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☆ Kenya’s Leader Lifts His Global Profile. At Home, the Public Fumes.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | More About Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

He has taken dozens of trips abroad boosting his credentials on climate change, while raising taxes at home. He pledged to send his country’s police to quash gang violence in Haiti, though they stand accused of brutality at home. And he recently hosted an eight-course state dinner for King Charles III, amid skyrocketing food and fuel prices. Kenya’s president, William Ruto, is facing searing criticism and mounting public anger just over one year since he took power after a tightly contested election. Mr. Mwaniki, who had worked closely with Mr. Ruto and his allies, said he’s been apologizing to constituents he had convinced to vote for Mr. Ruto.

Persons: King Charles III, William Ruto, Ruto, ”, Antony Ikonya Mwaniki, Mwaniki, he’s Locations: Haiti, Kiambu County, Nairobi

Omar Victor Diop History, inheritance and possibility are re-imagined through the lens of the Senegalese photographer, one of the most successful young artists on the continent. Through his bold images, Diop examines the interplay between African and diasporic experiences by knitting together the past and present. Douglass sat for over 160 portraits, including a daguerreotype circa 1855 (bottom), to challenge negative representations of African Americans. Cultural Archive/Alamy In a 2015 self-portrait (top), from Diop’s series “Project Diaspora,” the artist emulates Frederick Douglass, who was the most photographed man of his era. Douglass sat for over 160 portraits, including a daguerreotype circa 1855 (bottom), to challenge negative representations of African Americans.

Persons: Omar Victor Diop, Frederick Douglass, Diop, Selma, ”, ” Omar Victor Diop, Douglass, “, ” Diop, Mama Casset, Malick Sidibé, Samuel Fosso, Martin Luther King Jr Organizations: paisley, West Locations: Senegalese, American, United States, Soweto, South Africa, Africa, “, African American, Dakar, Paris, Nigeria, Senegal, France, Nairobi, Lagos, Mali, America, African

Bodies littered the road out of El Geneina, a town in western Sudan, as Dr. Rodwan Mustafa and his family sped down a bumpy road that led to the border with Chad and, they hoped, safety. A day earlier, rampaging Arab militiamen had grabbed Dr. Mustafa by the neck, accusing him of giving medical care to enemy fighters. Racing toward the border with his family in a car, he saw chickens clucking over the bloodied corpses of those who hadn’t fled in time. A camp for displaced people stood empty, burned to the ground. “The smell of death was everywhere,” said Dr. Mustafa, who made it to a refugee camp in Chad and spoke by phone from there.

Persons: Rodwan Mustafa, Mustafa, hadn’t, ” Locations: El, Sudan, Chad

☆ King Charles, Visiting Kenya, Faces Calls to Answer for Colonial Abuses
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-31 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | More About Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At 86, his gnarled hands grasping a walking stick as he ambled around his small patch of land facing Mount Kenya, Joseph Macharia Mwangi recalled with bitterness the years that he had spent fighting the British colonial government in Kenya. Seven decades ago, he had camped with Mau Mau rebels on that mountain and in the forests, braving frigid rain, lions and elephants. And when the colonial forces eventually captured him, he said he was tortured and sentenced to two years of hard labor. “The British forces were really hard on us. It is his first state visit to any member of the Commonwealth group of nations since he became king last year, and the first to an African country.

Persons: Joseph Macharia Mwangi, “, ”, Mwangi, Dedan, King Charles III Organizations: British, Commonwealth Locations: Mount Kenya, Kenya, Mau, British, East, African

☆ Students on the Run, Schools Taken by Troops and a Generation’s Catastrophe
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-27 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | More About Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The young girls and boys, wearing colorful scarves, tattered shirts and flip-flops, ran across the dusty ground to form jagged lines and face the teachers at the start of the school day. The children, hundreds of them gathered in makeshift classrooms, had arrived in this aid camp in recent months after fleeing the war in their homeland of Sudan. But even as they began to gain a sense of normalcy in their schooling, many were still burdened with memories of the vicious conflict they endured, which had left loved ones dead and their homes destroyed. “We know that pain is lasting inside their hearts,” said Mujahid Yaqub, a 23-year-old who fled Sudan and now teaches English at the school in the Wedwil refugee center, in Aweil in South Sudan. Many of the children, he said, were unable to focus in class and often cried over the memories of their terrifying escape from shellings and massacres.

Persons: ”, Mujahid Yaqub Locations: Sudan, Aweil, South Sudan, shellings

☆ Darfur’s New Generation, Once Full of Promise, Now Suffers ‘Fire of War’
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-21 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | More About Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For weeks, Bahaadin Adam had heard nothing from family members stuck in the fighting that convulsed Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state and the second largest city in Sudan. Mr. Adam, who had fled weeks before to neighboring South Sudan, remained jittery, constantly checking his phone for updates. “I was broken into pieces,” Mr. Adam said in a recent interview in Renk town in South Sudan. Five months after a devastating war began in Sudan between rival military forces, the western region of Darfur has quickly become one of the hardest hit in the nation. People in Darfur have already suffered genocidal violence over the past two decades that has left as many as 300,000 people dead.

Persons: Bahaadin Adam, Adam, — Meethaaq, —, Mr Locations: South Darfur, Sudan, South Sudan, Renk, Darfur

The General Assembly has undergone tremendous changes as its influence has waned. What does the General Assembly do? Unlike the U.N. Security Council, which can impose sanctions or authorize the use of force, the General Assembly is purely deliberative. The General Assembly also appoints the U.N. secretary general, currently António Guterres, for five-year terms and the Security Council’s 10 nonpermanent members. Last year, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine delivered a searing rebuke of the Russian invasion of his country in a recorded address to the General Assembly.

Persons: ”, Peter J, Hoffman, that’s, Dr, “, it’s, Israel, António, Volodymyr Zelensky, Guterres, ’, ” Dr, Indira Gandhi of Organizations: United Nations, Assembly, Security Council, Social Council, BRICS, New School, . Security, United Nations ’, Pacific, General, Sustainable, General Assembly, Security, New Zealand —, Indira Gandhi of India Locations: Manhattan, New York City, United, New York, Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Caribbean, Western Europe, Ukraine, “, South Sudan, Europe, Americas, Australia, North America, Israel, Japan, South Korea, New, ”, Oceania, America

☆ Gabon Military Says Deposed President Is ‘Free’ to Travel Overseas
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-07 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | More About Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ali Bongo Ondimba, who was deposed as president of Gabon last week in a coup that ended his family’s decades-long grip on power in the central African nation, is no longer subject to house arrest and is free to leave the country, the ruling military junta has said. Mr. Bongo’s health has long been a concern after he suffered a stroke five years ago and was often seen walking with a cane. The military said in a statement read on national television on Wednesday night that he would be allowed to travel overseas for medical care. The announcement from the military came two days after the leader of the coup, Gen. Brice Oligui Nguema, a cousin of the ousted leader and the head of the elite Republican Guard that was tasked with guarding him, was sworn in as Gabon’s new leader. After taking oath on Monday, General Nguema promised to hold free and fair elections but did not indicate when or how they would take place.

Persons: Ali Bongo Ondimba, Brice Oligui Nguema, General Nguema Organizations: Republican Guard Locations: Gabon

Every day, Vélina Élysée Charlier drives past barricaded neighborhoods and frequently sees dead bodies lying on the street, she said, a result of score-settling between gangs and vigilantes in Haiti’s capital. After dusk, she never leaves home for fear of being killed or kidnapped. When her 8-year-old daughter got appendicitis one evening, Ms. Charlier said, the family waited until morning to get her medical care since driving to a hospital was out of the question. “Port-au-Prince looks like something out of hell these days,” said Ms. Charlier, 42, a prominent anticorruption activist in the city and mother of four who lives in a hillside area of the capital. After that desperate appeal, a force led by Kenya finally seems close to materializing in what would be the first time an African country leads such a mission in one of the Americas’ most unstable places.

Persons: Charlier, ” Locations: “, Kenya

☆ Sudanese City Becomes Center of ‘New Phase’ of War
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | More About Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

As the war in Sudan heads into its fourth month, Omdurman — the city across the Nile River from the capital, Khartoum — has become the site of some of the most fierce fighting between the two forces battling for power: the army and its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Patients were admitted in droves in recent days to one of the few functioning health facilities left in Omdurman, their bodies riddled with bullets or sliced by shrapnel from airstrikes. Some victims were dead by the time they were brought in, their passage hindered by street battles in Omdurman, once a bustling business hub and home to many universities, hospitals and political and cultural institutions. “It’s been like hell,” said Dr. Rashid Mukhtar Hassan, the human resource manager at the health facility, Al-Nau Teaching Hospital, in a phone call.

Persons: “ It’s, ”, Rashid Mukhtar Hassan Organizations: Rapid Support Forces, Nau Teaching Hospital Locations: Sudan, Omdurman, Khartoum —, Al

☆ ‘No One Can Silence Me’: Paul Rusesabagina on His Captivity in Rwanda
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-30 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

With his hands and legs trussed up and his mouth gagged, Rwanda’s most prominent dissident was relieved when after two days in detention, his blindfold was finally taken off. Standing in front of him, blocking the blinding light, were two senior Rwandan government officials, he said, who promised to free him quickly if he began cooperating. “You can get anything else you want,” Paul Rusesabagina, the hotelier whose heroism in the face of the genocide in 1994 inspired the Oscar-nominated movie “Hotel Rwanda,” recalled that the officials told him. “It is you to make a choice.”But Mr. Rusesabagina knew he didn’t have a choice. Mr. Rusesabagina was tortured and denied medication, he said, then charged with terrorism and sentenced to 25 years in prison in a trial that drew global condemnation.

Persons: ” Paul Rusesabagina, Oscar, ”, Rusesabagina Organizations: Rwandan Locations: Rwanda, Rwandan, Kigali, Central Africa

☆ ‘A Terrible Tragedy’: Uganda Reels From Deadly Terrorist Attack
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-18 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The militants reached the private boarding school compound just before midnight, as students were going to bed, on a partly cloudy night in a small town in the lush western fields of Uganda. First, they shot the school’s guard in the head before they went to the students’ dormitories. Petrified, the girls unlocked their dormitory’s doors and tried to flee, only for the assailants to catch up with them and hack them to death with machetes. The assailants, members of an Islamist militant group, also burned the school’s library, plundered a food store and kidnapped six students, whom they used to carry the looted goods, military officials said. As they fled the town into the dense forests of Congo, they killed three other people, including a woman in her 60s — bringing the death total to 41.

Persons: Janet Museveni Organizations: Democratic Locations: Uganda, Mpondwe, Uganda’s, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo

☆ Uganda School Attack Leaves at Least 37 Dead
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-17 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At least 37 people were killed and eight others wounded when militants with an extremist group attacked a secondary school in western Uganda, the authorities said on Saturday, in one of the deadliest terrorist attacks to hit the East African nation in years. The armed outfit, known as the Allied Democratic Forces, attacked a school in Mpondwe, a town close to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, on Friday night, a police spokesman, Fred Enanga, said on Twitter. During the attack, a dormitory was burned and food in a store was looted, he said. At least eight people were in critical condition and had been hospitalized, Mr. Enanga added. Three people were rescued from the scene of the attack, but six others were abducted, a military spokesman, Brig.

Persons: Fred Enanga, Enanga, Felix Kulayigye Organizations: Allied Democratic Forces, Democratic, Twitter Locations: Uganda, Mpondwe, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo

☆ A ‘Dystopian Nightmare’ Unfolds in Sudan’s Battered Darfur Region
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | Cora Engelbrecht | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The gunmen arrived at dawn on motorcycles, horses and in cars. For hours afterward, they fired into houses, rampaged through shops and razed clinics, witnesses said, in a frenzied attack that upended life in El Geneina, a city in the Darfur region of Sudan. Truce agreements have so far failed to end the brutal fighting that broke out on April 15 between the Sudanese army and its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The fighting has decimated many areas of the capital, Khartoum. But the war between the military factions has also swept across the country to the long-suffering western region of Darfur — an area already blighted by two decades of genocidal violence.

Persons: Peace Organizations: Rapid Support Forces Locations: El Geneina, Darfur, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Khartoum

☆ Uganda’s President Signs Punitive Anti-Gay Bill Into Law
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The president of Uganda signed a punitive anti-gay bill on Monday that includes the death penalty, enshrining into law an intensifying crackdown against L.G.B.T.Q. people in the conservative East African nation and dismissing widespread calls not to impose one of the world’s most restrictive anti-gay measures. The law, which was introduced in Parliament in March, calls for life imprisonment for anyone who engages in gay sex. Anyone who tries to have same-sex relations could be liable for up to a decade in prison. The offense of “attempted aggravated homosexuality” carries a sentence of up to 14 years.

☆ ‘I Could Not Carry Any of My Art’
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

That was on April 15 — and in the three days that followed, Mr. Algrai remained trapped in his studio, starving and dehydrated as battles raged outside his door on the streets of Khartoum. For hours every day, he cowered in terror as bullets pierced the windows of the building and the walls shook from errant shelling. When a small period of quiet to escape materialized, Mr. Algrai was eager to seize it — albeit with a heavy heart. “I could not carry any of my art or personal belongings,” said Mr. Algrai, 29, who got out, but left behind his favorite guitar and more than 300 paintings of different sizes. “This conflict has robbed us of our art and our peace, and we are now left trying to stay sane in the midst of displacement and death.”

☆ Sudan’s Warring Groups Agree to 7-Day Cease-Fire
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Sudan’s warring parties have agreed to a seven-day cease-fire beginning on Monday, Saudi Arabia and the United States announced late Saturday, the first truce to be signed by both parties in a conflict that has raged for over a month, leaving millions of people across the northeast African nation in a dire humanitarian crisis. On Saturday, the sides promised to stop their forces from occupying new areas; to refrain from detaining or threatening civilians; and not to impede aid groups and workers from providing lifesaving assistance. The warring groups also agreed not to loot civilian properties or humanitarian supplies, nor to seize critical infrastructure such as electricity, fuel and water installations. Before the announcement, the two sides had signed a pact only to protect civilians but not to suspend fighting altogether, leaving their soldiers clashing across Sudan. Previous cease-fire announcements, including one brokered by the United States and another by South Sudan, have faltered, leading to a mounting death toll and a vast displacement of people.

☆ ‘We Don’t Want This War’: Trapped in Khartoum as Combat Rages
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | Cora Engelbrecht | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Nurses maneuver through gunfire and shelling to make house calls, delivering babies and providing care to those who can’t reach hospitals. Families barely eat in order to conserve dwindling food and water supplies, as temperatures rise. And the few good Samaritans who venture out to help the elderly or put out a blazing fire face intimidation and arrest by the fighters in the streets. The Sudanese capital, Khartoum, has endured the most intense fighting, prompting embassies and the United Nations to evacuate their nationals and staff members — leaving behind millions who now face shortages of water, food, medicine and electricity. The clashes — between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces — have continued despite repeated cease-fires purportedly agreed to by both sides.

☆ Warring Parties in Sudan to Hold Talks in Saudi Arabia
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Edward Wong | Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON — Representatives of two warring Sudanese generals are expected to meet in Saudi Arabia on Saturday to discuss terms of a cease-fire and mechanisms for allowing humanitarian aid into the country, U.S., Saudi and Sudanese officials said on Friday. The U.S. State Department and the Saudi foreign ministry have helped organize the meeting, which would take place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on the Red Sea across from Sudan. The Saudi government has been running evacuation ships between Jeddah and Port Sudan. The two generals have agreed to cease-fires in recent days, but their troops have violated those. The Sudanese army confirmed in a post on Facebook that its delegation left for Jeddah on Friday evening to discuss “specific details of the armistice,” which is aimed at “securing and creating appropriate conditions for dealing with the humanitarian situation of our citizens.”A senior State Department official said the discussions in Jeddah would not include negotiations over the volatile issues around integration of the armed forces and chain of command that led to the start of fighting on April 15 between Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who controls the Sudanese military, and Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, who leads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

☆ More Than 100,000 Have Fled Sudan to Neighboring Countries
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

More than 100,000 people have fled Sudan for neighboring countries and more than 300,000 have been internally displaced, according to figures released by United Nations agencies on Tuesday, as the fighting between rival generals threatened to undermine regional stability and tear apart Africa’s third-largest nation. More than 450 people have died and more than 4,000 have been injured, according to the World Health Organization. On Tuesday morning, residents in parts of the capital, Khartoum, reported intense clashes and heavy shelling throughout the night. Many residents of the capital are without electricity and worried about dwindling food and water. Given the deteriorating situation, the United Nations said it was preparing for a mass exodus from Sudan, a nation of more than 45 million people that was already facing dire humanitarian crises before the latest fighting.

☆ Cease-Fire Is Extended in Sudan, but Bombardments and Gunfire Ensue
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | Cora Engelbrecht | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Civilians continued to flee renewed clashes in Sudan on Friday, as a three-day extension of an already-tenuous truce got off to a fitful start, and foreign countries ramped up evacuations after warning of an escalation of violence in the coming days. Gunfire and loud explosions rocked at least two neighborhoods in the capital, Khartoum, residents said, as the battle between Sudan’s army, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, led by Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, entered its 14th day. Clashes also continued in the western region of Darfur, aid workers said, even as the African Union, the United Nations and countries including the United States welcomed the decision to extend a fragile cease-fire for an additional 72 hours. “What I am seeing is thick smoke. What I am hearing is shelling and gunshots,” said Ahmad Mahmoud, a Sudanese resident of Khartoum who witnessed a massive bombardment of the Burri neighborhood in the capital.

☆ Looting, Roadblocks: Paramilitary Is a Scary Neighbor in Sudan’s Capital
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Lynsey Chutel | Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the 12 days since war broke out in Sudan, the residents in the capital of Khartoum have learned to survive, living side by side with armed fighters. The fighters have moved into homes and taken over stores and hospitals, alternatively terrifying and wooing civilians. In another, they invited community members to share in the spoils of their looting. Many residents try to avoid the faction as much as possible. “Apparently they don’t have anyone that gives them orders so they’re just doing their thing,” said Dania Atabani, who lives in Khartoum.

☆ Mystery of Ex-Dictator’s Whereabouts Adds to Crisis in Sudan
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As Sudan is ripped apart in a battle between rival generals, one question was swirling around the country on Wednesday: Where is the former dictator Omar Hassan al-Bashir? Mr. al-Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. In Sudan, he still faces charges related to the 1989 coup that propelled him to power, and he faces a death sentence or life in prison if convicted. Amid the chaos, it was thought that Mr. al-Bashir, 79, was being held in the Kober prison in Khartoum, the capital, serving a two-year sentence for money laundering and corruption. But then a former official being held with Mr. al-Bashir said on Tuesday night that he had left the prison along with some other, unnamed officials, without mentioning the former dictator.

☆ Civilians Flee Fighting in Sudan for Troubled Neighboring Countries
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | Lynsey Chutel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Civilians fleeing the fighting between two rival generals in Sudan streamed into neighboring countries on Monday, raising concerns about a humanitarian crisis spreading to countries already grappling with conflict, hunger and dire economic straits. The heavy gunfire, shelling and airstrikes that have rocked Sudan for 10 days prompted foreign countries to begin evacuating diplomatic staff and nationals over the weekend. It also has driven thousands of Sudanese and other people across borders into Chad, Egypt and South Sudan, aid workers said. Sudan, a country of 45 million people and the third-largest by area in Africa, is surrounded by seven countries racked by poverty and instability. Most of those were South Sudanese returning home after having fled Khartoum in cars and on the backs of trucks, carrying whatever they could on the 280-mile journey south.

☆ Sudan Army Chief Commits to Civilian Rule, but Not a Cease-Fire for Ramadan’s End
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Sudan’s army chief said on Friday morning that the military under his leadership was committed to a peaceful transition to civilian rule, in his first public remarks since a weeklong conflict between his troops and a powerful paramilitary force upended life in Africa’s third-largest nation. But the army commander, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who is Sudan’s de facto leader, did not say whether the army would commit to the latest cease-fire that its rival, the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, said it had agreed to on Friday. The cease-fire would allow people to gather for the Eid holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. General al-Burhan said the clashes had led to serious casualties, major destruction of property and displacement of families across the country.

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