International News
UN Peacekeepers Launch Pullout From War-Torn East DR Congo
The United Nations was to kick off Wednesday the withdrawal of MONUSCO peacekeeping forces from the Democratic Republic of Congo by handing over a first UN base to national police.
The DRC demanded the withdrawal despite UN concerns about rampant violence in the east of the country.
Kinshasa considers the UN force to be ineffective in protecting civilians from the armed groups and militias that have plagued the east of the vast country for three decades.
The UN Security Council voted in December to accede to Kinshasa’s demand for a gradual pullout by the MONUSCO mission, which arrived in 1999.
The UN force currently fields around 13,500 soldiers and 2,000 police across the three eastern provinces of Ituri, South Kivu and North Kivu.
The “disengagement plan” is due to take place in three phases with completion depending on regular assessments.
The first base to be handed over is at Kamanyola, on the border with Burundi.
Phase one is to see the departure of military peacekeepers from South Kivu by the end of April and civilian staff by June 30.
Before May, the UN force is to leave its 14 bases in the province and hand them over to DRC security forces.
In Kamanyola, with a population of about 100,000, opinions appeared divided on the eve of the first step in the pullout.
Ombeni Ntaboba, head of a local youth council, said he was not too concerned.
Every evening, he said, “we see them out in their armoured vehicles around the Ruzizi plain”, where armed groups operate along the border.
“But the level of insecurity is still the same, with armed robberies and kidnappings.”
– ‘Security vacuum’ –
“We salute the Congolese government’s decision,” said Mibonda Shingire, a rights activist, who admitted fearing the impact on the local economy because of the many people employed by MONUSCO.
Others, like Joe Wendo, said they were worried about a “security vacuum” once the Pakistani troops deployed to Kamanyola have gone.
“Their presence at least protected us from the Rwanda invaders,” he said.
The withdrawal comes with North Kivu facing the resurgent Tutsi-led M23 rebels who have seized swathes of territory.
Intense fighting resumed last month around the city of Goma, North Kivu’s capital.
But local people shout down the UN troops more than they praise them.
And MONUSCO has recently felt the need to point out that it “supports Congo’s armed forces… defends its positions… facilitates secure passage for civilians”.
“The departure of the MONUSCO blue helmets concerns us, at a time when the country is at war with the rebels backed by our Rwandan neighbours,” said Beatrice Tubatunziye, who leads a development association in Kamanyola.
She said she wanted to believe that Congolese forces “will quickly be able to fill the void”.
Kinshasa, the United Nations and Western countries say Rwanda supports M23 in a bid to control vast mineral resources in the region, an allegation Kigali denies.
The United Nations has insisted the DRC security forces must be reinforced and take care of civilians at the same time as the MONUSCO pulls out.
Around six million people have been displaced by the fighting in DRC.
After South Kivu, the second and third pullout phases will cover Ituri and North Kivu, with regular assessments of progress.
DRC Foreign Minister Christophe Lutundula has made it clear he wants the withdrawal completed by the end of this year, though the UN Security Council has not fixed a date.
AFP
Hundreds of British teenagers will trial social media bans and time limits on apps as part of consultations over new measures to keep children safe online, the government announced Wednesday.
The pilot comes as the government seeks views from parents on whether to follow Australia and issue a blanket ban on social media for children under 16.
Three hundred youngsters aged 13 to 17 will try out different restrictions on social media use over six weeks to gauge the impact on their schoolwork, sleep and family life.
Some will have their social media apps disabled entirely, while others will have no access to them overnight, said the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
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A young student uses her mobile phone at a public school in Planaltina
A third group will have a one-hour-per-day cap on the most popular apps for teenagers, including Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.
The results will be compared to a fourth set of children who will continue to receive unlimited access.
“We are determined to give young people the childhood they deserve and to prepare them for the future,” said technology minister Liz Kendall.
“These pilots will give us the evidence we need to take the next steps, informed by the experiences of families themselves.”
Australia in December became the first nation to prohibit people under the age of 16 from using immensely popular and profitable social media platforms.
Several other countries are considering similar bans, including France where lawmakers in January passed a bill that would prohibit use by under-15s, which still needs final approval.
The British government has launched a consultation on a potential Australia-style ban, which will also look at measures including age restrictions and banning addictive features like scrolling.
Earlier this month, British MPs struck down proposals by the upper House of Lords chamber to ban social media for under-16s while it awaits the outcome of the consultation, due to close on May 26.
British public figures including actor Hugh Grant have urged the government to back a prohibition, saying parents alone cannot counter social media harms.
But some experts warn restrictions could be easily circumvented and would rather that tech platforms focus on making their sites safer.
Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer has not ruled out a ban.
Defence Minister Israel Katz announced on Thursday that an Israeli airstrike had killed Alireza Tangsiri, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ navy.
“Last night, in a precise and lethal operation, the IDF eliminated the commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ navy, Tangsiri, along with senior officers of the naval command,” Katz said in a video statement.
“The man who was directly responsible for the terrorist operation of mining and blocking the Strait of Hormuz to shipping was blown up and eliminated.”
Since the start of the joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28, Israel has announced the killing of several top Iranian officials, including supreme leader Ali Khamenei and the Islamic republic’s powerful security chief, Ali Larijani.
In recent days, Israeli forces have carried out several strikes targeting the naval assets of Iran.
Last week, Israeli airstrikes hit several Iranian naval ships in the Caspian Sea, including ones equipped with missile systems, support vessels and patrol craft.
AFP
US President Donald Trump insisted Wednesday that Iran was taking part in peace talks, suggesting Tehran’s denials were because Iranian negotiators fear being killed by their own side.
“They are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly. But they’re afraid to say it, because they figure they’ll be killed by their own people,” Trump told a dinner for Republican members of Congress.
“They’re also afraid they’ll be killed by us.”
The US leader’s comments came after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that “we do not intend to negotiate”.
Trump repeated his assertion that Iran was being “decimated” in the conflict now in its fourth week, even though Tehran still maintains an effective stranglehold over the crucial Strait of Hormuz oil route.
Lashing out at his domestic opponents, Trump also claimed Democrats were trying to “deflect from all of the tremendous success that we’re having in this military operation.”
In a mocking reference to calls from Democrats for him to seek the approval of Congress for the conflict, Trump added: “They don’t like the word ‘war,’ because you’re supposed to get approval, so I’ll use the word military operation.”
The White House said earlier that Trump was ready to “unleash hell” if Iran did not admit defeat, while also insisting that Tehran is still taking part in talks.
Iranian state media had earlier cited an unidentified official as saying that the Islamic republic had responded “negatively” to a reported 15-point plan from Washington.
‘Talks continue’
“If Iran fails to accept the reality of the current moment, if they fail to understand that they have been defeated militarily and will continue to be, President Trump will ensure they are hit harder than they have ever been hit before,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
“President Trump does not bluff and he is prepared to unleash hell. Iran should not miscalculate again.”
Asked if negotiations with Iran had stalled, Leavitt replied: “Talks continue. They are productive.”
Leavitt declined to say whom the US was dealing with in Tehran following the assassination of supreme leader Ali Khamenei, whose son and successor Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen in public.
Reports have suggested the Trump administration’s interlocutor is Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s speaker of parliament and one of its most prominent non-clerical figures.
The spokeswoman also declined to confirm reports that top US officials including Vice President JD Vance were set to hold talks with the Iranians in Pakistan, which has emerged as a key mediator.
Trump is moving thousands of airborne troops and extra marines to the Gulf amid speculation that he might order a ground invasion to either seize Iranian oil assets in the Gulf or secure the Strait of Hormuz.
The White House meanwhile appeared to stick to the four to six-week timeline it has previously given for the war.
Trump announced Wednesday that his visit to China to meet Xi Jinping had now been rescheduled for mid-May, having postponed it by six weeks to deal with the conflict.
“We’ve always estimated approximately four to six weeks (for the length of military operations against Iran), so you could do the math on that,” Leavitt added.
AFP
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