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UN Accuses Machar’s South Sudan Rebel Group of Crimes against Humanity

South Sudan's rebel leader Riek Machar. (Reuters)
South Sudan's rebel leader Riek Machar. (Reuters)
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UN Accuses Machar’s South Sudan Rebel Group of Crimes against Humanity

South Sudan's rebel leader Riek Machar. (Reuters)
South Sudan's rebel leader Riek Machar. (Reuters)

The United Nations has accused South Sudan armed opposition group, led by Riek Machar, of committing crimes against humanity in the Western Equatoria region. The accusations are the first-ever charges by the UN against Machar’s movement.

According to the UN, in April 2018 before the peace agreement signed in August, Sudan People’s Liberation Army- in Opposition (SPLA-IO) forcefully took 900 people including children and women.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it has facilitated the release of 24 persons detained in relation to the conflict in South Sudan, including 16 detainees released earlier on Friday.

This week marks the first releases of prisoners supervised by the ICRC following the signing of the latest peace agreement in which parties to the conflict agreed to free detainees.

The ICRC statement, a copy of which was obtained by Asharq Al-Awsat, confirmed the release of the war captives to be the first batch since the agreement signing on September 12. However, the organization refused to release the names of those released.

UN charges facing the SPLA-IO included killings, rape, slavery, forced recruitment, destruction of more than 28 villages and the targeting of civilians.

The UN said that other than kidnapping 900 people, the rebel movement forced more than 2,000 people to flee their homes between April and August.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet appealed to the rebel movement to release nearly 1,000 civilians allegedly abducted from the Western Equatoria region.

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of UNMISS, David Shearer, said it was disappointing that the spike in violence took place while warring parties were negotiating a new peace agreement and despite positive reconciliation efforts in the affected community at the time.

“A new peace agreement has been signed which puts the onus and responsibility on the warring parties to ensure that no atrocities are committed in the future. UNMISS will be closely monitoring any potential violations and abuses,” said Shearer.

However, SPLA-IO deputy spokesman Paul Lam Kabriel denied that his movement committed any of the claimed atrocities.

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World

Father and Son Rescued after Four Days Buried Under Rubble of Venezuela's Earthquakes

Relief workers carry a survivor rescued from a building that collapsed in the earthquakes that struck La Guaira, Venezuela. (AFP) 
Relief workers carry a survivor rescued from a building that collapsed in the earthquakes that struck La Guaira, Venezuela. (AFP) 
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Father and Son Rescued after Four Days Buried Under Rubble of Venezuela's Earthquakes

Relief workers carry a survivor rescued from a building that collapsed in the earthquakes that struck La Guaira, Venezuela. (AFP) 
Relief workers carry a survivor rescued from a building that collapsed in the earthquakes that struck La Guaira, Venezuela. (AFP) 

A father and his son were pulled out alive from the rubble of a collapsed building on Sunday, four days after the devastating earthquakes that struck Venezuela.

It was a ‌scene that gave hope to the French and US rescue workers active in the area as they race against the clock to find more survivors.

Rescue workers carried the pair, visibly weakened and both wearing masks, on improvised fabric stretchers through debris-strewn streets to a waiting ambulance, as a crowd gathered around the emergency vehicles ⁠in La Guaira.

The coastal state was hardest hit by the earthquakes on Wednesday that left at least 1,450 dead and thousands missing.

Their rescue came after 12 hours of painstaking efforts by teams that combed through the ruins using specialized search cameras, carefully working through unstable rubble to reach the trapped victims.

“They are extremely weak, as any patient trapped under rubble for four days would be, so we are doing everything possible to rehydrate them and administer various medications during the extraction process, which ‌is ⁠moving very slowly,” said a member of the French Civil Security.

Before extracting the family members, rescuers prepared intravenous drips and cleared debris. Others remained beside the rubble searching for signs of life and communicating with their colleagues among ⁠the remains.

At least 33 people were rescued over the weekend, though tens of thousands remain missing, heightening fears that time is running out to find survivors.

According to ⁠specialists, after 72 hours following an earthquake, the odds of finding victims alive beneath the rubble drop dramatically.

World

Zelensky Proposes National Pantheon for Ukraine's Heroes

President Volodymyr Zelensky laying flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Kyiv (dpa) 
President Volodymyr Zelensky laying flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Kyiv (dpa) 
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Zelensky Proposes National Pantheon for Ukraine's Heroes

President Volodymyr Zelensky laying flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Kyiv (dpa) 
President Volodymyr Zelensky laying flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Kyiv (dpa) 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has submitted a bill to parliament to establish a national pantheon honoring the country's heroes.

“Today, I submitted to parliament a law on the Ukrainian National Pantheon,” Zelensky said on Sunday in an address marking Constitution Day, according to dpa.

“The names of all the heroes who, across different centuries and eras, fought for Ukraine and inspired Ukraine will be brought together and forever inscribed in our history,” the president said.

“Nobody will ever again dictate to Ukrainians which heroes they should honor, which holidays they should observe or which history they should learn,” added Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Zelensky's presidential office.

“Our ancestors fought for centuries for this right to free self-determination and national independence, and that is exactly what our soldiers are shedding their blood for today,” Budanov said.

The reference to self-determination was also seen as a swipe at neighboring Poland, whose president, Karol Nawrocki, had revoked a high-ranking order awarded to Zelensky amid a dispute over history.

The memorial site is to be built in Kiev.

 

World

Australia, Vanuatu Sign Deal Barring Foreign Military Base on Pacific Island

Prime Minister of Vanuatu Jotham Napat and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pose for photographs after signing the Nakamal agreement during the Australia–Vanuatu Leaders’ Meeting at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, June 29, 2026. AAP/Lukas Coch via REUTERS
Prime Minister of Vanuatu Jotham Napat and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pose for photographs after signing the Nakamal agreement during the Australia–Vanuatu Leaders’ Meeting at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, June 29, 2026. AAP/Lukas Coch via REUTERS
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Australia, Vanuatu Sign Deal Barring Foreign Military Base on Pacific Island

Prime Minister of Vanuatu Jotham Napat and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pose for photographs after signing the Nakamal agreement during the Australia–Vanuatu Leaders’ Meeting at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, June 29, 2026. AAP/Lukas Coch via REUTERS
Prime Minister of Vanuatu Jotham Napat and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pose for photographs after signing the Nakamal agreement during the Australia–Vanuatu Leaders’ Meeting at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, June 29, 2026. AAP/Lukas Coch via REUTERS

Australia and Vanuatu signed a sweeping economic and security agreement on Monday that bars the establishment of any foreign military base on the Pacific island.

Vanuatu is at the center of strategic rivalry between China and US allies in the South Pacific, and Australia has expressed concern that Beijing is seeking a permanent security presence in the region.

The agreement commits Australia to greater economic support for Vanuatu, whose largest external creditor is China, and it stops a foreign military power establishing a base there, AFP reported.

"What this does do is to provide certainty for Australia that there will be no foreign military base," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters after signing the deal in Canberra with his Vanuatu counterpart Jotham Napat.

"We have concluded a balanced agreement that will protect our collective and individual security and our sovereignty," he added.

China's navy has made repeated port calls to Vanuatu.

Beijing also funded the expansion of a wharf in Luganville, once the largest US military base in the South Pacific, fueling concern in Canberra and Washington that China wanted a navy base.

China and Vanuatu previously said the wharf was for cruise ships.

The Nakamal Agreement commits Vanuatu to rejecting the militarization of infrastructure, said Napat.

"As a country, we have in fact passed an act in parliament not to allow any militarization to actually be used for our critical infrastructure," he told reporters at a news conference after the signing.

The agreement, viewed by AFP, states that "to reinforce Pacific collective security and sovereignty Vanuatu shall not permit its territory to be used for any foreign military base or infrastructure.”

It also recognizes Australia as "Vanuatu's longstanding primary policing partner,” and says Vanuatu will prioritize policing requests to other members of the Pacific Islands Forum regional bloc.

China formed policing ties with Vanuatu in 2023, and has donated equipment including drones, patrol boats and vehicles to its police force.

The agreement says Australia and Vanuatu will elevate assistance in "police training and equipment, policing, maritime security, cyber security, intelligence cooperation, and infrastructure.”

The Vanuatu treaty is the latest in a string of agreements Australia has struck with Pacific island nations, seeking to curb China's expanding security influence.

Chinese police have maintained a presence in Solomon Islands since signing a secret security pact in 2022.

Vanuatu has said it is separately negotiating an economic agreement with China, which has built roads and government buildings in the South Pacific nation over a decade.

A former Australian diplomat in the Pacific, James Batley, said the contest between Beijing and Canberra for influence would continue.

"Vanuatu's long tradition of non-alignment means that it won't simply abandon its relationship with China. Nor will China abandon its attempts to undermine Australia's interests in Vanuatu," he told AFP.