OSINTSUM: Monday 15 April 2024

OSINTSUM
Global Situation Update
Monday 15 April 2024

In association with

Africa

Nigeria: Rights group Amnesty International has demanded Nigerian authorities do more to secure the remaining 82 Chibok school girls who have been in captivity since being abducted by Boko Haram in 2014, adding that 17 mass abductions involving 1,700 children have taken place in Nigeria since the Chibok incident.
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Sudan: A freedom of information request has revealed that the UK Foreign Office has been engaged in secret negotiations with the Rapid Support Forces almost a year after the paramilitary group entered into a civil war with the Sudanese military which has seen over 8 million people displaced.
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Sudan: Diplomats from France, Germany, and the European Union are due to push for more funding for Sudan at a meeting in Paris to mark the first anniversary of the country’s civil war, with the US also planning to announce additional aid.
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Uganda: Refugee agencies are warning that the fallout from the Sudanese civil war is causing a strain on the resettlement infrastructure of Uganda - which already hosts one of the largest refugee populations in the world - with over 15,000 Sudanese refugees fleeing there since the start of the year.
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Asia

Armenia/Azerbaijan: Lawyers from both countries are to set out their arguments at a hearing at the International Court of Justice from today, with each side accusing the other of ethnic cleansing and violating the International Convention on the Eliminating of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in relation to the countries' conflict over the disputed Nagorno Karabakh region.
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Hong Kong: China’s top official on Hong Kong affairs has said the city must “tightly hold” onto the bottom line of national security to safeguard its progress in a speech delivered weeks after sweeping new security laws were implemented.
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India: Opponents of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party have criticised increasing repression of political opposition figures in the run-up to the country’s national elections and an apparent reversal of India’s decades-long commitment to multiparty democracy and secularism.
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Myanmar: A spokesperson for the rebel group Karen National Union (KNU) said they have repelled an attempt by junta forces to retake the key town of Myawaddy along the Thai border after the KNU seized it from them last week.
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Europe

Cyprus: Cyprus has suspended the processing of asylum applications from Syrians after a significant rise in arrivals this month, with over 1,000 people arriving on boats from Lebanon since the start of April amid deepening tensions in the Middle East.
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Germany: The Interior Ministry has banned former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis from entering the country and banned the Palestine Congress event in Berlin he was due to speak at in response to a speech he posted on social media relating to the Gaza conflict.
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UK: A controversial law which will pave the way for asylum seekers to be deported to Rwanda is set to receive parliamentary approval this week, but is likely to face further legal challenges before coming into force.
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Middle East

India: External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has spoken with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir Abdollahian to demand the releaser of 17 Indian crew members that were aboard a container ship seized by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps near the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday.
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Iran: The Foreign Ministry has summoned the ambassadors of Britain, France, and Germany, to address what it describes as their “irresponsible stance” towards Tehran’s drone and missile barrage on Israel after all three countries condemned it.
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Iran: Iran’s ambassador to the UN Amir Saeid Iravani has told Sky News that Israel “would know what our second retaliation would be (if they responded to Iran’s drone and missile barrage with force)… they understand the next one will be most decisive”.
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Russia/Ukraine

Russia/China: Chinese firms have been disguising new copper wire rods as scrap by shredding them in China’s Xinjiang province in an effort to avoid taxes and Western sanctions after purchasing them from Russia’s Russian Copper Company.
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Ukraine: Ukraine has used British Storm Shadow cruise missiles to strike a Russian military headquarters in the occupied city of Luhansk in the east of the country.
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Ukraine: Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi said he believes Russia’s next main objective is to capture the town of Chasiv Yar - located on defensible high ground - by 9 May - the date Russia marks as the Soviet victory in World War Two.
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US/Canada

US: The trial of former-President Donald Trump over the falsification of business records in connection with alleged hush-money payments to adult models Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal is due to start today.
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