Syria, DR Congo, Ethiopia.

Today's three stories you should know.

Jan 20, 2022

Syria

A Syrian doctor went on trial in Germany today accused of torturing and killing inmates in several prisons in his homeland. The man, identified only as Alaa M under German privacy laws, came to Germany in 2015 and had been working as a doctor at a clinic near the city of Kassel, where Syrians are reported to have recognized him and alerted police. Alaa M faces charges of crimes against humanity, including 18 counts of torture and one of murder. He is accused of killing one prisoner by lethal injection, and of setting fire to a teenager’s genitals. It is the second such case undertaken by German prosecutors under a “universal jurisdiction” law. Last week, a court in the city of Koblenz convicted a former member of Syria’s secret police on similar charges.

DR Congo

Ten prisoners in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been found guilty of rapes carried out during a three-day riot at a jail in 2020. Thirty-seven women and a teenage girl testified that they had been repeatedly raped at Kasapa Central Prison. Some of the women became pregnant, and others contracted sexually-transmitted diseases including HIV. Human Rights Watch, a New York-based rights group, told the BBC the verdicts were a good start, but more perpetrators still needed to be held to account.

Ethiopia

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said today he was delighted there was now “a demonstrable effort to make peace” in Ethiopia. Guterres issued the statement after a call with African Union envoy Olusegun Obasanjo. He gave no specifics and neither Obasanjo, the Ethiopian government or the country’s Tigray rebels have commented.