Violence against civilians in Central African Republic, including summary executions and mutilations, is reaching levels not seen since the height of its years-long conflict, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said. Recent violence has been concentrated in four prefectures in the center and east, where the government and a 13,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping mission have struggled to contain the bloodshed, the medical charity said. “Our teams have witnessed summary executions and have found mutilated bodies left exposed to terrorize populations,” Rene Colgo, the deputy head of MSF’s mission in CAR, said in a statement released late on Wednesday.” (Reuters http://bit.ly/2nJeadF)
The more significant US bombing news of the day… A misdirected airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition earlier this week killed 18 allied fighters battling the Islamic State group in northern Syria, the U.S. military said Thursday. U.S. Central Command said coalition aircraft were given the wrong coordinates by their partner forces, the predominantly-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, for a strike intended to target IS militants south of their Tabqa stronghold, near the extremists’ de facto capital, Raqqa. The strike hit an SDF position instead, killing 18. Central Command said the strike was launched Tuesday. Several nations have lent their air power to the U.S.-led coalition to defeat the Islamic State group. It was not clear which air force was behind the strike. (AP https://yhoo.it/2obGOj3)
Top Stories
At least 97 African migrants are missing and believed drowned after their Europe-bound boat sank in the Mediterranean Sea, the Libyan coast guard said. (AP http://apne.ws/2paTRFU)
The US imposed financial sanctions on two militia leaders accused of fuelling conflict in the Central African Republic. The sanctions against the two men, who come from rival sides in the conflict, underscored the US’s determination to tackle instability in the CAR, the US Treasury said in a statement. (BBC http://bbc.in/2obzpA0)
Human Rights Watch called on Saudi Arabia to investigate the death of a Pakistani transgender woman who had been detained by police in the capital, Riyadh, following a raid on a private gathering. (VOA http://bit.ly/2nJdUeH)
Afghan refugees pressured by Pakistan to return to their volatile homeland where they face hunger and homelessness should be “patient”, according to an official who said his government plans to eventually offer more support. (IRIN http://bit.ly/2obDEvz)
South Sudan’s civil war is now genocide, with violence perpetrated along tribal lines, a senior British official said, urging African leaders to do more to end the conflict in which tens of thousands of people have been killed. (AP https://yhoo.it/2pb6xMP)
A landmark law banning discrimination against people living with HIV in India has sparked criticism, with one lawyer claiming the legislation could turn back the clock on tackling the virus to the mid-1990s. (Guardian http://bit.ly/2paRUsU)
A Pakistani national pled guilty to helping smuggle dozens of people from Pakistan and Afghanistan into the United States. (VOA http://bit.ly/2obB1tN)
The deplorable conditions in which many poor Namibians are living cannot be accepted as an excuse for land grabbing, High Court judge Shafimana Ueitele warned in a judgment delivered in the Windhoek High Court yesterday. (The Namibian http://bit.ly/2pb4atm)
Nigeria’s government is in talks to release the remaining captive Chibok girls, the president said on Thursday, a day before the third anniversary of the kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls by Islamist insurgency Boko Haram. (Reuters http://bit.ly/2nJcrFm)
Lawyers for a Ugandan academic, detained after she called the nation’s president “a pair of buttocks” on Facebook, said on Thursday that she fears authorities are trying to have her declared insane. (Reuters http://bit.ly/2pdpnAm)
Eritreans living in the Netherlands say they are under pressure to support a rally organised by the youth wing of the African country’s ruling party. (Guardian http://bit.ly/2pdiA9C)
Opinion/Blogs
What Political Science Can Teach Us About The US Airstrikes on Syria (Global Dispatches Podcast http://bit.ly/2pb6osS)
Can These Three African First Ladies Can End Female Genital Mutilation? (UN Dispatch http://bit.ly/2pbT07H)
Drought in Africa – How the system to fund humanitarian aid is still hardwired to fail (From Poverty to Power http://bit.ly/2paTICw)
Boko Haram bombing victim seeks to provide prosthetic limbs in Nigeria (Reuters http://bit.ly/2paMoH2)
A progress report on the UN feminist agenda (Devex http://bit.ly/2obNIVw)
Ghana’s financial turnaround: how finance can catalyse economic transformation (ODI http://bit.ly/2obK4e3)
Reflections on World Health Day (Inter Press Service http://bit.ly/2paVBPg)
How Can Nicaragua Be So Happy When It Has A Stack Of Sad Statistics? (NPR Goats and Soda http://n.pr/2obskj8)
Eastern Aleppo under al-Assad (IRIN http://bit.ly/2pb6xg5)
Global Health Trends – 2017 Edition (Going International http://bit.ly/2obG51d)
