Meanwhile, a court in Nairobi has temporarily blocked the Kenyan government from allowing the US to set up a quarantine facility in the country for Americans suspected of exposure to the virus. The US is among a number of countries that have imposed Ebola-related travel restrictions and border closures, despite WHO advice to the contrary.

From The New Humanitarian, May 29. Internal links added.

Photo of displaced persons camp in Ituri: Alexis Huguet/MSF via TNH

A company based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has hired and transported hundreds of Colombian private military contractors to Sudan to fight for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released May 25.

The recruitment of Colombian private military contractors further demonstrates the UAE’s role in providing support to the RSF, which has been repeatedly accused of atrocities in Sudan, said Mausi Segun, executive director of the Africa Division at HRW. Since 2024, Abu Dhabi-based security company Global Security Services Group (GSSP) has hired hundreds of Colombian private contractors to send to Sudan. HRW found that the recruits all passed through a UAE military base in Ghiyathi and an apparent private military facility in Al Wathba, both in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

The report also raised concerns over the use of children in the armed conflict. An interviewed Colombian contractor trained RSF recruits at its main base in South Darfur. The contractor reported that a number of the recruits were underage. The Geneva Convention prohibits the recruitment and use of children under 15 in active armed conflict. The UN Secretary-General’s office has verified 16 cases involving child recruitment by the RSF, and included the armed group in the UN “list of shame” for grave violations against children in conflict.

According to HRW, the GSSP and UAE authorities have not responded to its allegations. However, the UAE has long denied any military support to the conflicting parties in Sudan.

The rights group called on the international community, including the EU, to press the UAE to end its support for the RSF by suspending military cooperation and arms sales. Segun added: “Other countries need to stop accepting the UAE’s blanket denials of support to the RSF, which fly in the face of the facts, and should put an end to its impunity for war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

Sudan’s Foreign Ministry has also accused the UAE of supporting the RSF, and attempted to bring the UAE before the International Court of Justice for its alleged complicity in acts of genocide carried out by the RSF in Darfur. However, the court refused to hear the case for lack of jurisdiction, noting that the UAE reserved the jurisdictional clause when it signed the Genocide Convention.

The Sudanese army and the RSF have engaged in a civil war for the last three years. The Sudan war has caused one of the greatest humanitarian crises on Earth. Some 34 million people in Sudan require urgent humanitarian assistance, the UN recently warned.

From JURIST, May 27. Used with permission.

Map: PCL

It is alarming to learn he has returned to combat without any investigation into the allegations. The RSF leadership must remove Abu Lulu from the battlefield and from their ranks immediately, and he must be investigated for the war crime of wilful killings.

The rights organization also called for the RSF to end attacks on civilians and allow them safe passage to flee the ongoing violence.

The Sudanese army and the RSF have engaged in a civil war for the last three years, causing one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, and mass killings. Al-Fatih Abdallah Idris AKA “Abu Lulu” was arrested in late October 2025 by the RSF following global outrage from a viral video appearing to show him executing unarmed civilians.

The 15 captives were killed during the RSF’s takeover of El Fasher city in the Darfur region. A UN report found that the RSF was responsible for at least 6,000 deaths in the two days preceding the execution of the civilian captives, with 1,400 deaths reported to have taken place along the city’s escape routes. The UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission into the Sudan war also concluded that the mass killings by the RSF during the takeover of El Fasher were consistent with the markers of genocide.

Reuters conducted an investigation this year, and reported that multiple sources confirmed that Abu Lulu was released from detention and returned to the battlefield. Among other sources, a Sudanese intelligence official and another RSF commander witnessed him on a battlefield in Kordofan in March.

A spokesman for the RSF-led parallel government, known as the Sudan Founding Alliance (TASIS), denied that Abu Lulu had been released. In a statement to Reuters, Ahmed Tugud Lisan said the claim was “untrue, malicious, and completely false.”

From JURIST, May 21. Used with permission. Internal links added.

Map: PCL

Mass abductions of youth also continue. On May 17, gunmen kidnapped more than 50 children from three schools in the town of Mussa, Borno state. Apparent bandits used the youths—some only toddlers—as human shields while fleeing on motorbikes after a raid on the village, preventing security forces from opening fire. (NYT, TNH, BBC News, LWJ)

Map: Wikipedia

The Sudan team at the Human Rights Office found that upwards of 80% of all civilian deaths from January to April—numbering at least 880—can be attributed to drone attacks. These include attacks on May 8 that killed 26 civilians in Al Quz, South Kordofan, and near El Obeid, North Kordofan.

Türk stated:

This increasing reliance on drones allows hostilities to continue unabated in the approaching rainy season, which in the past has brought about a lull in ground operations. An intensification of hostilities in the coming weeks, as the parties seek to gain or consolidate control of territory amid shifting conflict dynamics, risks hostilities expanding even further to central and eastern states, with lethal consequences for civilians across enormous areas.

Targets struck by drones include healthcare facilities, rendering hospitals inoperable, and a May 4 attack on the Khartoum International Airport that led to the disruption of all flights. The Sudanese government has accused Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of being behind the drone strike on the Khartoum airport, and others. Military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Asim Awad Abdelwahab claims to have intelligence of four drone attacks since March 1 having originated from Ethiopia’s Bahir Dar using drones provided by the UAE.

The UAE has come under fire for supporting the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in their war against the Sudanese government. The conflict in Sudan erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF. The conflict has been described as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with the RSF facing accusations of war crimes and genocide by the UN.

From JURIST, May 11. Used with permission.

AI-generated image of various drones used in Sudan, via Sudan Tribune

The alarming reports that Nigeria has established “concentration camps” for the Fulani ethnic minority cast an ironic light on Nigeria’s tension with the Sahel states of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso to the north. These three regimes have broken from the Western imperial camp (to embrace the nascent Russian imperial camp)—but are likewise subjecting their Fulani minorities to persecution and massacre. With the recent shock rebel offensive in Mali, the “terrorist” stigma that attaches to the Fulani and Tuareg peoples across the imperial camps makes their position more precarious than ever. Meanwhile, prominent voices on the both the right and the (supposed) “left” are spreading propaganda about the struggle in West Africa that is alarmingly wrong, because it exclusively views the crisis through a campist lens. In Episode 327 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg tries to provide some clarity on these fast-escalating and grossly under-reported conflicts.

Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon.

Production by Chris Rywalt

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Presiding Judge Kimberly Prost, in ICC’s Trial Chamber X, delivered the Reparations Order in the presence of Al Hassan and his defense team. Prost stated that the estimated number of victims amounted to 65,202. The Chamber ruled that “collective community-based reparations” were “appropriate to address the…type of harm suffered by the victims.” Prost outlined that this mode of reparations would “reach large numbers of victims in a less resource-intensive manner.” Al Hassan will “bear financial liability” for the reparations.

The Chamber emphasized the impact of Al Hassan’s crimes on girls and women in particular. Prost stated: “Women and girls suffered particular moral and material harm… This should be reflected in the planning, design, and implementation of all socio-economic rehabilitation projects and initiatives.”

In outlining costs, the Chamber ordered an estimated total of €4 million towards socio-economic and educational support programs, €1.2 million towards collective community-based psychological rehabilitation measures, €1.5 million for a limited individualized component, and €550,000 towards symbolic and satisfaction measures. The total liability for the harm caused to victims amounted to €7,250,000.

Al Hassan was convicted in June 2024 for crimes against humanity, including “torture, persecution, and other inhumane acts,” and the war crimes of “torture, outrages upon personal dignity, mutilation, cruel treatment and passing sentences without previous judgement pronounced by a regularly constituted court.” The ICC sentenced Al Hassan to 10 years of imprisonment on November 2024.

Crimes against humanity are prohibited under Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and are considered by the ICC as “among the most serious of crimes of concern to the international community as a whole.” War crimes are prohibited under Article 8 of the Rome Statute.

From JURIST, April 30. Used with permission.

Note: Al Hassan is among 13 ICC convictions. Another militant, Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi, pleaded guilty to cultural crimes in the destruction of Sufi shrines in Timbuktu.

Photo: WikiMedia Commons

Map: PCL

HRW reported that following some evacuation orders, the government launched indiscriminate aerial bombings of the cleared areas, harming numerous civilians left behind.

The government has additionally imposed “no-flight” zones that effectively limit humanitarian-worker access to opposition-held areas. Opposition forces have taken similar action, stating that humanitarian agencies accessing certain government-controlled areas would be considered government-aligned.

Article 52 of Section IV of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions holds that all civilian objects—any property or infrastructure that is not a military objective, such as homes, schools, hospitals, or places of worship—shall not be the target of any direct attack, or of reprisals.

UN experts, in an April 2 press release, called for all parties to the South Sudan conflict to immediately stop the violence and engage in meaningful dialogue to ensure that all citizens receive protection, and to avoid any further escalation of the conflict.

Condensed from JURIST, April 14. Used with permission.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

From The New Humanitarian, April 17

Photo: Jesuit Historical Institute in Africa