KENYA HOSTS RSF FOR SUDAN CARVE-UP TALKS

Kenya’s involvement in Sudan’s proxy war has come under scrutiny after Nairobi hosted the UAE-backed Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on February 18. While in the Kenyan capital, the paramilitary group, which has been accused of severe human-rights abuses - including genocide, kidnappings, rape, and sexual slavery - unveiled plans to establish a rival government in parts of Darfur and Kordofan (which it currently controls). It comes amid reports that the RSF recently executed 200 civilians during a three-day rampage through villages in Sudan’s south.

This apparent closeness to the RSF has severely strained Kenya-Sudan relations, with Khartoum slamming Nairobi for what it brands its complicity in genocide.

Continued……Sudan also alleges that Kenya harbours RSF rebel leaders. Weapons on their way from the United Arab Emirates to the Abu Dhabi-backed RSF in Sudan reportedly use Kenya’s Mombasa as a transit point, while President William Ruto has been criticised for engaging directly with RSF leaders.

As the extent of Kenya’s role in contributing to Sudan’s destabilisation becomes clearer, the absence of continental leadership over the issue raises serious questions as to the role of bodies such as the African Union.

Sources:

https://kenyanforeignpolicy.com/kenyas-diplomatic-dilemma-as-sudans-militia-plans-government-in-nairobi/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sudan-civil-war-hrw-rsf-genocide-geneina-threat-ethnic-cleansing-fasher

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0rzw8wqn8vo

https://sudantribune.com/article274476/

https://archive.ph/OkgaW

https://www.facebook.com/Sudania24TV/posts/pfbid0ZKqXAGe4Bzus1PBizPdDvq9h2jRbrjiMa3XLn5ip2p5aEt9XrwXSZ7PRckBNfToGl

AFRIKANER PROTESTERS ASK TRUMP TO ‘HELP’ THEM

Hundreds of white South Africans protested on 15 February outside the US embassy in Pretoria, calling on US President Donald Trump to look into their grievances. Holding placards that read ‘Thank God for President Trump,’ the protesters—mostly Afrikaners (Dutch settlers)—claimed the South African government discriminates against white settlers.

Afrikaners have denounced the country’s new land expropriation law as well as other affirmative action policies put in place since the end of apartheid in the early 1990s to advance opportunities for Black South Africans and other racial groups that were oppressed and marginalised during the apartheid era.

South Africa’s law intends to correct a historic injustice, as most arable land remains in the hands of the white Afrikaner minority. In 2017, a government report revealed white settlers still held 72 per cent of privately owned farmland.

Continued……Yet, they made up only 7.3 per cent of the population, according to a 2022 census.

In response to the expropriation law, Trump’s 7 February executive order cut off aid to South Africa and offered to re-settle Afrikaners in the United States.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Trump’s ‘special government employee’ born and raised in apartheid South Africa, has added fuel to the fire by claiming Afrikaner farmers have been victims of r*cist murders, playing into the unfounded claim that the government is aiding a g*nocide against white settlers.

Under the new law, in certain circumstances—if deemed ‘just and equitable’ and ‘in the public interest’—the state can seize land without compensation. The law replaced the apartheid-era Expropriation Act of 1975, which mandated compensation for landowners under the ‘willing seller, willing buyer’ principle.

Photo credit: @ScythesBingo (Reddit)

Sources:

https://time.com/7225641/white-south-africans-gather-us-embassy-support-donald-trump

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/14/trump-musk-south-africa-afriforum

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/08/trump-cuts-aid-to-south-africa-over-racial-discrimination-against-afrikaners

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/addressing-egregious-actions-of-the-republic-of-south-africa

https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1032454567152246785

https://harpers.org/archive/2019/03/the-myth-of-white-genocide-in-south-africa

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn01z1yy0jno

KENYA’S ‘RED CARPET’ FOR GEN*CIDAL RSF

‘Rolling out the red carpet while Sudan burns’ - that’s how political commentator @djbwakali describes Kenya’s hosting the Rapid Support Forces, which unveiled plans in Nairobi to set up a breakaway government in the Sudanese territories it controls. He reminds us of the litany of war crimes the UAE-backed paramilitary group is guilty of, both during the current war and before - targeting non-Arab communities. Khartoum has angrily denounced Kenya’s decision to platform its enemy - suggesting that Nairobi too is acting with hostility, and insinuating that hosting the RSF makes it complicit in its crimes.

Continued……@djbwakali suggest that the reason Kenyan president William Ruto’s administration is cozying up to these ‘warlords’ is gold - something there’s a lot of in Sudan, many of whose mines are currently in the RSF’s hands. The Kenyan elite, he suggests, has developed an appetite for this gold - and he urges other Africans nations to respond to Kenya’s growing role in Sudan’s proxy war. This has seen some 8.9 million internally displaced, while 3.4 million have sought refuge in neighbouring countries.

Video credit: @Djbwakali (IG)

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

MALEMA: CLOSE ISRAELI EMBASSY

Economic Freedom Fighters (@effsouthafrica) President Julius Malema urged South Africa’s government to remain resolute in the face of US President Donald Trump’s administration threatening to cut HIV/AIDS programme aid as a gesture of support for the Afrikaner-led separatist Orania Movement.

Allegedly sparked by South Africa enacting a land expropriation law that would primarily affect white settlers, many see the United States’ real beef being South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Lodged on 29 December 2023, South Africa alleged that Israel had committed and was committing g*nocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, contravening the UN G*nocide Convention. 

Continued……In this clip of his speech at South Africa’s recent State of the Nation address, Malema (@julius.malema.sello [IG], @julius_s_malema [X]) called for closing the Israeli embassy in South Africa following the recall of Israel’s ambassador to South Africa in November 2023.

Video credit: @SABCnews

SOURCES

https://www.ewn.co.za/2025/02/11/sona-debate-malema-calls-on-ramaphosa-to-stand-firm-against-us-threats

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-67482681

https://apnews.com/article/world-court-israel-genocide-gaza-south-africa-774ab3c3d57fd7bcc627602eaf47fd98

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-02-06-we-will-not-be-bullied-resolute-ramaphosa-stands-up-to-us/?dm_source=dm_block_grid&dm_medium=card_link&dm_campaign=main

Complete speech
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OufmZkZCI0

CONGO’S COLONIAL LEGACY SHAPED ITS CURRENT STATE

African Stream’s ‘Pan-African Attitude’ podcast episode no. 18 explored the three-decade-long, Western-backed proxy war over natural resources in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that had k*lled about 6 million by 2010 and internally displaced about 7 million as of last year.

Here, Maurice Carney, co-founder and executive director of Friends of the Congo (@congofriends), breaks down why we must consider the mineral conflict continued by Rwandan and Ugandan compradors (natives loyal to colonialists) within the context of Congo’s colonial past, which divided the land amongst Europeans and g*nocided its people.

Watch the whole episode on our X and Rumble accounts, and on YouTube (search for @ahmedkaballo4170).

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

Continued……. Currently, Sudan is experiencing another surge in violence as the army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, seeks to reclaim control from the RSF in the capital and surrounding areas. Approximately 12.5-million Sudanese have been forcibly displaced, with 8.9 million newly internally displaced and 3.4 million seeking refuge in other countries. The UN has described this situation as the most severe humanitarian crisis and displacement scenario globally, with 30.4-million individuals - two-thirds of the population - requiring humanitarian aid.

Sources:

https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/africa/2025-02-19-sudan-accuses-kenya-of-hostility-for-hosting-rsf#google_vignette

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8j9j72lvdvo

https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/05/09/qa-war-crimes-crimes-against-humanity-ethnic-cleansing-west-darfur

https://hmh.org/library/research/genocide-in-darfur-guide/

https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/11/18/they-were-shouting-kill-them/sudans-violent-crackdown-protesters-khartoum

https://www.reuters.com/world/uae-flights-flood-airstrip-un-says-supplies-weapons-sudan-rebels-2024-12-12/

https://web.archive.org/web/20240810062543/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/darfur

https://web.archive.org/web/20240810062543/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/darfur

https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/02/1160161

On this day, 20 February, in 1895, Frederick Douglass (1818-95), a leading figure in the slavery abolition movement, died aged 77 due to either a heart attack or a stroke.

Douglass was born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey to Harriet Bailey, an enslaved African woman and a white man whose details remain unknown. Though his exact date of birth is unknown, it is estimated to be around February 1818. He later adopted 14 February as his birthday.

Douglass was separated from his mother as a child and spent most of his early years with his maternal grandmother. His mother died when he was still a child. He spent most of his teens enslaved on different plantations.

Continued….. Despite slaveholders banning enslaved people from learning to read and write, Douglass found ways to educate himself.

In 1838, Douglass escaped from Maryland to New York by disguising himself as a sailor. He later moved to Massachusetts with his wife, Anna Murray (1813-82), a free African woman who helped Douglass escape his final enslaver. In Massachusetts, he changed his surname to Douglass. Here, he also got involved with the local abolitionist movement. In 1841, he addressed the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society’s annual convention. His oratory prowess mesmerised the audience, prompting his rise through the movement’s ranks.

Aside from his oration, Douglass was a gifted writer. In 1845, he published his first book, an autobiography, ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.’

He spent the 1840s travelling around the United States advocating for the abolition of slavery and suffering several physical attacks, including one in Pendleton, Indiana, in 1843 that broke his hand. However, these attacks did not deter Douglass.

In his later years, he was a newspaper publisher and held several government positions. He also advocated for the US Constitution to grant formerly enslaved people the right to vote.

Until his death, Douglass remained a champion of African people. Now, he continues to be a source of inspiration for all those standing against imperialist exploitation.

Sources:

https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/frederick-douglass

https://www.whitehousehistory.org/frederick-douglass

https://www.civilrightsmuseum.org/news/posts/frederick-douglass-abolitionist-journalist-reformer-1818-1895

https://www.biography.com/activists/frederick-douglass

https://www.nantucket-ma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/37300/FD-WALKING-TOUR-FINAL-2-003

https://www.nps.gov/museum/exhibits/douglass/exb/visionary/FRDO497_deathHand.html

https://freedomcenter.org/voice/agitation-and-activism-the-life-and-legacy-of-frederick-douglass

https://sos.oregon.gov/archives/exhibits/suffrage/Pages/bio/douglass.aspx

SILENCE OF RWANDANS ON CONGO IS A TRAGEDY

An unsettling silence envelops Rwanda. Kigali is complicit in the mineral war that’s tearing the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo apart. The UN says Kigali has sent up 4,000 troops across the border to assist M23 rebels in their bid to control the region’s most lucrative mines. M23 is guilty of multiple atrocities against the Congolese people. Yet Rwandans - despite their own tragic past - are silent.

Is that simply a reflection of Kigali’s tight grip over the media and public discourse? Or, like their president Paul Kagame, are they simply feigning ignorance about what’s happening in eastern DRC?

Continued…….. Claude Gatebuke, a survivor of the Rwandan Genocide and human-rights advocate, acknowledges that it’s difficult to voice dissent in what’s widely considered Rwanda’s police state. In this clip, he explains why, all the same, the muted response from Rwandans to what their government is doing to its neighbour in pursuit of profit - is a tragedy.

Sources:

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/03/africa/rwanda-kigame-troops-dr-congo-intl/index.html

http://www.hscentre.org/africa/silenced-critics-repression-journalism-rwanda/

https://www.rfi.fr/en/international-news/20240712-rwandan-mother-aims-to-prove-that-politics-is-for-all

FROM THE ALLIANCE OF SAHEL STATES TO THE UNITED STATES OF AFRICA

The Alliance of Sahel States (AES) is capturing the attention of Pan-Africanists and anti-imperialists worldwide for its courageous, outspoken leadership. But those on the frontlines pushing the AES forward are not just the brilliant presidents Ibrahim Traoré, Assimi Goïta, and Abdourahamane Tiani, but also the dedicated people who assert their Pan-African demands.

In this video, a Pan-African leader from the civil society organisation Headquarter of the Revolution, Pape Diallo, explained the urgent need and popular demand for the AES to move from a confederation—or a bloc of three countries—to a federation, meaning a single Pan-African country with a shared government and citizenship.

Continued……Diallo spoke about the long history of African resistance to slavery and colonialism and the fight to unify Africa to create a sovereign and self-determining superstate. Like many others, he sees the AES as a step toward that goal.

Video credit: Quartier Général de la Révolution (Facebook)