Category World News

Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir – Makhan Din stands inside an empty mosque in Indian-administered Kashmir’s Kathua district to record his last video message on a mobile phone.

Wearing a skullcap and a blue-and-white sports jacket, the bearded 25-year-old says he is about to “sacrifice” his life so that no one else in the region is subjected to “torture” by the police, who suspected him of “being associated with militants”, the term authorities use for rebels fighting against the Indian rule.

Din picks up a copy of the Quran from a shelf at his back and puts it on his head as he recounts the horrors he endured in police custody the night before in the grainy four-minute video that was shot on February 5. Then, with his lips pleading with God, he returns the holy book and removes a plastic packet of pesticide from his pocket.

“This medication will make me ill, and it will make me die.” I’ll pass away so that someone else can be saved from me. Oh Allah, accept my sacrifice. Keep my family happy, always, Oh Allah. You watch everything, save me from the grave; send angels to take my soul from the mosque. As he turns the phone’s camera off, he says, “Please forgive me.”

In video: Before his death by sucide, Makhan Din, 25, a tribal man from Kathua’s Bilawar area filmed the act, saying he is dying by suicide so that no one else is subjected to “torture” and “humiliation” by the police the way he was subjected. pic. twitter.com/b5zWw0gVVX

Din ingested the pesticide after recording his message and called his older brother Lal Din to let him know that he had sent him a video via WhatsApp and that he had committed suicide.

In a statement released on February 7, police claimed Din had “a number of suspicious contacts in Pakistan and other foreign countries,” and that he had not been subjected to torture or suffered any physical harm. “He was questioned and then got exposed, went home, and committed suicide”, it said. The death and torture allegations are being investigated by the district administration of Jammu.

In the meantime, the eerie video had reached tens of thousands of mobile phones and TV screens outside the region, causing tensions and invoking the horrors of the scenic Himalayan valley, where decades-long armed rebellion has been occurring.

The entire Kashmir territory has been claimed by both the countries that control some of it since 1947, when it was divided from the British and divided into a Hindu-majority India and a predominantly Muslim Pakistan. Tens of thousands of soldiers have been stationed across the country’s snowy frontier after the two nuclear powers have waged three extensive wars against the country.

Islamabad, which claims it only gives the movement its diplomatic support on international platforms, denies this accusation. One of the most militarized regions in the world, where the Indian forces have been given special powers and impunity, is where New Delhi has deployed more than 500, 000 soldiers to fight the rebellion.

Residents claim that since 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s right-wing government has tightened its grip on the area, breaking with Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, which are both federally governed union territories. As a result of the government’s efforts, Kashmiris fear that a number of laws and policies are intended to alter the demography of the Muslim-majority region, claiming that the move would bring “normalcy,” peace, and development to the area.

The 2019 move was also accompanied by a months-long security lockdown and a ban on public protests, as thousands of people – students, lawyers, activists, and even pro-India politicians – were thrown into jails. More than five years later, however, peace continues to elude the restive streets of the region.

However, residents are more concerned about Din’s alleged torture by the police, which led to his suicide. “It was scary to see a man resort to killing himself, despite knowing the gravity of the punishment. Our religion]Islam] warns us strongly against the act he committed”, a 22-year-old man said, requesting anonymity as he feared reprisal for speaking to the media.

Din’s desperate behavior, according to the young man, “made him question the certainty he holds onto.”

“I feel blessed not to be able to imagine what he must have endured.” His-related cases are rarely discussed in this discussion. Most news is short-lived these days. Times have changed in Kashmir”, he said. “It’s the beginning of the end, really”.

Army kills truck driver

A day after Din took his own life, Waseem Ahmad Mir, a 32-year-old truck driver belonging to northern Kashmir’s Sopore district, was killed by the army.

In a statement, the army said Mir had jumped a security checkpoint on the Srinagar-Baramulla highway. The truck didn’t stop “despite repeated warnings”, it said, further claiming that Mir’s vehicle was chased for 23km (14 miles) before he was shot.

However, Mir’s family rejected the army’s version of events.

“The army says they chased him for 23km, but the]superintendent of police] told us he was chased for 35km. We also want to know that when he had to go to Srinagar, why was the vehicle in the]opposite] direction, going to Baramulla”? The cousin of Miriam complained to the Indian Express newspaper, alleging that the police and the army’s statements contradict each other.

“His clothes were in the dirt. Before the killing, we’re curious whether they had tortured or beaten him.

‘ A lot of fear ‘

More than 500 Kashmiris were detained for the February 3 killing of a retired army officer, Manzoor Ahmad Wagay, a local resident, as a result of the two civilian deaths allegedly caused by the Indian forces. Wagay was shot dead by suspected rebels, and his wife and niece injured in south Kashmir’s Kulgam.

Authorities detained young men from several south Kashmir districts following the killing, the majority of whom had previously been accused of taking part in anti-government demonstrations or the armed rebellion. Images of the armed forces frisking cars and people at various checkpoints became popular online.

Because it seems as though we can no longer live in our own Kashmir, or if we do, because we must be constantly afraid, I feel scared after the recent crackdown. You never know when the army might come and take you away, and then you suffer despite being innocent”, a 21-year-old from Pulwama district told Al Jazeera, requesting anonymity.

“There is a lot of fear here”, he said, adding that many young men received calls from army camps, “summoning” them. He said it was “terrifying”.

“On top of that, there’s family pressure, our families get scared. When someone steps out of the house, there’s no certainty if they will return”, he said. We must be prepared to leave the moment they call us if we want to stay here.

Al Jazeera reached out to several people who were recently detained or questioned, but they feared “consequences” if they talked to the media.

“I don’t know how I was let go. One of them said, “My mind is free right now, and if I talk, I will live in one more fear and anxiety: that I will be caught because I spoke to you.”

Lawyer from the Shopian district of south Kashmir, Habeel Iqbal, claimed that the police can detain someone on justifiable suspicions, but that the suspect’s detention time must not exceed 24 hours, during which time he should be brought before a court, and that his relatives are kept informed of his arrest.

“To detain around 500 people, as the reports suggest, for investigation seems to be a case of abuse of law and a case of police overreach. He told Al Jazeera, “We have frequently seen the various protections and rights that the detainees are being denied by investigative agencies.”

Ram Puniyani, a Mumbai-based writer and activist, said the police cannot detain such a large amount of people on mere suspicion. There must be a legal component that they don’t adhere to. This is a clear-cut human rights violation”, he told Al Jazeera.

Our blood is not cheap, they say.

The mass detentions and the deaths of the two civilians have also outraged regional politicians, who have questioned New Delhi’s claims of a “return of normalcy” after 2019.

“It worries me that the police defy the very law that they are supposed to uphold and protect these people, and that it somehow turns so wicked that the populace is afraid of them, and not the militants,” I said. As she went to Kathua to meet Din’s family, Iltija Mufti of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) informed Al Jazeera that the system was severely weakened.

Regional Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who was elected in October last year in the region’s first assembly elections in a decade, said he has spoken with New Delhi and “insisted that both incidents are investigated in a time-bound, transparent manner.” He also called the recent events “highly unfortunate.”

“The regional government will also order its own inquiries”, he added. However, in the post-2019 Kashmir, the powers of the chief minister over police have been drastically curtailed as the department is directly controlled by the federal government.

On the deaths of the two civilians, Altaf Thakur, spokesman for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Kashmir, told Al Jazeera his party wants to form a high-level committee to investigate them and “perpetrators to be punished”.

“If an innocent person is killed, whether he is from Kathua or somewhere else, it cannot be tolerated”.

Amnesty International’s chairperson, Aakar Patel, claimed the Indian government has no interest in Kashmiris’ human rights.

Since 1989, it has not responded to or rejected any chargesheets brought by regional police against members of the armed forces. According to him, “It has never ever removed anyone’s immunity under AFSPA protection,” referring to the draconian Indian law known as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which guarantees its soldiers impunity from the consequences of their actions there.

According to Patel, “policies in place since 1989, which have treated the Kashmiri population as the “enemy” should be reconsidered.

Sheikh Abdul Rashid, a Kashmiri parliamentarian, blasted the deaths of Mir and Din and demanded an independent investigation. In a speech he delivered to the Indian parliament in New Delhi last week.

As the army moves across the capital, Khartoum to overthrow the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a large number of Sudanese civilians are welcoming the liberator.

However, activists on the ground claim that both sides are using more brutal tactics, which are worsening the humanitarian crisis.

On February 1, the paramilitary fired artillery in a crowded market in Omdurman, killing at least 56 people.

The RSF detained the manager of one of the last remaining hospitals in Khartoum, which is located in a historically underrepresented “southern belt,” where ethnic minorities from Sudan’s peripheral regions are overwhelmingly found to be most common.

The three people’s fate was unknown to Al Jazeera.

The army, meanwhile, is encountering stiffer resistance from the RSF in central Khartoum and in the sprawling Sharq el-Nile (East Nile) district. Last week, it placed a partial siege on these city districts, according to activists on the ground.

“Right now, the city is besieged…and the only way out of it is heading west to Darfur, but this route is targeted by]army] drones and fighter jets”, said Augreis*, a local activist and humanitarian volunteer residing in east Khartoum.

They told Al Jazeera, “Many families have been killed trying to escape this way.”

Bittersweet return

The RSF and army have engaged in a brutal conflict over national security since April 2023.

The conflict has caused the “largest humanitarian crisis in the world,” with about 12.5 million people being displaced from their homes and tens of thousands of people believed to have died from armed violence.

Across the country, the RSF has confiscated people’s land and houses after expelling Indigenous communities and inhabitants.

In Khartoum North and Omduman, two of the three cities that make up the country’s capital region, RSF fighters left their homes and fled to Darfur, their traditional stronghold, after the army made advances there.

Local activist and relief worker Montasser reported to Al Jazeera that many displaced people are ecstatic that the army has expelled the RSF, and that they are gradually returning to their homes in Omdurman.

He noted, however, that many remain displaced because their homes – and sometimes entire neighbourhoods – were significantly damaged or destroyed.

The RSF “allowed many people to lose their homes, and everything inside their homes was looted.” Additionally, their neighborhoods have no access to water or electricity, and their internet is unavailable. “The army still has to remove corpses from the streets,” Montasser said.

Some flee in fear of reprisals

According to activists on the ground, a large number of civilians have fled Khartoum in recent weeks because they fear the army and its allies will murder them.

Rights groups, activists, and victims of the attacks allege that the army targets local relief workers, doctors, and people they believe are from western or southern Sudan.

After their parents fled devastating wars in South Sudan, the Nuba Mountains, and Darfur in the 1990s and 2000s, hundreds of thousands of people from western or southern tribes were born and raised in Khartoum.

“The fear on many people’s faces is very obvious. They are very scared and they don’t feel entitled to]Khartoum]”, Augreis, the relief worker in east Khartoum, said.

“Yes, they were born here, but they have the feeling that this place is not theirs. If you are from the north or the east]of Sudan], you feel more entitled to Khartoum right now”, Augreis told Al Jazeera.

She explained that many people quickly fled or prepared to flee Khartoum after they saw the army commit what she described as “massacres” and “ethnic cleansing” in Wad Madani, the capital of Gezira state, Sudan’s breadbasket.

The Kanabi, which house exploited workers from West and South Sudan, were systematic targets when army-backed fighters took control of the city last month.

Hundreds of people were killed based on suspicion they supported the RSF due to their ethnic origins, according to victims, local monitors and the army’s leadership, which blamed the acts of “individuals” for the violations.

According to the UN Human Rights Office, army-backed fighter groups have retaken Khartoum North and extrajudicially killed 18 people based on their alleged ethnic background.

Army spokesperson, Nabil Abdullah, denies the allegations.

“These accusations are not correct”, he told Al Jazeera. The Sudanese Armed Forces are “absolutely committed to upholding international law, international law, and international conventions.”

Raids and looting

RSF fighters have scavenged numerous homes over the past three weeks to steal electronics, gold, and money before fleeing to areas the army then seized.

The RSF is terrifying residents of Sharq el-Nile by seizing money, gold, and Starlink internet kits, which give civilians access to satellite internet when network service is in jeopardy.

Musab*, a local relief worker, said RSF fighters stormed his home on February 3 and assaulted all the men.

In an ostensible attempt to hoard them, they confiscated cellphones and Starlink devices, but Musab made a quick cover for his.

Musab claims that the RSF is aware of local relief workers’ attempts to rob them, whether they are from the Sudanese diaspora or international aid organizations.

Because they are aware that we are getting some money, the RSF is looking for local relief workers. So they’re looking for us and trying to get access to our accounts”, he said.

The RSF’s press office was contacted by Al Jazeera in writing to respond to accusations that it is looting and attacking civilians as the army advances.

By the time of publication, the press office had not received a response.

Musab insists that the RSF’s abuses in Sharq el-Nile are becoming unbearable.

“Every day, I move from house to house. I can never stay in one place, so I can evade them”, he told Al Jazeera.

“I’m more afraid of the RSF than the army at this time”, he said.

In response to growing reluctance by Western institutions to invest in fossil fuels, a group of African nations is set to launch a bank to finance oil and gas projects.

The long-planned “Africa Energy Bank” that is expected to take off soon was announced last June as a joint initiative by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the African Petroleum Producers ‘ Organization (APPO) – a group of 18 oil-exporting nations.

The bank aims to lift growth by boosting Africa’s energy supply. Its founders see it as a lifeline in a continent rich in natural resources, but where millions of people still lack access to electricity.

However, climate activists have questioned the justification for cutting back on fossil fuels.

As the world transitions to low-carbon alternatives, oil and gas projects built today have a high likelihood of becoming unusable “stranded assets” in the future, adding to the burden of expensive debt on nations’ balance sheets.

Experts believe a balance must be maintained in order to meet Africans’ needs for both material and environmental protection.

Between a rock and a hard place

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, hundreds of countries pledged to hold global temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. Governments and businesses, among them those in Africa, have since been under increased pressure to cut back on fossil fuel use.

In 2019, the World Bank stopped funding oil and gas extraction. After a High Court ordered Shell to halt its marine exploration activities off the coast of South Africa in 2022 as a result of successful legal challenges brought by environmental campaigners, the company suspended its work there.

At the time, Happy Khambule, a senior campaigner for Greenpeace Africa, said, “We must do everything we can to undo the destructive colonial legacy of extractivism, until we live in a world where people and the planet come before the profits of toxic fossil fuel companies”.

Omar Farouk Ibrahim, APPO’s secretary-general, has stated for his part that it is necessary to strike a “right balance” between the needs to combat climate change and prevent social upheaval that might arise from difficult economic and financial conditions in Africa.

Indeed, Africa’s energy needs are immense.

In recent years, there have been more than a million sub-Saharan Africans without electricity. As population growth outpaced new energy supply in 2023, 600&nbsp, million people (43 percent of the continent) were left in the dark, according to the International Energy Agency.

Although estimates vary, a five-fold increase in electricity would be required to support significant industrial activity and aid in the eradication of Africa’s majority of people, who currently live on less than $1.90 per day.

Africa uses the least amount of modern energy per person globally. At an economy-wide level, it also lags behind. Globally, manufacturing makes up 42.2 percent of total power consumption. In Africa, it’s just 16.8 percent.

APPO head Ibrahim says the Africa Energy Bank is the result of Western countries ‘ “abandon]ing] hydrocarbons” so that “the leaders of the continent have no choice but to look within to raise the required funds to sustain and grow the]energy] industry”.

The Africa Energy Bank will be headquartered in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.

By the end of this quarter [by the end of March], according to Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Heineken Lokpobiri, “the building is ready, and we are only finishing touches,” this bank will begin to expand.

Countries involved in the Africa Energy Bank include Nigeria, Angola and Libya, among others. Plans for projects range from offshore oil exploration to new gas-fired power plants, according to &nbsp.

Each nation has pledged $83 million and will raise $1.5 billion in total. That will be complemented by $14bn from the Afreximbank, a trade credit organisation.

The Africa Energy Bank hopes to secure $ 120 billion in assets over the next five years, according to Lokpobiri. Foreign banks interested in acquiring equity will most likely receive additional funding from sovereign wealth funds, commodity traders, and international banks.

Africa’s context is ‘ different ‘

Many African leaders agree that rapid industrial growth is necessary, but many oppose Western financial backers’ restrictions, which are increasingly preventing them from participating in traditional energy projects.

Arkebe Oqubay, a former adviser to Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, insists that “Africa’s context is totally different from elsewhere because its economic resources have not been fully developed. At the same time, it’s made a minimal contribution to climate change”.

Only 4 percent of the world’s carbon emissions are produced in Africa, and this figure is only historically. Additionally, extreme weather events cause a disproportionate amount of harm to it.

“The moral imperative to cut emissions is not as present in Africa”, said Oqubay.

He claimed for Al Jazeera that “these] are developing nations where you can’t just say you can start the green transition” and that they can’t just commit to oil and gas.

The African Energy Chamber, an advocacy group, has also argued that Africa has a “sovereign right” to develop its natural resources, which, according to the group, includes 125 billion barrels of oil and 620 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

African nations are entitled to increase their oil and gas capabilities until [renewable energy] funding becomes more readily available, Oqubay said. “The international community does not have the right to say we cannot do this,” said Oqubay.

“But to be clear, fossil fuels are not the future”, he said.

‘ Huge ‘ renewable energy potential

Africa’s energy shortages are a “development constraint”, said Fadhel Kaboub, an associate professor of economics at Denison University in the United States. Africa’s subdued power sector limits the production of fertiliser, steel and cement – hallmarks of economic development.

The continent’s inability to industrialise has exacerbated global growth divergence.

From 2014 to 2024, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in sub-Saharan Africa dropped by more than 10 percent (from $1, 936 to $1, 700). Over the same period, global GDP per capita rose by 15 percent.

“To climb the development ladder, the continent needs more energy”, Kaboub said. The best course of action isn’t to increase fossil fuel consumption, though. And boosting oil and gas exports as an end, in itself, is what Afrexim is pushing for”.

He instead proposes that Africa should use its unused fossil fuel infrastructure to develop its “huge” renewable energy potential. Africa is endowed with solar, wind and geothermal resources, as well as the critical minerals&nbsp, needed for green technologies.

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, Africa’s potential to generate renewable energy from existing technologies, accounting for current costs, is 1, 000 times greater than the projected demand for electricity in 2040.

“Of course, there are constraints to realising Africa’s renewable energy capacity. However, one of the reasons for this is cost, Kaboub said, citing reports that claim the majority of new wind and solar projects are run for less than their fossil fuel counterparts.

Instead, he contends that “debt is the pressure point not to change tack”.

Almost 60 percent of countries in sub-Saharan Africa are in debt distress, according to the World Bank. “For oil producers on the continent, economic activity mainly consists of exporting fossil fuels to stay on top of debt repayments”, said Kaboub.

He suggested that, by providing oil and gas for other countries ‘ industrial processes, African governments are engaged in “economic entrapment”.

“Industrial growth requires economies of scale]cost savings derived from high levels of production]”, said Kaboub. It doesn’t need more siloed oil and gas projects because “Africa needs regional development plans that complement and distribute national resources across nations.”

In his view, development banks are failing to present a long-term economic vision for the continent. “And the green industrial revolution, where renewable energies power domestic manufacturing, could be that strategy”, he said.