title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: The Special Jurisdiction of Peace ("Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz", JEP) would be the transitional justice component of the Comprehensive System, complying with Colombia's duty to investigate, clarify, prosecute and punish serious human rights violations and grave breaches of international humanitarian law which occurred during the armed conflict. Its objectives would be to satisfy victims' right to justice, offer truth to the public, contribute to the reparation of victims, contribute to the fight against impunity, adopt decisions which give full legal security to direct and indirect participants in the conflict and contribute to the achievement of a stable and lasting peace. At the end of a six-day visit to Colombia, on 9 October 2017 the UN Assistant Secretary-General for human rights Andrew Gilmour issued statement welcoming progress in the demobilization and disarmament of the FARC. However, he expressed, "concern about problems in the implementation of the accords which relate to the continued attacks against human rights defenders and community leaders."


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: On 20 July 2019, ten former FARC members, including former senior leader Pablo Catatumbo, were sworn in as members of the Congress of Colombia. All of these ex-rebels are members of the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force political party. Five of these ten ex FARC rebels were sworn in as members of the House of Representatives, while the other five were sworn in as members of the Senate. As part of the peace agreement, these ten seats will remain under control of members from the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force until 2026.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: In a video published on 29 August 2019, former second-in-command FARC leader Iván Márquez announced his return to arms in the name of the guerrilla movement. Márquez denounced that the Government did not comply with its part of the Havana accord, with 667 local activists and 150 former guerrillas killed since the peace accord was signed. This position was criticized by former FARC supreme leader Rodrigo Londoño, who assured that his party remains committed to peace agreements and that "[m]ore than 90 percent of former FARC guerrillas remain committed to the peace process". Londoño also criticized Márquez, stating that the majority of former guerrillas killed were FARC dissidents who continued armed actions.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: After the announcement, President Iván Duque authorized the Joint Special Operations Command to start an offensive operation. Government forces conducted a bombing raid in San Vicente del Caguán in which twelve people identified as FARC dissidents were killed. According to Duque, one of them, Gildardo Cucho, was the leader of the group which would be joining Iván Márquez in the rearmament. Duque also accused Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro of assisting FARC and providing a safe haven for militants in Venezuela.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: A Truth Commission report released in 2022 shows that the drug trafficking charges against Jesús Santrich and his arrest in 2019 were a plot by the DEA and Colombian Attorney General Néstor Humberto Martínez to jeopardize the peace agreement, incite the FARC to take up arms again, and send a message to the public that the peace agreement had failed.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: General Luis Fernando Navarro asserted on January 5, 2021 that FARC lost 1,500 members in 2020. The number includes deaths, capture, and desertions. He said the FARC still had 2,500 armed members.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: FARC received most of its funding—which was estimated to average some US$300 million per year—from taxation of the illegal drug trade and other activities, ransom kidnappings, bank robberies, and extortion of large landholders, multinational corporations, and agribusiness. From taxation of illegal drugs and other economic activity, FARC was estimated to receive US$60–100 million per year.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: The guerillas's main means of financing was through the drug trade which includes both direct and indirect participation; taxation, administration or control of areas of production and trafficking. A large but often difficult to estimate portion of funding comes from the taxation of businesses and even local farmers, often lumped in with or defined by its opponents as extortion.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: FARC was not initially involved in direct drug cultivation, trafficking, or trans-shipment prior to or during the 1980s. Instead, it maintained a system of taxation on the production that took place in the territories that they controlled, in exchange for protecting the growers and establishing law and order in these regions by implementing its own rules and regulations. During the 1990s, FARC expanded its operations, in some areas, to include trafficking and production, which had provided a significant portion of its funding. Right-wing paramilitary groups also receive a large portion of their income from drug trafficking and production operations.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: A 1992 Central Intelligence Agency report "acknowledged that the FARC had become increasingly involved in drugs through their "taxing" of the trade in areas under their geographical control and that in some cases the insurgents protected trafficking infrastructure to further fund their insurgency", but also described the relationship between the FARC and the drug traffickers as one "characterized by both cooperation and friction"" and concluded that ""we do not believe that the drug industry [in Colombia] would be substantially disrupted in the short term by attacks against guerrillas. Indeed, many traffickers would probably welcome, and even assist, increased operations against insurgents."


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: In 1994, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) came to three similar conclusions. First, that any connections between drug trafficking organizations and Colombian insurgents were "ad hoc 'alliances of convenience'". Second, that "the independent involvement of insurgents in Colombia's domestic drug productions, transportation, and distribution is limited ... there is no evidence that the national leadership of either the FARC or the ELN has directed, as a matter of policy, that their respective organizations directly engage in independent illicit drug production, transportation, or distribution." Third, the report determined that the DEA "has no evidence that the FARC or ELN have been involved in the transportation, distribution, or marketing of illegal drugs in the United States. Furthermore it is doubtful that either insurgent group could develop the international transportation and logistics infrastructure necessary to establish independent drug distribution in the United States or Europe ... DEA believes that the insurgents never will be major players in Colombia's drug trade."


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: FARC had called for crop substitution programs that would allow coca farmers to find alternative means of income and subsistence. In 1999, FARC worked with a United Nations alternative development project to enable the transition from coca production to sustainable food production. On its own, the group had also implemented agrarian reform programs in Putumayo.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: In those FARC controlled territories that do produce coca, it is generally grown by peasants on small plots; in paramilitary or government controlled areas, coca is generally grown on large plantations. The FARC-EP generally made sure that peasant coca growers receive a much larger share of profits than the paramilitaries would give them, and demanded that traffickers pay a decent wage to their workers. When growers in a FARC-controlled area were caught selling coca to non-FARC brokers, they were generally forced to leave the region, but when growers were caught selling to FARC in paramilitary-controlled areas, they were generally killed. Lower prices paid for raw coca in paramilitary-controlled areas lead to significantly larger profits for the drug processing and trafficking organizations, which means that they generally prefer that paramilitaries control an area rather than FARC.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: In 2000, FARC Spokesman Simon Trinidad said that taxes on drug laboratories represented an important part of the organization's income, although he didn't say how much it was. He defended this funding source, arguing that drug trade was endemic in Colombia because it had pervaded many sectors of its economy.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: After 21 April 2001 capture of Brazilian drug lord Luiz Fernando da Costa (a.k.a. Fernandinho Beira-Mar) in Colombia, Colombian and Brazilian authorities accused him of cooperating with FARC-EP through the exchange of weapons for cocaine. They also claimed that he received armed protection from the guerrilla group.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: On 18 March 2002 the Attorney General of the United States John Ashcroft indicted leaders of the FARC after an 18-month investigation into their narcotics trafficking. Tomás Molina Caracas, the commander of the FARC's 16th Front, led the 16th Front's drug-trafficking activities together with Carlos Bolas and a rebel known as Oscar El Negro. Between 1994 and 2001, Molina and other 16th Front members controlled Barranco Minas, where they collected cocaine from other FARC fronts to sell it to international drug traffickers for payment in currency, weapons and equipment.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: On 22 March 2006 the Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced the indictment of fifty leaders of FARC for exporting more than $25 billion worth of cocaine to the United States and other countries. Several of the FARC leaders appeared on the Justice Department's Consolidated Priority Organization target list, which identifies the most dangerous international drug trafficking organizations. Recognizing the increased profits, the FARC moved to become directly involved in the manufacture and distribution of cocaine by setting the price paid for cocaine paste and transporting it to jungle laboratories under FARC control. The charged FARC leaders ordered that Colombian farmers who sold paste to non-FARC buyers would be murdered and that U.S. fumigation planes should be shot down.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: On 11 October 2012 Jamal Yousef, a.k.a. "Talal Hassan Ghantou", a native of Lebanon, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for conspiring to provide military-grade weapons to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (the FARC), in exchange for over a ton of cocaine. Yousef pleaded guilty in May 2012 to one count of providing material support to the FARC.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: The FARC-EP carried out both ransom and politically motivated kidnappings in Colombia and was responsible for the majority of such kidnappings carried out in the country.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: The guerrillas initially targeted the families of drug traffickers, the wealthy upper-class and foreigners but the group later expanded its kidnapping and extortion operations to include the middle-class.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: During the 1984 peace negotiations, FARC pledged to stop kidnapping and condemned the practice. However, hostage-taking by FARC increased in the years following this declaration. In a 1997 interview, FARC-EP Commander Alfonso Cano argued that some guerrilla units continued to do so for "political and economic reasons" in spite of the prohibition issued by the leadership.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: In 2000, the FARC-EP issued a directive called "Law 002" which demanded a "tax" from all individuals and corporations with assets worth at least US$1 million, warning that those who failed to pay would be detained by the group. In 2001, FARC Commander Simón Trinidad claimed that the FARC-EP does not engage in kidnapping but instead "retains [individuals] in order to obtain resources needed for our struggle". Commander Trinidad said he did not know how many people had been taken by FARC or how much money was collected by the organization in exchange for their freedom. In addition, FARC spokesperson Joaquín Gómez stated that the payment demanded was a tax which many people paid "voluntarily", with kidnapping undertaken because "those who have the resources must pay their share".


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: In 2002, Amnesty International sent a letter to FARC-EP Commander Manuel Marulanda condemning kidnapping and hostage-taking as well as rejecting the threats directed at municipal or judicial officials and their families, arguing that they are civilians who are protected by international humanitarian law as long as they do not participate in hostilities.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: According to Amnesty International, the number of kidnappings decreased in the last years of the conflict, but the human rights organization estimated that FARC and ELN guerrillas continued to be behind hundreds of cases until their disarming. In 2008, press reports estimated that about 700 hostages continued to be held captive by FARC. According to the "Fundación País Libre" anti-kidnapping NGO, an estimated total of 6,778 people were kidnapped by FARC between 1997 and 2007. In 2009, the state's anti-kidnapping agency "Fondelibertad" reviewed 3,307 officially unsettled cases and removed those that had already been resolved or for which there was insufficient information. The agency concluded that 125 hostages remained in captivity nationwide of whom 66 were being held by the FARC–EP. The government's revised figures were considered "absurdly low" by "Fundación País Libre", which has argued that its own archives suggest an estimated 1,617 people taken hostage between 2000 and 2008 remain in the hands of their captors, including hundreds seized by FARC. FARC claimed at the time that it was holding nine people for ransom in addition to hostages kept for a prisoner exchange.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: In 2008, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez expressed his disagreement with FARC-EP's resorting to kidnappings. Former President Fidel Castro of Cuba also criticized the use of hostage-taking by the guerrillas as "objectively cruel" and suggested that the group free all of its prisoners and hostages.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: In February 2012, FARC announced that it would release ten members of the security forces, who it described as political prisoners, representing the last such captives in its custody. It further announced the repeal of Law 002, bringing to an end its support for the practice of kidnapping for ransom. However, it was not clear from the FARC statement what would happen to the civilians it still held in captivity. Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos used Twitter to welcome the move as a "necessary, if insufficient, step in the right direction".


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: FARC was accused of committing violations of human rights by numerous groups, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the United Nations as well as by the Colombian, U.S. and European Union governments.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: A February 2005 report from the United Nations' High Commissioner for Human Rights mentioned that, during 2004, "FARC-EP continued to commit grave breaches [of human rights] such as murders of protected persons, torture and hostage-taking, which affected many civilians, including men, women, returnees, boys and girls, and ethnic groups."


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: FARC consistently carried out attacks against civilians specifically targeting suspected supporters of paramilitary groups, political adversaries, journalists, local leaders, and members of certain indigenous groups since at least as early as 1994. From 1994 to 1997 the region of Urabá in Antioquia Department was the site of FARC attacks against civilians. FARC has also executed civilians for failing to pay "war taxes" to their group.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: In 2001, Human Rights Watch (HRW) announced that the FARC-EP had abducted and executed civilians accused of supporting paramilitary groups in the demilitarized zone and elsewhere, without providing any legal defense mechanisms to the suspects and generally refusing to give any information to relatives of the victims. The human rights NGO directly investigated three such cases and received additional information about over twenty possible executions during a visit to the zone.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: According to HRW, those extrajudicial executions would qualify as forced disappearances if they had been carried out by agents of the government or on its behalf, but nevertheless remained "blatant violations of the FARC-EP's obligations under international humanitarian law and in particular key provisions of article 4 of Protocol II, which protects against violence to the life, physical, and mental well-being of persons, torture, and ill-treatment".


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: The Colombian human rights organization CINEP reported that FARC-EP killed an estimated total of 496 civilians during 2000.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: The FARC-EP has employed a type of improvised mortars made from gas canisters (or cylinders), when launching attacks.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: According to Human Rights Watch, the FARC-EP has killed civilians not involved in the conflict through the use of gas cylinder mortars and its use of landmines.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: Human Rights Watch considers that "the FARC-EP's continued use of gas cylinder mortars shows this armed group's flagrant disregard for lives of civilians...gas cylinder bombs are impossible to aim with accuracy and, as a result, frequently strike civilian objects and cause avoidable civilian casualties."


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: According to the ICBL Landmine and Cluster Munitions Monitor, "FARC is probably the most prolific current user of antipersonnel mines among rebel groups anywhere in the world." Furthermore, FARC use child soldiers to carry and deploy antipersonnel mines.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: Female membership of the group is around 30 to 40 percent and while FARC's official policy forbids sexual assault of any kind, female members have experienced rape, sex slavery, and forced abortions. In a 2011 Colombia Police report, 112 women had deserted FARC and reported instances of being forced to have sex with commanding officers which lead to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases as well as pregnancy. Members who became pregnant were forced to have abortions at any stage of gestation, with an estimated 80 to 90 percent of ex-FARC female members having had at least one abortion, some having up to four. The report also claims that girls as young as 13 were recruited by FARC to fill a quota of women because “The women are [considered] necessary to maintain the discipline of the FARC." In an interview with Reuters, Claudia Roa, who joined FARC when she was 14, told how she was unknowingly given pills to induce birth when she was 8 months pregnant, after which her child was suffocated to death. According to Rao, many other women faced similar treatment, but those who became girlfriends to commanders were awarded special privileges, including the right to have children. One Colombian newspaper, after reviewing uncovered FARC documents and speaking with investigators, estimated that 1,000 forced abortions occur each year in FARC camps. In 2015, the Colombian attorney general opened an investigation into 150 cases of ex-FARC women being forced to terminate their pregnancies.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: FARC sometimes threatened or assassinated indigenous Colombian leaders for attempting to prevent FARC incursions into their territory and resisting the forcible recruitment by FARC of indigenous youth. Between 1986 and 2001, FARC was responsible for 27 assassinations, 15 threats, and 14 other abuses of indigenous people in Antioquia Department.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: In March 1999 members of a local FARC contingent killed 3 indigenous rights activists, who were working with the U'Wa people to build a school for U'Wa children, and were fighting against encroachment of U'Wa territory by multinational oil corporations. The killings were almost universally condemned, and seriously harmed public perceptions of FARC.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: Members of indigenous groups have demanded the removal of military bases set up by the Colombian government and guerrilla encampments established by FARC in their territories, claiming that both the Colombian National Army and the FARC should respect indigenous autonomy and international humanitarian law. According to a 2012 research from the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC), 80,000 members of indigenous communities have been displaced from their native lands since 2004 because of FARC-related violence.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: Luis Evelis, an indigenous leader and ONIC representative, has stated that "the armed conflict is still in force, causing damages to the indigenous. Our territories are self-governed and we demand our autonomy. During the year 2011, fifty-six indigenous people have been killed." The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has indicated that no military activities may be carried out within indigenous territories without first undertaking an "effective consultation" with indigenous representatives and authorities from the communities involved.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: The Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC) issued a statement concerning the release of two hostages taken by FARC in 2011: "Compared to past statements made by the national government, it is important to reiterate that the presence of armed groups in our territories is a fact that has been imposed by force of arms, against which our communities and their leaders have remained in peaceful resistance." The CRIC also indicated that neither the Colombian government nor the mediators and armed groups involved consulted with the indigenous people and their authorities about the hostage release, raising concerns about the application of national and international law guaranteeing their autonomy, self-determination and self-government. The indigenous organization also demanded the immediate end of all violence and conflict within indigenous territories and called for a negotiated solution to the war.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: Official Colombian government statistics show that murders of indigenous people between January and May 2011 have increased 38% compared to the same timeframe in 2010. Colombia is home to nearly 1 million indigenous people, divided into around 100 different ethnicities. The Colombian Constitutional Court has warned that 35 of those groups are in danger of dying out. The Permanent Assembly for the Defense of Life and Territorial Control has stated that the armed conflict "is not only part of one or two areas, it is a problem of all the indigenous people."


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: FARC–EP was the largest and oldest insurgent group in the Americas. According to the Colombian government, FARC–EP had an estimated 6,000–8,000 members in 2008, down from 16,000 in 2001, and lost much of its fighting force since President Álvaro Uribe took office in 2002. Political analyst and former guerrilla estimated that FARC's numbers were reduced to around 11,000 from their 18,000 peak but cautioned against considering the group a defeated force. In 2007, FARC–EP Commander Raúl Reyes claimed that their force consisted of 18,000 guerrillas.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: According to a report from Human Rights Watch in 2006, approximately 10–15% of the recruits were minors, some of whom were forced to join the FARC, while women comprise around 40 percent of the guerilla army.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: The FARC–EP secretariat was led by Alfonso Cano and six others after the death of Manuel Marulanda (Pedro Antonio Marín), also known as "Tirofijo", or Sureshot, in 2008. The "international spokesman" of the organization was Raúl Reyes, who was killed in a Colombian army raid against a guerrilla camp in Ecuador on 1 March 2008. Cano was killed in a military operation on 4 November 2011.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: FARC–EP was open to a negotiated solution to the nation's conflict through dialogue with a flexible government that agreed to certain conditions, such as the demilitarization of certain areas, cessation of paramilitary and government violence against rural peasants, social reforms to reduce poverty and inequality, and the release of all jailed (and extradited) FARC–EP rebels. It said that until these conditions surfaced, the armed revolutionary struggle would remain necessary to fight against Colombia's elites. The FARC–EP said it would continue its armed struggle because it perceived the Colombian government as an enemy because of historical politically motivated violence against its members and supporters, including members of the Patriotic Union, a FARC–EP-created political party.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: The largest concentrations of FARC–EP guerrillas were located in the southeastern parts of Colombia's of jungle and in the plains at the base of the Andean mountains. However, the FARC and the ELN lost control of much of their territory, especially in urban areas, forcing them to relocate to remote areas in the jungle and the mountains.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: Relations between the FARC-EP and local populations vary greatly depending on the history and specific characteristics of each region. In rural areas where the guerrillas have maintained a continuous presence for several decades, there are often organic links between the FARC and peasant communities. Such ties include shared generational membership and historical struggles dating back to the period of "La Violencia". These areas have traditionally been located in the departments of Caquetá, Meta, Guaviare and Putumayo, and – to a lesser extent – portions of Huila, Tolima and Nariño. Within remote locations under FARC control and where the national government is generally absent, the group can function as a revolutionary vanguard and institutes its "de facto" rule of law by carrying out activities that aim to combat corruption and reduce small-scale crime.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: The FARC had also been able to provide limited social services in these regions, such as health care and education, including building minor infrastructure works in the form of rural roads. Peasants who have grown up in areas under historical FARC control may become accustomed to accepting them as the local authority. The guerrillas also attempt to keep the peace between peasants and drug traffickers in addition to regulating other aspects of daily life and economics.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: In other rural regions of the country, where a FARC presence had only been established within the last twenty years of the conflict and primarily remained military in nature, there was often a level of distrust between FARC rebels and the local peasant communities, which lack historical ties to the group. Civilians in these locations also tended to get caught in the middle of the conflict between FARC and its government or paramilitary opponents. In the populated urban areas where the Colombian state has maintained a solid historical presence, some FARC sympathies may have existed in the poorest neighborhoods and among certain progressive sectors of the middle class, but most city inhabitants tended to view the guerrillas as one of Colombia's main problems.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: By the end of 2010, FARC-EP influence was significantly reduced in the regions where it had only carried out a recent military-focused expansion during the 1980s and 1990s, in part due to the failure to establish close social ties with local populations. Government offensives eradicated much of the visible guerrilla presence in northern and central Colombia as well as in Guainía, Vaupés and Amazonas, limiting FARC to clandestine operations. Similar military setbacks and retreats occurred even within its traditional strongholds, forcing the FARC to move towards the most remote areas, but there the guerrillas did appear to maintain popular support among the peasants that had developed organic links to the insurgency.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: The FARC dissidents refers to a group formerly part of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, who have refused to lay down their arms after the FARC-government peace treaty came into effect in 2016. The dissidents number some 1,200 armed combatants with an unknown number of civilian militia supporting them. The FARC dissidents have become "an increasing headache" for the Colombian armed forces, as they have to fight them, the EPL, ELN and Clan del Golfo at the same time. FARC dissidents are led by former mid-level commanders such as alias Gentil Duarte, alias Euclides Mora, alias John 40, alias Giovanny Chuspas y alias Julián Chollo. The FARC dissidents have been responsible for several attacks on the Colombian armed forces. Dissidents of FARC's 1st Front are located in the eastern plains of Colombia. John 40 and their dissident 43rd Front moved into the Amazonas state of western Venezuela. Venezuela has served as the primary location for many FARC dissidents.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: On 15 July 2018, the Colombian and Peruvian governments launched a joint military effort known as Operation Armageddon to combat FARC dissidents. Peru issued a 60-day state of emergency in the Putumayo Province, an area bordering both Colombia and Ecuador. On the first day alone, more than 50 individuals were arrested in the operation, with the majority being Colombian nationals, while four cocaine labs were dismantled.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: The FARC were a violent non-state actor (VNSA) whose formal recognition as legitimate belligerent forces is disputed by some organizations. As such, the FARC has been classified as a terrorist organization by the governments of Colombia, (since 1997) the United States (until 2021), Canada, Chile, (since 2010) New Zealand, Venezuela (Guaido-led government, since 2019) and (until 2016) the European Union; whereas the governments of Venezuela (Maduro-led government), Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, and Nicaragua do not. In 2008, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez recognized the FARC–EP as a proper army. President Chávez also asked the Colombian government and their allies to recognize the FARC as a belligerent force, arguing that such political recognition would oblige the FARC to forgo kidnapping and terrorism as methods of civil war and to abide by the Geneva Convention. Juan Manuel Santos followed a middle path by recognizing in 2011 that there is an "armed conflict" in Colombia although his predecessor, Álvaro Uribe, strongly disagreed.


title: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

text: The FARC built a deep relationship with the Gaddafi government in Libya, throughout the 1990s and 2000s until the latter's overthrow in 2011. The FARC in 2000 requested a $100 million loan from Tripoli, FARC commanders were hosted in Libya and FARC soldiers were allegedly seen fighting for Gaddafi in the First Libyan Civil War.


title: Scorn (video game)

text: Scorn is a first-person biopunk survival horror adventure video game developed by Serbian developer Ebb Software for Microsoft Windows and Xbox Series X/S. The game is inspired by the works of visual artists H. R. Giger and Zdzisław Beksiński. The game was released on 14 October 2022 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox Series X/S.


title: Scorn (video game)

text: The game director wanted to study the "Space Jockey" from the film "Alien", the pilot of the crashed spaceship on planet LV-426. The technology and the living tissue all look as if it’s part of one thing; everything within the game abides by this idea of solid materials impregnated with organic growths. Scorn’s world aesthetic was also inspired by the work of Zdzisław Beksiński. On the alien planet, the engineers, "Homunculi", waged war against the two own split factions; one faction built cyborgs from bodies, while the other made militarized robotic exosuits.


title: Scorn (video game)

text: The story takes place after the war, on the ruined planet, between two silent protagonists in a factory called the Assembly, a recycling plant that repurposes living things. The first awakens and attempts to cross a wasteland heading towards the looming citadel Polis seen in the distance before falling down a massive crevasse, and later mutates into the form of a parasite. The second emerges from an egg-like structure, before entering a transportation hub that has been infested with hostile entities.


title: Scorn (video game)

text: During this time, the protagonist is attacked and seemingly infested by a parasite, which allows the protagonist to use several weapons and machines, but regularly wounds them and apparently grows tendril-like roots that gradually cover their body. The protagonist reaches a central elevator that has been enveloped by a massive creature with a vaguely humanoid head. Reactivating the elevator kills the creature but allows the protagonist access to a skyway to reach an apparent temple previously seen in the distance.


title: Scorn (video game)

text: Exploring the temple, the parasite nearly fully envelops the protagonist, forcing it to use a machine to remove it. During this process, it is heavily implied that the parasite is actually the first protagonist. Just before it is removed, the parasite disembowels the protagonist, who staggers to another medical device that connects them to an apparent hive mind within the temple. Controlling an android of sorts, the protagonist attempts to carry their own body towards a swirling energy field, but gets attacked by the parasite again.


title: Scorn (video game)

text: The player controls a humanoid lost in a nightmarish world filled with odd creatures and living techno-organic structures composed of machines, flesh, and bone. Over the course of the game, they must explore different interconnected regions in a non-linear fashion, searching for answers that will explain more about the game's world.


title: Scorn (video game)

text: Gameplay is primarily split between exploration and combat. Exploration also involves occasional environmental puzzles to progress. For combat, the game presents various biomechanical weapons that all attach to a modular base: to utilize a specific weapon, the player character must remove the current weapon from the base and replace it with another. The game features four weapons: A melee weapon similar to a pneumatic drill, which can also be used to power machinery at specific points; a pistol-like weapon, which can be used for accurate shots; a shotgun-like weapon, which has high damage at close range, but a low ammo capacity; and an implosive grenade launcher, mostly used for environmental destruction in the context of puzzles.


title: Scorn (video game)

text: Ebb Software is a Serbian game development studio founded in 2013. The developers claim to have designed the game around the idea of "being thrown into the world", and as such, very little context is given about the game's setting. They also explained that they want the unsettling environment to be a character itself.


title: Scorn (video game)

text: The game was announced on 12 November 2014, with a trailer showing pre-alpha footage, followed by a Kickstarter campaign in December 2014, which ended unsuccessfully; despite this, the game remained in development with a planned two-part release. In January 2015, "Scorn" received private funding from an investor and full production started in February 2015. The game was planned to be released in two parts, with only the first part being announced as "Dasein" ( , a German word that means "being there" in vernacular German (German: "da" "there"; "sein" "being"), and "being-in-the-world" in Martin Heidegger's philosophy). In August 2018, the production team announced that they would launch the game as a whole, instead of in parts, although no concrete release date was announced.


title: Scorn (video game)

text: In 2017, Ebb Software launched a second Kickstarter, which reached its goal of €150,000 in September of that year.


title: Scorn (video game)

text: On 7 May 2020, it was announced that the game would be published on PC and have timed console exclusivity on Xbox Series X/S, running in 4K and 60fps, and would not be released on the previous generation of consoles as the developer team did not want to spend development time on what would be a sub-par version of the game. "Scorn" was also released on Steam, Windows Store, and GOG.


title: Scorn (video game)

text: "Scorn" received "mixed or average" reviews, according to the review aggregator Metacritic. Though praised for its puzzles and art direction, "Scorn" faced frequent criticisms for its combat, which many reviewers felt was tedious and unnecessary. "PC Gamer" US described the game as a surreal horror adventure, which with "the striking visual feast of the alien capital, accompanied by mournful audio, practically moved me to tears. It was so strange and wonderful, and seemed to hint at some greater mystery at the heart of "Scorn"". Conversely, they criticized sometimes unclear gameplay and the checkpoint system.


title: Scorn (video game)

text: Alessandro Barbosa of "GameSpot" praised "Scorn" for its interesting setting and aesthetic, but heavily critiqued it for its "frustrating combat, unbalanced puzzles, and unforgiving checkpoints", feeling they made the game "an infuriating slog".


title: Scorn (video game)

text: Writing for "IGN", Leana Hafer described the game as "a relentlessly unsettling delve into Hell with dreadful combat", adding "combat itself is dreadful, and I don't mean that in a good way", though applauding its "macabre art direction" and puzzles. Hafer concluded "Scorn" would have been a better experience had most if not all of the combat been removed, feeling it "[worked] against the exploration and puzzle-solving aspects".


title: Scorn (video game)

text: "Electronic Gaming Monthly"s Michael Goroff echoed the combat complaints, believing it "[felt] more annoying than tense", but kept the game from "feeling like a walking simulator". Goroff commended the exploration and puzzle aspects working together with the overall horror tone of the game, saying "everything in "Scorn" seems built around the simple desire of making players feel like they’re somewhere new" and considered it to have captured the "horrified and disturbed, exhilarated and intrigued" experience of a nightmare.


title: Bull

text: A bull is an intact (i.e., not castrated) adult male of the species "Bos taurus" (cattle). More muscular and aggressive than the females of the same species (i.e., cows), bulls have long been an important symbol in many religions,


title: Bull

text: including for sacrifices. These animals play a significant role in beef ranching, dairy farming, and a variety of sporting and cultural activities, including bullfighting and bull riding.


title: Bull

text: The female counterpart to a bull is a cow, while a male of the species that has been castrated is a "steer", "ox", or "bullock", although in North America, this last term refers to a young bull. Use of these terms varies considerably with area and dialect. Colloquially, people unfamiliar with cattle may refer to both castrated and intact animals as "bulls".


title: Bull

text: A wild, young, unmarked bull is known as a "micky" in Australia. Improper or late castration on a bull results in him becoming a "coarse steer", also known as a "stag" in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. In some countries, an incompletely castrated male is known also as a "rig" or "ridgling".


title: Bull

text: The word "bull" also denotes the males of other bovines, including bison and water buffalo, as well as many other species of large animals, including elephants, rhinos, seals and walruses, hippos, camels, giraffes, elk, moose, whales, and antelopes.


title: Bull

text: Bulls are much more muscular than cows, with thicker bones, larger feet, a very muscular neck, and a large, bony head with protective ridges over the eyes. These features assist bulls in fighting for domination over a herd, giving the winner superior access to cows for reproduction. The hair is generally shorter on the body, but the neck and head often have a "mane" of curlier, wooly hair. Bulls are usually about the same height as cows or a little taller, but because of the additional muscle and bone mass, they often weigh far more. Most of the time, a bull has a hump on his shoulders.


title: Bull

text: In horned cattle, the horns of bulls tend to be thicker and somewhat shorter than those of cows, and in many breeds, they curve outwards in a flat arc rather than upwards in a lyre shape. It is not true, as is commonly believed, that bulls have horns and cows do not: the presence of horns depends on the breed, or in horned breeds on whether the horns have been disbudded. (It is true, however, that in many breeds of sheep only the males have horns.) Cattle that naturally do not have horns are referred to as polled, or muleys.


title: Bull

text: Castrated male cattle are physically similar to females in build and horn shape, although if allowed to reach maturity, they may be considerably taller than either bulls or cows, with heavily muscled shoulders and necks.


title: Bull

text: Bulls become fertile around seven months of age. Their fertility is closely related to the size of their testicles, and one simple test of fertility is to measure the circumference of the scrotum; a young bull is likely to be fertile once this reaches ; that of a fully adult bull may be over .<section begin="reproductive_anatomy" /> Bulls have a fibroelastic penis. Given the small amount of erectile tissue, little enlargement occurs after erection. The penis is quite rigid when not erect, and becomes even more rigid during erection. Protrusion is not affected much by erection, but more by relaxation of the retractor penis muscle and straightening of the sigmoid flexure. Bulls are occasionally affected by a condition known as "corkscrew penis". The penis of a mature bull is about 3–4 cm in diameter, and 80–100 cm in length.


title: Bull

text: A common misconception widely repeated in depictions of bull behavior is that the color red angers bulls, inciting them to charge. In fact, like most mammals, cattle are red–green color blind. In bullfighting, the movement of the matador's cape, and not the color, provokes a reaction in the bull.


title: Bull

text: Other than the few bulls needed for breeding, the vast majority of male cattle are castrated and slaughtered for meat before the age of three years, except where they are needed (castrated) as work oxen for haulage. Most of these beef animals are castrated as calves to reduce aggressive behavior and prevent unwanted mating, although some are reared as uncastrated bull beef. A bull is typically ready for slaughter one or two months sooner than a castrated male or a female, and produces proportionately more and leaner muscle.


title: Bull

text: Frame score is a useful way of describing the skeletal size of bulls and other cattle. Frame scores can be used as an aid to predict mature cattle sizes and aid in the selection of beef bulls. They are calculated from hip height and age. In sales catalogues, this measurement is frequently reported in addition to weight and other performance data such as estimated breed value.


title: Bull

text: Adult bulls may weigh between . Most are capable of aggressive behavior and require careful handling to ensure safety of humans and other animals. Those of dairy breeds may be more prone to aggression, while beef breeds are somewhat less aggressive, though beef breeds such as the Spanish Fighting Bull and related animals are also noted for aggressive tendencies, which are further encouraged by selective breeding.


title: Bull

text: An estimated 42% of all livestock-related fatalities in Canada are a result of bull attacks, and fewer than one in 20 victims of a bull attack survives. Dairy breed bulls are particularly dangerous and unpredictable; the hazards of bull handling are a significant cause of injury and death for dairy farmers in some parts of the United States. The need to move a bull in and out of its pen to cover cows exposes the handler to serious jeopardy of life and limb. Being trampled, jammed against a wall, or gored by a bull was one of the most frequent causes of death in the dairy industry before 1940. With regard to such risks, one popular farming magazine has suggested, "Handle the bull with a staff and take no chances. The gentle bull, not the vicious one, most often kills or maims his keeper".


title: Bull

text: In many areas, placing rings in bulls' noses to help control them is traditional. The ring is usually made of copper, and is inserted through a small hole cut in the septum of the nose. It is used by attaching a lead rope either directly to it or running through it from a head collar, or for more difficult bulls, a bull pole (or bull staff) may be used. This is a rigid pole about long with a clip at one end; this attaches to the ring and allows the bull both to be led and to be held away from his handler.


title: Bull

text: An aggressive bull may be kept confined in a bull pen, a robustly constructed shelter and pen, often with an arrangement to allow the bull to be fed without entering the pen. If an aggressive bull is allowed to graze outside, additional precautions may be needed to help avoid him harming people. One method is a bull mask, which either covers the bull's eyes completely, or restricts his vision to the ground immediately in front of him, so he cannot see his potential victim. Another method is to attach a length of chain to the bull's nose-ring, so that if he ducks his head to charge, he steps on the chain and is brought up short. Alternatively, the bull may be hobbled, or chained by his ring or by a collar to a solid object such as a ring fixed into the ground.


title: Bull

text: In larger pastures, particularly where a bull is kept with other cattle, the animals may simply be fed from a pickup truck or tractor, the vehicle itself providing some protection for the humans involved. Generally, bulls kept with cows tend to be less aggressive than those kept alone. In herd situations, cows with young calves are often more dangerous to humans. In the off season, multiple bulls may be kept together in a "bachelor herd".


title: Bull

text: Many cattle ranches and stations run bulls with cows, and most dairy or beef farms traditionally had at least one, if not several, bulls for purposes of herd maintenance. However, the problems associated with handling a bull (particularly where cows must be removed from his presence to be worked) has prompted many dairy farmers to restrict themselves to artificial insemination (AI) of the cows. Semen is removed from the bulls and stored in canisters of liquid nitrogen, where it is kept until it can be sold, at which time it can be very profitable; in fact, many ranchers keep bulls specifically for this purpose. AI is also used to improve the quality of a herd, or to introduce an outcross of bloodlines. Some ranchers prefer to use AI to allow them to breed to several different bulls in a season or to breed their best stock to a higher-quality bull than they could afford to purchase outright. AI may also be used in conjunction with embryo transfer to allow cattle producers to add new breeding to their herds.


title: Bull

text: Aside from their reproductive duties, bulls are also used in certain sports, including bullfighting and bull-riding. They are also incorporated into festivals and folk events such as the Running of the Bulls and were seen in ancient sports such as bull-leaping. Though less common than castrated males, bulls are used as draught oxen in some areas. The once-popular sport of bull-baiting, in which a bull is attacked by specially bred and trained dogs (which came to be known as bulldogs), was banned in England by the Cruelty to Animals Act 1835.


title: Bull

text: As with other animals, some bulls have been regarded as pets. The singer Charo, for instance, has owned a pet bull named Manolo.


title: Bull

text: Sacred bulls have held a place of significance in human culture since before the beginning of recorded history. They appear in cave paintings estimated to be up to 17,000 years old. The mythic Bull of Heavens plays a role in the ancient Sumerian "Epic of Gilgamesh", dating as far back as 2150 BC. The importance of the bull is reflected in its appearance in the zodiac as Taurus, and its numerous appearances in mythology, where it is often associated with fertility. See also Korban. In Hinduism, a bull named Nandi, usually depicted seated, is worshipped as the vehicle of the god Shiva and depicted on many of the images of that deity.


title: Bull

text: Symbolically, the bull appears commonly in heraldry. Bulls appears as charges and crests on the arms of several British families. Winged bulls appear as supporters in the arms of the Worshipful Company of Butchers. In modern times, the bull is used as a mascot by both amateur and professional sports teams.


title: Bull

text: Bulls also have a special significance in Spanish culture, where the Running of the Bulls celebration occurs every year in summer. During this festival, a group of human runners called "mozos" try to outrace a group of bulls running behind them, while large crowds watch the entire race.


title: Khartoum

text: Khartoum or Khartum ( ; , ) is the capital of Sudan. With a population of 5,274,321, its metropolitan area is the largest in Sudan. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile, flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile, flowing west from Lake Tana in Ethiopia. The place where the two Niles meet is known as "al-Mogran" or "al-Muqran" (; English: "The Confluence"). From there, the Nile continues north towards Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea.


title: Khartoum

text: Divided by these two parts of the Nile, Khartoum is a tripartite metropolis with an estimated population of over five million people, consisting of Khartoum proper, and linked by bridges to Khartoum North ( ) and Omdurman ( ) to the west.


title: Khartoum

text: Khartoum was founded in 1821 as part of Egypt, north of the ancient city of Soba. While the United Kingdom exerted power over Egypt, it left administration of the Sudan to it until Mahdist forces took over Khartoum. The British attempted to evacuate Anglo-Egyptian garrisons from Sudan but the Siege of Khartoum in 1884 resulted in the capture of the city by Mahdist forces and a massacre of the defending Anglo-Egyptian garrison. In 1898 it was reoccupied by British forces, and was the seat of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan government until 1956.


title: Khartoum

text: That year the city was designated as the capital of an independent Sudan. In modern times, it has been a site of political unrest, as when three hostages were killed during the Attack on the Saudi Embassy in Khartoum in 1973. In the 21st century, the Justice and Equality Movement engaged in combat there in 2008 with Sudanese government forces as part of the War in Darfur. The Khartoum massacre occurred in 2019 during the Sudanese Revolution.


title: Khartoum

text: Khartoum is an economic and trade centre in Northern Africa, with rail lines from Port Sudan and El-Obeid. It is served by Khartoum International Airport, and Khartoum New International Airport is under construction. Several national and cultural institutions are in Khartoum and its metropolitan area, including the National Museum of Sudan, the Khalifa House Museum, the University of Khartoum, and the Sudan University of Science and Technology.


title: Khartoum

text: The origin of the word "Khartoum" is uncertain. One theory suggests that it is derived from Arabic (, "trunk" or "hose"), probably referring to the narrow strip of land extending between the Blue and White Niles. Dinka scholars argue that the name derives from the Dinka words (Dinka-Bor dialect) or "khier-tuom" (as is the pronunciation in various Dinka Dialects), translating to "place where rivers meet". This is supported by historical accounts which place the Dinka homeland in central Sudan (around present-day Khartoum) as recently as the 13th-17th centuries A.D.


title: Khartoum

text: Captain J.A. Grant, who reached Khartoum in 1863 with Captain Speke's expedition, thought the name was most probably from the Arabic (, "safflower", i.e., "Carthamus tinctorius"), which was cultivated extensively in Egypt for its oil to be used as fuel. Some scholars speculate that the word derives from the Nubian word ("the abode of Atum"), the Nubian and Egyptian god of creation. Other Beja scholars suggest "Khartoum" is derived from the Beja word , "meeting". Sociologist Vincent J. Donovan notes that in the Nilotic Maa language of the Maasai people, means "we have acquired" and that the geographical location of Khartoum is where Maasai oral tradition claims that the ancestors of the Maasai first acquired cattle.


title: Khartoum

text: In 1821, Khartoum was established north of the ancient city of Soba, by Ismail Kamil Pasha, the third son of Egypt's ruler, Muhammad Ali Pasha, who had just incorporated Sudan into his realm. Originally, Khartoum served as an outpost for the Egyptian Army, but the settlement quickly grew into a regional centre of trade. It also became a focal point for the slave trade. Later, it became the administrative center and official capital of Sudan.


title: Khartoum

text: On 13 March 1884, troops loyal to the Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad started a siege of Khartoum, against defenders led by British General Charles George Gordon. The siege ended in a massacre of the Anglo-Egyptian garrison when on 26 January 1885 the heavily damaged city fell to the Mahdists.


title: Khartoum

text: On 2 September 1898, Omdurman was the scene of the bloody Battle of Omdurman, during which British forces under Herbert Kitchener defeated the Mahdist forces defending the city.


title: Khartoum

text: In 1973, the city was the site of an anomalous hostage crisis in which members of Black September held 10 hostages at the Saudi Arabian embassy, five of them diplomats. The US ambassador, the US deputy ambassador, and the Belgian "chargé d'affaires" were murdered. The remaining hostages were released. A 1973 United States Department of State document, declassified in 2006, concluded: "The Khartoum operation was planned and carried out with the full knowledge and personal approval of Yasser Arafat."


title: Khartoum

text: The Organisation of African Unity summit of 18–22 July 1978 was held in Khartoum, during which Sudan was awarded the OAU presidency.


title: Khartoum

text: Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Khartoum was the destination of hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing conflicts in neighboring nations such as Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Uganda. Many Eritrean and Ethiopian refugees assimilated into society, while others settled in large slums on the city's outskirts. Since the mid-1980s, large numbers of refugees from South Sudan and Darfur, fleeing the violence of the Second Sudanese Civil War and Darfur conflict, have settled around Khartoum.


title: Khartoum

text: In 1991, Osama bin Laden purchased a house in the affluent al-Riyadh neighborhood of the city and another in Soba. He lived there until 1996, when he was banished from the country. Following the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings, the United States accused bin Laden's al-Qaeda group and, on 20 August, launched cruise missile attacks on the al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum North. The factory's destruction created diplomatic tension between the U.S. and Sudan. The factory ruins are now a tourist attraction.


title: Khartoum

text: In November 1991, the government of President Omar al-Bashir sought to remove half the population from the city. The residents, deemed squatters, were mostly southern Sudanese whom the government feared could be potential rebel sympathizers. Around 425,000 people were placed in five "Peace Camps" in the desert an hour's drive from Khartoum. The camps were watched over by heavily armed security guards, many relief agencies were banned from assisting, and "the nearest food was at a market four miles away, a vast journey in the desert heat." Many residents were reduced to having only burlap sacks as housing. The intentional displacement was part of a large urban renewal plan backed by the housing minister, Sharaf Bannaga.


title: Khartoum

text: The sudden death of SPLA head and vice-president of Sudan, John Garang, at the end of July 2005, was followed by three days of violent riots in the capital. Order was finally restored after Southern Sudanese politicians and tribal leaders sent strong messages to the rioters. The situation could have been much more dire; even so, the death toll was at least 24, as youths from southern Sudan attacked northern Sudanese and clashed with security forces.


title: Khartoum

text: The African Union summit of 16–24 January 2006 was held in Khartoum; as was the Arab League summit of 28–29 March 2006, during which they awarded Sudan the Arab League presidency.


title: Khartoum

text: On 10 May 2008, the Darfur rebel group, Justice and Equality Movement, moved into the city, where they engaged in heavy fighting with Sudanese government forces. Their soldiers included minors, and their goal was to topple Omar al-Bashir's government, though the Sudanese government succeeded in beating back the assault.


title: Khartoum

text: On 23 October 2012, an explosion at the Yarmouk munitions factory killed two people and injured another person. The Sudanese government has claimed that the explosion was the result of an Israeli airstrike.


title: Khartoum

text: On 3 June 2019, Khartoum was the site of the Khartoum massacre, where over 100 dissidents were murdered (the government said 61 were killed), hundreds more injured and 70 women raped by Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in order to forcefully disperse the peaceful protests calling for civilian government.


title: Khartoum

text: On 1 July 2020, activists demanded that al-Zibar Basha street in Khartoum be renamed. Al-Zubayr Rahma Mansur was a slave trader and the al-Zibar Basha street leads to the military base where the 2019 Khartoum massacre took place.


title: Khartoum

text: On 26 October 2021, the city was locked down following a military coup that left at least 7 dead, triggering protests and calls for a general strike. Prime minister Abdalla Hamdok was arrested during the coup, and held along with other cabinet members in an unknown location.


title: Khartoum

text: Khartoum is located in the middle of the populated areas in Sudan, at almost the northeast center of the country between 15 and 16 degrees latitude north, and between 31 and 32 degrees longitude east. Khartoum marks the convergence of the White Nile and the Blue Nile, where they join to form the bottom of the leaning-S shape of the main Nile ("see map, upper right") as it zigzags through northern Sudan into Egypt at Lake Nasser.


title: Khartoum

text: Khartoum is relatively flat, at elevation , as the Nile flows northeast past Omdurman to Shendi, at elevation about away.


title: Khartoum

text: Khartoum features a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification "BWh") with a dry season occurring during winter, typical of the Saharo-Sahelian zone, which marks the progressive passage between the Sahara Desert's vast arid areas and the Sahel's vast semi-arid areas. The climate is extremely dry for most of the year, with about eight months when average rainfall is lower than . The very long dry season is itself divided into a warm, very dry season between November and February, as well as a very hot, dry season between March and May. During this part of the year, hot, dry continental trade winds from deserts, such as the harmattan, sweep over the region; the weather is stable and very dry.


title: Khartoum

text: The very irregular, very brief, rainy season lasts about 1 month as the maximum rainfall is recorded in August, with about . The rainy season is characterized by a seasonal reverse of wind regimes, when the Intertropical Convergence Zone goes northerly. Average annual rainfall is very low, with only of precipitation. Khartoum records on average six days with or more and 19 days with or more of rainfall. The highest temperatures occur during two periods in the year: the first at the late dry season, when average high temperatures consistently exceed from April to June, and the second at the early dry season, when average high temperatures exceed in September and October. Temperatures cool off somewhat during the night, with Khartoum's lowest average low temperature of the year, in January, just above . Khartoum is one of the hottest major cities on Earth, with annual mean temperatures hovering around . The city also has very warm winters. In no month does the average monthly high temperature fall below . This is something not seen in other major cities with hot desert climates, such as Riyadh, Baghdad and Phoenix.


title: Khartoum

text: Almost 250,000 Syrians lived in Khartoum as of 2019, representing 5% of the total population of the city. Most are young men who have fled war in Syria. Sudan was the only country in the world to accept travelers carrying a Syrian passport who lacked a visa.


title: Khartoum

text: After the signing of the historic Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLA), the Government of Sudan began a massive development project. In 2007, the biggest projects in Khartoum were the Al-Mogran Development Project, two five-star hotels, a new airport, El Mek Nimr Bridge (finished in October 2007) and the Tuti Bridge that links Khartoum to Tuti Island.


title: Khartoum

text: In the 21st century, Khartoum developed based on Sudan's oil wealth (although the independence of South Sudan in 2011 affected the economy of Sudan negatively). The center of the city has tree-lined streets. Khartoum has the highest concentration of economic activity in the country. This has changed as major economic developments take place in other parts of the country, like oil exploration in the South, the Giad Industrial Complex in Al Jazirah state and White Nile Sugar Project in Central Sudan, and the Merowe Dam in the North.


title: Khartoum

text: Among the city's industries are printing, glass manufacturing, food processing, and textiles. Petroleum products are now produced in the far north of Khartoum state, providing fuel and jobs for the city. One of Sudan's largest refineries is located in northern Khartoum.


title: Khartoum

text: The Souq Al Arabi is Khartoum's largest open air market. The "souq" is spread over several blocks in the center of Khartoum proper just south of the Great Mosque (Mesjid al-Kabir) and the minibus station. It is divided into separate sections, including one focused entirely on gold.


title: Khartoum

text: Al Qasr Street and Al Jamhoriyah Street are considered the most famous high streets in Khartoum State.


title: Khartoum

text: Afra Mall is located in the southern suburb of Arkeweet. The Afra Mall has a supermarket, retail outlets, coffee shops, a bowling alley, movie theaters, and a children's playground.


title: Khartoum

text: In 2011, Sudan opened the Hotel Section and part of the food court of the new, Corinthia Hotel Tower. The Mall/Shopping section is still under construction.


title: Khartoum

text: Khartoum is the main location for most of Sudan's top educational bodies. There are four main levels of education:


title: Khartoum

text: Khartoum is home to the largest airport in Sudan, Khartoum International Airport. It is the main hub for Sudan Airways, Sudan's main carrier. A new airport was planned for the southern outskirts of the city, but with Khartoum's rapid growth and consequent urban sprawl, the airport is still located in the heart of the city.


title: Khartoum

text: Khartoum's transportation is limited to the vehicular road system, with buses and personal vehicles comprising the main types of vehicles. As with many cities in the continent, parts of Khartoum are connected through privately owned buses.


title: Khartoum

text: Khartoum has a number of bridges across both tributaries of the Nile. The Mac Nimir Bridge, the Blue Nile Road & Railway Bridge, the Cooper Bridge (also known as the Armed Forces Bridge), and the Elmansheya Bridge span the Blue Nile, connecting Khartoum to Khartoum North. The Omdurman Bridge, the Victory Bridge, and the Al-Dabbasin Bridge span the White Nile, connecting Khartoum to Omdurman. The Tuti Bridge connects Tuti Island with Khartoum. Prior to the construction of the Tuti Bridge in 2008, residents of Tuti Island relied on water taxis to cross the Blue Nile into Khartoum.


title: Khartoum

text: Khartoum has rail lines from Wadi Halfa, Port Sudan on the Red Sea, and El Obeid. All are operated by Sudan Railways.


title: Khartoum

text: The architecture of Khartoum reflects the city's history since the early 1820s and is marked by both native Sudanese, Turkish, British and modern buildings. In general, the architecture of Sudan reflects a wide diversity in its shapes, materials, and use.


title: Khartoum

text: Since independence, the people of Sudan have introduced new infrastructure and technology, which has led to new and innovative building concepts, ideas and construction techniques.


title: Khartoum

text: The largest museum in Sudan is the National Museum of Sudan. Founded in 1971, it contains works from different epochs of Sudanese history. Among the exhibits are two Egyptian temples of Buhen and Semna, originally built by Pharaoh Hatshepsut and Pharaoh Tuthmosis III, respectively, but relocated to Khartoum upon the flooding of Lake Nasser.


title: Khartoum

text: The Republican Palace Museum, opened in 2000, is located in the former Anglican All Saints' cathedral on Sharia al-Jama'a, next to the historical Presidential Palace.


title: Khartoum

text: Khartoum is home to one of the oldest botanical garden in Africa, National Botanical Garden in the Mogran district of the city.


title: Khartoum

text: Khartoum is home to several clubs including the Blue Nile Sailing Club, social clubs such as the German Club, the Greek Club, the Coptic Club, the Syrian Club and the International Club, as well as football clubs Al Khartoum SC and Al Ahli Khartoum.


title: Khartoum

text: The places of worship in Khartoum primarily consist of Muslim mosques. There are also Christian churches and temples: St. Matthew's Cathedral, Khartoum, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Khartoum (Catholic Church), Sudan Interior Church (Baptist World Alliance), and Presbyterian Church in Sudan (World Communion of Reformed Churches).


title: Hitman (2007 film)

text: Hitman is a 2007 action-thriller film directed by Xavier Gens and based on the video game series of the same name. The story revolves around Agent 47, a professional hitman, who was engineered to be an assassin by the group known as "ICA" (International Contract Agency). He becomes ensnared in a political conspiracy and finds himself pursued by both Interpol and the FSB. The film stars Timothy Olyphant, Dougray Scott and Olga Kurylenko. It was released on November 21, 2007 in the United States; November 30, 2007 in the United Kingdom; and December 26, 2007, in France. Though critically not well received, it was a financial success, grossing $101.3 million against a $24 million budget.


title: Hitman (2007 film)

text: A sequel was canceled during the production, but it was followed by a reboot titled "" starring Rupert Friend as Agent 47 and written again by Skip Woods, released on August 21, 2015.


title: Hitman (2007 film)

text: Inside a heavily guarded facility, a group of young boys are given tattoos of bar codes on the backs of their shaved heads and are then trained in weapons, demolitions, unarmed combat, stamina, and strength to become professionally trained hitmen who operate around the globe. In the present day, Interpol agent Mike Whittier (Dougray Scott) arrives home and is met at gunpoint by Agent 47. The two talk about 47's life as a professional hitman, raised and trained by a clandestine group known simply as The Organization.


title: Hitman (2007 film)

text: Three months prior, 47 (Timothy Olyphant) is completing a hit on a Nigerian warlord named Bwana Ovie, force-feeding a captured soldier with plastic explosives and using him as a human bomb to kill Ovie. In a subsequent change of plans, 47 is told by his Organization handler, Diana Burnwood, that he is to kill his next target, Russian President Mikhail Belicoff (Ulrich Thomsen), publicly instead of privately. Agent 47 completes his mission by shooting the man in the head, but before he can leave Russia, he is contacted by his superiors. He is mystified when told the hit was a failure and that Belicoff survived the attack on his life. The Organization notifies him of a witness to the assassination and orders him to intercept and kill her. However, when 47 realizes she has never seen him before, he does not shoot her; instead, he narrowly avoids an assassination attempt on himself by another Agent and realizes he is being set up.


title: Hitman (2007 film)

text: His employers send his location and identity to the FSB, but Diana secretly calls 47 and tips him off, revealing that Belicoff himself had ordered the hit. After escaping from his hotel, 47 intercepts Nika (Olga Kurylenko), Belicoff's mistress and the woman who supposedly witnessed his hit. He interrogates her and discovers that Belicoff had a double, who ordered the hit on the real Belicoff in order to take his place as the president of Russia. The Organization, hoping to gain influence with the new government, ordered 47 to kill Nika and then set him up to be erased and thus cover their tracks.


title: Hitman (2007 film)

text: Nika and 47, attempting to leave Russia by train, are pursued by Organization agents, whom 47 subdues in hand to hand combat and kills. Whittier then attempts to arrest 47 himself, only to be easily overpowered. Nika persuades 47 to let Whittier go free, and Whittier is forced to leave Russia by FSB officer Yuri Marklov (Robert Knepper), who is overseeing the manhunt, for interfering. 47 contacts his associate, CIA officer Carlton Smith, to offer him a deal: 47 will kill Udre Belicoff (Mikhail's brother and a wealthy arms dealer and human trafficker) in exchange for a favour. Smith informs 47 that Udre had been planning something with a German gunrunner named Price.


title: Hitman (2007 film)

text: 47 and Nika travel to Istanbul, where 47 abducts Price, poses as him to meet Udre at a club, and kills him, forcing Belicoff's double to attend Udre's public funeral. 47 kidnaps Marklov and forces him to order his own agents to disrupt the funeral and create a distraction while 47, disguised as a soldier, deals with the imposter's bodyguards and kills him before Whittier arrives with backup from Interpol to take him into custody. Smith delivers on his end of the deal and has his operatives intercept the convoy that is transporting 47 to the airport, allowing the hitman to escape.


title: Hitman (2007 film)

text: Back in Whittier's home, 47 suggests Whittier go along with his plan: to notify the police that he has killed (a fake) Agent 47, implying that Whittier will not survive if he refuses, and leaves. Nika is seen picking up an envelope containing the deed to a vineyard, a dream of hers to own. Agent 47 is watching her from afar, through the scope of a sniper rifle. Looking at the corpse of another Agent lying at his feet, he muses that he had warned him (meaning the Organization) not to touch her, and then walks away.


title: Hitman (2007 film)

text: In February 2003, "Hitman" makers Eidos and IO Interactive entered negotiations with Hollywood production companies to adapt the video game to film. 20th Century Fox eventually acquired the rights and hired screenwriter Skip Woods to pen the screenplay, with actor Vin Diesel executive producing and starring in the film.


title: Hitman (2007 film)

text: In December 2006, Diesel stepped down from the role. In January 2007, Olyphant was cast as the lead with director Xavier Gens at the helm. In March, actor Dougray Scott was cast as Agent 47's nemesis, with Olga Kurylenko, Robert Knepper, Ulrich Thomsen, and Michael Offei also joining the cast.


title: Hitman (2007 film)

text: Principal photography began the week of March 27, 2007 in Sofia, Bulgaria and lasted 12 weeks. A second unit also shot in locations including London, Istanbul, St. Petersburg, and Cape Town.


title: Hitman (2007 film)

text: The release of the film was set back a few months to allow for the re-shooting of several scenes. These included a sword fight between four assassins in a train car, which replaced the original train platform sequence where Agent 47 fought only one assassin. Reports before the film's release confirmed that not only were reshoots taking place, but that Fox had fired Gens and denied him final cut. Nicolas de Toth was brought in at this stage to soften the edit and cut down material.


title: Hitman (2007 film)

text: 47's origins were also changed at this stage, with a decision to add footage from the TV series "Dark Angel", which was also owned by Fox, in an effort to save money. Gens told an interviewer that whilst they are not directly dealing with the clone storyline, one scene (the original train station sequence) showing a bald, barcoded assassin (Jean-Marc Bellu) following Agent 47 (Olyphant), another bald, barcoded assassin, is very explicit and showed his intention to keep him as a clone. The detail was likely changed to accommodate for the casting of actors of multiple races during reshoots, making it impossible for them to be clones (or at least clones of the same person).


title: Hitman (2007 film)

text: "Hitman" was originally stated to be released on October 12, 2007, in the United States and Canada, but the film's release was postponed to November 21, 2007. "Hitman" opened in 2,458 theaters in the United States and Canada, grossing $13,180,769 in its opening weekend, ranking fourth at the box office. The following weekend, "Hitman" opened in 12 markets, having the following highlights: $150,355 in 38 theaters in Indonesia, $224,449 in 37 theaters in Malaysia. and $244,329 in 32 theaters in the Philippines. In Taiwan, the film opened in fourth place with approximately $100,000. The film also performed weakly in Lebanon with $19,321 in 6 theaters. As of March 13, 2008, the film has grossed $39,687,694 in the United States and Canada and $60,278,098 in other territories for a worldwide total of $99,965,792, exceeding its estimated $24 million budget. The DVD sales equal $27,858,148 in the US alone, putting the total gross for "Hitman" at around $128 million, not counting television airing rights.


title: Hitman (2007 film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads, ""Hitman" features the unfortunate combination of excessive violence, incoherent plot, and inane dialogue." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 35 out of 100 based on 22 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Hitman (2007 film)

text: Critics found fault with several aspects of the film, including a weak and often confusing plot, dry acting, and extreme violence. Roger Ebert notably gave it a positive, three-stars-out-of-four review, and said ""Hitman" stands right on the threshold between video games and art. On the wrong side of the threshold, but still, give it credit". In 2008, "Time" listed the film on their list of top ten worst video game movies.


title: Hitman (2007 film)

text: Despite "Hitman"s negative reception, Slovenian philosopher and film theorist Slavoj Žižek included the film in his personal list of 10 greatest films in a 2012 poll conducted by the "Sight & Sound" magazine. Commenting on his picks, he said the list contains "only 'guilty pleasures'" and he made "no compromises for high quality or good taste."


title: Hitman (2007 film)

text: An unrated version of "Hitman" was released in the high-definition Blu-ray format on March 11, 2008, and features extras including deleted scenes, an alternate ending and a gag reel. This version also features a special digital copy of the film which can be transferred to a portable media device like an iPod. A standard-definition DVD was released on the same date in three versions. A single-disc theatrical version, a single-disc unrated version, and an unrated special edition including many extras, and the digital copy mentioned above. The unrated DVD is one minute longer than the theatrical cut and includes a few extended scenes with more blood. The UK version of the film was available on Blu-ray and DVD from 31 March 2008.


title: Hitman (2007 film)

text: The French Blu-ray version of the film came with 10 deleted scenes, accompanied with French audio commentary by Xavier Gens. Some of the scenes included are the original assassination, in which Ovie survives, is taken to hospital only to be killed via lethal injection by 47 disguised as a doctor; the alternate train platform sequence which features no sword fight, as well as showing the older assassin biting off his tongue to avoid giving answers to 47; and an extended departure sequence between 47 and Nika, which shows Yuri and his men stopping their train and boarding it to look for 47.


title: Hitman (2007 film)

text: An alternate ending in the special features of the DVD shows 47 watching Nika through his sniper scope as she opens the envelope. She then turns down a corner of a small street to be shot dead in a drive-by, possibly by men loyal to the organization behind the fake Belicoff, all while 47 watches.


title: Hitman (2007 film)

text: IESB had confirmed that 20th Century Fox hired writer Kyle Ward to pen the script for the sequel to "Hitman". Adrian Askarieh, Daniel Alter and Chuck Gordon were to return as producers. American actor David Hess, who died in October 2011, had been reported to have an as-yet-unnamed role. Daniel Benmayor had signed to direct the sequel. Olyphant stated on the Nerdist podcast that he had no interest in returning for a sequel and only did the original film in order to pay for his new house following the sudden cancellation of "Deadwood".


title: Hitman (2007 film)

text: On February 5, 2013, it was reported that the film would be rebooted with the title of the film being "", and would have starred Paul Walker as Agent 47 prior to his death on November 30, 2013, with commercials director Aleksander Bach making his feature film debut helming the project. The screenplay was written by Skip Woods and Mike Finch. Shooting was expected to take place in Berlin and Singapore in summer 2013. On January 9, 2014, actor Rupert Friend was in talks to replace Walker as the character. On January 31, 2014, actor Zachary Quinto was cast in an unnamed role. On February 6, 2014, actress Hannah Ware was cast in the female lead role. On February 19, 2014, production on film began filming with Friend as Agent 47.


title: Katie Taylor

text: Katie Taylor (born 2 July 1986) is an Irish professional boxer and former footballer. She is a two-weight world champion and the current undisputed lightweight champion, having held the WBA title since 2017; the IBF title since 2018; and the WBC, WBO, and "The Ring" magazine titles since 2019, as well as having held the WBO junior-welterweight title in 2019. Following her victory over Delfine Persoon in 2019, she became one of only eight boxers in history (female or male) to hold all four major world titles in boxing—WBA, WBC, IBF, and WBO—simultaneously.


title: Katie Taylor

text: In her amateur boxing career, Taylor won five consecutive gold medals at the Women's World Championships, gold six times at the European Championships, and gold five times at the European Union Championships. Hugely popular in Ireland, she is credited with raising the profile of women's boxing at home and abroad. Regarded as the outstanding Irish athlete of her generation, she was the flag bearer for Ireland at the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony before going on to win an Olympic gold medal in the lightweight division.


title: Katie Taylor

text: Taylor turned professional in 2016 under Matchroom Boxing. As of September 2022, Taylor is ranked as the world's best active female lightweight by BoxRec and the best active female boxer, pound-for-pound, by "The Ring" and BoxRec. She is known for her fast-paced, aggressive boxing style.


title: Katie Taylor

text: Taylor was born on 2 July 1986 in Bray, County Wicklow, the daughter of Irish mother Bridget ("née" Cranley) and English-born father Pete Taylor. She has an older sister named Sarah and two older brothers named Lee and Peter, the latter of whom is a mathematics professor at Dublin City University. Her father, who was born near Leeds and grew up in Birmingham, first visited Bray to work with his father in the amusement arcades on the seafront. After meeting and marrying Bridget, he decided to settle in Bray. In 1986, he became an Irish senior light heavyweight champion boxer. Originally an electrician by trade, he eventually became Taylor's full-time boxing coach. He also coached Adam Nolan who, like Taylor, represented Ireland at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Bridget also developed an interest in boxing and became one of the earliest female referees and judges in Ireland.


title: Katie Taylor

text: Between 1999 and 2005, Taylor attended St. Kilian's Community School in Bray. Her three older siblings all attended the same school. As well as boxing and playing association football at school, she also played ladies' Gaelic football and camogie with her local GAA clubs, Bray Emmets and Fergal Ógs. She was a member of Bray Runners, a local athletics club, and several American colleges reportedly offered her sports scholarships while she was still studying at St Killian's. However, she opted instead to attend University College Dublin, known for its sports scholarship programme, which she qualified for via her Leaving Cert results. As her sporting career began to take off, she chose not to complete her studies at UCD.


title: Katie Taylor

text: Taylor first began boxing in 1998, aged 12. Her father coached her and her two older brothers, Lee and Peter, at St Fergal's Boxing Club, which operated out of a former boathouse in Bray. At 15, in 2001, she fought in the first officially sanctioned female boxing match in Ireland, at the National Stadium, and defeated Alanna Audley from Belfast.


title: Katie Taylor

text: Taylor's first noteworthy success was at the 2005 European Amateur Championships, in Tønsberg, Norway. She won the gold medal, defeating Eva Wahlström of Finland in the final of the 60 kg lightweight class.


title: Katie Taylor

text: Later in 2005, at the World Amateur Championships in Podolsk, Russia, Taylor advanced to the quarter-finals in the 60 kg weight class. Here she lost against Kang Kum-Hui, who remains the only boxer to have defeated Taylor at the World Championships.


title: Katie Taylor

text: At the 2006 European Amateur Championships in Warsaw, Poland, Taylor won her second successive gold medal by stopping reigning world champion Tatiana Chalaya of Russia, also collecting the tournament's Best Boxer award.


title: Katie Taylor

text: At the 2006 World Women's Boxing Championship, contested in New Delhi, India, Taylor became Ireland's first World Champion, defeating Chalaya again in the semi-final and then Erica Farias of Argentina in the 60 kg final.


title: Katie Taylor

text: 2008 saw Taylor win her first European Union gold medal, contested in August in Liverpool, England. Here she defeated Cindy Orain of France.


title: Katie Taylor

text: Taylor went on to claim her second World title at the 2008 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championship, contested in November at Ningbo, China. In the 60 kg weight class, she defeated China's Cheng Dong in the final match which was her 100th bout.


title: Katie Taylor

text: On 21 March 2009 at The Dublin O2, Taylor won a 27–3 win over three-time Pan-American champion Caroline Barry of the United States on the undercard of a pro WBA super bantamweight world title fight between Bernard Dunne of Ireland and Ricardo Cordoba of Panama. Speaking after the fight, Taylor, who had stopped Barry in the final of the 2006 World Championships in New Delhi, said she was stunned by the welcome she received from Irish boxing fans. She said: "I couldn't believe the reception I got – it was an amazing experience for me. I knew it was going to be a tough fight and well done to her for never backing off."


title: Katie Taylor

text: Taylor defended her European Union title in 2009. She beat home favourite, Bulgaria's Denitsa Elisayeva, in the July tournament hosted in Pazardzhik.


title: Katie Taylor

text: On 18 September 2010, Taylor went on to claim her third successive World title at the 2010 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championship, in Barbados. In the 60 kg weight class, she again defeated China's Cheng Dong in the final match. This was Taylor's 100th career win.


title: Katie Taylor

text: On 19 May 2012, Taylor won her fourth successive World title at the 2012 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championship, in Qinhuangdao China. In the 60 kg weight class, she defeated Russian southpaw Sofya Ochigava.


title: Katie Taylor

text: Taylor qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, the first time women's boxing had been considered for inclusion. Crowds gathered on the streets of her hometown Bray to watch her progress on giant screens erected especially for the occasion. Coddle released a single called "Katie Taylor Ireland's Boxing Legend". The song reached number 42 in the Irish Charts.


title: Katie Taylor

text: On 24 November 2014, Taylor won her fifth straight lightweight title in South Korea at the 2014 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships, defeating Yana Allekseevna of Azerbaijan. The final scoreline was 40–36, 39–37, and 39–37 in her favour.


title: Katie Taylor

text: On 27 June 2015, Taylor won the lightweight title in Azerbaijan at the inaugural European Games, defeating Estelle Mosely of France. The final scoreline was 40–36, 40–36, and 39–37 in her favour.


title: Katie Taylor

text: On 24 May 2016, Taylor qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics after defeating Victoria Torres in the quarter-finals of the lightweight division at the 2016 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships. Two days later, Taylor lost to Estelle Mossely in the semi-finals which ended her quest for a sixth World title in a row.


title: Katie Taylor

text: On 15 August 2016, Taylor lost 2–1 in the quarter-finals to Mira Potkonen of Finland and did not advance.


title: Katie Taylor

text: Taylor made her professional debut on 26 November 2016, scoring a third-round technical knockout (TKO) at the Wembley Arena in London.


title: Katie Taylor

text: In her second professional bout she faced Viviane Obenauf on 10 December 2016 at the Manchester Arena, Manchester. The fight was televised live on Sky Sports Box Office as part of the undercard for the Anthony Joshua vs. Éric Molina heavyweight world title fight. In a bout which saw Taylor score a knockdown in the second round after Obenauf appeared to slip, and the latter suffer a cut to her left eye following an apparent clash of heads, Taylor won by a shutout six-round points decision (PTS) with the referee scoring the bout 60–53.


title: Katie Taylor

text: She scored two more wins in March 2017—against Monica Gentili via fifth-round TKO and Milena Koliva via PTS over eight rounds—before facing Nina Meinke for the vacant WBA International female lightweight title on 29 April 2017 at the Wembley Stadium. The bout served as a final eliminator for the WBA female lightweight title and was televised live on Sky Sports Box Office as part of the undercard for the Anthony Joshua vs. Wladimir Klitschko world title fight. Taylor controlled the contest from the opening bell with her speed and combination punches. Meinke suffered a cut in the fifth round from an accidental clash of heads. With a badly swollen right eye, and after being on the receiving end of a flurry of punches, referee Howard Foster called a halt to the contest in the seventh round to save Meinke from further punishment, handing Taylor a TKO victory.


title: Katie Taylor

text: Following a third-round stoppage victory via corner retirement (RTD) against Jasmine Clarkson in July, Taylor faced former two-weight world champion Anahí Ester Sánchez for the vacant WBA female lightweight title on 28 October 2017 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. Sánchez was set to defend the title on the night, however, she failed to make weight for the fight and was subsequently stripped by the WBA, with the title on the line for Taylor only. The bout was televised live on Sky Sports Box Office as part of the undercard for Anthony Joshua vs. Carlos Takam. After controlling the first round with her speed and power, Taylor dropped the former champion to the canvas with a body shot in the second. Sánchez was hurt again in the next round after a right hand from Taylor caused her to stagger. Sánchez had some success in the fifth, landing right hands to force Taylor onto the back foot. Taylor regained control for the rest of the fight to secure a wide unanimous decision (UD) victory, with all three judges scoring the bout 99–90 to hand Taylor her first world title.


title: Katie Taylor

text: The first defence of her title came against future undisputed female welterweight champion Jessica McCaskill on 13 December at the York Hall in London. After a closely contested first round, Taylor went down to the canvas in the second in what was ruled as a slip. Taylor began to take control with her speed and power before McCaskill found success and hurt the champion in the sixth round. Taylor received a point deduction in the seventh for excessive holding, before keeping McCaskill at a distance and fighting at range for the next three rounds to secure a UD victory. One judge scored the bout 98–91 and the other two scored it 97–92.


title: Katie Taylor

text: Her next fight was a unification bout against reigning IBF female lightweight champion Victoria Bustos on 28 April 2018 at the Barclays Center in New York City. Taylor controlled the majority of the fight with her speed from a distance, only encountering difficulty in rounds seven and eight after engaging Bustos at close range. Taylor secured the win with a wide UD to add the IBF title to her growing collection, with two judges scoring the bout 99–91 and the third scoring it 98–92.


title: Katie Taylor

text: She made three successful defences of the her titles in 2018; defeating Kimberly Connor via third-round TKO in July; former WBO female featherweight champion Cindy Serrano by UD in October; and former WBC female super-featherweight champion Eva Wahlström in December.


title: Katie Taylor

text: Taylor's first fight of 2019 was another unification bout, facing WBO female lightweight champion Rose Volante on 15 March at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Taylor started the fight strong, using her combination punching and movement to take control, dropping Volante to the canvas with a right hand in the opening round. The second round saw Taylor stay behind the jab, keeping her opponent at range as Volante attempted to close the distance and fight at close quarters. Volante switched tactics in the third round, staying in the centre of the ring and waiting for Taylor to press the action. Taylor obliged, but the Irish champion's footwork allowed her to get in-and-out before Volante could land any meaningful punches. After much of the same in the fourth, Taylor began to pile on the pressure in the fifth, switching her attacks from head to body to find an opening with a powerful body shot to hurt Volante. Round six saw Taylor pierce the guard of Volante with straight punches, leaving her opponent with a bloodied nose. Volante had moments of success in the seventh round with heavy punches to the body of Taylor, before the Irish woman resumed her attacks to regain control. Taylor continued her success in the eighth, landing an overhand right followed by a rapid six-punch combination. After Volante was on the receiving end of a flurry of punches, and with a cut over her nose which appeared to be the result of a clash of heads, referee Benjy Esteves stepped in and called a halt to the contest to hand Taylor a ninth-round TKO victory and her third world title.


title: Katie Taylor

text: In the post-fight interview, Taylor declared her intentions of becoming the undisputed female lightweight champion, saying; "Now we can start talking about that fight, Persoon. That name's been coming up over the last two years. I've got the three belts, she's got the WBC belt, so we have to get that fight on next."


title: Katie Taylor

text: In December 2018, Irish journalist Evanne Ní Chuilinn stated that Taylor accused Delfine Persoon of turning down a "life-changing" amount of money to fight her. Later Persoon claimed to have offered $100,000 to Taylor for a fight. Taylor's manager stated that Taylor wouldn't even get out of bed for this sum. On 15 April 2019, Taylor and Persoon agreed to a lightweight title unification bout, to take place on 1 June at Madison Square Garden as undercard for the Anthony Joshua vs. Andy Ruiz Jr. heavyweight title fight. In addition to all four sanctioning body's titles being on the line, "The Ring" magazine belt was also at stake.


title: Katie Taylor

text: Persoon's management labelled Taylor's team "totally disrespectful" and claimed "psychological warfare" after a series of demands late in the fight week. This included a claim of forcing Persoon to switch hotels on the grounds that Taylor was staying in the same hotel, and demands for an additional blood test and to prove Persoon has exercise asthma. Taylor's team denied expelling Persoon's team from the hotel, but claimed that there was a clause in the contract allowing them to do so which Persoon's manager should have been aware of. Although, in a different interview Taylor's team stated it was not done by them, but by the organizers and that they had no idea about this forced move out of the hotel. Taylor's team accused Persoon's manager of purposefully attempting to stir controversy by booking his fighter into the hotel Taylor was staying at.


title: Katie Taylor

text: From the opening bell, Taylor came under relentless pressure from Persoon, forcing the Irish champion to fight off the back foot and rely on counter punching. After having success in the first round, Taylor began to have difficulties with Persoon's pressure in the second and third, with the Belgian champion employing roughhouse tactics in the clinch. Taylor suffered a cut to her forehead in the fourth round. In the fifth, with Taylor ahead on all three judges' scorecards, she spent the majority of the round with her back against the ropes, still engaging with Persoon and having success. Taylor found more success in the sixth, scoring with counter punches while making Persoon miss as the Belgian began to tire. The tables turned in the eighth as Taylor also looked to be tiring, with the highlight of the round being a solid right hand from Persoon to stop Taylor in her tracks. The Irish champion rallied back in the ninth to land her trademark rapid-fire combinations. The tenth and final round was a back-and-forth affair as both fighters traded punches to try and close the show as the stronger fighter. After the final bell rang Taylor secured the win via majority decision (MD), with two judges scoring the bout in favour of Taylor at 96–94 while the third judge scored it a draw at 95–95, crowning Taylor the first undisputed female lightweight champion. According to CompuBox stats, Taylor landed 103 of 410 (25.1%) punches, while Persoon landed 116 of 586 (19.8%).


title: Katie Taylor

text: Controversy ensued regarding the decision, with some ringside media outlets and boxers feeling Persoon did enough to get the win. Former two-weight world champion Carl Frampton said, "In my opinion, the judges have got it wrong", and described the decision as "disgraceful". Former two-weight world champion David Haye said, "That is not the sight you want to see where someone has given everything in the gym but they do not get the decision because of the political power. Delfine Persoon is going to be heartbroken by that." ESPN's unofficial scorecard also had Persoon winning by a small margin. DAZN commentator Brian Kenny also thought Persoon had won, but explained that the fight was close and did not dispute the judges' decision. Michael Woods, writing for "The Ring" magazine, argued the decision "was no robbery".