Ukraine wants partner countries to join in postwar development worth billions

CONGO: The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on Wednesday called for the presentation of information and evidence regarding atrocities committed in eastern Congo, where at least 2,900 people were killed in violence since the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel movement seized the eastern city of Goma last week.

“The Office will continue to investigate alleged crimes committed by any person, irrespective of affiliation or nationality and will not be limited to particular individuals, parties or members of specific groups,” the prosecutor's offfice said in a statement.

As Goma counted its dead, Vivian van de Perre, deputy chief of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO), gave an updated toll from the battle for the city.

“So far, 2,000 bodies have been collected from the Goma streets in recent days, and 900 bodies remain in the morgues of the Goma hospitals,” she told a video news conference, saying the toll could still rise.

ICC prosecutors said in a statement they were “closely following” events in the eastern DRC, “including the grave escalation of violence over the past weeks.”

Despite announcing a unilateral ceasefire on Monday, the rebels mounted a fresh offensive gained ground in eastern Congo on Wednesday despite the unilateral ceasefire they declared earlier this week, taking control of a town 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the provincial capital of Bukavu, civil society officials and residents told The Associated Press.

Citing pleas for the safe passage of aid and hundreds of thousands of displaced people, the M23 announced the ceasefire, but Congo’s government has described the ceasefire as “false communication,” and the United Nations has noted reports of heavy fighting with Congolese forces in the mineral-rich region.

The new offensive came days before the Rwandan and Congolese presidents are due to attend a crisis summit.

Intense clashes broke out at dawn on Wednesday as M23 fighters and Rwandan forces seized the mining town of Nyabibwe, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Bukavu and 70 kilometers from the province’s airport, security and humanitarian sources told AFP.

The M23 had said in declaring the ceasefire that it had “no intention of taking control of Bukavu or other localities.”
“This is proof that the unilateral ceasefire that has been declared was, as usual, a ploy,” Congolese government spokesman Patrick Muyaya told AFP.
In more than three years of fighting between the Rwanda-backed group and the Congolese army, half a dozen ceasefires and truces have been declared, before being unceremoniously broken.
Local and military sources said in recent days that all sides were reinforcing troops and equipment in the region.
Last week’s capture of Goma was a major escalation in the mineral-rich region, scarred by relentless conflict involving dozens of armed groups over three decades.

“We want peace”
In Bukavu, a city of one million people that residents fear will become the next battleground, a crowd gathered for an ecumenical prayer service for peace, organized by local women.
“We are tired of the non-stop wars. We want peace,” one attendee, Jacqueline Ngengele, told AFP.
DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame are due to attend a joint summit of the eight-country East African Community and 16-member Southern African Development Community in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam on Saturday.
A day earlier, the UN Human Rights Council will convene a special session on the crisis, at Kinshasa’s request.
Diplomatic sources say the M23’s advance in the east of the vast central African nation could weaken Tshisekedi, who won a second term in December 2023.
Fears the violence could spark a wider conflict have galvanized regional bodies, mediators such as Angola and Kenya, as well as the United Nations, European Union and other countries in diplomatic efforts for a peaceful resolution.
But the DRC’s top diplomat accused the international community of being all talk and no action on the conflict.
“We see a lot of declarations but we don’t see actions,” Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner told journalists in Brussels.
Several neighboring countries have already said they are bolstering their defenses, wary of the crisis spilling over.
A UN expert report said last year that Rwanda had up to 4,000 troops in the DRC, seeking to profit from its vast mineral wealth, and that Kigali has “de facto” control over the M23.
The eastern DRC has deposits of coltan, a metallic ore that is vital in making phones and laptops, as well as gold and other minerals.
Rwanda has never explicitly admitted to military involvement in support of the M23 and alleges that the DRC supports and shelters the FDLR, an armed group created by ethnic Hutus who massacred Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

DHAKA, Bangladesh: Thousands of protesters in Bangladesh took out their anger at exiled former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday by destroying a family home that came to symbolize the country’s independence — and now, they say, the authoritarianism they believe she led.
The attack was sparked by a speech Hasina planned to give to supporters from exile in neighboring India, where she fled last year during a deadly student-led uprising against her 15-year rule. Critics had accused her of suppressing dissent.
The house in the capital, Dhaka, had been home to Hasina’s late father and Bangladesh’s independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who declared the country’s formal break from Pakistan there in 1971. He was assassinated there in 1975. Hasina later turned the home into a museum.
Since she fled the country, some of her supporters have tried to gather there but have been attacked by Hasina’s critics, who have attacked other symbols of her government and party since the uprising, ransacking and setting fires in several buildings.
On Wednesday, some protesters threatened to “bulldoze” the building if the former prime minister went ahead with her speech, which marked the start of a month-long protest program by her Awami League political party. The party is trying to gain support amid allegations of attacks on its members and other Hasina backers.
As Hasina began speaking, protesters stormed the house and started dismantling the brick walls, later bringing a crane and an excavator to demolish the building.
“They do not have the power to destroy the country’s independence with bulldozers. They may destroy a building, but they won’t be able to erase the history,” Hasina said in response during her speech, even as the demolition continued.
She also called on the people of Bangladesh to resist the country’s new leaders and alleged that they took power by “unconstitutional” means.
Hasnat Abdullah, a student leader, had warned media outlets against Hasina’s speech and announced on Facebook that “tonight Bangladesh will be freed from the pilgrimage site of fascism.”
Many of the protesters chanted slogans demanding Hasina’s execution for hundreds of deaths during last year’s uprising against her. It was some of the country’s worst upheaval since independence. Hasina urged a UN investigation into the deaths.
They also chanted slogans criticizing India. An interim government in Bangladesh led by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus has sought Hasina’s extradition but India has not responded.
The interim government, which has been struggling to maintain order and prevent mob justice against Hasina’s supporters, has accused the former prime minister of widespread corruption and human rights abuses during her rule that began in 2009.
Hasina’s Awami League in turn has accused the Yunus-led government of violating human rights and suppressing Bangladesh’s minority groups, which authorities have denied.