DRC, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka.
Today's three stories you should know.
DRC
At least 15 people, most of them children, have been hacked to death in an attack on a refugee camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A local community leader, Jules Tsuba, said that the death toll was provisional. “It’s shocking to see children chopped up by machetes,” he told the AFP news agency. Eastern DRC has been beset by instability and conflict for two decades, with several armed groups fighting for control of land and resources. This latest attack was blamed on the CODECO group, which has been accused of carrying out a string of ethnically-motivated attacks.
More from Al Jazeera here.
Afghanistan
A shocking statistic that deserves more attention. Almost 10 million children in Afghanistan are unable to access food on a daily basis, according to Save the Children. The aid group also said that 20,000 Afghans have been pushed into full-blown famine in just the last two to three months. As mentioned in previous newsletters, international aid was withheld after the Taliban took control of the country last August. Washington froze about $9 billion worth of Afghan central bank funds, which were held in the US, and the Biden administration in February decided to give $3.5 billion of that money to the families of 9/11 victims. Enraged Afghans and a raft of analysts and charities have said the West is condemning Afghans to starve.
More from Tolo News here.
Sri Lanka
As violent anti-government protests continue in Sri Lanka, the defense ministry today gave troops permission to shoot demonstrators. “Security forces have been ordered to shoot on sight anyone looting public property or causing harm to life,” the ministry said in a statement. Protests have raged for weeks over the country’s worst economic crisis in recent memory. A foreign currency shortage has led to shortages of food, power and life-saving medicine. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned yesterday but protesters are demanding the president step down also.
More from AP here.