Kenyan President William Ruto has backtracked on a contentious tax-hiking finance bill, after street protests on June 25 left at least 13 people dead and 150 injured as police opened fire with live ammunition. The youth-led protests were triggered by a range of proposed new taxes that critics say will increase the financial burden on families already struggling with rising prices.

There is "credible" evidence that Ethiopian forces committed genocide during the two-year war in northern Tigray region, a new report has concluded. Ethiopia's National Defense Force and its allies—the paramilitary Amhara Special Forces and the Eritrean Defense Forces—are accused of committing "at least four acts" constituting genocide against Tigrayans, including: killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about their destruction, and imposing measures intended to prevent childbirth. The report by the New Lines Institute, a US-based foreign policy think-tank, called for Ethiopia to be referred to the UN's top court, the International Court of Justice.

A mass exodus of civilians from El Fasher, capital of Sudan's North Darfur state, is underway as the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) battle for control of the city. The month-long RSF siege of El Fasher has resulted in hundreds of casualties and triggered the massive wave of displacement, with an estimated 28,000 people fleeing their homes between May 24 and June 3. Those fleeing have recounted harrowing experiences of escalating violence and dire living conditions.

The local Resistance Committees in Madani, capital of Sudan's al-Jazira (Gezira) state, reported June 5 that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) carried out a massacre at the nearby village of Wad al-Noora, killing nearly 100 people. The Resistance Committees released a video showing the burial of dozens of bodies in a public square amid a large gathering of village residents. Other videos circulating online show RSF fighters firing with automatic rifles and from "technicals," pick-up trucks mounted with machine-guns. The RSF acknowledged operations in the area, but said it only targeted army positions on the village outskirts. Since taking control of Madani late last year, the RSF has been raiding villages in al-Jazira, with widespread atrocities reported, including killings of unarmed residents, abductions, forced displacements, and looting of properties, including crops and homes. (Sudan Tribune, Al Jazeera)

The attempted coup d'etat in the Democratic Republic of the Congo may or may not have been assisted by the CIA, but one of the Americans arrested in the affair is named as a "cannabis entrepreneur"—pointing to the possibility of legal cannabis playing the same destructive role in Central Africa that bananas have played in Central America. Yet while corporate power sees a lucrative new cash crop, lives (and especially Black lives) are still being ruined by cannabis prohibition in the United States. In Episode 228 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg argues that the old anarchist slogan "Neither your war nor your peace" can be updated as "Neither your prohibition nor your legalization!"

The new prime minister of Senegal, Ousmane Sonko, announced the possibility of closing French military bases in the West African country in a national address May 16. During his speech at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Sonko expressed his concerns about the French role throughout the West African region. He stated: "More than 60 years after our independence…we must question the reasons why the French army…still benefits from several military bases in our country, and the impact of this presence on our national sovereignty and our strategic autonomy."

The US has agreed to withdraw its troops from Niger, the two countries announced in a joint statement on May 19. "The US Department of Defense and the Ministry of National Defense of Niger have reached a disengagement agreement to effect the withdrawal of US forces, which has already begun,” the statement said, adding that the disengagement will end no later than Sept. 15. The statement comes after representatives from the two countries met in the capital Niamey as part of a Joint Disengagement Commission. Both delegations guaranteed the protection and security of the US forces during their disengagement.

In Episode 226 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg discusses the alarmingly under-reported humanitarian disaster in Darfur. A generation later, the genocide is back on—but this time there is no global campaign to stop it. Even last time around, elements of the campist pseudo-left portrayed the "Save Darfur" movement as a Zionist conspiracy, because atrocities by an Arab-led regime happened to be useful to Israel in the "whataboutery" game. Alas, such cynical voices are at it again. Yet another example of how a global divide-and-rule racket is the essence of the state system.