At least 120 children have been abducted by insurgents in Mozambique, rights group says
At least 120 children have been kidnapped by jihadist insurgents in northern Mozambique in recent days, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday, warning of a rise in abductions in the country's troubled Cabo Delgado province.
The children are reportedly being used by an Islamic State–linked group known locally as al-Shabab to transport looted goods, perform forced labor, and in some cases serve as child soldiers or be forced into marriage.
Mozambique has been battling the Islamist insurgency in Cabo Delgado since 2017. Government forces have struggled to contain the violence, relying on support from troops sent by Rwanda, South Africa, and other regional partners.
In 2020, the insurgents carried out a wave attacks in which they beheaded dozens of people, including children. Witnesses have said that children abducted from towns and villages have been used as fighters in subsequent attacks.
The violence has displaced more than 600,000 people and spilled into neighboring provinces, according to the United Nations.
Human Rights Watch said there had been a resurgence of attacks and child kidnappings in the last two months and called on Mozambique's government to do more to find the children and prevent further abductions.
The problems in Cabo Delgado were largely overshadowed by Mozambique's deadly and long-running post-election protests last year. Cabo Delgado has also been battered by several recent cyclones and hurt by U.S. President Donald Trump 's cuts to foreign aid.
The Norwegian Refugee Council's Secretary General, Jan Egeland, visited Cabo Delgado this month and described the situation in northern Mozambique as a neglected crisis.
'Climate shocks, increasing violence and spiralling hunger are having a terrible impact on the population,' Egeland said.
The NRC said more than 5 million people faced critical levels of hunger and more than 900,000 people faced emergency hunger conditions.
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BBC News
14 hours ago
- BBC News
Scepticism in Goma over peace deal between DR Congo and Rwanda
The signing of a peace agreement between the governments of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda in Washington has elicited mixed reactions, with the former Congolese president, Joseph Kabila, describing it as "nothing more than a trade agreement".The deal signed on Friday demanded the "disengagement, disarmament and conditional integration" of armed groups fighting in eastern DR Congo - but offered few other details. While some, including Kabila, have been critical, others have hailed the agreement as a turning point in a devastating conflict that has dragged on for has denied allegations it backs an armed group, known as M23, which has been fighting in the eastern DR Congo. The conflict escalated earlier this year when M23 rebels seized control of large parts of eastern DR Congo, including the regional capital, Goma, the city of Bukavu and two of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands of civilians forced from their homes following the recent rebel the loss of territory, DR Congo's government turned to the US for help, reportedly offering access to critical minerals in exchange for security guarantees. Eastern DR Congo is rich in coltan and other resources vital to the global electronics the fighting in DR Congo all about?Ceasefire deal still faces many challengesIn a post on X following the signing of the agreement on Friday, Kabila questioned the choice of the deal's participants, saying the DR Congo was not at war with the states depicted in a photo of the signing, which included President Donald Trump and other US officials, as well as Rwanda's foreign is not entirely clear if his comments were an indirect criticism of the absence of M23 representatives in Washington."We must stop distorting the facts to disguise a propaganda agenda," Kabila said, adding "Congolese people deserve the truth, not a diplomatic show".The absence of M23 representatives was also noted in the rebel-held city of Goma in eastern DR Congo. "How can they say they sign for peace, yet they have not involved M23?" a resident questioned, adding the rebels ought to have been included in the talks for "collective peace" to be resident, a commercial motorbike rider told the BBC "people are tired, they are not interested in talks", insisting "all they want is peace".He argued previous peace talks and agreements were not endorsed or implemented by the conflicting parties, leaving little hope for a return to Sam Zarifi, executive director at Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), an international NGO that has worked in the DRC for more than a decade, said the Washington-brokered agreement is replete with "major omissions"."There can be no durable peace without meaningful justice. But the human rights and fails survivors," Mr Zarifi added: "The agreement overlooks how hostilities can continue through proxy armed groups that our research has shown are responsible for serious violations."Stephanie Marungu, head of a humanitarian organisation in Goma, was more positive. "The signing of the deal…is a momentous and hopeful development for the eastern region," she told the BBC, adding it could "lead to increased stability and it's going to make it easier for us to deliver aid and access those in need". However, she acknowledges there may be challenges in implementing the deal."If the agreement is what will bring peace we have no problems," another Goma resident remains to be seen what the situation on the ground will be going forward, with concerns the Washington deal may simply enrich a few people with the country's mineral resources to the detriment of ordinary people.
Times
14 hours ago
- Times
The thrillseekers who pay to be faux-kidnapped on holiday
The chief executive knew something was wrong when a group of people rushed into his office in San Francisco, blindfolded him and bundled him out into a car and then onto a plane. He had no idea what he would encounter on landing: still wearing the same suit he had put on that morning, he was dropped alone into the searing heat of the Costa Rican jungle. It quickly became clear he was surrounded and that the jungle was teeming with people. There were his kidnappers, for one thing, but also a militia force, who would instantly recognise his potential value for ransom if they could snatch him from his original captors. For hours, scrambling alone through the undergrowth, he dodged them, before finally building a makeshift shelter from a few branches and crawling into it to endure a long, hot, weary night. This was a guy of average fitness level and far from SAS-calibre survival skills; the situation was a true test of his grit and determination. Only the next morning did he manage to persuade a friendly local to let him make a phone call, summoning a rescue helicopter. Even as it landed, he ran to board in a hail of gunfire … 'It was all blanks, though,' says Vivienne Errington-Barnes, owner of Shift + Alt, an experience planning firm. 'That grand finale was very Hunger Games-esque.' In fact, the entire scenario had been staged at the request of the captive in question, and he had paid to be put through it: a 36-hour endurance test, with a price tag of $7 million. Among ultra-high-net-worthers, it's no longer enough to score the top penthouse in peak season on the Amalfi coast or even to splurge on a ticket to space. The ultimate vacation flex involves stepping into your own movie, storylined, staffed with actors and staged just for you. 'We have a cast of 100, and an audience of one — that's why it's so expensive,' Errington-Barnes says. The idea for these adventures, she explains, came from conversations with clients for whom she threw events — mostly Silicon Valley types. They would often casually — and enviously — mention the David Fincher-directed 1997 film The Game starring Michael Douglas as a San Francisco-based investment banker. 'His brother buys him this experience that brings him close to committing suicide, but he suddenly values his life,' she says. Soon she and her team realised their clients — many of them tech CEOs in California, because 'European clients don't spend money in this way' — might pay for a VIP IRL experience partly inspired by The Game. She launched the idea in 2021, and has staged seven such scenarios since then, ranging in cost from $100,000 to millions. She emphasises that her clients are psychologically evaluated at the outset to ensure their mental fitness for the experience, before she and her team engage with their closest associates and family in planning and some logistics, such as obtaining passport numbers and evaluating access to planes (the plane used in that chief executive's scenario was actually his own). There are limits to what she can do — no clearing of bank accounts as in The Game, for example — and clients will know the Shift + Alt team is at work if they've hired them themselves, albeit with only a vague sense that the adventure might begin within a six-month window. Each is tailor-made, of course, but Errington-Barnes says there's one consistent element. 'For us, the goal is transformation — how can they come out the other side and feel a different way about themselves? Feel capable of doing new things?' she says. 'Ideally there is some kind of fear, as it's very much a catalytic converter for our insights.' Take another client, someone whom she calls 'fixated on their own mortality'. For him, they began by gaslighting him in his everyday life: a familiar, burly gas station attendant suddenly sporting bright pink lipstick out of nowhere, for example, to unnerve him and suggest his everyday reality was warping. Then he was kidnapped and trapped in a series of rooms that used optical illusions so they seemed to be shrinking, like something from Roald Dahl's The Twits. 'It was about losing your sanity a little bit, then via this immersive theatrical, surreal experience — and the old you is dead,' she says. The idea is that you're reborn, 'and you question how to go back to life and live it differently.' The next step for Errington-Barnes's movie-inspired breaks is a rather meta development: she is prepping a reality TV show around them, which she is pitching to networks via a sizzle (demo) reel. There are other companies that offer similar experiences, including Based on a True Story (holidays come with a detailed storybook keepsake documenting your adventure) and House of Dreammaker, which specialises in devising kismet-like moments while you travel — imagine arriving in a new country and turning on the radio in the car only to hear a welcome from the DJ, calling you out by name. The California-based adventure travel firm EXP regularly stages White Lotus meets Punk'd-style trips. Kevin Jackson, the owner, says these are growing in popularity — this year he'll run four of them, up from one or two five years ago. Jackson's speciality is less white knuckle than Shift + Alt's nailbiters: he has thrown a Pirates of the Caribbean-themed trip for a family in the Bahamas, with a retrofitted pirate ship and a custom map for Blackbeard's treasure, while he time-warped a trio of Hong Kong-based businessmen back to the cowboy era, buying out Wyoming's Brush Creek Ranch as a backdrop and hiring hundreds of extras who were kitted out in period costumes. 'The day the group arrived, they got a letter from Wells Fargo that said: 'You've bought this property, and bandits are taking over — you need to come and save your land',' Jackson recalls. The only problem: shortage of funds. The friends had to do everything from branding cattle to moving hay bales to earn a unique wooden currency created for their trip. It culminated in a cattle drive to market, where they had to negotiate with a rancher to score the best price. 'It got to the point where he pulled out his gun — it looks and feels like you're not messing around,' Jackson says. • 24 of Europe's best adventure holidays for all types of thrillseeker That trip cost about $400,000 all-in. Another he planned, a secret agent-themed adventure for three American couples, cost a million dollars. Each received a briefcase that outlined their mission: a nefarious villain was aiming to destroy the blockchain and so upend the cryptocurrency world — could they stop him? The only other thing supplied: a place and time for meeting. In the run-up to that trip, the couples underwent extensive training with ex-Special Forces personnel on everything from how to pick a lock to target tracking in a crowded room. When they arrived at the rendezvous and took off in a charter plane, they were immediately told to skydive out of it before arriving at the villa where they would stay. The next day, there was a cocktail party filled with extras dressed as guests and staffers, among whom they had to find their mark, before a finale the following day on an explosives-rigged yacht. Of course, they managed to pull it off, like bitcoin-era James Bonds. If you don't have a few million to drop on a trip — Shift + Alt's cheapest package is from about $100,000 (although it can do a party for about £5,000) — but like the idea, the closest thing might be a mystery flight, where a carrier offers you the chance to book a holiday without knowing the destination; Lufthansa Surprise, for example, which offers seats starting at €99. The destination specialist Journee will dispatch you on a surprise trip after you answer a ten-minute questionnaire about your travel likes and dislikes. It's not quite at private plane to the jungle level, but it could add a bit of a thrill. Share your thoughts in the comments below
Telegraph
16 hours ago
- Telegraph
DRC and Rwanda sign peace deal in Washington
Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) signed a peace deal Friday aimed at ending decades of deadly conflict – a move which Donald Trump has claimed credit for. The two countries pledged to pull back support for guerrillas, with the US-brokered deal demanding the 'disengagement, disarmament and conditional integration' of armed groups fighting in eastern Congo. The US president, flanked by JD Vance, the US's vice-president, and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, said that the peace treaty was 'a glorious triumph'. 'Today, the violence and destruction comes to an end, and the entire region begins a new chapter of hope and opportunity,' Mr Trump said as he welcomed the two nations' foreign ministers to the White House. 'This is a wonderful day.' The deal comes after the M23, a Tutsi rebel force linked to Rwanda, raced across the mineral-rich east of the DRC this year, seizing vast amounts of territory, including the regional capital Goma, the city of Bukavu and two airports. Thousands were killed and hundreds of thousands forced to flee following the offensive. However, the agreement does not explicitly address the gains of the M23 in the area torn by decades of on-off war, instead calling for Rwanda to end the 'defensive measures' it has taken. Rwanda denies supporting the M23 despite overwhelming evidence. Previous peace deals in the region have failed and crucial questions also remain unanswered. They include whether the M23 will withdraw from the areas they have seized, if Rwanda admits having troops in eastern DRC and withdraws them, and if thousands of Congolese people will be allowed back from Rwanda. Experts have also stressed that while the deal could mark a turning point in the long-standing conflict between M23 rebels and Congolese forces in the eastern provinces of North and South Kivu, large parts of the country remain plagued by violence and instability. In Ituri, a province in the north-west of the country, a patchwork of armed groups made up of varying ethnic groups continues to clash over territory and resources. Both Uganda and Rwanda have been accused of involvement in the conflict, which has displaced more than 100,000 people since the beginning of 2025, according to the UN. 'We hope that this deal could bring lasting peace to the DRC and spread beyond just North and South Kivu, but we know it will take time,' Dr John Agbor, the UNICEF representative for the DRC told The Telegraph. 'We've seen a huge increase in grave violations against children in the last year [...] rates of recruitment and use of children as soldiers, sexual violence, maiming, and killing. And it's not only North and South Kivu, this is across all of the DRC. 'There are six provinces in active conflict in the DRC, until peace is brought everywhere only then can we bring real and impactful difference to the lives of children,' Dr Agbor added. While the US president admitted that he 'didn't know too much about' the conflict and that it was 'a little out of my league', he added that the United States will be able to secure ' a lot of mineral rights from the Congo '. The DRC has enormous mineral reserves that include lithium and cobalt, vital in electric vehicles and other advanced technologies. The deal had been negotiated through Qatar since before Mr Trump took office, but the US president also started his White House event by mentioning a journalist who said he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. The US president is widely believed to want to win the award, and has frequently criticised its awarding to his predecessor Barack Obama. Last week – before the US bombed Iran and later negotiated a ceasefire – Mr Trump unleashed his frustration on that front. 'No, I won't get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do, including Russia/Ukraine, and Israel/Iran, whatever those outcomes may be, but the people know, and that's all that matters to me!' he wrote on Truth Social. The new agreement drew wide, but not universal, praise. Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, called the deal 'a significant step towards de-escalation, peace and stability'. Germany hailed the 'excellent news', and Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, praised the 'historic step forward'. However others – including Denis Mukwege, a gynaecologist who received the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end the DRC's epidemic of sexual violence in war – also criticised the agreement, saying it effectively benefits Rwanda and the United States. The deal 'would amount to granting a reward for aggression, legitimising the plundering of Congolese natural resources, and forcing the victim to alienate their national heritage by sacrificing justice in order to ensure a precarious and fragile peace,' Mr Mukwege said.
