Hey, this is Sham, your very own news curator, who sometimes feels overwhelmed with the news cycle as well. Thank you for your patience with me.
In issue #331, I delve into various topics, including a tragic stampede at a charity event in Yemen, the brave actions of Sudan's civil society amidst escalating violence, and positive news from El Salvador regarding the arrest of a perpetrator of a decades-old massacre. Additionally, I provide my thoughts on the new "Queen Cleopatra" Netflix trailer, recommend a healing conversation on belonging between two Trinidadian authors, and celebrate a citizen-led fact-checking group in Indonesia, among other topics and good news from all over the world.
If you like this newsletter, yay! These lengthy emails take me hours and hours to write, research and make fun-to-read. You can support my work if you become a paid subscriber or buy me coffee. Or, just forward it to a friend.
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Estimated reading time: 10 min
You have access to all of my sources by clicking on what's underlined.
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A stampede at a charity event killed at least 78 people in Yemen
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What happened
Witnesses and Houthi rebel officials reported that during a charity event in Yemen's capital city on Wednesday night, a crowd became panicked by gunfire and an electrical explosion, causing a stampede. The incident occurred during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. At least 78 people died, and 77 others were hurt.
Why this matters
The recent tragedy in Yemen was the deadliest in the country in years, but unlike many other incidents in the region, it was not connected to the ongoing war in the country.
Refresher: Yes, ongoing, because Yemen is still at war. Its capital Sanaa has been under control by a group called the Houthis since 2014, with support from Iran. They took over the internationally recognized government, leading to a bigger conflict, as a coalition led by Saudi Arabia intervened in 2015 to try and restore the previous government. The situation has escalated into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, causing over 150,000 deaths, including civilians and soldiers. As a result, Yemen is facing one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, with over 21 million people in need of help and protection. The United Nations launched a conference in February to raise funds and managed to raise $1.2 billion (out of the $4.3 billion target).
Tell me more
In an effort to control the crowd, armed Houthis fired shots into the air, accidentally hitting an electrical wire that caused an explosion. The incident happened in the Old City of Sanaa, where hundreds of people had gathered for a charity event organized by local merchants. The charity was set up to distribute $10 to each of the needy, with local businessmen providing the funding. During Ramadan, wealthy people and businessmen typically give out cash and food to help the poor. The Interior Ministry spokesperson, Brig. Abdel-Khaleq al-Aghri, attributed the crush to the "random distribution" of funds without coordinating with local authorities.
What now?
According to the Interior Ministry, two organizers have been detained, and an investigation is currently underway. The Houthis have stated that they will provide compensation of approximately $2,000 to the families who lost a relative in the tragedy, while those who were injured will receive around $400.
Interesting fact about Yemen, written by ChatGPT
"Yemen's Jewish community is one of the oldest in the world, dating back to at least the 2nd century CE. However, due to ongoing conflict and persecution, the population has significantly decreased in recent decades, with many Jews leaving for Israel and other countries." I googled (because I was flabbergasted by this fact myself) and found this interesting presentation by Joey Leskin, a British Jew of Yemeni descent, talking about his community's long history.
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The armed forces are fighting each other and Sudan's civil society is stepping up
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What happened
 Around 400 people have died since fighting broke out between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces last week in Khartoum, Sudan. At least 3,500 people have been injured. The fighting has left many people stranded at home without electricity, food or water, and doctors and hospitals say they are struggling to cope.
Why this matters
Some 45 million people live in Sudan, Africa's third-largest country. Many people here have been affected by war, displacement, and poverty. The 2019 revolution – in which tens of thousands of protesters ended the three-decade dictatorship of President Omar Hasan al-Bashir – did not bring about a democracy as many had hoped. The country is now on the verge of a full-blown civil war.
Tell me more
Sudan is a strategically located country and rich in natural resources. Since 2019, to many governments, Sudan has seemed like it was up for grabs and foreign powers have been picking sides, even delivering weapons, which weakened Sudan's pro-democracy forces and supported military rivals who are now fighting for power in Khartoum. The army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces overthrew the previous government together, but now both groups want control and disagree over the country's future direction, including whether civilians should rule and whether the two groups should merge.
What's it like in Khartoum now?
Really volatile. Some residents are forced to travel to the River Nile to collect water, writes Mohamed Osman for BBC. Many residents face the difficult decision of whether to stay or flee the city, with some leaving for relatively safe regions like Port Sudan or driving north to Egypt, although only children, the elderly, and women can enter Egypt without visas, writes Mat Nashed for Al Jazeera. The ambivalent security situation has made coordinating an escape a nightmare. African Arguments editor Raga Makawi wrote a first-hand account of her days of terror and flight with Kholood Khair for The Economist (soft paywall) when violence erupted last week in Khartoum. "This has been building up for decades," writes Nesrine Malik in The Guardian. Justin Lynch in Foreign Policy argues that U.S. policies are to blame here. Jacqueline Burns "partly" agrees in The New York Times. In the meantime, the U.S. and other foreign governments have evacuated their staff. Some people on Twitter are calling this 'Afghanistan 2.0.'
Any good news?
Sudan's civil society is stepping in. The country's so-called resistance committees aka neighborhood groups, which have led the pro-democracy movement in the country since 2019, have mobilized to establish networks of medics, nurses, and engineers across the country to respond to citizens' needs amid the ongoing conflict. They have provided shelter to the displaced, rehabilitated hospitals, and saved lives amid shelling, gunfire, and bombing. In addition, they have coordinated evacuations for besieged civilians and spread anti-war messaging, writes Mat Nashed for Al Jazeera. Small charities like Hadhreen have also been instrumental in coordinating help, write Mohanad Hashim and Lucy Fleming for BBC.
Zoom out: Sudan's neighbors, including South Sudan, Chad, and Egypt, are worried that the fighting will destabilize the region. South Sudan depends on Sudan for oil revenue, which comprises around 95% of its public revenue. Chad is already hosting more than 500,000 refugees, and the ongoing war could have a lasting impact on the entire Sahel region, including trade between the two neighbors. Egypt and South Sudan both offered to mediate the conflict, which shows the common interest of Sudan's neighbors in its stability, writes Martina Schwikowski for DW.
Fun fact about Sudan, written by ChatGPT
"Sudan is home to more pyramids than Egypt. The ancient Kingdom of Kush, which existed in Sudan from around 1069 BC to 350 AD, built many pyramids, some of which are still standing today. The most famous of these pyramids is the Meroë pyramid complex, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site." You can explore these pyramids on Google Arts & Culture.
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Someone responsible for the El Mozote massacre in El Salvador has been arrested
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What happened
 The U.S. has arrested Salvadoran retired military officer, Roberto Garay Saravia, for his alleged involvement in the El Mozote massacre that took place on December 11 and 12, 1981.
Why this matters
In the 1980s, El Salvador's right-wing government was at war with left-wing militia; it's a very brutal chapter of the country's history. The El Mozote massacre stands as the most devastating event of the Salvadoran civil war. To this day, bodies are still being exhumed from mass graves. Survivors spent decades in refugee camps and returned to find their homes destroyed. The quest for justice continues. People are still seeking justice.
Tell me more
Trigger warning: graphic references to violence, death and murder.
The Salvadoran Army's elite unit, Batallón Atlácatl, brutally killed, raped, and dismembered hundreds of unarmed men, women, and children. Garay Saravia, the man arrested last week, was a lieutenant in the battalion. Almost half of the victims were under 10 years old. Estimates of the total murdered range from 200 to over 1,000. The elite unit received training from the United States. News of the massacre first appeared in the world media a month later, in reports published by The New York Times and The Washington Post. Salvadoran Army and government leaders denied the reports, and U.S. administration officials labeled them "gross exaggerations," suggesting that it had been a clash between two armed groups. The U.S. has yet to acknowledge its role in the war crime.
In El Salvador, the massacre went unpunished due to an amnesty law passed in 1993. In 2012, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in San José, Costa Rica, found the Salvadoran government guilty of the crimes and called for them to investigate and compensate the victims' families. That same year, then-President Mauricio Funes apologized to the relatives.
What now?
The El Mozote Massacre has been under investigation in a court in San Francisco Gotera, western El Salvador, since June 9, 2017. More than 40 witnesses have testified. The country's young, crypto-loving President Nayib Bukele hasn't been particularly helpful in resolving the case. However, the deportation trial of Roberto Garay Saravia could shed new light on the events, as the massacre trial in El Salvador stalled 18 months ago. To be continued.
Did you know that Garay Saravia is not the first former Salvadoran army officer that faces a deportation case in recent years? Google the names and stories of Carlos Vides Casanova, José Guillermo García or Inocente (ironically) Montano.
Fun fact about El Salvador, written by ChatGPT
"Name Game: El Salvador's name means "The Savior" in Spanish. It's named after Jesus Christ, which is quite fitting considering its Spanish colonizers were big on spreading Christianity."
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Honduras: Tegucigalpa has reported more forest fires within the first months of 2023 than in all of 2021. La Tigra, commonly referred to as the ‘lungs of the capital,’ has had over 400 hectares of land destroyed from the most recent forest fire. (El Heraldo, Spanish)
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Global: At least 441 migrants died crossing the Mediterranean in the first quarter of 2023, the deadliest such period since 2017, the U.N. said. Another 300 are unaccounted for, aboard boats reported missing but never found. Most were traveling from North Africa to Italy and Malta. European governments have cracked down on Mediterranean crossings, pushing some migrants to try an even more dangerous route into the Atlantic via the Canary Islands. (United Nations)
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Nicaragua: A transgender woman known as "La Mendoza" (36 years old) is the most recent victim of hate crime in Nicaragua. According to preliminary information, the body was found on April 7, "semi burned" and with signs of violence, eight days after she was reported missing. (Nicaragua Actual, Spanish)
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Egypt: The authorities have arrested another female social media influencer last week. TikTok celebrity Salma Elshimy became the latest in a growing list of women to fall foul of the authorities over social media posts, using a cybercrime law to detain them on vague charges such as violating "public morals" and "undermining family values". If she is found guilty, Elshimy faces up to five years in prison and 8,000€ in fines for "violating public morality". Monitors say more than a dozen female influencers have been arrested since 2020. (Mada)
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Singapore: A Singaporean man is scheduled to be hanged next week for conspiring to smuggle a kilogram of cannabis, rights groups said, in the city-state's first execution in six months. (Deccan Herald)
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Chile: Chile's President Gabriel Boric said on Thursday he would nationalize the country's lithium industry, the world's second largest producer of the metal essential in electric vehicle batteries, to boost its economy and protect its environment. (Reuters)
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Sweden/Pakistan: Sweden announced the indefinite closure of its embassy in Pakistan. (The Pakistan Daily)
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Peru: Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo was extradited from the United States and was taken to prison on charges related to money laundering. Toledo is allocated in the same prison where former presidents Alberto Fujimori and Pedro Castillo are also incarcerated. (Reuters)
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Malawi: President of Malawi Lazarus Chakwera pardoned 200 prisoners, including a former minister convicted of corruption. (NyasaTimes)
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India: Indian climber Anurag Maloo, who went missing earlier this week after falling into a deep crevasse on Nepal's Mount Annapurna, has been found alive by rescuers, his brother said as per news agency PTI. (Hindustan Times)
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Ethiopia: Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has said that his government will begin negotiations with the rebel group the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) in Tanzania this week. This marks the first time the Ethiopian government has formally said it would negotiate with the Oromo Liberation Army. (Al Jazeera)
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Panama: An indigenous woman from the Emberá-Wounaan Comarca could be the world's oldest person. Mercedes Chami Dogirama was born on March 13, 1898 and this year she turned 125 years old, according to the country's Population Census. (Telemetro, Spanish)
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Japan: Deep-sea explorers said on Saturday they had located the wreck of a World War II Japanese transport ship, the Montevideo Maru, which was torpedoed off the Philippines in 1942, killing nearly 1,000 Australians aboard. (South China Morning Post)
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Chad: A lion has been spotted in Chad's Sena Oura National Park, where the big cats have not been seen since 2004 and were believed to be extinct until now. (BBC)
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Watch... the trailer of "Queen Cleopatra" by Netflix (2min), an epic story that is narrated by Jada Pinkett Smith and written by Peres Owino and NneNne Iwuji. On Wednesday, the streaming service shared the trailer for the first time with viewers, and the full film will be released on May 10. The trailer shows Cleopatra as a woman of African descent with dark skin, which falsifies the fact of Cleopatra is of Macedonian Greek descent. However, no Cleopatra movie will ever be more controversial than the 1963 film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
Listen to... this conversation between two Trinidad and Tobago authors and their famous memoirs (1h12min). Barbara Jenkins and Ira Mathur join host Andre Bagoo, exploring the theme of "coming and going" and about finding where you belong. This month, the Bocas Literary Festival — hosted in Trinidad and Tobago and arguably one of the most recognized festivals in the region – has announced the shortlist for the prestigious OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. Three Trinidadian writers are finalists this year, and Mathur is one of them for her memoir, "Love the Dark Days" (non-fiction) about accrued intergenerational damage between mothers and daughters in post-colonial worlds.
Read... Article: "This citizen-run organization is teaching thousands of Indonesians to fact-check" by Hanaa' Tameez for Nieman Lab. One Indonesian nonprofit wants to raise the country’s media literacy, and is taking a grassroots approach. "Mafindo," short for Indonesian Anti-Slander Society, emerged from a Facebook group created in 2014, and now relies on a network of thousands of volunteers to carry out its work. Tameez shares the story of its fight to combat misinformation in the world’s third-largest democracy.
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Ever watched TV in Costa Rica? If yes, you probably know who Inés Sánchez de Revuelta was. I say was because the television personality and world record-holder Inés Sánchez de Revuelta died on April 7 at 91-years-old. She migrated from Cuba to Costa Rica in 1961 and held the Guinness World record for the longest-running program on the air, Teleclub. The show ran for 55 years.
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Nearly 2 tons of cocaine have been found floating off the eastern coast of the island of Sicily, Italian police said.
They were all carefully sealed in 70 waterproof floating packages, which were connected and included a signaling light device, police said. They added that the haul has a street value of €400 million.
Zoom out: In February, more than 3 tons of cocaine floating in the ocean were seized by authorities in New Zealand, in one of the country’s biggest ever drug busts.
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That's it from me. This issue has been written while listening to a deep techno playlist while marinating my meal prep chicken.
For the maps, say thanks to Wikimedia Commons.
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Hey, I'm Sham, the person behind this newsletter. Since 2014, I email a bunch of strangers once a week, curating news headlines from Asia, Africa and Latin America. I work under the assumption that, here in the West (I live in Berlin, Germany), we don't read or know much about the global majority, aka the rest of the world.
My goal is to help you burst your Western-centric bubble.
If you want to know more about me, visit my website or follow me on Twitter or Instagram.
Questions or feedback? Just reply to this email. I intend to write back.
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