#Senegal parades AFCON trophy despite CAF awarding 2025 title to Morocco after dispute; appeals decision at CAS, awaiting swift ruling.

#xenophobia in #SouthAfrica : Arrest these instigators of black on black violence in #KZN

#Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama criticised the U.S. for normalising the erasure of Black history.

Under President Trump, the U.S. has removed slavery exhibits and reinstated Confederate statues, which civil rights advocates say threaten decades of progress.

Mahama highlighted the removal of Black history courses from schools and the increasing bans on books about slavery and racism.

The White House defended Trump, claiming he has delivered historic support for Black Americans and enjoys their support.

Wounded, alone, facing death: More South Africans fighting in Russia’s war plead for help

A strike on a hospital in Sudan killed at least 64 people, WHO says. The strike on the Al Daein Teaching Hospital in East Darfur on Friday also injured at least 89 people and rendered the hospital non-functional, Tedros Ghebreyesus, the head of the WHO, said on X.

Sudan slid into chaos in April 2023 when a power struggle between the military and the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces exploded into war throughout the country.

The RSF has blamed the military for the strike on the hospital.

The army has denied the attack, but two military officials said the strike was targeting a nearby police station. They spoke on the condition of anonymity as they were not allowed to discuss the matter openly.

The devastating war has killed more than 40,000 people, according to UN figures, but aid groups say that is an undercount and the true number could be many times higher.

The WHO has said that over 2,000 people have been killed in attacks on medical facilities since the start of the war.

“Enough blood has been spilled. Enough suffering has been inflicted. The time has come to de-escalate the conflict in Sudan,” said Ghebreyesus.

#Zuma wants commission to hand over WhatsApps, emails between Khampepe and Semenya. #SouthAfrica

A U.S. military refuelling plane crashed in Iraq, killing 4. Here’s what to know.

The U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, said the crash followed an unspecified incident involving two aircraft in “friendly airspace,” and that the other plane landed safely.

Here’s what is known so far about the tanker, which is the fourth publicly acknowledged U.S. aircraft to crash during the war against Iran:
The KC-135 is a long-serving tanker plane

The KC-135 Stratotanker is a U.S. Air Force aircraft used to refuel other planes in midair, allowing them to travel longer distances and maintain operations longer without landing. The plane is also used to transport wounded personnel during medical evacuations or conduct surveillance missions, according to military experts.

Based on the same design as the Boeing 707 passenger plane, the tanker has been in service for more than 60 years, supporting the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps as well as allied aircraft, according to an Air Force description. The aging plane is set to be phased out as the air force receives a full complement of next-generation KC-46A Pegasus tankers.

Despite upgrades over the years, the KC-135s’ age has fueled concern about their reliability and durability.

“The last of these planes were produced in the 1960s,” said Yang Uk, a security expert at South Korea’s Asan Institute for Policy Studies. He added that the transition to the KC-46A has progressed more slowly than expected.

According to the Congressional Research Service, the Air Force last year had 376 KC-135s, including 151 on active duty, 163 in the Air National Guard and 62 in the Air Force Reserve.

A basic KC-135 crew has three people: a pilot, co-pilot and boom operator. Nurses and medical technicians are added in aeromedical evacuation missions.

Refuelling typically happens at the back of the plane, where the boom operator is located. A fuel boom is lowered to connect with fighters, bombers or other aircraft. On many of the planes, the boom operator works lying face down while looking out of a window on the underside of the plane.

Some KC-135s can also refuel planes from pods on their wings. The tankers also have room above the fuel stores to carry cargo or passengers if needed.

Refuelling tankers could play an increasingly important role if the Iran war drags on, as U.S. aircraft may need to fly longer missions to pursue Iranian forces retreating deeper into the country, said Yang.

Cause of crash and condition of crew not immediately known

The U.S. Central Command said four of the six crewmembers on board the crashed KC-135 have been confirmed dead and that rescue efforts are continuing. It said the circumstances of the crash are under investigation but that the loss of the aircraft was “not due to hostile or friendly fire.”

A U.S. official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the developing situation, said the other plane involved was also a KC-135. Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., wrote on X that the other plane landed safely in Israel.

Yang said it would be rare for a refuelling tanker to be downed by enemy fire because such operations are usually conducted in the rear of combat zones.

The crash came after three U.S. F-15E fighter jets were mistakenly downed last week by friendly Kuwaiti fire.
Past accidents

KC-135s have previously been involved in several fatal accidents. The most recent occurred on May 3, 2013, when a KC-135R crashed after takeoff south of Chaldovar, Kyrgyzstan, while supporting the war in Afghanistan.

In that crash, the crew experienced problems with the plane’s rudder, according to a U.S. Air Force investigation. While they struggled to stabilize the plane, the tail section broke away and the plane exploded midair, killing all three crewmembers onboard.

The most serious mid-air collision involving the plane happened in 1966, when a B-52 bomber carrying nuclear bombs struck a tanker near Palomares, Spain.

The accident caused the tanker to crash, killing four onboard. The disaster led to an extensive decontamination effort to clean up nuclear material dispersed when conventional explosives in the hydrogen bombs detonated after hitting the ground.

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Kim Tong-hyung And Adam Schreck, The Associated Press

Schreck reported from Bangkok. AP writers Ben Finley and Konstantin Toropin in Washington contributed.

US sanctions on Rwanda may be bad news for Mozambique’s natural gas future.

Losing Security

There’s never a good time to get slapped with US sanctions, much less when crucial European Union donor support is due for renewal.

The stakes are even higher when the penalties have a direct bearing on the viability of an emerging African natural-gas export hub that’s suddenly escalated in strategic importance in the wake of the Iran war, and is key to transform one of the world’s poorest nations.

Rwandan forces and Mozambique are confronting exactly that.

Kigali’s army has been punished by Washington for backing rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, in defiance of a US-backed peace agreement. Now, sources say the EU won’t extend the €20 million it’s directed to help the soldiers fight an Islamic State-linked insurgency in northern Mozambique.
EU Funding for Rwandan Forces in Mozambique to End

Rwandan Army Helping Combat Insurgency in Mozambique

The Rwandans have been key to driving militants away from about $50 billion in gas projects led by European and American companies in Cabo Delgado province.

When the troops arrived in 2021, Islamic State’s local affiliate was running rampant, forcing TotalEnergies to abandon its site on what was Africa’s biggest private investment. With security now improved, the French energy giant announced in January that construction would resume.

The dilemma is indicative of the complexities of the various wars raging across the world, and the web of conflicting objectives in the race for African commodities.

While the Rwandans are crucial to protecting gas investments in Mozambique, the US accuses the army’s actions of hindering peace — and access to critical minerals — in Congo.

The insurgents are down but certainly not out in northern Mozamibque.

With debt rising in Kigali, the Rwandan troops are unlikely to stand as security guards forever, especially with Mozambique facing a deep fiscal crisis.

#South_Africa :Khampepe correct to refuse #Ramaphosa’s ‘illegal’ instruction to step down – commission

#NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — More than two dozen Doctors Without Borders workers remain unaccounted for a month after attacks in South Sudan, the medical charity said.

Two facilities operated by the group, known by French acronym MSF, were attacked on Feb. 3 in Jonglei State, northeast of the capital, Juba, where violence has displaced an estimated 280,000 people since December.

A hospital in the town of Lankien was bombed by government forces, MSF said, while another medical facility in the town of Pieri was raided by “unknown assailants.” Both were located in opposition-held areas.

Staff working at the two facilities fled alongside much of the local population into deeply rural areas where armed clashes and aerial bombardments were ongoing.

MSF said in a statement on Monday that “26 of 291 of our colleagues working in Lankien and Pieri remain unaccounted for.

“We have lost contact with them amid ongoing insecurity,” it said.

The lack of communication with its staff could be linked to the limited network connectivity in much of the state. Staff members who had been contacted described “destruction, violence and extreme hardships.”

Fighting escalated sharply in December, when opposition forces captured a string of government outposts in north central Jonglei. In January, the government responded with a counteroffensive that recaptured most of the area it had lost.

Displaced people in Akobo, an opposition-held town near the Ethiopian border, described horrific violence by government fighters. Many described not being able to find food or water as they walked for days to reach safety.

The attacks on facilities operated by #MSF in Lankien and Pieri are part of an uptick in violence on humanitarian staff, supplies and infrastructure, aid groups say. Facilities operated by MSF have been attacked 10 times in the last 12 months.

“This violence has taken an unbearable toll not only on health care services, but on the very people who kept them running,” said Yashovardhan, MSF head of mission in South Sudan, who only uses one name.

“Medical workers must never be targets,” he said. “We are deeply concerned about what has happened to our colleagues and the communities we serve.”

The Associated Press