SUDAN: 'Ethnic Cleansing'.

A report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) is calling for an investigation into possible "genocidal intent" in Sudan's Darfur region. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militias have been accused of ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in their conflict with the regular army. The violence, which includes torture, rape, and looting, has targeted non-Arab ethnic communities, particularly the Massalit population. HRW is urging targeted sanctions on those responsible and for the United Nations to expand the existing arms embargo on Darfur to cover all of Sudan. The Sudanese government has condemned the RSF for committing "systematic gross violations of international humanitarian law." Talks between the Sudanese army and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement North have failed, with both sides blaming each other. In other news, anti-terrorist operations in Algeria have resulted in the death of one alleged militant and the arrest of 21 others, while separatist groups in Angola and Benin have clashed with government forces. Cameroonian gendarmes have been killed in an ambush by Anglophone separatist fighters, and Guinea-Bissau authorities have detained protesters. Liberia's President has signed an executive order to establish a war crimes court, and the last two fugitives wanted for the 1994 Rwandan genocide have been confirmed dead. [Extracted from the article]