₦airaland Forum

The foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy and Britain said on Saturday they supported an Arab-backed plan for the reconstruction of Gaza that would cost $53 billion and avoid displacing Palestinians from the enclave.

"The plan shows a realistic path to the reconstruction of Gaza and promises – if implemented – swift and sustainable improvement of the catastrophic living conditions for the Palestinians living in Gaza," the ministers said in a joint statement

The committee would be responsible for the oversight of humanitarian aid and managing the Strip's affairs for a temporary period under the supervision of the Palestinian Authority.

The statement issued by the four European countries on Saturday said they were "committed to working with the Arab initiative," and they appreciated the "important signal" the Arab states had sent by developing it.

The statement said Hamas "must neither govern Gaza nor be a threat to Israel any more" and that the four countries "support the central role for the Palestinian Authority and the implementation of its reform agenda."

The plan, which was drawn up by Egypt and adopted by Arab leaders on Tuesday, has been rejected by Israel and by U.S. President Donald Trump, who has presented his own vision to turn the Gaza Strip into a "Middle East Riviera"
.
The Egyptian proposal envisages the creation of an administrative committee of independent, professional Palestinian technocrats entrusted with the governance of Gaza after the end of the war in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

President Trump said he would turn up the heat on Russia until it reaches a ceasefire and peace deal with Ukraine. He threatened Russia with sanctions and tariffs in a Truth Social post.

"To Russia and Ukraine, get to the table right now, before it is too late," Trump posted.

tooth4tooth:
It is not a gender war. You want women to support each other even when the woman in question has a questionable character Come on now!

Former Presidential spokesman Doyin Okupe is dead.

Zonefree:
Online warrior

Zonefree:
No be you dey cheer Ukraine few weeks ago to annihilate Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said there can be "no pause" in pressure on Russia after another night of missile and drone strikes across Ukraine, the latest barrage coming the day after the U.S. confirmed it had stopped sharing intelligence with Kyiv.

Ukraine's air force reported 112 drones and two missiles launched into the country overnight, with 68 drones shot down and 43 lost in flight.

The air force reported damage in the Kharkiv, Sumy, Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

In Dnipropetrovsk, a ballistic missile hit a hotel in the city of Kryvyi Rih -- Zelenskyy's hometown.

A ballistic missile struck an ordinary hotel," the president wrote on social media. Four people were killed with more than 30 others injured, he added. The attack came shortly after a group of foreign humanitarian volunteers checked into the hotel, Zelenskyy said. None were hurt.

"There must be no pause in the pressure on Russia to stop this war and terror against life," Zelenskyy wrote.

Russian missiles and drone attacks are a nightly occurrence in Ukraine. The country has become largely reliant on Western anti-air weapons to defeat incoming projectiles.

President Donald Trump's decision to pause all U.S. military aid and intelligence sharing has raised concerns that Ukraine's air defenses will become less effective in the days, weeks and months to come.

The pause followed last week's explosive Oval Office meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump. White House officials have suggested the freeze may be lifted if Ukraine takes concrete steps towards a peace deal with Russia to end Moscow's 3-year-old invasion.

U.S. intelligence sharing with Ukraine had allowed Kyiv to give warnings to targeted areas ahead of Russian drone and missile strikes, tracking Russian aircraft taking off, drones being launched and missiles being fired.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe said Wednesday that the US has paused intelligence support and weapons shipments to Ukraine following the clash in the Oval Office between President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump last Friday.

Trump had a real question about whether President Zelensky was committed to the peace process, and he said let’s pause,” Ratcliffe told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo in an interview on Wednesday.

“I want to give a chance to think about that and you saw the response that President Zelensky put out,” Ratcliffe added, “So I think on the military front and the intelligence front, the pause that allowed that to happen, I think will go away.”

Ratcliffe expressed hope that the pause will soon be lifted and emphasized his commitment to working with Ukraine towards achieving peace, following a letter from the Ukrainian president to Trump.

And I think we’ll work shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine as we have to push back on the aggression that’s there, put the world in a better place for these peace negotiations to move forward,” the CIA director added.

A senior US military official said the US has already curtailed some intelligence sharing, including carrying out fewer intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance flights that could impact both offensive and defensive operations including air defense, since Ukraine depends on US intelligence for overwatch.

In the lead up to Trump’s inauguration, Ratcliffe and the Trump transition team were told of the value of intelligence sharing with Ukraine by US officials who stressed that it was a hallmark of their achievements on the battlefield, according to a source familiar with the discussions.

The South African Police Service arrested a 55-year-old Nigerian man on suspicion of drug trafficking shortly after he arrived at OR Tambo International Airport from São Paulo, Brazil.

SAPS spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Amanda Van Wyk, confirmed in a statement released on Tuesday that the suspect was taken into custody after authorities discovered he had allegedly swallowed cocaine capsules worth an estimated R7.5 million.

“The suspect had just landed from São Paulo, Brazil when he was intercepted by police. A medical X-ray revealed that he had swallowed multiple objects suspected to be capsules containing cocaine,” said Van Wyk.

She further stated that the suspect is still in the process of expelling the ingested capsules.

He is expected to appear in the Kempton Park Magistrates’ Court soon.

Armed men are raping and sexually assaulting children as young as one during Sudan's civil war, says the UN children's agency, Unicef.

So traumatised are the survivors that some say they have attempted to end their lives.

Mass sexual violence has been widely documented as a weapon of war in the country's nearly two-year conflict.

But Unicef's report is the first detailed account about the impact of rape on young children in Sudan.

A third of the victims were boys, who typically face "unique challenges" in reporting such crimes and seeking the help they need.

Unicef says that, although 221 rape cases against children have been officially reported since the start of 2024, the true number is likely to be much higher.

Sudan is a socially conservative country where huge societal stigma stops survivors and their families from speaking out about rape, as does the fear of retribution from armed groups.

The Unicef report provides an appalling window into the abuse of children in the country's civil war.

Perhaps its most shocking revelation is that 16 of the victims were under the age of five years, including four infants.

Unicef does not say who is responsible, but other UN investigations have blamed the majority of rapes on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), saying RSF fighters had a pattern of using sexual violence to terrorise civilians and suppress opposition to their advances.

The RSF, which is fighting this war against its former allies, the Sudanese Armed Forces, has denied any wrongdoing.

"Children as young as one being raped by armed men should shock anyone to their core and compel immediate action," said Unicef executive director Catherine Russell.

"Millions of children in Sudan are at risk of rape and other forms of sexual violence, which is being used as a tactic of war. This is an abhorrent violation of international law and could constitute a war crime. It must stop."

According to evidence presented by international human rights groups, victims in the RSF's stronghold of Darfur were often targeted because they were black African rather than Arab, apparently with the aim of driving them out of Sudan.

The UN humanitarian response for Sudan is already underfunded. Recent cuts in US aid are expected to reduce programmes to help the victims even further.

Harrowing details in Unicef's report underscore the dire situation.

"After nine at night, someone opens the door, carrying a whip, selects one of the girls, and takes her to another room. I could hear the little girl crying and screaming. They were raping her," recalls Omnia (not her real name), an adult female survivor who was held by armed men in a room with other women and girls.

"Every time they raped her, this girl would come back covered in blood. She is still just a young child. They only release these girls at dawn, and they return almost unconscious. Each of them cries and speaks incoherently. During the 19 days I spent there, I reached a point where I wanted to end my life."

Unicef says the attacks included armed men storming homes and demanding that the girls be surrendered, raping some of them in front of their loved ones.

Victims were sometimes left with serious injuries and unwanted pregnancies.

In addition to the 221 rapes reported by Unicief were an additional 77 cases of sexual assault against children - mostly attempted rape.

As a fractured nation at war, Sudan is one of the most challenging places on earth to access services and frontline workers.

"The sheer scale of sexual violence we have documented in Sudan is staggering," said Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the UN's fact-finding mission when its previous report was published in October.

The vast number of people displaced by the war has made women and children more vulnerable to attack – three out of four school-age girls are out of school, the UN says.

Trump government cuts end vital help

The devastating outcome of these crimes is aggravated by the fact that victims have few places to turn to for medical help, because many medical facilities have been destroyed, looted or occupied by the warring parties.

Recent US aid cuts may be endangering even the limited services available to protect children.

Unicef has been providing safe spaces for children through a network of local activists who have set up what are known as Emergency Response Rooms to deal with the crises in their communities.

The activists relied quite heavily on US aid, and most have been forced to shut down, according to a Sudanese coordinating committee that monitors them.

More broadly, the UN organization dedicated to protecting women's rights says local organisations led by women are vital in delivering support to survivors of sexual violence. But they receive less than 2% of the total funding of the UN's Sudan Humanitarian Fund.

The BBC learned that at least one of these local groups, known as "She Leads", was forced to close when US funding was stopped.

It was not a big expense, measured in the tens of thousands of dollars, but enabled case workers to reach around 35 survivors a month, said Sulaima Elkhalifa, a Sudanese human rights defender who runs a government unit on combatting violence against woman and helped organize the private initiative.

Those who have been raped by armed men "don't have the luxury of being depressed," she told the BBC.

The demands of war – finding food, needing to flee – leave no space to deal with trauma, she added.

fergie001:
Just take out those two from up there..... You know them already!