accuse

Nov. 25 (UPI) — The families of hundreds of U.S. citizens killed or injured by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, accuse cryptocurrency exchange Binance of supporting terrorism.

The families of 306 U.S. citizens harmed or killed during the attack filed a 272-page federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of North Dakota on Monday.

They say Malta-based Binance marketed its services to “terrorist organizations, narcotics traffickers and tax evaders” by emphasizing that Binance is “beyond the reach of any single country’s laws or regulations,” the lawsuit says, as reported by The New York Times.

The plaintiff families accused Binance of conducting transactions that totaled more than $1 billion on behalf of Hamas and other terrorist organizations.

Binance officials handled the transactions despite being warned of potential illegality by its compliance vendors and did not use common security checks, according to the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs also claim Binance willfully handled at least $50 million in transactions for Hamas, Hezbollah, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organizations after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israeli civilians that killed 1,200 and kidnapped 254 others.

The lawsuit was filed a month after President Donald Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao after he earlier pleaded guilty to money laundering charges, according to CNBC.

Zhao is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, along with Guangying Chen and Binance Holdings Ltd., who are accused of intentionally creating Binance to serve as a “criminal enterprise to facilitate money laundering on a global scale.”

The plaintiffs say the Binance officials knew Hamas and other designated foreign terrorist organizations regularly used the cryptoexchange and actively assisted them “at a time when Hamas, in particular, was publicly directing its donors to send funds” to its Binance cryptowallets.

Binance officials also disregarded filing required suspicious activity reports and manipulated how qualifying transactions were reported to prevent any scrutiny by U.S. banking regulators, the plaintiffs argue.

Binance “actively tried to shield its Hamas customers and their funds from scrutiny by U.S. regulators or law enforcement — a practice that continues to this day,” the plaintiff families say.

The plaintiffs seek compensatory damages in amounts to be determined at trial, treble damages due to alleged international terrorism-related activities, legal costs and other damages.

Binance officials told UPI they are aware of the federal complaint but cannot comment on active litigation.

The crypto exchange said it fully complies with internationally recognized sanctions laws and in 2025 had a direct exposure to illicit flows of less than 0.02% of platform volume, which it said is significantly below the industry average.

“We have invested hundreds of millions of dollars, expanded our global compliance-related workforce to over 1,280 specialists (22% of our entire workforce), and built real-time intelligence-sharing partnerships with law enforcement worldwide,” Binance said.

“We remain steadfast in our commitment to working with regulators, law enforcement and our users to protect the integrity of the global digital-asset ecosystem.”

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)’s armed forces have accused the M23/AFC rebels of undermining recent peace efforts, warning that renewed clashes threaten to derail fragile negotiations underway in Doha, Qatar, claiming it has taken the necessary steps to respond to these provocations. 

The M23 movement, largely composed of Congolese Tutsis, re-emerged in 2021 after years of inactivity, arguing they defend their communities against ethnic persecution. Kinshasa, however, accuses them of being backed by Rwanda — an allegation Kigali denies.

The Doha process, led by Qatar, focuses on securing a lasting ceasefire and prisoner exchanges between the Congolese government and the M23/AFC.

Sylvain Ekenge, the spokesperson for the DRC army, condemned serious violations of commitments made during the ongoing peace processes.

“Several positions of the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo were the targets of this coalition of terrorists in South Kivu. It is notably positioned in Bulambula and Kibanda Mangobo on the Walungu-Shabunda highway, the bridge over the Mudugwe River on the Walungu-Mwenga highway, as well as Tuwetuwe, which was attacked by the Twirwaneho militia on the Fizi-Minembwe highway,” Ekenge declared.

“In North Kivu, the attacks are concentrated in Kasopo and Kajinga within the Nyamaboko 1, Osso-Banyungu sector in Masisi territory, not forgetting the attempt to occupy Mount Irimwi towards Bunyatenge, in Lubero territory.”

Several media reports say that renewed clashes have displaced hundreds of civilians in Masisi and Walungu territories, with aid groups warning of worsening humanitarian conditions. More than seven million people have been displaced across eastern DRC due to persistent fighting, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). 

The army spokesperson stated that both the international community and American and Qatari negotiators have witnessed these events. 

While expressing its commitment to the peace process, the armed forces emphasised that they are fully prepared to combat the rebels, who are clearly unwilling to adhere to the terms of the peace accords they voluntarily signed.

The Congolese army made these claims in a statement released during the fourth meeting of the mixed committee responsible for monitoring the Washington Accord. The committee acknowledged the slow pace of progress so far and urged the parties involved to intensify their efforts to effectively implement the peace accord.

The M23/AFC has not yet responded to the latest accusations. However, the group has previously denied violating ceasefire terms, blaming government forces for renewed clashes.

During the recent deal, the participants agreed on several short-term actions, particularly the neutralisation of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda and its allies, the acceleration of the disengagement of forces, and the gradual lifting of defensive measures by Rwanda. They reviewed the preparations for joint operations in a specified area of interest and agreed on an implementation plan. 

They also acknowledged the efforts made by both parties to turn their commitments into concrete actions on the ground. The parties reiterated their commitment to refrain from any hostile actions or rhetoric, including in international forums, to maintain the peace dynamic established by the Washington Accord.

Qatar, acting as a mediator, provided an update on the status of negotiations currently underway in Doha between the DRC and the M23/AFC. The report showed significant progress in certain areas, particularly in the exchange of prisoners and the establishment of mechanisms to monitor the ceasefire, which was initially agreed upon on November 5, 2025.

The committee appreciated the progress made and reaffirmed its support for the Doha process, which is considered the essential pillar for implementing the Washington Accord and the progressive return of peace in the eastern DRC.

People fleeing el-Fasher for Al Dabbah tell Al Jazeera many died on the way from wounds or lack of food.

A Sudanese medical organisation has accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of engaging in a “desperate attempt” to conceal evidence of mass killings in Darfur by burning bodies or burying them in mass graves.

The Sudan Doctors Network said on Sunday that paramilitaries are collecting “hundreds of bodies” from the streets of el-Fasher, in Sudan’s western Darfur region, after their bloody takeover of the city on October 26, saying the group’s crimes could not be “erased through concealment or burning”.

“What happened in el-Fasher is not an isolated incident but rather another chapter in a full-fledged genocide carried out by the RSF, blatantly violating all international and religious norms that prohibit the mutilation of corpses and guarantee the dead the right to a dignified burial,” it said in a statement.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that 82,000 of el-Fasher’s total population of 260,000 fled after the RSF seized the last Sudanese military stronghold in the region, amid reports of mass killings, rape, and torture. Many residents are believed to still be trapped.

Reporting from the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan said many people fleeing el-Fasher for Al Dabbah in the north died on the road, “because they had no food or water, or because they sustained injuries as a result of gunfire”.

Morgan said that escapees told Al Jazeera they learned of the deaths of relatives from social media videos of their killings posted by RSF fighters. Several videos depicting extreme acts of violence have emerged in the public domain since the group overran the city.

Targeted ethnic killings

With the “communications blackout” in the city, many did not know what happened to their family members.

“They believe if their relatives are still alive inside el-Fasher, then they may not be so for long because of a lack of food and water… or because the RSF has been targeting people based on their ethnicities,” Morgan reported.

The RSF, which has been fighting the Sudanese army for control of Sudan since April 2023, traces its origins to the predominantly Arab, government-backed militia known as the “Janjaweed”, which has been accused of genocide in Darfur two decades ago.

Between 2003 and 2008, an estimated 300,000 people were killed, and nearly 2.7 million were displaced in campaigns of ethnic violence.

Sylvain Penicaud of Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, who spoke to civilians who fled el-Fasher for the town of Tawila, said many of those fleeing said they were “targeted because of the colour of their skin”.

“For me, the most terrifying part was [civilians] being hunted down while they were running for their lives; being attacked simply for being Black,” Penicaud said.

The Zaghawa, the dominant ethnic group in el-Fasher, has been fighting alongside the army since late 2023.

The group, which initially remained neutral when the war began, aligned with the military after the RSF carried out massacres against the Masalit tribe in West Darfur’s capital, el-Geneina, killing up to 15,000 people.

Hassan Osman, a university student from el-Fasher, said residents with darker skin, especially Zaghawa civilians, were subjected to “racial insults, humiliation, degradation and physical and psychological violence” as they fled.

“If your skin is light, they might let you go,” he said. “It’s purely ethnic.”