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A Cambodian refugee long-settled in the US, ex-convict Pheap Rom, remains bewildered at how he wound up behind bars in the African nation of Eswatini for months after being swept up in Donald Trump's deportation blitz.When Rom and nine other men — shackled and escorted onto a plane by US authorities — landed in the kingdom of Eswatini in October, they were greeted on the tarmac by a squad of "military guys with guns and masks", the 43-year-old said."I didn't know what was going to happen," he said in an interview in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, where he was repatriated in late March."I didn't understand why I was being deported to Africa because I'm Cambodian."Rom is one of around 20 men the US has deported to landlocked Eswatini — bordering South Africa and Mozambique — under a Trump administration scheme challenged in courts and described by rights advocates as akin to "human trafficking".Eswatini, Africa's last absolute monarchy, is among several "third countries" accepting migrants under shadowy deals enabling the US president's push for mass deportations.The nation formerly known as Swaziland agreed to accept up to 160 deportees in exchange for around $5.1mn, with plans to forward them to their home countries after Washington said their direct repatriations were denied.But Rom — living in the US with "permanent resident" status since 1985 after his family fled Cambodia's genocidal Khmer Rouge regime — is just the second to be repatriated from Eswatini, after a Jamaican was returned home last year.The remainder may still be trapped inside the deportation process, opaque even to those inside it.Rom served a 15-year prison sentence in the US after pleading guilty to attempted murder for firing a gun during two neighbourhood disputes, leaving several people wounded."I know what I did was wrong," he said. "I accepted my punishment."He was detained by immigration authorities upon his release in November 2024, and his green card was revoked after an immigration judge ordered his deportation due to his felony conviction.He expected to be sent to Cambodia. But landing in Eswatini was like turning back the clock to his prison term, Rom said.His jailers seemed unaware that the men had served their time and looked at them as if they were "criminals because of what the (US) administration was portraying us to be".For the first two months at the Matsapha Correctional Centre, Rom said he and fellow deportees "went through misery" — allowed outdoors for only 15 minutes a day and given one weekly phone call."We had an attorney there that was willing to try to come and talk to us, but they weren't letting that attorney in," he said.Lawyers in Eswatini have corroborated his claim to AFP, saying they have been repeatedly denied access to people expelled by the US who have been detained without charge.Eswatini's government has said US deportees were "in good hands" and receiving healthcare, including counselling.Much of Trump's deportation campaign has been executed by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), criticised for using heavy-handed tactics during crackdowns in US cities.ICE did not reply to a request for comment about Rom's case.In July, when the first deportees were sent to Eswatini, a US Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman said on social media they were "so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back".But Rom and his lawyer Tin Thanh Nguyen both expressed doubts the agency even tried to deport him directly to Cambodia, the only country where he has citizenship.Nguyen is struggling to piece together the logic that led to his client being marooned in a country where he had no ties.The lawyer painted a picture of a chaotic process, saying Rom was not interviewed in the US to verify his nationality and was registered for deportation to Thailand, the country where he was born in a refugee camp."If ICE was requesting travel documents from Thailand, they went to the wrong country," Nguyen said.Chann Rotana, a spokesman for Cambodia's foreign ministry, told AFP that the US had previously sent Cambodian deportees to the country directly with no issues."We also don't know why the US this time sent him to Eswatini," the spokesman said.Now living in Phnom Penh after the Cambodian government facilitated his repatriation from Eswatini, Rom said he was still "getting used to the freedom" but was ready to move on.Eventually, he hopes to find work, stay in touch with his relatives in the US and start a new family in Cambodia, he said."I want to create a new memory here, because this is my second chance in life." 

More than half of Sudan's population is in need of humanitarian aid, the head of the Danish Refugee Council said, as fighting ravages the northeast African nation.Since breaking out in April 2023, the war between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced nearly 12 mn and triggered one of the world's worst humanitarian crises."We see a situation where more than 30mn people are in need of humanitarian assistance. That is half of the population of Sudan," Danish Refugee Council Secretary General Charlotte Slente told AFP by phone this week after a visit to a border region in neighbouring Chad."The suffering we see is unimaginable." Sudan had a population of around 50mn people in 2024, according to the World Bank.The aid official's comments came after a field visit to an area in Chad that borders Sudan's western Darfur region, which has seen fierce fighting of late.Violence has escalated dramatically in recent weeks, with the RSF seizing control of the key town of El-Fasher — the army's last stronghold in Darfur — after an 18-month siege and reports of atrocities multiplying."There are violations that cross all international humanitarian laws," she added.Slente said the NGO had seen evidence of mass killings and sexual violence in Sudan.**media[382270]**"We see detentions, we see abductions, forced displacement and torture," she said.She accused the international community of not doing enough."Statements have a very limited impact both on the ongoing humanitarian needs on the ground, and they have not been able to stop the violence," she said.She warned that there were other cities still under siege that were not receiving the same level of attention.The town of Babanusa, the last army stronghold in West Kordofan state, has been under siege for several months, as have North Kordofan state capital El-Obeid and South Kordofan's Kadugli and Dilling."The international community must stop managing the consequences of this conflict and must start preventing the atrocities," said Slente.

Two Palestinians were killed, and a third wounded by Israeli occupation forces in various areas of the Gaza Strip. Palestinian news agency (WAFA) reported that Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat had received the body of a martyr recovered by civilians from the city of Al-Zahra. The hospital also received a wounded person injured by Israeli fire east of Al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. In the same context, another person died from wounds sustained yesterday when he was shot by Israeli forces in the Shuja'iyya neighborhood east of Gaza City, according to medical sources. The Israeli occupation continues to violate the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, which came into effect on October 10. Last Tuesday and Wednesday, it carried out intensive airstrikes and shelling targeting Palestinian homes and tents in various parts of the Strip, resulting in the deaths of more than 100 Palestinians, including more than 46 children and 20 women.

Four Palestinian citizens were martyred on Thursday in the Al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip as the Israeli occupation forces escalated the aggression on Gaza City, intensifying the aerial and artillery bombardment and detonating booby-trapped robots to destroy homes and force citizens to leave the city. The Palestinian news agency (WAFA) said that four citizens were martyred, and ten others were injured when Israeli aircraft bombed a house in the Block 7 area of ​​Al-Bureij refugee camp, central Gaza Strip. The occupation forces carried out operations to destroy infrastructure and demolish residential buildings south and north of Gaza City, forcing citizens to flee to the southern part of the Strip, WAFA said. This escalation in Gaza City and its neighborhoods comes amid the continued disruption of internet and landline services in Gaza and North Gaza governorates due to the ongoing aggression and the targeting of key network routes, according to the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority. The ongoing aggression on Gaza City has resulted in the forced displacement of more than 40,000 people over the past two days, according to the spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric. Medical sources announced last night that 99 citizens were martyred in massacres committed by the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, including 77 martyrs in the northern Gaza Strip. Since Oct. 7, 2023, the Israeli occupation has committed genocidal crimes in the Gaza Strip, killing 65,062 and injuring 165,697 wounded, most of them children and women. A famine has also claimed the lives of 432 Palestinians, including 146 children.

Two Palestinians were martyed and several others injured on Saturday in Israeli oocupation strikes targeting a house south of Gaza City and Shati refugee camp to its west, in addition to attacks on three schools. Local sources reported that two civilians were martyed and others wounded when an Israeli strike hit a house south of Gaza City. They added that an Israeli occupation drone targeted shelters hosting displaced persons in Shati Camp west of Gaza City, causing injuries that required transfer to Al-Shifa Hospital. The Israeli army also targeted a house near Al-Sinaa Street in southern Gaza City, resulting in further casualties. Meanwhile, three schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Shati Camp were shelled, displacing thousands of displaced persons who were sheltering there. Earlier, Gaza Ministry of Health reported that the ongoing Israeli aggression against Gaza Strip, which began on 7 October 2023, has claimed the lives of 64,803 people and injured 164,264.