Category Archives: Conflict and arms

X-rays show shrapnel and bullets buried in children caught in Sudan war

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Images released by MSF doctors highlight impact of conflict in the country, with medical supplies and aid unable to reach people due to fighting

A series of X-rays showing a piece of shrapnel buried deep inside a 20-month-old girl’s head and a bullet embedded in an 18-month-old boy’s chest are among images released by medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) revealing the impact of the war in Sudan on children.

The two babies were treated at Khartoum’s Bashair teaching hospital.

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French military systems in Sudan may break UN arms embargo, says Amnesty

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Group says it has identified the Galix defence system on armoured vehicles imported from the UAE and calls for government to investigate

France must investigate the use of its military systems by Sudan’s paramilitary forces, which could be in breach of an arms embargo, Amnesty International has said.

The group said it had identified the French-made Galix defence system being used in Sudan on armoured vehicles manufactured in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – considered a key supplier of weapons to the Rapid Support Force (RSF).

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Sudan militia accused of mass killings and sexual violence as attacks escalate

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Experts fear reports of 124 dead in attack on villages south of Khartoum are significant underestimation

Sudanese militia have been accused of killings, sexual violence, looting and arson during eight days of attacks on villages south of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum.

The UN said there were reports of “gross human rights abuses” linked to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) group, which has escalated attacks on civilians in el-Gezira state since the area’s key commander was reported to have defected to government forces on 20 October.

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Four in 10 deaths in war zones last year were women, UN report finds

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UN Women says figure doubled in 2023 amid ‘blatant disregard’ of laws that left women and children unprotected

The proportion of women killed in conflicts around the world doubled last year, with women now accounting for 40% of all those killed in war zones, according to a new report by the United Nations.

The report from UN Women, which looks at the security situation for women and girls affected by war, says UN-verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence also rose by 50% in 2023 compared with 2022.

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Haitian gangs recruiting starving children to fight security forces, rights group finds

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Hundreds of poor and desperate children targeted in anticipation of long and bloody battle, says Human Rights Watch

Haitian armed gangs are recruiting starving children to swell their ranks ahead of an anticipated long and bloody battle with international security forces, a report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) has found.

Armed groups – which control most of Haiti – are enticing hundreds, if not thousands, of impoverished children to take up arms with offers of food and shelter, the rights groups said.

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Myanmar military kills dozens in heaviest airstrikes since 2021 coup

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Ten children reportedly among those killed during intense aerial campaigns last month

Myanmar’s military has launched some of its heaviest aerial campaigns since the 2021 coup in recent months, killing at least 26 people in a series of attacks in early September.

The military, which has repeatedly been accused of indiscriminate aerial bombardments, launched at least seven airstrikes in four days between 3 and 6 September. According to Unicef, 10 children were among those killed. A pregnant woman also lost her unborn child.

A camp for internally displaced people (IDP) in Pekhon township, southern Shan state, was one of the seven locations targeted. Daw Ohn Mar Khaing, a volunteer teacher at the camp, known as “Bangkok”, told the Guardian it was struck despite there being no fighting in the township, or opposition fighters nearby.

“We only have helpless women and children, who were displaced from the war in their villages,” she said.

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At least 78 dead and dozens missing after ferry disaster in DR Congo

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Overcrowded boat on Lake Kivu capsizes as it was about to dock near Goma, with death toll likely to rise significantly

At least 78 people have drowned and many more are missing after a boat belived to be carrying 278 passengers capsized on Thursday morning just a few hundred metres from the shore of Lake Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The accident happened just as the vessel, MV Merdy, was about to dock at the port of Kituku, just outside the city of Goma, after crossing the lake from the town of Minova.

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Five children a week killed or injured in Haiti’s gang warfare

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Analysis of UN data shows rising toll on children who are being caught in the crossfire, as well as recruited to kidnap, loot and murder, say aid groups

Five children have been killed or injured in Haiti for every week of the first six months of 2024, caught in the crossfire of warring gangs.

At least 131 children have been killed or injured so far this year, according to analysis of UN Data by Save the Children – up 47% on the final six months of 2023 when 89 cases were documented.

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Sudanese factions using starvation as weapon is ‘cowardice’, US envoy says

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Tom Perriello condemns tactics of Rapid Support Forces and Sudanese military before peace talks in Geneva

The US special envoy for Sudan has accused the two factions in the country’s civil war of “cowardice” before crucial peace talks that are due to start on Wednesday.

Tom Perriello told the Guardian that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese military “lacked courage and honour” because of their continued use of starvation as a weapon.

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UN calls for foreign security forces to be deployed faster to quash Haiti gang wars

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Armed gangs control much of Caribbean country’s capital with reports of 40 rape victims a day in areas, UN reports

The UN has called for the deployment of international security forces in Haiti to be accelerated after a report that at least 1,379 people were killed or wounded in gang warfare and 428 people kidnapped in the country between April and June this year.

“Service providers report receiving an average of 40 rape victims a day in some areas of the capital,” warns the new report from the UN’s office in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.

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Girls as young as nine gang-raped by paramilitaries in Sudan – report

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Human Rights Watch accuses RSF militia of ‘countless’ cases of rape and torture in Khartoum in 15-month civil war

Gunmen from a notorious militia roamed Sudan’s capital gang-raping “countless” women and girls, some as young as nine, according to an investigation documenting the shocking prevalence of sexual violence in Khartoum during the country’s civil war.

Some of the attacks by members of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) were so brutal that women and girls died “due to the violence associated with the act of rape”, according to the research by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

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‘Smoking gun’ evidence points to UAE involvement in Sudan civil war

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Exclusive: Discovery of Emirati passports in wreckage suggest covert boots on the ground, despite Gulf state’s denials

Passports recovered from battlefields in Sudan suggest the United Arab Emirates is covertly putting boots on the ground in the country’s devastating civil war, according to leaked documents.

A 41-page document, sent to the UN security council and seen by the Guardian, contains images of Emirati passports allegedly found in Sudan and linked to soldiers of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the African nation’s notorious paramilitary.

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Myanmar junta ‘bombing schools’, with 170 sites hit in past three years – report

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Analysis of imagery from conflict zones shows evidence of burned-out and flattened buildings, with long-term impacts on education

Airstrikes, arson, shelling and ground fighting between the military and armed rebel groups have damaged at least 174 schools and universities in Myanmar since a military coup in 2021, according to a new report.

Open source investigator, the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR), said analysis of imagery from conflict zones showed burned and collapsed buildings.

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War is lead cause behind huge drop in global vaccinations, UN warns

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Vaccine misinformation has added to crisis of collapsed healthcare and poor nutrition, Unicef and WHO report

Conflicts have hampered efforts to vaccinate children across the world, health leaders have warned, as new figures showed about 14.5 million children had not received a single immunisation dose.

More than half of the children live in countries where armed conflicts or other humanitarian crises had created fragile and vulnerable situations, according to data from the UN children’s agency, Unicef, and the World Health Organization.

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Yazidi survivors of Sinjar massacre alarmed by Iraq’s move to close camps

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A decade after tens of thousands of Yazidis escaped an Islamic State attack many fear return to a home in ruins

The Iraqi government has been accused of making the survivors of the Sinjar massacre fear for their future once more, almost a decade after the murderous Islamic State campaign that forced tens of thousands of people to flee from their homes.

In January, the Iraqi council of ministers set a deadline of 30 July to close 23 displacement camps in Iraqi Kurdistan. The camps are home to about 155,000 internally displaced people (IDP), mostly Yazidis, who were slaughtered, kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery in their thousands at the height of the violence in northern Iraq in 2014.

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‘We need the world to wake up’: Sudan facing world’s deadliest famine in 40 years

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Millions face disaster as Sudanese army and RSF accused of using food access as a weapon in on-going war

Sudan is facing a famine that could become worse than any the world has seen since Ethiopia 40 years ago, US officials have warned, as aid deliveries continue to be blocked by the warring armies but arms supplies to both sides continue to flow in.

With much of the world’s attention focused on Gaza, the scene of another human-made famine, Sudan is already the worst humanitarian crisis in the world and is slipping towards a humanitarian disaster of historic proportions, with far less media coverage and global concern. A UN humanitarian appeal for the country has received only 16% of the funds it needs.

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Battlefield deaths from global conflicts hit 30-year high, study finds

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Since 2021, the overall number of deaths, including of civilians, has risen to the highest level in three decades, Peace Research Institute Oslo reports

Deaths from civil conflicts and battles across the world over the past three years have risen to the highest level in three decades, according to a new report.

Research by the Peace Research Institute Oslo (Prio) showed that while the number of battlefield deaths fell compared with the previous two years, since 2021 the overall number of conflict-related deaths, including of civilians, has risen to the highest level in 30 years.

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Attacks on health workers in conflict zones at highest level ever – report

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More than 2,500 attacks in 2023, including medics killed and clinics bombed, in war zones such as Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine

Attacks on health workers, hospitals and clinics in conflict zones jumped 25% last year to their highest level on record, a new report has found.

While the increase was largely driven by new wars in Gaza and Sudan, continuing conflicts such as Ukraine and Myanmar also saw such attacks continue “at a relentless pace”, the Safeguarding Health in Conflict coalition said.

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‘Bullet wounds are common’: crime rife in DRC’s rebel-besieged city of Goma

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Robberies, shootings, extortion and rapes have surged since the Rwandan-backed M23 militia cut off the eastern Congolese capital

In broad daylight on 16 April, three armed and uniformed men held up a city centre mobile phone shop.

Threatening staff, they helped themselves to about £700 worth of goods, before making off on a motorbike, disappearing into the busy streets of Goma, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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Rohingya being forcibly conscripted in battle between Myanmar and rebels

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Myanmar military has conscripted 1,000 Rohingya men and boys since February, with fears some are being used as human shields, according to NGOs

For more than four hours Abdullah* waited in the darkness as soldiers marched 30 of his neighbours from their homes in the Myanmar border state of Rakhine and forced them by gunpoint to join him on the truck that would take them all to a military base.

By the morning they were standing in front of a military commander ordering them to fight with the army against a local rebel group – some of the 1,000 Rohingya people the Myanmar military has conscripted since February, according to Human Rights Watch.

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