Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany

How this German fringe party plans to 'make socialism great again'

While Germany attempts to form its new government, only four of its political parties will have the chance to become part of a new ruling coalition. The far-right AfD is likely to be excluded from negotiations, and there are 24 other parties that didn't win enough votes to enter parliament. RFI went to meet one of them, and hear about their plans to change society, despite being excluded from mainstream politics.

01:16Gernot Wolfer, Berlin representative of the MLPD, arranging placards in the party's office, 21 February, 2025. © RFI/Jan van der Made

By :Jan van der Made 

RFI

15/03/2025 -

"The capitalist system and the bourgeois mode of thinking is in a big crisis," says Gernot Wolfer.

Comrade Wolfer is a representative of the Berlin cell of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD), which took part in the German election under the slogan "Make Socialism Great Again".

Wolfer, 67, is a retired metal worker who was employed by multinational companies such as Bosch and Siemens, and active in the powerful IG Metall union.

In the library at the MLPD Berlin office is a small bust of Karl Marx, and the bookshelves feature titles such as "The End of Socialism?", "Trade Union and Class Struggle" and "On the Formation of Neo-imperialist countries".

On the photocopier sits a yellow hardhat with a sticker that reads "Workers of all countries: Unite!".

Wolfer was well prepared, bearing five A4 sheets of remarks, written in both German and English. "It's approved by the politburo," he told us cheerfully, "so you can quote me on it."

Gernot Wolfer, union organiser and representative of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD). © RFI/Jan van der Made

"We wanted to make a counterpoint to the well-known slogan of the US president," he said, referring to Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" maxim.

"It makes no sense to make America great again, or Germany or Russia or China. They are heading directly to a third world war," he added. "The world will be divided again, over raw materials. If mankind is to survive, we have to overcome capitalism. We need a socialist world."

Fragmentation of the left

But even uniting those who share this goal to fight for it could prove a daunting task.

The MLPD is one of several parties within the German political left that uses "social" or "socialist" principles in their manifestos.

The largest by far is the establishment Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) – the country's centre-left social democrat party, which has been in power on and off since the Second World War. It is the oldest political party in Germany, and the party of recently defeated Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Much further to the left is Die Linke. It is the offspring of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) – commonly referred to in English as the East German Communist Party – which ruled East Germany for seven decades.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the SED morphed into the Democratic Socialist Party (PDS) which in 2005 changed its name to Die Linke, and attained its best election result in 2009 with 11.9 percent of the votes.

Today, the party presents itself as combining green politics with social awareness. They made a surprise comeback during the recent election, with their share of the vote (8.77 percent) meaning they'll have 64 seats in the Bundestag.

Germany's far-left party celebrates surprise comeback in elections

An offspring of Die Linke, led by former MP Sahra Wagenknecht, the BSW, combines left-wing economics with right-wing nationalism and cultural conservatism – it is anti-immigration and pro-Russia – but did not get enough votes to enter parliament.
Left of the left

On the far left are the Socialist Equality Party (SGP), a Trotskyist group whose slogan is "Socialism instead of War!", and Wolfer's MLPD.

Germany's domestic intelligence service (the BfV) names the SGP and MLPD as "strictly ideological left-wing-extremists", as well as "extremist structures" within Die Linke, saying that their "shared goal" is "to dismantle the democratic constitutional state and establish socialism and, proceeding from that, a classless communist society".

But for now, Wolfer believes it is better to operate within the existing system.

Praising France's "anti-fascist front", the alliance led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon's France Unbowed party, he regrets that similar election coalitions are not allowed in Germany. "You have to go to the election as one single party," he says, something he thinks is "a restriction of democratic rights".

What is the MLPD?


The Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD) was founded in 1982 by members of the Communist Workers Union of Germany. It advocates for revolutionary change to establish a socialist society through the seizure of power by the proletariat, aiming to create a classless, communist society based on the teachings of Marx, Engels and Lenin.

The MLPD rejects terms such as "Stalinism" and "Maoism" as divisive, while defending their works, and distinguishes itself from other left-wing groups by promoting "genuine socialism" to counter revisionism and reformism.

The MLPD participates in international communist networks, having joined the ICOR in 2010, and views countries such as China and North Korea as "bureaucratic-capitalist". It emphasises environmental issues and the need for a paradigm shift in production and consumption, to preserve human-nature unity. Despite its minor political influence, the MLPD remains active in German politics, advocating for radical social change

He adds that his party supports "a broad anti-fascist unity under all progressive parties, not only left parties".

He also says that they "work together with people from Die Linke" which he says has "progressive demands", adding: "That's good. They are an important force within the anti-fascist movement."

"But," he continued, "they made their deal with the capitalist society. The word 'socialism' is very rarely used in their leaflets or books".
Why socialism?

The question remains: why socialism? After the failure of the USSR, the excesses of Stalin's Gulag, the Chinese Communist Party's experiments with the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, costing the lives of millions of people, who is still interested in socialism as an ideology?

"The first socialist countries of the world have been very successful for decades," counters Wolfer. "So the plane flew before it crashed."

And the reason for this "crash"? "We call it a betrayal of the socialist principles," he says.

A case in point is the Berlin Wall, which was constructed by East German authorities in 1961 to prevent East Germans from fleeing to the West.

"The Berlin wall is not a socialist wall. The main slogan of the communist movement and of Marx and Lenin was for 'workers of all countries to unite', not to build walls and divide yourselves against each other," explains Wolfer.

East German construction workers building the Berlin Wall, near the Brandenburg Gate, in July 1973. AFP

"The Stasi dictatorship in the former East Germany and the criminal acts in the later Soviet Union are not results of a socialist mode of thinking," he says, referring to the infamous intelligence service that arrested and tortured thousands of civilians.

He argues that today, China's Communist party is no longer a working-class party either: "On the latest party congress, there's a bunch of millionaires."

He says such betrayals of socialist ideals and the experiences of socialist countries must be evaluated. "We have to build on this and we have to make socialism great again."

The Stasi museum is housed in the former headquarters of the Staatssicherheit, where tens of thousands of informants were directed to spy on their fellow citizens. RFI/Jan van der Made

The official results of the German election held on 23 February, published on 14 March show that the MLPD won just 19,551 votes nationwide – or 0.04 percent of the total of 49,649,512.

Although the party gained 1,731 more votes than in the 2021 elections, Wolfer knows his party didn't stand a chance of reaching the 5 percent threshold to get into the German parliament. But he will keep on fighting for global socialist unity, he says.

Some time ago, he and some other MLPD members went to Israel to "find comrades". At a demonstration against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he and his friends saw a group of Israelis waving Palestinian flags – and red flags too.

"Bingo," they thought. Wolfer and his MLPD comrades invited this group of Israelis to Berlin, along with a group of Palestinian Marxists.

"In the beginning they were suspicious, they didn't want to talk to each other," says Wolfer. But after a few days of discussions in the offices of the MLDP in Berlin, the atmosphere changed. "When they parted they were hugging and crying."

 NYET!

Can NATO survive the presidency of Donald Trump?

United States President Donald Trump's U-turns have driven NATO to an existential crisis. Between doubts over the continuation of American involvement and pressure for European autonomy, the future of the organisation, key for transatlantic security, has never seemed so uncertain.

Donald Trump at a press conference at the NATO summit in Brussels, 12 July, 2018. AP - Pablo Martinez Monsivais

By:RFI



Issued on:  20/03/2025 - 

An article on the home page of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is illustrated with an image of the Ukrainian flag alongside the NATO flag – the blue and yellow side by side with the compass rose on its blue background, representing the Atlantic Ocean and the direction towards peace.

"NATO condemns Russia's war against Ukraine in the strongest terms. The alliance remains steadfast in its support for Ukraine, helping to uphold its fundamental right to self-defence," reads the text.

However, in recent weeks the actions of one member – its main contributor – have seemed distinctly out of step with that statement.

Trump's reversals of the US position on Ukraine and the American rapprochement with Moscow represent an ideological break with NATO, in which Washington has always taken the leading role.

Publicité

Created in 1949 during the Cold War, the political-military alliance that brings together 32 countries was founded on the need to guard against the expansion of the Soviet Union.

Although following the collapse of the USSR the organisation expanded its missions to include peacekeeping operations, since 2022 Russia has once again been designated a "threat" in the organisation's "strategic concept", which defines its doctrine.

Foundations of the alliance shaken

With the US recently appearing more aligned with Russia than with its allies, this paradox raises questions about the future of the organisation. Trump has been increasingly critical of NATO, throughout his campaign and since his election, and has frequently cast doubt on his country's commitment to it.

During his speech at the Munich Security Conference in mid-February, US vice-president JD Vance urged Europeans to take their defence into their own hands. At the same time, from Warsaw, US defence secretary Pete Hegseth called on Europe to "invest, because you can't assume that the American presence will last forever".

France hails 'progress' of Ukraine ceasefire deal, says onus is now on Russia

On 6 March, Trump questioned the solidarity of his allies: "My biggest problem with NATO is that if the United States had a problem and we called France or other countries that I won't name and said we've got a problem, do you think they would come and help us, as they're supposed to? I'm not sure."

NATO's Article 5 states that if a NATO country is the victim of an armed attack, this will be considered an attack on all members, all of whom will come to its aid, by any means deemed necessary including the use of armed force.

To date, the only time Article 5 has been invoked was by the US after the 9/11 attacks, which led to NATO's intervention in Afghanistan. 

"For the time being, there has been no statement from the Trump administration calling into question the foundation of the alliance, Article 5," stressed Amélie Zima, a researcher at the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri) and head of the European and Transatlantic Security Programme.

Article 5 is the cornerstone of the NATO edifice. "At a recent press conference, a journalist in the Oval Office asked Donald Trump if he would defend Poland. He immediately replied ‘yes, we are committed’. He was then asked the same question about the Baltic States. There he made a sort of grimace, believing that the matter was more complex, but he concluded all the same 'we are committed’," Zima added.

For its part, NATO is playing down any fears. "The transatlantic partnership remains the cornerstone of our alliance," said the organisation's secretary-general Mark Rutte on 6 March, asserting that he had received guarantees from the US regarding its obligations.

At the same time, he called on Europeans to follow the example of Warsaw, which spends 4.7 percent of its GDP on defence.

"If you look at the spirit of the statements and Trump's pivot towards Russia, there is clearly a doubt that has been introduced," said Fabrice Pothier, former director of foresight at NATO from 2010 to 2016.

'Trump has cast doubt on NATO's reliability'

While fears of American disengagement are tangible, for Alexis Vahlas, director of a master's degree in European security at Sciences Po Strasbourg and a former NATO political adviser, this remains unlikely. According to him: "Nato remains a lever of influence and an essential interoperability tool for the United States."

But the unpredictable nature of the Trump administration means that all scenarios have to be considered. Could NATO function without the US or with less American involvement? Given that the country accounts for around 70 percent of NATO's military spending and that Article 5 is based on the premise of American military strength – particularly its nuclear arsenal – this would represent an unprecedented upheaval for the alliance, which would consequently lose much of its credibility. 

On 7 March, a Swedish media report quoting unnamed NATO sources indicated that the US had informed its NATO allies of its decision to stop participating in the planning of future military exercises in Europe from 1 January 2026. This information has not been confirmed.

EU Commission chief calls for defence 'surge' in address to EU parliament

A US military source quoted by American military newspaper Stars and Stripes then said on 10 March that NATO was "continuing to prepare for military exercises involving the United States this year and beyond".

Amidst these contradictory statements, General Jean-Paul Paloméros, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, told RFI: "These exercises are fundamental because they are representative of the alliance's ability to fulfil its collective defence mission. If there are no more exercises, there is no longer any demonstration of credibility and joint training. That is NATO's great strength."

'A credible alternative'

"Today, there is a feeling of anxiety that is leading to a dual attitude," says Vahlas. On the one hand, it is a question of trying to preserve Western cohesion, while on the other, the 23 EU Member States who are NATO members – Austria, Ireland, Cyprus and Malta are not – are preparing to rely more on their own defence structures.

Brussels has validated the ReArm Europe plan, mobilising some €800 billion for European defence. "But there is no exclusivism," insists Valhas. In other words, the idea is to keep both mechanisms operational: to safeguard NATO as far as possible, while also strengthening the European alternative. 

"NATO is not necessarily dead as an organisation, but it is less reliable, so we need to create an alternative that is sufficiently credible," said Pothier, who believes this alternative is being built outside the usual frameworks of European security – Nato and the EU – and instead, around a coalition of key countries. 

"American developments, both in terms of support for Ukraine and rapprochement with Russia, and with the introduction of the transactional nature of the security guarantee, obviously represent a challenge for the transatlantic alliance in a context where the threat is greater than at any time since the Cold War. But this does not prevent NATO from remaining a forum for political consultation, a planning framework for deterrence and defence, and interoperability for our armies," said Muriel Domenach, former French ambassador to NATO.

"While we are talking, Europe's armies are working within the NATO framework, and this cooperation is useful whatever the framework – EU, NATO or ad hoc," she added.

Previous crises

This is not the first time NATO's existence has been called into question. During his first electoral campaign in 2016, Trump deemed the organisation "obsolete" – before then reversing his position.

In 2019, Emmanuel Macron called the organisation "brain dead", while in the same year, the US decided to unilaterally withdraw its troops from Syria. France in fact left NATO's integrated command in 1966, with General de Gaulle preferring to maintain strategic independence from the US – although it was reinstated in 2009, under Nicolas Sarkozy.

"NATO has already been through some major crises," said Zima. "In the 1960s, when we moved from the doctrine of massive retaliation to a graduated response, De Gaulle was already expressing doubts about the Americans‘ willingness to defend Europe and, in particular, to use nuclear weapons."

Macron hosts European military chiefs to discuss Ukraine security guarantees

But the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the need to support the country, gave new weight to the organisation.

Natalia Pouzyreff, co-chair of the French delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, explained: "It is on this issue that the Europeans want to re-engage in dialogue with the United States. For us, there is a continuum. Ukraine is our shield and it is Europe's shield, and if Europe is not secure, that is not good for the Americans."

The Trump administration's stance, however, has clearly deviated from the values promoted by the organisation: freedom, democracy, the rule of law. "There have always been deviations, such as with Viktor Orban's Hungary or Turkey, but this is the first time that these deviations have been made by the world's leading political and military power," said Zima.  

A NATO summit is scheduled for June 2025 in The Hague. Could there be a change in the organisation's strategic concept, in which Russia would no longer be designated "the most important principal threat" to the Allies?

"If the Americans were to push to institutionalise their position, I think we could be heading for a real institutional crisis," says Pothier. "It's one thing to have a spirit that is no longer that of transatlantic concord, but it's quite another to put it into the very letter of the institution."

---

This article has been adapted from the original version in French.

Is AI sexist? How artificial images are perpetuating gender bias in reality

AI is increasingly a feature of everyday life. But with its models based on often outdated data and the field still dominated by male researchers, as its influence on society grows it is also perpetuating sexist stereotypes.

Issued on: 16/03/2025 -  RFI

Images generated by AI tool Dall-E. When asked to generate an image of someone who practises medicine or runs a restaurant or business, it suggests men. When asked to generate images of someone who works as a nurse, home help or domestic assistant, it suggests women. © ChatGPT

A simple request to an image-generating artificial intelligence (AI) tool such as Stable Diffusion or Dall-E is all it takes to demonstrate this.

When given requests such as "generate the image of someone who runs a company" or "someone who runs a big restaurant" or "someone working in medicine", what appears, each time, is the image of a white man.

When these programmes are asked to generate an image of "someone who works as a nurse" or "a domestic worker" or "a home help", these images were of women.

As part of a Unesco study published last year, researchers asked various generative AI platforms to write stories featuring characters of different genders, sexualities and origins. The results showed that stories about "people from minority cultures or women were often more repetitive and based on stereotypes".

The report showed a tendency to attribute more prestigious and professional jobs to men – teacher or doctor, for example – while often relegating women to traditionally undervalued or more controversial roles, such as domestic worker, cook or prostitute.

Why the African continent has a role to play in developing AI

The broad language patterns used by these Large Language Model (LLM) tools also tend to associate female names with words such as "home", "family" or "children", while male names are more closely associated with the words "business", "salary" and "career".

As such, these models demonstrate "unequivocal prejudice against women," warned Unesco in a press release.

"Discrimination in the real world is not only reflected in the digital sphere, it is also amplified there," said Tawfik Jelassi, Unesco's assistant director-general for communication and information.

A mirror of society

To create content, generative AI is "trained on billions of documents produced at a certain time," explained Justine Cassell, director of research at France's National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (Inria). 

She explained that such documents, depending on when they were produced, often contain dated and discriminatory stereotypes, with the result that AI trained on them then conveys and reiterates these.

This is the case with image and text generators, but also for facial recognition programmes, which feed off millions of existing photos.

From breast cancer to HIV, how AI is set to revolutionise healthcare

In 2019, a US federal agency warned that some facial recognition systems were having difficulty correctly identifying women, particularly those of African-American origin – which has consequences for public safety, law enforcement and individual freedoms.

This is also an issue in the world of work, where AI is increasingly being used by HR managers to assist with recruitment.

In 2018, news agency Reuters reported that Amazon had to abandon an AI recruitment tool. The reason? The system did not evaluate candidates in a gender-neutral manner, as it was based on data accumulated from CVs submitted to the company – mainly by men. This led it to reject female applicants.

Diversifying data

AI is first and foremost a question of data. And if this data is incomplete or only represents one category of people, or if it contains conscious or unconscious bias, AI programmes will still use it – and broadcast it on a massive scale.

"It is vital that the data used to drive the systems is diverse and represents all genders, races and communities," said Zinnya del Villar, director of data, technology and innovation at the Data-Pop Alliance think tank. 

In an interview with the UN Women agency, del Villar explained: "It is necessary to select data that reflects different social backgrounds, cultures and roles, while eliminating historical prejudices, such as those that associate certain jobs or character traits with one gender."

One fundamental problem, according to Cassell at Inria, is that "most developers today are still predominantly white men, who may not be as sensitive to the presence of bias".

‘By humans, for humans’: French dubbing industry speaks out against AI threat

Because they are not subject to the prejudices suffered by women and minorities, male designers are often less aware of the problem – and 88 percent of algorithms are built by men. In addition to raising awareness of bias, researchers are urging companies in the sector to employ more diverse engineering teams.

"We need a lot more women coding AI models, because they're the ones who will be asking the question: doesn't this data contain abnormal behaviour or behaviour that we shouldn't reproduce in the future?" Nelly Chatue-Diop, CEO and co-founder of the start-up Ejara, told RFI.

Under-representation of women

Currently, women account for just 22 percent of people working in artificial intelligence worldwide, according to the World Economic Forum.

The European AI barometer carried out by Join Forces & Dare (JFD – formerly Digital Women's Day) reveals that of the companies surveyed with an AI manager on their executive committee, only 29 per cent of these managers are women. Globally, women account for 12 percent of AI researchers.

"The lack of diversity in the development of AI reinforces biases, perpetuates stereotypes and slows down innovation," warns the report.

It's an observation echoed by Unesco, which posits that the under-representation of women in the field, and in management positions, "leads to the creation of socio-technical systems that do not take into account the diverse needs and perspectives of all genders" and reinforces "disparities between men and women".

Could European AI create a more unified European identity?

Both organisations have emphasised the need to ensure that girls are made aware of and guided towards STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects from a young age – areas which are still too often the preserve of men, and in which high-achieving women are often invisible. 

With AI applications increasingly used by both the general public and businesses, "they have the power to shape the perception of millions of people," noted Audrey Azoulay, director-general of Unesco. "The presence of even the slightest gender bias in their content can significantly increase inequalities in the real world."

Unesco, alongside numerous specialists in the sector, is calling for mechanisms to be put in place on an international level to regulate the sector within an ethical framework.

But this seems a long way off. The United States, with its colossal weight in this field, did not sign the Paris Summit declaration on AI, issued last month. Nor did the United Kingdom.

While the UK government said the statement ha not gone far enough in terms of addressing global governance of AI, US vice-president JD Vance criticised what he called Europe's "excessive regulation" of the technology.

This article has been adapted from the original version in French.

Thousands without lifesaving aid in DRC, says UN agency

Thousands are without lifesaving aid in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo due to critical funding gaps, the United Nations Refugee agency says.

Congolese refugees, displaced by ongoing clashes in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, gather to receive soft drinks from a social worker after their registration at a refugee transit camp in Gihanga, on 17 February 2025. © Tchandrou Nitanga / AFP

By:  RFI

Issued on: 22/03/2025


"Critical funding gaps are severely hampering humanitarian efforts in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and beyond, leaving thousands without lifesaving aid and pushing an already dire humanitarian situation closer to catastrophe", Eujin Byun from UNHCR told reporters in Geneva on Friday.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been internally displaced, while more than 100,000 people have fled to neighbouring countries in less than three months due to fighting between the M23 group and Congolese army, according to the UNHCR.

Shelters that previously housed some 400,000 people forced to flee the fighting in and around the city of Goma in North Kivu province have been destroyed, leaving families stranded without shelter or protection, UNHCR added.

"Due to funding cuts, humanitarian partners are struggling to rebuild shelters, leaving displaced people with few options for survival", the agency said.

No ceasefire

The leader of a rebel alliance that has seized swathes of east Congo told Reuters on Thursday that insurgents were not bound by a ceasefire call from Congo and Rwanda's presidents and cast any minerals-for-security deal with the US as "treachery".

Democratic Republic of Congo's President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame met in Doha on Tuesday for the first time since the latest M23 advance that has seen the rebels seize more territory than ever before.

Tshisekedi and Kagame meet in Qatar for crisis talks on eastern DRC

The meeting came one day after M23 pulled out of direct talks with Tshisekedi's government that were expected to take place in Angola, and as its fighters pushed deeper into Congolese territory.

Rwanda says cutting diplomatic ties with Belgium, as EU announces sanctions

The conflict in Congo's east is rooted in the fallout from Rwanda's 1994 genocide and competition for mineral riches. It has spiralled since January, raising fears of a regional conflict akin to those between 1996-2003 that left millions dead.

"We have nothing more to lose. We will fight until our cause is heard," Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Congo River Alliance (AFC) that includes M23, told Reuters on Thursday when asked about the group's plans.

"We are defending ourselves. So if the threat continues to come from (DR Congo capital) Kinshasa, unfortunately, we will be forced to go and eliminate the threat because the Congo deserves better," he said during an interview in Goma, eastern Congo's main city.

"In the meantime, what happened in Doha, as long as we don't know the details, and as long as it doesn't solve our problems, we'll say it doesn't concern us."

Rwanda has denied supporting M23 and said its military has been acting in self defence against Congo's army and militias hostile to Kigali.

(Reuters)

PSG fans' petition keeps spotlight on Rwanda's role in DRC and cash to top clubs

Fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has thrown into sharp focus sponsorship deals involving the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), the French football champions Paris Saint-Germain as well as Bayern Munich and Arsenal.

Some 600,000 people have been displaced by the conflict in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo since November, according to UN agencies. REUTERS - Stringer

By: Paul Myers
RFI
 15/03/2025

All three teams advanced on Tuesday and Wednesday to the quarter-finals of the Champions League to continue the projection of the RDB's "Visit Rwanda" logo in European club football's most prestigious competition.

PSG progressed at the expense of Liverpool following a penalty shoot-out at Anfield. Bayern cruised past Bundesliga rivals Bayer Leverkusen 5-0 on aggregate and Arsenal spanked the Dutch outfit PSV Eindhoven 9-3 over two legs.

In the last eight, PSG will play Aston Villa, Bayern will take on Inter Milan and Arsenal will face defending champions Real Madrid.

While the clubs battle for supremacy, their association with the RDB is coming under increasing scrutiny due to rows over the involvement of Rwandan troops in the M23 group which is fighting soldiers from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Human rights groups as well as the United Nations say they have evidence that Rwanda is actively bolstering the M23 in its sweep through Goma and Bukavu in the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu.

Authorities in Kigali deny providing arms and troops to M23 rebels. They say Rwandan forces are acting in self-defence against the Congolese army and militias hostile to Rwandans, especially Tutsi.
Possible deal

But as Angolan officials attempt to broker a peace deal between the Congolese president Félix Tshisekedi and M23 leaders, campaigners in Europe have called on the football clubs to terminate their contracts with a brand that they claim has become tarnished.

"Ideally, the contract should end immediately," said Jordan Madiande who launched a petition in January with his cousin Lionel Tambwe calling for PSG's deal with the RDB to be severed.

Arsenal’s association with "Visit Rwanda" began in May 2018. Its logo appears on the shirt sleeves of Arsenal’s men’s, women’s and youth teams and can be seen on boards at the Emirates Stadium in north London and on interview backdrops.

PSG signed its initial contract with the RDB in 2019. It was renewed in May 2023 and is scheduled to end after the 2025 season.

Under the PSG deal with the RDB, the logo "Visit Rwanda" appears on the training and warm-up kits of the men's teams. Rwandan tea and coffee is also served at kiosks and in the suites at the PSG stadium. In both instances current and former players travel to Rwanda for promotional tours.

"If it's not renewed, that will be acceptable," added Madiande whose parents came to France from the DRC in the 1980s. "It will still be a victory."

The 32-year-old social worker's petition states that as an internationally respected club, PSG has an important role to play in promoting positive values.

It adds: "However, by maintaining this partnership with "Visit Rwanda", our club could be perceived as ignoring the geopolitical and humanitarian realities of this situation, and risk giving the impression that it is turning a blind eye to human rights violations."
Comment

PSG has yet to comment publicly on the petition which has amassed 73,000 signatures nor has there been a response to a letter from the DRC's minister of foreign affairs, Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner.

In January, she called on PSG's bosses as well as their counterparts at Arsenal and Bayern Munich to review their sponsorship deals.

"At a time when Rwanda is waging war, Rwanda's guilt in this conflict has become indisputable," wrote Kayikwamba Wagner. "Your sponsor is directly responsible for this misery."

Arsenal have maintained their links with the RDB so too Bayern Munich who dispatched a fact-finding team to Rwanda.

Congo's government says at least 7,000 people have died in the fighting since January. According to the UN humanitarian affairs office (Ocha), at least 600,000 people have been displaced by the fighting since November.

"Maybe before, PSG's executives didn't really know what was going on or they didn't understand the scale of it," said Madiande.

"But new things are happening. Bukavu was taken since the petition began. There are the UN reports that say what is happening and there are international reports from human rights organisations. We didn't invent it. So the question is now, can PSG go on with this?"
Contract

The controversy surrounding the 15 million-euro a year contract has also illuminated the extent and depth of Rwanda's footprint in the world of sport.

Rwanda and South Africa are both bidding to stage a Formula 1 grand prix in 2027 – potentially the continent's first such race since 1993. A state-of-the-art track is being built to F1 standards close to Kigali's new Bugesera airport in the case of success.

In September, Rwanda will welcome the world cycling championships – the first time since its inception in 1921 that the planet's elite operators will compete in Africa.

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame was also one of the strongest advocates for the establishment in 2021 of the Basketball Africa League. Critics say such promotion is sportswashing – using sporting events to gloss over official clampdowns on political opponents and human rights abuses.

"It is very much part of Kagame's toolkit," said Michela Wrong, author of several books on the region including Rwanda Assassins sans frontierès. "He does sportswashing superbly well.

"And it's because it works in his favour, He's also genuinely an Arsenal fan, so he likes to go and watch the matches himself.

"Rwanda is managing to get its its message out to a very particular audience. It's a young audience. It's a trendy audience. It's an audience that possibly isn't that well informed about the niceties of African politics over the last 30 years and one that can't really be bothered to read up on that sort of detail.

"So it's a way of sort of going over the heads of people like me and journalists. Rwanda goes over our heads and reaches a young audience that really doesn't want to engage with those issues. So I think it's a very effective way of marketing a certain kind of message.

"This is sportswashing taken to quite a very high level, a level that I don't think you can see anywhere else in Africa."

In February, the RDB, responded to queries about its sponsorship deals on social media. It claimed the DRC was undermining its international partnerships through misinformation and political pressure.


"These efforts threaten regional peace, stability, and economic cooperation," said the message on X. "These collaborations transcend borders, inspire millions across Africa, and contribute to the continent’s socioeconomic progress."

Madiande, a life-long PSG fan, said he would wait to see if the PSG sponsorship deal were to be renewed before deciding if the campaign should be escalated.

"We think that clubs are intelligent and that they will understand that this is serious," he said.

"We think that with the values defended by PSG, Arsenal and Bayern Munich and especially with their histories, that it's going to stop. But if it doesn't, there will be further action. It will be more visible."

Ligue 1 pacesetters PSG host arch rivals Marseille at the Parc des Princes on Sunday night. Victory over the visitors, who occupy second place, would extend PSG's lead to 19 points with eight games remaining.

"I've been a PSG fan for as long as I can remember," said Madiande. "But if their approach doesn't change, I'll have to ask myself lots of questions. That will be hard. I've supported them when they nearly went down to the second division and I'm still a supporter now when things are going better.

"They really can't need this money from this source. There must be many organisations out there willing to be associated with the club."

Tens of thousands in France protest against racism and far-right

Tens of thousands of people in Paris and other French cities on Saturday rallied against racism and the rise of the far right, with some taking aim at the administration of Donald Trump in the United States and others carrying Palestinian flags.


RFI

22/03/2025 - 

A protestor holds a sign reading "Trump, Musk = Nazi, Bardella & Macron accomplices" during a demonstration on Place de la République in Paris on 22March, 2025, as part of the international day against racism and fascism. AFP - BERTRAND GUAY

Several scuffles between police officers and demonstrators took place in Paris.

The rallies took place amid the rightward shift in French politics, with the government pledging to tighten immigration policies and border controls. Around 62,000 people protested across France, according to police.

Many pointed to the growing strength of reactionary political forces, in France but also in the United States.

In the French capital, thousands of people took to the streets.

"Fascism is gangrene from Washington to Paris," read one placard.

"The far right is on the rise everywhere in Europe, it's scary because in France we see far-right ideas becoming more and more commonplace, even among ministers in this government," said Evelyne Dourille, a 74-year-old pensioner.

One American protester said similar demonstrations should be taking place in the United States.

"America is sliding towards fascism," said the 55-year-old woman.

Aurelie Trouve, a lawmaker for the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, pointed to the growing popularity of the far-right party of Marine Le Pen in France.

"Far-right ideas are contaminating even the government," she said.

(link)

In the southern port city of Marseille, some 3,300 people took to the streets, while 2,600 protested in Lille in the north, according to police.

"Against state Islamophobia" and "Tesla is the new swastika," said some of the placards.

Family's 'relief' as riot officer charged over death of 80-year-old in Marseille

Ines Frehaut, a student who took part in her first demonstration, said some of the statements of France's hardline interior minister worried her.

"When you see what has said about Islam, Algeria and the wearing of the veil, it's serious!" she said.

The protests took place a day after the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

"The situation is serious," the Human Rights League (LDH) said, pointing to an "alarming increase" in racist acts.

"There is a global reactionary offensive against foreigners and their children, against Muslims," added Dominique Sopo, head of of SOS Racisme, also pointing to increasing racist and anti-Semitic acts.

French far-right leader's presence at Israel anti-Semitism conference stirs controversy

In the run-up to the rallies the LFI party caused an uproar in France by publishing the image of Cyril Hanouna, one of the most influential stars of right-wing media in the country, as part of a campaign calling on people to turn out for the anti-racism protests.

The image pictured Hanouna, who was born into a Jewish family that had immigrated to France from Tunisia. Critics accused the LFI of imitating the anti-Semitic tropes of the Third Reich. Key LFI figures admitted publishing the image was a "mistake" and it was withdrawn.

(AFP)

Many animal 'geomorphs' under threat, study warns

Paris (AFP) – More than a quarter of our planet's natural "geomorphs" -- animals such as beavers and hippos that, collectively, can reshape entire landscapes -- are threatened or have shrinking populations, a new study says.


Issued on: 12/03/2025 - 

Beavers are among the most famous of nature's architects, renowned for building dams that redirect rivers and reshape wetlands © Bohumil FISER / AOPK CR/AFP/File

The research, by Queen Mary University of London, found the scale of the impact these animals had on habitats -- by building dams, trampling new river courses, excavating earth and other activities -- rivals that caused by major floods.

Yet "more than a quarter (28 percent) of zoogeomorphic species are vulnerable to future population decline or regional or global extinction," the study's authors warned.

Their research, published mid-February, identified more than 600 species of land and freshwater animals that worked to redesign their ecosystems.

While beavers, of dam-building fame, and hippopotamuses and elephants, which in herds can flatten stretches of earth, are the best-known, there are many others -- often overlooked -- that could also be dubbed animal architects.


Termites in Brazil are known for building high mounds connected by tunnels across vast stretches of land © Jaime Sampaio / SCIENTIST ROY FUNCH/AFP/File

Among them are Brazilian termites, which have built high mounds connected by tunnels that cover an area larger than Iceland.

Others identified by the researchers included Australian marsupials, South American shrimp, Asian ants, as well as salmon, moles, earthworms and freshwater insects.

"What we tend to do is overlook the smaller animals that are less visible to us. Perhaps they're living underground or they're living underwater, but those animals can be really kind of important as well," one of the authors, Gemma Harvey, told AFP.
'Big cumulative effect'

Harvey, a professor in biogeomorphology and landscape rewilding, said: "People can underestimate the effects of small animals, because individually their effects are small, but collectively they tend to be more abundant in the landscape so they can have a big cumulative effect."

She added that "it's the collective importance of the animals that is being discovered right now".

She noted the study did not look at marine ecosystems, and that "there will be many more animals that have not yet been studied or perhaps not even been discovered yet".

Of the more than 600 species identified in the research, 57 were classed as endangered, vulnerable or near-threatened on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.

Many others were at risk of declining populations.

"As we lose species from our landscapes, we lose those unique processes" of reshaping the habitats, Harvey said.

And the power these landscaping animals possess is staggering.

Harvey said her team's study estimated that the species they had identified together exerted 76,000 gigajoules of energy each year -- equivalent to that of "hundreds of thousands of extreme floods".

She said much was still unknown about the animals' geomorphing processes and she planned to further her research, notably by factoring in the effects of climate change.

"We're also interested in thinking kind of back in time in the past, about what we've already lost, you know, from our landscapes as species have become extinct or reduced a lot in terms of their population," she said.

© 2025 AFP

On the Mongolian steppe, climate change pushes herders to the brink

Kharkhorin (Mongolia) (AFP) – Over a year after a devastating winter wiped out virtually his entire sheep flock, herder Zandan Lkhamsuren is still reckoning with the damage wrought by Mongolia's increasingly erratic extreme weather.

Heavy snowfall and frozen ground means livestock cannot find food © Jade GAO / AFP

13/03/2025 - 

The vast country is one of the most affected by climate change, by some counts warming three times faster than the global average.

The link between rising temperatures and extreme weather –- ranging from droughts and floods to heatwaves and cold snaps –- is well-established.

In Mongolia the effects are stark.

Among other consequences, deep freezes like the one that killed Zandan's herd -- known as dzuds -- have been growing more frequent and intense.

"Last year's winter was the hardest I've ever known," the 48-year-old told AFP, describing daytime temperatures of minus 32 degrees Celsius (minus 25.6 degrees Fahrenheit) that plunged to minus 42C at night.

Heavy snowfall and frozen ground meant his sheep could not find food, and all except two of his 280-strong flock perished.

Across Mongolia, more than seven million animals were killed, over a tenth of the country's total.

"Our livestock used to cover all of our expenses, and we used to live very nicely," Zandan told AFP as he served hot salted milk tea in his traditional ger home.

Permafrost distribution in Mongolia © Nicholas SHEARMAN / AFP

But the loss of his animals and the loans he took out to keep feeding a smaller, hardier herd of goats mean he now struggles to make ends meet.

Both his daughters were supposed to start university in the capital Ulaanbaatar last year, but the family could not afford their tuition fees.

"Now my strategy is just to focus on what I have left," Zandan said.

Next to the ger's coal burner, a persistent bleating came from a box containing a sickly week-old goat.

- 'Difficult to predict' -

As the setting sun cast long shadows over the steppe, Zandan pulled on a thick green brocade jacket and strode outside, whistling as he shepherded his indignant charges into a shelter for the night.

He said he was keeping a positive mindset -- if he could boost his goat numbers, he might be able to fund his daughters' studies further down the line.

"It's just one downside of herders' lives," he said stoically. "But I'm sure we can recover."

Mongolian herder Enebold Davaa's family lost more than 100 goats, 40 sheep and three cows last winter © Jade GAO / AFP

The problem for Zandan -- and other agricultural workers that make up a third of Mongolia's population -- is that dzuds are happening more often.

They used to occur about once every 10 years, but there have been six in the last decade or so, according to the United Nations.

And while overgrazing has long contributed to desertification on the steppe, climate change is making things even worse.

Droughts in the summers have made it harder to fatten animals and stockpile fodder for winter.

"Like many other herder men, I always look at the sky and try to predict the weather," Zandan told AFP.

"But it's been getting difficult," he said. "Climate change is happening."
Uncertain future

His motorbike kicking up clouds of dust, 36-year-old Enebold Davaa shared those concerns as he chased his herd across the plain.

Enebold's family lost more than 100 goats, 40 sheep and three cows last winter.

"It's our main source of income, so we felt very heavy, it was very hard for us," he said.

Herder Zandan Lkhamsuren puts up a piece of cloth to keep goats warm at night in central Mongolia © Jade GAO / AFP

This year's milder winter had allowed the family to recover some of their losses, but Enebold said he viewed the future with trepidation.

"Of course we are anxious, but there's nothing we can predict now," he said.

Local official Gankhuyag Banzragch told AFP most families in the district lost 30 to 40 percent of their livestock last winter.

As herding became more difficult, many families were moving away, he added.

A quarter of Mongolians still lead nomadic lives, but in recent decades hundreds of thousands have left the steppe for urban centres, particularly the capital.

As she boiled horsemeat dumplings, Enebold's wife said they too might consider a move if they lost more livestock.

"The main challenge is accessibility of education for our children in the city," she said.

Her husband had a more fundamental reason for staying.

"I want to keep herding my livestock," he said. "I want to keep the same lifestyle as now."

© 2025 AFP