Category World News

In a report released on Friday, the UN’s Human Rights Office (OHCHR) reported that as the war approached its two-year anniversary, civilian deaths and ethnic violence, increased significantly. According to reports, paramilitaries carried out several fatalities in an attack on a mosque in Darfur on the same day.

According to the report, more civilian deaths have occurred across Sudan, with 3, 384 of those deaths occurring in the first six months of the year, or 80 percent of the 4, 238 civilian deaths that have occurred throughout the entire year until 2024.

OHCHR chief Volker Turk said in a statement that “Sudan’s conflict is a forgotten one, and I hope that my office’s report brings the attention to this disastrous situation where atrocity crimes, including war crimes, are being committed.

According to the UNHumanRights report, the #Sudan crisis worsens as a result of rising civilian casualties and worsening ethnic violence.

States must confront the depressing reality of the wider protection crisis and use their influence to put an end to this conflict.

More pictures . . . twitter.com/c7OOcLUgdH

The report noted that “a number of trends continued to permeate the first half of 2025, including a continued pattern of sexual violence, indiscriminate attacks, and the widespread use of retaliatory violence against civilians, particularly on an ethnic basis, against those accused of “collaboration” with opposing parties.

The use of drones is among recent trends, including those involving attacks on civilian targets and those in Sudan’s north and east, which have so far been largely spared by the conflict, it said.

According to Turk, “the growing ethnicization of the conflict, which builds on existing inequalities and discrimination, poses serious risks for country’s long-term stability and social cohesion.”

Without urgent action to protect civilians and without the swift and unrestrained delivery of humanitarian aid, “Many more lives will be lost.”

Sudan has been the site of a brutal conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since April 2023.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and displaced by the conflict. It is considered to be one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, with southern Sudan and parts of Darfur frequently experiencing famine.

The army is in effect dividing the country, with the RSF dominating the south and nearly the entire western Darfur region, while the army is in charge of the north, east, and center.

The United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates have so far failed in their efforts to broker a ceasefire between the conflicting parties.

In a social media post, the Sudan Doctors’ Network NGO reported that the RSF had killed 43 civilians in a drone strike on a mosque in the beleaguered city of El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur.

The attack, which showed the group’s “blatant disregard for humanitarian and religious values and international law,” was described as a “heinous crime” against unarmed civilians by the NGO.

A video was posted by the Resistance Committees in El-Fasher, a group made up of local residents from the community who track abuses, that reportedly showed parts of the mosque being reduced to rubble with several bodies scattered on the site, which is now replete with debris.

The RSF targeted a number of unarmed civilians, including women and older people, in city displacement shelters, according to a report released on Thursday.

Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate of Palestinian Columbia University, fled Syria’s civil war and was detained in the United States for more than 100 days after speaking out against Israel’s genocide in Gaza. He claims that the arrest was made to stifle opposition and intimidate opponents.

What does Khalil’s story reveal about the dangers faced by those who speak out for Palestinian rights in the US and how dissent is suppressed there?

Marc Lamont Hill speaks with Mahmoud Khalil this week on UpFront.

Trump receives essentially a media empire that will be run by Trump-friendly allies, according to Trump.

On Friday, a member of the committee that reviews textbooks gave an update on the ban to BBC Afghan. An educational decree that also forbids education courses that are “deemed in conflict with Islamic Sharia” also includes the blacklisting.

The committee member claimed that “all books written by women are not permitted to be taught.”

He continued, noting that at least 679 titles had been banned for their “anti-Sharia and Taliban policies.”

The subjects covered by the books include texts on human rights, Western political theory, Islamic political movements, and texts on constitutional law.

Later, universities will receive a final list of the books that are prohibited.

The deputy higher education minister of the Taliban, Ziaur Rahman Aryoubi, signed a directive that was seen by BBC Afghan, and Afghan universities received a 50-page list of prohibited books at the end of last month.

Aryoubi advised universities in a letter to the universities that a panel of “religious scholars and experts” had made the recommendations, and that banned books should be replaced with course materials that “do not conflict with Islam.”

The Taliban’s latest string of restrictions was announced with the decree four years after taking office.

The Taliban has retaliated in numerous ways in the field of education, starting with the firing of hundreds of professors because they “opposed” the organization’s ideology, and requiring religious coursework at all universities.

Particularly affected are women. After the sixth grade (12 years old), they are no longer permitted to study.

Additionally, the university has been ordered to halt the instruction of 18 subjects, six of which include gender and development. Another 201 course was being reviewed.

Misogynistic outlook

Former deputy justice minister of justice before the Taliban’s return in August 2021, Zakia Adeli, the author of the banned books Political Terminology and International Relations, told BBC Afghan that she was shocked by the decision.

It was not unreasonable to expect the Taliban to change the curriculum, Adeli said, “Considering what they have done over the past four years.”

It is only natural that when women are denied the opportunity to study because of the Taliban’s misogynistic mindset and policies, their opinions, ideas, and writings are also suppressed.

The ban on such a large number of textbooks, according to sources in the capital’s Kabul, will sever significant resources from universities’ efforts to find and purchase replacement textbooks.

A further 300 written by Iranian authors or distributed by Iranian publishers are the targets, besides the 300 women-authored books.

This was intended to “prevent the infiltration of Iranian content,” according to sources, including a member of the book review committee.