A suspected RSF strike hits a prison, killing at least 19 in Sudan, officials say
The attack on the main prison in Obeid, the capital city of North Kordofan, also wounded 45 other prisoners, according to a statement from the province's police forces.
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Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Yahoo
Sudan army torturing people to death, claims rights group
A prominent Sudanese human rights group has accused the country's army and security forces of torturing people to death and operating "execution chambers". The Emergency Lawyers group said it had documented hundreds of arrests in the capital Khartoum. It said that in the "worst cases", some captives had later been found dead with evidence of torture. The Sudanese army recaptured the city from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in March, against which it is fighting a bitter civil war that has killed tens of thousands in two years. The army did not respond to the BBC's request for comment on Sunday. Throughout the war, the Emergency Lawyers group has documented atrocities by both the army and the RSF. Sudan war: A simple guide to what is happening 'Tortured and terrified' - BBC witnesses the battle for Khartoum In a statement on social media platform X, Emergency Lawyers said it had observed a "dangerous escalation in violations". Some detainees were arrested at random and taken to large detention centres, the group alleged. "Their fates range from continued detention in inhumane conditions, trials conducted by security agencies that lack the most basic standards of justice, or release in poor health," the statement said. "In the worst cases, some are found dead after being killed or declared dead as a result of torture." The use of torture was common during the oppressive rule of president Omar al-Bashir. Throughout the current war, the RSF have also been found to have abused and executed prisoners. The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan said in March that both sides were responsible for "a widespread pattern of arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment of detainees". It said both both the RSF and the army had used "rape and other forms of sexual violence, arbitrary arrest and detention, as well as torture and ill-treatment". The fighting has sparked one of the world's worst humanitarian crises - 12 million people have been forced from their homes and famine has been declared in parts of the country. Last week, medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said the war has fuelled the worst cholera outbreak the country has seen in years. There have been nearly 100,000 cases of the disease and 2,470 deaths over the past year. More BBC stories on the war in Sudan: 'Our children are dying': Rare footage shows plight of civilians in besieged Sudan city Oil-rich Sudanese region becomes new focus of war between army and rival forces The two generals at the heart of the conflict Go to for more news from the African continent. Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica BBC Africa podcasts Africa Daily Focus on Africa
Los Angeles Times
17 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's embrace of unchristian Christian nationalism
Pete Hegseth, widely considered the least qualified Defense secretary in American history, is hardly anyone's version of the ideal Christian husband and father. Only 45 years old, he's been married three times. His first marriage — to his high school sweetheart — lasted a mere four years, deteriorating after Hegseth admitted to multiple extramarital affairs. A couple of years later, he married his second wife, with whom he had three children. During that marriage, he fathered a child with a Fox News producer who eventually became his third wife. He paid off a woman who accused him of sexual assault (he denies the assault). He routinely passed out drunk at family gatherings and misbehaved in public when inebriated, according to numerous witnesses. His own mother once accused him of being 'an abuser of women,' though she later retracted her claims when Hegseth was facing Senate confirmation. Still, the Senate's Republican majority, cowed by President Trump, confirmed his appointment. Hegseth has two qualities that Trump prizes above all others. He is blindly loyal to the president, and he looks good on TV. After his installation, Hegseth proceeded to fire top military brass who happened to be Black or women or both. He has restored the names of Confederate generals to Army bases (Bragg and Benning). His petty 'anti-woke' crusade led him to strip the name of the assassinated gay rights leader Harvey Milk, a former Naval officer who served honorably, from a Navy ship. And he has considered doing the same to a ship named in honor of the abolitionist and Civil War hero Harriet Tubman. He has said that women do not belong in combat roles, and has kicked out transgender soldiers, cruelly stripping them of the pensions they earned for their service. In March, he shared classified information about an impending American airstrike in Yemen on an unsecured Signal group chat that included his wife, on purpose, and the editor of the Atlantic, by accident. He is, in short, the least serious man ever to lead this nation's armed forces. As if all that weren't dispiriting enough, Hegseth is now in bed (metaphorically) with a crusading Christian nationalist. Earlier this month, Hegseth made waves when he reposted on social media a CNN interview with Douglas Wilson, the pastor and theocrat who is working hard to turn the clock back on the rights of every American who is not white, Christian and male. In the interview, Wilson expounded on his patriarchal, misogynistic, authoritarian and homophobic views. Women, he said, should serve as 'chief executive of the home' and should not have the right to vote. (Their men can do that for them.) Gay marriage and gay sex should be outlawed once again. 'We know that sodomy is worse than slavery by how God responds to it,' he told CNN's Pamela Brown. (Slavery is 'unbiblical,' he avowed, though he did bizarrely defend it once, writing in 1990 a pamphlet that 'slavery produced in the South a genuine affection between the races that we believe we can say has never existed in any nation before the War or since.') When a new outpost of his church opened in Washington, D.C ., in July, Hegseth and his family were among the worshippers. CNN described Hegseth's presence as 'a major achievement' for Wilson. 'All of Christ for All of Life,' wrote Hegseth as he endorsed and reposted the interview. That is the motto of Wilson's expanding universe, which includes his Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, the center of his Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, a network of more than 100 churches on four continents, parochial schools, a college, a publishing house and media platforms. 'All of Christ for All of Life' is a shorthand for the belief that Christian doctrines should shape every part of life — including government, culture and education. Wilson is a prolific author of books with titles such as 'Her Hand in Marriage,' 'Federal Husband,' and 'Reforming Marriage.' His book 'Fidelity' teaches 'what it means to be a one-woman man.' Doubtful it has crossed Hegseth's desk. 'God hates divorce,' writes Wilson in one of his books. Given the way sexual pleasure is celebrated in the Old and New Testaments, Wilson has a peculiarly dim view of sex. I mean, how many weddings have been graced with recitations from the Song of Solomon, with its thinly disguised allusions to pleasurable sexual intimacy? ('Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine.') Wilson's world is considerably less sensual. 'A man penetrates, conquers, colonizes, plants,' he writes in 'Fidelity.' 'A woman receives, surrenders, accepts.' Mutual sexual pleasure seems out of the question: 'The sexual act cannot be made into an egalitarian pleasuring party.' Ugh. There is nothing particularly new here; Wilson's ideology is just another version of patriarchal figures using religion to fight back against the equality movements of the late 19th and 20th centuries. They are basically the hatemongers of the Westboro Baptist Church dressed up in respectable clothing. 'Some people may conflate Christian nationalism and Christianity because they both use the symbols and language of Christianity, such as a Bible, a cross and worship songs,' says the group Christians Against Christian Nationalism on its website. 'But Christian nationalism uses the veneer of Christianity to advance its own aims — to point to a political figure, party or ideology instead of Jesus.' What you have in people like Hegseth and Wilson are authoritarian men who hide behind their religion to execute the most unchristian of agendas. God may hate divorce, but from my reading of the Bible, God hates hypocrisy even more. Bluesky: @rabcarianThreads: @rabcarian
Associated Press
a day ago
- Associated Press
Paramilitary group in Sudan shells famine-stricken camp in Darfur, killing 31 people
CAIRO (AP) — A paramilitary fighting against Sudan's military shelled a famine-stricken displacement camp in the western region of Dafür Saturday, killing at least 31 people, including seven children and a pregnant woman, a medical group said, in a second attack on the camp in less than a week. The Rapid Support Forces artillery shelling of the Abu Shouk camp outside el-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur province, also wounded 13 others, the Sudan Doctors Network said in a statement. The Resistance Committees in el-Fasher, a grassroots group tracking the war, said RSF launched an hours-long 'extensive artillery shelling' on the camp early Morning. It said in a Facebook post that the attack also resulted in severe damage to private properties and the camp's infrastructure. The RSF didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The RSF attacked Abu Shouk last week and killed more than 40 people, as the paramilitaries have tried to seize el-Fasher, the military's last stronghold in Darfur. Abu-Shouk is one of two camps for displaced people outside el-Fasher. They have repeatedly been attacked by the RSF and their Janjwaeed allies, including a major offensive in April which killed hundreds of people and forced hundreds of thousands others to flee. Both camps Abu Shouk and Zamzam have been hit by famine. Sudan's civil war broke out in April 2023 over a power struggle between commanders of the military and the RSF. The fighting wrecked the Northeastern African country, forced about 14 million people out of their homes, and pushed some of its parts into famine. Thousands of people were killed in the conflict and there have been atrocities, including mass killings and rape, particularly in Darfur. The International Criminal Court is investigating potential crimes and crimes against humanity in the conflict.
