South Africa is mourning the passing of Mosiuoa Gerard Patrick “Terror” Lekota, a towering figure of the liberation struggle and democratic transition.

His death, during Human Rights month and just weeks before the 30th anniversary of the Constitution, has prompted reflection on whether the nation has lived up to the freedoms for which he fought.

Deputy President Paul Mashatile paid tribute, urging South Africans to recommit themselves to Lekota’s values.

“As we bid farewell to Ntate Lekota, we embrace his enduring values and vision alongside our mourning. Today we must recommit ourselves to unity across difference, to justice without compromise, and to building a South Africa that truly belongs to all who live in it.”

Mashatile emphasized solidarity with the Lekota family, noting that the moment calls for unity across political and social divides.

Lekota rose to prominence as a member of the South African Students’ Organisation (SASO), later becoming a leading figure in the United Democratic Front (UDF), mobilising communities against Apartheid.

He served as the first Premier of the Free State (1994–1996), the inaugural Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces (1997–1999), and Minister of Defence (1999–2008).

President Cyril Ramaphosa described Lekota as part of a generation that placed the people’s interests above their own.

“Ntate Mosiuoa Lekota belonged to a generation of leaders who placed the interests of the people above their own, who understood that freedom demands sacrifice, and that democracy must be defended with courage and integrity.”

Mashatile’s words echoed this sentiment, framing Lekota’s passing as both a moment of grief and a call to action.

INSIDE POLITICS

The post In Pictures: SA mourns Mosiuoa ‘Terror’ Lekota, Mashatile calls for unity appeared first on Inside Politic.

In the Vila Cruzeiro favela, where the bodies were lined up next to one another a day prior, many voiced their shock, grief and anger as government ministers and lawmakers came to hear the demands of the community.

At least 132 people were killed during Tuesday’s operation, including four policemen, according to a Thursday tally by Rio de Janeiro’s public defenders’ office.

A day after a raid that many described as feeling like a war, the low-income neighborhood showed signs of a return of everyday activities, with a few restaurants and shops once again awaiting customers.

“I came to work because I have to, but my mental health is shattered,” said Monique Santiliano, a 40-year-old local who runs a nail salon in front of the favela rights’ group CUFA in Vila Cruzeiro, part of the sprawling Penha complex of urban communities.

“This wasn’t an operation, these were assassinations. They didn’t come to arrest, they came to kill,” Santiliano added, her voice shaking.

Conservative Rio state gov. Claudio Castro said on Tuesday that Rio was at war against “narco-terrorism,” a term that echoed the Trump administration in its campaign against drug smuggling in Latin America. He called the operation a success.

Human Rights Minister Macaé Evaristo told residents and journalists gathered in Penha that she did not accept that claim and that the fight against organized crime should target masterminds and financiers.

“There’s no point in coming into our communities and exposing children, the elderly and people with disabilities to such terror,” she said.

Tuesday’s raid, conducted by some 2,500 police and soldiers, targeted the notorious gang Red Command in the Complexo de Alemao and Complexo da Penha favelas. It drew gunfire and other retaliation from gang members, sparking scenes of chaos across the city on Tuesday.

The state government said those killed were criminals who resisted the police.

But the death toll, the highest ever in a Rio police operation, sparked condemnation from human rights groups, the U.N. and intense scrutiny from authorities. Brazil’s Supreme Court, prosecutors and lawmakers ordered Rio state Gov. Claudio Castro to provide detailed information about the operation.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes scheduled a hearing with the state governor and the heads of the military and civil police next Monday in Rio.

While some in Brazil, particularly right-wing voters and politicians, applauded the operation against the heavily-armed gang, others questioned whether it would achieve lasting results and argued that many of those killed were low-ranking and easily replaceable.

Otoni de Paula, a conservative lawmaker, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the disparity between the number of deaths of police officers and of suspects at the very least raises questions.

“I think we’re dealing with an ambush whose sole objective was execution,” he said. “We cannot think that the state can grant the police the right to kill anyone.”

Residents decried the state of the bodies, with at least one decapitated, while others reportedly found with puncture wounds or tied up.

“This brutality cannot be normalized just because it happened here. If the country continues to applaud, it will happen elsewhere,” said Ana Tobossi, an activist and local resident.

Tobossi said she was struggling even more on Thursday following the adrenaline rush the day before, when she went to the green ridge area where many of the bodies were found early Wednesday morning to help in the search.

“Now comes a sense of great fragility,” she said.

The operation’s stated objectives were capturing leaders and limiting the territorial expansion of the Red Command gang, which has increased its control over favelas in recent years.

The organized crime group has also expanded its presence across Brazil in recent years, including in the Amazon rainforest.

Paulo Roberto, a 16-year-old who works as a street vendor at the famed Maracana football stadium, said that he had been left shaken by events.

“People from outside are going to see this going on in favelas and aren’t going to want to come anymore. It makes us look bad,” he said.

By Thursday, some families had begun burying their dead. A police officer was buried in the morning in Rio’s western zone.

After the funeral of 22-year-old Cauan Fernandes do Carmo Soares, who lived in Complexo de Alemao, his relatives followed his coffin to a nearby cemetery in Rio’s northern zone carrying white flowers.

“These boys have a father, a mother, sisters and brothers,” said Grasiele, Fernandes do Carmo Soares’ sister, before the wake. “My family is destroyed.”

-AP

The post Rio favelas left reeling after lethal gang raid as families bury the dead appeared first on Inside Politic.

The Grand Chamber of the European Court on Thursday upheld a 2023 ruling that double 800 metres Olympic champion Caster Semenya’s appeal to a Swiss Federal Tribunal against regulations that barred her from competing had not been properly heard.

Semenya is appealing against World Athletics regulations that female athletes with differences in sexual development (DSDs) medically reduce their testosterone levels.

The verdict of the Grand Chamber, part of the European Court of Human Rights, does not set aside these rules.

Under World Athletics rules, female DSD athletes must lower their level of testosterone to below 2.5 nmol/L for at least six months to compete. This can be done medically or surgically.

Semenya, 34, is not seeking a return to the track and has turned to coaching, but says she is carrying on the fight for other DSD athletes, who she says are discriminated against.

The verdict, which does not give an opinion on the fairness of the regulations, opens the door for Semenya to continue her challenge to the regulations, which she says are discriminatory.

“It’s a battle for human rights now,” the South African recently told reporters. “It’s not about competing. It’s about putting athletes’ rights first. It’s about the protection of athletes.”

The Grand Chamber declared inadmissible Semenya’s complaint of violations to her right to privacy and effective remedy, or that she considers herself a victim of discrimination.

Semenya challenged the rules but lost at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland in 2019 and again at the Swiss Supreme Court in 2020.

But the ECHR ruled in July 2023, by a majority of four votes to three, that Semenya’s original appeal to a Swiss Federal Tribunal against the regulations had not been properly heard.

The Swiss courts, encouraged by World Athletics, appealed that verdict to the ECHR Grand Chamber.

The case could now return to the Swiss courts, or possibly the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

World Athletics told Reuters on Thursday they had no comment on the ECHR case, which does not relate to their regulations, but they have previously denied any attempt to discriminate against athletes.

“World Athletics has only ever been interested in protecting the female category. If we don’t, then women and young girls will not choose sport. That is, and has always been, the Federation’s sole motivation,” the sports body said in a previous statement to Reuters.

“We remain of the view that the DSD regulations are a necessary, reasonable and proportionate means of protecting fair competition in the female category as the Court of Arbitration for Sport and Swiss Federal Tribunal both found, after a detailed and expert assessment of the evidence.”

Reuters

The post Semenya wins appeal against Swiss Federal Tribunal ruling appeared first on Inside Politic.

Russia fired more than 700 attack and decoy drones at Ukraine overnight, topping previous nightly barrages for the third time in two weeks, part of Moscow’s intensifying aerial and ground assault in the three-year war, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday.

Russia has recently sought to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses by launching major attacks that include increasing numbers of decoy drones. The most recent one appeared aimed at disrupting Ukraine’s vital supply of Western weapons.

The city of Lutsk, home to airfields used by the Ukrainian army, was the hardest hit, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It lies near the border with Poland in western Ukraine, a region that is a crucial hub for receiving foreign military aid.

The attack comes at a time of increased uncertainty over the supply of crucial American weapons and as U.S.-led peace efforts have stalled. Zelenskyy said that the Kremlin was “making a point” with it.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces took aim at Ukrainian air bases and that “all the designated targets have been hit.” Meanwhile, Ukraine fired drones into Russia overnight, killing three people in the Kursk border region, including a 5-year-old boy, the local governor said.

The Russian attack, which included 728 drones and 13 missiles, had the largest number of drones fired in a single night in the war. On Friday, Russia fired 550 drones, less than a week after it launched 477, both the largest at the time, officials said.

Beyond Lutsk, 10 regions were struck. One person was killed in the Khmelnytskyi region, and two wounded in the Kyiv region, officials said.

Poland, a member of NATO, scrambled its fighter jets and put its armed forces on the highest level of alert in response to the attack, the Polish Armed Forces Operational Command wrote in an X post.

Russia’s bigger army has also launched a new drive to punch through parts of the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, where short-handed Ukrainian forces are under heavy strain.

Trump says the US must send more weapons to Ukraine

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he was “not happy” with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who hasn’t budged from his ceasefire and peace demands since Trump took office in January and began to push for a settlement.

Trump said Monday that the U.S. would have to send more weapons to Ukraine, just days after Washington paused critical weapons deliveries to Kyiv.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Trump “has quite a tough style in terms of the phrasing he uses,” adding that Moscow hopes to “continue our dialogue with Washington and our course aimed at repairing the badly damaged bilateral ties.”

Zelenskyy, meanwhile, urged Ukraine’s partners to impose stricter sanctions on Russian oil and those who help finance the Kremlin’s war by buying it.

Both Russia and Ukraine look to build more drones

Ukraine’s air defenses shot down 296 drones and seven missiles during the overnight attack, while 415 more drones were lost from radars or jammed, an air force statement said.

Ukrainian interceptor drones, developed to counter the Shahed ones fired by Russia, are increasingly effective, Zelenskyy said, adding that domestic production of anti-aircraft drones is being scaled up in partnership with some Western countries.

Western military analysts say Russia is also boosting its drone manufacturing and could soon be capable of launching 1,000 a night at Ukraine.

“Russia continues to expand its domestic drone production capacity amid the ever-growing role of tactical drones in front-line combat operations and Russia’s increasingly large nightly long-range strike packages against Ukraine,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said late Tuesday.

Ukraine has also built up its own offensive drone threat, reaching deep into Russia with some long-range strikes.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday that air defenses downed 86 Ukrainian drones over six Russian regions overnight, including the Moscow region.

Flights were temporarily suspended at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport and the international airport of Kaluga, south of Moscow.

The governor of Russia’s Kursk border region, Alexander Khinshtein, said a Ukrainian drone attack on the region’s capital city just before midnight killed three people and wounded seven others, including the 5-year-old boy who died on the way to a hospital.

Meanwhile, Europe’s top human rights court ruled Wednesday that Russia had violated international law during the war in Ukraine, the first time an international court has found Moscow responsible for human rights abuses since the full-scale invasion in 2022.

The court also ruled Russia was behind the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, the first time Moscow was named by an international court as being responsible for the 2014 tragedy that claimed 298 lives. Any decision is largely symbolic.

AP

The post Russia batters Ukraine with more than 700 drones, the largest barrage of the war, officials say appeared first on Inside Politic.

Seven people were killed during anti-government protests in Togo last week, said human rights activists, who accused security forces of using “shocking violence” against protesters.

The protests calling for the resignation of longtime leader Faure Gnassingbe amid what government critics describe as a cost of living crisis began last Thursday. Reuters witnesses saw soldiers use tear gas and batons to disperse them.

A joint statement by 12 Togolese civil society and human rights groups also accused security forces of carrying out arbitrary arrests, beating civilians with batons and ropes and stealing and destroying private property.

The groups said three bodies, two of them minors, were found on Friday in Be lagoon, east of the capital Lome. They said the bodies of two brothers were found on the same day in a lake in Lome’s Akodessewa district. And they said two more bodies were discovered on Saturday in Nyekonakpoe, also in Lome.

A government statement dated Sunday acknowledged bodies were recovered from Be lagoon and the Akodessewa lake but said the deaths were due to drowning.

“The government expresses its sympathy to bereaved families and reminds all residents near water bodies to observe safety rules around water areas, especially during this rainy season,” the statement said.

The protests were part of persistent political strife in Togo, where in May Gnassingbe took the powerful new role of President of the Council of Ministers that has no fixed term limit.

Civil society groups say the new title for Gnassingbe, whose family has ruled Togo since 1967, is another indication of democratic backsliding in West Africa, a region known for coups and leaders entrenching themselves in power for generations.

Hodabalo Awate, Togo’s minister of territorial administration, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the handling of the protests.

Sunday’s government statement commended the security forces’ response and said there had been “several” arrests.

Togolese authorities arrested dozens of people on June 5-6 during protests against Gnassingbe’s new role in what Amnesty International described as a crackdown on dissent.

Many were quickly released, the rights group said.

Reuters

The post Seven killed during Togo protests, civil society groups say appeared first on Inside Politic.

The Deputy Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Mmapaseka Letsike has called for action against podcaster Macgyver Mukwevho, who is accused of making offensive remarks about media personality Minnie Dlamini and other women in the past.

In a recent episode of Podcast and Chill, Mukwevho speculated over the reasons for Dlamini’s failed relationships, suggesting, in vulgar terms, that she might be unattractive to men due to her body odour. 

He reportedly said “maybe her coochie smells or something”.

The deputy minister condemned the remarks as “reprehensible” and blatant form of online gender-based violence.

“This incident is not a harmless joke or casual banter – it is a harrowing demonstration of online gender-based violence,” said Letsike in a statement on Friday.

“Women cannot be reduced to vulgar slurs and the objectification of the female body as this is a damaging reinforcement of gender-based disrespect and consequently violence.”

She said these comments were nauseating in their vulgarity and must be regarded as an unconstitutional violation of Dlamini’s rights to freedom and security of the person, equality and human dignity.

Mukwevho’s utterances would be referred to the relevant constitutional and statutory bodies for investigation including the Commission for Gender Equality, SA Human Rights Commission and the Broadcasting Complaints Commission.

The remarks will also be brought to the attention of the Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Committee with a request that Mukwevho be summoned to appear before it in line with Section 56 of the Constitution. 

She said failure to comply could lead to criminal consequences under the Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliaments and Provincial Legislatures Act.

In addition, the deputy minister would consult with the SA Police Service to explore the possibility of laying a crimen injuria charge.

Letsike has also called for an urgent review of regulatory measures on digital platforms and has committed to engaging with the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies to discuss legislative gaps that allowed harmful content to go unchecked online.

“These utterances perpetuate a toxic culture that demeans women and normalises misogyny and sexism,” Letsike said.

She reiterated that online platforms must not be allowed to become sanctuaries for misogyny and the abuse for women.

“We cannot allow such language to become the norm under the guise of frivolous entertainment. Every woman in South Africa deserves to have their dignity respected, particularly in public discourse,” she added.

The deputy minister also expressed solidarity with Dlamini and vowed to work with her to ensure coordinated support, while calling for broader government collaboration to enforce laws on harassment and hate speech.

Letsike has suggested that there must be a platform and mechanism that enables all victims of online gender-based violence to report violence incidents to ensure that no woman was targeted on what she described as unregulated online platforms.

INSIDE POLITICS

The post Letsike calls for action against ‘misogynistic” online abuse appeared first on Inside Politic.

South Africa’s water crisis has reached a breaking point, with President Cyril Ramaphosa declaring it a national emergency. But outside the venue, angry protesters accused him of more empty promises.

At the Water and Sanitation Indaba on Thursday, Ramaphosa admitted that the country’s water infrastructure was failing millions, but he insisted that the time for diagnosing problems was over. 

“We know what the problem is,” he stated bluntly. “Now, we must fix it.”

Yet, as he spoke, members of Build One South Africa (BOSA) demonstrated outside, holding signs reading “End Watershedding Now!”. They demanded immediate action. 

BOSA chief party officer Steven Mokgalapa called the indaba a “talk shop” and blasted the government for failing in its constitutional duty.

A visibly frustrated Ramaphosa slammed the sluggish pace of service delivery, particularly in addressing dangerous sanitation failures in schools.

“We have children dying in pit latrines! That must come to an end,” he said. “We have the technology to fix this, so why is it taking so long?”

Ramaphosa emphasised that every decision made must now come with strict deadlines. 

“Every proposal, every memo, every decision—before I approve it, I want to see a timeline. No more ‘mañana, mañana’ politics. This is an emergency.”

The president also issued a stark warning about South Africa’s future, saying water mismanagement could trigger wars in the next century. 

“We can survive without food for a time, but without water, we perish. And if we do not radically change our approach, the next wars will be fought over water.”

While Ramaphosa promised urgent action, BOSA leaders outside the indaba were unimpressed. Mokgalapa said citizens no longer trusted government promises.

“We don’t need muffins. We don’t need scones. We need water,” he said.

“This is Human Rights Month and access to water is a human right. The government must deliver—or we will force them to,” Mokgalapa said.

When asked what he wanted from Ramaphosa’s speech, Mokgalapa did not mince words.

“I want him to say that from tomorrow, schools, hospitals and police stations will have water—no exceptions. If he’s good at setting up commissions, let him set up a water crisis commission that actually delivers.”

The indaba ends on Friday.

INSIDE POLITICS

The post Ramaphosa talks tough on water crisis appeared first on Inside Politic.

Police were executing raids in six German states Wednesday against a group that authorities say “is part of an international network whose aim is to overthrow the government in Eritrea.”

Germany’s federal prosecutor’s office is accusing 17 suspects of founding or being members of the German branch of Brigade N’Hamedu, which it defines as a terrorist organization.

Eritrea has long been described as one of the world’s most repressive countries by human rights groups, and some members of its divided diaspora have clashed violently at times.

The prosecutors said the investigations “suggest that the suspects assumed senior positions” within the group. The German offshoot has been active since at least 2022 was involved in violence at events connected to the Eritrean government.

The prosecutor’s office said the organization coordinated violent riots at Eritrea festivals in Giessen on Aug. 20, 2022, and on Aug. 7-8, 2023, as well as the seminar of an Eritrean association in Stuttgart on Sept. 16, 2023. Numerous police officers were injured at the events, some of them seriously, and dozens of protesters were detained.

The state interior minister of Baden-Württemberg, which includes Stuttgart, said that 56 people were sentenced to prison following the riots in the city in 2023, though some of those sentences can still be appealed, German news agency dpa reported.

Prosecutors also say that some members of the association considered violence against German state institutions and police officers to be legitimate.

More than 200 federal and state police officers searched 19 properties — eight in Hesse, four in North Rhine-Westphalia, three in Bavaria, two in Baden-Württemberg and one each in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Rhineland-Palatinate. Another search took place in Denmark at the same time, dpa reported. No arrests have been made.

The prosecutor’s statement also noted that another person who is suspected of holding a senior position within Brigade N’Hamedu in the Netherlands and Germany “has recently been sentenced by a Dutch court to a prison term of several years on account of his participation in clashes in The Hague” last February.

The prosecutor’s office did not identify any of the accused by name, in line with German privacy rules.

Separately, a court in Sweden jailed six people on Wednesday for violent rioting in connection with an Eritrean cultural festival in 2023, Swedish news agency TT reported.

Five people were sentenced to five months in prison, while a sixth person was sentenced to six months in prison, according to TT.

At the time, hundreds of anti-government protesters stormed the festival. More than 50 people were injured and nearly 140 people were detained, TT reported.

As in German, Sweden is home to tens of thousands of people with Eritrean roots. The festival devoted to the cultural heritage of Eritrea is an annual event that has been held since the 1990s but has been criticized for allegedly serving as a promotional tool and source of money for the African nation’s government, according to Swedish media.

Exiles have attacked several festivals held by Eritrea’s diaspora in Europe, North America and Israel in recent years.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled Eritrea over the years, many setting off into the deserts of Sudan and then North Africa in attempts to reach Europe.

AP

The post German authorities raid a group that allegedly aims to overthrow the Eritrean government appeared first on Inside Politic.

He says South Africans must not allow events happening beyond the country’s shores to turn them against each other.

In his weekly newsletter on Monday, the president reminded the country that as it commemorated the massacre of 69 Sharpeville protesters on Human Rights Day, South Africa was recognised globally for upholding human rights.

Ramaphosa said that since the advent of democracy South Africa has strived to build a society that recognised the injustices of the past while advancing reconciliation and national unity.

He said this was why 21 March was chosen as the occasion to recommit the country to the advancement of human rights for all.

“As South Africans we should, therefore, reject the politics of divisiveness that is emerging in many parts of the world. In particular, we should challenge the completely false narrative that our country is a place in which people of a certain race or culture are being targeted for persecution.

“We should not allow events beyond our shores to divide us or turn us against each other. Since the end of apartheid our country has been recognised globally for upholding human rights. The free flow of ideas and opinions are vital to democracy and to having a vibrant society,” he wrote.

The president said that at the dawn of democracy, South Africa chose the path of reconciliation and nation building and adopted of a Constitution and a Bill of Rights that guaranteed the human dignity of all, regardless of their race, gender, culture, religion ethnic or social origin, age, disability, language or birth.

He said South Africans should be proud of the fact that most of its people continued to believe in democracy, human rights and the rule of law as universal values.

Ramaphosa added that South Africans were also able to exercise their rights freely and could approach independent courts and institutions supporting democracy if their rights were infringed or violated. 

“We can be proud that South Africans are confident they have a voice and a say in how their country is run, demonstrated by the fact that we have held successive free and fair elections since 1994,” he said.
  
There were constitutional protections guaranteed to all racial, cultural and linguistic groups, including their right to enjoy their culture and to use their language.

“Even those with the most offensive views should know that in democratic South Africa, and unlike many other parts of the world, our Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of expression, as long as it does not include incitement to violence or advocacy of racial and other hatred,” he said.

Ramaphosa said that in view of the perilous state of human rights in many parts of the world, including the resurgence of racism, South Africa’s path of reconciliation and nation building was relevant today.

“As we reflect on the state of human rights in South Africa during this month, let us be proud of our achievements as a country. At the same time, let us recommit ourselves to working together to ensure our human rights culture is upheld and strengthened,” he said.

INSIDE POLITICS

The post Ramaphosa asks South Africans to stand together appeared first on Inside Politic.

The U.N. human rights chief accused Rwanda-backed rebels who seized a second major city in eastern Congo of killing children and attacking hospitals and warehouses storing humanitarian aid.

Volker Türk said in a statement Tuesday that his office “confirmed cases of summary execution of children by M23 after they entered the city of Bukavu last week. We are also aware that children were in possession of weapons.”

He provided no details or did not refer to specific events, but U.N. agencies have previously accused both Congolese government forces and the rebels of recruiting children. The United Nations Human Rights Council earlier this month launched a commission that will investigate atrocities, including rapes and killings akin to “summary executions” committed by both sides since the beginning of the year.

The M23 rebels on Sunday captured Bukavu, the city of 1.3 million people, after seizing Goma, 101 kilometers (63 miles) to the north last month. At least 3,000 were reported killed and thousands displaced in the Goma fighting.

M23 is the most prominent of more than 100 armed groups vying for control of eastern Congo’s trillions of dollars in mineral wealth that’s critical for much of the world’s technology. The rebels are supported by about 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to U.N. experts.

Rwanda accuses Congo of enlisting Hutu fighters responsible for the 1994 genocide of minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus. M23 says it’s fighting to protect Tutsis and Congolese of Rwandan origin from discrimination and wants to transform Congo from a failed into a modern state — though critics say it’s a pretext for Rwanda’s involvement.

Unlike in 2012, when the M23 briefly seized Goma and withdrew after international pressure, analysts have said the rebels this time are eyeing political power.

The U.K. Foreign Office summoned the Rwandan ambassador in London and in a statement Tuesday condemned the recent rebel gains, saying “these advances constitute an unacceptable violation of DRC’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

“The government of Rwanda must immediately withdraw all Rwanda Defence Force troops from Congolese territory,” the statement said.

The decades-long fighting has displaced more than 6 million people in the region, creating the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.

On Tuesday, the rebel-appointed governor of North Kivu province, where Goma is located, announced the reopening of a ferry route between Goma and Bukavu. A statement released by Gov. Buhati Musanga said two ferries left Bukavu for Goma on the northern tip of Lake Kivu early Tuesday. The route is currently the only safe way to travel between the two cities.

“Knowing that the sea route is open again has made me happy, and those who stayed behind are just as happy,” said Faustin Dunia, a passenger on the reopened ferry.

Other passengers expressed relief that they were able to return to Goma and that the capture of Bukavu was relatively peaceful.

Meanwhile, Ugandan troops entered the northeastern Congolese city of Bunia to assist the Congolese army in quelling deadly violence by armed ethnic groups, a Ugandan military spokesman said.

Besides Rwanda, Uganda also has periodically sent troops into Congo but in agreement with the central government in Kinshasa.

AP

The post UN human rights chief accuses Rwanda-backed rebels in east Congo of killing and recruiting children appeared first on Inside Politic.