World Tour: Holiday cease-fire in Sudan

NICK EICHER, HOST: Next up on The World and Everything in It, World Tour. Here’s Onize Ohikere.

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: Sudan truce — We start today in Sudan.

AUDIO: [Displaced Sudanese]

Sound here of Sudanese refugees. They still face uncertainty even amid another truce. The Rapid Support Forces rebel group declared the unilateral ceasefire for an Islamic holiday today.

Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who leads the paramilitary force, said he hopes the religious holiday will create room for reconciliation. Many Muslims around the world are making a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia this week to celebrate the holiday.

The Sudanese army has not commented on the ceasefire.

More than 800 people have died since fighting between the paramilitary and military forces began in April. Previous ceasefires have failed to bring about a lasting truce.

RESIDENT: [Speaking Arabic]

This Khartoum resident says he hopes the war will stop and that the fighting has already injured many people and forced others to flee.

AUDIO: [Displaced Sudanese]

The conflict has displaced nearly 2 million people within the country. Nearly 600,000 others have crossed into neighboring countries.

Greece election outcome - Now we head over to Greece.

AUDIO: [Oath of Office]

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has started his second term after taking the oath of office on Monday.

AUDIO: [Street celebrations]

Jubilant supporters honked and waved flags a day earlier after Mitsotakis and his conservative New Democracy party won with a majority more than 20 percentage points ahead of the rival left-wing party.

Mitsotakis won an earlier election in May, but chose a second vote in hopes that voters would elect more members of his party.

KYRIAKOS MITSOTAKIS: [Speaking Greek]

Mitsotakis saying the second victory shows voters are giving his party the mandate to make changes.

The prime minister vowed to speed up reforms after campaigning on a platform of economic growth and political stability.

Honduras security measures — Next, to Honduras, where officials are responding to a recent wave of drug-related killings.

AUDIO: [Prison crackdown]

The military conducted prison sweeps on Monday and found ammunition, grenades, and guns.

Authorities approved checkpoints, raids, and curfews in the cities of Choloma and San Pedro Sula a day earlier.

Late on Saturday, at least 11 people died in a pool hall shooting in Choloma. Two days earlier, gunmen killed three people in a bakery in San Pedro Sula. And gang members killed 46 female inmates at a prison in central Honduras last week.

SANCHEZ: [Speaking Spanish]

Honduran Security Minister Gustavo Sánchez says the government sent a proposal to Congress to classify the gangs as terrorist organizations. Honduran President Xiomara Castro appointed Sanchez last week after dismissing his predecessor over the prison deaths.

Singapore Esports — We close today in Singapore where the first-ever Olympic Esports Series wrapped up on Sunday.

AUDIO: [Commentators]

More than 130 players from more than 60 countries battled it out in 10 virtual games. They include archery, cycling, chess, and dance.

ANNOUNCER: And the winner is…

French national Amandine Morisset won the Just Dance title.

AMANDINE MORISSET: This is for all the women that play video games, that play Just Dance: you are capable!

Unlike the regular Olympics, winners received trophies, not medals.

That’s it for this week’s World Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Ohikere in Abuja, Nigeria.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.