Amnesty International warned that plans by five European Union member-state governments for migrant "return hubs" in Rwanda and Uganda risk creating "cruel black holes for human rights." The warning comes as the EU Return Regulation, approved by the European Parliament in June but still awaiting final approval by the European Council, is set to provide the legal basis for such hubs. (Photo: Sara Creta/TNH)
The US will launch a diplomatic campaign aimed at dismantling the International Criminal Court, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced. In an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal, Rubio wrote that the US will work alongside allied governments to take the Court apart "brick by brick, if necessary," using all tools at the government's disposal. He said the campaign's message to other governments will be a choice of "sovereign states over globalism," and pledged that the administration will protect US service members from ICC jurisdiction. (Photo: Tony Webster via Wikimedia Commons)
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) filed an application to bring proceedings against Rwanda over decades of war crimes and violence perpetrated in the DRC's east. The case filed with the International Court of Justice cites "abuses attributable to Rwanda over a period extending from 1996 to the present day," including massacres, forced displacement, and other atrocities. The case comes after years of worsening tensions, with the Congolese government repeatedly accusing Rwanda of supporting armed groups operating in the eastern DRC, particularly the M23 rebel army, which has seized large areas of territory in recent years. (Photo: ICJ)
The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the Rwanda Defense Force (RDF) and four of its top military officials over their support, training, and fighting alongside M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The RDF have reportedly provided direct operational support to the M23 and its affiliates by introducing advanced military equipment to eastern DRC, including GPS jamming systems, air defense equipment, and drones. According to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the US seeks the immediate withdrawal of RDF troops, weapons and equipment. (Photo: US Air Force via Wikimedia Commons)
Eleven individuals deported from the US to Ghana filed a lawsuit against the Ghana government, charging that they were illegally held in a military detention camp. The legal action reflects the chaotic fallout following the deportations, which have resulted in deportees being scattered and "dumped" into neighboring African countries. The deportees are of multiple West African nationalities, none of which is Ghanaian. The deportations arose from a "third country deportation" agreement between the US and Ghana earlier this year. Ghana's parliamentary minority bloc has now called for its suspension, as leaders claim the government entered into the agreement without proper legislative approval. (Photo: Venezuelan deportees in Honduras. Credit: ICE via Wikimedia Commons)
Kilmar Abrego García, released from extrajudicial detention in El Salvador, now fights deportation to Uganda. Hundreds of the Venezuelans sent by the US to the Salvadoran prison gulag have now been returned to Venezuela in a prisoner swap. But El Salvador remains on the growing list of human rights offendors cultivated by the Trump regime as surrogate detention states. The Trump State Department's farcical "Human Rights Report" seeks to sanitize dictator Nayib Bukele's anti-crime police state. And adding to the Orwellian nature of the Trump-Bukele axis, the US Justice Department has dropped charges against MS-13 leaders who collaborated in the consolidation of the new Salvadoran dictatorship. In Episode 293 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg exposes the perverse charade. (Photo: Policía Nacional Civil de El Salvador via InfoDefensa)
The public prosecutor of the Democratic Republic of Congo requested the death penalty for former president Joseph Kabila during proceedings before the High Military Court in Kinshasa. Kabila, who governed the country from 2001 to 2019, is being tried in absentia on charges of treason and war crimes for his alleged ties to the M23 rebel group, which has waged a long-running insurgency in the country. He has consistently denied the allegations. (Map: PCL)
In Donald Trump's perverse ambition to win the Nobel Peace Prize, he is citing his supposed diplomatic victories in ending six conflicts: Armenia-Azerbaijan, Congo-Rwanda, Israel-Iran, India-Pakistan, Thailand-Cambodia and Egypt-Ethiopia. In Episode 292 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg examines each of these examples, and breaks down how claims to have won "peace" are either extremely overstated or (more often) total Orwellian jive. The implication that Russia-Ukraine will be next, as Putin escalates his aggression, puts a hideous crown on the irony. (Image via Twitter)
French President Emmanuel Macron sent a letter to Cameroonian President Paul Biya, in which he officially acknowledged his country's use of repressive violence before, during and after Cameroon's war of independence. Macron stated that the historians of the Franco-Cameroonian Commission studied the war that began in 1956, finding that colonial authorities and the French army carried out a campaign of attacks against the Cameroonian populace. He added that the war continued after Cameroonian independence in 1960, with France supporting state repression in a post-independence power struggle that lasted through 1971. This comes in sharp contrast to France’s previous denial of its atrocities during the Cameroon war, despite established historical consensus. Macron has also acknowledged French responsibility in the Rwandan Genocide and war crimes during the Algerian War, making this most recent acknowledgment the latest chapter in a careful and calculated move toward admission of France’s violent colonial and neo-colonia history in Africa. (Image: Wikipedia)
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk condemned a recent surge in deadly attacks against civilians by M23 fighters and other armed groups in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The attacks come in spite of a Washington-brokered ceasefire agreement between the DRC government and Rwanda, which backs the M23 rebels. The DRC government and M23 have only signed a "declaration of principles" supposedly committing them to a formal peace deal—but meanwhile, violence on the ground has escalated. (Photo: Sylvain Liechti/MONUSCO via Wikimedia Commons)
Former Blackwater CEO and and mercenary boss Erik Prince is to lead a team helping the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) secure and tax its extensive mineral wealth, news reports reveal. The deal, reached before the M23 rebels launched a major offensive in January, was just confirmed to Reuters by Congolese officials and diplomats. M23 has since January seized the eastern DRC's two largest cities, Goma and Bukavu, and is threatening to march on Kinshasa, the capital. The Prince-led initiative runs parallel to a broader minerals-for-security deal being negotiated between the DRC and the Trump White House. (Photo: Abel Kavanagh/MONUSCO via Wikimedia Commons)
The European Parliament adopted a resolution urging the EU to freeze direct budget support to Rwanda until it ceases backing the Tutsi-led M23 rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and permits humanitarian access in rebel-held territory of the DRC. The resolution also recommended suspending agreements related to Rwandan strategic minerals until Rwanda halts its interference in Congo. However, this resolution is non-binding, and the European Commission has not enforced these recommendations. Rights groups charge that the EU's inaction undermines efforts to hold perpetrators accountable and deepens the escalating humanitarian crisis in the region. The M23 rebels, with apparent Rwandan support, have seized key cities in eastern DRC, including Goma and Bukavu, leading to mass displacement and severe human rights abuses. (Map: CIA)
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