Belgium leads calls for suspension of agreement after Rwanda-backed rebels captured city of Goma
The EU is under mounting pressure to suspend a controversial minerals deal with Rwanda that has been blamed for fuelling the conflict in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Calls to freeze the agreement have grown after fighters from the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group captured the city of Goma in the eastern DRC, escalating a decades-old conflict and raising fears of a regional war.
I saw them killed by sniper fire and drones. Why doesn’t Labour condemn it? Why do arms keep flowing in Israel’s direction?
I had never imagined, when working as a professor of transplant surgery at a large teaching hospital in London, that one day I would find myself operating on an eight-year-old child who was bleeding to death, only to be told by the scrub nurse that there were no more gauze swabs available. But I found myself in that situation last August while operating at Nasser hospital in Gaza as a volunteer with Medical Aid for Palestinians (Map). Reduced to scooping out the blood with my hands, I felt an overwhelming wave of nausea – I was anxious that the child would not survive. Luckily she did, although many others did not.
Having retired from the NHS, I decided to go to Gaza because it had become clear that there was a desperate need for surgical help, and I had the skills to contribute. Life as a transplant surgeon in London had been tough but hugely rewarding, and as a senior member of the transplant community I had enjoyed a certain status. This was going to be a different experience – but nothing prepared me for what I found when I arrived.
Nizam Mamode is a humanitarian surgeon and retired professor of transplant surgery. He was a volunteer surgeon in an emergency medical team in Gaza, which was organised by Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) in August/September 2024
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Interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa arrives in Riyadh on trip that appears to signal shift away from Iran alliance
Syria’s interim president has made his first trip abroad, travelling to Saudi Arabia in a move that is likely to be an attempt to signal Damascus’s shift away from Iran as its main regional ally.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, who was once aligned with al-Qaida, landed in Riyadh alongside his government’s foreign minister, Asaad al-Shaibani. The two men travelled on a Saudi jet, with a Saudi flag visible on the table behind them.
Global collaboration with US researchers likely to be set back by years, including on spread of drug-resistant HIV
A flagship programme to create malaria vaccines has been halted by the Trump administration, in just one example of a rippling disruption to health research around the globe since the new US president took power.
The USAid Malaria Vaccine Development Program (MVDP) – which works to prevent child deaths by creating more effective second-generation vaccines – funds research by teams collaborating across institutes, including the US university Johns Hopkins and the UK’s University of Oxford.
Border has been closed since May 2024 for even the most urgent medical cases and evacuations are significant first step
The Rafah terminal that marks the crossing between southern Gaza and Egypt straddles a complicated border. On the Egyptian side, a double arch marks the entry to the terminal buildings themselves, and beyond, Gaza.
Television cameras on the Egyptian side caught the moment on Saturday that the crossing, which has been closed since May, was reopened for medical evacuations showing one young girl, whose foot had been amputated, being loaded into an Egyptian ambulance.
Rebels had captured the city in January in major escalation of 10-year-old conflict
At least 773 people were killed in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo’s largest city of Goma and its vicinity this week amid fighting with Rwanda-backed rebels who captured the city in a major escalation of a decade-long conflict, Congolese authorities have said.
The rebels’ advance into other areas was slowed by a weakened military that recovered some villages from them.
The US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, indicated multiple jihadists were killed and no civilians were harmed
The US military has conducted airstrikes against Islamic State (IS) operatives in Somalia, the first attacks in the country during Donald Trump’s second term as president.
The strikes were carried out against IS-Somalia in the Golis Mountains, in Somalia’s semi-autonomous northern Puntland region. In 2015, IS-Somalia splintered from al-Shabaab, a much larger and more widely known jihadist organisation affiliated with al-Qaida, which controls parts of southern Somalia.
Critics accuse prime minister of pandering to Tripoli over migration after Osama Najim was freed despite an ICC warrant for alleged war crimes
After stepping off an aircraft belonging to the Italian secret services, Osama Najim was triumphantly carried on the shoulders of the crowd of supporters awaiting his arrival at Tripoli’s Mitiga airport.
Najim, also called Almasri, was not a footballer bringing home a trophy but a police chief wanted by the international criminal court (ICC) for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, including alleged murder, torture, enslavement, rape and sexual violence.
Thirty-seven minors leave for treatment as three Israeli hostages return home and 183 Palestinians are released
Thirty-seven sick and injured children left Gaza for treatment on Saturday through the newly reopened Rafah crossing, as three male Israeli hostages returned home and 183 Palestinian detainees and prisoners were released, mostly to Gaza and the West Bank.
The Rafah border crossing into Egypt closed when Israeli forces moved into the surrounding area nine months ago. It was unsealed under the Gaza ceasefire deal after all Israeli women held alive in the strip were released.
Exploring themes of identity, heritage and individuality, the Ghanaian photographer used surreal colours to add a dreamlike quality
Reginald Kofi Boateng had spent his morning scouting the perfect location and gathering props. “The day was steeped with intention,” says Boateng, who comes from Koforidua, in eastern Ghana and now lives in Dansoman, in the capital, Accra.
“Dansoman is a sprawling estate and a place of contrasts,” he says. “Stories are waiting to be uncovered in its bustling streets and quiet corners. This setting became the perfect backdrop to explore themes of identity, heritage and individuality.”
As the dumping of textile waste continues in African countries, designers are making a feature of reusing and recycling – from flea markets, landfill or upcyled curtains
From recycled wide-leg denims to Afrofuturistic designs made from secondhand curtains, the catwalk at Nairobi fashion week has featured a wave of new designers focussed on sustainable fashion in Africa.
The annual event, which began in 2013 to promote Africa’s then nascent fashion industry, has grown to become a showcase for sustainability in recent years amid concerning reports on the environmental impacts of textile waste on the continent.
Incident reveals Russia’s maritime presence in the area is in a state of disrepair and disarray, argue western sources
A fire onboard a Russian spy ship off the coast of Syria has underlined the poor state of the Russian navy as its toehold in the Mediterranean hangs in the balance, analysts and western security services say.
The 55-year-old Kildin got into trouble off the Syrian coast last Thursday, when flames and thick black smoke could be seen billowing from its funnel and it hoisted two black balls up its mast, signifying that the crew no longer had control of the vessel.
Palestinians return to Gaza, Americans survey the aftermath of the Palisades fire and Hindus gather at the Shahi Snan in India: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists
• Warning: this gallery contains images that some readers may find distressing
The Guardian’s reporter in the territory describes the journey back to see what might remain of their prewar lives
When the ceasefire came, there was a moment of relief that we had escaped death, although we still carry the sadness and pain of everything lost in those 15 months.
Palestinians know that there are still more battles ahead, they have to keep fighting, in a war of daily suffering – the fight for water, for a loaf of bread – and a war against memories, that bring pain to the heart and madness to the mind.
Five of the last six Thai nationals have been released by Hamas. For one nine-year-old, the agonising wait continues for the return of his father
Narissara Jantasang’s nine-year-old son was brimming with excitement as he watched footage of Thai hostages being released from Gaza on Thursday. Then he noticed his mother had started to cry. “He asked me: ‘what’s going on, Mom?’” Narissara says. “He realised his dad was not one of those released.”
Five of the remaining six Thai nationals still being held in Gaza were released on Thursday, after 15 months in captivity. Nattapong Pinta, 36, however, was not among them. Of dozens of Thais kidnapped by Hamas from the farms on which they were working in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, he is the last to remain.
A new Syria is emerging from the shadow of the brutal Assad regime. The Guardian’s Bethan McKernan and Ayman Abu Ramouz meet people celebrating their hard-won freedom, but also those grappling with a traumatic past. The pair travel to the notorious Sednaya prison, where they meet a former prisoner who was liberated by his family just days before
A Guardian investigation has found that Israel used a US munition to target and kill three journalists and wound three more in an attack in south Lebanon on 25 October that legal experts have called a potential war crime. The Guardian's reporter William Christou explains what he uncovered when he visited the site of the strike
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