Sudan's civil war, by the numbers
The conflict between the Sudanese military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces continues largely in the vast Darfur and Kordofan regions. Some of the deadliest clashes have occurred in the capital, Khartoum, and surrounding areas, where the army has said it has regained control .
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Associated Press
44 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Paramilitary group kills 32 in a rampage in southern Sudan, activist group says
CAIRO (AP) — Sudan's notorious paramilitary group rampaged through a village in the southern Kordofan region, which has become a key frontline in the country's civil war, killing more than 30 people in a two-day offensive, an activist group said Thursday. The Rapid Support Forces on Wednesday attacked Brima Rashid village, north of the key town of al-Nahud, which the paramilitaries seized earlier this year in West Kordofan province, said the Emergency Room in the area, an activist group tracking the war. The group said it documented the killing of 32 people, including siblings, in the offensive which lasted until Thursday morning. More than 50 others were wounded, it said on its Facebook pages. A spokesman for the RSF didn't immediately respond to a request seeking comment. The toll is up from 27 dead and 47 wounded reported early Wednesday by the Sudan Doctors' Network, a medical group which also tracks the war. In a statement, the network said RSF fighters 'targeted unarmed civilians in their homes - including women, children, and the elderly - in a bloody scene reminiscent of the most horrific crimes against humanity.' Sudan was plunged into a war in April 2023, when tensions between the Sudanese army RSF exploded with street battles in the capital, Khartoum that quickly spread across the country. Kordofan region in southern Sudan has in recent months joined the Darfur city of el-Fasher as the key frontlines in the fighting between the miliary and the RSF. The war killed more than 24,000 people, according to the United Nations, but activists and rights groups say the toll is likely much higher. The war also created the world's worst humanitarian crisis. It has driven about 13 million people from their homes, including over 4 million who crossed into neighboring countries. Parts of Sudan have been pushed into famine. The fighting has been marked by atrocities including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially in Darfur, according to the U.N. and international rights groups. The fighting in Kordofan reportedly killed more than 300 people, including children and pregnant women, earlier this month, according to the United Nations Humanitarian Affairs Office.
New York Times
3 hours ago
- New York Times
A Series of Mysterious Explosions Unnerves Syrians
Months before an explosion rocked the small Syrian village of al-Nayrab, residents had pleaded with the government to secure a nearby military base filled with warheads, rockets and other weaponry. After rebels ousted President Bashar al-Assad in December, government soldiers fled the small base near Aleppo, Syria's capital, leaving unsecured weapons behind. In the months that followed, children played near the explosives, while shepherds and thieves looking for scrap copper would walk through the base and sometimes tamper with the weaponry, two residents told The New York Times. 'I started hearing a crackling sound from the base and two successive explosions,' Nasr Handawi, a grain merchant and father of nine who lives in al-Nayrab, said of the blast on July 11. It injured 14 people and damaged many homes in the village, according to the provincial government. 'Within two minutes, a fire broke out,' he added. 'I ran down immediately from the second floor to grab my wife and children and escape. Then the explosion happened.' At least five other mysterious explosions at military bases and weapons storage sites this month have caused deaths and injuries. They have also raised questions about whether large caches of weapons, ammunition and other unexploded ordnance from Syria's 13-year civil war have been properly secured during a transition of power over the past seven months. On Thursday, another large explosion at a military base hit the town of Maraat Misrin, in the northwestern province of Idlib. At least six people were killed and more than 100 injured, according to the Syrian Civil Defense rescue teams. Rescue efforts were hampered by a series of explosions from the base, which contained weapons and munitions, state news media reported, citing the emergency and disaster management minister, Raed al-Saleh. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
CNN
9 hours ago
- CNN
The town wanted his farm for affordable housing. Then came the MAGA storm
Just steps off a busy road, tucked at the end of a gravel driveway within eyeshot of the New Jersey turnpike, a small herd of cows and goats grazes freely in a grassy, open field. It's an unexpected location for a farm, bordered by warehouses and the ever-present roar of cars and trucks, but this property has been in the hands of Andy Henry's family since before the Civil War — his grandfather and mother were born in the white wooden farmhouse next to the pasture. Now, Henry is locked in a fight to preserve the farm in Cranbury, central New Jersey. The township reached out to buy the site for affordable housing and says it's willing to invoke its eminent domain power to seize what it needs if Henry and his brother refuse to make a deal. It's a small property in a small town, but the issue has turned into a lightning rod for MAGA supporters around the country and even attracted the attention of the Trump administration. Fox News and the New York Post picked up the story. Strangers have raised $135,000 online for Henry's legal defense, left a barrage of comments on social media and flooded the town's administrator with calls. 'Our town clerk has forwarded all of us on the township committee dozens and dozens of hateful voicemails,' said Matt Scott, one of the town's five elected representatives. 'You f**king commie, libtards, you know, the f**k do you think you're doing? You're not American, you're just stealing from the taxpayer, you need to give that f**king farm back,' he recounted some of the messages. He said he understood why they are attracting so much attention. 'People are pissed, generally, in the country. They feel like the governing structures are not listening to what they're doing, and something like this comes up. All they hear is that this five Democrat member committee in this town is seizing this hard-working farmer's family legacy. … I think it's an easy target for people.' For Henry, the saga began in April, which he says was the first time he heard Cranbury was interested in the farm. He and his wife received a letter stating the town had identified the property as 'suitable for redevelopment' for affordable housing. 'Certainly, it is always the Township's preference to acquire property by mutual agreement with the property owner,' a lawyer for the town wrote at the time. 'However, when the Township is unable to reach a negotiated agreement with a property owner, the Township is authorized by law to initiate an action with the Court to formally acquire title,' it continued, noting the town would pay 'just compensation' for the land. 'It was a shock,' Henry said. 'Ever since then, we've been pushing back in whatever way we could.' Henry no longer lives on the farm — he hasn't since the '90s. He and his brother, Chris, inherited the property in 2017 when their father died, but both had settled in New Mexico. They now lease out the farmland — those animals out in the pasture, affectionately dubbed 'New Jersey cows' for their love of pizza and bagels, belong to a local farmer. After receiving the letter, Henry returned to Cranbury, where he went before a meeting of the Township Committee later in April — pleading with them to consider alternative sites. Scott, who has served on the committee since 2018, was moved. 'It was a complete mic drop moment,' he said. 'I felt terrible. I was like, wow, I didn't know we were doing this. There has to be another option.' The Henry farm had come to the attention of the township as a deadline approached for Cranbury to lay out its plans for fulfilling its constitutional obligation for affordable housing. It's something every community in the state has to do in accordance with what's called the Mount Laurel doctrine — a series of state supreme court decisions dating back to 1975 that mandates each municipality provide its 'fair share.' Cranbury, with its population of fewer than 4,000 living in about 1,400 households, had to say by June 30 where it would add 265 affordable housing units, to be built over the next 10 years. One plot of land, whose owner was willing to sell, was identified as a site to develop several dozen units. Finding space for the rest, however, proved near impossible. Scott said about 50 properties were evaluated against strict state-mandated criteria, such as sewer, water, proximity to mass transportation, and distance from warehouses. Aside from the Henry farm, one after the other was found unsuitable. Missing the deadline to file the plan would have opened up the community to what is known as 'builder's remedy' — effectively free rein for developers to bypass planning and zoning rules, which could lead to big developments, population increases, and higher taxes — straining town resources and costing residents. 'I feel like I was elected to do the greater good,' Scott said. 'I completely understand how this could be seen as the workings of a heartless, powerful government. But my primary responsibility is to the taxpayers of Cranbury, to the parents of the school kids in Cranbury, and I feel like the greater good is served by making sure that we get this affordable housing built, that we do it without a builder's remedy, and we do it without bankrupting the town.' Despite Henry's pleas, Scott said the committee — which had spent 13 months reviewing sites — had determined 'there was no other option.' In May, the township government voted unanimously to pass an ordinance authorizing the acquisition of the Henry farm 'through voluntary negotiations or through the power of eminent domain' — on the grounds that satisfying the affordable housing obligations is 'in the public interest.' Cranbury might feel like a small town caught up in the rules of the state, but Andy Henry feels he's David fighting the Goliath of government. Neighbors and friends helped him launch a campaign to save the farm, which attracted local and then national attention. Once the story reached a fever pitch, town meetings became tense. Public comment was filled with Henry supporters, who lambasted committee members for their decision. 'It appears jumping to conclusions and villainizing those serving in public offices has become a norm in the US,' Mayor Lisa Knierim said at a town meeting in May. 'Doesn't mean it has to in Cranbury.' The Trump administration also stepped in. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins posted about the farm on X, saying: '(T)he Biden-style government takeover of our family farms is over. While this particular case is a city eminent domain issue, we @usda are exploring every legal option to help.' Henry said he's spoken to her directly, and someone from her team now has a check-in with his lawyer weekly. When Henry, 72, and his brother grew up here in the 1950s, the land was used to farm wheat and soybeans. Back then, the property was surrounded by farmland as far as the eye could see. Now, Cranbury has two distinct parts: next to I-95, much of the area has been rezoned as 'light industrial,' attracting massive warehouse development. There's still local farmland, most of which is across another major road, spreading west from the center of the community founded in the 19th century. The Henry farm is in the more industrial area while most of the agricultural land on the other side is designated 'preserved farmland' that cannot be developed. An affordable housing consultant, speaking on background due to the sensitivity of the situation in Cranbury, told CNN the Henry farm would get a strong score on the state rubric grading how suitable a site is for development into homes. He said a property must come close to perfect to qualify for state funding. One question not being debated here is the need for affordable housing. The National Low-Income Housing Coalition found that New Jersey is over 200,000 units short on affordable housing, and Matthew Desmond, a sociology professor at Princeton University, has noted that when the nearby township of Cherry Hill unveiled 29 affordable apartments in 2021, 9,309 people applied. Mark Berkowsky of Cranbury Housing Associates, a local firm that has been involved in previous affordable housing projects but was not consulted on this plan, told CNN the need in Cranbury specifically is clear, though he disagrees with building on the farm. 'We have a waiting list that is usually about two years for people to get into affordable housing,' he said. Even Andy Henry understands and is sympathetic to the need for housing, though he doesn't think his property should be the location. 'They have to build affordable housing, and we're not opposed to that,' he said. 'It's how much and where.' The plans formally filed with the state show that Cranbury is seeking to buy a little over 11 acres of the 21-acre property. The farmhouse where generations of Henry's forebears grew up would be untouched. Even with that concession, Henry is not interested. 'It would just kind of take away the soul of the farm,' he said, adding no amount of money could get him to sell, though there have been 'countless' offers over the years from developers. 'They just keep going up and up and I'm not trying to negotiate with them, I just say no, there's no plans to sell in the foreseeable future,' Henry said. 'Right away they'll come back, 'So how about if we give you a few million more dollars?' And it's like, 'I'm not trying to negotiate with you, I mean what I said.'' The great hope for both sides seems to be that an as-yet unknown landowner will step up and be interested in having the township buy their property for development, sparing the farm. But for now, the next stages of the battle are taking shape, watched both locally and nationally. Last week, Henry got a letter from the town noting that it would like to schedule an appraisal — the first step in an eminent domain proceeding, to determine the fair market price to be paid if the town forces the sale. For his part, Henry is awaiting a judge's ruling on whether he can add his farm to a preservation order, protecting it from development. Asked why that's not something he'd done before, Henry said: 'We didn't see the threat coming from the town. We knew developers were interested in it; most of them will ask politely and we'll politely say no. We didn't see the town coming.' CNN's Linh Tran contributed to this story.
