KAMPALA, Uganda: Leaders from eastern and southern Africa on Saturday called for an immediate ceasefire in eastern Congo, where rebels are threatening to overthrow the Congolese government, but also urged Congo’s president to directly negotiate with them.
Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi, who attended the summit in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam by videoconference, has previously said he would never talk to the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels he sees as driven to exploit his country’s vast mineral wealth.
A communique at the end of talks urged the resumption of “direct negotiations and dialogue with all state and non-state parties,” including M23. The rebels seized Goma, the biggest city in eastern Congo, following fighting that left nearly 3,000 dead and hundreds of thousands of displaced, according to the UN
The unprecedented joint summit included leaders from the East African Community bloc, of which both Rwanda and Congo are members, and those from the Southern African Development Community, or SADC, which includes countries ranging from Congo to South Africa.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame attended the summit along with his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, who has angered the Rwandans by deploying South African troops in eastern Congo under the banner of SADC to fight M23.
Rwanda has blamed the deployment of SADC peacekeepers for worsening the conflict in North Kivu, a mineral-rich province in eastern Congo that’s now controlled by M23. Kagame insists SADC troops were not peacekeepers because they were fighting alongside Congolese forces to defeat the rebels.
The rebels are backed by some 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to UN experts, while Congolese government forces are backed by regional peacekeepers, UN forces, allied militias and troops from neighboring Burundi. They’re now focused on preventing the rebels from taking Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province.
Dialogue ‘is not a sign of weakness’
The M23 rebellion stems partly from Rwanda’s decades-long concern that rebels opposed to Kagame’s government have been allowed by Congo’s military to be active in largely lawless parts of eastern Congo. Kagame also charges that Tshisekedi has overlooked the legitimate concerns of Congolese Tutsis who face discrimination.
Kenyan President William Ruto told the summit that “the lives of millions depend on our ability to navigate this complex and challenging situation with wisdom, clarity of mind, empathy.”
Dialogue “is not a sign of weakness,” said Ruto, the current chair of the East African Community. “It is in this spirit that we must encourage all parties to put aside their differences and mobilize for engagements in constructive dialogue.”
The M23 advance echoed the rebels’ previous capture of Goma over a decade ago and shattered a 2024 ceasefire, brokered by Angola, between Rwanda and Congo.
Some regional analysts fear that the rebels’ latest offensive is more potent because they are linking their fight to wider agitation for better governance and have vowed to go all the way to the capital, Kinshasa, 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) west of Goma.
Rebels face pressure to pull out of Goma
The Congo River Alliance, a coalition of rebel groups including M23, said in an open letter to the summit that they are fighting a Congolese regime that “flouted republican norms” and is “becoming an appalling danger for the Congolese people.”
“Those who are fighting against Mr. Tshisekedi are indeed sons of the country, nationals of all the provinces,” it said. “Since our revolution is national, it encompasses people of all ethnic and community backgrounds, including Congolese citizens who speak the Kinyarwanda language.”
The letter, signed by Corneille Nangaa, a leader of the rebel alliance, said the group was “open for a direct dialogue” with the Congolese government.
But the rebels and their allies also face pressure to pull out of Goma.
In addition to calling for the immediate reopening of the airport in Goma, the summit in Dar es Salaam also called for the drawing of “modalities for withdrawal of uninvited foreign armed groups” from Congolese territory.
A meeting in Equatorial Guinea Friday of another regional bloc, the Economic Community of Central African States, also called for the immediate withdrawal of Rwandan troops from Congo as well as the airport’s reopening to facilitate access to humanitarian aid.
African leaders urge direct talks with rebels to resolve DR Congo conflict
https://arab.news/v55fc
African leaders urge direct talks with rebels to resolve DR Congo conflict
- communique at the end of talks urged the resumption of “direct negotiations and dialogue with all state and non-state parties'
- Rwanda has blamed the deployment of SADC peacekeepers for worsening the conflict in North Kivu, a mineral-rich province in eastern Congo that’s now controlled by M23
Japan, China, and South Korea agree to promote peace
- Seoul and Tokyo typically take a stronger line against North Korea than China, which remains one of Pyongyang’s most important allies and economic benefactors
TOKYO: Japan, South Korea and China agreed Saturday that peace on the Korean Peninsula was a shared responsibility, Seoul’s foreign minister said, in a meeting of the three countries’ top diplomats in which they pledged to promote cooperation.
The talks in Tokyo followed a rare summit in May in Seoul where the three neighbors — riven by historical and territorial disputes — agreed to deepen trade ties and restated their goal of a denuclearised Korean peninsula.
But they come as US tariffs loom over the region, and as concerns mount over North Korea’s weapons tests and its deployment of troops to support Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“We reaffirmed that maintaining peace and stability on the Korean peninsula is a shared interest and responsibility of the three countries,” South Korea’s Cho Tae-yul told reporters after the trilateral meeting.
Seoul and Tokyo typically take a stronger line against North Korea than China, which remains one of Pyongyang’s most important allies and economic benefactors.
Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said he, Cho, and China’s Wang Yi “had a frank exchange of views on trilateral cooperation and regional international affairs ... and confirmed that we will promote future-orientated cooperation.”
“The international situation has become increasingly severe, and it is no exaggeration to say that we are at a turning point in history,” Iwaya said at the start of Saturday’s meeting.
This makes it “more important than ever to make efforts to overcome division and confrontation,” he added.
Wang noted this year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII, saying “only by sincerely reflecting on history can we better build the future.”
At two-way talks between Iwaya and Wang on Saturday, the Japanese minister said he had “frankly conveyed our country’s thoughts and concerns” on disputed islands, detained Japanese nationals and the situation in Taiwan and the South China Sea, among other contentious issues.
Ukraine was also on the agenda, with Iwaya warning “any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo by force will not be tolerated anywhere in the world.”
Climate change and aging populations were among the broad topics officials had said would be discussed, as well as working together on disaster relief and science and technology.
Iwaya said the trio had “agreed to accelerate coordination for the next summit” between the countries’ leaders.
Russian authorities bring in trains to fight oil depot fire
- Regional officials said four trains were drafted into the site at Kavkazskaya
- 473 firefighters and 189 pieces of equipment were engaged in the operation
MOSCOW: Authorities in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region brought in firefighting trains loaded with water on Saturday to help battle a blaze still raging at an oil depot following a Ukrainian drone attack.
Regional officials, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said four trains were drafted into the site at Kavkazskaya, where the fire first broke out last Tuesday.
Firefighters were tackling a fire still burning at one of the tanks at the site covering 1,250 sq. meters (13,500 square feet) while also trying to cool other equipment at the site.
The statement said 473 firefighters and 189 pieces of equipment were engaged in the operation.
On Friday, depressurization of the burning tank triggered an explosion and the release of burning oil.
Reports on Friday said the fire covered some 10,000 square meters.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said this week the attack amounted to a violation of a proposed ceasefire on energy sites in the more than three-year-old war, agreed between Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump.
The accord fell short of a wider agreement that the US had sought, and which was accepted by Ukraine, for a blanket 30-day truce.
Migrants deported from Mauritania recount police beatings
- Government spokesperson Houssein Ould Meddou said migrants were returned to the border crossings through which they had entered the country
ROSSO, SENEGAL: Ismaila Bangoura has terrible dreams about the night when he says Mauritanian police burst into the place in Nouakchott he shared with other Guineans, beat them up, and carted them off to a police station.
After three days in detention without food or access to toilets, they were taken to the border with Senegal on March 7, the 25-year-old said.
Since then, the group has wandered the streets of Rosso with nowhere to go and no connections to this remote part of northern Senegal.
“They beat us and stuck us in jail without telling us why,” said Bangoura, a trained carpenter who emigrated to Mauritania in 2024 to earn a living.
“They took everything we had — money, watches, phones. They handcuffed us and crammed us into buses to deport us,” he said.
He was left with only the clothes on his back — a Guinea squad football jersey and a pair of black shorts.
For several weeks now, Mauritania has been throwing out migrants, mostly from neighboring countries in West Africa like Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, and Guinea.
The campaign has sparked indignation in the region.
The vast, arid country on the Atlantic seaboard is a departure point for many African migrants seeking to reach Europe by sea.
The authorities say their “routine” deportations target undocumented people.
They have not provided information on the number of people expelled.
None of the migrants said they intended to take to the sea.
Interior Minister Mohammed Ahmed Ould Mohammed Lemine told journalists all the foreigners deported had been in Mauritania illegally.
He said the expulsions were “compliant with international conventions.”
Government spokesperson Houssein Ould Meddou said migrants were returned to the border crossings through which they had entered the country.
NGOs, however, have condemned the “inhumane” deportations, and the Senegalese government has voiced outrage at the treatment of its nationals.
A few meters from the Rosso crossing, about 30 migrants — mostly Guinean men, women, and children — squatted in a dilapidated building littered with rubbish, each trying to carve out a space of their own in the narrow edifice.
“You have to get in there quickly if you want to secure a place to sleep at night,” commented a young man named Abibou.
The rest “sleep on the street,” he said.
The most fortunate end up at the nearby Red Cross premises, where they are looked after.
But Mbaye Diop, the head of the Red Cross branch in Rosso, said there had been such a large influx of migrants recently that his organization could no longer accommodate everyone.
“The people who come to us generally arrive exhausted. They’re hungry and need a shower. Some also need psychological support,” he said.
Around him, several migrants tried to get some sleep on old mats despite the constant noise and movement of people around them.
Others remained huddled in their corners, staring blankly.
“We’re hungry. We haven’t eaten anything since this morning,” one said.
Some said they were getting restless and now just wanted to go home.
Amid the hubbub, Ramatoulaye Camara tried to soothe her crying toddler.
She was also deported in early March.
Despite being heavily pregnant with another child, she was — like many others — beaten by Mauritanian guards, imprisoned, and stripped of all her belongings, she recounted.
“We suffered a lot,” she said quietly, trying to comfort the little girl.
Idrissa Camara, 33, has been working as a carpenter in Nouakchott since 2018.
On March 16, he says he was arrested at his workplace and deported. Since then, he has been wandering around Rosso in the same grey and yellow overalls and protective boots, his only remaining possessions.
“They got so dirty and smelly these past few days that I had to go and wash them in the river. I had to hang around nearby in my underwear while they dried,” he said.
The married father of two said he had kept his deportation secret from his family so as not to distress them and planned to return to Nouakchott and his job there.
“All I want is to be able to work and provide for my family. I haven’t harmed anyone,” he said.
Daesh suspect who held journalists gets life sentence in France
- Nemmouche is already in prison after a Belgian court jailed him for life in 2019 for killing four people at a museum in May 2014, after he had returned from Syria
PARIS: A French court sentenced a French extremist to life in prison for holding four journalists captive more than a decade ago in the Syrian Arab Republic.
Mehdi Nemmouche, 39, was convicted of having held the French reporters hostage for Daesh from June 2013 to April 2014.
The sentence carries a minimum term of 22 years before he is eligible for parole.
All four journalists during the trial said they clearly recognized Nemmouche’s voice and manner of speech as belonging to a so-called Abu Omar, who terrorized them and made sadistic jokes while they were in captivity.
Nemmouche denied ever being their jailer, only admitting in court that he was a Daesh fighter in Syria.
From the beginning of the trial last month, he has claimed only to have fought against the forces of former President Bashar Assad.
“Yes, I was a terrorist, and I will never apologize for that.”
Nemmouche has said he joined Al-Qaeda’s Syria affiliate and then Daesh — both listed as “terrorists” in the EU — while in Syria.
Nemmouche is already in prison after a Belgian court jailed him for life in 2019 for killing four people at a museum in May 2014, after he had returned from Syria.
Daesh emerged in 2013 in the chaos that followed the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, slowly gaining ground before declaring a so-called caliphate in large parts of Syria and neighboring Iraq.
A US-backed offensive dealt the final blow to that proto-state in 2019.
Daesh abducted and held hostage 25 Western journalists and aid workers in Syria between 2012 and 2014, publicly executing several of them, according to French prosecutors.
Reporters Didier Francois and Edouard Elias, and then Nicolas Henin and Pierre Torres, were abducted 10 days apart while reporting from northern Syria in June 2013.
They were released in April 2014.
Henin alerted the authorities after he saw a facial composite of the presumed perpetrator of the May 2014 Brussels attack that looked very familiar.
Henin, in a magazine article in September 2014, recounted Nemmouche punching him in the face and terrorizing Syrian detainees.
During the trial, he detailed the repeated torture and mock executions he witnessed while in captivity.
=Nemmouche, whose father is unknown, was brought up in the French foster system and became radicalized in prison before going to Syria, say investigators.
The court also handed life sentences to two other extremists tried in absentia because they are presumed dead.
Belgian extremist Oussama Atar, a senior Daesh commander, had already been sentenced to life for the 2015 terror attacks in Paris claimed by Daesh that killed 130 people and the Brussels bombings by the group that took the lives of 32 others in 2016.
The other defendant was French Daesh member Salim Benghalem, accused of having been the jailer-in-chief of the hostages.
The court also handed a 22-year sentence to Frenchman Abdelmalek Tanem, 35, accused of being one of the jailers.
None of the journalists had recognized Tanem, who said he was a bodyguard for several IS leaders and slept in the basement of an eye hospital where they were held hostage, but claimed to have never seen them.
But prosecutors argued he was one of around 10 French-speaking Daesh jailers.
The court also handed a 20-year sentence to Kais Al Abdallah, a 41-year-old Syrian extremist accused of having helped abduct the journalists and of having been deputy in command in the Syrian city of Raqqa, all of which he denies.
From sahoor drums to online apps: Ramadan through the eyes of 3 generations of a Pakistani family
- Digital age has significantly altered how holy month is observed, offering spiritual engagement through apps, social media, and online platforms
- Mobile apps have become indispensable tools for Muslims worldwide during Ramadan, whether to check prayer timings or order food
ISLAMABAD: The clatter of plates, spoons, and forks filled the air as Mahmood Ahmed Hashmi, 67, broke his fast earlier this week at his home in Islamabad, seated with his three sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren around a large, colorful tablecloth spread on the floor.
Ramadan traditions and practices evolve across generations, influenced by changing demographics, lifestyles, media and digital apps, while retaining the core spiritual elements of fasting, prayer, and charity.
As in other parts of the world, the digital age has also significantly altered how Ramadan is observed by Pakistani families, offering new avenues for spiritual engagement, community connection, and resource access through apps, social media, and online platforms.
FASTFACT
Digital age has significantly altered how holy month is observed, offering spiritual engagement through apps, social media, and online platforms.
Hashmi, a retired civil servant, detailed how Ramadan has changed through the generations of his family, beginning with the tradition of Ramadan drummers walking through the streets, beating drums to wake people for the pre-dawn meal (sahoor) before fasting began for the day. Once a typical feature of the holy month, the tradition’s usefulness has been eclipsed by TV, mobile phones, and alarm clocks.
“In those days, the elders used to come out in the neighborhood to wake up people for sahoor,” Hashmi told Arab News at iftar. “They used to do some drumming and other things so that people could get up, but now you have everything in your cell phone.”
Mobile apps have become indispensable tools for Muslims around the world during Ramadan, offering features such as prayer time reminders, Qur’anic recitations, and fasting trackers, ensuring accurate timing and accessibility.
While many people used to visit neighborhood or community religious gatherings earlier, now platforms such as YouTube and TikTok host Islamic scholars and influencers who share daily Ramadan reflections, Qur’anic tafseer (exegesis), and tips for spiritual growth, making Islamic education more accessible, especially for younger Muslims.
Social media platforms have also become main avenues for sharing Ramadan greetings, exchanging recipes, and discussing spiritual reflections.
Handwritten Eid cards, once widely exchanged among friends and relatives ahead of the post-Ramadan Eid Al-Fitr festival, are now a rarity in the age of digital greeting cards shared on Whatsapp and other messaging platforms, Hashmi lamented.
“How good the feeling used to be to get Eid cards from your loved ones,” he said. “Your near and loved ones used to wait for them. People used to display them in their drawing rooms or bedrooms. Now a picture (card) will come (on mobile phone).”
Iftar and sahoor meals would also be made entirely at home, or with snacks and food bought from neighborhood eateries, and would be consumed as a family, while food was now increasingly ordered from online apps as per individual choices, Hashmi added.
While the retired official regrets the decline in many of the Ramadan customs of his youth, his son Miraj Mustafa Hashmi, a professor at the National University of Sciences and Technology, said digital innovations such as mobile apps have streamlined everyday rituals, while still nurturing cherished Ramadan traditions.
“Apps like FoodPanda have replaced traditional market trips for iftar (items),” Miraj said, explaining that this was beneficial for people who did not have the luxury of time due to jobs and other responsibilities.
“It is a digital era, things are going on like that and people are comfortable in it. I think it is a very positive change … because people like us have to stay in the office all day and work … Obviously, we want to go to the market but the pressure of work and the load is there.”
Digital platforms and apps have also made it easier for people to donate to charity and support those in need, a core aspect of the holy month, Miraj said.
For his 10-year-old son Ibrahim, a student who began fasting at the age of 7, Ramadan is about being able to order his favorite dishes online and checking the internet for iftar and sahoor timings.
“I love having noodles, pizza, macaroni, samosas, pakoras, and jalebis for iftar,” Ibrahim said.
But was there anything Miraj missed about the way Ramadan used to be observed?
Relatives and friends used to meet each other more often at Ramadan events when they did not have the luxury to connect through video calls, he said.
“When I think of my childhood, we used to go to social events, we used to go shopping with our grandparents, we used to do all these activities.
“If we see, our parents spent a very tough life due to limited facilities, but they made it a little easier (for us) and our children are living a much easier life and technology is helpful.”
