Category World News

Torit, South Sudan – Solomon Oture was on the run.

As a rainmaker, his job was to summon rain – the lifeblood of his small farming community – through prayer and ritual.

But after consecutive years of drought, Oture’s relationship with his native village of Lohobohobo – a remote cluster of huts on the western side of South Sudan’s Lopit mountains – began to fray. Frustrated community leaders came demanding an explanation for his failures.

As anger rose, Oture, in his early 50s, feared for his safety. He fled, taking refuge at the home of his brother’s widow in another village, a four-hour walk away.

But his escape was short-lived.

Weeks later, in early October 2024, a group of young men from Lohobohobo arrived and made it clear Oture had no choice but to return with them.

The following morning, Oture was brought to face the community in the village square, a dirt clearing encircled by a rough-hewn wooden fence. When elders arrived to question him, the ruling generation of fighting-aged men – known as the Monyomiji – intervened. They announced that a decision had already been made.

According to one witness, Oture did not resist and moved calmly as he was led away from the square, out of the village, and down the mountain to a freshly dug hole in the earth.

When he reached its edge, Oture climbed down into the pit and was buried alive.

Rainmakers targeted

In South Sudan, where the climate crisis is ravaging livelihoods, massive floods and scorching droughts have uprooted families and fuelled one of the world’s worst hunger crises.

Amid the mounting desperation, people want answers and, occasionally, someone to blame. In some farming villages, long dependent on seasonal rains, these tensions have put rainmakers at risk.

Oture’s killing was first reported by local media and later confirmed to Al Jazeera by family members, government officials in the state capital, Torit, and residents of the village where he lived.

He is not the only rainmaker to have met a violent death.

At least five others have been buried alive in the Lopit mountains over the past four decades, according to community leaders and local media reports, including one man in a neighbouring village whose 2021 killing was confirmed to Al Jazeera by a family member. More are said to have been buried in nearby areas, as well as burned alive, beaten to death, or chased into exile. The true toll is not known.

When killings occur, community members are reluctant to speak out.

The reporting for this story set out to uncover what happened to Oture and why. In Lohobohobo, nearly a year after Oture’s death, his killing is a taboo subject, and details of what happened are difficult to obtain. Residents of the village where he lived most of his life and was ultimately killed were often afraid to discuss the events surrounding his death. Community members became visibly uncomfortable when Al Jazeera asked about rainmakers, and among those who were willing to speak, fear was palpable.

Those interviewed in Lohobohobo, Torit, and Juba, the nation’s capital, did not identify the alleged perpetrators by name but said they were members of the Monyomiji, who are responsible for enforcing customary laws and protecting the village.

According to Matthew Oromo, a former government official who investigated the incident, as well as several others with knowledge of Oture’s death, the Monyomiji had warned villagers not to speak publicly about the death. Those who defied this order risked being cast as traitors and exiled, he said.

The account of what happened to Oture stems from interviews with people who witnessed the events leading up to his killing, or who interviewed witnesses to the killing itself. Residents of Lohobohobo interviewed for this story have not been named to protect their identities.

Regional experts cautioned against broaching the subject of Oture’s killing with the alleged perpetrators, as it could provoke backlash against individuals suspected of speaking publicly about the incident.

Perilous work

Lohobohobo is a small village of several hundred households located in South Sudan’s Eastern Equatoria state, which borders Uganda to the south and Kenya to the southeast. Nestled within the Lopit mountains, the village is a verdant maze of stone-lined paths winding between thatch-roofed huts and small gardens. Despite the little they have, residents receive visitors with warmth, generously sharing their meals of locally harvested sorghum, meat, and wild greens.

In a region dependent on rain-fed agriculture, rainmakers have long been revered figures.

“Drought is the greatest scourge that can afflict the mountainous region of Southeastern [South] Sudan,” writes American social theorist Mark Anspach in the foreword of the 1992 book Kings of Disaster, a study of South Sudan’s rainmakers by the Dutch anthropologist Simon Simonse. “Since the rainmaker is thought to possess the power to cause or prevent drought, he is the most important king.”

The rainmaker performs rituals at the start of the agricultural season and is compensated with livestock, crops, and labour. They are often addressed by the honorific “Sultan”.

Rainmakers are believed to pass down their powers by lineage, with a single rainmaker from a family serving at any one time. The jurisdiction under a rainmaker’s responsibility is referred to by local leaders as a “raindom” and typically spans several villages. Multiple rainmakers can share a raindom.

Al Jazeera spoke to two rainmakers in the region where Oture lived, who are not being named to protect their identities.

Both have held their positions for at least a decade after inheriting the roles from family members and, in recent years, have withstood extreme dry spells in their communities.

One described the rituals of rainmaking – gathering sacred stones in their hands, spitting on them, and raising them towards the sky to invoke the rains. Sometimes they collect insects from the fields, place them on their altar, and cut them with a ceremonial spear.

Nevertheless, the rainmaker said, “It is not me, but God who brings the rain.”

Although the rainmaker became evasive when asked about tensions with the Monyomiji in their village, during times of drought, they acknowledged that they could face scrutiny. “That’s the only point when I can be scared,” they said.

“The Monyomiji can summon me and ask, ‘Why is there no rain, are you not working?’” they added. “They can be angry.”

Across South Sudan’s southern Equatoria region, rainmaking has long been perilous work.

“The rainmaker is destined to bear the brunt of collective resentment when times are bad,” writes Anspach in Kings of Disaster. “The rainmaker’s job is not just to make rain, but to absorb the community’s pain.”

According to the book, rainmakers have been lynched as far back as the 19th century. But with climate change, erratic rainfall patterns, and a fledgling state that struggles to project authority outside the capital, some fear these spiritual leaders face greater dangers than ever before.

“Of late, the rainmaking role has become very dangerous,” said Ranga Gworo, a South Sudanese researcher who began to study violence against spiritual leaders after a distant relative was accused of casting a spell to prevent rainfall and forced to flee their village. “The subject of rain is the most sensitive in our community because of its connection to livelihoods.”

Hunting to survive

One of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change, South Sudan emerged from a series of civil wars in 2018 largely unequipped to manage the devastating weather patterns afflicting much of East Africa.

Beginning in 2019, one year after a peace accord brought the war’s main belligerents into a unity government, a series of historic floods submerged thousands of kilometres of land and displaced millions from their homes. Meanwhile, erratic rainfall took its toll on farming communities across the southern Equatoria region, historically the country’s breadbasket.

Pietro*, a farmer in his late 20s, had spent most of his life in Lohobohobo until July 2022, when a devastating crop failure forced him to leave home in search of work.

“There was no rain,” he recalled, and his wife and two young children were going hungry.

Pietro and several friends walked 70km (43 miles) to Torit, before borrowing money for transport to Juba, about 140km (97 miles) away. There, he found work as a labourer, earning 40,000 South Sudanese pounds per week, roughly $50 at the time.

“It was not enough,” he said, recalling his wages. He ultimately returned to Lohobohobo last year to try his luck again at farming. “The situation has not changed much,” he lamented.

By 2023, a growing number of people began to leave their homes in rural Eastern Equatoria for neighbouring cities and refugee camps. Those left behind in villages like Lohobohobo foraged for wild fruits and hunted animals to survive, recalled Zakaria Akaba, a local chief.

In November that year, a group of United Nations-affiliated food security experts warned of “emergency levels” of hunger in the county encompassing Lohobohobo because of “prolonged dry spells that led to crop failure”. The UN’s World Food Programme scrambled to deliver emergency food rations to prevent starvation as thousands trekked for days to reach Juba.

“It was devastating,” said Akaba.

Fraying relationship amid dry spells

People who knew Oture described him as sociable and hardworking, though when he drank, his behaviour could become erratic, even violent, they said.

In 2009, while drunk, Oture threw a spear and impaled his wife, according to his eldest son, Owuor Solomon John, 19, who witnessed the attack as a child. She died in a hospital days later. In the village, her killing was brushed aside as a “domestic issue”, John said.

Oture inherited the role of rainmaker from his uncle in 2017, seven years before his death. His volatility continued during his tenure, community leaders in the region said, and in the lead-up to his killing, accusations against him swirled.

As retribution for personal slights against him, people alleged, Oture performed malicious rituals to keep the rain away. One man accused him of placing a curse by burying a baboon skull. Several others said Oture struck a child so hard that he drew blood.

As the drought worsened, Oture reportedly began to make gratuitous demands in return for his work. He would blame those whom he said had wronged him for the lack of rain and then demand compensation, like livestock, to fix the damage, according to several community members.

“The position of rainmaker has become like a business,” said Ambose Oyet, a community leader from Imehejek, the region that encompasses Lohobohobo. “He wanted people to respect him like God,” said Oromo, Imehejek’s former top official.

While Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify these accusations, the rumours illustrated Oture’s increasing alienation from his village.

By late 2024, Oture’s fraying relationship with the community collided with a third consecutive dry spell. As crops failed and hunger loomed, tensions between the rainmaker and the Monyomiji began to boil over.

‘Beyond our power’

In Lohobohobo, like other villages in the Lopit mountains, each new generation of Monyomiji, which takes power every 10 to 15 years, promises to protect the community against all manner of threats.

If the village is attacked, it is the Monyomiji who defend it; when cattle are raided, they pursue the culprits; and during outbreaks of disease, they carry the sick to receive treatment at distant health clinics. But perhaps the gravest threat faced in the drought-prone region is hunger.

The Monyomiji combat hunger by regulating agriculture, according to Luka Asayai, the 38-year-old leader of Lohobohobo’s Monyomiji. They decide which crops to grow, and when, and ensure that able-bodied people are not idle when they can be working in the fields. They also fundraise to buy food after poor harvests, and conduct community farming for elderly people and widows, Asayai said.

Oversight of rainmakers also falls to the Monyomiji, who are responsible for prompting, compensating, and holding these spiritual figures to account.

It was the Lohobohobo Monyomiji who buried Oture alive, alleged Oromo, the former government official, and Leone Oriho, the paramount chief of Imehejek, among others, with knowledge of the incident.

When asked about the relationship between the Monyomiji and rainmakers in general, Asayai acknowledged that sometimes dry spells “can create tension”, but offered no specifics on recent violence. He said during periods of drought, the community, through the rainmaker, “just goes and asks from God”.

In villages hours away from any police post, the Monyomiji enforce customary laws, summoning rule-breakers to account for their crimes, and occasionally doling out physical punishment. “The government is very far,” said Asayai. “They have their way and we have ours.”

Lohobohobo is essentially out of reach for government and law enforcement officials for long stretches of the year. The road from Torit is a rugged, unkempt dirt trail scarred by deep potholes and jagged rocks. Throughout much of the rainy season, it is all but impassable.

Police in Torit say they are often unable to follow up on crimes in remote villages, relying instead on local chiefs to act as extensions of state power. However, according to Oriho, the most senior chief in the Lopit mountain region, the Monyomiji are heavily armed and unaccountable even to their chiefs. “They have gone beyond our power,” he said.

With the state unable to stop them, local Monyomiji act as judge, jury, and executioner for rainmakers, say government officials.

One 43-year-old rainmaker named Lodovico Hobon Angelo was buried alive in the neighbouring village of Mura Lopit in 2021. Like Oture, he was killed during a severe dry spell and was accused of abusing his position for personal gain.

Oyet, a native of Mura Lopit, said local Monyomiji had attempted to bury Hobon a decade before his death, but that he intervened to stop them. Hobon is one of at least half a dozen rainmakers killed in the Lopit mountains in the last four decades, with more killed across Eastern Equatoria state.

Still, police say, no one has ever been arrested for any of these crimes. “It is our culture,” said Oriho. “The Monyomiji prevents the government from intervening in our culture.”

Several community leaders said rainmakers are buried, in part, to avoid individual culpability for the crime. “The community takes the whole responsibility by burying the person alive,” said one community member, who requested anonymity due to fear of reprisal for speaking about Oture’s murder. “And the government will say, ‘How can we arrest the whole community?’”

Warnings

Oromo, who was chief administrator of Imehejek until June, was in Torit in late 2024 when he heard about Oture’s killing from Oriho. The state governor dispatched Oromo to investigate.

A week later, he arrived in the village, but the Monyomiji refused to speak with him. “They were suspicious of me,” Oromo said. Some residents spoke with him in private, expressing regret about the killing, but he was unable to identify a culprit.

Stonewalled, Oromo returned to Torit. But he visited Lohobohobo again in June as part of a wider tour of the villages under his administration. He spoke to the community about the realities of climate change “as a global issue” and the importance of the rule of law, telling the Monyomiji “not to repeat what had happened [to Oture]”, and offering a vague warning that if they did, “the government will take a serious step”.

Though people in the village may have been angry with Oture, it is unclear how much popular support there was for his killing.

The community was warned not to report Oture’s murder to the police, multiple people told Al Jazeera.

Oromo said when he first visited Lohobohobo, some expressed regret, apologised for what the Monyomiji had done, and said they had been warned to keep quiet. Other acknowledgements of Oture’s death, like open mourning or holding a funeral, were banned, he said.

Oyet said anyone who held a funeral would be seen as “rebelling against the community”.

In Lohobohobo, some residents reshaped the details of Oture’s death, while others sidestepped mention of him entirely.

One person initially said Oture had killed himself, before conceding that he was buried alive when asked about local media reports.

Another resident, when asked about the punishment of rainmakers in Lohobohobo, said a rainmaker had recently been “chased away” from the village, never to return. When asked for the rainmaker’s name, the man, visibly uncomfortable, leaned in and whispered, “Solomon”.

‘Great pain’

Oture’s son, John, had been living abroad for a decade before he arrived in Juba in August 2024. When he was eight years old, Oture sent him to live in the Kakuma refugee camp, in northern Kenya, away from the war unfolding in South Sudan. The two had spoken on the phone only a handful of times since.

In November, John received a call from his cousin informing him of his father’s death. He hung up the phone angrily. Despite the complicated relationship John had with his father, the news “caused me great pain”, he said.

Nevertheless, he was circumspect when asked about the Monyomiji. “I don’t have any issues with them,” he said. “They had a problem with my father, not with me.”

He pondered the possibility of visiting Lohobohobo one day and smiled as he searched for his grandmother’s hut in the pictures of the village.

John said he hoped that mob justice would not be inflicted on a rainmaker again and that “this story will encourage generations to come not to do the same thing”.

Meanwhile, this year’s agricultural season has been only marginally better. Late rains caused widespread crop failures during the first planting season, which typically begins in March. By July, when the rains began in earnest, farmers had spent months planting and replanting crops that would not grow.

Pietro, the farmer, may again leave his family to search for work. “Because the situation is still bad, I may go back [to Juba],” he said. “We plant, and it fails.”

Climate conditions are likely to get worse. By 2060, the hottest month in the region is projected to increase by more than 7 degrees Celsius (12.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

“People are discouraged, and they are going away from here,” said Oromo. “There is no hope for the rain.”

TrumpRx, the new website that will let American citizens purchase prescription drugs from reputable pharmaceutical companies at reduced prices, was made public earlier this week by US President Donald Trump.

Pfizer, the first United States pharmaceutical group to sign up to the website, said it would offer discounts of up to 85 percent on the cost of its medicines for those not using health insurance policies to pay and for those on the government’s low-cost insurance programme, Medicaid. Additionally, Pfizer will lower the cost of its medications for the Medicaid program.

The announcement prompted shares in the pharmaceuticals sector to lift sharply this week, signalling a favourable response from markets and the pharmaceuticals industry.

What are the key details about the new service, how it will operate, and why it is being launched.

What is TrumpRx and when is it being launched?

In the first quarter of 2026, the new website will be launched. It is a platform from which consumers will be able to buy prescription medicines directly from pharmaceutical companies without going through insurance.

Customers will be directed to the drug’s manufacturer after searching for the prescription drug on the website.

They will have access to discounted prices much closer to those typically paid by national health services in foreign countries at what are known as “most favoured nation” prices.

The website will also be accessible to beneficiaries of Medicaid, the federal government’s insurance program for people with lower-income families.

“By taking this bold step, we’re ending the era of global price gouging at the expense of American families”, Trump told a news conference on Tuesday.

What are ‘ most favoured nation ‘ prices?

National health services in other countries, such as Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Denmark, pay US pharmaceutical companies for prescription drugs.

As these countries buy medicines in bulk, they have much greater purchasing power to demand lower prices than ordinary consumers. This results in pharmaceutical companies selling their products internationally at much lower prices than they do domestically.

The US cannot leverage this sort of purchasing power because it does not have a national health service, so the government cannot influence the price of drugs in the same way.

According to the Trump administration, this means that American pharmaceutical companies are artificially inflating prices while subscribing foreign health services. In May this year, therefore, he signed an executive order aimed at reducing prescription drug prices in the US, stating: “The United States will no longer subsidise the health care of foreign countries”.

Prices continue to fluctuate between countries when a country grants MFN status and commits to providing the recipient country with the same trade advantages it gives any other country with MFN status, but not always at the same low prices. However, it is understood that companies will be expected to offer drugs at their lowest selling price in any other country.

What other actions has Trump taken to reduce the cost of prescription drugs in the US?

The launch of the new website is just one part of Trump’s strategy to reduce prescription medicine prices in the US.

He instructed the CEOs of 17 pharmaceutical companies to lower their prices in a letter sent in July of this year.

In the letter, he laid out demands and promises:

• He demanded that all Medicaid patients receive MFN prices from manufacturers.
• He required manufacturers to stipulate that they will not offer other developed nations better prices for new drugs than prices offered in the United States.
• He promised to give manufacturers the ability to bypass middlemen and sell medicines to patients for prices that are competitive with those in developed nations.
• He promised to use trade policy to support manufacturers in raising prices internationally, provided that increased revenues abroad are reinvested directly into lowering prices for American patients and taxpayers.

The first of these promises is fulfilled by the new TrumpRx website.

To address the second promise, Trump has also announced new 100 percent tariffs on imported, branded pharmaceutical products. Companies that establish production facilities and operations in the US will not be subject to these conditions.

He cited the cost of prescription drugs as one of the reasons for levying these tariffs.

How much more expensive are prescriptions in the US than elsewhere?

According to a 2022 study commissioned by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, published on the US government website, standard insulin prices in the US are as much as 10 times higher than prices in 33 OECD countries.

The study found that average gross US prices were nearly nine times as high as those in France and the United Kingdom, nearly nine times as high as those in Italy, more than eight times as high as those in Japan, about seven times as high as German, and more than six times as high as those in Canada.

Many people who take insulin already pay a “net price”, which is lower than the standard price via rebates that the manufacturer agrees with insurance companies. However, according to the report, the net price is still typically 2.33 times what it was paid for other nations.

Who will benefit most from this platform?

Anyone who wants to use the platform to purchase prescription medications directly from pharmaceutical companies at a discount instead of purchasing them through insurance coverage.

A 2024 report from the US Census Bureau showed that about 8 percent of the US population (26 million people) did not have health insurance in 2023 – so these people may be able to benefit.

Lower prices are likely to benefit the Medicaid program because of its agreement with Pfizer’s more favorable terms. However, details of how this part of the deal will work have not been fully explained.

According to experts, the majority of Americans will not use the website because most of them currently use insurance to provide medical care.

Stacie B Dusetzina, professor of health policy at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, told Al Jazeera: “There are a small number of people who may be better off purchasing their medicine this way, but the majority of Americans won’t benefit from this type of model”.

However, she continued, “We can’t say for certain that the deal will save the public Medicaid program money without knowing more about how that deal is structured.”

Which drug companies will sell via the new website?

Trump claimed on Tuesday that Pfizer Pharma Group would be the first company to sign and promote the new website.

In return for direct access to consumers, the US pharmaceuticals major has agreed to lower the cost of its prescription drugs for those buying direct via the site (and not using insurance to pay), as well as those on the Medicaid programme. According to Trump, customers will pay prices that are closer to those in the “most favoured nation”.

In a news release, Pfizer said it had “voluntarily agreed to implement measures designed to ensure Americans receive comparable drug prices to those available in other developed countries” and said it will also price “newly launched medicines at parity with other key developed markets”.

The majority of the Company’s primary care treatments and some limited specialty brands will be discounted, the company said in a statement. The company said that this will be true for prices as high as 85 percent and, on average, 50 percent.

The White House and Pfizer gave some examples of primary-care Pfizer medicines which will be available on the TrumpRx website. This list is not exhaustive:

• Eucrisa, a topical ointment for atopic dermatitis, which will be made available at an 80 percent discount for patients purchasing directly.
• A 40% discount will be offered on Xeljanz, a popular oral arthritis medication.
• Zavzpret, a drug used to treat migraines, which will be sold at a 50 percent discount.
• Duavee, an alternative to menopause symptoms, will be available for about 85% off.
• Toviaz, a drug for for overactive bladder.
• Both autoimmune medications, Xeljanz and Abrilada, will be offered at significant discounts.

Some of these drugs will remain very expensive even with the discounts. For instance, Xeljanz, according to Pfizer’s website, costs roughly $6, 000 per month at the most basic price. A 40 percent discount brings this down to $3, 600 per month.

Americans who have health insurance currently can purchase the medication for up to $20 per month, which is frequently the lowest price paid by the terms of their insurance policy.

What else have Pfizer and Trump agreed to under this deal?

According to the company, Pfizer has agreed to lower drug prices generally in the US, keeping them level with those in other developed nations.

The group has also committed to spending $70bn on domestic manufacturing facilities, which will be dedicated to “US research, development and capital projects in the next few years”.

Trump’s tariffs on branded pharmaceuticals made abroad will be followed by the company for a three-year grace period.

“I think today we are turning the tide, and we are reversing an unfair situation”, Pfizer’s CEO Albert Bourla said at a news conference on Tuesday alongside Trump, referring to the difference in prices that people in the US pay for medicines compared with consumers overseas.

Will other drug manufacturers follow suit?

Trump said on Tuesday that other pharmaceutical companies are expected to sign up for the new website, but there have been no new official announcements so far.

According to Dusetzina, “It is obvious that the deal that Pfizer struck is a kind one for the industry.” “The companies that received letters requesting that they act are all likely to make agreements that I would expect to be similarly structured.

These businesses will want commitments so they can avoid any potential tariffs, if nothing else. That is worth a lot to them and to their shareholders. I believe it will still be difficult to tell whether the changes made have any measurable advantages for the typical American.

Overseas pharmaceutical companies may be able to sign up as well.

Swiss businesses, including Roche and Novartis, expressed interest in collaborating with the Trump administration to increase the cost of their medications for Americans.

Stephan Mumenthaler, director general of scienceindustries – which represents about 250 Swiss chemical and pharmaceutical companies – told the Reuters news agency on Wednesday that he expected” mini deals “to come from Swiss and global pharmaceutical companies in the coming days.

They are considering using similar schemes, he said, “How can you omit the margins that middlemen are taking away so that you basically have the same price as before, but the end user still receives a lower price?”

Meanwhile, on Monday, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) announced the launch of its own website AmericasMedicines.com, which will enable consumers to directly buy drugs from manufacturers as well.

We need policymakers to protect innovation, fix the dysfunctional insurance system that burdens patients with high out-of-pocket expenses, and ensure foreign governments pay their fair share, according to Stephen J. Ubl, president and CEO of PhRMA, in a press release.

How have markets reacted?

On Tuesday, Pfizer’s share price increased 7% in the US and 8% more than that on the UK stock exchange.

As the region marked the fourth day of a complete shutdown on Thursday, with at least 15 people dead, including three police officers, in violent clashes between protesters and security forces, an unsettling calm hangs over Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Dozens more have been injured on both sides as the standoff continues.

The federal government has dispatched a negotiating committee that arrived on Thursday in Muzaffarabad, the territory’s capital, to hold crucial talks with the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), an umbrella organisation representing traders and civil society groups that has emerged as the voice of grassroots discontent across the region.

The JAAC-organized lockdown, which was led by activist Shaukat Nawaz Mir, slowed the progress of several districts of Pakistan-administered Kashmir’s (AJK) region.

Residents have been disconnected from mobile telecommunications and internet access since September 28 due to the government’s meanwhile imposed a complete&nbsp communications blackout.

In Muzaffarabad, the usually bustling markets have remained shuttered, while street vendors and public transport have vanished from the roads. The region’s roughly four million residents are uncertain because of the paralysis.

Authorities said in a statement that they were working to restore order, and that they were urging the public to refrain from being influenced by what officials described as “fake news” and propaganda being made available on social media as part of a “special agenda”

This JAAC-led protest – the third such major mobilisation in the past two years – erupted after the government failed to agree to the committee’s 38-point demands, according to the group’s leaders.

The local government of Pakistan-administered Kashmir and a grassroots movement that has repeatedly demonstrated its street power have engaged in an ongoing conflict for two years.

What caused the protests to begin?

The Kashmir valley is the picturesque yet deeply contentious Himalayan region over which Pakistan and India have fought multiple wars since both nations gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947. Both have control over the region, and China also has two slivers of the north. India claims all of Kashmir, with the exception of parts held by China, its allies, while Pakistan claims all of Kashmir.

With a population exceeding four million, according to the 2017 census, Pakistan-administered Kashmir operates under a semi-autonomous system with its own prime minister and legislative assembly.

The current unrest began in May 2023 when people first took to the streets to protest what they perceived as rising electricity bills. In addition, complaints about widespread flour smuggling and acute shortages of subordinated wheat supplies also surfaced.

By August 2023, these disparate grievances had coalesced into organised resistance. In Muzaffarabad, hundreds of activists gathered in September that year to formally form the JAAC, bringing together representatives from all regional districts.

In May 2024, protesters marched long distance towards Muzaffarabad, which was the movement’s first significant turning point. Violent clashes ensued, resulting in the deaths of at least five people, including a police officer.

The government awarded billions of rupees in subsidies to help lower electricity prices and lower flour prices, but only after Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif agreed to significant demands.

However, the peace was temporary. In August of this year, the JAAC announced it would launch another lockdown, this time broadening its critique beyond economic grievances.

What are the demands of protesters, and why are they unhappy?

The latest charter of demands presented by the JAAC consists of 38 distinct points. The demands range from changing the provincial legislature’s structure to launching major infrastructure projects, providing free education and healthcare, and introducing major infrastructure projects.

However, the abolition of what the JAAC refers to as “ruling elite privileges,” a demand that has also been prominent in other grievances, is at the top of the list.

The JAAC maintains that following the May 2024 protests, the government acknowledged that a judicial commission would be formed to review “privileges granted to high government officials”.

Two government-provided vehicles, personal staff, including bodyguards, as well as unlimited fuel for vehicles they use for government work are some of the benefits offered to senior government officials, such as ministers.

The elimination of the system of 12 reserved seats for refugees in the autonomous region’s legislative assembly is a second important demand that was first included on the JAAC’s list.

According to the JAAC, refugees and their descendants, who migrated from Indian-administered Kashmir after the 1947 partition, now constitute a powerful political bloc that has monopolised development funds.

Additionally, the charter calls for the end of all legal action brought against activists during the 2023 and 2024 protests.

Additionally, among other things, there are demands for tax exemptions and better employment opportunities.

Infrastructure development features prominently in the JAAC’s vision. Apart from an international airport, the committee has demanded new projects, including tunnels and bridges connecting the mountainous region to the rest of Pakistan.

An airport in Muzaffarabad has been operating for years and is still operational. However, in April of this year, Prime Minister Sharif formed a committee to work on reviving the project. Additionally, he gave orders to look into the viability of adding a second airport to Mirpur, the second-largest city in the area.

What is the government’s response?

The local administration has implemented a communications blackout and has ordered educational institutions shut indefinitely.

More contentious, it has demanded additional police forces from Pakistan’s rest of the country as well as paramilitary forces.

The deployment of paramilitary forces has been opposed by the JAAC. Mir, the JAAC leader, told reporters earlier this week that with local police already present, “there was no need to order paramilitary from mainland Pakistan”.

While there had already been a first round of negotiations, a new committee had just arrived in Muzaffarabad tasked with addressing the protesters’ grievances, according to Abdul Majid Khan, the finance minister of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

We agreed on those when they started their protest last year, which was initially all about electricity and the cost of flour. But they also must understand that things cannot happen overnight, and they take time”, Khan said, defending the government.

Khan acknowledged, however, that negotiations have broken down due to the government’s agreement to most of the JAAC’s 38 points, including the elimination of the 12 reserved seats for refugees and the elimination of “ruling elite perks.”

The minister challenged the logic behind eliminating seats reserved for refugees, pointing to what they lost at the time of the subcontinent’s partition.

These people, who had left their wealth behind and immigrated from India to Pakistan, are now living in excruciating poverty, but JAAC believes it unfair to grant them a seat quota. Why did these people even go to the trouble of moving here if we don’t grant them the rights? Khan argued.

The minister is one of the estimated 2.7 million people in the area who immigrated from Kashmir that is administered by India.

Given that the JAAC’s earlier demands had been met, Khan also questioned the justification for new protests. He said that for many of the current issues, local authorities must seek funding from the federal government in Islamabad.

With already lower electricity tariffs, the population here barely pays any taxes. Additionally, he noted that the region has less than 5, 000 tax filers, which indicates that the government isn’t making much money.

What happens next?

The next round of negotiations is scheduled for Friday, with the government representatives and JAAC members holding talks after they were resolved on Thursday.

Both parties publicly declare their intention to engage in dialogue, but distrust is persisted on by repeated shuffles of promises and disappointments.

Despite the JAAC’s persistent protests, the government maintains it has met most demands and that constitutional and electoral reforms require legislative processes that cannot happen overnight.

Khan stated that the government would act quickly to restore internet and mobile services, which he said “had been curtailed due to the situation on the ground,” once significant progress was made in the negotiations.

One yacht continues to sail toward the Palestinian enclave despite the Israeli military’s extensive destruction of a humanitarian flotilla trying to break its siege on Gaza.

The last vessel left in service of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which was once a 44-strong fleet, was the Polish-flagged Marinette, which is reportedly home to a crew of six.

The Australian captain, who only identified himself as Cameron, explained that the boat had engine problems at the start of the video call with the flotilla organizers late on Thursday and was thus lagging behind the main group. Cameron continued, adding that the ship is currently “steaming” toward Gaza.

He said, “We have a bunch of very tough Turks on board; we have a woman from Oman and myself on board,” and we will just keep going in that direction.

The yacht’s crew is steered by the sun as it rises behind them in Mediterranean Sea international waters, as captured in a live video feed from the yacht’s 04:00 GMT live stream.

The ship is 43 nautical miles (approximately 80 kilometers) from Gaza’s territorial waters, according to a live geo tracker.

The Marinette was previously informed by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs that “its attempt to enter and breach the blockade will also be avoided.”

42 boats were intercepted without permission.

Their passengers were unlawfully taken.

The world witnessed what occurs when a siege is challenged by civilians.

Marinette continues to sail.

She is aware of the fate of her water sisters.

She is aware of what lies ahead. And sh… https://t.co/XAtq1RHLyK

About 500 activists from more than 40 nations have been detained and dozens of boats carrying humanitarian supplies to Gaza have been stopped by Israel’s naval forces since Wednesday.

Israel had previously accused the volunteers of trying to “breach a lawful naval blockade,” which violated international law, and promised to take whatever steps to stop them.

Before transferring each boat to Israel, where the crew will be deported, the Israeli navy intercepted each and held them captive. Among those detained are prominent figures like activist Greta Thunberg, former mayor of Barcelona Ada Colau, and Member of the European Parliament Rima Hassan.

The flotilla has attracted international attention as the navy’s largest naval aid mission to date in an effort to deliver supplies to the Palestinian enclave, and protests have erupted all over the world following its seizure.

International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), which represents more than 16.5 million transport workers worldwide, stated in an interview that “attacking or seizing nonviolent, humanitarian vessels in international waters” is against international law.

“States are unable to pick and choose when to uphold international law.” He argued that the seas must not be used as a staging area for war.

In response to Israel’s actions, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced that his country would expelling Israeli diplomats and cancelling Colombia’s free trade agreement.

Germany, France, Spain, Greece, and Ireland are just a few examples of European countries calling on Israel to respect the rights of the crew members it has seized.

Israel’s actions are not yet being commented upon by the UN, but Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur for Palestine, has called the interceptions “illegal abductions.”