Latest news with #YousraElbagir
Sky News
03-07-2025
- Health
- Sky News
Kush – the deadly drug wreaking havoc in West Africa
👉 Listen to Sky News Daily on your podcast app 👈 The synthetic drug kush, first seen in Sierra Leone in 2022, has now spread into much of West Africa while also evolving into an even more dangerous drug. Tests have found it contains nitazenes, which are 25 times stronger than fentanyl. Sky News has found that ingredients used to make kush are being shipped into Sierra Leone from the UK. In today's Sky News Daily, Gareth Barlow is joined by our Africa correspondent, Yousra Elbagir, who has spoken to addicts and those trying to tackle the problem. Producer: Emily Hulme
Sky News
26-02-2025
- Sky News
Inside Sudan, children are killed and maimed. Girls are forced into sexual slavery. Babies are orphaned.
These are the horrors Sudan's children now face on a daily basis. In this brutal civil war, young people are collateral. By Yousra Elbagir, Africa correspondent Warning: This article contains graphic material some readers might find disturbing Sudan's capital was on the cusp of being reclaimed by the army, when we travelled there. On its northwest edge, in the city of Omdurman, children in full army gear are filmed on street corners chanting their support for the military, and there are parades celebrating civilian recruitment. Fighting erupted in Sudan in April 2023, when a tense power struggle between the leaders of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) spilled over into open warfare. In recent months, the RSF has suffered multiple battlefield blows with the military moving to reclaim territory. Amid this war for absolute power, more than 60,000 people are estimated to have been killed and millions forced to flee their homes in Khartoum state alone. Some families have been left eating grass in a desperate attempt to survive, as famine sweeps parts of the country. With little protection against the intense combat and harsh living conditions, the country's youngest citizens are being hit the hardest. A small crowd gathers at the site of a deadly shell attack in one of Omdurman's more deprived neighbourhoods. Some women wail, while others peer at the bombed house with shocked expressions. News spreads that eight members of the same family were killed. A woman points to an 11-month baby sleeping quietly in the arms of a neighbour. The child's name is Jihan and her mother, grandmother and two older sisters were killed in a strike on 19 February. "She was crying for her mother and has only just fallen asleep," says an elderly neighbour, cradling the infant. Inside the house, 11-year-old Mohamed sobs in the arms of his uncle by the crater where the shell landed. The family sat drinking coffee as the blast shattered the windows of rooms surrounding the courtyard and shrapnel tore through the house. The shell came from the direction of RSF-held territory. A reminder that the militia turned paramilitary group is still active on the peripheries of the capital even as they rapidly lose grip of its centre. The army and RSF are both accused of war crimes and recruiting child soldiers. As the battle for control continues, the most vulnerable civilians are constant collateral. At the site of one of their latest strikes, Fatma* lists the casualties in a daze. "One of my sisters was killed and two of her daughters, Juhayna and Abeer, were carried out but I don't know if they are dead or alive," she says, her voice breaking. A young cousin who is standing nearby, confirms they also died. "Our neighbour has a young daughter whose guts fell out of her body, and another has a small son whose leg was cut off," Fatma sobs, collapsing on to the boot of a parked car. Not far from the bomb site, the bodies of Fatima's family lie in the morgue, wrapped for burial. Among them are four children, three girls and a boy, the youngest of which was just three years old. "Why were they involved?" asks Sami, a volunteer mortician, solemnly. He is middle-aged and feels the loss of those killed at the start of their lives. "They are innocent." Since the war began, thousands of innocent children have been maimed and killed by RSF artillery, SAF airstrikes and stray bullets. Millions of people of all ages are suffering from sickness and starvation and the capacity to care for children, who make up close to half of Sudan's population, is severely strained. As the army wrestles territory back from the RSF, families in Omdurman are finally free to leave besieged areas and take their injured children to hospital. "The total number of patients admitted per day is 150 – all of them children." Dr Maha Hussein, director-general of Al Buluk hospital There are no designated wards in the mayhem of Al Buluk hospital - the last functioning facility devoted to the care of children. Panicked parents give infants oxygen from a dilapidated device in the reception. Babies are examined on desks in doctors' offices. Older kids are sprawled on the metal benches in the waiting room. Open spaces are full of children suffering from illness and combat injuries. The screams of a young girl ring out from a room. Eleven-year-old Fardous has suffered terrible burns and her bandages are soiled with stale blood. As she cries, the mothers of other sick children stare at her with pained discomfort. A victim of a shell attack, Fardous was stranded for three months in a besieged area with no access to treatment. "I went into the flames to pull her out," says her mother, Khadija, showing me the burns she sustained on her forearm. "I got her out but her clothes were burning and burnt her even more." As her daughter screams in pain again, Khadija watches with tears in her eyes. "I'd rather die than hear her cry like this." Fardous is one of five million children forced out of their homes since the start of the war. As fighting rages, the world's largest humanitarian crisis continues to unfold. Thousands of families have fled Khartoum city which is now the main battleground in the fight for control of Sudan. Under the Kober bridge in Bahri (Khartoum North) on the east bank of the River Nile, an album of family photos is scattered on the ground, surrounded by bullet casings. Beds, stolen from houses, sit under the arches and wooden weapon boxes are thrown open. The base of this bridge goes right into the heart of Khartoum and was a garrison for the RSF to guard the occupation. The battle for Khartoum rages across the river. Shells whizz overhead and boom beyond the bridge a few seconds later. The Sudanese army has cleared the bridge but only captured its western side that opens into the military headquarters and northern part of the airport. Territory on the eastern side is held by deadly RSF snipers. For there to be any sense of victory, the military will have to clear the homes occupied by RSF fighters, who displaced thousands of families, in some of the most densely populated neighbourhoods in Sudan. Just north of the bridge, in the once bustling, commercial area of Bahri, a villa is marked with RSF graffiti. Above the red spray paint that says "Rapid Support" is a plaque with the name of the professor who owned the house. In the courtyard, toy cars and roller skates are flipped over. The home has been gutted - even electric cables were snatched from the walls. On the road outside, motorbikes speed past carrying soldiers heading to battle. The crack of gunfire and roar of shelling are close and constant. Civilians don't dare to return here. Their neighbourhoods are now thoroughfares for the SAF's spreading ranks as they push forward into Khartoum. Across the river in Omdurman, every billboard is plastered with portraits of SAF elite. We spot boys who look no older than teenagers, wearing the dark green fatigues of Sudan's military with guns slung over their shoulders. The militarisation of daily life is impacting children of all ages. "All their playtime is about violence and guns," says Mahasin, a mother of three boys who lives there. She says her older sons are now violent with their baby brother, who is suffering from acute malnutrition. "This is now their life - not playing football and watching TV like before. Even when they watch TV, they want to watch action movies." The steady sounds of gunfire and shelling echo through Omdurman, as ambulances move in and out of Al Nao hospital, one of the city's last functioning emergency centres. Its wards are full of wounded men, women and children caught in the crossfire like 10-year-old Salah who was going to pray in the mosque when a drunk soldier started firing off bullets, one of which passed through his right shoulder and out his chest. In a corridor upstairs, Ibrahim sits with his seven-year-old son, Abdullah, who was hit by shrapnel and suffered brain damage. He can no longer talk but his dad coaxes him to shake my hand. "The shell landed on our house and injured him, his mum and two sisters," says Ibrahim. "He has three pieces of shrapnel still inside him – two are in his brain… This is the will of God. We were sleeping and it came to us in our home." In the backyard of a homeless shelter, young girls are learning military drills from an SAF officer. They shout "Allah", as they move in unison. Thousands of women and girls have undergone military training as a form of self-defence against the threat of mass rape and sexual slavery at the hands of the RSF. Meanwhile, survivors are fleeing to the relative safety of Omdurman. Hanadi* , 17, has arrived with her baby, escaping her life as a sex slave in Soba, a southern suburb of Khartoum. An RSF soldier forced her to marry him at the start of the war, when she was just 15. When she refused, he shot her mother in her right hand and detained her father and brother, leaving her with no choice but to comply. "I worked as a slave for him and his brother - cooking and cleaning. He would then force himself on me and tie me to the bed. Other times, he would beat me," she says. Adam, her four-month-old baby boy coos in her lap. "When I fell pregnant, he took me to get an abortion. When I refused, he would push me around and try to get me to miscarry… Once Adam was born, he would try to suffocate him." Her eyes are full of love as she plays with her baby son, who gives her hope for the future. Back at the children's hospital, Khadija watches over her 11-year-old daughter who will carry the scars of this brutal war for the rest of her life. "I am praying she recovers and plays like every other child," Khadija says, as tears stream down her face. This is the legacy of a war that the outside world has largely ignored but the millions of people affected by its brutality can never forget. CREDITS Reporting: Yousra Elbagir, Africa correspondent Production and photography: Chris Cunningham, Garwen McLuckie Shorthand production: Michael Drummond, foreign news reporter Editing: Serena Kutchinsky, assistant editor Design: Fidele Rinaldi, Eloise Atter, Anisa Momen Top Built with Shorthand
Sky News
27-01-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
What is the fighting in Democratic Republic of Congo about - and is Rwanda invading?
Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) risks spilling over into a regional war, it is feared, as Rwanda-backed rebels claim to have captured the key city of Goma. The leader of a rebel alliance that includes the M23 group said fighters have taken the city, after making significant territorial gains in recent weeks. Hundreds of people are being wounded every day as fighting in the central African country continues, worsening the humanitarian crisis there. There is also an international element to the decades-long situation, with UN peacekeepers killed in the conflict and Rwandan troops accused of fighting alongside the rebels. Sky News' Africa correspondent Yousra Elbagir says the situation is "extremely volatile" and there are fears of a Rwandan "invasion". The name M23 refers to a March 23, 2009 accord which ended a previous revolt in eastern DRC led by ethnic Tutsis. M23 has accused the DRC government of not living up to that peace deal and fully integrating Congolese Tutsis into the army and administration. It is mostly made up of ethnic Tutsis who broke away from the army and launched its current rebellion in 2022. It has vowed to defend Tutsi interests, particularly against ethnic Hutu militias such as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, which was founded by Hutus who fled Rwanda after participating in the 1994 genocide of more than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. 2:46 However critics have claimed it's a pretext for Rwanda to obtain economic and political influence over eastern DRC. M23 controls territory in the east of the country, including the mining region of Rubaya which has rich deposits of coltan, a mineral used in the production of smartphones. It's estimated M23 gets $800,000 (£640,000) a month through a production tax on the region, the UN says. How is Rwanda involved? Rwanda, which borders the M23-controlled region of the DRC, has been accused of supporting the group and there have been increasing fears that its actions are essentially an "invasion". UN experts say Rwanda has thousands of troops in the region which have been operating alongside the rebels in a violation of the DRC's sovereignty and territorial integrity. In a report for the UN Security Council, the panel of experts said Rwandan forces' "de facto control and direction over M23 operations" renders Rwanda "liable for the actions of M23". On Sunday, the UN's special representative in the DRC said that M23 and Rwandan forces had entered the outskirts of the city of Goma, which rebels have subsequently claimed to have captured. The DRC has now severed diplomatic ties with Rwanda. A "declaration of war" by the DRC against Rwanda would risk turning "into a regional conflict in East Africa", according to Darren Davids, an analyst with the Economist Intelligence Unit. Why is Goma important? A city home to around two million people, Goma is a key regional hub for trade, security and humanitarian efforts. Since 2021, DRC forces have been supported by troops from neighbouring Burundi as well as UN peacekeepers in keeping the rebels away from the city. M23 briefly controlled Goma in 2012 and it now claims to once again be in control. Its fall to the rebels would also have a "catastrophic impact on hundreds of thousands of civilians, putting them at risk of heightened exposure to human rights violations and abuses", said Ravina Shamdasani from the UN's human rights office.
