International
Volcano refugees start returning to DR Congo from Rwanda
AFP/Editor
More than a thousand refugees left a camp in Rwanda to return to the Democratic of Congo on Saturday, officials said, after escaping over the border fearing Mount Nyiragongo could erupt again.
Africa’s most active volcano roared back to life a week ago, sending terrified people in the nearby city of Goma running for their lives as rivers of lava destroyed homes and claimed nearly three dozen lives.
The eruption stopped, but warnings in recent days that it could blow again sent nearly 400,000 people rushing from Goma, with thousands crossing into Rwanda at a nearby border point.
Around 3,000 people sought refuge at a temporary camp in Rugerero, about ten kilometres (six miles) from the border.
But on Saturday an estimated 1,200 had left for Goma, a Rwanda government official at Rugerero told AFP on condition of anonymity. Military trucks were seen transporting refugees to the border.
William Byukusenge, a construction worker, said he felt the danger had passed.
“My house is in good shape, I have a wife and two kids. If it erupts again, we will come back to Rwanda,” the 21-year-old Congolese evacuee told AFP.
But another evacuee, Marie Claire Uwineza, said she had nowhere left to go.
“My house was burned, and I have nothing left,” said the 39-year-old, who fled with two of her children.
She was being sent to another camp at Busasamana, around 35 kilometres from the border, along with other evacuees unwilling or unable to return home yet.
At the camp, aid workers hastily erected tents and toilet facilities to meet growing demand.
Boubacar Bamba, the UN refugee agency’s deputy representative for operations in Rwanda, told AFP the camp’s population had swollen in recent days from around 800 evacuees to closer to 2000.
“There is no time to plan. We plan and execute at the same time, because we are caught short by events,” he said.
“This site is designed for a maximum of 3,000 people. The likelihood of receiving more people depends on the activity of the volcano, we do not control that. We are preparing for all eventualities, even if our resources are not sufficient,” he added.
DR Congo’s government said Saturday that the eruption of a second, nearby volcano it had announced hours earlier was a “false alarm”.
Nearly 3,500 metres (11,500 feet) high, Nyiragongo straddles the East African Rift tectonic divide.
Its last major eruption, in 2002, claimed around 100 lives and the deadliest eruption on record killed more than 600 people in 1977.
Volcanologists say the worst-case scenario is an eruption under nearby Lake Kivu — a so-called “limnic eruption” when lava combines with a deep lake and spews out lethal, suffocating gas across a potentially large area.
International
Thousands rally nationwide against Trump’s threat to U.S. democracy
Thousands of protesters gathered on Saturday (April 19, 2025) in major cities like New York and Washington, as well as in small communities across the United States, in a second wave of demonstrations against President Donald Trump. The crowds denounced what they view as growing threats to the country’s democratic ideals.
In New York City, demonstrators of all ages rallied in front of the Public Library near Trump Tower, holding signs accusing the president of undermining democratic institutions and judicial independence.
Many protesters also criticized Trump’s hardline immigration policies, including mass deportations and raids targeting undocumented migrants.
“Democracy is in grave danger,” said Kathy Valyi, 73, the daughter of Holocaust survivors. She told AFP that the stories her parents shared about Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in 1930s Germany “are happening here now.”
In Washington, demonstrators voiced concern over what they see as Trump’s disregard for long-standing constitutional norms, such as the right to due process.
International
ACLU seeks emergency court order to stop venezuelan deportations under Wartime Law
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Friday asked two federal judges to block the U.S. government under President Donald Trump from deporting any Venezuelan nationals detained in North Texas under a rarely used 18th-century wartime law, arguing that immigration officials appear to be moving forward with deportations despite Supreme Court-imposed limitations.
The ACLU has already filed lawsuits to stop the deportation of two Venezuelan men held at the Bluebonnet Detention Center, challenging the application of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The organization is now seeking a broader court order that would prevent the deportation of any immigrant in the region under that law.
In an emergency filing early Friday, the ACLU warned that immigration authorities were accusing other Venezuelan detainees of being members of the Tren de Aragua, a transnational criminal gang. These accusations, the ACLU argues, are being used to justify deportations under the wartime statute.
The Alien Enemies Act has only been invoked three times in U.S. history — most notably during World War II to detain Japanese-American civilians in internment camps. The Trump administration has claimed the law allows them to swiftly remove individuals identified as gang members, regardless of their immigration status.
The ACLU, together with Democracy Forward, filed legal actions aiming to suspend all deportations carried out under the law. Although the U.S. Supreme Court recently allowed deportations to resume, it unanimously ruled that they could only proceed if detainees are given a chance to present their cases in court and are granted “a reasonable amount of time” to challenge their pending removal.
International
Dominican ‘False Hero’ Arrested for Faking Role in Nightclub Collapse That Killed 231
A man identified as Rafael Rosario Mota falsely claimed to have rescued 12 people from the collapse of the Jet Set nightclub in Santo Domingo—a tragedy that left 231 people dead—but he was never at the scene.
Intelligence agents in the Dominican Republic arrested the 32-year-old man for pretending to be a hero who saved lives during the catastrophic incident, authorities announced.
Rosario Mota had been charging for media interviews in which he falsely claimed to have pulled survivors from the rubble after the nightclub’s roof collapsed in the early hours of April 8, during a concert by merengue singer Rubby Pérez, who was among those killed.
“He was never at the scene of the tragedy,” the police stated. The arrest took place just after he finished another interview on a digital platform, where he repeated his fabricated story in exchange for money as part of a “media tour” filled with manipulated information and invented testimonies.
“False hero!” read a message shared on the police force’s Instagram account alongside a short video of the suspect, in which he apologized: “I did it because I was paid. I ask forgiveness from the public and the authorities.”
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