Ugandan Olympic athlete dies after being set on fire by former partner
(LONDON) — Ugandan long-distance runner Rebecca Cheptegei has died four days after being doused in petrol and set on fire by her former partner, authorities have announced.
Cheptegei — who had been receiving treatment at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret City, Kenya — succumbed to her injuries after sustaining burns to almost 80% of her body in the attack which occurred on Sunday.
Cheptegei was doused with a can of gasoline before being set on fire during an argument over land, according to a police report. Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital announced Cheptegei had passed away at the age of 33 after her organs failed on Thursday, according to hospital spokesperson Owen Menach.
“We have learnt of the sad passing of our Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei following a vicious attack by her boyfriend,” Donald Rukare, head of Uganda’s Olympics Committee, announced on Thursday writing on X. “May her gentle soul rest in peace and we strongly condemn violence against women. This was a cowardly and senseless act that has led to the loss of a great athlete. Her legacy will continue to endure.”
The Ugandan marathon runner had recently competed in the women’s marathon at the 2024 Paris Olympics, finishing in 44th place with a personal best time this season of 2:32:14, just a month before the fatal attack.
The Ugandan athlete had been living in northwestern Kenya, her father saying she recently bought land in Trans Nzoia County to build a home and be closer to Kenya’s athletics training centers.
Cheptegei’s Kenyan partner who carried out the attack — identified as Dickson Ndiema — is said to have sustained “serious burns” in the attack and is receiving treatment at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital.
Uganda’s Athletics Federation said they are “deeply saddened” by the passing of Cheptegei.
“We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of our athlete, Rebecca Cheptegei early this morning who tragically fell victim to domestic violence,” the federation announced on Thursday. “As a federation, we condemn such acts and call for justice.”
The incident is the latest in a string of domestic violence cases against female athletes in Kenya.
In 2021, Kenyan distance runner Agnes Tirop was found stabbed to death in her home in Iten, in northwest Kenya. Just a few weeks earlier the rising athletics star had set a new women’s 10 kilometer road running record at the “Adizero: Road to Records” event in Herzogenaurach, Germany.
Tirop’s husband — Ibrahim Rotich — was subsequently arrested and charged with her murder. The case is currently ongoing.
Just a year later in 2022, Kenyan-Bahraini athlete Damaris Muthee Mutua, 28, was found murdered at her home in the same town, with Kenya’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations saying her cause of death was strangulation.
Kenyan police launched a manhunt for Mutua’s Ethiopian boyfriend — Eskinder Hailemaryam Folie — who is the main suspect in her murder and is alleged to have fled Kenya.
(LONDON) — A local guard force member who worked at the U.S. Embassy in Sudan died while in the custody of the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, the U.S. Bureau of African Affairs said.
Tarig Hassan Ahmed, the guard, who worked at the embassy in Khartoum, was described as a “dedicated” and “respected” colleague and friend to many in embassy community. The U.S. said it was “deeply saddened and disturbed” by Ahmed’s killing.
“We have asked the RSF to provide full details of the circumstances surrounding Mr. Hassan Ahmed’s detention and death and to ensure those responsible are held accountable,” the bureau said in a statement.
ABC News has asked the RSF for comment on the incident.
The death came just a few weeks after the RSF agreed to a code of conduct at U.S.-mediated talks in Geneva, with the paramilitary group committing to enforcing new conduct for its fighters that includes a command directive for its fighters to comply with Jeddah Declaration commitments and international humanitarian law as well as refrain from violence against women.
“These new commitments must be reflected in the actions of RSF troops on the ground, who have committed ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity since the outbreak of war against Sudanese civilians,” said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
A new report released by the United Nation’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan found that warring parties have “committed an appalling range of harrowing human rights violations and international crimes,” including many that may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity.
It is the first report by the independent fact-finding mission, Mohamed Chande Othman, the mission’s chair, said the “gravity” of its findings “underscores the urgent and immediate” action needed to protect civilians.
New visual evidence obtained by Lighthouse Reports has also found RSF and allied militias implicated in extrajudicial killings of unarmed civilians, including ethnic massacres that took place in the Western region of Sudan’s Darfur.
Meanwhile the war in Sudan continues, with fighting now ongoing in over 70% of the Northeast African nation’s states. At least 38 people were killed and 116 injured following what local groups say were “indiscriminate artillery and air strikes” by the RSF in Sudan’s Sennar state, Emergency Lawyers, a monitor for civilian casualties and humanitarian violations said in a statement.
The conflict has killed at least 20,000 people as it enters its seventh month, U.N. officials say. Local groups however warn the true toll is likely much higher.
“Much more needs to be done, of course; we’re mindful of that,” said White House national security adviser John Kirby at a White House press briefing last week. “The RSF and the SAF need to uphold their commitments.”
(NEW YORK) — As the Israel-Hamas war continues, efforts to secure the release of hostages taken by the terrorist organization are ongoing, and Israeli forces have launched an assault in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Here’s how the news is developing:
11:21 PM EDT 1 killed, 4 injured by shrapnel in Tel Aviv explosion: Officials
A man in Tel Aviv has died after being injured in an explosion resulting from what authorities believe was an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
“During searches of the scene, an unconscious man was found in one of the buildings, with penetrating injuries,” Zachi Heller, a spokesperson for Israel’s emergency medical service Magen David Adom (MDA), confirmed to ABC News.
The man, who Heller said was 50, did not exhibit signs of life and it was determined he had died.
Information is still developing, but the Israel Defense Forces said early Friday morning that the person who died was hit by a fragment of the UAV.
Four people were treated for shrapnel injuries at the scene and four were treated by EMS for shock/anxiety. All eight were taken to the Wolfson and Ichilov hospitals, Heller said.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
9:33 PM EDT 2 injured, taken to hospital following blast in Tel Aviv: Officials
Two people were injured in a blast in Tel Aviv early Friday morning local time, Israel’s emergency medical service, Magen David Adom (MDA) confirmed.
Emergency services received a report at 3:12 a.m. that an object had exploded in Tel Aviv. After arriving on the scene, medics transported a 37-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman in mild condition to Ichilov Hospital. The victims had “shrapnel injuries to the limbs and shoulder,” MDA spokesman Zachi Heller said. Four additional victims were treated for shock/anxiety.
Following the incident report, five fire crews arrived and extinguished the fire. They are currently conducting searches in the area.
A United States official confirmed to ABC News that the explosion had occurred near the U.S. embassy branch office in Tel Aviv, but the building was not damaged. The official said that the cause of the blast is still being assessed and that the office is advising American citizens in Tel Aviv to shelter in place.
The Israel Defense Forces said it was unaware that an unmanned aerial vehicle infiltrated Israel’s defenses. The IDF is currently reviewing the incident.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky and Shannon Kingston
5:13 PM EDT Poliovirus detected in sewage samples in Gaza, health ministry says
Poliovirus has been detected in sewage samples in the Gaza Strip according to testing conducted in coordination with the United Nations, the Gaza Ministry of Health announced Thursday.
Samples were taken from sewage water that “collects and flows between the tents of the displaced and in the places where residents are located as a result of the destruction of the infrastructure” in war-torn Gaza, according to the ministry.
“The presence of the virus that causes polio … represents a new health disaster,” the ministry said in a statement. “There is severe overcrowding, a scarcity of available water and its contamination with sewage water, the accumulation of tons of garbage and the occupation’s prevention of the entry of hygiene materials, which creates a suitable environment for the spread of various epidemics.”
The ministry called for “an immediate halt to the Israeli aggression, the provision of usable water, the repair of sewage lines and an end to the overcrowding at displacement camps.”
Polio, or poliomyelitis, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus, which attacks the nervous system and can lead to irreversible paralysis, according to the World Health Organization.
Polio mainly affects children under 5, though the virus can strike at any age. It’s incurable but completely vaccine-preventable. The virus is highly contagious and can live for weeks in an infected person’s feces, which can contaminate food and water in unsanitary conditions and spread to other people. Polio remains endemic in two countries: Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to the WHO.
-ABC News’ Morgan Winsor
1:47 PM EDT At least 2 people killed in Israeli strike on 9th school in 10 days
At least two people were killed and five others were injured after Israel carried out a strike on Al-Falah School in Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, the ninth school the IDF has targeted in the last 10 days, according to the Gaza Civil Defense.
1:07 PM EDT Netanyahu shuts down plan to build field hospital for Gazan children
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has scrapped Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s plans to establish a field hospital for Gazans along the border with Gaza.
Netanyahu “announced in writing that he does not approve the establishment of a hospital for Gazans on Israeli territory — therefore it will not be built,” his office said in a statement Thursday.
Gallant had announced Wednesday that he had ordered the establishment of a temporary field hospital in southern Israel along the border with Gaza to treat sick Palestinian children who are unable to leave the war-torn enclave for medical care abroad, amid the extended closure of Gaza’s Rafah crossing into Egypt. Gallant said he had told his American counterpart, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, about the plan for the field hospital during a call earlier this week, according to a readout.
The World Health Organization’s representative for Gaza and the West Bank, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, told reporters Wednesday that some 10,000 patients in Gaza still require urgent evacuation for medical treatment.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
11:17 AM EDT Palestinians held in Israeli secret detention describe torture, beatings, starvation
Human rights group Amnesty International has accused Israel of mass incommunicado detention and torture of Palestinian detainees from Gaza, citing the documented cases of 27 Palestinians who were detained for periods of up to four-and-a-half months without access to their lawyers or contact with their families.
Those detained included doctors taken into custody at hospitals for refusing to abandon their patients, mothers separated from their infants while trying to cross the so-called “safe corridor” from northern Gaza to the south, human rights defenders, U.N. workers, journalists and other civilians.
The Israeli Prison Service told the Israeli NGO HaMoked that — as of July 1 — 1,402 Palestinians were detained under a law that grants its military sweeping powers to detain anyone from Gaza they suspect of engaging in hostilities against Israel or of posing a threat to state security for indefinitely-renewable periods without having to produce evidence. This count excludes those held for an initial 45-day period without a formal order.
“The Israeli authorities must immediately repeal this law and release those arbitrarily detained under it. Torture and other ill-treatment including sexual violence are war crimes – these allegations must be independently investigated by the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor’s office,” Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard.
“The Israeli authorities must also grant immediate and unrestricted access to all places of detention to independent monitors – access that has been denied since 7 October,” Callamard said.
Jul 17, 2024, 4:29 PM EDT Gaza aid pier shut down, aid to flow in through Ashdod
The JLOTS temporary pier system has been shut down, with humanitarian aid from Cyprus to Gaza will now taking place through the civilian port of Ashdod, CENTCOM told reporters.
The pier had successfully delivered close to 20 million pounds of humanitarian aid to Gaza, which USAID estimates provided food for 500,000 people for a month. The pier’s overall cost will come in “well underneath” the $230 million costs currently estimated though he couldn’t say by how much, Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, the deputy commanding general of CENTCOM, told reporters.
Cooper said that 1 million pounds of aid has already entered Gaza as a “proof of concept” and that there are about 5 million pounds of aid to still deliver from Cyprus.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Jul 17, 2024, 3:29 PM EDT Netanyahu ally urges him to accept cease-fire deal
The leader of Israel’s Shas party, Areyeh Deri, is urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a cease-fire deal, publicly adding its voice to the choir of those calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, according to a letter from the Shas party.
“We believe that the conditions created now following the welcomed military pressure and the targeted assassinations create an appropriate time to reach a deal that preserves Israel’s vital security interests and returns the abductees home,” the letter said.
This comes amid reports in Israeli media that Mossad chief David Barnea and Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant have pushed Netanyahu to accept the deal. Without Shas, the Netanyahu-coalition would crumble.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Jul 17, 2024, 3:08 PM EDT Group calls on Netanyahu to release journalists, allow access to Gaza ahead of US visit
The Committee to Protect Journalists released a statement calling on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to release journalists held without charge and allow free, unimpeded access to Gaza ahead of his planned trip to the U.S.
“From the start of the war, Israel has continuously denied independent access to the media as Palestinian journalists struggle to survive. The loss of local journalists, an almost total ban on media from outside Gaza leaves a vacuum for propaganda, mis and disinformation. Claims and counterclaims remain extraordinarily difficult to verify independently. Facts are easily evaded and truth withers. No credible democracy engages in what is, in effect, a growing censorship regime,” Jodie Ginsburg, the CEO of CPJ, said in a statement Wednesday.
More than 100 journalists have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7 and others have been arrested, often without charge, according to the CPJ.
“Journalists, like the thousands of civilians in Gaza killed, arrested or displaced continue to pay an astonishing toll,” Ginsburg said.
“An unprecedented number of journalists and media workers have been arrested, often without charge. They have been mistreated and tortured. The number of journalists reporting in Gaza is dwindling, and those who remain are doing so in treacherous conditions, but they cannot do so alone,” Ginsburg said.
-ABC News’ Guy Davies
Jul 17, 2024, 12:20 PM EDT Over 1,000 attacks on health care facilities in Gaza, West Bank since Oct. 7: WHO
The World Health Organization has registered more than 1,000 attacks on health care facilities in the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, the agency’s top official in the region said in a press briefing on Wednesday.
There are currently no functional hospitals in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, following Israel’s recent offensive there, according to Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for the West Bank and Gaza.
Peeperkorn highlighted the urgency of allowing critically ill patients to leave the war-torn enclave, stating that around 10,000 patients in Gaza still require urgent evacuation –- half of whom are suffering from severe trauma, including spinal injuries and amputations.
-ABC News’ Camilla Alcini
Jul 16, 2024, 2:54 PM EDT IDF says it carried out 37,000 airstrikes on Gaza since October
The Israel Defense Forces has carried out 37,000 airstrikes on Gaza and targetted more than 25,000 terrorist infrastructures and launch sites since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, the IDF said Tuesday.
The IDF also acknowledged carrying out strikes on hospitals, schools and humanitarian shelters throughout the Gaza Strip, claiming to target “terrorists who are located and based in sensitive sites,” the IDF said in a statement.
Jul 16, 2024, 2:03 PM EDT Dozens killed in Israeli strikes on UNRWA facility, safe zone
At least 23 people were killed and 73 others were injured after Israel struck a UNRWA school in a designated safe zone where displaced people are sheltering. Five UNRWA schools have been hit in the last 10 days, according to the UNRWA.
“UN facilities must be protected at all times. They must never be used for military or fighting purposes. No one is safe in Gaza, wherever they are. The people of #Gaza are children, women & men who have the right to live,” the UNRWA said Tuesday.
In another strike on a safe zone in Mawasi Khan Yunis, at least 17 people were killed and 26 others were injured.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that it struck the school, alleging it struck terrorists who were operating in a UNRWA school.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Jul 16, 2024, 11:52 AM EDT Israel strikes Nuseirat refugee camp for second day in a row
Israel has carried out a strike on Nuseirat refugee camp, where internally displaced Palestinians have been told to shelter, for the second day in a row, according to Gaza Civil Defense.
This is the sixth school — a designated safe zone — to be targeted by Israeli Defense Forces’ airstrikes in one week.
Israel has not confirmed whether Saturday’s strike that killed 90 Palestinians killed two Hamas officials, including military chief Mohammed Deif, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a press conference.
“There is still no absolute certainty that the two have been eliminated, but I want to assure you that one way or another we will reach the entire top of Hamas,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu said he was briefed about the type of weapons that would be used and the expected “collateral damage,” as well as confirming Israel did not believe any hostages were held in the area, before giving the go ahead for the strike.
“Why should we risk something leaking out? Suppose something leaked, Deif and his deputy would go underground in a second. We update our American friends when necessary,” Netanyahu said.
Asked about not telling the U.S. about the strike beforehand, Netanyahu said it was to avoid an information leak.
-ABC News’ Anna Burd
Jul 13, 2024, 4:14 PM EDT UN Human Rights Office condemns IDF’s strikes in Gaza humanitarian zones
The United Nations Human Rights Office has condemned the Israel Defense Forces’ use of weapons in populated areas of Gaza, including humanitarian zones, hours after an attack killed 90 Palestinians.
“The latest attack and casualty followed right after another massive attack on the north, which lasted for a week, resulting in further destruction and casualties,” the UN Human Rights Office said in a statement.
The U.N. said the IDF’s use of weapons in densely populated areas “despite the overwhelming evidence that these means and methods have led to disproportionate harm to civilians and damage to civilian infrastructure, suggests a pattern of willful violation of the disregard of [International Humanitarian Law] principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution.”
“The use of such weapons in an area to which IDF is ordering people to evacuate demonstrates a rampant disregard for the safety of civilians. Even if Palestinian armed group members were using the presence of civilians in these areas in an attempt to shield themselves from attack, which would violate IHL, this would not remove IDF’s obligations to comply with these fundamental IHL principles of proportionality, distinction and precaution,” the U.N. said.
Jul 13, 2024, 3:14 PM EDT Death toll from Israeli attack on Khan Younis rises to 90
The death toll from Israel’s deadly attack on Al Mawasi, west of the southern city of Khan Younis, has now risen to 90 people killed and 300 injured, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
Israel had admitted earlier that the strike was in the expanded humanitarian zone.
(PARIS) — WNBA star Brittney Griner, who spent 10 months detained in Russia, said she is “head over heels” after the release of Americans Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, who were freed from Russia in a prisoner swap.
“Great day,” Griner said from Paris, where she is competing in women’s basketball for Team USA at the Olympics. “I’m head-over-heels happy for the families right now. Any day that Americans come home, that’s a win.”
Griner, who spoke to reporters after the U.S. women beat Belgium 87-74 to advance to the quarterfinals, said finding out about their release was “definitely emotional.”
“I’m sure it will be even more emotional a little later on. Yeah, I’m just happy. This was a big win. Huge win,” Griner said.
“I know they have an amazing group of people that are going to help them out — them and their families,” she said, adding that she was “glad” to receive that help herself to “get reacclimated into everyday life.”
In February 2022, while returning to Russia to play basketball during the WNBA’s offseason, Griner was detained at Russia’s Sheremetyevo International Airport after she was accused of having vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, which is illegal in the country. The State Department said she was wrongfully detained.
In July 2022, Griner pleaded guilty to drug charges, saying that the vape cartridges containing cannabis oil were in her luggage unintentionally. She testified that she had “no intention” of breaking Russian law and packed the cartridges by accident.
The WNBA star was released in December 2022 after U.S. officials agreed to swap her for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
Griner told “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts earlier this year she expected to also see Whelan there when she was boarding the plane to leave Russia.
“When I walked on and I didn’t see him, I was like, ‘OK, maybe I’m early. Maybe he’s next. Maybe they are going to bring him next,'” she said of Whelan. “And when they closed the door, I was like … are you seriously not gonna let this man come home right now?”
“If it was left up to me in that trade, I would have went and got Paul and brought him home,” Griner said.
After her release, Griner became an advocate for Americans wrongfully detained abroad.
Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, was arrested in 2018 and accused of espionage. Both the Biden and Trump administrations denied the allegation against Whelan. He was convicted on the charges in 2020 and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was arrested by Russian authorities in 2023 for espionage, a charge he and U.S. officials flatly deny, with President Joe Biden saying he was targeted for being a journalist and an American. After an unusually hasty trial that played out behind closed doors, Gershkovich was found guilty and sentenced to 16 years in a high-security penal colony.
Two others unjustly imprisoned in Russia, Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Murza, were also released in Thursday’s swap, Biden said.
ABC News’ Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.