Latest news with #armedviolence
Reuters
5 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
US imposes sanctions on Congo armed group, mining firms over illicit minerals
Aug 12 (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday announced sanctions against an armed group aligned with Congo's military as well as a Congolese mining company and two Hong Kong-based exporters over armed violence and the sale of critical minerals. The measures are the latest taken by the administration of President Donald Trump to try to bring peace to eastern Congo, where Rwanda-backed M23 rebels staged a lightning advance earlier this year, spurring violence that has killed thousands of people. The Treasury Department said it was putting sanctions on the Coalition des Patriotes Resistants Congolais-Forces de Frappe (PARECO-FF), a militia that it said controlled mining sites in the mineral-rich region of Rubaya from 2022 to 2024. Rubaya, now controlled by M23, produces 15% of the world's coltan, which is processed into a heat-resistant metal called tantalum that is in high demand from makers of mobile phones, computers and other applications in the electronics, aerospace and medical industries. The new sanctions, which restrict trade with U.S. companies and persons, also target the Congolese mining company Cooperative des Artisanaux Miniers du Congo (CDMC), which the Treasury Department said sold critical minerals smuggled from PARECO-FF areas of control, and the Hong Kong-based export companies East Rise Corporation Limited and Star Dragon Corporation Limited, which it said bought those minerals. A senior U.S. government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington was seeking to raise the cost of illicit trade "to make the licit trade that much more appealing." The Trump administration hopes an eventual peace deal will attract billions in Western investments to a region rich in tantalum, gold, cobalt, copper, lithium and other minerals. A report by a U.N. group of experts published last month said Congo's army had received support from PARECO-FF in late 2024 and early 2025. A Congolese government spokesperson and East Rise did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday. Star Dragon, CDMC and PARECO-FF could not be reached for comment. Jason Stearns, a Congo expert, said he was surprised that PARECO-FF, not M23, had been targeted in the new mining-related sanctions but said the move might be aimed at not derailing talks going on in Doha. Qatar is hosting direct talks between Congo and M23, while Washington is hosting talks between Congo and Rwanda. Congo, the United Nations and Western powers say Rwanda is supporting M23 by sending troops and arms. Rwanda has long denied helping M23 and says its forces are acting in self-defence against Congo's army and ethnic Hutu militiamen linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The senior U.S. official acknowledged M23 was involved in the illicit trade of minerals and noted that M23 has already had sanctions placed on it by the U.S. and the United Nations. A U.S. sanctions announcement in January 2013 said M23 was "committing serious violations of international law involving the targeting of children in situations of armed conflict in the DRC, including killing and maiming, sexual violence, abduction, and forced displacement." It made no mention of minerals smuggling. Last year, the Treasury Department put sanctions on the broader Alliance Fleuve Congo rebel coalition, of which M23 is a central member. It has also sanctioned members of the M23 leadership. The senior U.S. official said the Trump administration's diplomacy was "progressing" and that sanctions were a way of targeting "spoilers" seeking to profit off the illicit mineral trade. It wanted all parties to realize there would be a brighter economic future if U.S. companies had confidence that they could invest in a "stable and peaceful" eastern Congo, the official said.
Telegraph
18-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Global conflict levels highest since end of Second World War
Global conflict has risen to the highest level since the end of the Second World War, driven up by spiralling violence in the Middle East and Ukraine. A total of 59 active conflicts are currently raging in more than 35 countries – the most since 1945 – with 152,000 conflict-related deaths recorded in 2024, according to the 2025 Global Peace Index, an annual report on armed violence. The report published by the Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP) captures a world on the brink, with the current unipolar world order in flux. 'We're ushering in a new age,' said Steve Killelea, founder and executive chairman of the IEP. 'The current international order is at a tipping point. The world order is seeing its biggest chance since the Second World War,' he told The Telegraph. The annual report takes a series of data points and ranks every country by how peaceful they are. Iceland, Ireland, New Zealand, Austria and Switzerland topped the table in 2025, while the five least peaceful countries were Russia, Ukraine, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Yemen. The UK ranked as the 30th most peaceful, while the US ranked at 128 out of 163 countries. 'A fundamental realignment' The report's authors also analysed the way in which different countries project influence beyond their borders, and found that the influence of the US, China and Russia on global affairs. The influence of the US, China and Russia on the world order is waning, according to the report, with mid-level powers becoming more active and influential within their regions due to their rising wealth. The number of countries wielding significant geopolitical influence beyond their borders has risen to 34, up from just six in the 1970s. Nations like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, India, the UAE, Israel, South Africa, Brazil, and Indonesia have emerged as prominent regional powers. 'Middle power nations are rising. They're starting to become more and more active,' said Mr Killelea, adding that the transformation has been driven by intensifying great power competition and unsustainable debt burdens in the world's most fragile states. 'This is leading to a fundamental realignment and a possible tipping point to a new international order, the nature of which still can't be fathomed.' Wars are becoming more internationalised, with more countries than ever involved in conflicts beyond their borders. Ukraine and Russia, for example, rely on the support of numerous international allies, while there are also believed to be at least seven countries backing both sides of the civil war raging in Sudan. Mr Killelea warned that Donald Trump's administration has unsettled the global economy and therefore could lead to an increase in conflict in years to come. 'The Trump administration's decisions have been globally unsettling on the economic outlook now,' he explained. 'As economic output plummets, it is likely to increase global tensions, which will lead to more conflict globally.'
Reuters
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Record number of people displaced by violence in Haiti, UN agency says
GENEVA, June 11 (Reuters) - A record 1.3 million people have been forced to leave their homes in Haiti due to a surge in armed violence in the last six months, according to the UN agency for migration. The number of people internally displaced in the Caribbean country has jumped 24% since December, according to the International Organization for Migration. It is the highest number of people displaced by violence ever recorded by the IOM in the country. "Behind these numbers are so many individual people whose suffering is immeasurable; children, mothers, the elderly, many of them forced to flee their homes multiple now living in conditions that are neither safe nor sustainable," said Amy Pope, IOM Director General. Gangs armed with weapons largely trafficked from the United States have formed an alliance in the capital Port-au-Prince and together control 85% of the city, according to the U.N. A growing number of people are fleeing the capital for safety elsewhere in the country, according to the IOM. In the Centre Department, a region north of the capital, fighting has driven double the number of people away from their homes from around 68,000 to more than 147,000 in towns like Mirebalais and Saut-d'Eau, the IOM said. Many people are living in makeshift shelters and do not have access to health care, schooling or clean water, it added. In February UNICEF reported on a surge in sexual violence against children in Haiti. Extreme poverty has also pushed children into gangs, with up to half of all armed groups made up of minors, according to the U.N. children's agency.
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Yahoo
Freeport man charged with armed violence in Officer Krystal Rivera's ‘mistaken' fatal shooting
Authorities have charged a 25-year-old Freeport man with armed violence in connection with the fatal shooting of Officer Krystal Rivera. Charged is Adrian Rucker, the department announced said early Sunday. The charges came two days after he allegedly pointed a rifle at Officer Krystal Rivera and other tactical officers from the Gresham (6th) District, who had chased a person into a Chatham apartment while trying to conduct an investigatory stop. Rivera, 36, was mistakenly shot and killed by another officer during the confrontation, police have said. Department investigators are still probing the attempted investigative stop near 82nd and Drexel that led up to the shooting Rucker also faces felony counts of use of a firearm without a FOID card, possession of a fake ID and drug possession, police said. He was set to appear in bond court Sunday morning, according to a news release. Rivera had been a police officer for four years and leaves behind a young daughter. A resident of the Irving Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side, she was the first city police officer to be killed in the line of duty this year. City leaders, police brass and friends described her as a hard worker with an independent streak who loved her job. Around 10:08 p.m. Thursday, officers found and detained Rucker, 25, and a 26-year-old woman, also from Freeport, in a gated yard near an apartment building at 8215 S. Maryland Ave., according to police sources and court records. Authorities had previously issued six arrest warrants for Rucker. According to police sources, those warrants are for criminal damage to property, theft under $500, and two alleged instances of domestic battery, all out of Stephenson County in northwestern Illinois. He also had a warrant for aggravated identity theft out of northwest suburban Rolling Meadows and another for possession of fake identification out of Winnebago County, court records show. The woman had one active warrant, according to police sources. According to Cook County Court records, Rucker was first arrested in April 2024 for alleged aggravated identity theft in Rolling Meadows. He was released pending trial, records show, but failed to appear for a June court date and Judge Ellen Beth Mandeltort issued an arrest warrant in July 2024. The woman has not been charged with anything related to Rivera's death, but appeared in Cook County bond court Saturday regarding her arrest warrant out of Stephenson County, court records show. Her next court date is scheduled for Thursday.
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Yahoo
Freeport man charged with armed violence in Officer Krystal Rivera's ‘mistaken' fatal shooting
Authorities have charged a 25-year-old Freeport man with armed violence in connection with the fatal shooting of Officer Krystal Rivera. Charged is Adrian Rucker, the department announced said early Sunday. The charges came two days after he allegedly pointed a rifle at Officer Krystal Rivera and other tactical officers from the Gresham (6th) District, who had chased a person into a Chatham apartment while trying to conduct an investigatory stop. Rivera, 36, was mistakenly shot and killed by another officer during the confrontation, police have said. Department investigators are still probing the attempted investigative stop near 82nd and Drexel that led up to the shooting Rucker also faces felony counts of use of a firearm without a FOID card, possession of a fake ID and drug possession, police said. He was set to appear in bond court Sunday morning, according to a news release. Rivera had been a police officer for four years and leaves behind a young daughter. A resident of the Irving Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side, she was the first city police officer to be killed in the line of duty this year. City leaders, police brass and friends described her as a hard worker with an independent streak who loved her job. Around 10:08 p.m. Thursday, officers found and detained Rucker, 25, and a 26-year-old woman, also from Freeport, in a gated yard near an apartment building at 8215 S. Maryland Ave., according to police sources and court records. Authorities had previously issued six arrest warrants for Rucker. According to police sources, those warrants are for criminal damage to property, theft under $500, and two alleged instances of domestic battery, all out of Stephenson County in northwestern Illinois. He also had a warrant for aggravated identity theft out of northwest suburban Rolling Meadows and another for possession of fake identification out of Winnebago County, court records show. The woman had one active warrant, according to police sources. According to Cook County Court records, Rucker was first arrested in April 2024 for alleged aggravated identity theft in Rolling Meadows. He was released pending trial, records show, but failed to appear for a June court date and Judge Ellen Beth Mandeltort issued an arrest warrant in July 2024. The woman has not been charged with anything related to Rivera's death, but appeared in Cook County bond court Saturday regarding her arrest warrant out of Stephenson County, court records show. Her next court date is scheduled for Thursday.
