Sudan peace talks brokered by Saudi Arabia have begun in Jeddah between two warring generals. Fighting has ravaged Sudan since April 15. This will be the first time Sudan’s military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have met since the clashes broke out. The International Red Cross estimates that the conflict had displaced around 334,000 people within Sudan itself, while almost 65,000 were estimated to have moved over borders as refugees to neighboring countries. 45 million people remain in Sudan facing acute shortages.
And in Afghanistan the ruling Taliban have barred women from most employment and girls can’t go to school beyond the sixth grade. On Friday the United Nations released a statement accusing Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities of the “most extreme forms of misogyny” and said there could be multiple preventable deaths that may amount to femicide if the restrictions are not reversed.