At least eight Togolese soldiers were killed in an assault on a military base in the north of the West African country May 11—apparently marking the first fatal attack in Togo by the jihadist rebel militias waging an insurgency across… Read moreWest Africa jihadist insurgency reaches Togo
Two drone strikes targeted the Kurdish city of Kobani in northern Syria on May 11, the Rojava Information Center (RIC) said in a tweet. For the past weeks, Turkish-backed Syrian rebel factions have been shelling villages in the countryside around Kobani with howitzers and mortars…. Read moreSyria: Turkish drones target Kobani
Ukrainian prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova announced May 14 that her office is preparing war crimes cases against 41 suspects, on charges including “the bombing of civilian infrastructure, the killing of civilians, rape and looting.” Venediktova has said that her office is investigating… Read moreUkraine preparing multiple war crime cases
In Episode 123 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg discusses the history of Khazaria, the medieval Turko-Jewish empire in what is now southern Russia and eastern Ukraine. While the fate of the mysterious Khazars has won much attention from scholars—and controversy—because of what… Read morePodcast: whither Khazaria?
At least 35 people were killed May 10 when armed men raided an artisanal gold mining camp in Ituri province, in the conflicted northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Local authorities at the rural commune of Mungwalu in… Read moreArtisanal gold miners massacred in DRC
On May 10, Mexico’s Day of the Mother, thousands of mothers and other family members of the disappeared held a March for National Dignity in the capital, calling for action on their missing loved ones. The march, which filled the main avenues… Read moreMothers of the disappeared march in Mexico
Clashes between the Iraqi military and a local Yazidi militia have forced more than 3,000 people to flee the northern town of Sinjar. Fighting erupted May 1, when the military launched an operation to clear the area of the Sinjar Resistance… Read moreIraq: thousands displaced in new battle for Sinjar
A May 4 report from Amnesty International finds that a militia funded and backed by Libya’s Tripoli-based Government of National Unity is responsible for a litany of crimes, including unlawful killings, torture, rape, forced labor, and the interception and return… Read moreLibya: militia accused of grave abuses against migrants
At a May 7 press conference in Kabul, the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue & Prevention of Vice released an order from Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, stating that women outside the home must cover their faces. The all-encompassing blue burqa,… Read moreAfghanistan: Taliban diktat imposes burqa
In Episode 122 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg examines the ongoing conflict in Somalia in light of both climate change and Great Power politics. Despite a pseudo-withdrawal of US forces, the Pentagon continues drone strikes against the Shaabab insurgents—as… Read morePodcast: Somalia in the Great Game
Forces in the Central African Republic, identified by witnesses as Russian mercenaries, “appear to have summarily executed, tortured, and beaten civilians since 2019,” Human Rights Watch finds in a new report. On April 15, the United Nations announced it wil investigate the… Read moreRussian mercenaries accused in CAR atrocities
Some 1,500 advocacy groups from over 130 countries have formed a global alliance to support a Vanuatu government proposal seeking an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on climate change. The government plans to put the proposal to the… Read moreCoalition backs Vanuatu case on climate justice
