DR Congo offers bounty for arrest of M23 leaders

Displaced people prepare a meal near a temporary shelter in Burundi after fleeing from clashes between M23 rebels and the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo. (Reuters)
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Updated 08 March 2025
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DR Congo offers bounty for arrest of M23 leaders

  • The M23, which, according to UN experts, is backed by some 4,000 Rwandan soldiers, resumed its fight against the government in Kinshasa in 2021 and has since seized swaths of territory in North Kivu, which borders Rwanda

KINSHASA: Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo are offering a $5-million reward for help in arresting leaders of the M23 group that recently captured two major northern towns, the Justice Ministry announced.
“A reward of $5 million is offered to any person who helps arrest the convicts Corneille Nangaa, Bertrand Bisimwa and Sultani Makenga,” the ministry said in a statement.
Nangaa, a leader in the River Congo Alliance, or AFC, a military-political coalition to which the M23 belongs, is a former president of the DRC’s electoral commission.
Bisimwa and Makenga are, respectively, the president and military chief of the M23.
Tried in absentia in Kinshasa, all three men were convicted and sentenced to death in August 2024.
DRC authorities are also offering a bounty of $4 million for any information leading to the arrest of the three men’s “accomplices on the run” and “other sought individuals,” the statement said.
The M23, which, according to UN experts, is backed by some 4,000 Rwandan soldiers, resumed its fight against the government in Kinshasa in 2021 and has since seized swaths of territory in North Kivu, which borders Rwanda.
A lightning offensive in recent weeks has captured the provincial capital, Goma, and Bukavu, the main cities in the neighboring province of South Kivu.
The DRC’s mineral-rich east has been ravaged for three decades by conflict and atrocities.
According to the Financial Times, the US is in exploratory talks with the DRC over a deal that would give Washington access to critical minerals in the country.
Congo approached the US last month, proposing a deal that would offer exploration rights to the US in exchange for support for the government of President Felix Tshisekedi, the newspaper reported, citing public documents.
Security sources said on Friday at least 35 people were killed when pro-government militia attacked a village in the restive eastern Democratic Republic of Congo,
The attack happened at about 3 a.m. on Thursday in the village of Tambi, in the Masisi area of North Kivu province controlled by the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group.
A security source said that at least 35 people were killed in the attack, while local sources and an eyewitness put the death toll at more than 40.
A community leader and a medical source said villagers had recently returned to the area after having fled fighting between the M23 and the Congolese army and local militia.
“The militia went to attack Tambi where residents had started to return ... they opened fire and civilians were killed,” said one community leader, who said 43 people died.
“They put some victims in a church and then shot them. Those who were in the fields were killed there.”
The community leader, a local health worker, and a local resident said another group of civilians sought refuge in a house and died when the militia set it on fire.
“We counted 47 bodies in the morning,” the resident said, adding that they were buried in a communal grave.
Some of the victims were unable to be identified because of their burns, he added.

 


Trump says there’s a good chance for Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal this week

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Trump says there’s a good chance for Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal this week

  • Trump is due to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday at the White House

MORRISTOWN, New Jersey: US President Donald Trump on Sunday said there was a good chance a Gaza hostage release and ceasefire deal could be reached with the Palestinian militant group Hamas this week.
Trump told reporters before departing for Washington that such a deal meant “quite a few hostages” could be released.
Trump is due to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday at the White House. 

 


Texas officials face scrutiny over response to catastrophic

A drone view shows the swollen San Gabriel River, in Georgetown, Texas, US, on Saturday. (Reuters)
Updated 06 July 2025
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Texas officials face scrutiny over response to catastrophic

  • The destructive fast-moving waters that began before sunrise Friday in the Texas Hill Country killed at least 43 people in Kerr County, authorities said Saturday, and an unknown number of people remained missing

KERRVILLE: Before heading to bed before the Fourth of July holiday, Christopher Flowers checked the weather while staying at a friend’s house along the Guadalupe River. Nothing in the forecast alarmed him. Hours later, he was rushing to safety: He woke up in darkness to electrical sockets popping and ankle-deep water. Quickly, his family scrambled nine people into the attic. Phones buzzed with alerts, Flowers recalled Saturday, but he did not remember when in the chaos they started.
“What they need is some kind of external system, like a tornado warning that tells people to get out now,” Flowers, 44, said.
The destructive fast-moving waters that began before sunrise Friday in the Texas Hill Country killed at least 43 people in Kerr County, authorities said Saturday, and an unknown number of people remained missing. Those still unaccounted for included 27 girls from Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp along a river in Kerr County where most of the dead were recovered.
But as authorities launch one of the largest search-and-rescue efforts in recent Texas history, they have come under intensifying scrutiny over preparations and why residents and youth summer camps that are dotted along the river were not alerted sooner or told to evacuate.
The National Weather Service sent out a series of flash flood warnings in the early hours Friday before issuing flash flood emergencies — a rare alert notifying of imminent danger.
Local officials have insisted that no one saw the flood potential coming and have defended their actions.
“There’s going to be a lot of finger-pointing, a lot of second-guessing and Monday morning quarterbacking,” said Republican U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, whose district includes Kerr County. “There’s a lot of people saying ‘why’ and ‘how,’ and I understand that.”

 


Germany to deport convicted Syrians

Police officers stand guard in Solingen, Germany, Aug. 25, 2024. (AP file photo)
Updated 06 July 2025
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Germany to deport convicted Syrians

  • An agreement reached by the coalition made up of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives and the Social Democrats provided for deportations to Afghanistan and Syria “starting with delinquents and people considered a threat,” the spokesman added

BERLIN: Germany is to start deporting Syrians with criminal records, the Interior Ministry has said, days after Austria became the first EU country to do so in recent years.
The ministry had instructed the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees to take action against “dangerous Syrian individuals and delinquents,” a spokesman said.
The spokesman stressed that committing serious crimes meant one was excluded from the protection afforded by asylum and could lead to the revocation of any such status already granted.
An agreement reached by the coalition made up of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives and the Social Democrats provided for deportations to Afghanistan and Syria “starting with delinquents and people considered a threat,” the spokesman added.
To that end, the ministry was in contact with the relevant Syrian authorities, he said.
Between January and May, the Federal Office has opened more than 3,500 procedures that could lead to the revocation of asylum rights granted to Syrian nationals, the ministry said in an answer to a question in parliament.
Refugee status had been withdrawn in 57 cases and lower-level protection in 22 other cases, said the ministry.
During the same period, around 800 Syrians have returned home as part of a voluntary repatriation program funded by Germany, to which 2,000 have so far signed up.
Around a million Syrians live in Germany, most of whom arrived during the major exodus between 2015 and 2016.
But since the December 2024 fall of President Bashar Assad, several European countries, including Austria and Germany, have suspended asylum procedures as far-right parties have campaigned on the issue.
Austria’s Interior Ministry on Thursday deported a Syrian criminal convict back to Syria, saying it was the first EU country to do so officially “in recent years.”

 


Migrants cast a shadow on Starmer-Macron summit

Updated 06 July 2025
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Migrants cast a shadow on Starmer-Macron summit

  • Record number of refugees crossing the English Channel remains a major point of friction

LONDON: Britain and France are friends again following the rancour of Brexit, but the record number of irregular migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats remains a major point of friction.

The issue will feature during a state visit to Britain by French President Emmanuel Macron starting Tuesday and new measures to curb the dangerous journeys are expected to be announced on Thursday following talks with Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
More than 21,000 migrants have crossed from northern France to southeast England in rudimentary vessels this year, providing a massive headache for Starmer as the far-right soars in popularity.
Images of overloaded vessels leaving French beaches with law enforcement officers appearing to just watch on exasperate UK politicians and the unforgiving tabloid press.

HIGHLIGHTS

• More than 21,000 migrants have crossed from northern France to southeast England in rudimentary vessels this year, providing a massive headache for the UK prime minister.

• Starmer, who led his Labour party to a sweeping victory in an election last year following 14 years of Conservative rule, has vowed to ‘take back control’ of Britain’s borders.

• But in the first six months of 2025, there was a 48 percent increase in the number of people arriving on small boats compared to last year.

“We pay for French cops’ buggy, 4x4s and drones, but migrants still sailing,” complained The Sun newspaper on Wednesday, in a reference to the so-called Sandhurst Treaty.
The 2018 agreement, that runs until 2027, sees Britain finance actions taken in France to stop the migrants.
Starmer, who led his Labour Party to a sweeping victory in an election last year following 14 years of Conservative rule, has vowed to “take back control” of Britain’s borders.
But in the first six months of 2025, there was a 48 percent increase in the number of people arriving on small boats compared to last year, with the government blaming extended dry weather.
The annual record of 45,774 reached in 2022 could be broken this year, which would deal a massive blow to Starmer as Euroskeptic Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party leads national polls.
A new border control law going through Britain’s Parliament would give law enforcement counter-terror style powers to combat people-smuggling gangs.
The UK has also signed agreements with countries on migrant transit routes, including Iraq, Serbia, and Germany.
But Starmer needs strengthened cooperation with France, and key announcements were expected following their talks.
Under pressure from London, Paris is considering tweaking its laws to allow police to intercept migrant boats up to 300 meters from France’s shoreline. Currently, French law enforcement only intervene at sea to rescue passengers at risk of drowning.
The two governments are also working on a migrant exchange program.
A pilot project would see Britain capable of returning to France someone who has crossed the Channel by boat, according to several media sources.
France in exchange could deport an equivalent number of people to Britian, provided they have the right to live there, such as through family reunification.
Paris wants to expand the agreement to the EU so that readmissions can be shared among several countries.
According to Britain’s Interior Ministry, migrants who crossed the Channel between March 2024 and March 2025 were mainly Afghans, Syrians, Eritreans, Iranians, and Sudanese.
French officials have claimed that Britain attracts migrants because the lack of a national identity card makes it easier to work illegally.
Starmer’s government has cracked down on illegal work — arrests increased by 51 percent from July 2024 to the end of May, compared to the previous year, it says.
But Peter Walsh, a researcher at Oxford University’s Migration Observatory, doubts that it is easier to work illegally in Britain than in France.
“You have to demonstrate that you have the right to work. If an employer doesn’t carry out those checks, then they can face serious sanctions, fines and imprisonment. That’s the same in France and the UK,” he said.
Walsh believes the English language and presence of family members in Britain are key attractions, as well as Britain’s departure from the EU.
“If you’ve claimed asylum in the EU and been refused, you can actually come to the UK and have another shot because we will not know that you’ve actually been refused in the EU,” he said.

Last year, she became a British citizen and now works as a nurse.
Tsegay says there is a “hostile environment” toward irregular migrants in Britain, saying they were often presented as “criminals” rather than people “contributing to society.”
She wants Starmer and Macron to focus on improving safe routes for migrants fleeing war-torn countries as a way to stop them risking the Channel crossings. “These people come here to seek safety,” Tsegay said.

 


Death toll rises to 27 in Pakistan building collapse as rescue ends

Rescue workers recover a victim's body during a search operation amid the debris of a collapsed residential building in Karachi
Updated 06 July 2025
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Death toll rises to 27 in Pakistan building collapse as rescue ends

  • Rescuers pulled 11 more bodies from the rubble of the building that collapsed on Friday, according to a Karachi police surgeon

KARACHI: The death toll from a collapsed multistory residential building in Pakistan’s Karachi city rose to 27 on Sunday as a three-day rescue operation ended, officials said.
Rescuers pulled 11 more bodies from the rubble of the building that collapsed on Friday, according to Dr. Summayya Tariq, the Karachi police surgeon. Ten people were injured and one of them died at a hospital, she said.
Authorities said they were investigating the cause of the collapse.
Building collapses are common in Pakistan, where construction standards are often poorly enforced. Many structures are built with substandard materials, and safety regulations are often overlooked to reduce costs.
In June 2020, an apartment building collapsed in Karachi, the capital of southern Sindh province, killing 22 people.