N.Korea May Be Behind New $100 Mln Cryptocurrency Hack, Experts Say

 North Korean hackers are most likely behind an attack last week that stole as much as $100 million in cryptocurrency from a U.S. company, three digital investigative firms have concluded.

The cryptoassets were stolen on June 23 from Horizon Bridge, a service operated by the Harmony blockchain that allows assets to be transferred to other blockchains.

Since then, activity by the hackers suggests they may be linked to North Korea, which experts say is among the most prolific cyber attackers. U.N. sanctions monitors says Pyongyang uses the stolen funds to support its nuclear and missile programmes.

The style of attack and high velocity of structured payments to a mixer – used to obscure the origin of funds – is similar to previous attacks that were attributed to North Korea-linked actors, Chainalysis, a blockchain firm working with Harmony to investigate the attack, said on Twitter on Tuesday.

That conclusion was echoed by other investigators.

“Preliminarily this looks like a North Korean hack based on transaction behaviour,” said Nick Carlsen, a former FBI analyst who now investigates North Korea’s cryptocurrency heists for TRM Labs, a U.S.-based firm.

There are strong indications that North Korea’s Lazarus Group may be responsible for this theft, based on the nature of the hack and the subsequent laundering of the stolen funds, another firm, Elliptic, said in a report on Thursday.

“The thief is attempting to break the transaction trail back to the original theft,” the report said. “This makes it easier to cash out the funds at an exchange.”

If confirmed, the attack would be the eighth exploit this year – totalling $1 billion in stolen funds – that could be attributed to North Korea with confidence, accounting for 60% of total funds stolen in 2022, Chainalysis said.

North Korea’s ability to cash in on its stolen assets may have been complicated by the recent drop in cryptocurrency values, experts and South Korean officials told Reuters, possibly threatening a key source of funding for the sanctions-strapped country.

Source: Reuters

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Nigerian gay asylum seekers among deportees from UK

 The authorities in Nigeria say they are expecting to receive at least 38 Nigerians who are being deported from the United Kingdom.

The deportees include members of LGBTQ+ communities who had sought asylum in the UK.

Others are mothers, grandmothers and people who had lived in the UK for decades.

They are scheduled to arrive in Lagos early on Thursday morning on a controversial Home Office charter flight.

There are indications some Ghanaian nationals who are also being deported might be on the flight.

Nigeria’s foreign affairs ministry told the BBC that the affected persons were being sent back to the country because of immigration-related offences.

Human rights campaigners in the UK say they are concerned about the welfare of the deportees.

They say about 10 women among the deportees are suffering from severe mental health problems and are on anti-psychotic medication.

Campaigners believe some of the affected persons could face persecution – either because of their religion or on the basis of their sexual orientation.

On Wednesday protesters gathered in County Durham in north-east England to demand that they remain in Britain.

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Patrice Lumumba: DR Congo buries tooth of independence hero

 A ceremony is being held in the Democratic Republic of Congo to bury the gold-crowned tooth of independence hero Patrice Lumumba more than 60 years after he was assassinated.

It is the only part of his body that exists after his remains were dissolved in acid.

The Belgian policeman who oversaw the disposal took the tooth as a trophy.

It was returned to the family last week and has toured several parts of DR Congo in a coffin.

People have been able to pay their respects ahead of the funeral that is taking place in the capital, Kinshasa.

President Félix Tshisekedi, Lumumba’s family and other dignitaries are at the service which is taking place before the coffin is transferred to a specially built mausoleum.

Lumumba was the country’s first prime minister and one of the leaders of the struggle for independence. He was also seen as one of the most prominent voices in Africa’s anti-colonial movement.

Thursday marks 62 years since the former colonial power Belgium relinquished control of the vast country.

But it viewed Lumumba as a barrier to its efforts to maintain influence as well as hold on to important economic interests.

In a famous speech on independence day in 1960, in front of Belgian dignitaries including King Baudouin, Lumumba castigated Belgium saying that the Congolese had been held in “humiliating slavery”.

The Belgians were stunned as a black African had never dared speak like this in front of Europeans.

Lumumba was toppled as prime minister just over two months later. Then in January 1961, with the tacit backing of Belgium, he was shot by a firing squad, along with two allies.

Belgian policeman Gerard Soete kept the tooth in a padded box in his home in Belgium

A Belgian policeman, Gerard Soete, was given the job of getting rid of the evidence. It was during that process that he pocketed the tooth and took it back with him to Belgium.

It was decades later that he revealed that he still had the tooth and only two years ago that Belgium agreed that it should be returned to the family.

The Covid pandemic delayed the process but last week it was handed over in Brussels.

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Angola ex-president Dos Santos placed in coma – reports

 Angola’s immediate former president, José Eduardo dos Santos, is in an induced coma in a hospital in Barcelona, a Portuguese news agency is reporting.

“José Eduardo dos Santos is hospitalised in a clinic in Barcelona and is in a coma following a [relapse], after recovering from Covid-19,” said Portugal’s state-owned Lusa News Agency, which extensively covers developments in Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa.

There has been increased speculation about Mr Dos Santos’ health, with Portuguese Expresso Newspaper describing his medical condition as “irreversible”.

Meanwhile, the former president’s daughter, Tchizé dos Santos, has criticised “those preparing his funeral”.

She also accused Angola’s President João Lourenço of politicising his father’s situation.

José Eduardo dos Santos served as the president of Angola from 1979 to 2017.

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Woman Made To Cook And Eat Human Flesh, Congo Group Tells U.N.

 

A Congolese woman was kidnapped twice by militants in the Democratic Republic of Congo, repeatedly raped and forced to cook and eat human flesh, a Congolese rights group told the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday.

Julienne Lusenge, president of women’s rights group Female Solidarity for Integrated Peace and Development (SOFEPADI), told the woman’s story while addressing the 15-member council about the conflict-torn east of Congo.

The U.N. Security Council was meeting for a regular briefing on Congo, where heavy fighting between the government and rebel groups since late May has sparked a surge in violence. read more

Lusenge said the woman was kidnapped by CODECO militants when she went to pay a ransom for another kidnapped family member. The woman told the rights group that she was repeatedly raped and physically abused. Then she said the militants slit a man’s throat.

“They pulled out his entrails and they asked me to cook them. They brought me two water containers to prepare the rest of the meal. They then fed all of the prisoners human flesh,” Lusenge told the Security Council, recounting the woman’s story.

Lusenge said the woman was released after a few days, but while trying to return home was kidnapped by another militia group whose members also repeatedly raped her.

“Again I was asked to cook and eat human flesh,” the woman, who eventually escaped, told SOFEPADI.

Lusenge did not name the second militant group during her council briefing. CODECO could not be reached for comment.

CODECO is one of several armed militias that have long been fighting over land and resources in Congo’s mineral-rich east – a conflict that has killed thousands and displaced millions over the past decade.

Congo’s army has been locked in heavy fighting since late May with the M23 rebel group, which is waging its most sustained offensive since a 2012-2013 insurrection that seized vast swathes of territory.

U.N. peacekeepers have been deployed in Congo for more than 20 years.

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Sudanese killed in anti-military protests

 A Sudanese doctors’ union said a protester was killed during anti-military demonstrations on Wednesday in Khartoum Bahri, after security forces used excessive force.

“A martyr, who was not identified, has died after he was shot in the chest by the forces of darkness”, the Central Council of Sudanese Doctors (CCSD) said in a statement on Facebook.

The doctors said that the security forces “used excessive force, thinking they could silence the growing revolution”.

The CCSD said “this brings the death toll to 103”, as a result of the crackdown against the pro-democracy demonstrations prompted by the last October’s military coup.

Activists have planned another nationwide protest for Thursday to press for civilian rule.

Reports say authorities have already taken a number of measures ahead of the protests, including the deployment of security forces, closure of bridges, and a possible disconnection of the internet.

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Chad says $20m lost at state-owned hydrocarbons firm

 The authorities in Chad have said more than $20m (£16m) was allegedly embezzled from a state-owned hydrocarbons company.n

Information Minister Abderaman Koulamallah made the accusation on national television on Wednesday.

But a bank named in the alleged scandal has threatened to sue for defamation and has strongly denied any involvement in the transactions in question.

The minister – who is also the government spokesman – said “there was an investigation which led to the revelation of embezzlement at the Société des Hydrocarbures du Tchad”.

The government had appointed a new head and deputy two days before the announcement.

The former managers were arrested by the Chadian intelligence services.

The opposition party has asked for a change in the transition team governing the country following the death of President Idriss Déby in April last year.

On Tuesday, the UN World Food Programme warned that one in 10 Chadian children suffer from malnutrition. In June, the head of the transitional military council, Mahamat Déby Itno – son of the former president, declared a food emergency in the country.

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