Author: Wycliffe Nyamasege

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni issued a brief statement confirming that the 88-year-old pontiff rested well.

“The night passed quietly, the pope rested,” Bruni said, without providing further details on whether the pope was awake or had resumed eating.

Francis remains in critical condition as he recovers from a complicated lung infection that led to the severe respiratory episode on Saturday morning.

Medical sources at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, where the pope has been receiving treatment since February 14, told several international news outlets that the crisis was prolonged and required intensive medical intervention, including oxygen therapy to assist his breathing.

The pope also underwent blood transfusions due to a significant drop in platelet levels, a condition that can be caused by infections or medication side effects.

Despite the gravity of his condition, the Vatican reported that Francis was alert and spent much of Saturday sitting in an armchair, though experiencing increased pain. Doctors have classified his prognosis as “reserved,” meaning that while he remains stable, the situation remains uncertain given his advanced age and history of lung disease.

Medical experts warn that the primary risk facing Pope Francis is the potential onset of sepsis, a life-threatening infection of the bloodstream that can develop as a complication of pneumonia.

So far, tests indicate no signs of sepsis, and the pope has been responding to the medications administered for his condition.

Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the head of medicine and surgery at Gemelli Hospital, emphasized the precarious nature of the pope’s health. “Sepsis, combined with his respiratory difficulties and age, would pose a significant challenge,” he stated during a press briefing.

Pope Francis, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, has been prone to respiratory illnesses and bronchitis, particularly in winter months. The Vatican confirmed that he has been under a regimen of antibiotics, corticosteroids, and supplemental oxygen to manage his condition.

{{No plans for resignation
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As speculation grows over the possibility of Pope Francis stepping down due to his deteriorating health, Vatican officials have firmly denied any discussions of resignation. The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, dismissed such speculation as “unfounded” and emphasized that the primary concern is the pope’s recovery.

“There is no movement toward resignation, nor have I heard anything suggesting such discussions,” Parolin told Corriere della Sera in an interview. He also dismissed recent reports that Vatican officials had secretly met with the pope in the hospital to discuss his potential departure.

Francis has previously stated that he has written a letter of resignation to be used in case he becomes medically incapacitated. However, he has also asserted that he views the papacy as a lifelong mission and has no immediate plans to step aside.

Meanwhile, Vatican events marking the Holy Year of 2025 continue without the pope’s direct participation. This weekend, the Vatican was set to celebrate deacons, a key ministry within the Catholic Church. Pope Francis had planned to preside over the event but was forced to withdraw due to his health.

Two of the five hostages were transferred earlier on Saturday from a vehicle of al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, to vehicles of the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) in Rafah, southern Gaza, which later carried them to the IDF and the Israel Security Agency, according to Israeli and Palestinian sources.

The two are Avera Mengistu, 38, an Ethiopian-born Israeli man from Ashkelon, who crossed into Gaza in 2014 and had been held captive ever since, and Tal Shoham, 40, who was seized during the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, the sources told Xinhua.

Shoham’s wife and two children, who were also taken hostage, were released in November 2023 under a temporary ceasefire agreement.

Later in the day, three other Israeli hostages were handed over by Hamas to the Israeli authorities via the ICRC in the al-Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza, according to Palestinian sources.

The three — Omer Shem-Tov, 22, Eliya Cohen, 27, and Omer Wenkert, 23 — were also seized during the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.

According to eyewitnesses at the handover ceremony, the three hostages appeared to be in good health, wearing military uniforms and carrying their release certificates. In a striking moment, one of them was seen kissing the heads of two masked members of the al-Qassam Brigades standing beside them.

Another Israeli hostage, 37-year-old Hisham al-Sayed, was released in central Gaza without an official ceremony later on Saturday, said a source within the al-Qassam Brigades.

The Israeli military said al-Sayed has been handed over to Red Cross representatives after being held for almost 10 years and is on his way to Israeli troops in Gaza.

The releases are part of the latest hostage-prisoner swap under the first phase of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, according to which Israel will free 602 Palestinian prisoners later in the day. The swap is also the final one where Hamas handed over living hostages under the first phase of the agreement.

The first phase, effective since January 19, is set to conclude next week when Hamas is expected to finish the release of 33 Israeli hostages — 25 living ones and eight dead — in exchange for over 1,500 Palestinian prisoners.

Ruto, who met Thursday with holdout opposition groups from South Sudan in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, said the talks will resume in March.

The talks between South Sudan’s transitional government and holdout opposition groups, dubbed Tumaini, meaning hope in Swahili, have been ongoing in Nairobi since last year.

Ruto said in a statement that the mediation process “adjourns until March 2025 to facilitate consultations that will inform the way forward.”

In December 2023, President Salva Kiir of South Sudan asked Ruto to assume the lead role in mediating the peace talks, taking over from the community of Sant’Egidio in Rome, Italy.

South Sudan is grappling with significant challenges, including 9 million people requiring humanitarian aid, 7.5 million people experiencing food insecurity, and an influx of more than 1 million returnees and refugees fleeing violence in neighboring Sudan.

President Félix Tshisekedi has been requesting military support from his counterpart, President Mahamat Idriss Déby of Chad, to fight the M23 armed group, which has made significant advances in the east, capturing strategic areas including the cities of Bukavu and Goma.

Takilal Ndolassem, a prominent politician who leads the opposition party Front Populaire pour la Libération (FPL), stated that just because Chad has good relations with the DRC, it does not mean it should send its soldiers to die in a foreign war.

Ndolassem reminded President Mahamat that the DRC has a large population, and it should be training its own soldiers to protect the country instead of asking Chad—a country with fewer than 30 million people—to send troops.

He said, “It is inappropriate to send Chadians to die in the DRC. It is not possible, Mr. President, because we are a small population on land covering 1,284,000 square kilometres. Yet, in Kinshasa, there are 20 million people, and in all of Congo, 140 million. Why should we send our people to die there?”

The politician explained that the Chadian government has also faced armed groups for many years but has never asked the international community to send troops to help fight them.

He urged President Mahamat to avoid taking sides and to support peaceful resolutions made by African heads of state, which include calls for dialogue between the DRC government and M23.

Human rights advocate, Dr. Ibrahim Mahamat Ali, reminded that in 1998, Chad sent troops to the DRC to assist Laurent-Désiré Kabila, who was fighting the armed group RCD.

He said, “We don’t want history to repeat itself. Today, it is necessary for Chad and other countries to avoid sending troops and instead rely on diplomacy to resolve the conflict. It is time for this to stop!”

Dr. Ibrahim emphasised that Chad is not a military reserve ready to go abroad whenever asked, highlighting that the DRC should have built its own military forces long ago.

He said, “The Congolese should have focused on strengthening their army long ago instead of focusing on fashion.”

Citing Chad’s involvement in Mali, focused on counterterrorism efforts, Dr. Ibrahim said the situation in eastern Congo is “very different.”

“Our intervention in Mali was to protect a people from a terrorist threat. It was a righteous cause. The situation in DRC is very different. Let’s not put our soldiers on the line to defend a leader who seeks to stay in power,” he stated.

He stressed that in Congo, M23 rebels enjoy support from the population they seek to protect from persecution and marginalisation targeted at Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese.

“We all witnessed the enthusiasm of the people as the M23 arrived in the region under control,” he remarked.

The DRC’s military is already cooperating with those of Burundi, the FDLR, and the Wazalendo militias in the war.

Other groups present in the DRC include troops from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the United Nations peacekeeping force (MONUSCO). Meanwhile, nearly 300 European mercenaries who had been fighting alongside the Congolese army were recently forced to withdraw after the fall of Goma to the M23 rebels.

Makanika was the group’s leader and was killed in a drone strike launched by a coalition of DRC forces on February 19, 2025. Twirwaneho is a Kinyarwanda word meaning “let us defend ourselves.”

In a statement signed by its Coordinator, Ndakize Kamasa Welcome, on February 20, the group extended condolences to the Banyamulenge community, its supporters, and Twirwaneho members worldwide.

“Our hero passed away on February 19, 2025, falling on the battlefield while fighting against the genocide that has been waged against the Banyamulenge and similar communities for the past seven years. This genocide has been planned and executed by the government of our country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, in collaboration with Wazalendo and its partners, who carried out the drone attack from Kisangani to weaken our self-defence efforts,” the statement read.

Twirwaneho reiterated that the resistance efforts initiated by Col Makanika would continue, emphasizing that nothing would halt their struggle.

The group also called on Banyamulenge people across the world to rise and join their self-defence mission “until we achieve victory against attempts to exterminate us, seize our ancestral land, and end the injustices and killings we suffer.”

Col Makanika was formerly the Deputy Commander of FARDC (Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo) in Walikale, North Kivu province, where he was in charge of operations and intelligence.

He previously stated that he left the Congolese military after realizing that it was failing to protect his Banyamulenge community, which had long been subjected to violence by armed groups, with some elements within the military allegedly complicit in these atrocities.

For many years, the Banyamulenge in the DRC have been subjected to extreme violence. Observers describe these acts as genocide.

Since colonial times, the Banyamulenge have been denied rights in their own country, including the right to exist. Direct attacks against them date back to 1964 during the Mulele Rebellion. After a period of relative calm, large-scale massacres resumed in 1996, 1997, and 1998.

Since April 2017, the violence has escalated dramatically. Armed Mai-Mai groups, in collaboration with Red Tabara and FNL PALIPEHUTU from Burundi, have launched coordinated attacks from various locations, particularly in South Kivu province, including Lemera, Rurambo, Itombwe, Swima, Uvira, Sange, and Lulenge.

These groups have engaged in widespread killings, house burnings, livestock theft, and forced displacements, in what appears to be a well-organized campaign of violence.

On Thursday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against Gen. (Rtd.) Kabarebe, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in Charge of Regional Cooperation, accusing him of playing a key role in Rwanda’s alleged support for the M23 rebel group operating in the eastern Congo, a claim that the government has repeatedly denied.

The U.S. claims that M23 has been responsible for human rights abuses in the region.

Reacting to the move, Rwanda’s Government Spokesperson Yolande Makolo dismissed the sanctions as unjustified and ineffective, arguing that punitive measures would not resolve the crisis in eastern DRC.

“The sanctions are unjustified. The international community should support, not undermine, ongoing regional efforts towards a political solution. If sanctions could resolve the conflict in eastern DRC, we would have had peace in the region decades ago,” Makolo said.

Rwanda has consistently argued that the crisis in eastern Congo is rooted in deeper historical and governance issues that require political solutions rather than external pressure.

M23 also denies the allegations of human rights violations, stating that it is fighting against decades of persecution and marginalisation of Congolese Rwandophones in eastern Congo. The conflict has, among others, been attributed to the arbitrary drawing of borders during the colonial period.

“Rwanda was a German colony, and in 1910, 1912, and 1911, there was a meeting in Brussels where Belgium, Germany, and the United Kingdom decided to draw the borders between the three countries artificially. We had part of the Kingdom of Rwanda which was given to Congo with the people, and another part was given to Uganda. Then we have people of Rwandan culture and heritage in those two countries; in DRC, which was Congo at that time, and Uganda,” Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister Oliver Nduhungirehe explained during a recent interview.

“But those in Uganda never had any problem; they were integrated into society, considered as Ugandans. However, those in Congo, who have lived there since 1910, were never considered as Congolese; they were always suspected to be Rwandan. And this went on until the independence of Congo, and this marginalization under suspicion continued. In the 1970s, the then President of Zaire, which was the name of the country, President Mobutu, decided to give them citizenship, but 10 years later in the 80s, he stripped that citizenship from them, so their situation was always difficult,” he added.