RSF ATTACKS SUDAN’S BIGGEST REFUGEE CAMP

Video has emerged of the recent attack by the Rapid Support Forces on Sudan’s largest camp for internal refugees, which hosts some half a million people (according to Middle East Eye). The UAE-backed paramilitary targeted members of the Zaghawa community. It’s been laying siege to the ZamZam site in North Darfur since April last year - blocking access of vital supplies, which has led to a humanitarian crisis. The latest violent raid saw RSF fighters torch sections of the camp and kill over 30, before being repelled by forces loyal to Khartoum.

Sources:

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/rsf-attack-zamzam-camp-leaves-food-and-supplies-verge-running-out

https://www.savethechildren.org/us/about-us/media-and-news/2024-press-releases/sudan-families-resorting-to-desperate-measures-famine-conditions

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

THE HUMAN COST OF THE DRC CONFLICT

The ongoing crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) isn’t an abstract event but an assault on the land’s custodians, who have paid the highest price for the wealth under their feet for the past three decades. 

Take Goma city, rich in minerals crucial for global markets, such as cobalt. The Rwanda- and Uganda-backed M23 militia has in the latest escalation assaulted the people in the capital city of North Kivu province forcing hundreds of thousands to flee starting in January. Attacks on civilians have displaced and even k*lled people, allowing militias to acquire land.

To highlight the cyclical nature of the violence, Orion (@pappyorion on IG and X) shared his personal experience of losing relatives and his encounter in a displacement camp with a 4-year-old child orphan, Baraka, who once lived in Rubaya, a mining region under M23 control since 2024.

Continued…….. The child now lives with Focus Congo (@focuscongo on IG and @focuscongo_drc on X), an NGO Orion founded.

The M23 has reportedly generated $800,000 per month in Rubaya from taxing mined coltan, crucial for powering devices like smartphones. Plus, DRC’s finance minister, Nicolas Kazadi, accused Rwanda of making $1 billion a year through minerals theft. The United Arab Emirates government is the biggest buyer of smuggled African gold, and Western tech firms like Apple and Tesla rely on minerals such as cobalt. 

The conflict required to guarantee these profits has k*lled at least 6 million Congolese as of 2010 and internally displaced over 7 million as of last year. In addition, M23’s recent campaign across eastern DRC has displaced 700,000 people since January, according to the UN.

You can watch the complete Episode 18 on our X or Rumble accounts or on YouTube (search for @ahmedkaballo4170).

Sources
M23 minting Rubaya
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/19/opinion/congo-rwanda-rebels-war.html

UAE routing Africa’s gold
https://apnews.com/article/gold-smuggling-africa-uae-switzerland-e1a614c465766f1c3e90fb9e5a5167a2

Kigali making $1 billion a year from mineral theft
https://www.ft.com/content/ecf89818-949b-4de7-9e8a-89f119c23a69

Western firms complicity
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-50812616

Congo displaced
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/25/at-least-12-peacekeepers-killed-in-eastern-dr-congo-fighting

4-year-old orphan Baraka
https://x.com/FocusCongo_DRC/status/1893923637599646105

HOW A MILITIA COLLAPSED SUDAN

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) emerged from the Janjaweed militia, a brutal force originally mobilised by Sudan’s government to suppress ethnic rebellions in Darfur. Over time, the RSF evolved from a state-sponsored militia into an independent military and political powerhouse, accumulating wealth through illicit gold mining and expanding its influence across Sudan. Its history of violence, from genocide in Darfur to the massacre of protesters in 2019, set the stage for its open conflict with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in April 2023. This power struggle has plunged Sudan into the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with 150,000 dead and millions displaced.

The RSF’s reach extends beyond Sudan, having played key roles in conflicts across Africa and West Asia.

Continued……It has fuelled war in the Central African Republic, backed Chadian rebels, fought as mercenaries for Saudi and UAE interests in Yemen and Libya, and even cooperated with the European Union in controversial migration-control efforts. Understanding this history is crucial to grasping the RSF’s position today - no longer just a Sudanese paramilitary, but a regional actor shaping conflicts through force, resources and foreign backing.

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

PINTO AND X: OVERLAPPING VISIONS AND FATES

Six decades ago, the African world was robbed of two revolutionary giants. Kenya’s freedom fighter Pio Gama Pinto and pan-African revolutionary Malcolm X were assassinated within the space of just three days in February 1965.

In 2024, political activist Sefu Sanni visited Pinto’s grave in Nairobi and participated in a memorial gathering to mark the 59th anniversary of the freedom fighter’s assassination. In this report, she gives us a rundown of Pinto’s revolutionary exploits and the connections he shared with Malcolm X.

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

DID RUTO RUIN KENYA’S BID FOR AU‘S TOP JOB?

In a twist worthy of a political drama, Kenya’s aspirations for the African Union chairmanship have once again come unstuck. Nairobi’s candidate - former prime minister Raila Odinga - was left high and dry as Djibouti’s foreign minister, Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, won the most votes and bagged the coveted role.

Odinga had strong backing from William Ruto - and many think that’s why, despite being a favourite, he ultimately lost. The Kenyan president‘s policies on the continent have long been rubbing fellow African nations up the wrong way. Odinga’s defeat is possibly a relief to Kenya’s opposition, though - as they’d rather have him at home leading them and keeping government accountable.

Continued……Sources:

https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/president-ruto-holds-talks-with-rsf-leader-hemedti-in-nairobi-4481676 https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/congo-recalls-envoys-kenya-tanzania-over-alliance-launch-nairobi-2023-12-16/

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-67758635

https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/sahrawi-gaffe-hands-kenya-ruto-first-diplomatic-dilemma-3950592

https://kenyanforeignpolicy.com/nairobi-tight-lipped-on-railas-auc-campaign-budget/

https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2023-10-08-kenya-stands-with-israel-ruto-says-amidst-war-with-palestine

https://au.int/en/pressreleases/20250216/he-mahmoud-ali-youssouf-he-ambassador-selma-malika-haddadi-and-4

https://en.sputniknews.africa/20240225/what-is-frances-role-in-eastern-drc-conflict--tensions-with-rwanda-1065237633.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd3LeNdDm_E

IS KENYA TRULY NEUTRAL IN SUDAN WAR?

Kenya just pulled off a diplomatic ‘masterstroke’ - hosting Sudan’s genocidal paramilitary, the Rapid Support Forces in Nairobi. While most of the world recognises the RSF as a gang of war criminals responsible for mass atrocities, Kenya apparently saw an opportunity for… er, ‘networking.’ After all, why worry about pesky things like genocide when the RSF’s number-one sponsor - the United Arab Emirates - is about to give you a $1.5 billion loan.

There’s more. Kenyan President William Ruto is also in talks to ink a deal with Abu Dhabi - to extend Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway to Uganda and South Sudan. What’s a little bloodshed when there’s ‘infrastructure’ money to be pocketed?

Continued……. Mounting evidence shows that the UAE is the economic force behind the RSF. A September 2024 investigative report published by the New York Times, for example, used satellite imaging to show how the UAE covertly arms the RSF by disguising weapons as aid - using the famous Red Crescent logo. The weapons are funnelled into Sudan via the Chadian border - and increase the RSF’s capacity to commit atrocities against the Sudanese people.

In January, the US - hardly a champion of justice - concluded that the RSF was committing genocide in Sudan and sanctioned its leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

Kenya’s foreign ministry tried hard to justify hosting the RSF with its own reasons in a statement published amid the backlash to its hosting of the group - an event at which the paramilitary revealed plans to dismember Sudan. But as our video explains, Nairobi’s excuses are far from convincing.

Sources

https://citizen.digital/news/kenya-defends-hosting-rsf-in-nairobi-amid-sudan-govt-backlash-n357919

https://apnews.com/article/kenya-sudan-war-rsf-nairobi-hemedti-2bc5122812ad58d4a6cac8be2e371513

https://www.msn.com/en-xl/politics/government/sudan-rebukes-william-ruto-for-hosting-dreaded-rfs-rebel-group-threatens-action/ar-AA1zkXrp

https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/national/article/2001512182/how-william-rutos-dalliance-with-rsf-risks-isolating-kenya#google_vignette

https://eastleighvoice.co.ke/sudan/116745/sudan-says-ruto-broke-promises-by-allowing-rsf-meeting-in-nairobi

https://www.kenyans.co.ke/news/109099-sudan-slams-ruto-govt-after-hosting-rebel-group-nairobi

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/10/sudan-rsf-tried-to-polish-its-image-but-its-crimes-are-being-recognised

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/21/world/africa/uae-sudan-civil-war.html

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

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-21/kenya-said-to-receive-uae-loan-of-1-5-billion-next-week

https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/economy/kenya-turns-to-the-uae-for-sgr-funds-after-china-cut-financing-4890158

GAZA GEN*CIDE: ICC CALLED TO INVESTIGATE U.S. OFFICIALS

For decades, US leaders have armed and shielded Israel while it carries out atrocities against Palestinians, always escaping accountability. But that may be changing. On 19 January, US-based NGO Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) submitted a 169-page communication to International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan, calling on it to launch investigations into former US officials, such as President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in aiding and abetting Israeli war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza.

The document accuses the three of playing a direct role in the provision of nearly $18 billion worth of military support that boosted Israel’s capacity for its onslaught against Palestinians since 8 October 2023. The filing also calls for investigations into other key former Biden administration officials. 

Continued……. DAWN noted that although the United States is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, the ICC has ‘subject matter, territorial, and geographic jurisdiction over US officials in its ongoing investigation into violations’ of the statute in Palestine. ‘We have tried every available avenue within the US to stop our government’s complicity,’ said Raed Jarrar, DAWN’s advocacy director.

Middle East Eye reports that DAWN submitted the document on 19 January, during the Biden administration’s final days, ‘but didn’t make it public, hoping to avoid the US government’s initial period of transition from the Biden administration to Donald Trump’s administration.’

On 6 February, Trump issued an executive order for sanctions against ICC officials to punish them for their investigation of Israeli officials, on which the US Treasury Department followed through. However, the order could subject Trump to individual criminal liability for obstruction of justice under Article 70 of the Rome Statute, DAWN said. Trump has also proposed a plan to forcibly displace all Palestinians from Gaza and take it over.

Sources:

https://dawnmena.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/DAWN-ICC-Jan-2025-final.pdf

https://dawnmena.org/former-state-department-senior-official-josh-paul-joins-dawn-as-non-resident-fellow

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45812399

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-group-takes-legal-action-ICC-to-probe-biden-for-complicity-israeli-war-crimes

MARKED MEN: MALCOLM X AND PINTO

Kenyan freedom fighter Pio Gama Pinto was assassinated 60 years ago. He was one of Kenya’s leading socialist voices and, in the spirit of internationalism, developed a brotherly relationship with the revolutionary activist Malcom X. In this clip, Dick Gregory, a Black writer, activist and social critic, explains their close bond that was first formed during Malcolm X’s 1959 visit to Kenya.

Pio Gama Pinto, a Kenyan revolutionary of Asian origin, was deeply involved in Kenya’s struggle for independence. Both he and X were fighting similar fights against oppression but on different sides of the Atlantic. Together, they planned a joint strategy to combat injustices. Notably, Pinto advocated taking the US to the UN for its treatment of Black people. Both voices posed a danger to the status quo and were tragically killed within three days of each other. Pinto’s killing, on 24 February 1965, was Kenya’s first political assassination.

Continued……An accomplished journalist and propagandist, Pinto used his skills to publicise the cause of African freedom through political pamphlets and press articles. When the colonial government declared a state of emergency in 1952 and detained most African leaders, he was involved in funnelling weapons to Mau Mau resistance fighters.

Pinto had to die because he was perhaps the perfect African socialist in a Kenya whose independence was hijacked by capitalist elites. He was virtually at war with those accused of land-grabbing - including Kenya’s first President Jomo Kenyatta and his ‘Kiambu mafia’ (a group of the elite from Kenya’s Central province) - and with Western capitalism led by the US and British governments.

Pinto was shot as he drove out of his Westlands home in Nairobi. Though departed, his legacy lives on in the millions of Africans keeping up the fight for a fully liberated and dignified Africa. Rest with the ancestors, Pio Gama Pinto.

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

ISRAELI TANKS IN WEST BANK - FIRST TIME IN 2 DECADES

Unsurprisingly, the Israeli military has escalated its operations in the occupied West Bank, deploying tanks to the region for the first time in more than two decades. The operation has displaced Palestinians from Jenin, Tulkarem, and surrounding areas, with homes destroyed and access to necessities like clean water and medical care disrupted, in what Reuters reports as a ‘Gaza-style clearance.’

Continued……Basheer Matahen, Jenin’s municipality spokesperson, said the invasion had displaced over 40,000 people. That includes refugees in the Jenin camp, considered almost empty now. Matahen called it ‘a repeat of what happened in Jabalia,’ in October 2024 in northern Gaza.  

The settler-colonial state’s violence in the West Bank is not new. Israel displaced the population of the West Bank in 1948 and has occupied it since 1967. The West Bank is the larger of the two occupied Palestinian territories and has been central to Israeli settlers’ construction of towns.

For decades, Israel has set up settlements illegal under international law in the West Bank, and this renewed violence follows the 7 October 2023 escalation, which k*lled an estimated 186,000 Palestinians in Gaza, as reported by the Lancet medical journal.

Sources:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/24/israel-deploys-tanks-as-assault-on-occupied-west-bank-intensifies

https://www.wdsu.com/article/israeli-tanks-west-bank-escalation/63902055

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/7/8/gaza-toll-could-exceed-186000-lancet-study-says

https://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/unrwa-situation-report-153-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/24/middleeast/israel-jenin-west-bank-explainer-intl/index.html

https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/2025-02-24/ty-article-opinion/.premium/israel-is-already-doing-in-the-west-bank-what-it-threatens-to-do-in-gaza/00000195-36af-d641-abfd-b7ef29990000

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/24/middleeast/israel-jenin-west-bank-explainer-intl/index.html

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/1/19/timeline-the-path-to-the-israel-hamas-ceasefire-deal-in-gaza

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/west-bank-palestinians-fear-gaza-style-clearance-israel-squeezes-jenin-camp-2025-02-24/

https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-state-palestine-icc-pre-trial-chamber-i-rejects-state-israels-challenges

SUDAN RECALLS KENYA AMBASSADOR IN PROTEST

Sudan has recalled its ambassador from Kenya following a diplomatic dispute over establishing the Founding Alliance for Sudan in Nairobi. This coalition, built around the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), aims to create a parallel government to the military-led administration in Port Sudan. Sudan’s Foreign Ministry accused Kenyan President William Ruto of supporting a ‘conspiracy’ that undermines Sudan’s sovereignty.

Kenya has faced criticism for its alleged ties with the RSF and its backer, the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Nairobi’s red-carpet welcome for RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as ‘Hemedti,’ in early 2025 angered Khartoum, and reports suggest Kenya serves as a conduit between the UAE and the RSF. A Reuters investigation found that weapons shipments to the militia often pass through Nairobi and the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa.

Continued……. Kenya’s high-ranking officials have also been implicated in gold smuggling, while the UAE remains the primary buyer, according to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.

Kenya’s role in hosting the RSF-backed coalition has sparked domestic and international criticism. Some Kenyan political figures and human rights activists have accused Ruto of prioritising commercial interests over regional stability, particularly given Kenya’s growing economic ties with the UAE, a country widely accused of arming the RSF. The controversy adds to concerns about Kenya’s involvement in regional conflicts, especially in light of past allegations of the country facilitating the abduction of foreign political opponents, as well as the 2022 murder of Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif.

The proxy war in Sudan has created what the UN calls the ‘worst humanitarian crisis.’ It has internally displaced more than 11 million, caused half the country to suffer ‘high levels of acute hunger,’ k*lled more than 150,000 killed by May 2024, according to US envoy Tom Perriello.

Sources
https://www.rfi.fr/en/africa/20250222-sudan-recalls-ambassador-from-kenya-as-nairobi-hosts-meeting-with-rivals-rsf

https://www.rfi.fr/en/africa/20241127-war-in-sudan-leaves-13-million-people-displaced-and-more-than-half-the-population-malnourished

https://www.ipcinfo.org/ipc-country-analysis/details-map/en/c/1157066/?iso3=SDN

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

https://globalinitiative.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Marcena-Hunter-and-Ken-Opala-Tarnished-hope-Crime-and-corruption-in-S-Sudans-gold-sector-GI-TOC-May-2023-.pdf

https://globalinitiative.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/All-that-glitters-Revelations-from-a-Kenyan-gold-smuggler-GI-TOC-September-2023.pdf

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/1/24/sudans-hemedti-embraced-abroad-as-he-terrorises-civilians-back-home

KENYANS PROTEST CROSS-BORDER STATE ABDUCTIONS

Kenyan rights groups, lawyers and doctors have come out in protest against cross-border state abductions - calling also for the immediate release of political prisoners. In particular, they want to see Ugandan opposition politician Kiza Besigye freed. He’s been in a Kampala military jail for the last three months after being abducted during a trip to Kenya - with activists suspecting Nairobi’s complicity. A former doctor to Uganda’s president, Besigye is accused of plotting to overthrow Yoweri Museveni. African Stream’s Wambura Mwai was at the rally in Nairobi and filed this report.

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

EX-ENGLAND PLAYER BELITTLES AFCON TOURNAMENT

Former Liverpool and England star Jamie Carragher has sparked controversy with his recent comments dismissing the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) as a minor league incapable of producing a Ballon d’Or winner, the pinnacle of individual football accolades.

During a post-match analysis following Liverpool’s victory over Manchester City, Carragher’s remarks were swiftly challenged by fellow ex-England internationals Micah Richards and Daniel Sturridge. The discussion had shifted to Mohamed Salah, Liverpool’s Egyptian forward, whose outstanding performances have ignited conversations about his being a shoo-in for the 2025 Ballon d’Or.

Carragher, however, suggested that Salah’s African heritage could hinder his chances, arguing that AFCON lacks the prestige of tournaments such as the UEFA Champions League or other international competitions. Richards firmly disagreed, asserting the significance of AFCON as a major tournament in its own right.

Continued…….. As the debate heated up, Carragher appeared unfazed, but Sturridge stepped in to clarify the situation, stating emphatically, “It’s a fact. It’s a fact. It’s a fact. Winning the Euros or Copa America is considered a big deal, so AFCON deserves the same recognition.”

Carragher’s comments highlight a troubling perception in the sports world, where Black athletes often face bias in the race for top honours, regardless of their talent. For instance, Brazilian star Vinicius Jr., who was a frontrunner for the 2024 Ballon d’Or after leading Real Madrid to the Champions League final, ultimately saw the award go to Spain’s Rodrigo Hernández Cascante, prompting the entire Real Madrid team to boycott the Paris ceremony in protest.

Video credit: Sky Sports

Sources:

https://www.football.co.uk/news/jamie-carraghers-awkward-mo-salah-afcon-remark-seemingly-bu/1139573/

https://talksport.com/football/2959548/jamie-carragher-called-out-rio-ferdinand-afcon-mohamed-salah/

https://www.besoccer.com/new/france-football-explains-why-vinicius-didn-t-win-the-ballon-d-or-1335854