Africa

Mali junta chief granted renewable presidential mandate

Yemen Details — Fri, 04 Jul 2025 01:21:39 +0300

Mali's military authorities on Thursday granted the junta chief a five-year presidential mandate, renewable "as many times as necessary" and without election.

The move clears the way for General Assimi Goita to lead the west African country until at least 2030, despite the military government's initial pledge to return to civilian rule in March 2024.

The bill, adopted by the legislative body, now only needs approval by the junta leader himself who rose to power following back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021.

It is the latest in a series of restrictions on freedoms by Mali's military leadership to consolidate its power in the jihadist-hit Sahelian nation.

The bill was unanimously backed by the 131 members present in the National Transitional Council, an AFP journalist said.

The cabinet, the Council of Ministers, had already adopted the measure last month.

The transition is fixed at five years, renewable "as many times as necessary, until the pacification of the country, from the promulgation of this charter", the bill, seen by AFP, states.

The transitional president, government and legislative members are eligible to stand in presidential and general elections, the text says.

"This is a major step forward in the rebuilding of Mali," Malick Diaw, president of the National Transitional Council, told AFP after Thursday's vote.

"The adoption of this text is in accordance with the popular will," he said.

When Goita took power, he insisted on Mali's commitment to the fight against jihadist violence and initially pledged a return to civilian rule.

But the military ultimately reneged on its promise to cede power to elected civilians by their own deadline.

- Repression of dissent -

Earlier this year, a junta-led national consultation recommended the move proclaiming Goita president without a vote for the five-year renewable term.

The same assembly -- boycotted by most political groups -- also recommended the dissolution of political parties and tougher rules for their creation.

Subsequently, the junta announced in May the dissolution of all political parties and organisations, as well as a ban on meetings.

The ongoing squeeze on Mali's civic space comes against a backdrop of clamour by authorities for the country to unite behind the military.

Since 2012, Mali has been mired in violence carried out by jihadist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, as well as other criminal organisations.

Those attacks have only intensified in recent weeks.

The Malian army and its Russian mercenary allies from Africa Corps, tasked in particular with tracking down jihadists, are regularly accused of rights violations against civilians.

Mali and its junta-led neighbours Burkina Faso and Niger have teamed up to create their own confederation, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), and have announced the creation of a joint 5,000-strong force for joint military operations.

In Niger and Burkina, political parties have also been dissolved and suspended.

Burkina's junta leader Capitain Ibrahim Traore, who seized power in a September 2022 coup, extended his transition at the helm of the country for an additional five years in May last year.

In Niger, General Abdourahamane Tiani overthrew democratically elected president Mohamed Bazoum in July 2023.

A national conference held in February strengthened the ruling junta by authorising Tiani to remain in power in Niger for the next five years.

All three Sahelian countries have turned their backs on their shared former colonial master France in favour of stronger ties with Russia and other partners.

US sanctions on Sudan over alleged chemical weapons use take effect

Yemen Details — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 00:19:19 +0300

US sanctions on Sudan’s government -- imposed over what Washington says was the use by Khartoum’s military of chemical weapons in the country’s bloody civil war last year -- have taken effect.

The sanctions -- which include restrictions on US exports, arms sales and financing to the government in Khartoum -- are to remain in place for at least one year, the US government said in a notice published Friday in the Federal Register.

Assistance to Sudan will be terminated “except for urgent humanitarian assistance and food or other agricultural commodities or products,” it said.

However, certain measures will be partially waived because “it is essential to the national security interests of the United States” to do so, it added.

“The United States calls on the Government of Sudan to cease all chemical weapons use and uphold its obligations” under the Chemical Weapons Convention, an international treaty signed by nearly all countries that prohibits their use, the State Department said last month when it announced the sanctions.

The New York Times reported in January that Sudan’s military had used chemical weapons on at least two occasions in remote areas its war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Citing anonymous US officials, the newspaper said that the weapon appeared to be chlorine gas, which can cause severe respiratory pain and death.

Khartoum has denied using chemical weapons.

In practical terms, the effect will be limited as both Sudan’s military chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his adversary and former deputy, RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, are already under US sanctions.

A power struggle between the army and RSF erupted into full-scale war in April 2023 with devastating consequences for the already impoverished country.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced 13 million, creating what the United Nations describes as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Rwanda, DR Congo sign peace deal in US after rebel sweep

Yemen Details — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 23:10:08 +0300

Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo signed a peace agreement Friday in Washington to end fighting that has killed thousands, with the two countries pledging to pull back support for guerrillas -- and President Donald Trump boasting of securing mineral wealth.

The two foreign ministers signed the deal brokered by the United States, Qatar and the African Union in the presence of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who acknowledged there was "more work to be done" but said the deal will let people "now have dreams and hopes for a better life."

The agreement comes after the M23 rebel group, an ethnic Tutsi force widely linked to Rwanda, sprinted across the long-turbulent and mineral-rich east of the DRC earlier this year, seizing vast territory including the key city of Goma.

The deal does not explicitly address the gains of the M23 but calls for Rwanda to end "defensive measures" it has taken.

Rwanda has denied directly supporting the M23 rebels but has demanded an end to another armed group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which was established by ethnic Hutus linked to the massacres of Tutsis in the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

The agreement calls for the "neutralization" of the FDLR.

"The first order of business is to begin implementing the concept of operations for the neutralization of the FDLR, to be accompanied by a lifting of Rwanda's defensive measures," Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe said at the ceremony.

"This is grounded in the commitment made here for an irreversible and verifiable end to state support for FDLR and associated militias," he said.

His Congolese counterpart, Therese Kayikwamba Wagner, highlighted the agreement's promises for a respect to sovereignty.

"By signing this agreement, we reaffirm a simple truth. Peace is a choice, but also a responsibility to respect international law, to uphold human rights and to protect sovereignty of states," she said.

Massad Boulos, a Lebanese-American businessman and father-in-law of Trump's daughter Tiffany tapped by the president as a senior advisor on Africa, said that the agreement was also establishing a joint security coordination body that will help with the return of refugees.

- Trump takes credit -

Trump has trumpeted the diplomacy that led to the deal, and publicly complained that he has not received a Nobel Peace Prize.

Trump will welcome both foreign ministers to the White House later Friday. Speaking to reporters, Trump said that the United States will be able to secure "a lot of mineral rights from the Congo."

The DRC has enormous mineral reserves that include lithium and cobalt, vital in electric vehicles and other advanced technologies, with US rival China now a key player in securing the resources.

Trump, in an uncharacteristic expression of modesty, said that he had been unfamiliar with the conflict as he appeared to allude to the horrors of the 1994 Rwanda genocide, in which hundreds of thousands of people, mostly Tutsis, were killed in just 100 days.

"I'm a little out of my league on that one because I didn't know too much about it. I knew one thing -- they were going at it for many years with machetes," Trump said.

Denis Mukwege, a gynecologist who shared the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end the DRC's epidemic of sexual violence in war, voiced alarm about the agreement, saying it effectively benefited Rwanda and the United States.

The deal "would amount to granting a reward for aggression, legitimizing the plundering of Congolese natural resources, and forcing the victim to alienate their national heritage by sacrificing justice in order to ensure a precarious and fragile peace," he said in a statement ahead of the signing.

Both countries have sought favor with the United States. The DRC offered a minerals deal loosely inspired by the Trump administration's minerals agreement with Ukraine.

Rwanda has been discussing taking in migrants deported from the United States, a major priority for Trump.

Rwanda, one of the most stable countries in Africa, had reached a migration deal with Britain's former Conservative government but the arrangement was killed by the Labour government that took office last year.

13 Killed Including 3 Children In Sudan Paramilitary Strikes On Darfur City: Medical Source

Yemen Details — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 22:33:26 +0300

KHARTOUM: Paramilitary shelling of the besieged Darfur city of El-Fasher in western Sudan killed 13 people including 3 children on Friday, a medical source told AFP as the United Nations announced it was seeking to secure a humanitarian pause in the city.

“Another 21 people were injured due to the artillery shelling from the Rapid Support militia,” the source said, referring to the Rapid Support Forces, at war with the regular army since April 2023.

The RSF has besieged the North Darfur state capital since May of last year and has launched repeated attacks in an attempt to seize the city of an estimated million people.

The strike came hours after Sudan’s ruling Transitional Sovereignty Council said army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan’s office had agreed in a phone call with UN chief Antonio Guterres to a “week-long humanitarian truce in El-Fasher to support UN efforts and facilitate aid access to thousands of besieged civilians.”

Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Friday said “we are making contacts with both sides with that objective.”

The UN has repeatedly warned of the plight of trapped civilians in the city, where hunger has pushed families to survive on eating leaves and peanut shells as nearly no aid is allowed in.
Civilians report soaring prices and a near-total absence of health facilities, nearly all of which have been forced shut by the fighting.

A World Food Programme facility inside El-Fasher was damaged from repeated RSF shelling last month, and in early June five aid workers were killed in an attack on a UN convoy seeking to supply the city.

The paramilitary has repeatedly attacked the city and its surrounding famine-hit displacement camps, killing hundreds of civilians and pushing hundreds of thousands of already displaced people to flee.

UNICEF has described the situation as “hell on earth” for at least 825,000 children trapped in and around El-Fasher.

The RSF conquered nearly all of the vast western region of Darfur in the early months of the war, but has been unable to seize North Darfur state capital El-Fasher despite besieging the city for over a year.

An RSF source told AFP Friday the paramilitary had not received a ceasefire proposal.
Aid sources say an official famine declaration is impossible given the lack of access to data, but mass starvation has already taken hold of the city.

Over a million people are on the brink of famine in North Darfur, according to the latest available UN figures.

Of the 10 million people currently internally displaced in Sudan — the world’s largest displacement crisis — nearly 20 percent are in North Darfur.

South Africa mourns 92 victims of deadly floods

Yemen Details — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 20:15:12 +0300

South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province on Thursday mourned 92 victims of floods that battered the region last week and displaced thousands.

Thousands of houses, roads, schools, and health facilities were left caked in mud after being submerged. More than 4,300 people were left homeless, according to the government.

President Cyril Ramaphosa said the “unprecedented” and “catastrophic disaster” was due to climate change.

The Eastern Cape government said 31 of the 92 dead were children and asked people in the province to observe a minute’s silence at 11:00 a.m. (0900 GMT).

All non-essential events in the province have been postponed, it added.

The area worst hit by the floods and subsequent landslides was the city of Mthatha, about 800 kilometers (500 miles) south of Johannesburg.

Work was underway to restore water and power supplies and repair damaged infrastructure, the Eastern Cape government said.

Kenya protesters clash with men wielding clubs

Yemen Details — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 23:46:29 +0300

Kenyan protesters have clashed with club-carrying young men, believed to be loyal to the government, in the centre of the capital, Nairobi.

The demonstration, held in the wake of the death in custody 10 days ago of blogger and teacher Albert Ojwang, was called to demand the sacking of a top police officer.

Police initially said that Mr Ojwang died of self-inflicted wounds, but were forced to retract the statement after an autopsy found that it was likely he died after being assaulted. Two policemen have been arrested in connection with the death.

The protest comes amid simmering tension ahead of next week's first anniversary of the storming of parliament by demonstrators.

Earlier on Tuesday, there were pockets of violence in the capital's central business district when groups of young men riding motorbikes, armed with whips and clubs, attacked protesters.

Videos show the men - described locally as "goons" - seemingly working side-by-side with police, who fired teargas to try and disrupt the demonstrations.

The police have denied any link saying that it has "noted a group of goons armed with crude weapons, in today's protests... The service takes great exception and does not condone such unlawful groupings."

The Reuters news agency reported earlier that its staff saw the body of one man on the street with a head wound. The AFP news agency is quoting a hospital source as saying that the man was still alive but in a critical condition.

In a statement, the police said it was aware of "an incident involving [the] shooting of an unarmed civilian by a police officer using an anti-riot shotgun". The policeman allegedly responsible has since been arrested, it added.

Officers had been deployed across key parts of the city, in an attempt to block protesters from accessing major intersections and government buildings.

Deputy police chief Eliud Lagat has stepped aside as an investigation into Mr Ojwang's death is under way.

But activists want him removed from office as it was his complaint against the blogger that led to the young man's arrest. The 31-year-old was accused of defaming Mr Lagat on social media.

"We shall not be intimidated. We shall remain unbowed. We want Lagat to step aside," one protester told the BBC.

"We want the guy to resign and we want the guy to be arrested. We want him to sit there and answer questions, you know. [He is] still on the payroll, still enjoying taxpayers' money," another said.

The situation in Nairobi remains tense. Most businesses in the city centre are shut and there are visibly fewer people than usual on the streets.

Last year's protests, led by young Kenyans, were against an unpopular finance bill which sought to introduce new taxes. It culminated in the protesters entering parliament on 25 June and forced the government to drop the controversial proposals.

There are no contentious tax measures this year, but activists plan to build up momentum to what they are calling "a total shutdown" of business next Wednesday.

At least 2,680 killed in Haiti unrest so far this year: UN

Yemen Details — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 23:51:13 +0300

At least 2,680 people were killed in Haiti in the first five months of the year, the United Nations said Friday, voicing alarm at widening gang violence.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere with swathes of the country under the control of rival armed gangs who carry out murders, rapes and kidnappings.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk said the crisis had plummeted to a new low, with gangs extending their reach beyond the coastal capital Port-au-Prince into central regions.

The UN Human Rights Office said at least 2,680 people had been killed between January 1 and May 30, including 54 children.

Those figures were from information it has been able to verify, but it said the true toll would likely be far higher.

At least 957 others had been wounded and 316 kidnapped for ransom, it added. Sexual violence by gangs and their recruitment of children was also still rising.

"Alarming as they are, numbers cannot express the horrors Haitians are being forced to endure on a daily basis," Turk said in a statement.

"I am horrified by the ever-increasing spread of gang attacks and other human rights abuses beyond the capital, and deeply concerned by their destabilising impact on other countries in the region."

With law enforcement struggling to restore security, mobs and self-defence groups were taking matters into their own hands, leading to even more human rights abuses, he added.

Turk cited deadly clashes between gangs and so-called self-defence groups, including one in which at least 25 were killed with machetes.

While the country is nominally run by a transitional government, there has been a fresh surge of violence since February, with gangs pressing into previously safe areas.

Gangs control 85 percent of Port-au-Prince, according to the UN, and have stepped up attacks on areas not yet under their control.

A record number of people -- almost 1.3 million -- have been forced to flee their homes in Haiti due to violence, the UN's migration agency said Wednesday.

Turk said the coming months would test the international community's ability to take stronger action to stabilise Haiti and the wider region.

Death toll in S.Africa floods rises to 78

Yemen Details — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 01:25:55 +0300

South Africa rescue teams recovered more bodies Thursday, days after heavy rains and strong winds battered the Eastern Cape province, as the death toll rose to at least 78.

The bitterly cold winter storm struck the largely rural and underdeveloped province on Monday, causing a river to burst its banks and submerge homes, with several make-shift dwellings toppled.

The worst-hit area was around the city of Mthatha, about 800 kilometres (500 miles) south of Johannesburg, where residents picked through the mud three days later to salvage what they could from their destroyed homes.

AFP journalists saw a rescue team pull four bodies, some of them children, from a one-roomed house in the late afternoon as locals watched.

Houses, trees and cars were covered in mud and fields were strewn with debris.

"As the water subsides, more bodies are being discovered," said Caroline Gallant, Eastern Cape manager at the South African Red Cross Society, which has sent assistance to the disaster zone.

More than 3,000 houses have been affected, she told AFP, adding it was "the worst ever disaster" recorded in the area.

"The figure has gone to 78," Velenkosini Hlabisa, minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, told public broadcaster SABC News.

These include six school students who were among 10 in a school van that was swept away in the flooding, he said. Four of the children are still missing, officials said.

"We learnt of an additional two learners today... who have been confirmed as having died on the walk to school," Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube said.

"We are reeling," she told the SABC.

Ali Sablay, a spokesperson for disaster response charity the Gift of the Givers Foundation, said Thursday evening their teams had recovered eight new bodies, including three children.

President Cyril Ramaphosa called the floods "unprecedented" and said he would visit the disaster-hit region Friday.

- Door to door -

One rescuer, who spoke to AFP on Thursday on the condition of anonymity as he was not allowed to speak to the media, said his team was expecting to find more bodies and possibly survivors.

"We are going door to door to see, because yesterday we did find people locked inside houses who couldn't get out and were deceased," he said.

The storm damaged power and water supplies and at least 600 people have been displaced, the provincial government said, with many sheltering in community halls.

Infrastructure has also been damaged and at least 20 health facilities affected, the local authority said.

"The numbers will increase dramatically," Sablay said.

"In the last 24 hours the number of people requiring assistance has jumped from 5,000 to 10,000," he told AFP.

"The homes are fragile, they can collapse any time; food is contaminated so people need to be evacuated," he added.

The government urged South Africans to be vigilant over the next few days as more "extreme weather" was expected across the country.

The province -- where Nelson Mandela was born -- is among the poorest in the country, with 72 percent of people living below the poverty line, according to the Southern African Regional Poverty Network.

Snow and heavy rainfall are common during winter in South Africa but the country is also highly vulnerable to the impact of climate variability and change, which increases the frequency and severity of droughts, floods and wildfires, according to the Green Climate Fund.

"We must take a tough stance that everyone who is living on a flood plain must be removed," minister Hlabisa said. "Climate change is a reality now."

Sudan Cholera Outbreak Kills 172 In One Week

Yemen Details — Tue, 27 May 2025 21:43:35 +0300

A cholera outbreak has killed over 170 people across Sudan in one week, health authorities said Tuesday, amid a collapse of basic infrastructure after over two years of brutal war.

In a statement, Sudan's health ministry reported more than 2,700 infections and 172 deaths within one week, with 90 percent of cases concentrated in Khartoum state.

In recent weeks, the capital's water and electricity supply has been severely disrupted by drone strikes blamed on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), at war with the army since April 2023.

Cases were also reported in the country's south, centre and north.

Cholera is endemic to Sudan, but outbreaks have become far worse and more frequent since the war broke out, wrecking already fragile water, sanitation and health infrastructure.

Last Tuesday, the ministry said 51 people had died of cholera out of more than 2,300 reported cases over the past three weeks, 90 percent of them in Khartoum state.

The RSF this month launched drone strikes across Khartoum, including on three power stations, before being completely pushed out of their last holdout positions in the capital last week.

The strikes knocked the electricity and subsequently the local water network out of service, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF), forcing residents to turn to unsafe water sources.

"Water treatment stations no longer have electricity and cannot provide clean water from the Nile," Slaymen Ammar, MSF's medical coordinator in Khartoum, said in a statement.

Bashir Mohamed, a resident of Omdurman, part of greater Khartoum, told AFP his family has been without electricity for nearly two weeks.

"We now fetch water directly from the Nile, buying it from donkey carts that bring it in barrels," he said.
Lying on hospital floors

According to a doctor at Omdurman's Al-Nao hospital, the capital's main functioning health facility, residents have resorted to "drinking untreated Nile water, after the shutdown of water pumping stations", which he said "is the main reason for the rapid spread" of cholera.

Medics in the already overwhelmed hospital are struggling to keep pace with the outbreak, and the local emergency response room (ERR) has issued a call for more volunteers.

"The number of patients exceeds the hospital's capacity," a member of the ERR told AFP, requesting anonymity for their safety.

"There are not enough medical staff. Some patients are lying on the floors in hospital corridors," he added.

Cholera, an acute diarrhoeal illness caused by ingesting contaminated water or food, can kill within hours if untreated.

Yet it is easily preventable and treatable when clean water, sanitation and timely medical care are available.

Sudan's already fragile healthcare system has been pushed to "breaking point" by the war, according to the World Health Organization.

Up to 90 percent of the country's hospitals have at some point been forced to close because of the fighting, according to the doctors' union, with health facilities regularly stormed, bombed and looted.

The war, now in its third year, has killed tens of thousands, displaced 13 million and created the world's largest displacement and hunger crisis.

At least 42 killed in weekend attacks in Nigeria’s Benue state: Local official

Yemen Details — Tue, 27 May 2025 20:04:26 +0300

At least 42 people were shot dead by suspected herders in a series of weekend attacks across Gwer West district in Nigeria’s central Benue state, a local official said on Tuesday.

Thirty-two bodies were recovered from Sunday’s assaults on the Ahume and Aondona villages, while 10 more were killed in a separate attack on the villages of Tyolaha and Tse-Ubiam on Saturday, said Victor Omnin, chairman of the Gwer West local government.

“It’s a pathetic situation. As we speak, we are still recovering corpses,” Omnin told journalists.

Benue is in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, a region where the majority Muslim North meets the largely Christian South. The region faces competition over land use, with conflicts between herders, who seek grazing land for their cattle, and farmers, who need arable land for cultivation. These tensions are often worsened by overlapping ethnic and religious divisions.

Benue Governor Hyacinth Iormem Alia’s office said a Catholic priest was also shot in the area by the assailants, and is in critical but stable condition.

Nigeria: Explosion near military barracks in capital Abuja

Yemen Details — Mon, 26 May 2025 23:28:03 +0300

An explosion occurred near a military barracks in the Nigerian capital Abuja, the army announced Monday, as an intelligence source told AFP that the suspected attacker had died.

"Explosion At Bus Stop Opposite Mogadishu Cantonment Abuja. Situation Under Control. Details Later," said the Nigerian army in a post on X.

An intelligence source told AFP that the "explosive blew up the person in possession of the explosive" with one seriously injured person taken to Abuja's Defence medical hospital.

Pictures seen by AFP showed the bloodied body of man in a green-and-white shirt and black trousers lying on the ground.

Investigation commenced

Police spokeswoman Josephine Adeh said the explosion occurred around 2:50 pm (1350 GMT) and that explosive ordnance disposal unit officers were deployed to the scene.

"The affected area was swiftly cordoned off for analysis to ensure the safety of commuters and residents," she said in a statement, adding a male victim was rescued at the scene and taken to hospital, without giving more details.

"A comprehensive investigation has commenced, including detailed forensic analysis, to ascertain the exact cause and nature of the explosion," she said.

The barracks is located around five kilometres from the presidential villa, according to an AFP journalist.

Libyan protesters demand prime minister quit as three ministers resign

Yemen Details — Sat, 17 May 2025 01:37:27 +0300

Hundreds of Libyan protesters called on Friday for the ouster of the internationally recognized prime minister, Abdulhamid Dbeibah, and at least three ministers resigned in sympathy with the protesters.

The demonstrators gathered in Martyrs’ Square in Tripoli, chanting slogans such as “The nation wants to topple the government” and “We want elections.”

They then marched to the main government building in the city center. “We won’t leave until he leaves,” one protester said.

The marchers carried pictures of Dbeibah, national security adviser Ibrahim Dbeibah and Interior Minister Emad Tarbulsi with their faces crossed out in red

Dbeibah, who leads the divided country’s Government of National Unity, came to power through a UN-backed process in 2021. Planned elections failed to proceed that year because of disagreements among rival factions, and he has remained in power.

On Friday, businessman Wael Abdulhafed said, “We are (here) today to express our anger against Dbeibah and all those in the power for years now and (who) prevent elections. They must leave power.”

Calls for Dbeibah to resign increased after two rival armed groups clashed in the capital this week in the heaviest fighting in years. Eight civilians were killed, according to the United Nations.

Violence flared after the prime minister on Tuesday ordered the armed groups to be dismantled. Demonstrators have accused Dbeibah of failing to restore stability and of being complicit in the growing power of armed groups.

Economy and Trade Minister Mohamed al-Hawij, Local Government Minister Badr Eddin al-Tumi and Minister of Housing Abu Bakr al-Ghawi resigned on Friday.

Militia leader Abdulghani Kikli, widely known as Ghaniwa, died in the clashes, which calmed on Wednesday after the government announced a ceasefire.

Libya has had little stability since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising ousted longtime autocrat Muammar Gaddafi. The country split in 2014 between rival eastern and western factions, though an outbreak of major warfare paused with a truce in 2020.

While eastern Libya has been dominated for a decade by commander Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army, control in Tripoli and western Libya has been splintered among numerous armed factions.

The main oil facilities in the major energy exporter are located in southern and eastern Libya, far from fighting in Tripoli. Engineers at several oil fields and export terminals told Reuters output remained unaffected by the clashes.

Fresh gunbattles rock Libya capital after brief lull

Yemen Details — Thu, 15 May 2025 00:02:47 +0300

Tripoli (AFP) – Fresh gunbattles erupted on Wednesday in the Libyan capital between two powerful armed groups, a security official, just a day after authorities declared the fighting over.

Clashes flared between the Radaa force and the 444 Brigade in key areas of the city, including the port, the source said.

The fighting eased towards the end of the day, according to television reports and residents who spoke to AFP.

No official casualty figures have yet been released for the latest fighting, but the Libyan Red Crescent said it recovered a dead body from a major street in Tripoli.

The official described the fighting as "urban warfare", with intermittent clashes in residential areas involving light and medium weapons. In other areas, heavy weapons were being used.

Libya has struggled to recover from years of unrest since the NATO-backed 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime leader Moamer Kadhafi.

The country remains split between a UN-recognised government in Tripoli, led by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, and a rival administration in the east, controlled by the Haftar family.

The 444 Brigade controls parts of southern Tripoli and is aligned with Dbeibah, whereas Radaa controls parts in the capital's east and holds several key state facilities.

Fighting extended in southern and western Tripoli as Radaa and "groups supporting it came as reinforcements against the 444 Brigade", the interior ministry source said.

On Monday night, heavy arms fire and explosions rocked several Tripoli districts, killing at least six people, according to authorities.

Reports said Abdelghani al-Kikli, leader of the Support and Stability Apparatus which controls the southern district of Abu Salim, had also been killed at a facility controlled by the 444 Brigade.
'Territorial reshuffle'

A source told AFP that groups were moving into the capital from neighbouring Zawiya in support of Radaa.

Meanwhile, "more Misrata brigades may continue to join Dbeibah's side", said Libya expert Jalel Harchaoui.

He described the latest conflict as "more dangerous" for the capital in recent years, saying it meant a "territorial reshuffle" with more factions "seeking to insinuate themselves into downtown Tripoli".

Turkey, a supporter of the Tripoli-based government, on Wednesday called on "all parties to implement a full and lasting ceasefire without delay and to engage in dialogue to settle disputes," its foreign ministry said.

On Tuesday, the Tripoli-based government said the fighting had been brought under control as Dbeibah thanked government forces "for restoring security and asserting the state's authority in the capital".

Dbeibah also announced a string of executive orders including dissolving some bodies previously run by Tripoli armed groups other than the 444 Brigade.

But a second night of fighting could mean "a more prolonged, destructive, and existential battle with a nationwide dimension" after what he said was Dbeibah's "failure to secure a quick victory".

Authorities also announced a ceasefire, but gunshots were still heard in western parts of Tripoli.

The United Nations mission in Libya said it was "deeply alarmed by escalating violence in densely populated neighbourhoods of Tripoli for the second night in a row".

In a statement, it called for "an immediate, unconditional ceasefire in all areas, allowing safe corridors for the evacuation of civilians trapped in intense conflict zones".

Mali dissolves political parties in blow to junta critics

Yemen Details — Wed, 14 May 2025 03:47:28 +0300

Bamako (AFP) – Mali's military government on Tuesday dissolved the west African country's political parties, according to a presidency decree, the latest attempt to clamp down on the opposition since the junta seized power.

Opposition parties have feared the move for weeks, banding together into a hundred-party coalition to demonstrate in an rare act of open defiance since back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021 brought the army to power.

Hours after junta chief General Assimi Goita approved the suspension of a political parties charter, a step on the road to dissolution, the authorities announced the dissolution of "political parties and political organisations".

Read out on national television, the decree likewise bans "all meetings of members of political parties and organisations of a political character".

Yet junta officials working for the Malian state's political and administrative institutions "may pursue their mission without having to identify themselves as representatives of political parties", the decree added.

The latest act of repression comes on the recommendation of a national assembly organised in late April, which was all but boycotted by the opposition.

Besides the suspension of the political parties charter approved by Goita earlier on Tuesday, which allowed for the parties' dissolution, the April assembly also proposed handing the junta chief a five-year renewable presidential term without a vote.

Since the coups, a welter of retaliatory measures, legal proceedings and the dissolution of a swathe of associations have considerably weakened the Malian opposition.

'Stop the parties'

Citing the risk of disturbances to public order, the junta had already suspended all political party activities on May 7, a ban which drew fire from the opposition and calls for repeal from UN experts.

That squeeze on civic space comes against a backdrop of demands by the authorities for the country to unite behind the military, which had originally committed to hand power back to civilians by March 2024 but since reneged on that promise.

Since 2012, Mali has been mired in violence carried out by jihadist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, as well as other criminal organisations.

Fearing dissolution, a coalition of roughly 100 parties recently formed to demand an end to junta rule by December 2025, calling for "the establishment of a timetable for a rapid return to constitutional order".

In a rare act of protest against the junta, the movement drew several hundred people for a demonstration in the capital Bamako in early May.

In an op-ed on Monday, former justice minister Mamadou Ismaila Konate said the junta was attempting "to systematically demolish political countervailing powers" in Mali.

However Malian Director General of Territorial Administration Abdou Salam Diepkile disagreed.

"The repeal of this law does not call into question the existence of political parties," Diepkile told public broadcaster ORTM.

He said the decision was in line with the desire to "stop the proliferation of political parties" in the country.

The junta has suspended French television channel TV5 Monde for a reportage on the May 3 demonstration which the authorities argued "lacked a commitment to impartiality", according to a ruling from Mali's communications regulator.

TV5 Monde has previously fallen foul of the junta, which suspended the channel for three months last year.

Other media from former colonial power France, including France 24 and Radio France Internationale, have been banned permanently.

Armed clashes erupt in Libya's Tripoli after reported killing of armed group leader

Yemen Details — Tue, 13 May 2025 02:24:44 +0300

TRIPOLI, May 12 (Reuters) - Armed clashes erupted on Monday evening and gunfire has echoed in the city center and other parts of the Libyan capital Tripoli following reports that an armed group leader was killed, three residents told Reuters by phone.

The leader, Abdulghani Kikli, known as Ghaniwa, is the commander of Support Force Apparatus SSA, one of Tripoli's powerful armed groups, based in the densely populated Abu Salim neighbourhood.

SSA is under the Presidential Council that came to power in 2021 with the Government of National Unity (GNU) of Abdulhamid Dbeibah through a United Nations-backed process.
GNU's interior ministry called on citizens in a short statement to stay at home "for their own safety."

Following the ministry's call, drivers started speeding and honking in many Tripoli streets.
GNU media platform said early on Tuesday that the defense ministry had fully taken control of Abu Salim neighbourhood.

"I heard heavy gunfire, and I saw red lights in the sky," a resident said on condition of anonymity.

The other two residents said the gunfire was echoing all over their neighbourhoods of Abu Salim and Salah Eddin.

The University of Tripoli Presidency announced on Facebook the suspension of studies, exams, and administrative work at all faculties, departments and offices until further notice.
The U.N. Mission in Libya urged all parties to "immediately cease fighting and restore calm," reminding them of their obligation to protect civilians.

"Attacks on civilians and civilian objects may amount to war crimes," it said.

Libya, a major oil producer in the Mediterranean, has had little stability since a 2011 uprising backed by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The country split in 2014 between warring eastern and western factions.

Major fighting paused with a ceasefire in 2020 but efforts to end the political crisis have failed, with major factions occasionally joining forces in armed clashes and competing for control over Libya's substantial economic resources.

Tripoli and the northwest, where the internationally recognised GNU and most major state institutions are based, are home to rival armed factions that have repeatedly fought.

33 killed in Sudan strikes blamed on paramilitary RSF

Yemen Details — Sat, 10 May 2025 20:05:35 +0300

At least 33 people have been killed in Sudan in attacks blamed on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), at war with the army since April 2023, first responders said Saturday.

The attacks came after six straight days of RSF drone strikes on the army-led government’s wartime capital, Port Sudan, damaged key infrastructure including the power grid.

On Friday evening, at least 14 members of the same family were killed in an air strike on a displacement camp in the vast western region of Darfur, a rescue group said, blaming the paramilitaries.

The Abu Shouk camp “was the target of intense bombardment by the Rapid Support Forces on Friday evening,” said the group of volunteer aid workers, which also reported wounded.

“Fourteen Sudanese, members of the same family, were killed,” and several people wounded, it said in a statement.

The camp near El-Fasher — the last state capital in Darfur still out of the RSF’s control — is plagued by famine, according to the United Nations.

It is home to tens of thousands of people who fled the violence of successive conflicts in Darfur and the conflict that has been tearing Africa’s third-largest country apart since 2023.

The RSF has shelled the camp several times in recent weeks.

Abu Shouk is located near the Zamzam camp, which the RSF seized in April after a devastating offensive that virtually emptied it.

The United Nations says nearly one million people had been sheltering at the site.

On Saturday, an RSF strike on a prison in the army-controlled southern city of El-Obeid killed at least 19 people and wounded 45, a medical source said.

The source told AFP that the jail in the North Kordofan state capital was hit by an RSF drone.

The war, which began as a power struggle between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has spiraled into what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

It has effectively divided the country in two, with the army controlling the north, east and center, while the RSF and its allies dominate nearly all of Darfur in the west and parts of the south.

Sudan's RSF launches second drone attack in Port Sudan, security sources say

Yemen Details — Tue, 06 May 2025 00:13:44 +0300

PORT SUDAN, May 5 (Reuters) - Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces launched a second drone strike in as many days on Port Sudan, targeting fuel depots in the eastern city early on Monday, security sources told Reuters, in a major escalation of a two-year-long conflict.

Large plumes of smoke and fire rose from the facility well into the afternoon as civil defence teams worked to contain a blaze there.

Military sources told Reuters that the RSF used a drone at dawn to bomb the fuel storage facilities that they described as civilian infrastructure.

"This attack reflects a deliberate attempt by these militias to paralyse life and target citizens' basic needs," Sudan's energy and petroleum minister Mohiedienn Naiem Mohamed Saied said.

The sources labelled the strike part of a "criminal campaign by the militia."

Speaking from the site, Saied condemned what he described as a "terrorist operation" aimed at crippling essential services.

He said fires had engulfed major fuel storage facilities after the drone hit a diesel depot and the blaze spread to nearby tanks, according to a ministry statement.

There were fears it could trigger a wider disaster in the densely populated area, Saied said.

The RSF has not yet claimed responsibility for the strike.

On Sunday, the RSF carried out a drone attack on a military base and other targets near Port Sudan Airport, the first time the group had reached the strategic Red Sea city, previously considered a government stronghold and humanitarian hub. No casualties were reported.

The eastern expansion of hostilities threatens to upend the fragile stability of Port Sudan, which houses the country's main seaport, airport and the army's top command.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by war between the army and RSF, triggered by a dispute over a transition to civilian rule. The conflict has displaced over 12 million people and pushed half the population into acute hunger, according to the United Nations.

UN: More than 480 people have been killed in Sudan's North Darfur since April 10

Yemen Details — Sat, 26 Apr 2025 00:45:54 +0300

More than 480 civilians have been killed in attacks in Sudan’s North Darfur region in two weeks this month, with some attacks ethnically motivated, according to the United Nations.

The UN human rights office said on Friday that it had listed at least 481 civilians killed in North Darfur since April 10 and that “the actual number is likely much higher”.

It also reported rampant sexual violence in the region, including against young boys and girls, calling the assaults “horrifying”.

“The suffering of the Sudanese people is hard to imagine, harder to comprehend and simply impossible to accept,” said UN rights chief Volker Turk in the statement.

North Darfur has become a key battleground in the war that erupted on April 15, 2023, between Sudan’s army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), headed by al-Burhan’s former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

Tens of thousands have been killed in the war, which has triggered what the UN describes as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

‘Widespread reports of sexual violence’

One of the latest bloody assaults occurred in the Zamzam displacement camp between April 11-13. That attack killed at least 210 civilians, including nine medical professionals, according to the UN rights office. Turk described reports of “women, girls and boys being raped or gang-raped there or as they tried to escape”.

At least 129 more civilians were killed between Sunday and Thursday this week in el-Fasher city, Um Kedada district and the Abu Shouk displacement camp, said the UN.

Some of the latest attacks were “ethnically motivated”, with specific communities targeted, it added.

“The rising number of civilian casualties and the widespread reports of sexual violence are horrifying,” said Turk.

In addition, the UN said “dozens of people were reported to have died due to lack of food, water and medical care” in detention facilities run by the RSF or “while walking for days in harsh conditions in an attempt to flee violence”.

‘Dire conditions’

The fighting in North Darfur has displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians, many of whom had previously fled their homes during the conflict, according to the UN’s rights office.

The displaced “face dire conditions amid continued restrictions on access to lifesaving humanitarian assistance,” it said.

Despite the growing crisis, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) earlier on Friday warned it may be forced to scale back its food support within weeks due to funding shortages.

Rations in areas at risk of famine have been reduced to 70 percent of a standard WFP ration (equal to 2,100 kcal per day), the organisation said.

The aid response is also jeopardised by continued attacks targeting humanitarian workers and medical personnel, said Turk.

“The systems to assist victims in many areas are on the verge of collapse,” he said, “medical workers are themselves under threat, and even water sources have been deliberately attacked.”

The UN’s assessment comes a day after the UK’s Foreign Minister David Lammy warned violence in Darfur bears “the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing and may amount to crimes against humanity”.

Lammy called on Sudan’s army and the RSF to “de-escalate urgently” and said the UK would continue to “use all tools available to us to hold those responsible for atrocities to account”.

30 Kiiled, Dozens Wounded In Paramillitary Shelling In Sudan: Report

Yemen Details — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 21:18:39 +0300

Paramilitary shelling on Sudan's besieged city of El-Fasher, in the western region of Darfur, killed more than 30 civilians and wounded dozens more, activists said on Monday.

The attack, which took place on Sunday, involved "heavy artillery shelling" and targeted the city's residential neighbourhoods, said the local resistance committee, one of hundreds of volunteer groups coordinating aid across Sudan.

Since April 2023, the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been locked in a brutal war.

El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, remains the last major city in the vast Darfur region that the paramilitary group has not conquered.

Last week, the RSF launched a renewed offensive on the city and two nearby displacement camps -- Zamzam and Abu Shouk -- killing over 400 and displacing some 400,000 people, according to the United Nations.

In a bloody ground offensive, the RSF took control of Zamzam camp -- where up to one million people were sheltering according to aid sources.

Following the army's recapture of the capital Khartoum last month, the RSF has intensified efforts to seize El-Fasher, raising fears of a devastating urban battle and a new wave of displacement.

The war in Sudan, now in its third year, has killed tens of thousands, displaced 13 million and created what the UN describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The conflict has effectively divided the country in two with the army holding the centre, east and north while the RSF controls nearly all of Darfur and, with its allies, parts of the south.

South Sudan Clashes Kill Nearly 200, Displace 125,000 Since March – UN

Yemen Details — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 21:53:13 +0300

Escalating clashes in South Sudan have killed almost 200 people and displaced an estimated 125,000 more since March, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Tensions have increased over attacks in the northeastern Upper Nile State between forces allied to President Salva Kiir and his rival the first vice president, threatening a fragile power-sharing agreement that ended a five-year civil war.

Political instability has also plagued the young nation, which only declared independence in 2011, with international observers urging restraint following the detention of Vice President Riek Machar last month.

Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch said the armed forces had dropped improvised incendiary weapons and killed nearly 60 people over a month-long period in Upper Nile State.

Displaced people who fled the ongoing violence by two rival Sudanese generals, gather in a room inside the university of Al-Jazira, transformed into a makeshift shelter, in al-Hasahisa south of Khartoum on July 8, 2023. (Photo by – / AFP)

People gather by a medical centre building riddled with bullet holes at the Souk Sitta (Market Six) in the south of Khartoum on June 1, 2023. (Photo by – / AFP)

“Since March 2025, armed clashes and aerial bombardments have killed more than 180 people, injured over 250 others, and displaced an estimated 125,000 people,” the United Nations said in a statement.

The rise is a steep increase on the UN’s last warning in March, when it said at least 50,000 people had been displaced since February.

“This latest surge in violence must stop,” Anita Kiki Gbeho, an official with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in South Sudan said in the statement.

“This violence comes at a time when humanitarian funding is dwindling and urgent needs are rising — not only in Upper Nile but across South Sudan,” she added.

The UN said the violence had claimed the lives of four humanitarian workers, with six health facilities forced to close.

Such closures come as the country — desperately poor despite its oil wealth — also grapples with a cholera outbreak, which the UN said “has already claimed 919 lives and infected nearly 49,000 people in South Sudan”.

[PHOTO FOR ILLUSTRATIVE PURPOSES ONLY] Greek nationals from Sudan arrive with a military C-27 plane at the military airport of Elefsina, south of Athens, on April 25, 2023. (Photo by Aris Messinis / AFP)

A handout picture taken on April 19, 2023 and obtained from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on April 21 shows a crowded ward at a hospital in El Fasher in Sudan’s North Darfur region, where multiple people have been wounded in ongoing battles there. (Photo by Ali SHUKUR / Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) / AFP)

UNICEF labelled it the worst outbreak in the nation’s short history last month, noting that between September and March half the cases were children under 15 years old.

The fighting threatens a 2018 peace deal between Kiir and Machar, who fought a five-year civil war that killed some 400,000 people.

Kiir’s allies have accused Machar’s forces of fomenting unrest in Nasir County in league with the White Army, a loose band of armed youths from the vice president’s Nuer ethnic community.

The tensions began to rise earlier this year when an estimated 6,000 White Army combatants overran a military encampment in Nasir.

An attempted rescue by the United Nations led to the deaths of a UN crew member and senior South Sudanese general, among others.

Up to 400,000 displaced from Darfur camp after Sudan RSF takeover, UN agency says

Yemen Details — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 21:37:23 +0300

CAIRO, April 14 (Reuters) - Between 60,000 and 80,000 households - or up to 400,000 people, - have been displaced from Sudan's Zamzam camp in North Darfur after it was taken over by the Rapid Support Forces, according to data from the U.N.'s International Organization for Migration.

The RSF seized control of the camp on Sunday after a four-day assault that the government and aid groups have said left hundreds dead or wounded.

The United Nations said on Monday that preliminary figures from local sources show more than 300 civilians were killed in fighting on Friday and Saturday around the Zamzam and Abu Shouk displacement camps and the town of al-Fashir in North Darfur.

This includes 10 humanitarian personnel from Relief International, who were killed while operating one of the last functioning health centres in Zamzam camp, said a U.N. spokesperson.

Rights groups have long warned of possible atrocities should the RSF succeed in its months-long siege of the famine-stricken camp, neighbour to the army's only remaining stronghold in the Darfur region, al-Fashir.

Satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies showed burning buildings and smoke in Zamzam on Friday, echoing prior RSF attacks.

The RSF has dismissed such allegations, and says the Zamzam camp was being used as a base for army-aligned groups.

At the start of the war, the camp was home to about half a million people, a number that is thought to have doubled.

In a video shared by the paramilitary force, RSF second in command Abdelrahim Dagalo is seen speaking to a small group of displaced people, promising them food, water, medical care and a return to their homes.

The RSF accelerated its assault on the camp after the army regained control of the capital Khartoum, cementing its retaking of the center of the country.

It has also accelerated drone attacks into army-controlled territory, including an attack on the Atbara power station in the north of the country on Monday according to the national electricity company, cutting off power to the wartime capital of Port Sudan.

The war in Sudan erupted in April 2023, sparked by a power struggle between the army and the RSF, shattering hopes for a transition to civilian rule. The conflict has since displaced millions and devastated wide swathes of the country, spreading famine in several locations.

More Sudanese refugees fleeing as far as Europe: UN refugee agency

Yemen Details — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 20:19:48 +0300

Over a thousand Sudanese refugees have reached or attempted to reach Europe in early 2025, the United Nations’ refugee agency said on Friday, citing growing desperation in part due to reduced aid in the region.

Some 12 million people have been displaced by the two-year conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that has fueled what UN officials call the world’s most devastating aid crisis.

While some have recently returned home to Khartoum, millions of others in neighboring countries like Egypt and Chad face tough choices as services for refugees are being cut, including by the United States as part of an aid review.

Olga Sarrado, UN refugee agency spokesperson, told a press briefing in Geneva that some 484 Sudanese had arrived in Europe in January and February, up 38 percent from the same period last year.

Around 937 others were rescued or intercepted at sea and returned to Libya - more than double last year’s figures for the same period, she added.

“As humanitarian aid crumbles and if the war does not abate, many more will have little choice than to join them,” she said.

Migrant deaths hit a record last year, the UN migration agency said, with many perishing on the Mediterranean crossing which is one of the world’s most dangerous.

Paramilitary strike in Sudan’s Darfur kills 12

Yemen Details — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 21:41:03 +0300

A strike by paramilitaries on El-Fasher, the last city in Sudan’s Darfur region not under their control, has killed at least 12 people, both the army and local activists said.

The deaths are the latest among tens of thousands killed during nearly two years of war between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and Sudan’s army.

They came on Wednesday, the same day Saudi Arabia and the United States called for the warring sides to resume peace talks.

“The militia bombarded the city of El-Fasher with heavy artillery, killing 12 people and wounding 17,” the army’s Sixth Infantry Division in El-Fasher said Wednesday.

The local resistance committee, a volunteer aid group, gave the same toll of 12 dead and 17 wounded for Wednesday’s attack.

Sudan’s war has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million.

Famine has been declared in parts of the country, including displacement camps around El-Fasher, and was likely to spread, according to a UN-backed assessment.

The RSF control most of Sudan’s vast western region of Darfur. They have besieged El-Fasher for months and fighting there has escalated.

On Wednesday the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA said conditions in Darfur are rapidly deteriorating.

“In North Darfur state, more than 4,000 people have been newly displaced in the past week alone due to escalating violence in El-Fasher, as well as in Zamzam displacement camp south of the city and other areas,” OCHA said on its website.

RSF also controls parts of Sudan’s south. The army retook the capital Khartoum in late March. It holds sway in the east and north, leaving Africa’s third-largest country essentially divided in two.

Early in the war, which began on April 15, 2023, the United States and Saudi Arabia conducted mediation but multiple ceasefires collapsed.

On Wednesday the US and Saudi foreign ministers met in Washington.

They “agreed that the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces must return to peace talks, protect civilians, open humanitarian corridors, and return to civilian governance,” a US State Department statement said following the meeting.

Gunmen kill at least 52 people in Nigeria’s Plateau state

Yemen Details — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 21:38:22 +0300

Gunmen have killed at least 52 people and displaced nearly 2,000 others over several days of attacks in Nigeria’s northern Plateau state, which has a history of violence between farmers and cattle herders, the national emergency agency said

The reason for the attacks in six villages in Plateau’s Bokkos district last week was not immediately known but it is the worst outbreak of violence since December 2023, when more than 100 people were killed in the same district.

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said the scale of the violence became clearer at the weekend as 52 people were confirmed dead while 22 others were taken to hospital.

NEMA said in a statement late on Sunday that “gunmen carried out brutal assaults”, leading to multiple fatalities and widespread destruction of property.

“Over 1,820 individuals have been displaced. Three displacement camps have been established,” the agency said, adding that the security situation remained tense.

President Bola Tinubu directed security agencies to hunt down the attackers, who would face “severe punishment”, the presidency said.

Plateau is one of several ethnically and religiously diverse hinterland states known as Nigeria’s Middle Belt, where inter-communal conflict has claimed hundreds of lives in recent years.

The violence is often painted as ethno-religious conflict between Muslim herders and mainly Christian farmers. But climate change and the reduction of grazing land through agricultural expansion are also major factors.

Intercommunal violence kills dozens in central Nigeria

Yemen Details — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 23:57:33 +0300

Jos (Nigeria) (AFP) – Suspected intercommunal violence in Nigeria's north-central Plateau state earlier this week has killed more than 40 people, officials told AFP on Friday.

Attackers struck multiple villages Wednesday in the religiously and ethnically mixed state, where land disputes between Muslim Fulani herders and mostly Christian farmers are known to descend into deadly violence.

As of Friday morning, Bokkos local government official Farmasum Fuddang said 48 bodies had been recovered, sharply revising the earlier reported toll of 10.

"Yesterday alone we made a mass burial of more than 30 people," Fuddang said.

A Red Cross official said that the toll "surpassed 40, mostly women and children".

Though millions of Nigerians of different backgrounds live side by side, intercommunal violence often flares in Plateau state.

Even urban centres, where Muslims and Christians live together, have seen violence sparked by smaller disputes devolve into massacres along community lines.

Map of Nigeria locating Plateau state where more than 40 people died in renewed intercommunal violence, officials said on April 4, 2025 © Kenan AUGEARD / AFP

Maren Jushua, a resident of Manguna, said that unidentified attackers on Wednesday stormed his village with guns.

"I and my other brothers managed to hide ourselves inside a small building behind our house. After they had gone, we came out to discover four people were killed," he told AFP.

John Mathew, of nearby Daffo, said that "the number of casualties would be more than 20".

Fuddang told reporters Thursday that the violence was the result of "ethnic and religious cleansing" by attackers "speaking the Fulani dialect".

A local herder association slammed the remarks, saying that the Fulfulde language, as it is formally known, is widely spoken in the country, "even (by) criminals".

In a statement, the Plateau chapter of the Gan Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria called the killings "barbaric", while also saying that herders "should be the ones complaining about land grabbing" by farming communities.

The military said that troops, alongside local vigilante groups, had engaged with the attackers and "efforts are ongoing to apprehend the fleeing criminals".

The police spokesman in the state did not respond to a request for comment.

History of violence

Researchers say that drivers of conflict in Plateau state are often complicated.

As Africa's most populous country has continued to grow, so has the amount of land that farmers use, while grazing routes have come under stress from climate change.

Land grabbing, political tensions and illegal mining further push people into conflict. Weak policing and governance leave a high rate of impunity.

Plateau state lies along the midway point of Nigeria's mostly Christian south and mostly Muslim north © OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT / AFP/File

An attack on the village of Ruwi at the end of March, under similar circumstances to this week's, left 10 dead.

Unidentified men "came into the community shooting sporadically, and killed 10 people", Moses John, a village leader, told AFP at the time.

Plateau state information commissioner Joyce Ramnap on Friday condemned the latest killings and called on religious and community leaders "to reinforce the message of peace, unity, and lawful engagement".

Ramnap added in a statement that "important arrests have been made", without giving a figure.

Tensions have soared in the state since about 200 people were killed at Christmas 2023 during a bloody attack on a majority Christian village.

In May last year, around 40 people were killed and homes torched in the town of Wase.

Congo M23 rebels to reposition forces from seized town, alliance says

Yemen Details — Sat, 22 Mar 2025 23:50:11 +0300

Rwanda-backed M23 rebels staging an offensive in east Congo will reposition their forces from the town of Walikale, which they took control of this week, in support of peace efforts, a rebel alliance that includes M23 said on Saturday.

Walikale is the farthest west the rebels have reached in a advance that has already overrun eastern Congo’s two largest cities since January.

There have been several attempts to resolve the spiraling conflict, rooted in the fallout from Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and competition for mineral riches, including several ceasefires that were violated and regional summits to open up dialogue.

The rebel alliance said in a statement posted on X that it had “decided to reposition its forces” from Walikale and surrounding areas.

This decision was in line with a ceasefire declared in February and in support of peace initiatives, it said.

A senior member of the alliance who did not wish to be named said repositioning meant withdrawing to “give peace a chance.” The source declined to comment on where M23 rebels would withdraw to.

Congo’s army did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Congo army official said he was skeptical about the announced withdrawal. Another official said M23 was advancing towards another town in Walikale territory.

Sudan Army Says Seizes Full Control of Presidential Palace in Khartoum

Yemen Details — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 21:22:49 +0300

Sudan’s military said it retook the Republican Palace in Khartoum, the last bastion in the capital of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), after nearly two years of fighting.

Social media videos showed its soldiers inside giving the date as the 21st day of Ramadan, which was Friday. A Sudanese military officer wearing a captain’s rank made the announcement in the video, and its details confirmed the troops were inside the compound.

The palace appeared to be in ruins in part, with soldiers’ steps crunching broken tiles underneath their boots.

The fall of the Republican Palace — a compound along the Nile River that was the seat of government before the war — marks another battlefield gain for Sudan’s military. It has made steady advances in recent months under army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan.

It means the rival RSF under Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, has been expelled from the capital of Khartoum after Sudan’s war began in April 2023.

The RSF did not immediately acknowledge the loss, which likely won’t stop fighting in the war as the group and its allies still hold territory elsewhere in Sudan.

The RSF, which earlier this year began establishing a parallel government, maintains control of parts of Khartoum and neighbouring Omdurman, as well as western Sudan, where it is fighting to take over the army's last stronghold in Darfur, al-Fashir.
Capturing the capital could hasten the army's full takeover of central Sudan, and harden the east-west territorial division of the country between the two forces.

Both sides have vowed to continue fighting for the remainder of the country, and no efforts at peace talks have materialized.
The war has killed more than 28,000 people, forced millions to flee their homes and left some families eating grass in a desperate attempt to survive as famine sweeps parts of the country. Other estimates suggest a far higher death toll.

Sudan army makes gains as battle for Khartoum intensifies

Yemen Details — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 21:52:37 +0300

Omdurman (AFP) – Sudanese army forces advancing on Khartoum converged on Monday with troops in the capital's centre, a military spokesman said, increasing pressure on rival paramilitaries and inching closer to retaking the city.

The latest push by the army, at war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since April 2023, comes after troops had broken prolonged sieges on key military sites after months of apparent stalemate in Khartoum.

Army spokesman Nabil Abdullah Ali said Armoured Corps troops advancing from the south captured a key hospital from the RSF, enabling them to unite with General Command forces already in the city centre.

A Sudanese military expert, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity for safety concerns, said that the latest army manoeuvre would cement its control over much of central Khartoum.

It would also increase pressure on RSF fighters near the presidential palace, with army forces now approaching them from both the south and the east, the expert said.

The war between the RSF and the army has escalated in recent months, with army forces seeking to reclaim territory lost to the RSF early in the conflict in the capital Khartoum and beyond.

The Armoured Corps last October broke out of a months-long paramilitary siege on its headquarters, and in January the army ended an almost two-year RSF siege of its General Command headquarters.

In Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman, RSF shelling on Sunday killed six civilians and wounded 36 others, a doctor at Al-Nao hospital told AFP, also requesting anonymity for security reasons.

Two of the dead and half of those wounded were children, said the doctor.

The media office of the army-aligned Khartoum regional government said the bombardment struck residential areas in northern Omdurman, hitting civilians inside their homes and children playing on a football field.
Intensified fighting

In a video address shared on Telegram Saturday, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo vowed his troops "will not leave the Republican Palace", the seat of power in central Khartoum.

AFP journalists saw thick plumes of smoke rising over the city centre as fighting raged across the capital, with gunfire and explosions heard in several areas.

Nationwide, the conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted more than 12 million, and created the world's largest hunger and displacement crises.

In Khartoum alone, at least 3.5 million people have been forced from their homes due to the violence, according to the United Nations.

Away from the capital, in the North Kordofan state capital of El-Obeid -- about 400 kilometres (250 miles) southwest of Khartoum -- RSF shellling killed two civilians and wounded 15 others on Monday, a medical source at the city's main hospital told AFP.

Last month, the military broke through a nearly two-year RSF siege of the southern city, a key crossroads linking Khartoum to the vast Darfur region in the west, which is under near-total RSF control.

Across North Kordofan, more than 200,000 people are currently displaced, while nearly a million are facing acute food insecurity, according to UN figures.

Clashes have also erupted in Blue Nile state, which borders South Sudan and Ethiopia, and where the RSF claimed Sunday to have destroyed military vehicles and taken prisoners from the army and allied forces.

In almost two years, the war has nearly torn Sudan into two, with the RSF in control of nearly all of Darfur in the west and parts of the south, while the army holds the country's north and east.

The army has made gains in central Sudan and Khartoum in recent months, and appears to be on the verge of reclaiming the entire capital.

UN chief warns against regional war over DR Congo at Africa summit

Yemen Details — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 22:22:34 +0300

UN chief Antonio Guterres on Saturday demanded the Democratic Republic of Congo's "territorial integrity" be respected and a regional war avoided, at an African summit the day after Rwandan-backed fighters seized a second DRC provincial capital.

With international pressure mounting on Rwanda to curb the fighting in eastern DR Congo (DRC), the conflict was set to dominate the African Union summit, which opened in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Saturday morning.

At least 55 civilians killed by militia fighters in northeastern Congo

Yemen Details — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 23:22:09 +0300

GOMA, Congo (AP) — Militia fighters killed at least 55 civilians in an attack on a cluster of villages and a camp for displaced people in northeastern Congo, local authorities said Tuesday.

Violence has surged across eastern Congo, where conflict has raged for decades. More than 120 armed groups are fighting in the region, most for land and control of mines with valuable minerals, while some are trying to protect their communities.

Armed men from the CODECO militia attacked the Djaiba group of villages, which is also home to a camp for the displaced, in the province of Ituri Monday night, Antoinnette Nzale, the leader of the camp, told The Associated Press. She said 55 civilians died but added that the death toll is likely higher, as bodies continue to be retrieved from the burned down houses.

The Cooperative for the Development of Congo, or CODECO, is a loose association of militia groups mainly from the ethnic Lendu farming community. The group’s attacks killed nearly 1,800 people and wounded more than 500 in the four years through 2022, according to the African Center for the Study and Research on Terrorism.

The United Nations has said some of the attacks could constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“Almost the entire village was attacked,” Nzale said, adding that the U.N. peacekeeping force known as MONUSCO and Congolese government troops intervened but were overwhelmed by the more numerous attackers.

Jean Richard Lenga, chief of Bahema Badjere district, where the villages are located, confirmed the attack, adding that at least 38 people were killed. He also said the death toll is likely higher as bodies continue to be retrieved.

Most of the victims were displaced people who were killed with machetes and firearms, Mumbere David, a resident of Djaiba, told the AP over the phone.

In September, CODECO fighters killed at least 20 civilians in Djugu, the same territory that was attacked on Monday night.

The conflict in eastern Congo escalated last month after Rwanda-backed rebels seized Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, which is about 350 kilometers (215 miles) south of Ituri province.

Thousands flee Sudan village after attack blamed on RSF

Yemen Details — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 22:28:12 +0300

Thousands of families have fled a village in Sudan’s North Darfur state, the United Nations said on Monday, after an attack blamed on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

An estimated “8,000 households were displaced from Saloma village and the surrounding area” south of state capital El-Fasher on Friday and Saturday, said the UN’s International Organization for Migration.

The RSF attacked Saloma on Friday, said Ahmed Rejal, spokesman for civil society group the Darfur General Coordination of Camps for the Displaced and Refugees.

At war with the Sudanese army since April 2023, the RSF has seized nearly all of Darfur except El-Fasher, which it has besieged since May.

It has stepped up attacks around El-Fasher in recent weeks, shelling famine-stricken displacement camps and battling army-allied militias.

In Saloma, “village homes were burned” during the fighting, Rejal said.

The war has killed tens of thousands and uprooted 12 million.

In North Darfur alone, 1.7 million are displaced, while two million face extreme food insecurity, the United Nations says.

Famine has already gripped three displacement camps around El-Fasher – Zamzam, Abu Shouk and al-Salam – and is expected to spread to five more areas, including El-Fasher itself, by May.

Sudan's Army Chief Plans Transitional Govt Amid Military Advances

Yemen Details — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 22:40:16 +0300

Sudan's army chief said Saturday that a transitional government would be formed soon, as the military makes major gains against rival paramilitaries in the capital and central parts of the war-torn country.

Speaking in Port Sudan, the country's de facto capital, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said the new administration -- described as either a "caretaker government" or a "war government" -- would be composed of "independent" experts.

"We are seeking to form a government in the coming period that will complete the tasks of transition," Burhan said.

He added that its main objective would be to help "accomplish the remaining military tasks... and cleanse all of Sudan" of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Burhan also signaled that the government would lay the groundwork for a broader political transition, preparing the country for elections.

He said a constitutional document would be approved before appointing a prime minister, pledging not to "interfere in his tasks or duties".

The leader announced a cabinet reshuffle in November, replacing four ministers, including those for foreign affairs and media.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been locked in a devastating war between Burhan and his former ally, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, leader of the RSF.

In his speech on Saturday, Burhan ruled out negotiations with the paramilitary group unless its forces withdrew from Khartoum, West Kordofan in the south and Darfur in the west, and regrouped in "designated locations."

The army has in recent weeks won back large swathes of the capital Khartoum and its surroundings, after nearly two years of RSF control.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands, displaced over 12 million and plunged the country into "the biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded", according to the International Rescue Committee.

Advances in Khartoum North

Earlier on Saturday, the military said it had regained control of a key district in greater Khartoum as it presses its advance against the RSF.

The district of Kafouri in Khartoum North, or Bahri, had been under RSF control since war between the army and the paramilitaries began in April 2023.

In a statement, military spokesman Nabil Abdullah said that army forces, alongside allied units, had "completed on Friday the clearing of" Kafouri and other areas in Sharq El Nil, 15 kilometers to the east, of what he described as "remnants of the Daglo terrorist militias".

The army has in recent weeks surged through Bahri -- an RSF stronghold since the start of the war -- pushing the paramilitaries to the outskirts.

The Kafouri district, one of Khartoum's wealthiest neighborhoods, had served as a key base for RSF leaders.

Among the properties in the area was the residence of Abdel Rahim Daglo, the brother of RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Daglo and his deputy in the group.

The recapture of Kafouri further weakens the RSF's hold in the capital and signals the army's continued advance to retake full control of Khartoum North, which is home to one million people.

About 28 Bodies of Migrants Recovered in Southeast Libya, Attorney General Says

Yemen Details — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 22:21:34 +0300

Libya's security authorities recovered at least 28 bodies of migrants from a mass grave in the desert in southeast Libya, the country's attorney general said on its Facebook page on Sunday.

The bodies were found north of Kufra city, the attorney general said, while 76 migrants were freed "from forced detention."

Kufra is about 1,712 kilometres (1,064 miles) from the capital Tripoli.

On Thursday, the Alwahat security directorate in the southeast of the country recovered 19 bodies from a mass grave in Jikharra area, and the Libyan Red Crescent recovered 10 bodies of migrants off Dila port in Zawiya city in the west after their boat sank, Reuters reported.

Libya has become a transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to Europe via the dangerous route across the desert and over the Mediterranean following the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011.

"There was a gang whose members deliberately deprived illegal migrants of their freedom, tortured them and subjected them to cruel, humiliating and inhumane treatment," the attorney general said on its verified Facebook page.

It said that the authorities have begun conducting forensic tests to understand "the cause of their deaths."

The authorities have started documenting the testimonies of the survivors and have detained three suspects: a Libyan national and two foreigners, it added.

African leaders call for 'immediate ceasefire' at DRC summit

Yemen Details — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 00:29:41 +0300

A summit of African leaders meeting to address the crisis in Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday called for an "immediate and unconditional ceasefire" within five days.

The Rwanda-backed M23 armed group has rapidly seized swathes of territory in the mineral-rich eastern DRC in an offensive that has left thousands dead and displaced vast numbers.

The summit in Tanzania brought together Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his Congolese counterpart Felix Tshisekedi as well as leaders from both the East African Community (EAC) and 16-member Southern African Development Community.

Kagame appeared in person, while Tshisekedi joined via video call.

In the final statement, the summit called for army chiefs from both communities "to meet within five days and provide technical direction on an immediate and unconditional ceasefire".

It also called for an opening of humanitarian corridors to evacuate the dead and injured.

Meanwhile, fighting was ongoing around 60 kilometres (35 miles) from the South Kivu provincial capital of Bakuvu, local and security sources told AFP.

The M23 took the strategic city of Goma, capital of North Kivu province, last week and is pushing into neighbouring South Kivu in the latest episode of decades-long turmoil in the region.

- Local fears -

Since the M23 re-emerged in 2021, peace talks hosted by both Angola and Kenya have failed, and multiple ceasefires have collapsed.

Rwanda denies supporting the M23 militarily.

But a report by United Nations experts said last year Rwanda had around 4,000 troops in the DRC and profited from smuggling out of the country vast amounts of gold and coltan -- a mineral vital for phones and laptops.

Rwanda accuses the DRC of sheltering the FDLR, an armed group created by ethnic Hutus who massacred Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The summit comes amid reports that the M23 is closing on the town of Kavumu in South Kivu, which hosts an airport critical to supplying Congolese troops.

There have also been reports of panic in the provincial capital Bukavu as residents board up shops and seek to escape.

"The border with Rwanda is open but almost impassable because of the number of people trying to cross. It's total chaos," they said.

- 'Gang rape, slavery' -

UN rights chief Volker Turk warned Friday: "If nothing is done, the worst may be yet to come for the people of the eastern DRC but also beyond the country's borders."

Turk said nearly 3,000 people had been confirmed killed and 2,880 wounded since the M23 entered Goma on January 26, and that the final tolls were likely to be much higher.

He also said his team was "currently verifying multiple allegations of rape, gang rape and sexual slavery".

M23 has already installed its own mayor and local authorities in Goma.

It has vowed to march all the way to the national capital Kinshasa, even though the city lies about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometres) away across the vast country, which is roughly the size of western Europe.

The DRC army, which has a reputation for poor training and corruption, has been forced into multiple retreats.

The M23 offensive has raised fears of regional war, given that several countries are engaged in supporting DRC militarily, including South Africa, Burundi and Malawi.

Sudan army says retakes key district in Khartoum North

Yemen Details — Sat, 08 Feb 2025 21:01:56 +0300

Sudan’s military said Saturday that it had regained control of a key district in greater Khartoum as it presses its advance against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The district of Kafouri in Khartoum North, or Bahri, had been under RSF control since war between the army and the paramilitaries began in April 2023.

In a statement, military spokesman Nabil Abdullah said that army forces, alongside allied units, had “completed on Friday the clearing of” Kafouri and other areas in Sharq El Nil, 15 kilometers to the east, of what he described as “remnants of the Dagalo terrorist militias.”

The army has in recent weeks surged through Bahri - an RSF stronghold since the start of the war - pushing the paramilitaries to the outskirts.

The Kafouri district, one of Khartoum’s wealthiest neighborhoods, had served as a key base for RSF leaders.

Among the properties in the area was the residence of Abdel Rahim Dagalo, the brother of RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo and his deputy in the paramilitary group.

The recapture of Kafouri further weakens the RSF’s hold in the capital and signals the army’s continued advance to retake full control of Khartoum North, which is home to one million people.

Khartoum North, Omdurman across the Nile River, and the city center to the south make up greater Khartoum.

On Thursday, a military source told AFP that the army was advancing towards the center of Khartoum, nearly two years after the city fell to the RSF at the start of the war.

Eyewitnesses in southern Khartoum reported hearing explosions and clashes coming from central Khartoum Saturday morning.

The developments mark one of the army’s most significant offensives since the war broke out between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his erstwhile ally Dagalo’s RSF, which quickly seized much of Khartoum and other strategic areas.

The conflict has devastated the country, displacing more than 12 million and plunging Sudan into the “biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded” according to the International Rescue Committee.

M23, Rwandan troops launch fresh DR Congo offensive

Yemen Details — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 23:50:48 +0300

Bukavu (DR Congo) (AFP) – The M23 armed group and allied Rwandan forces launched a new offensive on Wednesday in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, days before the Rwandan and Congolese presidents are due to attend a crisis summit.

The United Nations meanwhile said the battle for the key city of Goma, which the M23 and Rwandan troops seized last week, had left at least 2,900 people dead -- far higher than the previous death toll of 900.

Breaking a ceasefire they had declared unilaterally, due to come into effect on Tuesday, the M23, together with Rwandan troops, seized a mining town in South Kivu province, resuming their advance towards the provincial capital, Bukavu.

Intense clashes broke out at dawn on Wednesday as M23 fighters and Rwandan forces seized the mining town of Nyabibwe, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Bukavu and 70 kilometres from the province's airport, security and humanitarian sources told AFP.

The M23 had said in declaring the ceasefire that it had "no intention of taking control of Bukavu or other localities".

"This is proof that the unilateral ceasefire that has been declared was, as usual, a ploy," Congolese government spokesman Patrick Muyaya told AFP.

In more than three years of fighting between the Rwanda-backed group and the Congolese army, half a dozen ceasefires and truces have been declared, before being unceremoniously broken.

Local and military sources said in recent days that all sides were reinforcing troops and equipment in the region.

Last week's capture of Goma was a major escalation in the mineral-rich region, scarred by relentless conflict involving dozens of armed groups over three decades.

As Goma counted its dead, Vivian van de Perre, deputy chief of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO), gave an updated toll from the battle for the city.

"So far, 2,000 bodies have been collected from the Goma streets in recent days, and 900 bodies remain in the morgues of the Goma hospitals," she told a video news conference, saying the toll could still rise.

International Criminal Court prosecutors said in a statement they were "closely following" events in the eastern DRC, "including the grave escalation of violence over the past weeks".
Prayer service

In Bukavu, a city of one million people that residents fear will become the next battleground, a crowd gathered for an ecumenical prayer service for peace, organised by local women.

"We are tired of the non-stop wars. We want peace," one attendee, Jacqueline Ngengele, told AFP.

DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame are due to attend a joint summit of the eight-country East African Community and 16-member Southern African Development Community in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam on Saturday.

A day earlier, the UN Human Rights Council will convene a special session on the crisis, at Kinshasa's request.

Diplomatic sources say the M23's advance in the east of the vast central African nation could weaken Tshisekedi, who won a second term in December 2023.

Fears the violence could spark a wider conflict have galvanised regional bodies, mediators such as Angola and Kenya, as well as the United Nations, European Union and other countries in diplomatic efforts for a peaceful resolution.

But the DRC's top diplomat accused the international community of being all talk and no action on the conflict.

"We see a lot of declarations but we don't see actions," Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner told journalists in Brussels.

Several neighbouring countries have already said they are bolstering their defences, wary of the crisis spilling over.

A UN expert report said last year that Rwanda had up to 4,000 troops in the DRC, seeking to profit from its vast mineral wealth, and that Kigali has "de facto" control over the M23.

The eastern DRC has deposits of coltan, a metallic ore that is vital in making phones and laptops, as well as gold and other minerals.

Rwanda has never explicitly admitted to military involvement in support of the M23 and alleges that the DRC supports and shelters the FDLR, an armed group created by ethnic Hutus who massacred Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

UN Condemns Deadly Attacks On Civilians In Sudan

Yemen Details — Mon, 03 Feb 2025 01:25:51 +0300

The UN Sunday condemned a series of attacks on civilians across Sudan, including the shelling of a market in Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman that killed at least 60 people.

In a statement, United Nations resident and humanitarian coordinator in Sudan Clementine Nkweta-Salami described Saturday's attack on Sabreen market and other residential areas in Omdurman as "horrific" and "indiscriminate".

According to pro-democracy lawyers, artillery fire from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) hit the market in army-controlled Omdurman.

Across the Nile in the capital itself, an air strike on an RSF-held area killed two civilians and wounded dozens, rescuers said.

Sudan's army and the RSF have been locked in a fierce power struggle since April 2023, with the fighting intensifying this month as the army seeks to reclaim the capital.

Nkweta-Salami also deplored reports of civilian killings between Thursday and Saturday in North Kordofan province in southern Sudan as well as in the vast western region of Darfur.

On Thursday, the army said it had recaptured the strategic North Kordofan city of Umm Rawaba from paramilitaries who had held it since May 2023.

Eyewitnesses reported RSF artillery and rocket attacks on Saturday on El-Obeid, North Kordofan's capital, with several homes set ablaze.

The Darfur General Coordination of Camps for the Displaced and Refugees, a civil society group, also accused the army on Thursday of carrying out air strikes on the town of Manawashi, 78 kilometres (48 miles) north of South Darfur's capital Nyala.

In North Darfur, the RSF attacked areas west of the state's besieged capital El-Fasher on Thursday, looting homes, killing civilians and forcing mass displacement, activists said.

Both the RSF and Sudan's military have been repeatedly accused of targeting civilians and indiscriminately shelling residential areas.

"The suffering of Sudanese civilians has gone on for too long," Nkweta-Salami said.

"It's long past time to end this war."

At Least 54 People Killed in Sudan in RSF Attack on Market

Yemen Details — Sat, 01 Feb 2025 21:01:56 +0300

At least 54 people were killed on Saturday in a strike by Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a popular market in the city of Omdurman, the health ministry said in a statement.

War between the Sudanese army and RSF broke out in April 2023 over the integration of the two forces. It has killed tens of thousands of people, driven millions from their homes and plunged half of the population into hunger.

Saturday’s attack by the RSF in the Sabrein Market also wounded at least 158 others.

There was no immediate comment from the RSF.

Khalid al-Aleisir, minister of culture and government spokesperson, condemned the attack, saying that the casualties included many women and children. He also said the attack caused “widespread destruction to private and public properties.”

DRC's Goma on the brink as Rwanda-backed fighters take airport

Yemen Details — Tue, 28 Jan 2025 21:59:44 +0300

Goma (DR Congo) (AFP) – An armed group backed by Rwandan troops took control of the airport in the besieged DR Congo city of Goma on Tuesday, a security source said, dealing a major blow to Congolese forces and putting the regional capital on the brink of falling.

The main city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has become a battleground since fighters from the Tutsi-led M23 armed group and Rwandan forces entered central Goma on Sunday night after a weeks-long advance through the region.

Intense fighting has left bodies in the streets and overwhelmed hospitals in Goma, while protesters complaining of international inaction over the crisis have attacked embassies in the capital Kinshasa.

It has not been clear which parts of Goma were under the control of Congolese forces or the Rwandan-backed M23, which claimed it had taken the city on Sunday night.

But a security source told AFP that M23 fighters had taken the airport on Tuesday, adding that "more than 1,200 Congolese soldiers have surrendered and are confined" to the airport base of the UN's mission in DRC.

The lightning offensive marks a major escalation in the Democratic Republic of Congo's mineral-rich east, which has been plagued by fighting between armed groups backed by regional rivals since the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

It has also triggered a spiralling humanitarian crisis, with the UN warning about hundreds of thousands forced from their homes, serious food shortages, looted aid, overwhelmed hospitals and the spread of disease in and around Goma.

Goma, a city of one million, which was already home to an estimated 700,000 internally displaced people before the latest violence, sits on the shores of Lake Kivu on the border with Rwanda.

Destin Jamaica Kela, one of around 1,200 people in Goma registered by Rwanda to have fled over the border in the last 24 hours, told AFP that "things changed very fast".

"Bombs were falling and killing other people everywhere, we saw dead bodies," the 24-year-old said.

Burundian Salim Nzisabira, a trucker who had been stuck in Goma, said: "We found ourselves in a war zone."

"The last few days have been the hardest I've ever experienced, no water, no food, nowhere to sleep."

On the other side of the country roughly the size of continental western Europe, protesters in the capital Kinshasa attacked the embassies of numerous nations.

Rwanda, France, Belgium, the United States, Kenya, Uganda and South Africa were among those targeted, with demonstrators torching tyres outside several.

Kenya's foreign ministry condemned the attack on its embassy by "a riotous mob".

With tensions rising, the UN Security Council was scheduled to meet later on Tuesday.

In Goma, gunshots could still be heard on Tuesday although the intensity of the fighting appeared to have decreased.

- 'Extremely worrying' -

At least 17 people have been killed and 367 wounded during two days of fighting, according to reports from overwhelmed hospitals.

"The humanitarian situation in and around Goma remains extremely worrying," said Jens Laerke, spokesman for UN humanitarian agency, OCHA.

UN colleagues have reported "heavy small arms fire and mortar fire across the city, and the presence of many dead bodies in the streets," he added.

The Red Cross warned there could be "unimaginable consequences" if samples of Ebola and other pathogens held at a local laboratory in Goma were allowed to spread amid the fighting.

The violence around Goma has forced half a million people from their homes since the start of the year, according to the UN refugee agency.

'Lay down arms': African Union

At an emergency meeting on Tuesday, the African Union called on the M23 to "lay down arms".

After a previous UN Security Council meeting on Sunday, the Congolese government expressed "dismay" at the Council's "vague" statement, which stopped short of naming Rwanda.

The DRC has accused Rwanda of wanting to profit from the region's abundant minerals that include gold, coltan, copper and cobalt, calling for stronger UN action.

The M23 armed group entered DR Congo's eastern city of Goma late on Sunday in a major escalation in the volatile and mineral-rich region © -STR / AFP

Rwanda has denied the claims, saying its aim is to tackle an armed group called the FDLR, primarily composed of Hutu militants formed in the wake of the Rwandan genocide.

South Africa's defence force said Tuesday that four more of its soldiers were killed fighting the M23, raising the death toll of peacekeepers from a southern Africa regional force and the UN mission in DRC to 17.

Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi, who has not yet spoken publicly since the pro-Rwandan forces entered Goma, was due to address the nation later in the day.

Kenya also announced a crisis summit on Wednesday to be attended by Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame.

A ceasefire in August failed to keep the peace and Angola-mediated talks were abruptly cancelled last month.

The group re-emerged in late 2021 and started seizing large swathes of North Kivu province.

A UN expert report in July said up to 4,000 Rwandan soldiers were fighting alongside M23 and that Rwanda had "de facto control" of the group's operations.

Drone attack on hospital kills 67 in Sudan's Darfur

Yemen Details — Sat, 25 Jan 2025 21:24:07 +0300

A drone attack on one of the last functioning hospitals in El-Fasher in Sudan's Darfur region has killed 67 people and injured dozens, local activists and a medical source said Saturday, updating an earlier toll.

"Thirty-seven of those injured in the drone strike yesterday died today, bringing the number of victims up to 67," the source told AFP, requesting anonymity for fear of retaliation.

He added that a number of those injured were still being treated, but could not give an exact figure.

The bombing of the Saudi Hospital late Friday had "led to the destruction" of the hospital's emergency building, the source said.

AFP could not independently verify which of Sudan's warring sides had launched the attack.

Since April 2023, the Sudanese army has been at war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who have seized nearly the entire vast western region of Darfur.

Since May they have besieged El-Fasher, the state capital of North Darfur, but have not managed to claim the city where army-aligned militias have repeatedly pushed them back.

Last week, the RSF issued an ultimatum demanding army forces and allies leave the city by Wednesday afternoon in advance of an expected offensive.

Local activists have reported intermittent fighting since, including repeated artillery fire from the RSF on the famine-hit Abu Shouk displacement camp.

On Friday morning alone, heavy shelling killed eight people in the camp, according to civil society group the Darfur General Coordination of Camps for the Displaced and Refugees.

The United Nations has voiced alarm, calling on both parties to ensure the protection of the city's civilian population -- some two million people.

"The people of El-Fasher have suffered so much already," Seif Magango, spokesman of the UN rights office, said Wednesday.

- RSF drones -

According to the medical source, the Saudi Hospital's emergency building had been hit by an RSF drone "a few weeks ago".

Between December 9 and January 14, Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab observed three advanced drones at the RSF-controlled Nyala Airport, some 200 kilometres (124 miles) south.

In its report, it said the Chinese-made drones have "significant electronic surveillance and warfare capabilities and can be equipped with air-to-ground munitions", but could not verify which countries had purchased them.

The United Arab Emirates has been repeatedly accused of funnelling weapons, including drones, to the RSF.

United Nations experts determined in December 2023 the allegations were "credible", but Abu Dhabi has issued repeated denials in the face of mounting international criticism.

In December, it assured the outgoing administration of US president Joe Biden that it was "not now transferring any weapons" to the RSF.

But on Friday, two US lawmakers said the UAE had violated its promises to Washington and "is continuing to provide weapons" to the RSF -- who the United States concluded earlier this month had committed "genocide" in Darfur.

- Army gains -

The RSF's latest attempt to consolidate its hold on war-ravaged Darfur -- a vast region about the size of France, home to a quarter of Sudan's population -- comes as the army claims significant victories elsewhere.

Some 850 kilometres east, army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on Saturday toured the Jaili oil refinery, the country's largest, a day after his forces reclaimed it.

In a statement, his ruling Transitional Sovereignty Council said Burhan "pledged to rebuild what the militia had destroyed" and rehabilitate a key economic resource.

The military on Friday also broke a paramilitary siege on its Khartoum headquarters, which the RSF had encircled since the war began in April 2023.

Earlier this month, the army successfully wrested control of key state capital Wad Madani, just south of Khartoum, from the RSF.

Since the war began, both the army and the RSF have been accused of war crimes, including targeting civilians and indiscriminately shelling residential areas.

Before leaving office on Monday, the Biden administration sanctioned Burhan, accusing the army of attacking schools, markets and hospitals and using food deprivation as a weapon of war.

Across the country, up to 80 percent of healthcare facilities have been forced out of service, according to official figures.

In El-Fasher, where ambulances and hospital buildings have been routinely targeted, medical charity Doctors Without Borders said this month the Saudi Hospital was "the only public hospital with surgical capacity still standing".

The war has so far killed tens of thousands, uprooted more than 12 million and brought millions to the brink of mass starvation.

In the area around El-Fasher, famine has already taken hold in three displacement camps -- Zamzam, Abu Shouk and Al-Salam -- and is expected to expand to five more areas including the city itself by May, according to a UN-backed assessment.

Nigeria tanker truck blast toll rises to 86: Rescuers

Yemen Details — Mon, 20 Jan 2025 01:57:00 +0300

The death toll from the explosion of a petrol tanker truck in Nigeria that killed people rushing to gather fuel has risen to 86, emergency services said Sunday.

“The final death toll from the tanker explosion is 86,” said Ibrahim Audu Husseini, spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency in Niger state.

The truck carrying 60,000 liters of gasoline exploded after flipping over on a road in the center of the country on Saturday, authorities said.

Sudan Rescuers Say More Than 120 Killed By Shelling Near Capital

Yemen Details — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 16:05:54 +0300

Sudanese volunteer rescuers said shelling of an area of Omdurman, the capital Khartoum's twin city just across the Nile River, killed more than 120 people.

The "random shelling" on Monday in western Omdurman resulted in the deaths of 120 civilians, said the Ombada Emergency Response Room, part of a network of volunteer rescuers across the war-torn country.

The network described the toll as preliminary and did not specify who was behind the attack.

The rescuers said medical supplies were in critically short supply as health workers struggled to treat "a large number of wounded people suffering from varying degrees of injuries".

Fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has escalated in recent weeks after more than 20 months of war in Sudan.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the war which has left the country on the brink of famine, according to aid agencies.

Both the army and the RSF have been accused of targeting civilians, including health workers, and indiscriminately shelling residential areas.

Most of Omdurman is under army control while the RSF holds the capital and part of the greater Khartoum area.

Residents on both sides of the Nile have reported shelling across the river, with bombs and shrapnel regularly striking homes and civilians.

Ethiopia, Somalia to restore full diplomatic relations: Statement

Yemen Details — Sat, 11 Jan 2025 23:36:58 +0300

Somalia and Ethiopia announced Saturday they would restore full diplomatic relations following a visit by Somalia’s president to Addis Ababa to heal a year-long rift that threatened further instability in the Horn of Africa.

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed “agreed to restore and enhance their bilateral relations through full diplomatic relations in their respective capitals,” they said in a joint statement.

Land-locked Ethiopia’s desire for access to the sea had deepened long-standing grievances between the two neighbors.

Somalia was outraged when Ethiopia signed a deal one year ago with its breakaway region of Somaliland, reportedly to recognize its independence in exchange for a port and military base on the Red Sea.

Ethiopia’s ambassador in Mogadishu was expelled last April and the countries broke off their diplomatic ties.

The row was defused by a peace deal last month, mediated by Turkey and signed by both leaders.

During Mohamud’s visit to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Saturday they reiterated their commitment to the deal and its “spirit of friendship and solidarity,” in a joint statement.

They also discussed deepening trade, and security cooperation against “extremist militant groups.”

21 Killed In Vigilante Gang Ambush In Nigeria

Yemen Details — Sat, 11 Jan 2025 21:34:32 +0300

KANO: At least 21 government militiamen were killed in an ambush by criminal gangs in Nigeria's northwest Katsina state, police said late on Friday.

A convoy of government militia returning from paying condolences to the family of a dead colleague came under fire from bandits in Baure, a village in the Safana district, Katsina police spokesman Abubakar Sadiq Aliyu said.

"Sadly, 21 persons were fatally shot as a result of the attack," Aliyu said, adding police were seeking to "ensure the arrest of the perpetrators" of the attack, which happened Tuesday.

Katsina is one of several states in northwestern and central Nigeria terrorised by bandits who raid villages, killing and abducting residents as well as burning and looting homes.

The gangs, who maintain camps in a huge forest straddling Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states, have earned notoriety for mass kidnappings of students from schools in recent years.

In 2023 Katsina state governor Dikko Umar Radda established Katsina Community Watch Corps (KCWC) comprising around 2,000 vigilantes to assist the military and police in fighting the gangs

Sudan government spokesman says army ‘liberated’ key city from RSF

Yemen Details — Sat, 11 Jan 2025 19:27:40 +0300

The Sudanese military and allied armed groups “liberated Al-Jazira state capital Wad Madani” on Saturday, the office of army-allied government spokesman and Information Minister Khalid al-Aiser said in a statement.

The army said earlier they were advancing on the key central Sudan city, which has been under the control of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces for more than a year.

UN says 3 million Sudan children facing acute malnutrition

Yemen Details — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 21:33:35 +0300

An estimated 3.2 million children under the age of five are expected to face acute malnutrition this year in war-torn Sudan, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

“Of this number, around 772,000 children are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition,” Eva Hinds, UNICEF Sudan’s Head of Advocacy and Communication, told AFP late on Thursday.

Famine has already gripped five areas across Sudan, according to a report last month by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN-backed assessment.

Sudan has endured 20 months of war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), killing tens of thousands and, according to the United Nations, uprooting 12 million in the world’s largest displacement crisis.

Confirming to AFP that 3.2 million children are currently expected to face acute malnutrition, Hinds said “the number of severely malnourished children increased from an estimated 730,000 in 2024 to over 770,000 in 2025.”

The IPC expects famine to expand to five more parts of Sudan’s western Darfur region by May - a vast area that has seen some of the conflict’s worst violence. A further 17 areas in western and central Sudan are also at risk of famine, it said.

“Without immediate, unhindered humanitarian access facilitating a significant scale-up of a multisectoral response, malnutrition is likely to increase in these areas,” Hinds warned.

Sudan’s army-aligned government strongly rejected the IPC findings, while aid agencies complain that access is blocked by bureaucratic hurdles and ongoing violence.

In October, experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council accused both sides of using “starvation tactics.”

On Tuesday the United States determined that the RSF had “committed genocide” and imposed sanctions on the paramilitary group’s leader.

Across the country, more than 24.6 million people - around half the population - face “high levels of acute food insecurity,” according to IPC, which said: “Only a ceasefire can reduce the risk of famine spreading further.”

Over 30 Million In Need Of Aid In War-torn Sudan: UN

Yemen Details — Mon, 06 Jan 2025 21:18:16 +0300

More than 30 million people, over half of them children, are in need of aid in Sudan after twenty months of war, the United Nations said on Monday.

The UN has launched a $4.2 billion call for funds, targeting 20.9 million people across Sudan from a total of 30.4 million people it said are in need in what it called "an unprecedented humanitarian crisis".

Sudan has been torn apart and pushed to the brink of famine by the war that erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than eight million internally displaced, which, in addition to 2.7 million displaced before the war, has made Sudan the world's largest internal displacement crisis.

A further 3.3 million people have fled across Sudan's borders to escape the war, which means over a quarter of the country's pre-war population, estimated at around 50 million, are now uprooted.

Famine has already been declared in five areas in Sudan and is expected to take hold of five more areas by May, with 8.1 million people currently on the brink of mass starvation.

Sudan's army-aligned government has denied there is famine, while aid agencies complain that access is blocked by bureaucratic hurdles and ongoing violence.

Both the army and the RSF have been accused of using starvation as a weapon of war.

For much of the conflict, the UN has struggled to raise even a quarter of the funds it has targeted for its humanitarian response in the impoverished northeast African country.

Sudan has often been called the world's "forgotten" war, overshadowed by conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine despite the scale of the horrors inflicted upon civilians.

Sudan’s army chief welcomes Turkish offer to resolve conflict: FM

Yemen Details — Sun, 05 Jan 2025 20:58:49 +0300

Sudan’s army chief has welcomed a Turkish offer to resolve the brutal 20-month conflict between his forces and their paramilitary rivals, the Sudanese foreign minister said.

In early December, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a phone call with Sudan’s Abdel Fattah al-Burhan that Ankara could help establish “peace and stability” in the war-torn African state.

At a meeting in Port Sudan on Saturday, Burhan asked Turkey’s deputy foreign minister Burhanettin Duran to “deliver the Sudanese leadership’s welcoming of the initiative” to Erdogan, Sudanese foreign minister Ali Youssef said in a briefing after the meeting.

“Sudan needs brothers and friends like Turkey,” Youssef said, adding that “the initiative can lead to... realizing peace in Sudan.”

Erdogan said in his December call with Burhan that Turkey “could step in to resolve disputes” between Sudan and the United Arab Emirates, and prevent Sudan from “becoming an area of external interventions”, according to a statement from the Turkish presidency.

Sudan’s army-backed government has repeatedly accused the UAE of supporting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Abu Dhabi has consistently denied the allegations.

Following his meeting with Burhan on Saturday, Turkey’s Duran said that the peace process “entails concerted efforts”, and that his country was ready to play a “role in mobilizing other regional actors to help overcoming the difficulties in ending this conflict.”

In a statement last week, the UAE welcomed “diplomatic efforts” by Turkey to “resolve the ongoing crisis in Sudan.”

“The UAE is fully prepared to cooperate and coordinate with the Turkish efforts and all diplomatic initiatives to end the conflict in Sudan and find a comprehensive solution to the crisis,” its foreign ministry said.

The war in Sudan, which has pitted Burhan against his former deputy and RSF chief Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted 12 million more.

It has also pushed the country to the brink of famine, with analysts warning involvement from other countries will only prolong the suffering.

With AFP

At least 71 killed in Ethiopia road accident

Yemen Details — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 20:40:59 +0300

At least 71 people died in Ethiopia when a truck packed with passengers plunged into a river, according to the spokesperson for the southern Sidama regional government and a statement.

The accident occurred in the Bona district, the regional communication bureau said in a statement issued late on Sunday.

Wosenyeleh Simion, spokesperson for the Sidama regional government, told Reuters on Monday at least 71 people had died, including 68 males and 3 females.

“Five are in a critical condition and taking treatment at Bona General Hospital,” he said.

In a statement late on Sunday the regional communication bureau had given the death toll as 60.

Wosenyeleh said the truck had missed a bridge and fell into a river and that the road had many bends.

Some of the passengers were returning from a wedding ceremony and some families had lost multiple members, he said, adding traffic police in the region had reported the truck was overloaded, which likely caused the accident.

The state-run Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) also reported that the passengers were travelling to a wedding when the accident occurred on Sunday.

Deadly traffic accidents are common in Ethiopia, where driving standards are poor and many vehicles badly maintained.

At least 38 people, mostly students, were killed in 2018 when a bus plunged into a ravine in Ethiopia’s mountainous north.

France hands over first base in Chad amid withdrawal

Yemen Details — Fri, 27 Dec 2024 00:07:58 +0300

France has handed over its first military base as part of the withdrawal of its military forces from Chad, the French and Chadian militaries said Thursday.

Chad’s military chief of staff said the base at Faya-Largeau in the north of the country had been handed over and that it would inform the public about progress concerning the withdrawal of French forces from bases in the eastern city of Abeche and the capital N’Djamena.

It said French troops had left in vehicles for the capital N’Djamena, 780 kilometers (480 miles) to the south, without providing a precise figure.

“The handover took place in accordance with the calendar and the conditions agreed with Chad,” the French military chief of staff said separately.

Chad last month abruptly ended military cooperation with its former colonial power and French troops began leaving the country last Friday, ten days after French warplanes left.

The move comes as Chad holds parliamentary and local elections on Sunday.

The French army had some 1,000 personnel in the country.

Chad’s military said an Antonov 124 took off Thursday with 70 tons of cargo as part of the withdrawal.

French authorities said military vehicles would leave by January and be repatriated via the Cameroonian port of Douala.

Chad had been a key link in France’s military presence in Africa and its last foothold in the wider Sahel region after the forced withdrawal of French troops from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger in the wake of a series of military coups.

The military authorities in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have pivoted towards Russia in recent years.

Chad’s leader General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno has also sought closer ties with Moscow in recent months, but talks to strengthen economic cooperation have yet to bear concrete results.

French soldiers and fighter aircraft have been stationed in Chad almost continuously since the country’s independence in 1960, helping to train the Chadian military.

The planes provided air support that proved crucial on several occasions in stopping rebels moving to seize power.

The election of Deby in May brought an end to a three-year political transition triggered by his father’s death in clashes with rebels in 2021.

Longtime ruler Idriss Deby Itno had received support from the French army to quell rebel offensives in 2008 and 2019.