investigating 53 reported attacks by the junta against opponents, including air strikes, of which 16 were after the ceasefire was declared on Wednesday.
A junta spokesman did not respond to calls seeking comment.
Free Burma Rangers, a relief group, told Reuters on Saturday that the military had dropped bombs in Karenni and southern Shan states on Thursday and Friday despite the ceasefire announcement, killing at least five people.
The victims included civilians, according to the group’s founder, David Eubank, who said there had been at least seven such military attacks since the ceasefire.
ELECTION PLANS
The leader of the military government, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, reaffirmed to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi the junta’s plans to hold “free and fair” elections in December when the two met in Bangkok, Myanmar state media said on Saturday.
Min Aung Hlaing made the rare trip to attend a summit of South and Southeast Asian nations on Friday, where he also met separately with the leaders of Thailand, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka.
Modi called for the post-quake ceasefire in Myanmar’s civil war to be made permanent, and said the elections needed to be “inclusive and credible,” an Indian foreign affairs spokesperson said on Friday.
Critics have derided the planned election as a sham to keep the generals in power through proxies.
Since overthrowing the government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, the military has struggled to run Myanmar, leaving the economy and basic services, including health care, in tatters, a situation exacerbated by the earthquake.
The civil war that followed the coup has displaced more than 3 million people, with widespread food insecurity and more than a third of the population in need of humanitarian assistance, the UN says.
Sri Lanka, India forge defense, energy ties during Modi’s visit
- Indian leader awarded Mithra Vibhushan, island nation’s highest civilian honor
- Sri Lanka, India, UAE agree to build energy hub in Trincomalee
Colombo: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi received a ceremonial guard of honor in Colombo on Saturday as his delegation signed energy and defense agreements with Sri Lanka, where New Delhi competes with China for greater influence.
Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake rolled out the red carpet for Modi and welcomed him with a 19-gun salute in the capital’s Independence Square.
He also conferred Sri Lanka’s highest civilian honor, Mithra Vibhushan, on the Indian prime minister.
“This prestigious honor, which was introduced in 2008, is conferred upon heads of states and government for their friendship, and honorable Prime Minister Modi highly deserves this honor. That is what we firmly believe,” Dissanayake said during a joint press conference with Modi, after the two countries signed seven cooperation agreements.
Modi arrived in Sri Lanka on Friday evening from Thailand, where he participated in the annual summit of BIMSTEC, a regional grouping of the seven countries on the Bay of Bengal.
He is accompanied by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, who signed agreements on defense cooperation, information and technology sharing, and energy imports and exports with the Sri Lankan government.
Another energy deal was signed between India, Sri Lanka, and the UAE on cooperation in the development of Trincomalee port as an energy hub.
“We welcome the important agreements made in the area of defense cooperation. We have also agreed to work together on the Colombo security conclave and security cooperation in the Indian Ocean,” Modi said.
“The agreement reached to build a multiproduct pipeline and to develop Trincomalee as an energy hub will benefit all Sri Lankans. The Grid Inter-Connectivity Agreement between the two countries will create opportunities for Sri Lanka to export electricity.”
The Indian prime minister is the first foreign head of state to visit the island nation since Dissanayake and his leftist alliance swept last year’s presidential and parliamentary elections.
The visit comes as Colombo balances ties with India, its powerful neighbor, and China, its biggest lender, which at the same time is India’s main regional foe.
Dissanayake’s first foreign visit as president was to New Delhi in December, followed by a visit to Beijing in January, highlighting Sri Lanka’s careful diplomacy between the two powers.
“Within the Indian subcontinent and Chinese belt, Sri Lanka is caught as a strategic island — not only in the Indian Ocean — between these two giants,” historian and analyst Dr. B.A. Hussainmiya told Arab News.
“Their geopolitical interest is centering in the Indian Ocean and in the Himalayas, so Sri Lanka, being a very small country, cannot hold its strength unless it creates a balanced and nuanced diplomatic approach between these two powers to keep it afloat in the system.”
Ukrainian drones hit explosives plant in Russia’s Samara region, Kyiv source says
- The SBU continues to conduct targeted operations against Russian enterprises
KYIV: Ukrainian drones struck an explosive production facility in Russia’s Samara region overnight, causing multiple explosions and fires, a source in Ukraine’s SBU security service told Reuters on Saturday.
“The SBU continues to conduct targeted operations against Russian enterprises that are part of the military-industrial complex and produce weapons for the war against Ukraine,” the source said.
“Such facilities are absolutely legitimate military targets.”
USAID team fired while in Myanmar earthquake zone, ex-official says
- “This team is working incredibly hard, focussed on getting humanitarian aid to those in need. To get news of your imminent termination — how can that not be demoralizing?” said Wong
- The Trump administration has moved to fire nearly all USAID staff in recent weeks
BANGKOK: Three US aid workers were laid off while in Myanmar helping the rescue and recovery from the country’s massive earthquake, a former senior staffer said, as the Trump administration’s dismantling of foreign aid affects its disaster response.
After traveling to the Southeast Asian nation, the three officials were told late this week they would be let go, Marcia Wong, a former official at the US Agency for International Development, told Reuters.
“This team is working incredibly hard, focussed on getting humanitarian aid to those in need. To get news of your imminent termination — how can that not be demoralizing?” said Wong, former deputy administrator of USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, which oversees Washington’s disease response efforts overseas.
President Donald Trump’s government has pledged at least $9 million to Myanmar after the magnitude-7.7 quake, which has killed more than 3,300. But his administration’s massive cuts to USAID have hindered its ability to respond, while China, Russia, India and other nations have rushed in assistance.
The Trump administration has moved to fire nearly all USAID staff in recent weeks, as billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has slashed funding and dismissed contractors across the federal bureaucracy in what it calls an attack on wasteful spending. The three USAID workers have been sleeping on the streets in the earthquake zone, Wong said, adding that their terminations would take effect in a few months. Residents have been sleeping outside for fear of aftershocks and further building collapses, Wong said she is in contact with remaining USAID staff and that she heard about the terminations after an all-staff meeting on Friday. Former USAID staff say most of the people who would have coordinated the response have been let go, while third-party implementing partners have lost contracts. The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday rejected criticism that Washington was slow to respond to the March 28 earthquake because USAID was dismantled.
Rather, he told reporters in Brussels, Myanmar was not “the easiest place to work,” saying the military government does not like the United States and prevents it from operating in the country as it wants to.
The United Nations has said the junta was limiting humanitarian aid.
Rubio said the US would no longer be the world’s top humanitarian donor, calling on other wealthy nations to step up in assisting Myanmar.
Zelensky slams ‘weak’ US reply to Russian strike on his hometown
- “Unfortunately, the reaction of the American Embassy is unpleasantly surprising: such a strong country, such a strong people — and such a weak reaction,” Zelensky wrote
- “They are even afraid to say the word ‘Russian’ when talking about the missile that killed the children“
KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday slammed the US embassy for what he called a “weak” statement that did not blame Russia for a missile strike on his home town which killed 18 people, including nine children.
In one of the deadliest strikes in recent weeks, a Russian missile on Friday evening struck a residential area near a children’s playground in the central Ukrainian town of Kryvyi Rig, followed up by attack drones.
Seventy-two people were wounded, 12 of them children, Dnipropetrovsk governor Sergiy Lysak said after the end of emergency operations overnight, with city officials declaring three days of mourning.
Zelensky in an emotional statement on social media named each of the children killed in the attack, accusing the US embassy of avoiding referring to Russia as the aggressor.
“Unfortunately, the reaction of the American Embassy is unpleasantly surprising: such a strong country, such a strong people — and such a weak reaction,” Zelensky wrote.
“They are even afraid to say the word ‘Russian’ when talking about the missile that killed the children.”
Zelensky singled out the United States for criticism as President Donald Trump has pushed for a partial ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine while seeking a thaw in ties with Moscow.
The Ukrainian president was taking aim at a message posted on X by US Ambassador Bridget Brink on Friday evening, which said: “Horrified that tonight a ballistic missile struck near a playground and restaurant.”
Brink, who was appointed by Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, has been ambassador since May 2022, added that “this is why the war must end.”
In recent posts on X she has not directly named Russia while referring to attacks on Ukraine, which she did regularly until mid-February, when Zelensky and Trump had an angry exchange in the Oval Office.
Zelensky wrote Saturday: “Yes, the war must end. But in order to end it, we must not be afraid to call a spade a spade.”
Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of Kryvyi Rig’s military administration, said three days of mourning had been declared on April 7, 8 and 9 in the city.
“This is nothing less than a mass murder of civilians,” he said.
Pictures circulated by rescue services showed several bodies, one stretched out near a playground swing.
“This is the kind of pain you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy,” Lysak said.
Russia’s defense ministry said it “delivered a precision strike with a high-explosive missile on a restaurant” in the city “where commanders of formations and Western instructors were meeting.”
The commander of the Ukrainian army retorted that Moscow was “trying to cover up its cynical crime” and “spreading false information” about the target of the strike.
He accused Russia of “war crimes.”
Trump, who said during his re-election campaign he could end the three-year conflict within days, is pushing the two sides to agree a ceasefire but his administration has failed to broker an accord acceptable to both.
Zelensky said the missile attack showed Russia had no interest in stopping its full-scale invasion, launched in February 2022.
“Russia does not want a ceasefire and we see it. The whole world sees it,” he said.
“The missile struck an area near residential buildings, a playground and ordinary streets,” he said. Then Russia launched attack drones “right during the rescue operation.”
“People who are capable of that kind of thing aren’t human,” Zelensky said.
Kryvyi Rig, in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, is about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the front line, and has regularly been targeted by Russian drones and missiles.
The Ukrainian leader was born in the industrial city, which had a pre-war population of around 600,000 people.
He said the children killed by the latest attack ranged in age from a three-year-old boy, Tymofiy, to a 17-year-old teenage boy, Nikita.
Zelensky on Friday met the heads of the British and French militaries in Kyiv to discuss a plan by London and Paris to send a “reassurance” force to Ukraine if and when a deal on ending the conflict is reached.
This is one of the latest efforts by European leaders to agree on a coordinated policy after Trump sidelined them and opened direct talks with the Kremlin.
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of breaking a supposed deal to stop firing on energy sites, though a formal agreement has not been put in place.
Russia on Saturday once again claimed Ukraine targeted its energy infrastructure, with the defense ministry saying Kyiv had attacked 14 sites in the last 24 hours.
