Tag: Africa

Africa
VDP

Demand investigation into Burkina Faso massacre

Human Rights Watch has called for an urgent investigation into the massacre of dozens of civilians in Burkina Faso’s western city of Solenzo. HRW noted video footage circulating on social media that implicates pro-government militias in the killings, raising serious concerns about accountability and civilian protection in a country already grappling with widespread violence and human rights abuses. The victims, many of whom belonged to the Fulani ethnic group, were targeted in what appears to be a reprisal attack amid ongoing counterinsurgency operations. (Photo of VDP fighters: Henry Wilkins/VOA via Wikimedia Commons)

Africa
Darfur

Sudan sues UAE for complicity in Darfur genocide

Sudan instituted proceedings against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) before the International Court of Justice, charging that the UAE has directly supported the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its associated militia in West Darfur state, violating the Genocide Convention. Sudan’s claim is based on weapons seized by the Sudanese Armed Forces in active war zones. Sudanese forces reportedly discovered several passports of Emirati nationals inside armored personnel carriers and 4×4 combat vehicles that originated in the UAE. According to Sudan, this reveals illegal military and logistical support that has allowed the RSF to commit genocidal acts in West Darfur, including the killings of civilians, and the deprivation of access to medical care and basic necessities. (Map via Radio Tamazuj)

Africa
Azawad

Jihadists and separatists to form alliance in Mali?

Talks are reported to be underway between JNIM, the main jihadist coalition in Mali, and the Tuareg-led secessionist Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) over a possible alliance against the Malian army and its Russian mercenary allies. Mali’s military regime terminated a peace deal with the separatists last year after driving them out of their northern strongholds. The junta has consistently labelled secessionist groups as “terrorists'” and accused them of collusion with jihadists. Separatists deny this, though combatants from both groups share family and community ties, have allied opportunistically at times in the past, and operate in the same areas. According to France 24, current points of negotiation include JNIM softening its demands, especially regarding the application of sharia law, and breaking ties to al-Qaeda. A sticking point may be the FLA’s goal of an independent Azawad—the name they give to northern Mali. Intensified fighting in the north over the past year has had severe humanitarian consequences, driving tens of thousands of people to neighboring Mauritania. (Map of Azawad, the claimed Tuareg homeland, via Twitter)

Africa
south sudan

South Sudan: peace accord on brink of collapse

South Sudanese troops deployed around the house of Vice President Riek Machar and arrested officials from his SPLA-IO party, marking one of the most serious threats yet to the peace deal that Machar’s group signed with President Salva Kiir in 2018. The arrests follow reports of clashes in northeastern Upper Nile state between the national army and the ethnic Nuer militia known as the White Army, which was allied to Marchar during the 2013-2018 civil war. Tensions have been mounting since the government’s decision last year to postpone long-overdue elections, a delay that critics called a failure to implement the 2018 agreement—which has itself been blamed for fuelling instability. Commanders and politicians compete for power in a transitional government based in the capital, Juba, by fighting local wars in the peripheries.  (Map: Perry-Castañeda Library)

Africa
wagner group

Wagner-trained forces commit atrocities in CAR

A UN report finds that armed groups operating in the Haut Oubangui region of the Central African Republic (CAR) have been carrying out attacks against Muslim communities and Sudanese refugees, resulting in grave human rights violations. The report, prepared jointly by the UN Human Rights Office and the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), mainly attributes these attacks to Wagner Ti Azande (WTA), a militia affiliated with the national army. The WTA received training last year from the Russian private military company Wagner Group, from whom it takes its name. (Photo of CAR troops wearing the Wagner Group insignia via Corbeau News Centrafrique)

Africa
Mali

Mali: regime denies involvement in migrant massacre

The Malian Armed Forces command refuted accusations that soldiers were responsible for an attack in which 24 civilians, including women and children, were killed. The General Staff denied any army involvement in the massacre, which is said to have taken place in Tilemsi commune, Gao region, on the edge of the Sahara. Press reports indicated that a caravan of vehicles carrying migrants across the desert was targeted in the attack, which was carried out jointly with Russian mercenaries. (Map: PCL)

Africa
DRC

EU complicity seen in DR Congo atrocities

The European Parliament adopted a resolution urging the EU to freeze direct budget support to Rwanda until it ceases backing the Tutsi-led M23 rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and permits humanitarian access in rebel-held territory of the DRC. The resolution also recommended suspending agreements related to Rwandan strategic minerals until Rwanda halts its interference in Congo. However, this resolution is non-binding, and the European Commission has not enforced these recommendations. Rights groups charge that the EU’s inaction undermines efforts to hold perpetrators accountable and deepens the escalating humanitarian crisis in the region. The M23 rebels, with apparent Rwandan support, have seized key cities in eastern DRC, including Goma and Bukavu, leading to mass displacement and severe human rights abuses. (Map: PCL)

Africa
Gezira

Sudan’s army advances, abuses multiply

The Sudanese army appears close to retaking the capital city Khartoum from the paramilitary-turned-rebel Rapid Support Forces (RSF) as momentum continues to swing in its favor following nearly two years of conflict. Reports suggest the army has been advancing on multiple fronts, having broken a bruising siege on its Khartoum headquarters last month. It has also won back significant territory in other parts of central Sudan, including Gezira state. Military control, however, has come at a significant cost, with the UN reporting that soldiers and allied militia have been carrying out summary executions of civilians they accuse of being RSF collaborators. Workers in self-organized “mutual aid” groups—the backbone of the humanitarian response in Sudan—have also been targeted in the reprisals. (Map: Sudan War Monitor)

Africa
ISIS

Trump’s first air-strikes hit ISIS base in Puntland

US fighter jets launched from the USS Harry Truman in the Red Sea struck a hidden base of the local ISIS franchise in the interior mountains of Somalia’s northern autonomous enclave of Puntland. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the “initial assessment is that multiple operatives were killed” in these first US air-strikes under the new Trump presidency. The strikes were carried out with the cooperation of the governments of both Puntland and Somalia, whose President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud expressed his “deepest gratitude.” The Puntland Dervish Forces have for some five years been fighting the self-declared “Islamic State Somalia” in the enclave’s Cal Miskaad mountains. (Photo via Garowe Online)

Africa
Lakurawa

SahelExit raises regional fears amid new ISIS threat

Dubbed “Sahelexit,” the decision by Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger to leave the West African regional community known as ECOWAS is now official. The three members of the newly formed Alliance of Sahel States (AES)—sanctioned over coups that overturned their elected governments—are out. It leaves the 12 other countries in ECOWAS, one of Africa’s most economically integrated blocs, rethinking the organization’s relevance. Like ECOWAS, the new group will allow free movement between their shared territories—now derisively referred to as the “coup belt.” But it is in the field of security cooperation that the AES states will be especially missed. Jihadist insurgents are on the march. So-called “Islamic State” forces have set up in northwest Nigeria, where they are known as Lakurawa. With neighboring Niger now pulling out of a regional Multilateral Joint Task Force, there are fears that countering the threat will be all the harder. (Photo via Sahara Reporters)

Africa
DRC

Chaos in Congo as M23 seize Goma

In a dramatic escalation of the ongoing conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the M23 rebels seized Goma, the capital of North Kivu province on the Rwandan border. The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting to discuss the situation, with the DRC accusing Rwanda of sending hundreds of troops across the border to support the M23. The DRC is calling for an arms embargo on Rwanda, and sanctions on its mineral exports. The fall of Goma has sparked protests in the DRC capital, Kinshasa, with foreign embassies vandalized and set on fire, including those of Rwanda, South Africa, the US, Belgium and France. Amid the turmoil, President Felix Tshisekedi has promised a counter-offensive to retake Goma. The DRC’s reliance on foreign mercenaries in the war in the east has drawn sharp criticism. Reports indicate that around 2,000 mercenaries, mostly from Eastern European countries such as Romania, have been hired to fight the M23. (Map: PCL)