Unknown gunmen have abducted an unidentified number of students from a Catholic school in central Nigeria, the second mass abduction in the country in a week.

The latest kidnapping, in Papiri community in Niger state, came against the backdrop of Donald Trump’s threat to intervene militarily to end a “Christian genocide”, which the Nigerian government has denied is happening.

“The Niger state government has received with deep sadness the disturbing news of the kidnapping of pupils from St Mary’s School in Agwara local government area,” Abubakar Usman, the state government secretary, said in a statement.

Niger, the biggest of the country’s 36 states, runs west from the capital, Abuja, to neighbouring Benin. The incident in the early hours of Friday is the third documented mass school abduction in the state in the last decade. In the last attack in Niger state, in May 2021, 135 pupils were abducted from an Islamic seminary, six of whom died while being held.

On Monday, gunmen stormed a girls’ boarding school in neighbouring Kebbi state, abducting 25 schoolgirls and killing the vice-principal. According to local reports, security forces had relayed information about the plot and spent the night guarding the school but left the scene early.

“The heavily armed security personnel spent time taking photographs with the students, only to abandon them 30 minutes before the attack,” the state governor said. Afterward, Nigeria’s president, Bola Tinubu, ordered junior defence minister Bello Matawalle to relocate to the state to help with rescue efforts.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but analysts and locals say gangs often target schools, travellers and remote villagers in kidnappings for ransom. Authorities say the gunmen are mostly former herders who have taken up arms against farming communities after clashes over strained resources.

Africa’s most populous nation is beset by multiple overlapping insecurity crises across its central and northern states, of which kidnapping for ransom is just one facet.

On Monday, the extremist group Islamic West Africa Province claimed responsibility for the death of a Nigerian general in north-eastern Borno state. Iswap also released footage of his death as well as WhatsApp chats about a failed rescue attempt.

Earlier this week, gunmen abducted 38 worshippers from a church in Kwara state, Niger’s southern neighbour, after a brutal attack that left at least two dead, according to church officials. The attack was seen by millions of people due to a live stream of the service that was taking place.

The kidnappers have since demanded a ransom of 100m naira (£52,662) a person, a possible indication that the kidnapping was financially motivated rather than ideological.

Regardless of motive, the scale and frequency of the attacks and kidnappings has heightened pressure on the government as it endeavours to avoid an escalating diplomatic row with the Trump administration, which has designated Nigeria a country of particular concern (CPC), a designation given to nations where the government is deemed to have engaged in or tolerated severe violations of religious freedoms.

US lawmakers such as Ted Cruz have helped spread claims of a “Christian genocide” being under way in Nigeria. Trump has since warned that US forces could go “guns-blazing” into Nigeria if the country fails to protect its Christian population. There has been a flurry of activity in US parliamentary halls and the Vatican as the situation has unfolded.

“Terrorists, separatists, bandits and criminal militias in Nigeria are all over the country, with ongoing attacks often deliberately targeting Christian communities,” Jonathan Pratt, a senior official with the US Bureau of African Affairs told Congress on Thursday.

Nigeria’s government has rejected claims of an anti-Christian genocide and says the victims of the attacks are from all faiths.

On Wednesday, Tinubu announced he was cancelling planned trips to South Africa and Angola this weekend for the G20 and AU-EU summits respectively.

The dispute between South Africa and the US over the Trump administration’s decision to boycott the G20 in Johannesburg has continued, with South Africa objecting to a US plan for a junior embassy official to take part in the closing ceremony meant to mark the handover to the next summit, which will take place in Florida.

The two-day summit, which opens on Saturday, comes at a febrile moment in global politics. The US has proposed a deal to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which it agreed with Moscow without the involvement of Ukraine or the EU.

Washington has also been accusing South Africa for months of racial discrimination against minority white Afrikaners, who ruled the country during apartheid, which South Africa has vehemently rejected.

The country’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, told a press conference on Thursday that the US had had a change of mind about participating in the G20 and that the two sides were discussing what form US involvement could take. He had said earlier in the day that countries should not be bullied and that their sovereignty should be respected.

The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, hit back: “The US is not participating in official talks at the G20 in South Africa. I saw the South African president running his mouth a little bit against the United States and the president of the United States earlier today, and that language is not appreciated by the president or his team.

“The ambassador or the representative of the embassy in South Africa is simply there to recognise that the United States will be the host of the G20 [next year]. They are receiving that send-off at the end of that event. They are not there to participate in official talks, despite what the South African president is falsely claiming.”

The US does not currently have an ambassador in Pretoria, with Marc Dillard the acting ambassador or chargé d’affaires.

Many South Africans reacted furiously to what they perceived as a snub to their country. The foreign ministry, Chrispin Phiri, said: “President will not be handing over to a junior embassy official.”

Ramaphosa had previously said he would hand the G20 presidency to an “empty chair”, but that he would have preferred to give it directly to Donald Trump.

The 2026 summit will take place at the Trump National Doral Miami golf resort in Florida, which is owned by the Trump Organization.

Analysts said the US boycott of the G20 was more likely to harm than help its global standing. Marisa Lourenço, a political risk consultant based in Johannesburg, said: “China or India in the past might get criticised for certain actions … Now the US is really being seen as the unreasonable one, because it’s becoming clearer and clearer that what it’s doing to South Africa is just completely misguided.”

The G20 was founded in 1999 after the Asian financial crisis. It was envisaged as a broader alternative to the G7 for the world’s largest economies and the EU to try to find common positions on global economic and financial issues.

South Africa has taken great pride in being the first African country to preside over the G20, presenting itself as a champion of issues important to many countries on the continent. These include high levels of public debt and how to get the most benefit from the growing demand for “critical minerals” used in green technologies and found in many parts of the region.

The country’s other priorities for its year leading the G20 are to increase financing for a “just energy transition” - moving away from fossil fuels while preserving economic livelihoods - and improve disaster resilience and responses.

As part of his G20 presidency, Ramaphosa commissioned reports into Africa’s high debt levels and global inequality. The latter, produced by a panel independent experts led by the Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, cited data showing that the world’s wealthiest 1% had captured 41% of all wealth generated between 2000 and 2024, while the poorest 50% had received just 1%.

The panel recommended the formation of an independent body to synthesise data and research on inequality and assess the effectiveness of policies to tackle it. Ramaphosa, Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, also threw their weight behind the proposal in a Financial Times opinion piece on Thursday.

Jayati Ghosh, an economics professor at University of Massachusetts Amherst and one of thepanel members, told reporters: “Wealth concentration is growing. Income inequality is also a result of that, but we found wealth inequality to be even possibly the biggest problem, because it generates also greater inequality of power.”

Winnie Byanyima, the executive director of UNAids and another panel member said the independent monitoring body, which the panel compared to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, could be formed without a G20 resolution or US involvement. “It doesn’t have to start with a consensus, it can start with those who want to take it forward,” said Byanyima, who will address G20 leaders on inequality on Saturday.

Protests over violence against women have been timed across South Africa to coincide with the G20. At midday on Friday, thousands of people lay down for 15 minutes of silence in memory of the 15 women murdered on average every day in the country.

The dispute between South Africa and the US over the Trump administration’s decision to boycott the G20 in Johannesburg has continued, with South Africa objecting to a US plan for a junior embassy official to take part in the closing ceremony meant to mark the handover to the next summit, which will take place in Florida.

The two-day summit, which opens on Saturday, comes at a febrile moment in global politics. The US has proposed a deal to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which it agreed with Moscow without the involvement of Ukraine or the EU.

Washington has also been accusing South Africa for months of racial discrimination against minority white Afrikaners, who ruled the country during apartheid, which South Africa has vehemently rejected.

The country’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, told a press conference on Thursday that the US had had a change of mind about participating in the G20 and that the two sides were discussing what form US involvement could take. He had said earlier in the day that countries should not be bullied and that their sovereignty should be respected.

The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, hit back: “The US is not participating in official talks at the G20 in South Africa. I saw the South African president running his mouth a little bit against the United States and the president of the United States earlier today, and that language is not appreciated by the president or his team.

“The ambassador or the representative of the embassy in South Africa is simply there to recognise that the United States will be the host of the G20 [next year]. They are receiving that send-off at the end of that event. They are not there to participate in official talks, despite what the South African president is falsely claiming.”

The US does not currently have an ambassador in Pretoria, with Marc Dillard the acting ambassador or chargé d’affaires.

Many South Africans reacted furiously to what they perceived as a snub to their country. The foreign ministry, Chrispin Phiri, said: “President will not be handing over to a junior embassy official.”

Ramaphosa had previously said he would hand the G20 presidency to an “empty chair”, but that he would have preferred to give it directly to Donald Trump.

The 2026 summit will take place at the Trump National Doral Miami golf resort in Florida, which is owned by the Trump Organization.

Analysts said the US boycott of the G20 was more likely to harm than help its global standing. Marisa Lourenço, a political risk consultant based in Johannesburg, said: “China or India in the past might get criticised for certain actions … Now the US is really being seen as the unreasonable one, because it’s becoming clearer and clearer that what it’s doing to South Africa is just completely misguided.”

The G20 was founded in 1999 after the Asian financial crisis. It was envisaged as a broader alternative to the G7 for the world’s largest economies and the EU to try to find common positions on global economic and financial issues.

South Africa has taken great pride in being the first African country to preside over the G20, presenting itself as a champion of issues important to many countries on the continent. These include high levels of public debt and how to get the most benefit from the growing demand for “critical minerals” used in green technologies and found in many parts of the region.

The country’s other priorities for its year leading the G20 are to increase financing for a “just energy transition” - moving away from fossil fuels while preserving economic livelihoods - and improve disaster resilience and responses.

As part of his G20 presidency, Ramaphosa commissioned reports into Africa’s high debt levels and global inequality. The latter, produced by a panel independent experts led by the Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, cited data showing that the world’s wealthiest 1% had captured 41% of all wealth generated between 2000 and 2024, while the poorest 50% had received just 1%.

The panel recommended the formation of an independent body to synthesise data and research on inequality and assess the effectiveness of policies to tackle it. Ramaphosa, Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, also threw their weight behind the proposal in a Financial Times opinion piece on Thursday.

Jayati Ghosh, an economics professor at University of Massachusetts Amherst and one of thepanel members, told reporters: “Wealth concentration is growing. Income inequality is also a result of that, but we found wealth inequality to be even possibly the biggest problem, because it generates also greater inequality of power.”

Winnie Byanyima, the executive director of UNAids and another panel member said the independent monitoring body, which the panel compared to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, could be formed without a G20 resolution or US involvement. “It doesn’t have to start with a consensus, it can start with those who want to take it forward,” said Byanyima, who will address G20 leaders on inequality on Saturday.

Protests over violence against women have been timed across South Africa to coincide with the G20. At midday on Friday, thousands of people lay down for 15 minutes of silence in memory of the 15 women murdered on average every day in the country.

Unknown gunmen have abducted an unidentified number of students from a Catholic school in central Nigeria, the second mass abduction in the country in a week.

The latest kidnapping, in Papiri community in Niger state, came against the backdrop of Donald Trump’s threat to intervene militarily to end a “Christian genocide”, which the Nigerian government has denied is happening.

“The Niger state government has received with deep sadness the disturbing news of the kidnapping of pupils from St Mary’s School in Agwara local government area,” Abubakar Usman, the state government secretary, said in a statement.

Niger, the biggest of the country’s 36 states, runs west from the capital, Abuja, to neighbouring Benin. The incident in the early hours of Friday is the third documented mass school abduction in the state in the last decade. In the last attack in Niger state, in May 2021, 135 pupils were abducted from an Islamic seminary, six of whom died while being held.

On Monday, gunmen stormed a girls’ boarding school in neighbouring Kebbi state, abducting 25 schoolgirls and killing the vice-principal. According to local reports, security forces had relayed information about the plot and spent the night guarding the school but left the scene early.

“The heavily armed security personnel spent time taking photographs with the students, only to abandon them 30 minutes before the attack,” the state governor said. Afterward, Nigeria’s president, Bola Tinubu, ordered junior defence minister Bello Matawalle to relocate to the state to help with rescue efforts.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but analysts and locals say gangs often target schools, travellers and remote villagers in kidnappings for ransom. Authorities say the gunmen are mostly former herders who have taken up arms against farming communities after clashes over strained resources.

Africa’s most populous nation is beset by multiple overlapping insecurity crises across its central and northern states, of which kidnapping for ransom is just one facet.

On Monday, the extremist group Islamic West Africa Province claimed responsibility for the death of a Nigerian general in north-eastern Borno state. Iswap also released footage of his death as well as WhatsApp chats about a failed rescue attempt.

Earlier this week, gunmen abducted 38 worshippers from a church in Kwara state, Niger’s southern neighbour, after a brutal attack that left at least two dead, according to church officials. The attack was seen by millions of people due to a live stream of the service that was taking place.

The kidnappers have since demanded a ransom of 100m naira (£52,662) a person, a possible indication that the kidnapping was financially motivated rather than ideological.

Regardless of motive, the scale and frequency of the attacks and kidnappings has heightened pressure on the government as it endeavours to avoid an escalating diplomatic row with the Trump administration, which has designated Nigeria a country of particular concern (CPC), a designation given to nations where the government is deemed to have engaged in or tolerated severe violations of religious freedoms.

US lawmakers such as Ted Cruz have helped spread claims of a “Christian genocide” being under way in Nigeria. Trump has since warned that US forces could go “guns-blazing” into Nigeria if the country fails to protect its Christian population. There has been a flurry of activity in US parliamentary halls and the Vatican as the situation has unfolded.

“Terrorists, separatists, bandits and criminal militias in Nigeria are all over the country, with ongoing attacks often deliberately targeting Christian communities,” Jonathan Pratt, a senior official with the US Bureau of African Affairs told Congress on Thursday.

Nigeria’s government has rejected claims of an anti-Christian genocide and says the victims of the attacks are from all faiths.

On Wednesday, Tinubu announced he was cancelling planned trips to South Africa and Angola this weekend for the G20 and AU-EU summits respectively.

Keir Starmer has defended his decision to travel to South Africa for the G20 summit days before the budget and despite the planned absence of Donald Trump.

The prime minister will arrive in South Africa on Friday morning for two days of summit discussions and bilateral talks on topics including sustainability and economic growth.

But with his chancellor putting the final touches on a potentially controversial budget and Trump having said he has decided to stay away, No 10 insisted on Thursday that the prime minister’s latest foreign trip would be good value for British taxpayers.

On the way to Johannesburg, Starmer said: “If you want to deal with the cost of living and make people better off with good, secure jobs, investment from G20 partners and allies is really important.

“Those discussions from those relations … are measured in real jobs back in the UK that are really important when the economy and the cost of living is the most important thing.”

The prime minister will attend a business event on Friday before going to the main summit on Saturday. But while he will host bilateral meetings with world leaders, he will not be able to meet Trump, who has said he is not attending after accusing South Africa of racially discriminating against the minority white Afrikaner community.

South Africa has responded by accusing the US of “coercion by absentia”.

Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African president, told the B20 business summit on Thursday: “We are sovereign countries. And we need to be treated as equals.

“Our sovereignty needs to be respected. We need to sit around the table as equals and having the same share of knowledge, the same share of capability, without any bullying the other.”

Asked about Trump, Starmer said: “Obviously President Trump set out his position. I think it’s really important to be there and talk to other partners and allies so we can get on with the discussions around global issues that have to be addressed.”

Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping will also be absent from the summit.

While South Africa and Russia maintain close ties, Putin is wanted by the international criminal court, to which South Africa is a signatory. Xi has skipped many international gatherings this year, delegating attendance at the Brics and Asean summits to China’s premier, Li Qiang.

British officials say Starmer will also spend part of the trip trying to shore up support for Ukraine, as Trump draws up a peace plan that would force it to give up weapons and territory.

Downing Street said on Thursday: “Discussions on Ukraine will be an important part of this summit. It is, of course, important that the prime minister engages with our international allies in order to strengthen that support for Ukraine.”

The prime minister was briefed on the outline of the plan when he met the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, for dinner in Berlin this week. They will have a chance to exchange further notes when they meet the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on the sidelines of this weekend’s summit.

While Starmer works the international diplomatic circuit, his chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is finalising a budget likely to include billions of pounds in tax rises, including a freeze on income tax thresholds. The prime minister and the chancellor decided last week to abandon a plan to raise income tax rates, leaving Reeves looking at other ways to raise about £20bn extra in tax revenue.

Starmer said: “Obviously the details of the budget will come on Wednesday. It’ll be a Labour budget with Labour values. It’ll be based on fairness.

“We have to see this in the context of 16, 17 years now where we’ve had the crash in 2008, followed by austerity, followed by a not very good Brexit deal, followed by Covid, followed by Ukraine, and that’s why we have to take the decision to get this back on track.

“I’m optimistic about the future. I do think if we get this right our country has a great future.”

South Africa has accused the US of attempting “coercion by absentia” after Donald Trump’s administration confirmed it would boycott the G20 meeting in Johannesburg and said no final statement by G20 leaders could be issued without its presence.

The US sent a note last weekend confirming none of its officials would be attending the G20 leaders’ summit on 22 to 23 November, the first to be held in Africa, and that it would not accept any declaration issued at the end of it.

Trump has accused South Africa of racially discriminating against the minority white Afrikaner community, which led the country during the apartheid regime that ended in 1994. South Africa’s government has vehemently denied the allegations.

Chrispin Phiri, a spokesperson for South Africa’s foreign ministry, said: “Washington’s absence negates its role over the G20’s conclusions. But we cannot allow coercion by absentia to become a viable tactic; it is a recipe for institutional paralysis and the breakdown of collective action.”

The note from the US embassy in Pretoria said that the US would accept only a “chair’s statement” rather than a leaders’ declaration, according to AFP.

The note read: “South Africa’s G20 priorities run counter to US policy views, and we cannot support consensus on any documents negotiated under your presidency. The US opposes issuance of any G20 summit outcome document under the premise of a consensus G20 position without US agreement.”

South Africa’s priorities for its G20 presidency include improving debt sustainability for low income countries and more finance for a “just energy transition” away from fossil fuels. It has invited an additional 22 countries to the summit.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said in February that South Africa’s G20 themes of “solidarity, equality, & sustainability” amounted to “anti-Americanism”.

The US, which is taking over the presidency of the G20 next year, has also criticised the forum’s expansion from its initial focus on global financial and economic issues when it was founded in 1999.

The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said at an Oval Office event: “We have whittled down the G20 back to basics … the G20 had become basically the G100 this past year. So it will be a concentrated group in Miami, seeing the best America has to offer, with American leadership.”

South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, told reporters last week: “I have said in the past I don’t want to hand over to an empty chair.

“But the empty chair will be there, probably symbolically hand over to that empty chair and talk to President Trump and say, ‘Even though you are not here, I am now handing over to you the reins of chairing or being president of the G20.’ Because the G20 as an entity continues, whether they are here or not.”

The G20, which includes 19 of the world’s largest economies and the European Union, traditionally issues a communique at the end of the leaders’ summit every year. Last year, Ukraine and its western allies criticised the final statement for not mentioning that Russia had invaded Ukraine.

Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

A Nigerian court has convicted the Biafran separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu on terrorism-related charges.

Judge James Omotosho said prosecutors had shown that Kanu, who also holds British citizenship, had used his Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to incite attacks on security officials and civilians in south-east Nigeria.

“His intention was quite clear as he believed in violence. These threats of violence were nothing but terrorist acts,” judge Omotosho said.

Kanu, 58, who had dismissed his legal team and represented himself during the trial, was earlier ejected from court for “unruly” behaviour. “Which law states that you can charge me on an unwritten law? Show me,” Kanu said before he was removed from the court. “Omotosho, where is the law? Any judgment declared in this court is a complete rubbish.”

The IPOB leader was first taken into state custody in October 2015 and faced multiple charges, including treasonable felony. Eighteen months later, he was granted bail before disappearing until a controversial 2021 extradition from Kenya, which his supporters described as an extraordinary rendition.

After Nigeria’s 18-month civil war ended in 1970, the short-lived nation of Biafra, which comprised the old eastern region – most of which is today’s south-eastern Nigeria – was reintegrated into the country.

Several secessionist movements have sprung up to protest against what they see as political and economic marginalisation of the region, rallying members of the diaspora to donate to the agitation for independence, including training militia in the region’s forests.

IPOB, seen as the most consequential of these movements, relied for long periods on Kanu’s oratory on Peckham-based Radio Biafra, as a tool of campaign. During Kanu’s time in prison, a splinter group emerged, the Biafran Government in Exile (BGIE), whose self-declared prime minister, Simon Ekpa, was sentenced to six years on terrorism-related charges by a Finnish court in September.

Both groups have been accused of a campaign of terror in south-east Nigeria where militants regularly and violently enforce Mondays as “sit-at-home days”, banning business, schooling and other activity.

According to the geopolitical risk consultancy SBM Intelligence, as many as 700 deaths have been linked to separatist militants since 2021, including a May 2024 incident where five soldiers and six others were killed in an ambush in Abia state. During the conflict, military personnel have also been implicated in multiple cases of human rights abuses.

In 2017, the year Kanu was arrested, the IPOB was proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the Nigerian government. Since then, he has hired US lobby firms, including one owned by ex-congressman Jim Moran. Reports in Nigeria have tied those efforts to the designation of Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” this month by Donald Trump, who threatened to attack Nigeria while citing unproven claims of a ‘Christian genocide’ in the north.

Ahead of the final verdict, it emerged that Kanu had written directly to Trump, claiming that a “Judeo-Christian genocide” is under way in south-east Nigeria.

A Nigerian court has convicted the Biafran separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu on terrorism-related charges.

Judge James Omotosho said prosecutors had shown that Kanu, who also holds British citizenship, had used his Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to incite attacks on security officials and civilians in south-east Nigeria.

“His intention was quite clear as he believed in violence. These threats of violence were nothing but terrorist acts,” judge Omotosho said.

Kanu, 58, who had dismissed his legal team and represented himself during the trial, was earlier ejected from court for “unruly” behaviour. “Which law states that you can charge me on an unwritten law? Show me,” Kanu said before he was removed from the court. “Omotosho, where is the law? Any judgment declared in this court is a complete rubbish.”

The IPOB leader was first taken into state custody in October 2015 and faced multiple charges, including treasonable felony. Eighteen months later, he was granted bail before disappearing until a controversial 2021 extradition from Kenya, which his supporters described as an extraordinary rendition.

After Nigeria’s 18-month civil war ended in 1970, the short-lived nation of Biafra, which comprised the old eastern region – most of which is today’s south-eastern Nigeria – was reintegrated into the country.

Several secessionist movements have sprung up to protest against what they see as political and economic marginalisation of the region, rallying members of the diaspora to donate to the agitation for independence, including training militia in the region’s forests.

IPOB, seen as the most consequential of these movements, relied for long periods on Kanu’s oratory on Peckham-based Radio Biafra, as a tool of campaign. During Kanu’s time in prison, a splinter group emerged, the Biafran Government in Exile (BGIE), whose self-declared prime minister, Simon Ekpa, was sentenced to six years on terrorism-related charges by a Finnish court in September.

Both groups have been accused of a campaign of terror in south-east Nigeria where militants regularly and violently enforce Mondays as “sit-at-home days”, banning business, schooling and other activity.

According to the geopolitical risk consultancy SBM Intelligence, as many as 700 deaths have been linked to separatist militants since 2021, including a May 2024 incident where five soldiers and six others were killed in an ambush in Abia state. During the conflict, military personnel have also been implicated in multiple cases of human rights abuses.

In 2017, the year Kanu was arrested, the IPOB was proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the Nigerian government. Since then, he has hired US lobby firms, including one owned by ex-congressman Jim Moran. Reports in Nigeria have tied those efforts to the designation of Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” this month by Donald Trump, who threatened to attack Nigeria while citing unproven claims of a ‘Christian genocide’ in the north.

Ahead of the final verdict, it emerged that Kanu had written directly to Trump, claiming that a “Judeo-Christian genocide” is under way in south-east Nigeria.

South Africa has accused the US of attempting “coercion by absentia” after Donald Trump’s administration confirmed it would boycott the G20 meeting in Johannesburg and said no final statement by G20 leaders could be issued without its presence.

The US sent a note last weekend confirming none of its officials would be attending the G20 leaders’ summit on 22 to 23 November, the first to be held in Africa, and that it would not accept any declaration issued at the end of it.

Trump has accused South Africa of racially discriminating against the minority white Afrikaner community, which led the country during the apartheid regime that ended in 1994. South Africa’s government has vehemently denied the allegations.

Chrispin Phiri, a spokesperson for South Africa’s foreign ministry, said: “Washington’s absence negates its role over the G20’s conclusions. But we cannot allow coercion by absentia to become a viable tactic; it is a recipe for institutional paralysis and the breakdown of collective action.”

The note from the US embassy in Pretoria said that the US would accept only a “chair’s statement” rather than a leaders’ declaration, according to AFP.

The note read: “South Africa’s G20 priorities run counter to US policy views, and we cannot support consensus on any documents negotiated under your presidency. The US opposes issuance of any G20 summit outcome document under the premise of a consensus G20 position without US agreement.”

South Africa’s priorities for its G20 presidency include improving debt sustainability for low income countries and more finance for a “just energy transition” away from fossil fuels. It has invited an additional 22 countries to the summit.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said in February that South Africa’s G20 themes of “solidarity, equality, & sustainability” amounted to “anti-Americanism”.

The US, which is taking over the presidency of the G20 next year, has also criticised the forum’s expansion from its initial focus on global financial and economic issues when it was founded in 1999.

The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said at an Oval Office event: “We have whittled down the G20 back to basics … the G20 had become basically the G100 this past year. So it will be a concentrated group in Miami, seeing the best America has to offer, with American leadership.”

South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, told reporters last week: “I have said in the past I don’t want to hand over to an empty chair.

“But the empty chair will be there, probably symbolically hand over to that empty chair and talk to President Trump and say, ‘Even though you are not here, I am now handing over to you the reins of chairing or being president of the G20.’ Because the G20 as an entity continues, whether they are here or not.”

The G20, which includes 19 of the world’s largest economies and the European Union, traditionally issues a communique at the end of the leaders’ summit every year. Last year, Ukraine and its western allies criticised the final statement for not mentioning that Russia had invaded Ukraine.

Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

A new treatment for tuberculosis could boost cure rates and shorten the time needed to treat the disease by months, trial results suggest.

Globally, an estimated 10.7 million people fell ill with TB last year and 1.23 million died from it.

In its annual report on tuberculosis, launched last week, the World Health Organization said it remained a “major global public-health problem” and the leading infectious cause of death.

Progress is being threatened by aid cuts and already falling short of targets towards a UN goal of ending TB as a public-health threat this decade, the WHO said.

Sorfequiline, a new antibiotic, showed stronger action against the deadly bacteria than existing treatments, with a comparable safety profile, researchers from the TB Alliance told the Union Conference on Lung Health in Copenhagen on Wednesday.

The trial involved 309 people across 22 sites in South Africa, the Philippines, Georgia, Tanzania and Uganda, with different dose regimens.

All participants had “drug-sensitive” tuberculosis, meaning a standard cocktail of drugs can safely treat them but researchers believe TB infections that are resistant to standard treatment could also be helped.

The trial suggested a sorfequiline-based regimen could be used for anyone testing positive, said Dr Maria Beumont, vice-president of TB Alliance.

She said: “I can just put you on a treatment while I’m waiting to understand exactly what your situation is. I don’t need to wait to get information back and classify you as drug sensitive, this or that regimen. There is no need to go through all of that.”

Access to swift diagnostic tests for TB is patchy and it can take days or weeks in some places for doctors to get laboratories to identify the TB type a patient has before they can be helped.

Dr William Brumskine, clinical research site leader at the Aurum Institute in Rustenburg, South Africa, said he hoped overall care would be improved. “The hope of having a universal regimen that is shorter, that has less side-effects, is you will have less individuals coming in for clinic visits [and so] the health care providers will have more time to give individual care to patients,” he said.

A decade ago, patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis faced a gruelling treatment regimen of 18 months or more, involving multiple injections and hospital stays, that only cured about 50% of people. The current gold-standard treatment, introduced in 2019, successfully treats 90% of people within six months. Researchers hope using sorfequiline could improve things further.

Beaumont said excitement had built before the full trial results arrived. “It’s incredible when you start getting these little anecdotes from the sites [such as]: ‘This patient got cured so fast. I don’t know what arm [of the trial] he was on, but wow, I’ve never seen this before.’”

TB Alliance said it hoped to launch a phase-3 clinical trial in 2026.

Dr Kavindhran Velen, chief scientific officer at the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, which organised the conference, said a swifter, more effective TB treatment could have clear benefits, increasing the proportion of patients completing treatment and reducing the time they are contagious.

However, he said he worried that applying it universally to TB patients could have downsides, including disincentivising health systems’ investment in wider innovations such as laboratories and testing.

He said doctors would need to be sure any universal TB treatment was not akin to “taking a hammer to an ant [for patients who could be treated with gentler drugs]. We don’t want to overexpose an individual to treatment that is not necessarily needed.”

Nestlé is still adding sugar to most baby cereals sold across Africa, according to an investigation by campaigners who have accused the company of “putting the health of African babies at risk for profit”.

The food firm was accused of “double standards” over the researchers’ findings, which come at a time when rates of childhood obesity are rising on the continent, prompting calls for Nestlé to remove all added sugar from baby-food products.

Nestlé described the investigation, from Public Eye, a Swiss group that calls itself a global justice organisation, as “misleading”. A company spokesperson said that having cereals sweet enough to be palatable to infants was vital in combating malnutrition. The firm said their recipes were well within limits set by national regulations in the countries concerned.

Public Eye researchers worked with activists in more than 20 African countries to buy 94 samples of Cerelac products marketed for babies aged six months and above, which were sent to a laboratory for analysis.

The laboratory found added sugar in more than 90% of baby cereals, with an average of 6g, or one-and-a-half teaspoons, per serving.

Most products without added sugar were imported, they said, and had originally been intended for sale in Europe, apart from two variants recently launched in South Africa.

The amount of added sugar identified ranged from about 5g a serving for products found in Egypt, Madagascar, South Africa, Malawi and Nigeria to 7.5g in a product sold in Kenya.

World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines on foods for children under three recommend they should contain “no added sugars or sweetening agents”, in part because of the risk of creating long-term preferences for sweetened foods.

An investigation by Public Eye published in April 2024 found Nestlé was adding sugar and honey to infant milk and cereal products sold in Asia, Africa and Latin America, when equivalent products in richer countries had no added sugar.

In a letter to Nestlé’s chief executive, Philipp Navratil, 12 African civil society and consumer organisations said: “You know how to do things differently. But you made a deliberate decision to feed children in Africa with less healthy options.”

After Public Eye’s 2024 investigation, Nestlé said it had an ambition to introduce versions of Cerelac with no added sugar in all markets. However, campaigners said this was “too little, too late”, and called for the company to stop adding sugar to baby foods.

They added: “By adding sugar to infant cereals, Nestlé is putting the health of African babies at risk for profit.” Accusing the firm of playing a part in “a preventable public health catastrophe”, they said an epidemic of diet-related non-communicable diseases was spreading across the continent.

Peggy Diby, global head of corporate affairs for Nestlé Nutrition, said: “These are unfounded allegations and insinuate actions that are contrary to all our values. We disagree with the Public Eye report. It is misleading. We do not have double standards when it comes to early childhood nutrition.”

In the past year, Nestlé has introduced 14 Cerelac variants with no added sugar in India, and Diby said it was accelerating the rollout of no added sugar varieties in African countries.

She said Public Eye had refused to share details of its testing, and disputed the sugar levels identified, suggesting they included naturally occurring sugars from milk, cereals and fruits in the products. She said levels in Nestlé products were “well below” those set out in international food safety and quality standards published by the WHO and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization known as the Codex Alimentarius.

“The biggest challenge in Africa is not obesity, it is malnutrition,” she said, highlighting iron deficiency as a particular concern. “We are here to provide age-adapted solutions that contribute to [tackling] malnutrition.”

Dr Sara Colombo Mottaz, global head of medical, regulatory and scientific affairs at Nestlé Nutrition, said fortified cereals played a key role in providing the necessary micronutrients, and the company had internal “guardrails” to keep added sugars below a certain level.

She said babies in the womb, or those breastfed as infants, were used to sweet tastes and it was important to offer them flavours they would accept as they transitioned to solid foods.

“We want to provide to parents [a range of products] that are under also our guardrail,” she said. “Remember that children at the age of six months … can refuse to eat and if they refuse to eat, they will not be able to grow properly.”

In October 2023, leaders, scientists and policymakers from three of the world’s great rainforest regions – the Amazon, the Congo, and the Borneo-Mekong basins – assembled in Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo. They were there to discuss one urgent question: how to save the planet’s last great tropical forests from accelerating destruction.

For those present, the question was existential. But to their dismay, almost no one noticed. “There was very little acknowledgment that this was happening, outside of the Congo basin region,” says Prof Simon Lewis, a lecturer at the University of Leeds and University College London, and co-chair of the Congo Basin Science Initiative (CBSI).

“It didn’t really fly as a conference or a set of policy proposals to better invest in that region of the world.”

Despite being the second-largest rainforest on Earth – and one of the most vital carbon sinks – the Congo basin remains the rainforest the world forgot, often overlooked when it comes to global climate policy and funding.

Spanning six countries across central Africa and home to roughly 130 million people, the basin is often called the “lungs of Africa”. Its vast canopy shelters thousands of rare species.

“It has about 10,000 plant species and 30% of these can only be found in the region,” says Dr Yadvinder Malhi, a leading ecologist at Oxford University. Unlike the Amazon, the Congo’s forests remain largely intact – home to endangered animals such as forest elephants, okapis, mountain gorillas and bonobos.

Its significance extends far beyond its borders. The basin’s rainfall feeds main river systems across the continent, sustaining life as far away as the Sahel.

“Africa is largely an arid continent,” says Malhi. “This fountain of water in the heart of the continent circulates and [also] ends up feeding into the Nile. That sustains the lives of millions of people.”

Crucially, while encroachments of logging and mining are increasing, much of the forest remains untouched. As a result, the Congo basin is believed to be the last big rainforest to remain a strong carbon sink – with enough trees left to absorb more carbon than it emits.

“It’s what we believe,” says Lewis. “But we are lacking recent data to see if that is still the case. We know carbon-absorption rates have declined in the Amazon in the last decade or so, but we’re not sure what’s happening in the Congo now.”

In a report released on Monday, as the Cop30 climate conference began in Belém, the Science Panel for the Congo Basin found that the Congo basin absorbs 600m tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, but this number is falling due to accelerating deforestation. Prof Bonaventure Sonké, co-chair of the panel, said the researchers hoped it would bring international attention and support for “the Earth’s most important but least-studied tropical rain forest”.

While scientists agree on the Congo basin’s critical importance, it continues to be funded at a far lower rate than its counterparts. A report published earlier this year by the Centre for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) revealed the scale of the financial imbalance. Between 2008 and 2022, the world’s three main rainforest regions received a combined total of $20bn (£15bn) in international funding. Of that, $9.3bn (47%) went to the Amazon basin, $7.4bn (37%) to south-east Asia, and only $3.2bn (16%) to the Congo basin.

Germany was the leading donor for central Africa during this period, providing 24% of total funding, followed by the Global Environment Fund (12%), the World Bank (9.4%), and the US (8.8%). Most of the money (30%) went towards biodiversity protection, with another 27% supporting environmental policy. Yet funding for scientific research accounted for just 0.1%.

“The basin countries don’t prioritise research,” says Dr Richard Sufo Kankeu, a lecturer at the University of Le Mans and one of the report’s authors.

The result is a wide gap in scientific understanding. A 2023 study examining relative levels of climate and biodiversity research on different rainforests found about 2,000 published academic papers for the Congo basin, compared with 10,611 for the Amazon.

“You’ve got this critical ecosystem, but there just aren’t enough local scientists working to understand it,” says Lee White, an honorary professor at the University of Stirling and former environment minister in Gabon.

White and Lewis have recommended that Congo basin countries aim to train at least 1,000 PhD-level scientists over the next decade to strengthen regional expertise. But better funding is also needed now.

“We don’t want to wait 10 years,” says Raphael Tshimanga, a professor of hydrology and water at the University of Kinshasa, and a member of CBSI. “It needs to start happening now. How does this happen? By mobilising human resources and attracting funding. We don’t just want nice speeches at summits.”

Part of the reason for the lack of resources lies in an enduring perception of the region as Joseph Conrad’s “‘heart of darkness’”, says White. “Central Africa has this reputation as a place of corruption and instability.”

Corruption is a significant concern in the region, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – however, it can also be wielded as an easy excuse for lack of investment.

The Republic of Congo’s environment minister, Arlette Soudan-Nonault, describes that view as “the tree that hides the forest”, adding: “It’s very easy and lazy to say that Africans are corrupt.”

Beyond reputation, there are obstacles such as security, infrastructure and capacity. The DRC, which contains about 60% of the basin’s rainforest, has endured intermittent conflict for more than three decades.

“It’s not just an issue of instability,” Soudan-Nonault says. “We need to look at ways of creating sustainable economic growth.”

While the Congo basin is often seen as humanity’s last line of defence against human-made climate breakdown, deforestation in the region has begun to rise. “It is the last frontier of climate change,” the minister says. “Supporting the Congo basin is not charity. It’s about recognising its role in protecting the Earth through its carbon sink.

“The people of the Congo basin have tightened their belts so that the world can breathe – and we receive no compensation.”

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow the biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield in the Guardian app for more nature coverage

Nestlé is still adding sugar to most baby cereals sold across Africa, according to an investigation by campaigners who have accused the company of “putting the health of African babies at risk for profit”.

The food firm was accused of “double standards” over the researchers’ findings, which come at a time when rates of childhood obesity are rising on the continent, prompting calls for Nestlé to remove all added sugar from baby-food products.

Nestlé described the investigation, from Public Eye, a Swiss group that calls itself a global justice organisation, as “misleading”. A company spokesperson said that having cereals sweet enough to be palatable to infants was vital in combating malnutrition. The firm said their recipes were well within limits set by national regulations in the countries concerned.

Public Eye researchers worked with activists in more than 20 African countries to buy 94 samples of Cerelac products marketed for babies aged six months and above, which were sent to a laboratory for analysis.

The laboratory found added sugar in more than 90% of baby cereals, with an average of 6g, or one-and-a-half teaspoons, per serving.

Most products without added sugar were imported, they said, and had originally been intended for sale in Europe, apart from two variants recently launched in South Africa.

The amount of added sugar identified ranged from about 5g a serving for products found in Egypt, Madagascar, South Africa, Malawi and Nigeria to 7.5g in a product sold in Kenya.

World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines on foods for children under three recommend they should contain “no added sugars or sweetening agents”, in part because of the risk of creating long-term preferences for sweetened foods.

An investigation by Public Eye published in April 2024 found Nestlé was adding sugar and honey to infant milk and cereal products sold in Asia, Africa and Latin America, when equivalent products in richer countries had no added sugar.

In a letter to Nestlé’s chief executive, Philipp Navratil, 12 African civil society and consumer organisations said: “You know how to do things differently. But you made a deliberate decision to feed children in Africa with less healthy options.”

After Public Eye’s 2024 investigation, Nestlé said it had an ambition to introduce versions of Cerelac with no added sugar in all markets. However, campaigners said this was “too little, too late”, and called for the company to stop adding sugar to baby foods.

They added: “By adding sugar to infant cereals, Nestlé is putting the health of African babies at risk for profit.” Accusing the firm of playing a part in “a preventable public health catastrophe”, they said an epidemic of diet-related non-communicable diseases was spreading across the continent.

Peggy Diby, global head of corporate affairs for Nestlé Nutrition, said: “These are unfounded allegations and insinuate actions that are contrary to all our values. We disagree with the Public Eye report. It is misleading. We do not have double standards when it comes to early childhood nutrition.”

In the past year, Nestlé has introduced 14 Cerelac variants with no added sugar in India, and Diby said it was accelerating the rollout of no added sugar varieties in African countries.

She said Public Eye had refused to share details of its testing, and disputed the sugar levels identified, suggesting they included naturally occurring sugars from milk, cereals and fruits in the products. She said levels in Nestlé products were “well below” those set out in international food safety and quality standards published by the WHO and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization known as the Codex Alimentarius.

“The biggest challenge in Africa is not obesity, it is malnutrition,” she said, highlighting iron deficiency as a particular concern. “We are here to provide age-adapted solutions that contribute to [tackling] malnutrition.”

Dr Sara Colombo Mottaz, global head of medical, regulatory and scientific affairs at Nestlé Nutrition, said fortified cereals played a key role in providing the necessary micronutrients, and the company had internal “guardrails” to keep added sugars below a certain level.

She said babies in the womb, or those breastfed as infants, were used to sweet tastes and it was important to offer them flavours they would accept as they transitioned to solid foods.

“We want to provide to parents [a range of products] that are under also our guardrail,” she said. “Remember that children at the age of six months … can refuse to eat and if they refuse to eat, they will not be able to grow properly.”

The US-based Trinidadian rapper Nicki Minaj will work alongside the White House to highlight claims of Christian persecution in Nigeria.

Minaj is expected to deliver a speech at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Tuesday, according to a Time journalist who first posted about the collaboration on Sunday, adding that it was arranged by Alex Bruesewitz, an adviser to Donald Trump.

Responding to the X post, the US ambassador to the UN, Michael Waltz confirmed the plan, describing Minaj as “not only arguably the greatest female recording artist, but also a principled individual who refuses to remain silent in the face of injustice”.

“I’m grateful she’s leveraging her massive platform to spotlight the atrocities against Christians in Nigeria, and I look forward to standing with her as we discuss the steps the president and his administration are taking to end the persecution of our Christian brothers and sisters,” he added.

Minaj later confirmed the collaboration, writing: “Ambassador, I am so grateful to be entrusted with an opportunity of this magnitude. I do not take it for granted. It means more than you know.”

Referring to her fanbase, known as the Barbz, she continued: “The Barbz & I will never stand down in the face of injustice. We’ve been given our influence by God. There must be a bigger purpose.”

Minaj’s collaboration with the White House comes just days after she publicly supported a Truth Social post from the US president in which he condemned what he called the Nigerian government’s failure to prevent attacks on Christians.

Trump’s comments follow weeks of pressure from conservative Christian groups urging him to categorize the west African nation as a “country of particular concern” over alleged religious persecution. In his statements, Trump has not made mention of any violence against Muslims who have also been targeted by extremist religious groups, including Boko Haram.

In response to Trump’s comments earlier this month, Minaj wrote on X: “Reading this made me feel a deep sense of gratitude. We live in a country where we can freely worship God … Thank you to the president & his team for taking this seriously. God bless every persecuted Christian.”

Trump has also threatened to send US troops “guns-a-blazing” to Nigeria, which he called a “disgraced country”, adding that if the US did militarily intervene, “it will be fast, vicious and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our cherished Christians.”

Nigeria’s leadership has swiftly contested Trump’s comments, with its president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, saying that Nigeria “is a democracy with constitutional guarantees of religious liberty”.

Although the country is officially secular, Nigeria is closely split between Muslims (53%) and Christians (45%). Despite violence against Christians having garnered international attention, analysts say the causes are more complex, with many conflicts stemming from ethnic rivalries as well as land and water disputes, among other reasons.

Kidnappings of priests and pastors have surged, as criminals see them as high-value targets whose communities can raise ransom quickly, prompting some analysts to view their actions as driven more by criminal profit than religious discrimination.

Eswatini has confirmed for the first time that it had received more than $5m from the United States to accept dozens of people expelled under Washington’s aggressive mass deportation drive.

The tiny southern African kingdom has taken in 15 men since Donald Trump’s administration struck largely secretive deals with at least five African countries to accept migrants under a third-country deportation programme fiercely criticised by rights groups.

A document revealed by Human Rights Watch in September and seen by AFP said Eswatini agreed to take 160 deportees in exchange for $5.1m to “build its border and migration management capacity”.

Questioned in parliament about the arrangement, the finance minister, Neal Rijkenberg, confirmed the government had received the $5.1m.

“We were told it was for the US deportees after we enquired,” he said, adding the ministry had been kept in the dark throughout the process.

The first group of five men arrived in July aboard a chartered US military plane, with a second batch received in early October.

Washington branded some of them “depraved monsters” convicted of crimes including child rape and murder.

They are being held without charge in Eswatini’s maximum-security Matsapha correctional centre, notorious for detaining political prisoners, according to their lawyers.

One of them, a 62-year-old Jamaican who had reportedly completed a murder sentence in the US, was sent back to Jamaica in September.

Lawyers and civil society groups in Eswatini have gone to court to challenge the legality of the detentions.

Rijkenberg told parliament the money received from the US was funnelled into the account of Eswatini’s disaster agency, NDMA.

However, “NDMA is not allowed to use money it has not been appropriated,” he said, vowing to regularise the process.

It was not immediately clear who from Eswatini signed the deal with the United States.

Formerly known as Swaziland, the country is the last absolute monarchy in Africa. It has been led by King Mswati III since 1986 and his government has been accused of human rights violations.

A British citizen based in Sheffield appeared in a TikTok live broadcast laughing along while a notorious fighter from Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces group boasted about participating in mass killings in the city of El Fasher.

The video, broadcast on 27 October, is just one of hundreds posted to social media in which 44-year-old Abdalmonim Alrabea expresses support for the RSF and the ethnically targeted atrocities it has committed in Sudan’s western Darfur region.

One of the most-high profile online propagandists for the RSF, he has travelled to Darfur at least twice since the war began and has uploaded monologues on an almost daily basis to accounts with tens of thousands of followers on TikTok, YouTube and X.

Members of the Sudanese diaspora in the UK have called for action to be taken against Alrabea for what they perceive to be inciting hate and glorifying violence.

“Freedom of speech should never serve as a shield for hate speech or incitement to violence,” said Abdallah Abu Garda, chair of the UK-based Darfur Diaspora Association. “We urge the authorities to take decisive action, ensure accountability, and prevent him from continuing to spread harmful content.”

Little is known about Alrabea’s life in the UK, though some of his videos appear to show that he has worked as a taxi driver in Sheffield. The Guardian approached him for comment.

On 27 October, Alrabea featured in a live TikTok broadcast hosted by an RSF figure called Zafer. Also in the broadcast was Al-Fateh Abdullah Idris, an active RSF fighter who goes by the name Abu Lulu and who has appeared in numerous videos shot in El Fasher showing fighters killing unarmed people.

“Today I killed 2,000 people and then I lost count. I want to start again from zero,” Abu Lulu says at one point, to which Alrabea responds with laughter. Elsewhere in the video Alrabea tells Abu Lulu he wants him to “fuck these falangayat up and down”, using a word considered a slur towards indigenous ethnic groups in Darfur.

After the Guardian got in touch with TikTok, it said it had taken down Alrabea’s account, which had 240,000 followers, “for violating our policies on violent and criminal behaviour”. YouTube also said last week that it had removed his account, which had material dating back to December 2023, “for violating our violent extremist or criminal organisations policy”.

TikTok said it uses technology and moderation teams to vet content, including on TikTok Live. Videos broadcast on the Live feature do not stay on the platform after broadcast, meaning inflammatory material can go unnoticed by the wider world unless viewers make their own recordings.

X has taken down Alrabea’s accounts in the past only for him to open new accounts that quickly gain followers. The company sent links to its rules on violent and hateful content in response to a request for comment.

The RSF captured El Fasher from the Sudanese army late last month, since when evidence has emerged of ethnically targeted mass killings, sexual violence and abductions. Satellite imagery analysed by Yale researchers has shown visible blood stains on the city’s streets and possible mass graves being dug.

In January the United States formally declared that the RSF had committed genocide during the war.

Mohamed Suliman, a Sudanese researcher and writer based in Boston who lobbies social media companies to take down RSF-linked accounts, described Alrabea as a “dedicated RSF supporter” who “might be the group’s most influential social media activist”.

He added: “RSF social media activists play a key role in strengthening the militia’s followers by spreading the narrative that justifies their war.”

Alrabea is named in an application by British resident Yaslam Altayeb, who was detained by the RSF in the early months of the war, for the British government to apply sanctions against several individuals accused of supporting the RSF. Altayeb was eventually released and made his way back to the UK.

Many of the videos Alrabea has appeared in have subsequently been deleted, though some have been archived by the online platform Sudan in the News.

In June of this year Alrabea posted videos to YouTube and TikTok from El Fasher itself, during a visit to parts of the city that were under the control of the RSF at the time.

Mohaned Elnour, a Sudanese human rights lawyer, said Alrabea’s ability to visit Darfur during an active conflict indicated he has influence within the organisation that went beyond cheerleading from his car.

“His role is to recruit, to encourage,” said Elnour. “There are so many people spreading hate speech and trying to inspire the RSF but none of them were on the ground, meeting RSF officials, standing on top of tanks,” Elnour added, referring to an image shared by Alrabea from an earlier trip to Darfur in 2023. “Look at Rwanda, how it started – those who spread hate speech fuelled the war.”

In a cavernous conference hall at the edge of the Dubai desert, a retired military officer fronting the Australia pavilion will offer “the key credibility of being in uniform” for defence companies spruiking their wares.

“A unique advantage in attracting and engaging with visiting military delegations,” is how briefing notes, shared by the head of Team Defence Australia, describes it.

Starting Monday, the Dubai International airshow is a self-described “showcase [for] cutting-edge military aircraft and air defence technologies”.

And Team Defence Australia holds a prime slice of real estate, a pavilion in the middle row at the weapons fair, where more than 35 Australian companies will be represented.

There may be a reason for this prominent location.

The United Arab Emirates is, by far, Australia’s biggest weapons export market, with nearly $300m in arms and ammunition being shipped there in the past five years.

Amid the slogans and sales tactics, there will probably be things left unsaid at this airshow.

In Australia, parliamentarians, human rights organisations and religious groups are demanding a suspension of defence exports to the UAE, citing consistent reports to UN investigators that it has armed a militia accused of genocide.

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Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary is accused of a campaign of mass killings, rape and torture that has intensified with the capture of the city of El Fasher last month, in the famine-ridden Darfur region.

Thousands are believed to have been killed. Despite a communications blackout, the reported scale of the killings are supported by satellite images that have captured bodies on the ground and widespread discoloration of the ground, reddened by blood.

The RSF – formerly allied to, but now fighting against, the Sudanese government – has sourced “sophisticated weaponry” from the UAE via Chad and Libya, according to recent UN expert reports, using those weapons to slaughter non-Arab Sudanese.

UN investigating supply of arms in Sudan

Over the past five years, Australia exported $288m in arms and ammunition to the UAE, according to government figures, with a massive increase from 2019. But Australian export data has no detail on what weapons have been supplied to the UAE and in what quantity.

What is clear is that the UAE is – by far – the largest export market for Australian defence companies.

Separate figures from the UN Comtrade database show the UAE has received “arms and ammunition, parts and accessories” valued at USD$197m from Australia over the past five years.

The UN figures also suggest Australia has been the UAE’s fourth-largest supplier of weapons over that same five-year period.

But there is mounting evidence the UAE is arming the RSF, largely in exchange for gold. An estimated 90% of Sudan’s gold – worth about USD$13.4bn – is smuggled illegally out of the country, dwarfing the legitimate trade: most of it goes to the UAE.

A UN panel of experts detailed in April a heavy rotation of cargo planes flying out of the UAE, reportedly carrying weapons, ammunition and medical equipment to the RSF via Chad.

The UAE has denied any involvement in trafficking weapons, insisting its flights were humanitarian missions, carrying supplies for a field hospital, sewing machines, and Qu’rans.

But British-made target systems and armoured personnel carrier engines have been recovered from combat sites in Sudan. Bulgaria has also said weapons it supplied to the UAE were re-exported without permission.

The UAE military itself has previously been accused of war crimes and violating arms embargos – including in Yemen and Libya. The UAE denies the allegations.

Government supports expanded defence sales

Despite concerns from human rights groups, the Australian government believes the defence relationship with the UAE can be expanded further.

In a note to defence companies last month, Austrade said the “UAE’s extensive and ongoing defence procurement program represents real opportunities for Australian suppliers”.

The government has covered costs for dozens of companies to showcase their products “face-to-face with the UAE ministry of defence” in Dubai.

“At least one retired senior ADF officer will be on hand to lead the delegation,” a government briefing paper says.

“They offer advice and support well as the key credibility of being in uniform.”

The Green senator David Shoebridge told the Guardian the Australian government had been green-lighting weapons sales to the UAE for the past five years “at an astonishing scale”, with almost no transparency.

“When you start selling weapons to regimes like the UAE, what do you think is going to happen? Those weapons are going to end up in some of the bloodiest conflicts in the world.

“We know the UAE has been sending arms to the RSF in Sudan. The public has had zero assurances from the Albanese Government that Australian weapons are not being used and abused in places like Darfur.”

This month, religious group Quakers Australia wrote to the foreign minister, Penny Wong, arguing Australia could not be confident – because of the opacity of its arms export regime – that Australian-made weapons were not being diverted to armed groups elsewhere.

The Medical Association for the Prevention of War, along with other civil society organisations, have also called for an urgent parliamentary review of Australia’s arms exports, arguing the current export regime lacks accountability.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Australia had an obligation under international law to ensure its military trade did not contribute to human rights abuses.

“But Australia doesn’t have laws on the books that require it to monitor where and how these exports are used once exported,” said the HRW’s Australia director, Daniela Gavshon.

‘Impossible’ to prove weapons haven’t been used in Sudan

A spokesperson for the Australian defence department said it had “a rigorous and transparent export controls framework that is consistent with international obligations”.

The spokesperson said Australian law addressed “a range of issues including foreign policy, human rights, national security, regional security and Australia’s international obligations including the Arms Trade Treaty”. Laws also came into effect last year to provide greater oversight over the transfer of “controlled goods” to foreign entities.

Defence did not answer questions on if and how arms were monitored once exported to the UAE.

The Australian government has condemned the atrocities in Sudan and urged a three-month “humanitarian truce”. Wong was a signatory to a joint statement from 27 countries, which said they are “gravely alarmed by the reports of systematic and ongoing violence against civilians”.

The embassy of the United Arab Emirates did not respond to questions.

Philipp Kastner, senior lecturer in international law at the University of Western Australia, told the Guardian that while confirming Australian-made weapons have been re-exported to Sudan was difficult, “I would say that it is impossible to confirm the contrary: that these weapons have definitely not been used in Sudan.”

Kastner argued weapons do not bring peace. “It may be an increasingly lucrative business for Australian companies, but we should ask ourselves, as a society, if it is really through the manufacturing of weapons that we want to increase our wealth.”

Ethiopia has confirmed an outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus in the south of the country, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has said.

The Marburg virus is one of the deadliest known pathogens. Like Ebola, it causes severe bleeding, fever, vomiting and diarrhoea and has a 21-day incubation period.

Also like Ebola, it is transmitted via contact with body fluids and has a fatality rate of between 25 and 80 per cent.

The head of the World Health Organization, Ethiopia’s Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, confirmed on Friday that at least nine cases had been detected in southern Ethiopia, two days after Africa CDC was alerted to a suspected haemorrhagic virus in the region.

“Marburg virus disease (MVD) has been confirmed by the National Reference Laboratory (in Ethiopia),” Africa CDC said on Saturday.

“Further epidemiological investigations and laboratory analyses are under way and the virus strain detected shows similarities to those previously identified in east Africa.”

It said Ethiopian health authorities had acted swiftly to confirm and contain the outbreak in the Jinka area.

It said it would work with Ethiopia to ensure an effective response and to reduce the risk of the virus spreading to other parts of east Africa.

An epidemic of Marburg virus killed 10 people in Tanzania in January before being terminated in March.

Rwanda said in December 2024 it had managed to stamp out its first known Marburg epidemic, which caused 15 deaths.

There is no approved vaccine or antiviral treatment for the Marburg virus, but oral or intravenous rehydration and treatment of specific symptoms increases patients’ chances of survival.

Last year, Rwanda trialled an experimental vaccine from the US-based Sabin Vaccine Institute.

The UK is undermining its legacy in fighting infectious diseases including Aids and malaria by cutting money pledged to a leading global health fund, campaigners claim.

The 15% reduction in the contribution to the Global Fund for Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria announced this week – in a year when the UK, alongside South Africa, is co-host of the fund’s replenishment drive – risks encouraging other countries to cut back commitments as well, advocates fear.

The government announced a £850m commitment to the fund on Tuesday, down from £1bn in the last round.

Campaigners called on the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, to show leadership and attend the replenishment summit in Johannesburg later in November – and to find extra money.

The smaller pledge is part of the UK government’s reduction in aid spending from 0.5% of GDP to 0.3% to increase funding for defence.

The British development minister Jenny Chapman said this year’s funding was “in dollar terms […] only 5% less than the amount” pledged for 2023-25 and would “save up to 1.3 million lives, avert up to 22m new cases or infections of HIV, TB and malaria, and generate up to £13bn in health gains and economic returns in the countries where the Global Fund works”.

But campaigners said the cut would hit hard. Prof Kenneth Ngure, president-elect of the International Aids Society, said: “The Global Fund saves lives every day through its work on HIV, tuberculosis and malaria and is estimated to have saved deaths from these three diseases by half since 2002.

“While the final outcome of the replenishment is still to be determined, any reduction in support will have consequences – forcing African countries to make impossible choices as they strive to protect the most vulnerable.”

Ngure, based in Kenya, said he was also concerned that funding cuts could compromise the rollout of new drugs widely considered to be potential gamechangers in preventing HIV.

Joy Phumaphi, executive secretary of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance, said the UK’s continued commitment was welcome, but that the drop would “have real consequences across Africa; fewer bed nets, medicines and diagnostics reaching those most in need”.

Research published in October suggested a 20% cut to the overall Global Fund would result in 330,000 additional deaths by 2040 from malaria alone. The fund provides 59% of international financing for malaria.

Phumaphi added: “As co-hosts of this replenishment, the UK has a chance to reaffirm its global leadership by investing in stronger, more resilient health systems that benefit millions.”

John Plastow, executive director at Frontline Aids, a global partnership, said: “We expected a stronger show of leadership, reflecting a proud UK legacy of support to the global goal of ending Aids.

“There is a danger that this drop in its pledge will lead to reductions in other donor commitments, with real risks for people’s lives and for the global response to HIV.”

He added: “We urge the UK to make an explicit commitment to increase its Global Fund pledge later in the course of this three-year replenishment, when it is able to source additional funding.”

Adrian Lovett, UK executive director of the One campaign, suggested the money could come from £74m saved by reducing the cost of hotel accommodation for asylum seekers in the UK. He said: “Ministers should use those funds to top up this Global Fund pledge, helping to save more lives and increasing the chances of a successful replenishment in Johannesburg.”

Dr Andriy Klepikov, director of Ukraine’s Alliance for Public Health, said the Global Fund enabled more than half a million Ukrainians to access HIV and TB services during the war. He said: “Each of these people counts on the eighth replenishment outcomes; their lives depend on the pledge from the UK and other countries.”

However, Klepikov said he was “thankful for the UK’s generous contribution in the current challenging context”, adding: “With such a contribution, UK confirms its leadership in global health.”

• The Gates Foundation is a major private contributor to the Global Fund. The foundation also contributes to theguardian.org, which funds independent journalism at the Guardian

South African authorities are facing heavy criticism after they held more than 150 Palestinians, including a woman who was nine months pregnant, on a plane for about 12 hours because of problems with their travel documents.

A pastor who was allowed to meet the passengers while they were stuck on the plane said it was extremely hot and that children were screaming and crying.

The Palestinians landed on a charter plane at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo airport on Thursday morning after a stopover in Nairobi, Kenya, South Africa’s border management authority said in a statement.

The Palestinian passengers’ documents did not have exit stamps from Israeli authorities, did not indicate how long they would be staying in South Africa and did not provide local addresses, leading immigration authorities to deny them entry, the statement said.

The 153 passengers, including families and children, were allowed to leave the plane on Thursday night after South Africa’s home affairs ministry intervened and a local nongovernmental organisation, Gift of the Givers, offered to accommodate them. Border officials said 23 passengers had since travelled on to other countries, leaving 130 in South Africa.

The founder of Gift of the Givers, Imtiaz Sooliman, said it was the second plane carrying Palestinians to land in South Africa in the past two weeks and that the passengers themselves said they did not know where they were going. He said both planes were believed to be carrying people from war-torn Gaza.

It was not immediately clear how the charter plane was organised, where exactly it came from and why the passengers were able to leave Israel without the proper documentation, as South African authorities said.

The pastor, Nigel Branken, who was let on to the plane while it was on the tarmac told the South African broadcaster SABC that many of the Palestinians now intended to claim asylum in South Africa.

South Africa has long been a supporter of the Palestinian cause and the treatment of the passengers has sparked anger.

“It’s dire,” Branken told SABC in an interview from the aircraft on Thursday as he described the conditions. “When I came on to the plane it was excruciatingly hot. There were lots of children just sweating and screaming and crying.

“I do not believe this is what South Africa is about. South Africa should be letting these people into the airport at the very least and letting them apply for asylum. This is their basic fundamental right guaranteed in our constitution.”

South African authorities are facing heavy criticism after they held more than 150 Palestinians, including a woman who was nine months pregnant, on a plane for about 12 hours because of problems with their travel documents.

A pastor who was allowed to meet the passengers while they were stuck on the plane said it was extremely hot and that children were screaming and crying.

The Palestinians landed on a charter plane at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo airport on Thursday morning after a stopover in Nairobi, Kenya, South Africa’s border management authority said in a statement.

The Palestinian passengers’ documents did not have exit stamps from Israeli authorities, did not indicate how long they would be staying in South Africa and did not provide local addresses, leading immigration authorities to deny them entry, the statement said.

The 153 passengers, including families and children, were allowed to leave the plane on Thursday night after South Africa’s home affairs ministry intervened and a local nongovernmental organisation, Gift of the Givers, offered to accommodate them. Border officials said 23 passengers had since travelled on to other countries, leaving 130 in South Africa.

The founder of Gift of the Givers, Imtiaz Sooliman, said it was the second plane carrying Palestinians to land in South Africa in the past two weeks and that the passengers themselves said they did not know where they were going. He said both planes were believed to be carrying people from war-torn Gaza.

It was not immediately clear how the charter plane was organised, where exactly it came from and why the passengers were able to leave Israel without the proper documentation, as South African authorities said.

The pastor, Nigel Branken, who was let on to the plane while it was on the tarmac told the South African broadcaster SABC that many of the Palestinians now intended to claim asylum in South Africa.

South Africa has long been a supporter of the Palestinian cause and the treatment of the passengers has sparked anger.

“It’s dire,” Branken told SABC in an interview from the aircraft on Thursday as he described the conditions. “When I came on to the plane it was excruciatingly hot. There were lots of children just sweating and screaming and crying.

“I do not believe this is what South Africa is about. South Africa should be letting these people into the airport at the very least and letting them apply for asylum. This is their basic fundamental right guaranteed in our constitution.”

Alaa Abd el-Fattah, the British-Egyptian writer and human rights campaigner who was freed from jail in September, was stopped from flying to the UK by Egyptian passport control, his family has said.

Abd el-Fattah was pardoned after more than 10 years in jail but his status, including his right to travel back and forth between Britain and Egypt, was left unclear and subject to discussion between the family and authorities.

He had been due to travel to the UK on Tuesday in part to attend two conferences, including the Magnitsky human rights awards in London.

Sanaa Seif, Abd el-Fattah’s sister, confirmed in a speech to the awards ceremony that her brother was stopped from flying to the UK by Egyptian passport control earlier in the week.

He attempted to fly to London with Seif on Tuesday morning but was told at Cairo international airport that he was not allowed to travel.

Abd el-Fattah was pardoned by President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi on 22 September and released from Wadi el-Natrun prison later that day, but it has not been clear whether he is able to travel to the UK to be reunited with his son, Khaled, in Brighton.

Abd el-Fattah and his mother, Laila Soueif, were on Thursday awarded the Courage Under Fire award at the Magnitsky awards. Seif collected the award on behalf of her brother and mother.

Speaking at the event, Seif said: “I wish my brother could be here tonight to accept this award. I wish he could be reunited with his son, Khaled, in Brighton.

“But on Tuesday morning we went to Cairo airport together to come to London, and he was stopped by Egyptian authorities at passport control and they refused to allow him to travel with me.”

Abd el-Fattah has conducted interviews about his experience of freedom in the British press, including the Guardian as well in the Egyptian dissident press. He had indicated he needed time to think about his future.

His son, Khaled, is 13 and lives with his mother in Brighton where he attends a special educational needs school. When Abd el-Fattah was released, Khaled visited him in Egypt, but he has returned to Brighton.

Soueif conducted a 287-day hunger strike to press for the release of her son, which she started on 29 September 2024 after Egyptian authorities failed to release him at the end of his latest five-year sentence. Abd el-Fattah had been imprisoned for “spreading fake news” after sharing a Facebook post about torture in Egypt.

Soueif ended her hunger strike on Monday 14 July 2025 after 287 days without food. During this time she was in St Thomas’ hospital in London and came close to death on two occasions, in late February and June 2025.

A surge in state-sanctioned fuel smuggling between 2022 and 2024 cost the Libyan people about $20bn (£15bn) in lost revenue – an alarming sum that demands decisive international sanctions against those responsible, according to the most comprehensive report published on how Libya’s primary revenue source has been systematically pillaged.

The report by the investigative and policy body the Sentry states that “politicians and security leaders who claim to serve the public and fight organised crime have, in fact, acted as the chief architects of Libya’s fuel-smuggling industry, often with backing from foreign states”. Some of the imported fuel has also been smuggled into Sudan, where it has prolonged that country’s civil war.

Sentry calls for a western-backed investigation into the Libyan oil officials known to be at the heart of the fuel-smuggling enterprise and for international help to ensure Libya’s own investigative bodies identify those who have stolen funds from the Libyan people.

Fuel smuggling has been a long-standing problem in Libya, but the report claims the sums involved rose sharply after 2022 after a change to the leadership of Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC), one of the few state bodies that spans the east-west divisions that have effectively created two governments since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

The NOC introduced a system whereby plentiful Libyan crude oil was swapped for imported refined fuel, which instead of being consumed in the Libyan market at subsidised prices was resold abroad at vast profit.

By late 2024, the NOC’s fuel imports had surged from about 20.4m litres per day in early 2021 to a peak of more than 41m litres per day by late 2024. No genuine surge in domestic demand for refined petrol could justify such a large increase, and Sentry claims more than half the imported refined petrol has been sold on by criminal networks at a private profit.

Libya still has little domestic oil refining capacity.

Sentry calculates more than $6.7bn-worth of fuel was smuggled out of the country in 2024 alone, sufficient for Libya to more than triple its spending on healthcare and education.

The report claims: “Given its sheer scale, fuel smuggling can no longer be portrayed merely as a byproduct of weak governance. In 2021, Libya’s top rulers effectively embraced it as part of a broader, systematic strategy to siphon massive wealth from the population.

“Kleptocrats and organised crime networks – working alongside corrupt officials who wield influence over state bureaucracy, logistical hubs, distribution points, routes, and border crossings – orchestrated a drastic increase in illegal export of subsidised fuel. Destinations include Sudan, Chad, Niger, Tunisia, Albania, Malta, Italy and Turkey.

“The transportation methods involve various categories of vessels, tanker trucks, and smaller vehicles – even rogue pipelines, depending on the geographical context and specific circumstances of the business model. This illegal fuel exportation causes domestic shortages, forcing citizens to pay much higher prices at unofficial outlets, especially in Libya’s peripheral area.

The report claims the smuggling not only deprived the Central Bank of Libya of crucial dollar revenues, it also undermined the integrity of the NOC, whose hydrocarbon exports account for virtually all of Libya’s income.

The vast increase in fuel imports occurred during the NOC chairmanship of Farhat Bengdara who left his position in January after 30 months in charge, the report said.

The NOC has said it abandoned the swap system in March 2025, and the quality of fuel imported from January to September fell by 8% compared with the previous year. But experts say Libya is still importing far more fuel than it could possibly need.

Bengdara told Sentry that under his tenure, the NOC remained transparent and proactive in its cooperation with national institutions and international organisations. He said he had submitted reforms to the Council of Ministers and the Supreme Council for Energy Affairs to reduce reliance on subsidised diesel in electricity generation.

These proposals, Bengdara added, included increasing natural gas production, promoting gas and renewable energy for electricity generation, and initiating the gradual removal of fuel subsidies.

British American Tobacco has been accused of “utter hypocrisy” for lobbying against tobacco control measures in Africa that are already in place in the UK.

A letter seen by the Guardian, sent from the company’s subsidiary in Zambia to the country’s government ministers, asks for plans to ban tobacco advertising and sponsorship to be abandoned or delayed.

The tobacco firm seeks changes to a draft bill that include reductions in the proposed size of graphic health warnings on cigarette packaging, the removal of restrictions on flavoured tobacco products, and watered-down penalties for any firms breaking the new laws.

“If I was a politician, I would say that they permit the protection of the British people and perpetuate the death of the Zambian people,” said Master Chimbala, a Zambian anti-tobacco campaigner.

More than 7,000 Zambians a year die from tobacco-related illnesses, according to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates.

Chimbala said the letter was understood to have been copied to several government departments and was in circulation among civil society groups.

It comes amid wider concerns about industry interference with health policies. Last month, WHO officials issued a warning that the tobacco industry was intensifying efforts to weaken global control measures.

Jorge Alday, director of the tobacco industry watchdog STOP at health organisation Vital Strategies, said: “We see evidence of industry lobbying everywhere. Tobacco company fingerprints are on delayed tax increases in Indonesia, stalled legislation in Zambia and even a weakened declaration at the UN high-level meeting on NCDs.

“If a tobacco control measure isn’t passed because of this letter, the price could be paid in lives of people who might otherwise quit smoking.”

The tobacco control bill going through Zambia’s parliament includes proposals to go further than UK legislation by also applying to e-cigarettes, and mandating that graphic health warnings cover 75% of product packaging.

In the letter, BAT suggests this be reduced to 30% or 50% “within the WHO-FCTC [Framework Convention on Tobacco Control] recommended threshold”, delayed for at least 12 months after the bill passes.

The WHO in fact recommends a warning should cover at least 50% of the front of a pack “and aim to cover as much of the principal display areas as possible”. In the UK, warnings must cover 65% of a packet’s front and back.

BAT asks for the removal of broad restrictions on flavoured tobacco products, suggesting that it would push consumers toward “illegally traded” products. It suggests prohibiting a smaller list of “flavours based on desserts, candy, energy drinks, soft drinks and alcohol drinks”. All flavoured cigarettes have been banned in the UK since 2020.

The draft bill suggests penalties for various offences “ranging from a percentage of annual turnover to 10 years’ imprisonment”.

In the letter, Mukubesa Maliande, managing director of British American Tobacco (Zambia) plc, says the firm is “committed to good corporate behaviour” and “supports the objectives of governments to reduce smoking incidence and the associated health impact” but claims that “some regulations can have unwelcome and unexpected consequences.”

Chimbala said BAT’s proposed changes would “weaken this legislation so much that the impact needed for it to cause long-term change in society will not be achieved”.

The fact that many such provisions existed in the UK, where BAT is headquartered, was “utter hypocrisy itself”, he said.

“We live in a global village. If I plant tobacco in my back yard and harvest that and sell it out – and my children do not consume tobacco, but my neighbour’s children do … to enrich myself and all the generations of my children while my neighbour’s children are dying … is in itself total emotional, moral and spiritual bankruptcy.”

Tobacco control legislation in the UK or elsewhere had not caused companies to close, Chimbala said. “Legislation never shuts down the industry. It only protects the people.”

A BAT Zambia spokesperson said: “BAT Zambia conducts its business in compliance with applicable local laws. Further, the company participates in the country’s legislative process in line with the relevant frameworks which provide for stakeholder participation in policymaking.”

The company was “not opposed to regulation”, they said, adding that underage people should be protected from access to tobacco and nicotine.

“We advocate for progressive regulation to achieve intended public health goals, while acknowledging the spectrum of rights and obligations on industry, consumers and related stakeholders,” they said, adding that BAT’s proposals “reflect the realities of the Zambian market and tobacco industry, which includes rising levels of illicit trade”.

Zambia’s department of trade, commerce and industry was approached for comment.

The French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal has been pardoned and is to be released from prison, the Algerian presidential office said in a statement on Wednesday.

The move, which will mean Sansal can be transferred to Germany for medical treatment, comes after the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, urged Algeria to free Sansal.

“The president of the republic decided to respond positively to the request of the esteemed president of the friendly Federal Republic of Germany,” said the Algerian statement, issued on Wednesday.

The Algerian president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, had previously rejected French requests for Sansal to be pardoned due to his old age and health condition. Sansal, 81, suffers from prostate cancer.

A vocal critic of the Algerian regime, Sansal was arrested at Algiers airport in November last year and sentenced to five years in prison in March, on charges of undermining national unity. His arrest came shortly after commenting in an interview that France had unfairly ceded Moroccan territory to Algeria during the colonial era.

Relations between Paris and Algiers have deteriorated sharply since Macron backed Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara in 2024, and there have been suggestions that the writer was being held a political hostage due to deteriorating relations between the two countries.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, went as far as saying that Algeria was “dishonouring” itself in imprisoning the writer.

By releasing Sansal to Germany, the Algerian government has found a way out of the diplomatic standoff with its former coloniser without losing political face. Tebboune himself was treated at a hospital in Germany after falling ill with Covid-19 in 2020.

On Monday, Steinmeier said that pardoning Sansal would be “an expression of humanitarian sentiment and political foresight”, that would reflect his “years-long personal relationship to president Tebboune and the good relations between our countries”.

Over the past few months several international authors, including Salman Rushdie, Annie Ernaux and Wole Soyinka, had appealed for the Algeria-born author’s release.

There are grave fears for civilians who survived the capture of El Fasher by a Sudanese paramilitary group last month, as the UN warned relief operations were on the brink of collapse and an aid group said malnutrition in displacement camps had reached “staggering” levels.

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) captured El Fasher – the capital of North Darfur state and the last urban centre outside of its grasp in the wider Darfur region – on 26 October. Survivor accounts and video and satellite evidence suggest more than 1,500 people were killed in ethnically targeted massacres in the immediate aftermath.

The International Organization for Migration, a UN agency, said the humanitarian situation in North Darfur had deteriorated in recent weeks. “Despite the rising need, humanitarian operations are now on the brink of collapse,” the IOM said in a statement.

“Warehouses are nearly empty, aid convoys face significant insecurity, and access restrictions continue to prevent the delivery of sufficient aid.”

Amy Pope, the IOM director general, said: “Our teams are responding, but insecurity and depleted supplies mean we are only reaching a fraction of those in need. Without safe access and urgent funding, humanitarian operations risk grinding to a halt at the very moment communities need support the most.”

The IOM said nearly 90,000 people had left El Fasher and surrounding villages in recent weeks, undertaking a perilous journey through unsafe routes where they have no access to food, water or medical assistance.

Tens of thousands have arrived at overcrowded displacement camps in Tawila, about 70km (43 miles) from El Fasher. In the camps, the displaced find themselves in barren areas with few tents and insufficient food and medical supplies.

The aid group Doctors Without Borders warned that malnutrition in displacement camps had reached “staggering” rates. More than 70% of children under the age of five who reached Tawila between the fall of El Fasher at the end of October and 3 November were acutely malnourished, and more than a third experienced severe acute malnutrition, the group said. “The true scale of the crisis is likely far worse than reported,” it added.

The World Health Organization warned this week that thousands of people remained trapped in the city with almost no access to food, clean water or medical care.

One witness to the fall of El Fasher told Reuters by phone from Tawila that RSF trucks had sprayed civilians with machine-gun fire and crushed them with their vehicles. “Young people, elderly, children, they ran them over,” said the man, who did not want to give his name. Another said he saw militiamen raiding residential areas and killing as many as 50 to 60 people in a street.

The RSF has been at war with the Sudanese army since April 2023, when tensions erupted between the two former allies that were meant to oversee a democratic transition after a 2019 uprising.

The RSF’s principal backer, the United Arab Emirates, has faced criticism for allegedly supplying weapons and mercenaries used in the capture of El Fasher. The UAE denies the claims despite evidence being presented in UN reports and elsewhere.

The full scale of the atrocities that have taken place in El Fasher are yet to emerge, but satellite imagery has picked up large pools of blood on streets and footage shot by RSF fighters themselves shows multiple instances of people wearing civilian clothes being shot dead. Fleeing medical workers have recounted killings, abductions, rapes and looting.

“There is mounting evidence that rape is being deliberately and systematically used as a weapon of war,” said Anna Mutavati, the UN Women regional director for east and southern Africa. “Women’s bodies become a crime scene in Sudan.”

As in previous mass killings perpetrated by the RSF, fighters in El Fasher appeared to be targeting darker skinned non-Arabs.

“These attacks have made starkly clear the cost of inaction by the international community,” the UN commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, told Agence France-Presse on Monday.

The international criminal court has launched an investigation to determine the scale of abuses and potential war crimes in El Fasher, examining satellite imagery, witness testimonies, and on the ground reports.

Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters contributed to this report

On a recent afternoon, 67-year-old Saif Islam made his way into the courtyard of a library in Chinguetti, a tiny desert settlement nestled in the Sahara in Mauritania.

Decked in a flowing boubou gown striped in two shades of blue, his steps unsteady but his presence still commanding, he sat on a handwoven mat stroking his grey beard, with his black croc sandals neatly placed to the side.

“It’s these books that gave it this history, this importance,” he said, pointing to a 10th-century Qur’an, its pages brown with age. “Without these old dusty books, Chinguetti would have been forgotten like any other abandoned town.”

Chinguetti rose to prominence in the 13th century as a type of fortified settlement called a ksar that served as a stopping-off point for caravans plying trans-Saharan trade routes. It then became a gathering place for Maghreb pilgrims on the way to Mecca, and, over time, a centre for Islamic and scientific scholarship, referred to variously as the city of libraries, the Sorbonne of the desert, and the seventh holy city of Islam. Its manuscript libraries played host to scientific and Quranic texts dating from the later middle ages.

For decades, encroaching desert sands have threatened to bury this centuries-old well of knowledge. Residents have left, and tourist numbers have fallen. Most of the current population live in buildings outside the original ksar boundaries.

Islam, the custodian of Al Ahmed Mahmoud Library Foundation, one of only two libraries still open to the public, is fighting to save the manuscripts and drive up interest among his compatriots in the ksar, which was one of the Mauritanian settlements designated a world heritage site by Unesco in 1996.

“Chinguetti is Africa’s spiritual capital,” said Islam, who was born and bred in the town and returned in 2015 when he retired from a job in the civil service in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott.

Islam brought out some manuscripts and other artefacts and laid them on the floor. An air cooler stood in one corner, to help against the intense Saharan sun. For weeks or sometimes months, he said, no visitors had come.

“The tourist season is from September or sometimes December to March,” Islam said. “Before, hundreds of tourists came daily. Now, it’s barely 200 per season. After Covid, tourism dropped drastically. The insecurity in Mali affects Mauritania too.”

In total there are 12 family-run red brick libraries still in operation in the town. Together they hold more than 2,000 volumes, including Quranic manuscripts and books on astronomy, mathematics, medicine, poetry, and legal jurisprudence across the Maghreb and west Africa, dating back to the 11th century.

Many were among the valuables brought by traders from across the region. Others reportedly came from Abweir, a nearby settlement that according to oral tradition was founded in AD777 and later fully submerged under sand dunes.

As much as 90% of Mauritania is considered desert or semidesert. Across the Sahel, desertification keeps accelerating. The dunes in Chinguetti are already at the height of the windows of some of the town’s buildings.

Residents say that within living memory there were as many as 30 family-run libraries in the town, but the number has dwindled as people left, particularly during the droughts of the 1960s and 70s. A lack of tourists means little by way of funding for the few that remain. Unesco recognition did not translate into sustained financial support, they said, and promises of funding from public and private entities have gone unfulfilled.

In recent years, the Madrid-based nonprofit Terrachidia, working with Mauritania’s cultural authorities and the Spanish government’s development agency has helped restore several libraries.

The work was done with local builders and materials using traditional building techniques to ensure faithfulness to the town’s centuries-old aesthetic while preserving the treasured manuscripts. A 2024 cultural heritage project brought schoolchildren into ksar for games, classes, and scavenger hunts.

“It was fantastic,” said Mamen Moreno, a Spanish landscape architect who has visited the site and is Terrachidia’s co-founder. “Some children had never been there before although they have always lived in Chinguetti.”

The end goal, she said, was not merely preservation but to attract more resources to generate activity and perhaps even bring people back. “The precariousness of the buildings … has led to overcrowding in the new neighbourhoods, and the ksar is lifeless,” she said. “Cities, like houses, are preserved when they are inhabited.”

Islam agreed. He said he also wanted his compatriots to participate in the race to save the ancient legacies from going under. “Sadly, I see that Europeans are more interested in Chinguetti than Arabs or even Mauritanian officials [but] Chinguetti is in distress,” he said. “It needs everyone.”

The dotted lines illustrating the border between Western Sahara and Morocco, indicating the former’s disputed territory status, have never been visible to people using Google Maps in the latter.

After media reports last week highlighted the discrepancy, tying it to the UN security council endorsing the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara, the tech company released a statement acknowledging it has always displayed the border differently depending on the search region.

“We have not made changes to Morocco or Western Sahara on Google Maps,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement to Agence France-Presse.

“These labels follow our longstanding policies for disputed regions. People using Maps outside of Morocco see Western Sahara and a dotted line to represent its disputed border; people using Maps in Morocco do not see Western Sahara.”

Western Sahara is a vast mineral-rich former Spanish colony that is largely controlled by Morocco but has been claimed for decades by the pro-independence Polisario Front, which is supported by Algeria.

The UN security council had previously urged Morocco, the Polisario Front, Algeria and Mauritania to resume talks to reach a broad agreement.

But, at the initiative of US president Donald Trump’s administration, the council’s resolution supported a plan, initially presented by Rabat in 2007, in which Western Sahara would enjoy autonomy under Morocco’s sole sovereignty.

A TikTok influencer has been publicly executed by suspected jihadists in Mali, underlining how state control has been eroded in the west African nation.

Mariam Cissé often wore combat attire to post videos in support of the country’s military to more than 100,000 followers on TikTok. According to Yehia Tandina, the mayor of Timbuktu region, she was abducted in a market on Friday by unknown gunmen.

At dusk the next day, the “the same men brought her back to Independence Square in Tonka and executed her in front of a crowd”, Tandina told the Associated Press. The mayor said Cissé, who is believed to have been in her 20s, received death threats before her death.

No one has claimed responsibility for the killing but Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), a group linked to al-Qaida, is known to patrol Tonka, which is about 90 miles from Timbuktu.

“This young woman simply wanted to promote her community through her TikTok posts and encourage the Malian army in its missions to protect people and their property,” said a report on state TV.

The conflict in Mali began in 2012 when an uprising by Tuareg rebels was hijacked by jihadist groups linked to al-Qaida and later Islamic State. Despite French-led interventions and a UN peace mission, violence spread southward as insurgents exploited local grievances, corruption and weak governance.

The military took control of the country in back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, after which tensions with western allies deepened. The junta expelled French and UN forces, accusing them of interfering over human rights issues, and turned to Russia for support, including from Wagner mercenaries.

The army has failed to end the insurgency, despite its promises to improve security, and tensions have developed within its ranks.

“The power grab only deepened its divisions, splitting the army between privileged loyalists of the regime and those sent to the frontlines,” said Rama Yade, senior director of the Africa Centre at the Atlantic Council thinktank. “Coupled with the departure of international forces from Mali, this fragmentation led to abandoned positions, weapons falling into the hands of separatists, and jihadists expanding their hold over the rural north.”

The jihadists have tightened control over key supply routes from neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire, Mauritania and Senegal. Fighters from JNIM have imposed a fuel blockade since September, crippling transport and leaving hospitals struggling, and the government has been forced to shut down schools indefinitely. In Bamako, the capital, and other cities, queues stretch for miles for increasingly costly fuel and food.

France, the US, Germany and Italy have issued warnings to their citizens to leave Mali urgently on commercial flights, saying the roads around the capital were unsafe.

Although the junta is holding on for now, analysts and observers say the fall of the regime is likely within weeks or months.

In a statement on Sunday, the African Union “expressed deep concern over the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Mali”, calling for urgent international coordination and intelligence-sharing to help the junta restore stability.

The worsening insecurity has led to a spike in kidnappings: five Indian workers were abducted last Thursday near Kobri in western Mali. On Sunday, JNIM claimed responsibility for the abduction of three Egyptian nationals and demanded $5m to release them.