RUTO’S ABDUCTIONS U-TURN

Has Kenya’s president William Ruto let the cat out of the bag? In August last year, he denied any knowledge of abductions of protesters by his security forces. But during a media conference on Monday, he confirmed that all abductees had been returned to their families.

Recall that, in June 2024, Kenyans protested in huge numbers against IMF-backed tax increases (on everything from bread to wheelchairs). The government’s response was a vicious crackdown, marked by arrests, abductions and killings.

Continued……. While Ruto now admits there were abductions, some families don’t believe his claim that all abductees have been returned. For example, Mary Nduta continues looking for her son, who was reportedly abducted by men that identified themselves as police in October 2024.

Do you trust Ruto?

Sources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKQIdIwn0uM

https://citizen.digital/news/president-ruto-there-are-no-missing-persons-all-abducted-kenyans-have-returned-home-n362615

https://www.kenyans.co.ke/news/112008-ruto-accused-lying-about-abductions-list-missing-kenyans-emerges

NIGERIA PAID OFF IMF DEBT WITH SOVEREIGNTY

Revolutionary pan-African icon Thomas Sankara once made a prophetic plea: ‘If we do not pay, the capital lenders will not die; if we pay, we will die. We cannot pay, and we don’t want to pay.’ The former Burkinabe president said this in a speech at the Organisation of African Unity summit in 1986 in Addis Ababa. Less than a year later, Sankara was killed! Decades on, his call goes unheeded.

In this video, Moussa Ibrahim, the former spokesman for Muammar Gaddafi’s revolutionary government, gives his take on Nigeria’s announcement on 8 May 2025 that it had paid off its IMF debt. Abuja had borrowed $3.4 billion during the COVID-19 crisis.

Continued…….. But what was the cost? IMF loans come with painful conditions attached, such as the scrapping of subsidies and the devaluation of national currencies. In this clip, @_moussa_ibrahim (X)—the former spokesperson for deposed ex-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi—shares his take on whether Nigeria’s IMF loan was worth it.

To satisfy the IMF, President Bola Tinubu floated the naira, which shed 70% of its value, badly harming Nigerians’ purchasing power. A fuel subsidy was removed, sending pump prices skyrocketing. Amid this austerity, Nigeria experienced its highest food inflation in 28 years.

It’s funny how the IMF never demands that corruption be rooted out. In Nigeria, this reportedly sucked $20 trillion from the economy between 1960 and 2005. Much of this wealth is in Western jurisdictions like the City of London and the Cayman Islands.

Video Credit: @_moussa_ibrahim (X) and @moussa.ibrahim.in.english (Insta)

Sources
https://www.documenta14.de/en/south/37_a_united_front_against_the_debt
https://www.facebook.com/Sankaralebt/posts/if-we-do-not-pay-the-capital-lenders-will-not-die-if-we-pay-we-will-die-we-canno/919654058103684/

https://archive.ph/Pcegg#selection-1995.3-1998.0

https://www.academia.edu/110662387/Analysis_on_IMF_Loan_Conditions_with_more_Detrimental_Impact_on_the_Economy_A_Case_Study_of_Nigeria

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/6/nigerias-petrol-use-falls-after-end-of-subsidy-regulator-says

https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/nigerian-inflation-rate-climbs-to-28-year-high-on-food-costs

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/377297627_A_CHRONOLOGY_OF_CORRUPTION_AND_LEADERSHIP_WOES_IN_NIGERIA_1960_-2023

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/11/opinion/pandora-papers-britain-london.html
https://www.ft.com/content/6dab83e4-4320-4867-9848-8d298023c324

DUTCH GOV’T SEES RED FOR SUPPORTING ISRAEL

On 18 May, The Netherlands witnessed one of the largest public demonstrations in two decades, with as many as 100,000 protesters demanding the Dutch government cease its political, economic, and military support for Israel’s military onslaught in Gaza.

Protesters symbolically created a ‘red line’ by wearing red and marching for five kilometres around the centre of The Hague, which houses the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC). A ‘red line’ is a diplomatic term aimed at compelling authorities to adhere to a moral and legal threshold lest they face consequences.

A 2024 survey by market researcher Ipsos I&O showed that more than half of the Dutch people want the Netherlands to stop supplying weapons to Israel, and 63 per cent want the government to call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

Continued………. In February 2024, a Dutch court ruled that the Netherlands must halt sending parts for F-35 fighter jets to Israel due to its ongoing attacks on Gaza. The government is now evaluating military and dual-use exports to Israel case-by-case.

The Netherlands’ traditional support for Israel is also under pressure within the ruling coalition. Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV), holds the most parliamentary seats and is a strong pro-Israel advocate. Wilders has accused pro-Palestine demonstrators of supporting H*mas, saying they are ‘confused.’ 

In contrast, Foreign Affairs Minister Caspar Veldkamp of the centre-right New Social Contract (NSC) party has adopted a more critical stance, urging the EU to reassess its trade deal with Israel due to the Gaza aid blockade, which he views as a violation of international law.

Israel’s Western-backed onslaught on Gaza and the Palestinian people has k*lled over 61,700, according to Gaza authorities, but other analysts put the figure much higher. In July 2024, British medical journal The Lancet estimated the death toll at over 186,000.

Will the people’s voices be heard, or will they be ignored?

Sources

https://www.timesofisrael.com/huge-protest-in-the-hague-demands-dutch-government-draw-red-line-on-gaza-war/

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/-draw-a-red-line-for-gaza-protesters-rally-in-the-hague-demanding-dutch-action/3572458#

https://x.com/nourdeenw/status/1924132136598098080

https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2025/5/19/tens-of-thousands-march-in-the-netherlands-to-protest-against-gaza-genocide

https://paxforpeace.nl/news/majority-of-dutch-people-oppose-to-arms-supplies-to-israel/

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/02/arms-exports-israel-must-stop-immediately-un-experts?ref=tumbleweird.org

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltext

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/dutch-far-right-leader-seeks-to-legitimize-israels-genocide-with-anti-islamism/3350708

https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/05/19/tens-of-thousands-protest-in-the-hague-to-demand-dutch-government-action-on-gaza-war

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/world/dutch-court-order-to-halt-f-35-part-exports-to-israel-may-influence-other-nations-says-oxfam-policy-advisor/3135423

https://www.politico.eu/article/the-netherlands-will-control-arms-exports-to-israel-more-closely

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/23/netherlands-tilts-to-the-right-with-geert-wilders-poll-victory

https://www.government.nl/government/members-of-cabinet/caspar-veldkamp

https://www.yalejournal.org/publications/crossing-the-red-line-international-legal-limits-on-policy-options

RSF LOSES LAST BASE IN KHARTOUM STATE

Momentum in Sudan’s proxy war appears to be with the country’s army. On Monday, it claimed another critical victory against the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary, forcing the United Arab Emirates proxy out of its remaining stronghold in Khartoum State.

This video, which has emerged online, purports to show locals in the Al-Salha district celebrating the national military’s entry. Fighting there has been raging for weeks.

According to a group of researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, more than 61,000 people were k*lled in Khartoum State during the first 14 months of the war (which started 15 April 2023).

Continued…….. Al-Salha is strategically essential. It contains key infrastructure - roads, a train station and a military camp. At the end of March, the army recaptured most of Khartoum’s capital - including the airport and Presidential Palace. In January, it wrested back control of Wad-Madani - a vital commercial, agricultural and transport hub in central Sudan, which raised hopes that the devastating war could be concluded.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), over two years of fighting have displaced more than 14 million people. Over 3 million Sudanese have sought refuge in neighbouring countries, and nearly half of the country’s population is facing acute malnourishment. According to the UN, Sudan is the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, but it gets relatively little coverage compared to other conflicts.

Sources

https://sudantribune.com/article301092/

https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/news/2024/invisible-and-severe-death-toll-sudan-conflict-revealed

https://theconversation.com/the-battle-for-khartoum-tracking-sudans-war-over-two-years-253242

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/12/could-the-sudanese-armys-capture-of-wad-madani-be-a-turning-point-of-war

THOMAS SANKARA MAUSOLEUM UNVEILED IN BURKINA FASO

Burkina Faso’s revolutionary former president, Captain Thomas Sankara (1949 - 1987), remains a towering presence in his home country - figuratively and, now, also literally.

On 17 May 2025, Ouagadougou unveiled its new Thomas Sankara Mausoleum. Designed by acclaimed Burkinabe architect Francis Kéré, the 87-metre-tall structure is a bold statement on African self-reliance, unity and resilience.

The 14-hectare site includes the building in which Sankara drew his last breath. It’s now encircled by a reflective water feature. And a tower offers panoramic views of the capital.

The space includes green parks, community centres and educational hubs, where Sankara's radical ideas will continue to inspire generations. Our short video gives you a glimpse.

Hear Us Roar: https://news.1rj.ru/str/AfricanStream

The concept of white supremacy emerged as an ideology to dehumanise African and Indigenous peoples worldwide, thereby justifying their exploitation in the service of capitalist imperial expansion. Capitalism inherently depends on hierarchical structures. As Pan-Africanist Malcolm X (1925-65) astutely pointed out, it cannot exist without r*cism, since the ruling class employs race as a tool to cement and perpetuate these hierarchies. Moreover, r*cism functions as part of a divide-and-conquer strategy against the working class to prevent collective resistance as a united front against the minority ruling elite.

The founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity would have turned 100 on 19 May. Six decades since his tragic assassination, his speeches and words still resonate deeply and reflect present-day realities.

Continued……Sources

https://www.lasairdhearg.com/you-cant-have-capitalism-without-racism/

https://www.socialistalternative.org/2005/07/01/you-cant-have-capitalism-without-racism-looking-back-at-malcolm-x-1925-1965/

POWERFUL U.S. THINK TANK PUSHES NIGERIA CARVE-UP

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) is an influential think tank that has pushed multiple recommendations into US government policy. Now, it’s turned its attention to Balkanising - dividing - Africa’s most populous country. Over the past nine months, AEI’s senior policy fellow, Michael Rubin, has published a series of articles on the AEI website. These urge Washington to use its diplomatic and military power in favour of Biafran separatists in Nigeria’s gas-rich southeast, which would facilitate the country’s breakup, ostensibly to ‘protect oppressed Christians’ against Nigeria’s ‘hostile Islamic majority.’

Continued……. There is indeed a recorded pattern of violence in Nigeria’s Northern and Middle Belt regions that disproportionately affects Christians, a problem that needs urgent resolution. However, it is also a completely different issue from Biafran separatism - a detail Rubin conceals in his articles. He omits critical information, such as the fact that Nigeria’s population is almost evenly split between Christianity and Islam. He also fails to note that the geographical areas affected by religious violence are ethnically and geographically distinct from those linked to Biafran separatism.

Rubin forgets to mention that modern Biafran ethnic separatism is heavily influenced by and associated with Zionism, with the modern Biafran flag featuring a Star of David. The separatists themselves have never characterised their struggle as Christian nationalism. Most dangerously of all, Rubin makes multiple references to violent separatist leader Simon Ekpa - currently on trial for terrorism in Finland - as a ‘persecuted African dissident.’

Why is Rubin intentionally muddying up issues and mischaracterising violent extremists as ‘dissidents’? Some suspect he’s creating a fictitious premise for intervention, laying the groundwork for a destructive, US-led neo-colonial resource-exploitation war. Any such intervention would Balkanise Africa’s most populous country and create a serious setback for African unity.

Our colleague @DavidHundeyin breaks it down.

Sources

https://www.aei.org/op-eds/virtue-signaling-gets-people-killed-there-are-no-shortcuts-to-palestinian-statehood/

https://israelrising.com/why-an-independent-igbo-israelite-state-is-necessary-in-west-africa/

https://israelrising.com/israel-biafra-strategy/

https://www.aei.org/op-eds/can-christianity-survive-nigerian-unity/

https://www.aei.org/op-eds/biafra-declares-independence-a-renewed-quest-for-freedom/

https://www.aei.org/op-eds/finlands-persecution-of-african-dissidents-betrays-its-top-freedom-ranking/

https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/American_Enterprise_Institute

https://dailypost.ng/2024/08/22/simon-ekpa-commends-aei-fellow-rubin-over-calls-for-us-support-of-biafra-liberation/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nigerian-civil-war

https://yle.fi/a/74-20162231

https://news.un.org/en/story/2013/12/458372

U.S. REFUGEE POLICY: WHITE - ALL RIGHT, BLACK - GO BACK

They’re calling it ‘asylum.’ But what it really looks like is apartheid in disguise.

Under Donald Trump’s administration, White farmers from one of the wealthiest demographics in South Africa began arriving in the US as ‘refugees.’ They weren’t fleeing war. Nor famine. They were ‘escaping’ supposed ‘persecution’ in a country where they still own more than 70% of private farmland, despite making up barely 7% of the population. No gen*cide. No invasion. Just grievance politics dressed up as humanitarian crisis.

Continued…….. Meanwhile, Sudan is suffering from the world’s worst humanitarian and displacement crises - with over 14-million people having fled their homes due to war. The DRC is bleeding from decades of foreign-backed conflict. In October 2024, the UN’s special rapporteur for human rights in Palestine said the world must recognise what is happening in Gaza as a gen*cide. The Lancet medical journal estimated that, by July 2024, the number of deaths may have exceeded 186,000 (mostly women and children). By the end of 2024, around 1.8-million Palestinians reportedly experienced critical levels of hunger. But where are the US refugee programmes for them?

Let’s not forget: Trump gutted refugee quotas, demonised Latin-American migrants and built a wall to keep Black and Brown people out. Yet somehow, the door was flung open for White South Africans who felt ‘unsafe’ in a country they economically dominate.

This is not about safety, it’s about race. It’s about who gets to claim pain and be believed; who gets to flee and find refuge; and who gets left to die in silence.

So we ask the question: do you have to be White and disgruntled to be recognised by the US as a refugee?

Sources

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-administration-faces-criticism-prioritizing-white-south-african/story?id=121755687

https://www.npr.org/2025/05/13/nx-s1-5395887/afrikaners-refugees-trump-episcopal-church


https://www.unrefugees.org/emergencies/sudan/#:~:text=Learn%20More%20About%20the%20Conflict%20in%20Sudan&text=Since%20the%20conflict%20in%20Sudan,have%20fled%20to%20neighboring%20countries.


https://press.un.org/en/2024/gapal1473.doc.htm
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/gaza-death-toll-exceeds-52-900-as-israel-kills-20-more-palestinians/3567486

DOES THE WEST HAVE FREEDOM OF SPEECH?

Is the BBC free to report on matters as they are? Not if you ask former footballer and outgoing BBC host of ‘Match of the Day’ Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker on X). 

In this video, he accuses the BBC of answering to lobbyists in reply to BBC presenter Amol Rajan (@amolrajan on X). Indeed, Lineker's comparison of the UK’s immigration policy to N*zi Germany forced him off a TV programme. That raises the question: Does the West uphold free speech?

Lineker is expected to leave the British broadcaster by the end of this month and won't be hosting its coverage of the 2026 World Cup. Some accused him of anti-Semitism over a now-deleted post, with senior BBC leadership reportedly considering his position 'untenable.'

Continued…….. Looking at incidents such as the US detention of pro-Palestine protester Mahmoud Khalil, the US/UK persecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (@wikileaks on X), and the US chasing whistleblower Edward Snowden (@snowden on X) tells a different story. The West tolerates speech only if it doesn’t threaten Western interests.

Have a watch, and let us know what you think.

Check out the complete conversation on Editor-in-Chief Ahmed Kaballo’s YouTube channel (@ahmedkaballo4170).

Soundbite credit: @BBC

Sources
https://apnews.com/article/columbia-university-mahmoud-khalil-ice-440828980a4ee7bf4ddcf3d123e02b3e

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/20/julian-assange-appeals-in-most-important-press-freedom-case-in-the-world

https://www.thereviewgeek.com/where-is-edward-snowden-now/

https://www.football365.com/news/gary-lineker-set-early-bbc-exit-date-revealed-position-untenable-deleted-post

LARGEST REMAINING ANTEBELLUM PLANTATION MANSION BURNS DOWN

On 15 May, the Nottoway Plantation in the US state of Louisiana, the largest remaining antebellum (pre-Civil War) mansion in the US South, was reduced to ashes. 

Built in 1859 by enslaved Africans for sugar plantation owner John Hampden Randolph, the 4,923-square-metre mansion containing dozens of rooms stood as a stark symbol of the United States' history of slavery. 

The cause of the fire is still unknown, but the incident elicited reactions online. While some recognised the mansion’s seeming grandeur and painful racial past, Black people viewed the destruction as a form of symbolic justice, with the ashes representing their ancestors' suffering.

Sources

https://nypost.com/2025/05/16/us-news/fire-guts-nottoway-plantation-largest-antebellum-mansion

https://www.foxnews.com/us/americas-largest-remaining-antebellum-mansion-burns-down-devastating-fire.amp

Continued……. https://www.thedailybeast.com/souths-biggest-antebellum-mansion-nottaway-plantation-mysteriously-burns-to-ground

https://www.nottoway.com

https://betweennapsontheporch.net/tour-nottoway-plantation-in-white-castle-louisiana

https://www.slam.org/collection/objects/21083

'Lost Plantations of the South' (2009), pages 184-185 and 191: https://archive.org/details/lost-plantations-of-the-south-by-marc-r-matrana-2009