Rampaging South Sudanese Troops Attacked Foreigners, Singled Out Americans Last Month

Soldiers perpetrated gang rapes and and multiple counts of sexual violence against aid workers trapped in a hotel compound when fighting erupted in Juba last month. “On July 11, South Sudanese troops, fresh from winning a battle in the capital, Juba, over opposition forces, went on a nearly four-hour rampage through a residential compound popular with foreigners, in one of the worst targeted attacks on aid workers in South Sudan’s three-year civil war. They shot dead a local journalist while forcing the foreigners to watch, raped several foreign women, singled out Americans, beat and robbed people and carried out mock executions, several witnesses told The Associated Press. For hours throughout the assault, the U.N. peacekeeping force stationed less than a mile away refused to respond to desperate calls for help. Neither did embassies, including the U.S. Embassy.” (AP http://apne.ws/2aYLJPG)

MSF Hospital Hit in Yemen. Again…”At least 15 people were killed on Monday in northern Yemen when warplanes bombed a hospital supported by Doctors Without Borders, according to hospital and local health ministry officials. The airstrike hit Abs Hospital in Yemen’s northern Hajjah Province, and three Yemeni Doctors Without Borders staff members were among the dead, said the hospital director, Ibrahim Aram, who was reached by telephone. He said that three foreign doctors at the hospital were also wounded, and that three other staff members had limbs amputated. The bombing came two days after airstrikes by Saudi warplanes killed at least 19 people, mostly children, in a residential area and a school in northern Yemen.” (NYT http://nyti.ms/2aYMfwX)

Africa

Civil society groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday said the number of people hacked to death in the restive east this weekend has risen to 51. (AFP http://yhoo.it/2b9expE)

South Sudan will consider a United Nations plan to send in troops and stop the country’s episode of violence, President Salva Kiir said on Monday, confirming a softer stance toward a U.N. vote to send in extra troops. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/2aYkcOu)

The mother of a kidnapped Chibok schoolgirl appealed Monday for Nigeria’s president to free detained Boko Haram militants in exchange for the more than 200 girls held captive, as the Islamic extremists have offered. (AP http://yhoo.it/2bt0qKC)

Nigeria’s army said Monday it wants to question three suspects, including a journalist, for allegedly concealing information on the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls. (AFP http://yhoo.it/2bteB2v)

Nearly a million refugees fleeing the brutal conflict in South Sudan, most of them women and children, are suffering dire conditions in camps across the region, the UN said on Monday. (AFP http://yhoo.it/2bchQud)

Chad’s president has appointed new ministers of defense, finance and oil, in a bid to address persistent insecurity and improve its faltering economy. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/2bt06LZ)

Nigeria’s health ministry is kicking off a polio vaccination campaign in the northeast, after two fresh cases of the virus were discovered there earlier this month. But the ongoing conflict against Boko Haram may slow down response efforts. (VOA http://bit.ly/2bchrIc)

Zimbabwe plans to deploy aerial drones in its biggest wildlife sanctuary in the west to combat poaching of elephants, a parks official said on Monday, as the country aims to protect one of its top tourist attractions. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/2byLgHS)

Six people have been killed in an attack by Renamo rebels in Mozambique, police said Monday, the latest in a string of violent skirmishes between opposition fighters and government forces. (AFP http://yhoo.it/2btfpUS)

MENA

Islamic State claimed a suicide bombing on a bus in Syria near the Atmeh border crossing with Turkey late on Sunday that the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said killed at least 32 people. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/2byH2A8)

Jordan’s King Abdullah II has rejected calls to restore access to a border area where tens of thousands of Syrians are stranded, local media reported on Monday. (AFP http://yhoo.it/2b9eBWk)

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told RIA news agency on Monday he would meet with representatives of the Syrian opposition in the Qatari city of Doha today. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/2aUIOpx)

A prosecutor has slapped a gag order on the case of a Jordanian writer who was arrested after posting a cartoon deemed offensive to Islam. (AP http://yhoo.it/2b9e4DY)

A doctor monitoring the plight of 75,000 Syrians stranded on the sealed border with Jordan says she’s been told infectious diseases are spreading among them. (AP http://yhoo.it/2bif0Iq)

Asia

Floods caused by monsoon rains have killed at least eight people and disrupted the lives of 400,000 across Myanmar, the government said, a year since the worst floods in decades left thousands homeless and inundated vast tracts of farmland. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/2aYhk4a)

At least one paramilitary soldier and four suspected rebels were killed in a series of gunbattles in Indian-controlled Kashmir despite a security lockdown in the disputed region Monday as India celebrated the anniversary of its independence from British rule. Ten government troops were also wounded. (VOA http://bit.ly/2byHYo1)

Australia was on Monday facing growing opposition demands for an inquiry into its treatment of asylum-seekers on remote Pacific islands after further allegations emerged of abuse against refugees. (AFP http://yhoo.it/2aWPQgm)

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Monday his government had built more than 20 million toilets and brought electricity to thousands of villages as he delivered an Independence Day report card. (AFP http://yhoo.it/2bv3cSv)

China will propose a joint initiative to revive weak global growth at next month’s meeting of leaders of Group of 20 major economies amid rising protectionist sentiment in the United States and Europe, officials said Monday. (AP http://yhoo.it/2bv3N6A)

Thai authorities said Monday they are investigating whether bombings last week at several popular tourist destinations were related to long-term separatist violence in the country’s far south, backing away from assertions that partisan politics were behind them. (AP http://yhoo.it/2bchXps)

Three Hong Kong student protest leaders have avoided prison time for leading or encouraging an illegal rally that sparked huge pro-democracy street protests two years ago. (AP http://yhoo.it/2aWPo1D)

The Americas

Armed men abducted multiple people from an upscale restaurant in the popular Mexican beach resort city of Puerto Vallarta, authorities said Monday. (NYT http://nyti.ms/2aYMFDM)

A 5.4-magnitude earthquake has killed at least seven people in southern Peru, local officials say. Emergency workers are on their way to the affected area to search for survivors and provide mobile shelters. (BBC http://bbc.in/2bt1RZm)

Venezuela’s ambassador to the UN, Rafael Ramirez, has denied there is a humanitarian crisis in his country. He said comments made by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to that effect last week were “wrong”. (BBC http://bbc.in/2bif6jk)

Emergency crews in flood-devastated Louisiana have rescued more than 20,000 people after catastrophic inundations that left at least five dead, news reports said Monday. (AFP http://yhoo.it/2bv3N6M)

…and the rest

Over 2,000 migrants were prevented from crossing from Bulgaria and 24 people smugglers were caught in less than a month in an effort to curb the influx of people seeking to reach the European Union through the Balkans, Serbian border guards said Monday. (AP http://yhoo.it/2bi0rER)

Women’s rights groups, lawyers and doctors have condemned Turkey’s decision to introduce a mandatory chemical castration programme for convicted sex offenders, arguing the treatment does not address the underlying reasons for widespread violence against women, and that bodily punishment will instead lead to increased abuse. (Guardian http://bit.ly/2bifv5p)

Turkish police on Monday raided four major courts in Istanbul in search of 190 suspects wanted over last month’s attempted coup, state media said. (AFP http://yhoo.it/2bv37Ow)

Turkey could walk away from its promise to stem the flow of illegal migrants to Europe if the European Union fails to grant Turks visa-free travel to the bloc in October, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a German newspaper. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/2aWPhTD)

Opinion/Blogs

Podcast: Greg Stanton has Spent a Career Fighting Genocide. The Psychological Toll is Heavy (UN Dispatch http://buff.ly/2b6ZXjd)

Is Kenya’s crackdown on NGOs about fair wages, or silencing government critics? (Humanosphere http://buff.ly/2b6YJVf)

Human rights activists are being portrayed as terrorists and foreign puppets  (Guardian http://bit.ly/2b6Al5S)

Going for the gold: Do’s and don’ts in globaldev rankings (Devex http://buff.ly/2b70dP9)

Why I’m Fascinated By Parasitic Worms (Goats and Soda http://buff.ly/2aV5mGR)

If Fighting Hunger Were an Olympic Event  (USAID Impact http://buff.ly/2b6ZRrQ)

It’s time we get realistic about addressing HIV  (PLoS http://buff.ly/2bthxw5)

On the road with Niger’s peacekeepers in Mali (Al Jazeera http://buff.ly/2aUeco8)

Female Presidents in Africa: A rather short history (YNaija http://buff.ly/2b68Nxt)

Building elevators for development mutants (Disrupt & Innovate http://buff.ly/2bihXc1)

The False Economic Promise of Global Governance (Project Syndicate http://buff.ly/2bth4JX)
If The World Were 100 People (GOOD Data http://buff.ly/2bthwYS)