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How misuse of the sub judice rule undermines democracy and free speech

There is a growing trend of public officials exploiting the rule to evade scrutiny and accountability

A school in Gedarif became home to hundreds of families fleeing the war in Khartoum. Photos by Ala Kheir

Between conflict and hope: A photographer’s journey amid Sudan’s turmoil

Photographer Ala Kheir was using his camera to document the scars of Sudan’s old wars. Then came the new war.

Smoke rises as the clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continue in Khartoum, Sudan on June 09, 2023. (Photo by Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Resistance committees keep Sudan’s revolution alive

They ousted a dictator, defied a junta and now Sudan’s resistance committees are providing the only support to desperate people in their areas amid the war and persecution. Mark…

Geneina residents are struggling to survive the latest cycle of violence in West Darfur. Photo: Ayin Network/Twitter

Handwritten letters a lifeline in war-ravaged Darfur

With no cellphone service or phone calls, people in Sudan’s war-torn western region of Darfur are resorting to a bygone means of communication — handwritten letters, carried by…

Presidents Xi Jinping, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Cyril Ramaphosa and Prime Minister Narendra Modi appeared in person at the Brics summit, with Vladimir Putin discreetly attending via video link. Photo: Marco Longari/Getty Images

Just another Bric in an increasingly undemocratic wall?

Partnering with questionable regimes appears to run against the grain of our political and economic interests

President Cyril Ramaphosa arrived in Washington DC this week on a mission few would envy: to rescue a bilateral relationship that has descended into open hostility.
 Photo: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Ramaphosa’s Russia-Ukraine peace initiative to kick off in June

Envoys from six African states will shuttle between Kyiv and Moscow to try to secure a ceasefire and peace talks

President Cyril Ramaphosa and Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Photo by Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images)

South Africa and the  International Criminal Court’s relationship is complicated

Regarding Russia and Ukraine, the ICC has never received state referrals from 39 state parties to look into a situation in another country

Picture this: A portrait of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in a restaurant in Kyiv, Ukraine. The International Criminal Court has charged him over the abduction and deportation of children during the war in Ukraine.

SA’s vacillations on leaving the ICC point to larger problems

The country finds itself in a quandary once again and its leaders’ indecision is not helping

Vladimir Putin (Mikail Svetlov/Getty Images)

ANC silent on Putin arrest warrant, EFF says Russian leader welcome in SA

Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema has vowed to protect Putin from arrest, should he visit South Africa

Former president Jacob Zuma. File photo: Jerome Delay/AFP

Can courts choose between the law and its consequences?

Judicial officers swear to administer justice ‘without fear, favour or prejudice’, but must consider the needs of society and what is practically doable

Sudan staggers under weight of Africa’s biggest fuel spike

Over the past year, the price of petrol in Sudan has risen by 132%, the steepest increase on the continent. Although economic factors play a role, the country’s generals also…

The ANC’s threat to withdraw from the Rome Statute was highlighted in 2015 when the government did not arrest then Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir while he was visiting South Africa to attend an African Union summit.

ANC stance on International Criminal Court to be reviewed at national conference

The ANC’s head of its international relations committee, Lindiwe Zulu, says the party will reevaluate its stance on ICC, while government diplomats say it was never going to…

Members of the Zimbabwe Presidential Guard march in formation during the Defence Forces Day celebrations held at the National Sports Stadium in Harare on August 14 2018. (Photo by Jekesai Njikizana/AFP)

From Algeria to Zimbabwe: How autocratic elites cycle in and out of power

Leaders typically spread power among their ‘rival allies’ to keep it and co-opt enough of those elites in exchange for political support.

A man wears a traditional Kankurang mask along the beach in the popular tourist area of Senegambia in Banjul on December 6, 2021. (Photo: John Wessels/AFP)

The Continent: Africa A-Z of 2021

The highlights of 2021 in Africa

Sudanese protesters lift national flags as they rally on 60th Street in the capital Khartoum, to denounce overnight detentions by the army of government members, on October 25, 2021. – Armed forces detained Sudan’s Prime Minister over his refusal to support their “coup”, the information ministry said, after weeks of tensions between military and civilian figures who shared power since the ouster of autocrat Omar al-Bashir. (Photo by AFP)

Protesters die demanding full civilian rule

Sudan’s army pre-empted a handover to civilians with a coup, and then reinstated the civilian leader. On the streets, risking life and limb, demonstrators are still demanding the…

No to coup: Sudanese protesters denounce overnight detentions by the army of government members on 25 October. (AFP)

Sudan coup imperils hard-won international backing

When Sudan’s military removed leader Omar al-Bashir in 2019, it started receiving aid that is now under threat

Soldiers listen as Chairman of the Sovereignty Council Gen. Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman al-Burhan speaks after the Sudanese army foiled a coup attempt in the country in Khartoum, Sudan on September 21, 2021. (Photo by Sovereignty Council of Sudan / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Why handing over ICC suspects could help Sudan’s transition

A failed coup in September, weeks of brinkmanship, and a looming crisis in eastern Sudan have laid bare tensions between civilians and military leaders

There have been previous coup attempts since Omar al-Bashir’s ouster which officials have blamed on Islamist supporters of the former president and members of his now-defunct ruling party. (Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)

Sudan government says it foiled coup attempt linked to Bashir regime

State television broadcast patriotic songs as it announced the coup attempt and urged “the people to confront it”.

The army announced Monday it was ready to “receive and prepare” volunteer fighters, after Abdel Fattah al-Burhan last week urged Sudanese “youth and all those able to defend” to join the military. (Photo by Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images)

Darfur: How historical patterns of conflict are haunting current violence

The root causes of the ongoing conflict in Darfur are rising to the surface amid an influx of arms from Libya

Protesters gather during a “Black Lives Matter” protest near Barclays Center on May 29, 2020 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, in outrage after George Floyd, an unarmed black man, died while being arrested by a police officer in Minneapolis who pinned him to the ground with his knee. – Demonstrations are being held across the US after George Floyd died in police custody on May 25. (Angela Weiss / AFP)

The new ‘invisible enemy’

Anti-racism and political contagion from Save Darfur to Black Lives Matter