A federal judge in Boston has told the Trump administration that it must maintain custody of migrants whom the US government has allegedly flown to South Sudan or other countries this week amid heightened concerns over the administration’s aggressive approach to deportations. Judge Brian Murphy held an emergency hearing on Tuesday afternoon that continued Wednesday morning. On Tuesday night, Murphy ordered the Trump administration “to maintain custody and control of class members currently being removed to South Sudan or to any other third country, to ensure the practical feasibility of return if the Court finds that such removals were unlawful.” At least a dozen migrants were abruptly removed to South Sudan this week, according to attorneys who argued in a court filing that some of them didn’t receive proper notice or the opportunity to contest their deportation to a third country. The developments arose amid growing concern the Trump administration has failed to adhere to court orders and constitutional protections for its immigration detainees as it sends them to countries where the detainees would be treated harshly. Murphy said on Tuesday he would leave “the practicalities of compliance” with his orders to the Trump administration and that lawyers for the government “have ensured, and the Court expects, that class members will be treated humanely.” The administration has argued in court the judge shouldn’t have power over the decisions the Trump administration is making. On Wednesday morning, shortly before the court hearing was set to begin, Homeland Security officials told reporters that a flight carrying at least eight individuals had departed Texas on Tuesday but wouldn’t confirm that South Sudan was its final destination. The Department of Homeland Security distributed a list of the eight individuals with criminal records who were on the flight, including migrants from Cuba, Laos and Mexico. The list also included two men, one from Vietnam and one from Myanmar, who are part of the litigation. The officials added that the detainees were still in the US government’s custody, per the judge’s order. “Because of safety and operational security, we cannot tell you what the final destination for these individuals will be,” Tricia McLaughlin, the DHS spokesperson, said Wednesday. “A local judge in Massachusetts is trying to force the United States to bring back these uniquely barbaric monsters,” she said. In a court filing, attorney Jacqueline Brown, described the events leading up to her client, a Burmese national who speaks limited English, being removed. On Monday, her client, referred to as N.M., was notified he’d be removed to South Sudan without an interpreter, raising alarm among attorneys. Brown scheduled a video meeting with her client for Tuesday morning, but when she checked online, he was no longer in the detention system. “At 8:27 AM PT, a Port Isabel Detention Center Detention Officer responded that N.M. had been removed ‘this morning.’ I emailed to ask to which country N.M. was removed, and the officer responded, at 8:36 AM PT, ‘South Sudan,’” according to her court declaration. The lawyers said that a Vietnamese national “appears to have suffered the same fate” and that there were likely at least 10 additional people on the same flight. Earlier this year, Murphy blocked the Trump administration from deporting migrants to countries other than their own without prior written notice and a chance to contest the removal. Attorneys argue that order was violated with the removal of migrants to South Sudan and are asking the court to order their return, as well as block further deportations to third countries unless they comply with Murphy’s preliminary injunction. During Wednesday’s presser, DHS would not confirm deportations to South Sudan, which is on the cusp of another civil war. The US has issued a do not travel advisory to the country given ongoing armed conflict. Yet Immigration and Customs Enforcement posted a livestream online of the press conference on Wednesday, labeling it “DHS Press Conference on Migrant Flight to South Sudan.” McLaughlin was asked about the title of the press conference and whether that confirmed the flight was for South Sudan but did not give a clear answer, suggesting it could be a stop but not the final destination — though she did not seem to rule out the possibility that the war-torn country could have been the destination of the flight. The judge said the Trump administration must be able to explain at the hearing Wednesday when and how the migrants were told they were being sent to South Sudan or another country, how they were able to raise concerns of torture in the foreign country, and where at least one of the migrants who is suing is now, according to a recent court order. Earlier this month, Murphy said that deporting migrants to Libya or Saudi Arabia, as reported in the media, would violate his previous order if they were not provided written notice and an opportunity to contest ahead of time. At least one of the migrants mentioned in Tuesday’s filing had also been slated to be removed to Libya, according to the attorneys. Immigrant advocacy groups also filed an emergency motion then to block the removal of migrants to Libya after a Trump administration official told CNN that the administration was moving forward with plans to transport a group of undocumented immigrants to the country on a US military plane. That flight didn’t occur.

Tanzania’s main opposition leader Tundu Lissu told his supporters to have no fear as he appeared in court on Monday for the first time since his arrest on charges that include treason. Lissu refused to participate in a hearing on April 24 because authorities conducted a virtual, rather than an in-person trial, with him appearing via video link from prison. On Monday he entered the court with his fist raised in the air as supporters chanted “No Reforms, No Election,” according to a video of the courtroom shared by his CHADEMA party on X. “We will be fine. You should not fear,” Lissu said as he took his place in the dock, waving victory signs. Lissu, who was shot 16 times in a 2017 attack and came second in the last presidential poll, was charged with treason last month over what prosecutors said was a speech calling upon the public to rebel and disrupt elections due in October. A series of high-profile arrests has highlighted the rights record of President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who plans to seek re-election. Hassan says the government is committed to respecting human rights. Several Kenyan rights activists, including a former justice minister, said they were denied entry to Tanzania as they traveled to attend the trial. Kenya’s former Justice Minister Martha Karua, a prominent lawyer and opposition politician, and former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga were among those detained when they landed at Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam, they said on X. Tanzania’s immigration spokesperson Paul Mselle did not immediately respond to requests for comment. “Today was going to be a big day and we went out there in solidarity,” Karua told Kenyan broadcaster NTV on Monday after she was denied entry and sent back to Nairobi. “The state cannot be used as a personal tool. You cannot deport people whom you don’t like, who are not aligned to your views.” Mutunga and rights activist Hussein Khalid were being held in an interrogation room at Julius Nyerere airport on Monday and expected to be deported, Khalid said on X.

The most intense clashes for years rocked Tripoli for a second night and continued into Wednesday morning, witnesses in the Libyan capital said, after Monday’s killing of a major militia leader set off fighting between rival factions. The United Nations Libya mission UNSMIL said it was “deeply alarmed by the escalating violence in densely populated neighborhoods of Tripoli” and urgently called for a ceasefire. The latest unrest in Libya’s capital could consolidate the power of Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, prime minister of the divided country’s Government of National Unity (GNU) and an ally of Turkey. Libya has had little stability since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising ousted longtime autocrat Muammar Gaddafi and the country split in 2014 between rival eastern and western factions, though an outbreak of major warfare paused with a truce in 2020. A major energy exporter, Libya is also an important way station for migrants heading to Europe and its conflict has drawn in foreign powers including Turkey, Russia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Its main oil facilities are located in southern and eastern Libya, far from the current fighting in Triopli. While eastern Libya has been dominated for a decade by commander Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army (LNA), control in Tripoli and western Libya has been splintered among numerous armed factions. Dbeibah on Tuesday ordered the dismantling of what he called irregular armed groups. That announcement followed Monday’s killing of major militia chief Abdulghani Kikli, widely known as Ghaniwa, and the sudden defeat of his Stabilization Support Apparatus (SSA) group by factions aligned with Dbeibah. The seizure of SSA territory in Libya by the Dbeibah-allied factions, the 444 and 111 Brigades, indicated a major concentration of power in the fragmented capital, leaving the Special Deterrence Force (Rada) as the last big faction not closely tied to the prime minister.

Nottingham Forest striker Taiwo Awoniyi has reportedly been placed into an induced coma following “urgent” surgery for a serious abdominal injury suffered during a Premier League match over the weekend. Awoniyi collided with the post during Forest’s 2-2 draw with Leicester City on Sunday but, despite being clearly hampered after the incident, remained on the pitch for the final 10 minutes of the game. Forest said in a statement on Tuesday that the Nigerian striker was “recovering well” following surgery on a “serious abdominal injury.” British media, including the BBC and Sky Sports, reported that Awoniyi had been placed in an induced coma in hospital as part of the recovery process. Awoniyi sustained his injury as he tried to connect with a cross from Anthony Elanga. The 27-year-old stretched to make contact with the ball in an attempt to score, but in his efforts, collided with the frame of the goal; it later turned out that Elanga had been offside but the sideline official didn’t raise their flag until after Awoniyi had struck the post. Awoniyi received lengthy treatment on the pitch afterwards but was deemed OK to continue – Forest made its final permitted substitution after Awoniyi signaled he was fit to remain playing – despite being in clear discomfort. According to Forest’s Tuesday statement, the decision to allow Awoniyi to remain on the pitch after evaluation from medical staff is what sparked a heated discussion on the field between the club’s owner, Evangelos Marinakis, and manager, Nuno Espírito Santo – an incident which had drawn criticism from pundits and social media – after the draw which left the club’s Champions League qualification hopes in the balance. Espírito Santo said after the match that Marinakis was enquiring about the decision from the club’s medical staff to allow Awoniyi to continue rather than anything related to the performance of the team. In Tuesday’s sternly-worded statement, Forest dismissed comments that Marinakis had confronted Espírito Santo as “fake news.” “The truth of the matter is there was no confrontation, with Nuno or with others, either on the pitch or inside the stadium,” Forest said. “There was only shared frustration between all of us that the medical team should never have allowed the player to continue. “We urge former coaches and players, and other public figures in the game, to resist the urge to rush to judgement and fake news online, especially when they do not have the full facts and context.” Forest called the reaction to Marinakis and Espírito Santo’s on-field discussion “baseless and ill-informed outrage for the purposes of personal social media traction.” Since joining Forest from Union Berlin in Germany in 2022, Awoniyi has scored 17 goals in 73 Premier League appearances for the club.

The United Nations mission in Libya called for de-escalation Monday after fighting erupted in the North African nation’s capital. The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) is “alarmed by the unfolding security situation in Tripoli with intense fighting with heavy weaponry in densely populated civilian areas,” it said in a post on X late Monday. “The Mission calls on all parties to immediately cease fighting and restore calm, and reminds all parties of their obligations to protect civilians at all times,” UNSMIL added. “Attacks on civilians and civilian objects may amount to war crimes.” Gunfire was heard in Tripoli as reports emerged that a prominent commander, Abdulghani Kikli of the Support Force Apparatus SSA, one of the capital’s most powerful armed groups, was killed, Reuters reported. The Support Force Apparatus SSA is a state-backed security institution affiliated with the Presidential Council, according to its website. Libya has been embroiled in a political conflict since long-time dictator Moammar Gaddafi was overthrown in 2011, leading to the emergence of several armed groups. While a 2020 ceasefire brought some peace, the country remains fragile and divided, with the internationally recognized Government of National Unity (GNU) ruling in Tripoli and the northwest and the Government of National Stability ruling in Benghazi in the east. Armed clashes have occasionally been reported, with major factions vying for control over Libya’s substantial oil and gas reserves. Amid reports of violence, the GNU’s health ministry told local hospitals and medical centers in Tripoli to prepare for emergencies, according to a post on its Facebook account. The GNU’s interior ministry called on citizens in a short statement to stay at home “for their own safety,” according to Reuters. The University of Tripoli Presidency also announced on Facebook the suspension of all studies, exams, and administrative work until further notice. The latest instability comes as the Trump administration mulls plans to deport migrants to Libya from the United States. CNN first reported the administration was communicating with Libya to have the country take migrants from the US. The administration appeared to be moving forward with those plans as recently as Wednesday, when migrants believed to be bound for Libya sat for hours on a bus before abruptly being returned to a detention facility. The White House declined to comment on those flight plans.

A flight carrying a group of 59 White South Africans granted refugee status by the Trump administration arrived in the United States on Monday. They were the first people to be granted refugee status by the Trump administration and are not expected to be the last Afrikaners to come to the US. The South Africans, including children, were greeted upon their arrival at Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia by US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and Department of Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar. The Trump administration has moved to not only admit but to expedite the processing of Afrikaners as refugees for alleged discrimination. At the same time, it has suspended all other refugee resettlement, including for people fleeing war and famine. The policy of exempting only White South Africans from the indefinite pause has drawn criticism from the South African government and from refugee advocates. Landau told the new arrivals that the US was “excited” to have them, adding, “We respect what you had to deal with these last few years.” He noted that many of them are farmers and likened them to “quality seeds” that would hopefully “bloom” in the US. “We underscored for them that the American people are a welcoming and generous people, and we underscored the importance of assimilation into the United States, which is one of the very important factors that we look to in refugee admissions,” Landau told reporters after greeting the group. Landau claimed the Afrikaners had been “subject to very serious, egregious and targeted threats” and accused the South African government of failing to act. “The South African government has not done what we feel is appropriate to guarantee the rights of these citizens to live in peace with their fellow South Africans, which is why, under our domestic law, they were given refugee status,” Landau said. Earlier on Monday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that those going to the US “do not fit the definition of a refugee.” Ramaphosa said he told Donald Trump that what the US president had been told about the persecution of the White minority group was not true. “Those people who have fled are not being persecuted, they are not being hounded, they are not being treated badly,” he said at a panel at the Africa CEO Forum in Cote d’Ivoire moderated by CNN’s Larry Madowo. “They are leaving ostensibly because they don’t want to embrace the changes that are taking place in our country in accordance with our constitution,” Ramaphosa said. Asked about Ramaphosa’s comments, Landau said, “It is not surprising, unfortunately, that a country from which refugees come does not concede that they are refugees.” Jeremy Konyndyk, the president of Refugees International, called the policy “a racialized immigration program masquerading as refugee resettlement, while real refugees remain stranded.” “The main problem is denying protection to any other refugees from anywhere else in the world,” he said. “There are millions of refugees around the world - people who have had to flee their home countries due to war or persecution – who have far more need for protection than anyone in this group – none of whom, to my knowledge, had been forced to flee from South Africa.” In remarks on Friday, senior White House official Stephen Miller said the arrivals this week are “the beginning of what’s going to be a much larger-scale relocation effort.” Since Trump began his second term, the US has taken a series of punitive measures against South Africa, whose government has been met with ire not only from Trump, but also from his ally Elon Musk, who was born and raised in the country. Both Trump and Musk, the tech billionaire, have alleged that White farmers in the country are being discriminated against under land reform policies that South Africa’s government says are necessary to remedy the legacy of apartheid. In January, South Africa enacted the Expropriation Act, seeking to undo the legacy of apartheid, which created huge disparities in land ownership among its majority Black and minority White population. Under apartheid, non-White South Africans were forcibly dispossessed from their lands for the benefit of Whites. Today, some three decades after racial segregation officially ended in the country, Black South Africans, who comprise over 80% of the population of 63 million, own around 4% of private land. The expropriation law empowers South Africa’s government to take land and redistribute it – with no obligation to pay compensation in some instances – if the seizure is found to be “just and equitable and in the public interest.” In February, Trump suspended aid to South Africa, alleging discrimination against White farmers. In that same executive order, the president said the US would “promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation.” Earlier this month, Trump said in a post on social media that “any Farmer (with family!) from South Africa, seeking to flee that country for reasons of safety, will be invited into the United States of America with a rapid pathway to Citizenship.”

The curator Koyo Kouoh, a giant of the contemporary art world who tirelessly championed African artists and became the first woman from the continent to curate the Venice Biennale, died on Saturday, age 57. Her death, in a hospital in Basel, Switzerland, was announced in a statement by the Biennale. While the official cause was not disclosed, her husband, Philippe Mall, said she had died of cancer following a recent diagnosis, according to The New York Times. Kouoh had been appointed in December to curate the next edition of the Biennale, the world’s most prestigious international art exhibition. In its statement, the organization said: “Koyo Kouoh worked with passion, intellectual rigour and vision on the conception and development of the Biennale Arte 2026. The presentation of the exhibition’s title and theme was due to take place in Venice on May 20.” It added: “Her passing leaves an immense void in the world of contemporary art and in the international community of artists, curators and scholars who had the privilege of knowing and admiring her extraordinary human and intellectual commitment.” Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, said in a statement: “I express my deep condolences for the untimely and sudden death of Koyo Kouoh.” Asked how her death might affect the next Biennale, a spokesperson told The Art Newspaper: “We’ll know on May 20.” The spokesperson clarified that the conference was still scheduled to take place on that date. The Biennale is scheduled to run from May 9 to November 22, 2026. The organization had cast Kouoh’s appointment as reinforcing its cutting-edge reputation. In December, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, the Biennale’s president, praised her “refined, young, and disruptive intelligence” in a press statement. In the same announcement, Kouoh called her appointment a “once-in-a-lifetime honor and privilege,” describing the Biennale as “the center of gravity for art for over a century.” She expressed hope that her exhibition would “carry meaning for the world we currently live in — and most importantly, for the world we want to make.” ‘Rewriting’ the rules Kouoh was born in Douala, Cameroon, in 1967, and moved to Switzerland at 13. After studying administration and banking, she worked as a social worker assisting migrant women before immersing herself in the art world and returning to Africa in 1996. In Dakar, Senegal, she founded RAW Material Company, an independent art center. In 2016, she joined the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town, serving as curator and executive director. There, she became a leading advocate for Black artists from Africa and beyond, curating, among other projects, a major retrospective of the South African artist Tracey Rose in 2022. Beyond Africa, she won acclaim for exhibitions such as “Body Talk: Feminism, Sexuality and the Body in the Works of Six African Women Artists,” which opened at WIELS Contemporary Art Centre in Brussels in 2015, and “Still (the) Barbarians” at the 2016 Ireland Biennial in Limerick, which explored Ireland’s postcolonial condition in the context of the 1916 Easter Rising centenary. “Kouoh did not leave a title for the Biennale, but she did leave a grammar: the urgency to rewrite the rules of the curatorial game,” wrote Artuu, an Italian art magazine, in its obituary. “Koyo Kouoh’s theoretical legacy… does not propose new aesthetic models to frame, but undermines the very foundations of cultural hierarchy. It does not offer easy solutions, but asks uncomfortable questions: Who decides what is ‘art’? Who has the right to tell? What is left to say when language itself has been historically colonized?”

For an instantly recognizable contest that has settled untold scores it is, ironically, hard to get a firm grip on the origins of arm wrestling. As host of the World Armwrestling Federation’s (WAF) inaugural World Championship in 1979, the Canadian city of Wetaskiwin could claim to be the birthplace of the formal, global sport, yet descriptions of rivals locked in battles of the biceps stretch back much further. Versions of arm wrestling had already taken root across Japan, Spain and Cuba before the turn of the 20th century, according to anthropologists of the time. Some have even claimed it is depicted in the hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt, though these assertions have been contested. Whatever its place in arm wrestling’s origin story, Africa is not looking back. Last March saw the sport make its first appearance at the 13th African Games in Accra, Ghana, a debut orchestrated by Armwrestling Federation of Africa (AFA) President Charles Osei Asibey. It was the latest step towards Asibey delivering on the promises of his 2022 election manifesto: to make arm wrestling a “household” sport on the continent. “Formerly in Africa, it was only a way to determine the strongest in the community, or even in schools,” Asibey told CNN. “So people didn’t even consider arm wrestling as a sport. It was just a normal game … We have turned it into a sport.” A sport of styles The technical term for an arm wrestler is a “puller” and it is technique, not raw power, that makes a champion, stresses Asibey, with training programs focused on developing all aspects of the body. “A lightweight who is smarter, has speed, [and] can swing very well will beat a heavier weight,” explained Asibey, who competed until last year. Such a matchup would not happen at the competitive level, with pullers classed into sex and weight categories, akin to boxing and mixed martial arts. And just as boxing has varying orthodox and southpaw stances, arm wrestling has its own battling styles that play to a puller’s personal strengths. The toproll style, for example, sees pullers turn their wrist inwards (pronation), and often lean back, to increase leverage, while the hook technique involves the outward rotation of the wrist (supination) to create a hook shape with the arm and pull the opponent in. Taller pullers with long arm spans make natural toprollers, while the hook style can be hugely effective for those with a background in powerlifting, bench-pressing or similar disciplines that prioritize tricep strength. During contests, the pullers’ faces are a visceral picture of steely concentration, sinew-straining effort, and fierce competition, but it is the mutual respect that defines the sport for Asibey. “Even in defeat, you congratulate your opponent,” he said. “You get to the table, you shake hands … you go off the table, you shake hands and hug each other.” Golden arms Arm wrestling’s debut at last year’s African Games was a homecoming in all senses of the word for Asibey, with the Accra-born former broadcast journalist having founded the Ghana Armwrestling Federation in 2016. The hosts amassed 41 of the 84 total arm wrestling medals. That put them comfortably clear of Egypt’s 19-medal haul, but the North African nation gathered six more arm wrestling golds than Ghana to finish top of the medal table. Two pullers in particular embodied the team’s “Golden Arms” moniker, accounting for half of Ghana’s eight gold medals between them. Men’s captain Edward Asamoah powered to victory in the 90kg weight class for both left and right arms. A member of the Ghana Immigration Service, in 2017 Asamoah decided to try his luck at a national competition and set in motion a rollercoaster adventure. “The journey hasn’t been very smooth, with injuries and financing, but it was worth it,” he told CNN. “Determination and hard work got me those medals.” It has been a similar breakneck rise for Grace Minta, a police officer who followed up her two golds in Accra by becoming the first Ghanaian to win a World Armwrestling Championships gold, in Moldova five months later. Having dominated continental events, becoming World Champion marked a new high for three-time African Championships gold medalist Minta, who took up the sport in 2017 after excelling in javelin and shotput at school. “I’m so, so proud to be a Ghana arm wrestler,” Minta told CNN. “I want to train the young ones who are coming, to organize them to also become somebody in the future.” Olympic dreams The challenge for Africa now is to replicate Minta’s success more regularly — no easy feat given the established giants of the sport. Kazakhstan dominated last year’s world championships, scooping 52 golds as part of a 159-medal surge. Turkey and Georgia finished second and third in the medal leaderboard. Egypt led the African contingent in 36th, two places ahead of Ghana, a fair reflection of their status as the “top notch” arm wrestling outfit on the continent, according to Asibey. He says that while Africa, which currently has nine nations signed up as members to the WAF, is well on its way, securing more funding will help close the gap to nations like Kazakstan which — partly thanks to the popularity of the sport in schools — sends more than 100 competitors to World Championship events. “That’s why they always dominate, because in those countries they have taken the sport very seriously,” Asibey said. “The Africa Games brought a lot of good things. Governments and institutions have recognized us … (But) We don’t have sponsorship yet. We struggle to raise money.” “We are confident that where we are going, very soon, multinational or corporate institutions will come to invest in our sport,” he added. Such backing would help Asibey to secure arm wrestling’s African Games return in Cairo for 2027. But while that is his short-term focus, he has even bigger aspirations. Though the WAF was unsuccessful in its bid to see para-armwrestling included in the 2028 Paralympic Games in Los Angeles, Asibey — who doubles as one of five WAF vice-presidents — believes it is just a matter of time before it makes the cut. That will be one step closer to his ultimate goal of seeing pullers battle it out on the Olympic stage. By ensuring arm wrestling is a regular fixture at his own continental games, he believes he is doing his part to make that dream a reality in the near future. “We are working so hard to be in the Olympics,” Asibey said. “Very soon we will get there … (Then) I’ll have a good sleep.”

Explosions and fires rocked Sudan’s main port city and wartime capital Port Sudan on Tuesday, a witness said, part of a days-long drone assault that has torched the country’s biggest fuel depot, damaging the most important gateway for foreign aid. A massive column of black smoke billowed from the area around the port, a Reuters video showed, and the witness said blasts had been heard from other areas though it was not clear exactly where else had been hit. Sudan’s electricity company said a substation in the city was also hit, causing a complete power outage, part of a systematic assault on infrastructure. Port Sudan had enjoyed relative calm since the civil war suddenly erupted in April 2023, becoming the base for the army-aligned government after the Sudanese armed forces lost control of much of the capital Khartoum at the start of the conflict to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Hundreds of thousands of displaced people have also sought refuge in the city, where United Nations officials, diplomats and agencies have also set up headquarters, making it the main base for aid operations in what the UN has called the world’s biggest humanitarian disaster. Port Sudan’s import and storage depots supply fuel across the country and the destruction of its facilities risks a major crisis, throttling aid deliveries by road and hitting electricity production and cooking gas supplies. The attacks, which began on Sunday, open a new front in the conflict, targeting the army’s main stronghold in eastern Sudan after it drove the RSF back westwards across much of central Sudan, including Khartoum, in March. Military sources have blamed the paramilitary RSF for the attacks on Port Sudan since Sunday, though the group has not yet claimed any responsibility for the strikes. On Sunday drones struck a military base in the area near Sudan’s only functioning international airport, and on Monday they targeted the city’s fuel depots. One of the targets was a major hotel near the residence of Sudan’s military leader, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, witnesses said. The attacks came after a military source said the army had destroyed an aircraft and weapons depots in the RSF-controlled Nyala airport in Darfur, the main stronghold of the paramilitary group. The attacks have drawn condemnation from neighboring Egypt and Saudi Arabia, as well as expressions of concern from the UN. Sudan’s army-aligned government has accused the United Arab Emirates of backing the RSF, accusations that UN experts have found credible. The UAE has denied backing the RSF and the International Court of Justice on Monday said it could not rule in a case in which the government accused the UAE of fueling genocide. The war, triggered by a dispute over a transition to civilian rule, has displaced over 12 million people and pushed half the population into acute hunger, according to the UN. With the army’s success in pushing the RSF out of most of central Sudan, the paramilitary has shifted tactics from ground incursions to drone attacks targeting power stations and other facilities deep in army-controlled territory. The army has continued air strikes in the Darfur region, the RSF’s stronghold. The two forces continue to fight ground battles for control of al-Fashir, the capital of North Darfur state, and elsewhere as the battle lines in the war harden into distinct zones of control.

Catholic Africans think it would be a long shot, but some are cautiously optimistic that Pope Francis’ successor could be a Black cardinal from their continent. If the next pope is from sub-Saharan Africa, he would be the first in Catholic Church history. Catholic Africans think it is a long shot, though some are cautiously optimistic that Pope Francis’ successor could be a Black cardinal from their continent. The answer will come soon, as the cardinals eligible to elect the new pope open their conclave next Wednesday at the Sistine Chapel. Who are the Africans considered ‘papabile’? At least three African cardinals are among those currently cited as “papabile,” the term used by Vatican observers to describe possible contenders to lead the Catholic Church. They are Cardinals Robert Sarah of Guinea, Peter Turkson of Ghana and Fridolin Ambongo of Congo. If any of them is selected, he would be the first African pope in more than 1,500 years and the first ever from sub-Saharan Africa. That historical record makes many in Africa eager for change — but not overly hopeful. Before the 2005 conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI, there was much media attention around Francis Arinze, a highly respected cardinal born in Nigeria, raising questions even then about whether the world was ready for a Black pope from Africa. A continent where Catholicism is growing Two decades later, Catholicism continues to decline in Europe while it grows in the developing world. The number of Catholics is growing faster in Africa than anywhere else. At least 20% of global Catholic community is in Africa, which “is characterized by a highly dynamic spread of the Catholic Church,” according to a recent Vatican report. Some say having a pope from Africa, or Asia — which is also seeing strong Catholic growth — would signal a powerful message of inclusion. But as Francis’ papacy showed, inclusive efforts can alienate many others and even breed dissent. The three possible papal candidates from Africa — Sarah, Ambongo, and Turkson — are seen as holding orthodox views on some of the hot-button issues that the Catholic Church is grappling with, reflecting wider social conservatism on the continent of 1.3 billion people. Catholic orthodoxy in Africa was at odds with Pope Francis’ pastoral vision of mercy and understanding for all marginalized groups, including LGBTQ+ Catholics. The real-life situation was reflected in the fictional Oscar-nominated film “Conclave,” in which one of the four contenders vying for the papacy was a socially conservative cardinal from Nigeria. What stances have the African contenders taken? Congo has the highest number of baptized Catholics in Africa. Ambongo — the archbishop of Congolese capital, Kinshasa, since 2018 — last year signed a statement by the conference of African bishops rejecting a Vatican declaration to allow priests to offer spontaneous, non-liturgical blessings to same-sex couples seeking God’s grace. That statement, seen as a rebuke of Francis, asserted that same-sex unions were “contrary to the will of God.” It cited biblical teaching condemning homosexuality and asserted that same-sex relations are “contradictory to cultural norms” in Africa. But it is Sarah, the Guinean cardinal who is the Vatican’s former liturgy chief, who posed a more public challenge to Francis. A favorite of traditionalists, Sarah prefers silent prayer and is an adherent of the old Latin Mass. He is a staunch defender of longstanding doctrinal faith. After Francis in 2021 reimposed restrictions on celebrating the Latin Mass that Benedict had relaxed, Sarah responded with tweets quoting Benedict’s original 2007 law to relax the restrictions. His posts were accompanied by a photo of Benedict wearing the red cape that Francis had eschewed the night of his election. A year earlier, Sarah had orchestrated a media firestorm by persuading Benedict to co-author a book reaffirming priestly celibacy at a time when Francis was considering ordaining married men to address a clergy shortage in the Amazon. As the scandal grew, Benedict removed himself as a co-author. Sarah, 79, officially retired in 2021 but remains eligible to attend the conclave. Since the death of Francis on April 21, he has emerged as a favorite of European traditionalists who want to see a reversal of Francis’ progressive policies. For many Africans, Pope Francis was beloved But in Africa, where Francis was widely loved for his engagement with the continent’s crises, many Catholics simply want a pope who will be a faithful leader for everyone. “For us, it does not matter whether he is African, white, or Black. What matters is having a good, holy pope who can unite Catholics across the world,” said Luka Lawrence Ndenge, an emergency officer with the Catholic charity Caritas in the remote town of Wau in South Sudan. The father of two said he believes an African can rise to the papacy, especially as “we already have African cardinals who are fully capable.” Bishop Tesfaselassie Medhin, primate of Adigrat in the Ethiopian region of Tigray, said he hopes the next pope will be as compassionate as Francis, who repeatedly called attention to war in Tigray in 2021 and 2022. But the prospect of having a Black African pope is exciting, he said. “For me, having a passionate, dedicated and competent African leading the Catholic Church is very important to me as an African and to see it in my lifetime is my absolute wish,” he said. Emily Mwaka doesn’t like speculating about the next pope, especially on the color of his skin. So when the head of the Catholic laity in Kampala, Uganda, recently came upon a small group of Christians discussing a newspaper article about possible papal contenders — including some from Africa — she asked them to stop it. Even if the next pontiff is “green,” she said, he “will be for all of us.”