Sudan, North Korea, Uganda
Today's three stories you should know
Sudan
Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia, currently engaged in a campaign of ethnically motivated killings in the city of el-Fasher, said it is willing to agree to a truce mediated by a U.S.-led group of nations known as the Quad. According to local reports, though, attacks by the paramilitary group are ongoing. The RSF has been at war with Sudan’s military (SAF) for two and a half years. It laid siege to el-Fasher for 18 months, which had been the last stronghold of the SAF in the Darfur region. The war has caused tens of thousands of deaths, forced millions to flee their homes and led to starvation, with two regions now in full famine.
More from AP here.
North Korea
North Korea has fired a ballistic missile toward the sea off its coast, according to South Korea and Japan, the latest in a series of recent missile tests. U.S. President Donald Trump said last week that he was open to meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un again following their face-to-face talks in 2018. Relations between the North and South briefly thawed at that time but have deteriorated since. North Korea, South Korea and the U.S. engage in tit-for-tat provocations with the North testing missiles and the U.S. and Seoul carrying out military exercises.
More from Reuters here.
Uganda
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has confirmed 39 charges for war crimes and crimes against humanity against Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony. The ruling comes two decades after the court first issued a warrant for Kony, making him the ICC’s longest-wanted fugitive. The alleged crimes, which include murder, sexual enslavement and rape, are said to have occurred from 2002 to 2005. It is the first time charges have been issued by the ICC before a suspect has been apprehended. “Mr Kony issued standing orders to attack civilian settlements, kill and mistreat civilians, loot and destroy their property and abduct children and women to be integrated into the LRA,” the judges said.
More from Al Jazeera here.
It took 2 decades for the ICC to confirm war crimes, and somehow Kony has not been apprehended during these decades.
Is he even still alive?