South Sudan government forces, allies killed hundreds of civilians -UN

File photo shows rebel fighters hold up their rifles as they walk in front of a bushfire in a rebel-controlled territory in Upper Nile State, South Sudan February 13, 2014. (Reuters)
Updated 10 July 2018
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South Sudan government forces, allies killed hundreds of civilians -UN

  • Brutality and ruthlessness suggest 'scorched earth' approach
  • UN documents killings, rapes, abductions in army campaign

GENEVA: At least 232 civilians were killed and 120 women and girls raped in “scorched earth” attacks by South Sudan government troops and aligned forces in opposition-held villages earlier this year, the UN human rights office said on Tuesday.
A United Nations investigation identified three commanders suspected of bearing the “greatest responsibility” in the violence in Unity state between April 16 and May 24 that may amount to war crimes, it said in a report.
Elderly and disabled civilians were burned alive in the attack on 40 villages, which appeared aimed at driving out opposition forces, it said. A further 132 women and girls were abducted in the assault that forced 31,140 people to flee.
“The perpetrators ...must not be allowed to get away with it,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein in a statement.
Reiterating his call on the government and African Union to establish a hybrid court for South Sudan, he said the soldiers and aligned forces slit elderly villagers’ throats, hanged women for resisting looting and shot fleeing civilians.
“The brutality and ruthlessness of the attackers as described by the survivors suggests that their intent was to take a ‘scorched earth’ approach, killing or forcibly displacing people, burning their crops and homes, punishing and terrorizing them to ensure that they never return,” UN human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a briefing.
The UN report said opposition forces had also carried out armed attacks that caused civilian casualties.
A spokesman for the South Sudanese army said it would respond once the military leadership had received the report.
“I will look for the report and bring it to the attention of the military leadership so that we give our response,” Brig. Gen Lul Ruai Koang, SPLA Army spokesperson, told Reuters in Juba.
Shamdasani said that the report had been shared with the government, adding: “We understand this has resulted in one of these commanders being removed from his functions for his implication in these violations.”
There were also unconfirmed reports of that commander being put under house arrest, she said.
“So there does seem to be some movement, we are encouraged by this and we hope that there will be stronger, more robust and more of such actions,” she said.
On Monday, South Sudan rebels rejected a peace plan to reinstate insurgent leader Riek Machar as vice president, under a deal reached at talks in Uganda a day before.


DR Congo, M23 armed group sign ceasefire deal

Updated 3 sec ago
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DR Congo, M23 armed group sign ceasefire deal

  • The truce was agreed in a Declaration of Principles signed by the two sides after three months of talks in Doha
  • A separate Congolese-Rwandan peace deal was signed in Washington last month
DOHA: The Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda-backed armed group M23 signed a ceasefire deal on Saturday to end fighting that has devastated the country’s mineral-rich but conflict-torn east.
The truce was agreed in a Declaration of Principles signed by the two sides after three months of talks in the Qatari capital, Doha, which follows a separate Congolese-Rwandan peace deal signed in Washington last month.
“The Parties commit to uphold their commitment to a permanent ceasefire,” including refraining from “hate propaganda” and “any attempt to seize by force new positions,” said the agreement.
The M23, which seized vast swathes of territory in eastern DRC in a lightning offensive in January and February, had insisted on seeking its own ceasefire deal with Kinshasa, saying the Washington deal left out various “problems” that still needed to be addressed.
The African Union hailed the new deal as a “significant development,” saying: “This... marks a major milestone in the ongoing efforts to achieve lasting peace, security, and stability in eastern DRC and the wider Great Lakes region.”
Under the deal, the warring parties agreed to open negotiations on a comprehensive peace agreement.
The deal, which the two sides said aligns with the Washington agreement, also includes a roadmap for restoring state authority in eastern DRC.
Congolese government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said the deal took account of the DRC’s “red lines,” including “the non-negotiable withdrawal of the M23 from occupied areas followed by the deployment of our institutions,” including the national armed forces.
He said a comprehensive peace agreement would follow “in the coming days.”
The deal said the two sides had agreed to implement its terms by July 29 at the latest, and to start direct negotiations toward a permanent agreement by August 8.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi are due to meet in the coming months to solidify the Washington peace deal, whose terms have not yet been implemented.
Previous ceasefire agreements for eastern DRC have collapsed in the past.
Neighboring Rwanda denies providing military backing to the M23, but UN experts say that the Rwandan army played a “critical” role in the group’s offensive, including combat operations.
Rich in natural resources, especially lucrative minerals, eastern DRC has been racked by conflict for more than three decades, creating a humanitarian crisis and forcing hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.
Thousands were killed in the M23 offensive earlier this year, which saw the group capture the key provincial capitals of Goma and Bukavu.
The front line has stabilized since February, but fighting was still breaking out regularly between the M23 and multiple pro-government militias.

Slightly radioactive Fukushima soil is used at Japanese prime minister’s office to prove safety

Updated 19 July 2025
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Slightly radioactive Fukushima soil is used at Japanese prime minister’s office to prove safety

  • Officials say the soil meets safety standards set by the Environment Ministry and the International Atomic Energy Agency
  • The government hopes this move will reassure the public of its safety as it seeks to reduce the massive volume of contaminated soil stored near the nuclear plant

TOKYO: Decontaminated but slightly radioactive soil from Fukushima was delivered Saturday to the Japanese prime minister’s office to be reused in an effort to showcase its safety.
This is the first soil to be used, aside from experiments, since the 2011 nuclear disaster when the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant suffered a cataclysmic meltdown following an earthquake and tsunami that left large amounts of radioactive materials spewing out from the facility, polluting surrounding areas.
The government is desperate to set people’s minds at ease about recycling the 14 million cubic meters of decontaminated soil, enough to fill 11 baseball stadiums, collected after massive clean-ups and stored at a sprawling outdoor facility near the Fukushima plant. Officials have pledged to find final disposal sites by 2045.
The Environment Ministry said the 2 cubic meters, now at Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s office complex in Tokyo, will be used as foundation material in one section of the lawn garden, based on the ministry’s safety guidelines endorsed by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The soil does not include any from inside the plant.
Despite assurances, there has been much public unease. The government has already been forced to scrap a plan to experiment using some of the soil in flower beds at several public parks in and around Tokyo following protests.


One dead, three missing after South Korea landslide

Updated 19 July 2025
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One dead, three missing after South Korea landslide

  • Sancheong county told all residents Saturday to ‘evacuate immediately to a safe area’
  • South Korea is regularly hit by flooding during the summer monsoon period, but is typically well-prepared

SEOUL: A landslide triggered by torrential rain killed at least one person in South Korea, the national fire agency said Saturday.

Three people were also missing after the landslide buried two houses in a village in southern Sancheong county, officials said, as heavy rain continued to pound the country.

“At least three people have been reported missing and we have recovered one body,” an official at Sancheong county fire station said.

The official said that one person in their twenties, and a couple in their seventies were reported missing.

Sancheong county told all residents Saturday to “evacuate immediately to a safe area.”

The county has a population of some 34,000 people.

South Korea typically experiences monsoon rains in July, but the country’s southern regions saw some of the heaviest hourly downpours on record this week, official weather data showed.

The Ministry of Interior and Safety said Saturday at least four people have been killed in rain-related accidents and more than 7,000 forced to evacuate their homes.

South Korea is regularly hit by flooding during the summer monsoon period, but is typically well-prepared and the death toll usually relatively low.

Scientists say climate change has made weather events around the world more extreme and frequent.

The country endured record-breaking rains and flooding in 2022 which killed at least 11 people.


Former South Korea president Yoon indicted again as martial law investigation continues

Updated 19 July 2025
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Former South Korea president Yoon indicted again as martial law investigation continues

  • The new charges include obstruction of the exercise of others’ rights by abuse of authority, ordering the deletion of records and blocking the execution of arrest warrants
  • The impeached and deposed former leader has been jailed at Seoul Detention Center since earlier this month

SEOUL: South Korea’s jailed ex-President Yoon Suk Yeol was indicted on additional charges on Saturday as a special prosecutor continues investigating him for his short-lived declaration of martial law in December.

The new charges include obstruction of the exercise of others’ rights by abuse of authority, ordering the deletion of records and blocking the execution of arrest warrants, the prosecutor’s office said in a briefing.

Yoon has been on trial on charges of insurrection, which is punishable by death or life imprisonment, facing additional charges since the special prosecutor was appointed in June to take over the cases against him.

Yoon has denied all wrongdoing. His lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new charges.

The impeached and deposed former leader has been jailed at Seoul Detention Center since earlier this month, and a court earlier this week rejected his request to be freed from detention.


Cuba ends maximum age limit of 60 for presidential candidates

Updated 19 July 2025
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Cuba ends maximum age limit of 60 for presidential candidates

  • Communist-ruled island’s restriction of two five-year presidential terms and minimum age of 35 for candidates were left unchanged
  • Cuba’s current president, 65-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel, was elected in 2018 and then re-elected in 2023

HAVANA: Cuba scrapped the maximum age limit of 60 for its presidential candidates as part of a constitutional reform approved Friday by parliament.

The communist-ruled island’s restriction of two five-year presidential terms and minimum age of 35 for candidates were left unchanged.

The measure, approved by the Council of State, imposes no age limits on people “in the full exercise of their physical and mental faculties, with... loyalty and revolutionary trajectory,” national assembly president Esteban Lazo said.

Former president Raul Castro, who at age 94 still holds a seat in the assembly, was the first to vote for the reform that will be on the books for the 2028 presidential elections.

Cuba’s current president, 65-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel, was elected in 2018 and then re-elected in 2023. No favored successor has been publicly designated.

The inclusion of term and age limits in the 2019 constitution marked a radical shift after the six decades in which Fidel Castro and his brother Raul were in power.

In 2016, Fidel had to hand over the reins to his brother due to health problems. He died later that year, after nearly half a century leading Cuba.

Raul Castro officially became president in 2008, at the age of 76. In 2021, he retired as Communist Party first secretary, handing over power to Diaz-Canel.

The nation of nearly 10 million people is suffering its worst economic crisis in three decades, with shortages of all kinds of supplies, power outages, and unprecedented emigration.