Conflict
Germany Receives Nearly Million Ukrainians
Germany has registered almost a million refugees from Ukraine since Russia invaded its neighbor in February, the interior ministry said on Tuesday.
A total of 967,546 people fleeing the war have entered Germany at least temporarily, 36 percent of them children, the ministry said in a statement.
Around 97 percent are Ukrainian nationals.
Among the adults, three in four are women and around eight percent are over the age of 64.
There were almost 155,000 Ukrainian pupils enrolled at German schools by the end of last week, according to the conference of state education ministers in Berlin.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR says more than 6.6 million Ukrainians have been registered as refugees across Europe since the Russian invasion.
"Many in our society have gone above and beyond to help refugees," said German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, calling the influx "the largest movement of refugees (in Europe) since World War II."
According to the German ministry, citing the UNHCR, some 3.8 million Ukrainian refugees have returned to their home country at some point since the start of the war.
Of those registered in Germany, "a significant number" may have travelled on to other EU states or returned to Ukraine, it added.
Most Ukrainian refugees want to return home as soon as possible, according to a UN survey published in July, but do not expect to do so until the war is over.
Countries including the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania and Slovakia have also opened their borders, homes and wallets to help those fleeing the war.
See all News Updates of the Day
Africa News Tonight: Hunger, violence stalk Goma residents, US considers AFRICOM changes, Cyclone batters southern Africa
Africa News Tonight: Angola advances DRC talks, Tunisian opposition leaders remain jailed, US firefighters team up with Liberian colleagues
Southern Africa bloc to begin phased withdrawal of troops from DRC
The Southern African Development Community or SADC said Thursday that a summit of regional heads of state had terminated the mandate of its troop deployment in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo and decided on a "phased withdrawal." SADC lost more than a dozen soldiers in conflict in January. The 16-nation bloc took the decision at a virtual summit on the conflict in the area that has seen some three decades of unrest and claimed millions of lives. "Summit terminated the Mandate of SAMIDRC and directed the commencement of a phased withdrawal of SAMIDRC troops from the DRC," the Southern African bloc said in a communique after the summit. The SADC Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, SAMIDRC, — made up of soldiers from Malawi, Tanzania and South Africa — was sent to the region in December 2023 to help the government of the DRC, also a SADC member, restore peace and security. SADC extended its mandate late last year.
Africa News Tonight: DRC, US in talks on trade and security, concerns of civil war risk in South Sudan, tariff talk rattles stock markets
University students resume studies in Bukavu as DRC crisis deepens
University students in Bukavu, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, are gradually returning to class for the first time since M23 rebels took their city last month. Toto Mufungizi, a student, said while they were home “during these months, we have endured many strange things.” “We stayed at home for at least one month and three weeks. We were confined due to this security situation. Even today, there is no serenity, we cannot move around safely," he told Reuters. The M23 rebel group captured Bukavu, South Kivu's capital, in mid-February, forcing a weeks-long suspension of academic activities. The Official University of Bukavu, UOB, and other institutions have now reopened, but security concerns persist. "We are afraid because we heard rumors that in Goma, students were kidnapped. Here, we are also afraid," third-year student Patient Kaliwe said. Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.