Escalating violence in South Sudan, detention of Venezuelan opposition leader, Jimmy Lai sentencing and more.

HRF is deeply alarmed by attacks on health facilities and aid convoys and the chilling threat of mass atrocities in South Sudan’s Jonglei State amid fighting between government and opposition forces.

On Jan. 27, as the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF) launched a major military offensive against the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLIM-IO) and the White Army militia in Jonglei state, senior SSPDF commander Gen. Johnson Olony Thubowas was filmed urging troops to “spare no one, not the elderly, not even chickens, and leave no house standing” — a chilling signal in a country with a long record of mass atrocities. Clashes began in December 2025, when rebel forces linked to opposition leader Riek Machar, who has been under house arrest since March 2025 and is facing a politically-motivated treason trial, seized government outposts in Jonglei.

The clashes stem from the collapse of the implementation of the terms of a 2018 peace deal that ended a bloody civil war following South Sudan’s 2011 independence. A power struggle between South Sudan’s dictator Salva Kiir and Machar, his deputy-turned-rival, have driven recurring violent conflicts. Since 2023, Kiir and Machar have repeatedly delayed elections, blocked security sector reform, and failed to unify the armed forces.

The escalating fighting has killed more than 200 civilians and forcibly displaced 280,000, while aid convoys have faced attacks and restrictions on humanitarian access. At least 11 health facilities have been targeted in the fighting. Before the renewed conflict, South Sudan was already one of the world’s gravest man-made crises. Over two-thirds of the population — more than 9 million people — now need humanitarian assistance.

As the Republic of Congo heads towards a presidential election on March 15, HRF condemns the announcement by dictator Denis Sassou-Nguesso — who has spent a total of four decades in power — that he will seek a fifth consecutive term.

Sassou-Nguesso announced his candidacy for reelection on Feb. 5 at a rally staged by the ruling Congolese Labour Party during a presidential visit to an agricultural fair in the southern district of Ignié.

With Sassou-Nguesso’s most serious political opponents, Jean‑Marie Michel Mokoko and André Okombi Salissa, serving heavy prison sentences on politically-motivated charges, the dictator is expected to turn the March 15 presidential polls into a coronation. Civil society has denounced an environment of repression and fear in the lead-up to the vote.

Sassou-Nguesso first seized power in 1979 as the military ruler of a one-party state until his defeat in the country’s first multiparty polls in 1992. He forced his way back into power through a bloody civil war in 1997. Since then, he has maintained power through rigged elections, constitutional manipulation, corruption, and repression.