Nuba Mountains Emerge As New Front In Sudan’s Civil War

May 4, 2026
By Africa Defense Forum


The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) said a Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) airstrike that killed at least seven people and injured dozens more during a funeral on March 27 in the Nuba Mountains.


The region near the South Sudan border was far from the front lines when Sudan’s civil war erupted in April 2023, but that has gradually changed since 2025, after the SPLM-N elected to join forces with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) against the SAF. The SPLM-N controls most of South Kordofan State, which encompasses the mountains.

Led by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, the RSF uses the mountains as a strategic base from which it launches attacks. The RSF holds much of Sudan’s west, and the SAF occupies the capital city of Khartoum and the nation’s east. Although the SAF still controls some towns in the mountains, access to the rugged hills gives the RSF a staging ground for its push to reclaim Khartoum. Analysts say the RSF’s presence around Nuba-area hospitals and markets has turned these bustling areas into potential war targets.

However, Jalale Getachew Birru, a senior analyst at the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) project, is among the observers who are skeptical of how long the RSF and SPLM-N can remain allied. When the RSF and SPLM-N lost control of Kadugli, near the mountains’ northern edge, to the SAF in February, the groups blamed each other for the loss.

“There was a clash where we were keeping an eye to see whether it was a sign for this alliance to finally break, and for them to go separate ways,” Birru said in an April report by German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.


Many Nuba region locals recall brutal attacks by the RSF against displacement camps. They are fearful about the new alliance.

Ethnic tensions among urban Arabs and the Nuba people, and distrust of Khartoum’s government, have fueled longstanding conflict in the mountains, with major escalations in 2011 and after the civil war began in 2023. Renewed regional conflict has taken a severe toll on civilians.

Afra Al Neil Hamed was four months pregnant and had gone to fetch water when a drone struck her home in the South Kordofan town of Ed Dubeibat in November 2025. She heard the explosion and hurried back home but found her husband and teenage son dead. Hamed and her five other children spent a week hiding in the woods before fleeing the town with hundreds of others.

“I started bleeding on the road and walked for seven days,” Hamed, who suffered a miscarriage, told the United Kingdom’s Prospect magazine. “Many women were bleeding on the journey.”


The RSF and SAF each have been accused of committing atrocities against civilians. The war has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced about 11 million, creating the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises, according to the United Nations.

Fighting in the Nuba Mountains also threatens to further destabilize South Sudan, where intensified fighting between opposition groups and government forces in areas bordering the mountains threatens the country’s fragile 2018 ceasefire. Heightened tensions in porous, conflict border areas in Upper Nile and Unity states, and the contested Abyei Administrative Area, drove an influx of Sudanese refugees into South Sudan, fueling an already-dire humanitarian crisis.

In February, the U.N.’s World Food Programme suspended aid delivery to Upper Nile State after repeated attacks on a convoy carrying humanitarian assistance. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement that he was “deeply concerned regarding the impact of the escalating violence” in South Sudan, adding that it “will further harm civilian populations who are already in a vulnerable situation.”

Russia and Iran are fueling the Sudanese conflict with shipments of arms and other goods. They supply the SAF with guns, drones, fuel and parts for fighter jets. Saudi Arabia and Türkiye have supplied drones and other weapons to the SAF, as they seek easy access to the Red Sea.

Eager to project their influence across East Africa and the Red Sea region, the United Arab Emirates has been accused of supplying RSF with weapons and has recruited Colombian mercenaries to fight alongside the paramilitary group. The UAE denies these charges.

The involvement of foreign actors “doesn’t just prolong the violence, but it also makes it very complicated for a political settlement to come in,” 

Emadeddin Badi, a senior fellow at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, told Prospect.

Sudan's medicine crisis worsens

Issued on: 02/05/2026 - 


The latest war in the Middle East is having wide-ranging consequences that extend well beyond the region, including in countries already devastated by their own conflicts. Sudan has been among the hardest hit. Aid organisations report that the Iran conflict has disrupted key shipping routes, severely affecting their ability to deliver food and medicine to millions of people in need around the world. Emily Boyle reports.

Video by: Emily BOYLE

Mali probes soldiers working with rebels

Issued on: 02/05/2026 - 

Malian authorities say some military officers collaborated with jihadist and separatist fighters who carried out coordinated attacks across the country earlier in the week. A statement from the prosecutor’s office confirmed that the first arrests have been made and that efforts are continuing to track down other suspects involved. Meanwhile, separatist fighters from the Azawad Liberation Front claim they have captured a strategic military camp in the town of Tessalit after the Malian army and its Russian allies withdrew. Consulting fellow of the Africa Programma at Chatham House, Paul Melly, shares further insights.

Video by: FRANCE 24

Mali in crisis: Jihadist fighters and Tuareg separatists threaten Bamako


Issued on: 02/05/2026 - FRANCE24
12:01 min From the show


As Mali’s military struggles to maintain control amid a growing jihadist insurgency, a number of its own soldiers have been arrested, accused of collaborating with Al-Qaeda-linked militants in coordinating widespread attacks. Islamist group JNIM, alongside separatist rebels, has reportedly seized two northern cities, killed the defence minister, and is now attempting to impose a blockade on the capital, Bamako. We take a closer look at what’s happening on the ground, the escalating security crisis, and the role of Russian mercenaries in supporting the government. France 24’s Gavin Lee is joined by Beverley Ochieng, a specialist in West Africa and political risk analyst at Control Risks, to discuss.

Produced by Gavin Lee, Andrew Hilliar, Maya Yataghene and Guillaume Gougeon

OUR GUEST

Beverly Ochieng

Senior analyst for Francophone Africa at Control Risks

BY:

Gavin LEE

Maya YATAGHENE

Andrew HILLIAR

Guillaume GOUGEON

VIDEO BY:

Andrew HILLIAR

Gavin LEE

Guillaume GOUGEON

Cuba's economy collapses, prices soar

Issued on: 03/05/2026 - FRANCE24

Many Cubans who lived through the Special Period of the 1990s, when Soviet support collapsed, say the current crisis is even worse. Cuba is facing a deep economic and energy emergency, with daily life becoming increasingly difficult across the island. Because Cuba imports up to 80% of the food it consumes, essential goods are becoming harder and harder to find. Gabrielle Nadler reports.

Video by: Gabrielle Nadler

From the oceans into our bodies: Plastic pollution 'associated with obesity and dementia'

Issued on: 29/04/2026 

Play (10:15 min) From the show



François Picard is pleased to welcome Merijn Tinga, a biologist, artist and activist affectionately known as the Plastic Soup Surfer. He joins us, not only as a scientist or activist, but as someone who spends hours a day on the water, experiencing directly the forces we so often abstract away. From the surfboard, everything becomes clear: "You become one with the wind, with the waves… you have one focus." And yet back on land, "you're immersed by this throwaway culture".

His journey from Oslo to London, Paris, Nice, and now towards Rome, is a way to carry a simple, yet powerful and universal message across borders: effective solutions already exist. The deposit return scheme is one of them. It is practical, proven and capable of reducing pollution significantly. Beyond systems, this is mainly about awareness.

For our guest, plastic pollution is no longer an external issue, it is literally within us, in our bodies, our brains, even in unborn children. This demands not only technological responses, but a shift in how we see our relationship with nature. We are not separate from it. We are part of it. This is about balance and being in harmony with nature, the environment and all of our surroundings.

BY:
François PICARD

Ilayda HABIP

VIDEO BY:  François PICARD

Imprisoned Iranian Nobel laureate Mohammadi rushed to hospital following cardiac 'crisis'


Iran’s imprisoned Nobel peace prize winner Narges Mohammadi has been transferred to hospital to receive urgent care after experiencing a “catastrophic deterioration” of her health, a foundation run by her family said on Saturday. Mohammadi was moved on Friday after suffering a heart attack and experiencing two episodes of “complete” unconsciousness, it said.


Issued on:  03/05/2026 - 
By: FRANCE 24

Video by: Ethan HAJJI/Florent MARCHAIS

Iranian Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi was imprisoned in mid-December.

© AFP/ File picture
01:47




Detained Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi has been hospitalised in Iran, her supporters said, “following a catastrophic deterioration of her health”.

Mohammadi, who won the peace prize in 2023 in recognition of more than two decades of rights campaigning, was arrested in December in Iran’s eastern city of Mashhad after speaking out against the country’s clerical authorities at a funeral ceremony.

Iran sentences Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi to six years in prison

Her supporters had been issuing warnings for months about her health, saying in late March that she had suffered a suspected heart attack but received inadequate medical treatment.


In a statement posted by her foundation on Friday, they said she was “urgently transferred to a hospital in Zanjan today” after a rapid deterioration, “including two episodes of complete loss of consciousness and a severe cardiac crisis”.

The statement said her family described the move as a “last-minute action” that could prove too late.

In Oslo the Norwegian Nobel Committee urged the Iranian authorities “to immediately transfer Narges Mohammadi to her dedicated medical team in Tehran”.

“Without such treatment, her life remains at risk,” committee chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes said. “Her life is now in the hands of the Iranian authorities.”

In a social media post, her lawyer Mostafa Nili said Mohammadi initially refused to be transferred to hospital after fainting the first time from a sudden drop in blood pressure, because of previous warnings from medics that Zanjan hospital was not capable of treating her.

But, following a second collapse and a further deterioration, she was moved to the facility.

“According to the neurologist, despite her serious cardiac issues, addressing her neurological state is currently the clinical priority,” Nili said.

Over the past quarter of a century, Mohammadi, 53, has been repeatedly tried and jailed for her campaigning against Iran’s use of capital punishment and its mandatory dress code for women.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

ANALYSIS


'We cannot give up': Hong Kong journalists navigate fear, surveillance and shrinking space


Hong Kong’s government on Friday slammed foreign media and press freedom groups, rejecting claims of a crackdown on press freedom as “slander” after jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai was awarded a free speech prize in Germany. Press freedom in the city has sharply declined since a 2020 National Security Law clamped down on dissent. Journalists face visa denials, surveillance, self-censorship and legal threats, while independent outlets struggle to survive.


Issued on: 03/05/2026 - 

FRANCE24
By: Natasha LI

An Apple Daily employee works in the printing room after the last edition of the newspaper is printed in Hong Kong early on June 24, 2021. © Anthony Wallace, AFP

In a defiant statement slamming foreign media on Friday, Hong Kong accused an “anti-China organisation” of attempts to “sugarcoat” the “criminal acts” of imprisoned media tycoon Jimmy Lai, who was awarded Thursday a Freedom of Speech Prize by Germany’s Deutsche Welle.

In the same statement, authorities dismissed Reporters Without Borders’ latest Press Freedom Index as biased, saying it was being used to “smear” Hong Kong. The index now ranks the city 140th globally, down from 18th when it was first published in 2002.

Once widely seen as a beacon of free expression in Asia, Hong Kong has increasingly become a place where journalism itself can carry legal risk.

And that reality is no longer limited to local reporters.


Earlier this week, RSF revealed that a French journalist had been denied entry to Hong Kong, detained at the airport and deported back to Paris – the first publicly documented case of its kind involving a foreign correspondent.
Detained and deported

For Antoine Védeilhé, a former FRANCE 24 China correspondent now working on a documentary for France Télévisions, the case marked a turning point.

He has reported across Asia for nearly a decade and covered Hong Kong extensively since 2016, including the 2019 pro-democracy protests. Until recently, he says entering the city had never been a problem.

That changed in November 2025.

“At passport control, they stopped me immediately,” he said. “They took me into an immigration room, kept me there for three hours, interrogated me, searched all my belongings, and carried out a full body search.”

'Curtain falls on Hong Kong press freedom': Jimmy Lai prison sentence sparks outcry

He was then escorted directly to a flight back to Paris.

“They gave no explanation and no documents. Nothing,” he said. “Only that it was for immigration reasons.”

Later, through sources in Hong Kong’s immigration department, he was told he had been flagged as a “foreign agent” – a label commonly used in cases linked to national security concerns.

The following day, his employer received an anonymous email warning against broadcasting his documentary, “Hong Kong ne répond plus” (Hong Kong Is No Longer Answering), which examines the city’s political transformation under Beijing’s tightening control.

“It was clearly meant to intimidate us,” Védeilhé said. “They were suggesting that even in France, the National Security Law could apply.”

His cameraman, who was allowed entry, was followed by plainclothes officers from the moment he arrived at his hotel.

Hong Kong, law and order: Inside the rebel city now under Chinese control

“They didn’t try to hide it,” he said. “It was exactly like mainland China.”

Fearing for the safety of sources, the team cancelled all planned interviews.

“This is how reporting stops,” he said. “People won’t meet you if it puts them at risk.”
Visa weaponisation

“What Antoine was subjected to was unprecedented, even among foreign correspondents,” said Aleksandra Bielakowska, advocacy manager for Asia-Pacific at RSF.

While at least 13 journalists have been denied visas, refused renewals or barred from entering Hong Kong in recent years, she says this case marks an escalation.

“This is really an intensification because it is the first time we see this scale of transnational repression reaching foreign journalists in Europe,” she said.

Bielakowska said the evidence strongly suggests the operation was coordinated by national security police.

“They had a file on him, with his photo, identifying him as an agent. They knew his sources, they knew who he was working with, and his contacts were also harassed,” she said.

She added that Hong Kong is increasingly adopting the same pressure tactics long used by Beijing against foreign media – visa refusals, surveillance and intimidation.

“China has used visa weaponisation for years,” she said. “But what is happening now in Hong Kong is different because it is no longer just about refusing access. It is about creating fear everywhere.”

She says the message to journalists is clear: reporting critically on Hong Kong can carry consequences even outside the city.
‘Criminalisation of journalism itself’

Hong Kong’s press freedom crisis accelerated after Beijing imposed the sweeping National Security Law in June 2020, following the mass pro-democracy protests of 2019.

WATCH MORE   Hong Kong: A summer of discontent

For many journalists, the decisive moment came two months later, when police raided Apple Daily and arrested its founder Jimmy Lai.

“That was the message,” Bielakowska said. “If you keep reporting, you will face the same charges.”

Since then, independent media outlets including Apple Daily, Stand News and Citizen News have shut down, while dozens of journalists have been arrested, prosecuted or forced into exile.

Earlier this year, Hong Kong courts handed Lai what was described as the harshest sentence – 20 years – ever imposed on a journalist under national security charges –effectively condemning the 78-year-old publisher, imprisoned since 2020, to spend the rest of his life behind bars.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least eight journalists are currently imprisoned in Hong Kong.

Lai was awarded Deutsche Welle’s Freedom of Speech Award in absentia on Thursday.

For Bielakowska, the trend is unmistakable.

“Press freedom in Hong Kong is facing systemic collapse,” she said. “This is the criminalisation of journalism itself.”
Invisible red lines

For the journalists who remain, the challenge is often less direct censorship than navigating an invisible red line – the unclear boundaries of what authorities will tolerate.

“There are red lines that cannot be crossed,” Bielakowska said. “But no one tells you exactly where they are.”

Unlike mainland China, where independent journalism has largely been pushed underground, Hong Kong still has a small number of independent outlets trying to survive.

But they work in constant uncertainty.

Mak Yin-ting, an RFI correspondent and former head of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, says authorities rarely need to ban stories outright.

Instead, ambiguity itself becomes the tool.

“If they don’t like what you’re writing, they can accuse you of sedition,” she said.

Under Article 23, Hong Kong’s domestic national security legislation, sedition charges can carry up to 10 years in prison for publishing false or misleading statements – wording journalists say remains dangerously vague.

“It’s basically up to interpretation,” Mak said. “They are importing the same methods of censorship used in mainland China.”

Self-censorship has become routine.

Many outlets now avoid politically sensitive commentary altogether. Some no longer seek outside analysis on controversial issues, while others simply reproduce government statements word for word without presenting the original facts being disputed.

“That is already part of self-censorship,” Mak said. “You write (only) the government’s statements, but not what actually happened.”

Even accessing basic information has become harder.

“Government data is becoming very hard to find,” she said. “They are basically deleting everything that might be sensitive.”

Public databases and official reports that were once available online for more than a decade are now removed after one or two years, making investigative reporting significantly harder.

Private archives are also disappearing, with some major outlets deleting years of previous reporting.

“It’s not only about fear of arrest,” Bielakowska added. “Even gathering information becomes harder because sources themselves are afraid to speak.”

Many officials, academics and civil servants no longer agree to interviews, even on conditions of anonymity.

“The authorities have created such an atmosphere of fear that many first-hand sources simply don’t want to go on record anymore,” she said.
‘They can be next’

Despite the pressure, some journalists continue reporting – fully aware of the risks.

“They know that at any time, they can be next,” said Bielakowska.

To protect junior reporters and freelancers, some editors choose to sign all articles under their own names.

“The editor-in-chief becomes the face of the media,” Bielakowska said. “If arrests happen, it becomes the sacrifice of one person rather than the whole newsroom.”

She points to the Hong Kong Journalists Association – one of the few remaining independent press organisations still operating in the city – as proof that resistance remains.

“It’s not only courage, but commitment to press freedom,” she said.

Veteran journalists who remember a freer Hong Kong continue to hold the line.

“It was top of the top,” Bielakowska said of Hong Kong’s press corps in the early 2000s. “Some of the best investigative journalists in the world were there.”

In late surprise, Cannes screens powerful tribute to Hong Kong democracy protests

That memory still drives many reporters today.

“They remember what Hong Kong was. That is why they still have the strength to continue.”

For Tom Grundy, founder and editor-in-chief of Hong Kong Free Press, the pressure has become part of daily newsroom life.

“Since the onset of the security law, the city has seen the harassment of journalists, over 60 civil society groups disappear, newsrooms raided and journalists jailed.”

His own outlet has not been spared.

“In short, HKFP has unfortunately suffered harassment, intimidation and bureaucratic scrutiny, and it has escalated over recent years,” he said.

Still, he insists there remains a narrow space for independent journalism. “The space gets tighter and tighter, but it’s not quite mainland China.”

“We can still show up to press conferences and ask tough questions to officials,” he said. “It’s better to be in than out, and we can still maintain accuracy, nuance and understanding by being in the city with Hong Kongers.”

But the limits are increasingly visible.

“Nevertheless, it’s harder to get people to speak from all parts of the political spectrum,” he said. “For features, opinion pieces – these kinds of things – it’s very, very tough.”

For many, simply continuing to publish has become an act of resistance.

“We try to keep calm and carry on and navigate the red lines,” Grundy said.
‘We cannot give up’

For press freedom advocates, the greatest danger is not only repression inside Hong Kong, but the growing sense abroad that the battle has already been lost.

“There is this thinking among policymakers in Europe and the US that Hong Kong is lost – that there is nothing left to do,” Bielakowska said. “That is a mistake.”

She warns that treating the city’s clampdown on freedoms as inevitable only strengthens Beijing’s strategy.

“There should be no normalisation.”

But sustaining that work depends on external support – from visa pathways and legal protection to funding for independent journalism.

Neighbouring countries have become part of this fragile support network. Taiwan, in particular, has emerged as an important refuge for journalists and activists fleeing pressure from Hong Kong and mainland China, offering a place where some have been able to rebuild their work in relative safety.

Bielakowska describes the island, which ranks 28th out of 180 countries, as one of the few remaining spaces in the region where press freedom is still broadly protected. South Korea ranks 47th while Japan ranks 62nd.

Yet she says support remains inconsistent and largely ad hoc. While some individuals have been quietly assisted or allowed to settle, there is still no structured system for supporting exiled media workers.

And even where journalists do find safety abroad, she warns the pressure does not necessarily end. Democracies, she says, must take transnational repression more seriously.

“What happened to Antoine shows this is no longer only a Hong Kong issue,” she said.

For Mak, the fight for press freedom has become a simple question of endurance.

“It is like tug-of-war,” she said. “If one side abandons, you lose everything.”

As long as independent journalists remain – in Hong Kong or in exile – she says silence is not an option.

“We cannot give up.”

Ukraine battlefield: Advanced Ukrainian drones raise concerns among Russian forces

Issued on: 02/05/2026 - 
13:38 min From the show

From Ukraine’s evolving battlefield, where drone warfare is redefining front lines and so-called “killing zones,” to reports of “Martian drones” and their impact on both Russian and Ukrainian forces, we also look at the expanding use of unmanned systems in rescue operations, including the evacuation of a 77-year-old woman in Odesa region. FRANCE 24’s Gavin Lee is joined by Olena Krizhanivska, a Ukrainian defence analyst specialising in drones and unmanned systems and founder of Ukraine’s Arms Monitor.


Produced by Gavin Lee, Andrew Hilliar, Maya Yataghene and Guillaume Gougeon


OUR GUESTS

 

Olena KRYZHANIVSKA 

Ukrainian Defence Analyst, specialising in drones and unmanned systems and military technology

 

BY:  Gavin LEE

Andrew HILLIAR

Maya YATAGHENE

Guillaume GOUGEON
VIDEO BY:

Andrew HILLIAR

Gavin LEE

Guillaume GOUGEON

 Ukrainian drones strike Russia's Primorsk oil port

Ukrainian drones struck Russia's Primorsk port and a number of vessels in the Baltic Sea on Sunday as part of a wave of attacks targeting Russian energy infrastructure. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strikes aimed to limit "Russia's war potential". The Kremlin warned that attacks on its oil infrastructure would send global oil prices rising further.


Issued on:  04/05/2026 - 
By: FRANCE 24

A handout satellite image taken on March 23, 2026 shows smoke rising from the Russian oil terminal at Primorsk. © Planet Labs PBC, via AFP


Ukraine launched a wave of drone attacks on targets across Russia on Sunday, hitting the Baltic Sea port of Primorsk and setting it on fire, and striking a number of vessels, as it steps up ​attacks on ‌energy infrastructure and other targets.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky commented on the latest wave of strikes, ⁠which also hit one oil tanker in the port, a Karakurt-class missile ship and a patrol boat, saying significant damage had been caused to the infrastructure of ‌the oil terminal port.

In a post on Telegram, Zelensky said Ukraine had struck the Karakurt-class missile ship, ⁠a patrol boat, and an oil tanker in the Baltic Sea, adding that "each such result further limits Russia’s war potential".

Ukraine hits oil facilities in Russia

© France 24
02:00

Alexander Drozdenko, governor of the northwest region which hosts the port, said more than 60 ​drones were downed overnight.

He said the fire at Primorsk, a major oil exporting outlet, ‌was quickly extinguished and there had been no oil spill following the attack.
Ukraine continues to develop long-range capabilities

Primorsk, one of Russia's largest export gateways, has capacity to handle 1 million barrels per day of oil supply. It has been hit multiple times in ‌recent months as as US-brokered talks to end the Ukraine war have stalled.

Zelensky earlier on Sunday said Ukrainian forces also struck two shadow fleet tankers in waters ​at the entrance to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.

"These tankers had been actively used to transport oil – not anymore," Zelensky said on Telegram. "Ukraine's long-range capabilities will continue to be developed comprehensively – at sea, in the air, and ​on land."
Russia unfazed by the attacks

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that global oil prices may rise further if ​Ukraine continues to hit Russia's oil infrastructure, Russian TV reported.

“If additional volumes of our ​oil are dropped from the market, prices will rise further from current levels, which are already above $120 a barrel," Peskov said. "That would mean that even with lower export volumes, ​our companies would earn more money and the state would receive more revenue.”

Baltic Sea strikes: How Ukraine aims to undermine Russia's oil profits from Iran war

Other Russian regions also reported drone attacks on Saturday and Sunday.

Moscow regional governor Andrei Vorobyov said on Saturday evening that a 77 year-old man had died in a village following a drone strike. And Sergei Sobyanin, mayor of the city of Moscow, said four drones were downed on their ⁠way to the Russian capital.

Vasily Anokhin, governor of the western Smolensk region, said three people, including a child, were injured on Sunday after a drone ⁠attacked an apartment ​block there.

Russian troops were meanwhile inching towards the city of Kostiantynivka in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, Ukraine's top army official said on Saturday.

(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)

Two foreign activists seized from Gaza aid flotilla appear before Israeli court

Spanish national Saif Abu Keshek and Brazilian Thiago Avila were brought before an Israeli court Sunday after Israeli troops seized them from a flotilla attempting to bring humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip. Avila told his lawyers that he had been beaten so badly in Israeli custody that he passed out twice.


Issued on: 03/05/2026 -
By: FRANCE 24

People gather in front of the European Commission office in Barcelona in support of activists Saif Abu Keshek and Thiago Avila, members of the Global Summud Flotilla seized by Israel, in Barcelona, Spain, May 2, 2026. © Bruna Casas, Reuters

An Israeli court Sunday extended by two days the detention of two foreign activists from a Gaza-bound flotilla who were brought to Israel for interrogation, a rights group representing them said.

The flotilla of more than 50 vessels had set sail from France, Spain and Italy with the aim of breaking an Israeli blockade of Gaza and bringing humanitarian supplies to the devastated Palestinian territory.

They were intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters off Greece early on Thursday, with Israel saying it had removed some 175 activists – two of whom were taken to Israel for questioning.

Spanish national Saif Abu Keshek and Brazilian Thiago Avila appeared before a court in the southern city of Ashkelon on Sunday.

AFP footage showed the two being escorted into the courtroom, with Avila's hands cuffed behind his back and Abu Keshek's feet shackled.

"The court extended their detention by two days," Miriam Azem, international advocacy coordinator at the rights group Adalah, told AFP.

Adalah said the state attorney had presented a list of suspected offences committed by the pair, including "assisting the enemy during wartime" and "membership in and providing services to a terrorist organisation".

But Adalah's lawyers challenged the state's jurisdiction, arguing against the "unlawful abduction" of the two activists in international waters.

Its lawyers told the court Avila and Abu Keshek had testified to "severe physical abuse amounting to torture, including being beaten and held in isolation and blindfolded for days at sea".

Screenshot of a post by the Adalah Center for Human Rights on X on May 2, 2026. © Screenshot, X


No formal charges were filed against the two, it said.

"We argued that ... they were part of a humanitarian mission that aimed to provide humanitarian aid to the civilians in Gaza, and not to any other organisation, whether terrorist or not," lawyer Hadeel Abu Salih told journalists after the hearing.

"We deny all the accusations that were presented ... and demand these two men be released immediately," she said.

Spain's government called for Abu Keshek's "immediate release", the foreign ministry said in a statement to AFP, indicating the Spanish consul had accompanied Abu Keshek to the hearing.

Adalah's lawyers had met the two men at Ashkelon's Shikma Prison on Saturday.

They said Avila recounted being "subjected to extreme brutality" by Israeli forces when the vessels were seized, saying he was "dragged face-down across the floor and beaten so severely that he passed out twice".

Abu Keshek was also "hand-tied and blindfolded ... and forced to lie face-down on the floor from the moment of his seizure" until reaching Israel, it said.

Rebuilding Gaza Strip: Labour Day is the last thing on Palestinians' minds

© France 24
01:48

Israel's foreign ministry said the pair were affiliated with the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad (PCPA) – a group accused by Washington of "clandestinely acting on behalf of" Palestinian militant group Hamas.

It said Abu Keshek was a leading PCPA member, and that Avila was also linked to the group and "suspected of illegal activity".

The Global Sumud Flotilla's first Mediterranean voyage to Gaza last year drew worldwide attention, before being intercepted by Israeli forces off the coasts of Egypt and Gaza.

Avila was one of the organisers of that flotilla, which was also intercepted by Israeli forces, with crew members – including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg – arrested and expelled.

Israel controls all entry points into Gaza, which has been under an Israeli blockade since 2007.

Throughout the Gaza war, there have been shortages of critical supplies in the Palestinian territory, with Israel at times cutting off aid entirely.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

The Joy of Revolution and Related Texts

Dear Friends and Contacts,

I'm pleased to announce my new book: The Joy of Revolution and Related Texts, published by PM Press.

“It may seem absurd to talk about revolution. But all the alternatives assume the continuation of the present system, which is even more absurd.”

Well known for his translations of works by Guy Debord and the Situationist International, Ken Knabb is himself the author of many radical texts. The Joy of Revolution has been translated into seven other languages and is widely considered his most significant work. While there have been countless histories of past revolutions and countless examinations of the many flaws of the present society and of the many methods proposed for reforming them, it would be difficult to name a single book that more clearly and concisely explores the problems and possibilities of a modern, situationist-type revolution.

Following a brief overview of the absurdities of the present social system and the failures of past efforts to change it fundamentally, The Joy of Revolution examines the pros and cons of a wide range of radical tactics, first in the context of “normal” or “ordinary” conditions, then in the very different context of radical situations—those rare breakthroughs where masses of people start to call everything into question and real change becomes possible. It then concludes with some speculations on how a postrevolutionary global network of diverse liberated communities might work, and where we might go from there.

For this new edition, Ken has added some notes and updates to his original work and appended a number of his more recent texts—detourned comics; book reviews; a refutation of anarcho-primitivism; reports on two remarkable radical movements in France; a series of texts and talks on the Occupy movement (in which Ken was an enthusiastic participant); observations on the coronavirus shutdown; and analyses of the increasingly vicious and delirious Trump regime and the new forms of popular resistance it has inspired.

Print or ebook versions can be ordered direct from the publisher: PM Press.

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China opens tariff-free trade to nearly all African countries

China will extend zero-tariff treatment to all African countries with diplomatic ties from Friday, in what Beijing called a “significant measure” to deepen China-Africa trade and investment ties.


Issued on: 01/05/2026 - RFI

Goods for export to Africa are consolidated and loaded onto ships at Yantai Port in Shandong province. CFOTO/Future Publishing via Gett - CFOTO

China’s State Council tariff commission said earlier this week that the zero-tariff treatment will run until 30 April 2028. The move expands an earlier policy in force since 1 December 2024 by adding 20 African countries to the 33 already covered, bringing the total to 53.

The only condition is that countries must have diplomatic relations with Beijing, leaving Eswatini, which maintains ties with Taiwan, excluded.

China’s commerce ministry said the move would help create “development opportunities for African countries” at a time when “unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise”.

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Record levels

China-Africa trade reached record levels last year.

China’s customs data showed total trade between China and Africa hit about €320.2 billion in 2025, up 17.7 percent year on year, while Africa’s trade deficit with China widened to about €93.8 billion.

Chinese exports to Africa rose to about €207.0 billion, while imports from Africa reached about €113.1 billion.

However, the economic impact of Beijing’s tariff move is likely to remain limited.

“China already applied zero tariffs to a number of products from which Africa benefited on the same basis as other countries,” said Thierry Pairault, an economist and China specialist at France’s social sciences institute Ehess.

“There were preferential tariffs under the WTO and preferential treatment for least developed countries. At least 96 percent of products were already benefiting from zero-customs duties.”

Limited impact

This means the reform affects only a small share of trade. The biggest African exports to China are raw materials that were already low-tax or untaxed.

“For crude oil, it is the same – the gain is nil,” Pairault said, adding that the same was true for minerals.

“This removal of customs duties is fairly limited, since African products going to China were already lightly taxed,” Émilie Laffiteau, a researcher at Iris, a Paris-based international relations think tank.

There may be some limited gains for processed or agricultural goods, but obstacles remain substantial. China has “an emerging chocolate industry that is highly protected”, Pairault said, while “sanitary and administrative barriers” could still block exports.

He estimated the potential gains at “between €92 million and €276 million at most”, far from enough to close Africa’s trade deficit with China.

But Beijing’s main goal is also to send a message.

“If on one side you have the United States saying I am increasing, and on the other saying I am lowering, it is obvious that China’s brand image improves,” Pairault said.

This story has been adapted from the original version in French by Alexis Bedu and edited for clarity