Category World News

Over the last two months in Darfur, Sudan, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have committed horrifying atrocities in the city of el-Fasher. There, they have fired on and killed civilians already shattered by more than 500 days of siege; people already so starved they have been forced to eat animal feed.

People who have managed to escape – often walking to the town of Tawila, 60km (37 miles) southwest of el-Fasher – are deeply traumatised. The killings have been indiscriminate and ethnically targeted, according to testimonies of survivors that Médecins Sans Frontières  (Doctors Without Borders – MSF) teams treat in Tawila. Women report harrowing testimonies of rape. Children have arrived, terrified, in the arms of strangers, having been orphaned in el-Fasher.

People have been massacred, tortured, and summarily executed. Many remain stranded or unaccounted for as the violence that has swept through the city continues unchecked; several thousand people remain detained, held for ransom.

My Sudanese colleagues are treating patients as they await news of their relatives. Most of my colleagues in Tawila have family members, friends, or colleagues whom the RSF killed in el-Fasher.

While the scenes unfolding across Darfur are shocking and outrageous, we should not be surprised. For months, Sudanese people and many observers, including MSF, have been warning that this massacre would be the inevitable result of the RSF takeover of el-Fasher.

That is because we had seen it before. At the onset of the war in 2023, at least 15,000 people, mainly belonging to the Masalit and other non-Arab communities, were killed as the RSF took West Darfur’s capital, el-Geneina. Displaced and injured people treated by MSF in Chad reported being attacked because of their tribe or ethnicity and were told to “leave this country or die”. An MSF retrospective mortality survey showed rates 20 times higher in the months following April 2023, compared with pre-war figures. Nearly one man in 20 aged between 15 and 44 was reported missing during this period. El-Geneina is now virtually empty of Masalit people.

The Zamzam camp, on the outskirts of el-Fasher, was once the country’s largest displacement camp. The carnage that occurred there when the RSF launched a large-scale assault in April was not a wake-up call either. Well before those massacres, our teams in Zamzam had repeatedly warned of the scale of malnutrition and called for a massive humanitarian response – to no avail.

Even when a state of famine was declared in the camp in August 2024, MSF trucks carrying food supplies were stuck for months in North Darfur; the RSF ordered them to go anywhere but near el-Fasher. Later, the displaced and besieged communities were regularly hit by shelling, forcing MSF to leave the camp in February 2025.

Far from being the actions of rogue RSF commanders, the mass atrocities culminating in el-Fasher have been part of a deliberate campaign to starve, forcibly displace, and kill civilians, often along ethnic lines.

The RSF, which, according to reports by international organisations and media outlets, is supported by the United Arab Emirates, bears responsibility for the crimes it has committed in el-Fasher. It must immediately halt mass atrocities and ethnically targeted killings and provide a safe passage to survivors.

Warring parties must uphold the obligations they have under international humanitarian law, but also those under basic humanity. Both parties must grant immediate humanitarian access to people in need, regardless of who controls the territory.

But that this tragedy was so predictable underscores how shared and collective the overall failure to protect civilians is.

The death and destruction are being enabled by too many governments choosing not to use their influence to try to pressure the warring parties to stop killing people or blocking humanitarian aid. Choosing to issue passive statements of concern, while they and their allies provide financial and political support, and the weapons that destroy, maim, and kill.

More than 20 years ago, when similar extreme violence was committed, the world mobilised for Darfur. The International Criminal Court charged former President Omar al-Bashir with crimes against humanity and genocide for the atrocities committed by his army and and the Janjaweed militias, which later were reorganised into the RSF.

Today, as other crimes are committed against the same ethnic groups, world leaders cannot look away. Countries that have influence with the warring parties, including the United States, the UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, known as the Quad, must act to prevent further atrocities.

As the dust settles on the horrors of el-Fasher, we must refuse to move towards a “new normal” of accepting such atrocities. We need political commitment, sustained humanitarian mobilisation based on an impartial evaluation of the situation, and accountability. Last month, the UN Human Rights Council tasked the independent fact-finding mission for Sudan to investigate crimes committed in el-Fasher – a process which we call on all states and parties to support.

We need to do more for people whose lives are still in danger in el-Fasher and the surrounding towns. And we need to make sure that the cycle of violence and ethnic cleansing finally comes to an end in Darfur.

The conflict dynamics under way seem to indicate that the excruciating plight of el-Fasher may not be the end of horrific violence, but rather a milestone in a catastrophic war that keeps crushing civilian lives, notably at this moment in the Kordofan region. We fear that more civilian victims and other scenes of atrocities will unfold.

After al-Assad’s fall, a lawyer uncovers files from a notorious prison that reveals the fate of Syria’s disappeared.

United States President Donald Trump’s administration claims Europe is facing “civilisational erasure” due to mass migration, a narrative often used by far-right parties to drum up support during elections on the continent.

In a 33-page “national security strategy” document released late on Thursday, the Trump administration accused the European Union (EU) of “undermining political liberty and sovereignty” and insisted on the need for US “preeminence” in the Western Hemisphere.

Here’s what we know:

Does the Trump administration’s ‘strategy’ align with Europe’s far right?

One section of the NSS document called “Promoting European Greatness” highlights the continent’s decreasing share in the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) but goes on to claim that the continent’s economic decline is “eclipsed by the real and more stark prospect of civilisational erasure”.

The document states that Europe’s migration policies “are transforming the continent and creating strife” which includes the “censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition, cratering birthrates, and loss of national identities and self-confidence”.

Some European politicians are claiming that this message aligns strongly with European far-right claims. Far-right groups in Europe such as the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Vox in Spain, Front Populaire in France and Lega Nord in Italy, among others, have built their electoral campaigns on anti-immigrant and xenophobic narratives.

On Friday last week, Carl Bildt, Sweden’s former prime minister, wrote in a post on X that “in saying that Europe faces ‘civilizational erasure’ the Trump new security strategy places itself to the right of the extreme right in Europe”.

In saying that Europe faces ”civilizational erasure” the Trump 🇺🇸 new security strategy places itself to the right of the extreme right in Europe. Its language that one otherwise only finds coming out of some bizarre minds of the Kremlin 🇷🇺. pic.twitter.com/29vytDp6Hm

Gerard Araud, former French ambassador to the US, also wrote on X that “the stunning section devoted to Europe reads like a far-right pamphlet. It largely confirms this perception.”

Les États Unis viennent de publier une Revue de Stratégie Nationale dont je conseille la lecture. L’ahurissante partie consacrée à l’Europe se lit comme un pamphlet d’extrême droite. Elle confirme largement cette perception. https://t.co/6Iig27QJZv

Mark Sedgwick, a professor of Arab and Islamic Studies at Aarhus University in Denmark, told US broadcaster NBC that the language of the Trump administration’s national security strategy also fits with the language used by supporters of the “great replacement” conspiracy theory.

That conspiracy theory was first introduced by French author Renaud Camus in his book Le Grand Remplacement in 2011, and claimed that “elites” in France were trying to replace the White European population by encouraging immigration from Muslim-majority countries.

Since then, it has been used by far-right groups in the West, including the US, to campaign against mass immigration.

Elsewhere, the Trump administration document suggests that “Western Europe is no longer a top priority for the US,” according to Gregoire Roos, director of the Europe and Russia and Eurasia Programmes at Chatham House.

What this means is that the Trump administration now “looks [more] favourably on central and Eastern Europe, where there are closer political proximities”, Roos told Al Jazeera.

“While they don’t agree on everything, countries such as Slovakia and Hungary share views [with the US] on EU bureaucracy, non-European migration as a threat to identity, and greater caution when it comes to siding with Ukraine in its war against Russia,” he added.

Why is Trump aligning with Europe’s far right?

Washington’s relations with European far-right leaders have certainly improved since Trump returned to office in January.

Late on Thursday, through the NSS, the Trump administration called on Washington to take a role in “cultivating resistance” within Europe and encouraged “its political allies in Europe to promote this revival of spirit”.

“We want Europe to remain European, to regain its civilisational self-confidence, and to abandon its failed focus on regulatory suffocation,” the Trump administration added.

According to a December 5 report by The Associated Press news agency, Markus Frohnmaier, a member of Germany’s AfD, said Trump’s NSS is “a foreign policy reality check for Europe and particularly for Germany”.

But Roberto Forin, acting director of the Geneva-based Mixed Migration Centre (MMC), told Al Jazeera that the Trump administration’s NSS doctrine is an “unapologetic defence of whiteness”, and called it a “suprematist’s discourse”.

“The objective of the current administration is to divide Europe, and polarise the continent by weaponising migration,” he said.

“It is another example of how the new US administration is leading the race when it comes to not only migration issues, but rather multiculturalism,” he added.

On December 4, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told reporters in Berlin that Europe is able to deal with its issues without foreign interference. He said that while Washington remains an important security partner in Europe, the alliance is “focused on addressing security policy issues” and not topics such as the continent’s freedom of speech and expression.

“We see ourselves as being able to discuss and debate these matters entirely on our own in the future, and do not need outside advice,” he said.

What else has Washington’s NSS said about Europe?

Amid Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, the NSS document targeted European officials’ “unrealistic expectations” for ending the conflict, stating that the US has a “core interest” in doing so.

According to the Reuters news agency, Pentagon officials told diplomats in Washington this week that the US was not yet satisfied with Europe’s defence spending amid Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine and said the US may stop participating in NATO by 2027 if European countries do not increase their investment.

The NSS stated that Washington would prioritise “enabling Europe to stand on its own feet and operate as a group of aligned sovereign nations, including by taking primary responsibility for its own defence, without being dominated by any adversarial power”.

European countries, including Germany, France and the UK, have announced they will increase their defence spending and investments in military amid Russia’s war in Ukraine. At the NATO Summit in June, members of the alliance pledged to allocate up to 5 percent of their national GDP to defence and related sectors by 2035.

But on December 3, a US official told Politico that US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau told a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels that the EU should focus on “turning its defence commitments into capabilities” and highlighted that “protectionist and exclusionary policies that bully American companies out of the market” should be avoided since it “undermines” NATO’s “collective defence”.

Will this bolster Europe’s far right?

Ian Lesser, a fellow and head of The German Marshall Fund of the US (GMF)’s Brussels office, said in a report that EU and NATO observers are likely to view the NSS as “confirmation of established concerns about the direction and style of American policy”.

But he warned that it also “points to European cultural and demographic decline in ways likely to reinforce the views of hard-right elements in Europe”.

As Syrians mark one year since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, people across Damascus say they’re celebrating a long-awaited sense of freedom, safety, and national renewal after decades of oppression and years of war.

Syrians are marking the first anniversary of the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, as the fractured nation struggles to overcome sectarianism and rebuild its economy following 14 years of civil war.

The 53-year-long rule of the al-Assad family ended on December 8, 2024, after a lightning 11-day offensive that took Syria and the world by surprise.

The toppling of al-Assad also ended a long civil war that left lasting scars on the country and saw some 6.8 million Syrians – about one-third of the population – flee abroad.

While Syria has, since then, seen the lifting of crippling economic sanctions and the formal restoration of diplomatic relations with other countries, it also faces great political uncertainty as it grapples with bouts of sectarian violence and protracted Israeli aggression.

More than one million Syrian refugees have already returned home, while millions more among the diaspora weigh the decision to do the same and rebuild their lives in their homeland.

Here is a look at what has happened over the past year:

December 8, 2024: Rebels led by Ahmed al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group capture Damascus during a rapid march to the capital following a lightning advance across the country. They announce that the “tyrant al-Assad has been toppled” and that all prisoners have been freed from the notorious Sednaya prison facility in Damascus.

Russian news agencies report that al-Assad and his family have arrived in Russia after being granted asylum by Russian authorities.

December 10, 2024: Syrians set fire to the grave of Hafez al-Assad, whose iron-fisted rule began in 1971 and ended in 2000, when his son, Bashar, succeeded him following his death.

December 13, 2024: Tens of thousands of Syrians converge on the landmark Umayyad Mosque in the capital, Damascus, to celebrate the removal of al-Assad. In a speech, al-Sharaa – previously known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani – pledges to resist sectarianism and, instead, form an inclusive government.

HTS, which was affiliated with al-Qaeda before breaking ties in 2016, is designated “a terrorist organisation” by many Western governments, which now face the challenge of determining their approach towards it as part of Syria’s new interim government.

December 16, 2024: In his first public remarks since being deposed, al-Assad defends his rule and denies planning his departure as armed opposition fighters – whom he describes as “terrorists” – closed in on Damascus.

December 17, 2024: Mass graves containing the remains of thousands of people believed to be victims of al-Assad’s rule begin to be uncovered outside Syria’s capital, Damascus. The new interim government promises to hold those responsible for atrocities under al-Assad to account.

December 25, 2024: Syrian armed factions agree to disband and come together to form a national army under the new Ministry of Defence.

December 26, 2024: Fourteen members of the Syrian police are killed in an “ambush” by forces loyal to al-Assad in Tartous governorate, and 10 are wounded. Interior Minister Mohammed Abdul Rahman says the government will crack down on “anyone who dares to undermine Syria’s security or endanger the lives of its citizens”.

January 3: The French and German foreign ministers meet Syria’s new de facto rulers in Damascus, marking the first trip by top European officials to the country since al-Assad’s fall.

January 15: Volker Turk meets al-Sharaa, becoming the first United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Syria. He meets with officials and victims of the al-Assad regime, and visits the notorious Sednaya prison.

January 29: Syria’s de facto leader, al-Sharaa, is named president for a transitional period and authorised to form a temporary legislative council for the transitional phase.

January 30: Syria’s former governing party, the Baath, is dissolved in a highly symbolic move.

February 2: Al-Sharaa arrives in Saudi Arabia to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) on his first foreign trip since being named president of the transitional government.

March 6-12: Fighters loyal to al-Assad attack security forces in several places in Latakia and Tartous governorates, which are home to the Alawite minority sect to which the al-Assad family belongs. The violence kills hundreds of people, including many civilians, presenting the most serious challenge yet to the new government’s authority.

March 10: The Syrian interim government says it has reached an agreement with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to integrate the latter with state institutions. It stipulates that “all civil and military institutions in northeastern Syria” are to be merged “into the administration of the Syrian state”.

March 13: Al-Sharaa signs a temporary constitution, which will remain in force for a five-year transitional period.

March 17: Western powers and regional neighbours pledge more than $6bn in a post-al-Assad donor drive for Syria.

March 30: Al-Sharaa unveils the new transitional government, which comprises 23 ministers from diverse backgrounds, including Yarub Badr, an Alawite, who is named transport minister.

April 3: Syria’s president accuses Israel of attempting to destabilise the country following a double attack on airbases and a deadly ground incursion, which marks an intensification of Israeli military activity against Syria.

April 29: Clashes in a town largely populated by the Druze minority near the capital, Damascus, kill 13 people.

May 7: French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes al-Sharaa to Paris during his first trip to Europe since taking office.

May 13: United States President Donald Trump announces that he will lift all sanctions on Syria, declaring that it is time for the country to “move forward”.

May 14: Trump meets al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia and describes him as Syria’s “attractive, tough” president. This encounter is the first to take place between the two nations’ leaders in 25 years.

May 20: The European Union lifts economic sanctions on Syria in a bid to aid the war-torn country’s recovery.

May 22: A blast in the al-Safa desert region of Suwayda province reportedly wounds seven Syrian soldiers.

May 30: ISIL (ISIS) claims the May 22 attack as the first of its assault on the new Syrian government.

June 23: A suicide attack on the Mar Elias Church in Damascus shakes Syria – particularly the country’s Christian community – and raises questions about the ability of the new Syrian government to manage security in the country and protect its citizens, including those from minority groups.

July 13-18: Sectarian violence between Druze and Bedouin tribe members sweeps through Syria’s southern Suwayda province. Tens of thousands are displaced from both communities during a week of bloodshed that kills more than 250 people and displaces more than 160,000, according to UN figures.

July 16: Israel launches an air attack on Suwayda as it pledges to protect the Druze from government forces. Syria condemns Israel’s intervention as a violation of international law. Israel also strikes the headquarters of the Syrian Defence Ministry and close to the presidential palace in Damascus.

August 4: The Kurdish-led SDF claims armed factions associated with the country’s security forces have attacked some of its positions in the northern province of Aleppo, amid efforts by Syria’s fledgling government to unify the nation.

August 27: Israeli forces conduct a series of strikes on a former army barracks in Kiswa, southwest of the Syrian capital of Damascus.

September 16: Syria, Jordan and the US announce plans to restore security in Suwayda, which includes proposals to launch an internal reconciliation process.

September 22: Al-Sharaa becomes the first Syrian head of state to attend a session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in almost six decades.

September 24: The UN reports that one million Syrian refugees have returned to their country since al-Assad’s fall.

October 6: Syria publishes the results of its first parliamentary election since al-Assad was toppled. Critics say the vote favoured well-connected figures and is likely to keep power concentrated in the hands of Syria’s new rulers.

October 7: The Syrian army and the SDF call a truce in two areas of Aleppo city after a member of the Syrian security forces is killed in an SDF attack on a checkpoint in the city.

October 15: Al-Sharaa meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow during his first state visit to the country, which has been hosting al-Assad since his exile from Syria. He says his government will honour all past agreements with Moscow, a key ally of al-Assad, and “restore and redefine ties”.

November 6: The UN Security Council (UNSC) votes to remove sanctions on al-Sharaa and his interior minister, Anas Khattab, following a resolution championed by the US. The next day, Washington removes al-Sharaa from a “terrorist” sanctions list.

November 10: Trump holds talks with al-Sharaa at the White House, as the Department of the Treasury announces suspending sanctions against Damascus for a further six months.

November 18: Syria launches the trial of the first of hundreds of suspects charged over their roles in deadly clashes, which killed hundreds in the country’s coastal provinces in March. Seven of the defendants in the court are al-Assad loyalists, while the other seven are members of the new government’s security forces.

December 2: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says a non-aggression pact between Israel and Syria is achievable, but outlines expectations that Syrian authorities establish a demilitarised buffer zone stretching from Damascus to Jabal al-Sheikh, which Israel currently occupies.

December 4: A UNSC delegation arrives in Syria for its first-ever trip to the country, before the first celebration of al-Assad’s fall.

December 5: Thousands of people pour into the streets of Syria’s central city of Hama to mark one year since the longtime ruler’s fall.