Russian missiles struck the heart of the Ukrainian city of Sumy as people gathered to celebrate Palm Sunday, killing at least 34 people, officials said, in the second large-scale attack to claim civilian lives in just over a week.

The two ballistic missiles hit around 10:15 a.m., officials said. Images from the scene showed lines of black body bags on the side of the road, while more bodies were seen wrapped in foil blankets among the debris. Video footage also showed fire crews fighting to extinguish the shells of burned-out cars among the rubble from damaged buildings.

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Myanmar’s junta conducted 92 shelling attacks and airstrikes between March 28 to April 8, killing 72 people and injuring 91 amid the earthquake devastation, according to the Human Rights Ministry of the civilian National Unity Government (NUG).

The ministry on Wednesday said Sagaing and Mandalay regions, which were severely impacted by the 7.7-magnitude earthquake, reported the highest numbers of junta attacks, with 18 shelling attacks and airstrikes in each region.

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UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk today expressed shock at an attack by Russian armed forces on the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih which reportedly killed 18 people, including nine children, most of whom were playing in a park.

A team from the UN Human Rights Office in Ukraine visited the impact site on Saturday, documented the damage, and established the names and identity of the killed children. It is the deadliest single strike harming children which the Office has verified since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.

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Hundreds of thousands of fleeing Gazans sought shelter on Thursday in one of the biggest mass displacements of the war, as Israeli forces advanced into the ruins of the city of Rafah, part of a newly announced “security zone” they intend to seize.

A day after declaring their intention to capture large swathes of the crowded enclave, Israeli forces pushed into the city on Gaza’s southern edge which had served as a last refuge for people fleeing other areas for much of the war.

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The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government and the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have agreed to direct peace talks, set to take place on 9 April in Doha, Qatar.

This marks a significant step towards resolving one of Central Africa’s most enduring and violent conflicts, which has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and caused widespread destruction in the region.

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