In another sign of the Islamist insurgency in the Sahel reaching West Africa’s littoral states, the armed forces of Ivory Coast announced on May 24 the completion of a joint operation with the military of neighboring inland Burkina Faso, to… Read moreSahel insurgency reaches Ivory Coast borderlands
The US Supreme Court ruled May 18 in Opati v. Republic of Sudan that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) permits a punitive damages award against Sudan for the role it played in the 1998 al-Qaeda bombings at the US embassies… Read moreSCOTUS: Sudan liable for terrorism damages
Security forces in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso have been accused in a rising toll of extrajudicial killings commited in the context of their battle against jihadist groups in the Sahelian region. In Mali, soldiers allegedly conducted 101 executions, 32… Read moreSahel security forces accused of extrajudicial killings
Sudan’s new government officially criminalized female genital mutilation (FGM) on April 29. The change is the result of an amendment to Sudan’s Criminal Law Article 141. The act is defined as removing or reshaping “the female genitalia by cutting, mutilating… Read moreSudan outlaws female genital mutilation
According to widespread reports in the Nigerian media, aggrieved workers at a Chinese company in the Ogun-Guangdong Free Trade Zone (OGFTZ), located in Ado-Odo/Ota district of Ogun state, staged a brief uprising at the complex after they were locked within the premises, ostensibly under… Read moreWorker uprising at Chinese FTZ in Nigeria
Twelve rangers were among 17 people killed in an April 24 attack by gunmen within Virunga National Park, the critical highland gorilla preserve on the eastern border of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Park administrators in a statement said rangers came… Read moreVirunga rangers killed in guerilla ambush
Thousands of people are fleeing ongoing inter-communal clashes in South Sudan’s Jonglei State and the newly created Greater Pibor Administrative Area—the latest challenge to efforts to cement peace following last month’s formation of a unity government. Médecins Sans Frontières reported an… Read moreThousands flee clashes in South Sudan
Somali troops clashed with forces from the country’s semi-autonomous Jubaland region last week in a flare-up of violence that is raising tensions with neighboring countries and may play into the hands of the militant group al-Shabab. Tensions have been rising… Read moreSomalia clashes escalate regional tensions
South Sudan’s rival leaders have finally agreed to form a transitional “government of national unity,” officially putting an end to more than six years of civil war that has left millions displaced and an estimated 400,000 dead. The breakthrough came… Read moreWill third peace accord hold in South Sudan?
The French-backed military campaign against Islamist militants in Niger is claiming victories against the insurgency that has mounted in the country since 2015. Niger’s Defense Ministry said in a statement Feb. 20 that over the past month, “120 terrorists have been… Read moreNiger counterinsurgency sparks displacement crisis
At least 22 people were killed in an attack in Cameroon’s Northwest region on Feb. 14, a UN official said—the latest incident in a wave of violence to shake the country’s restive English-speaking regions. The attack in Ntumbo village left 14… Read moreMassacre in Cameroon’s conflicted western region
Traditional rulers in Nigeria’s strife-torn north are warning that vigilante militias now forming to fight Boko Haram are a sign of a generalized social breakdown in the region. The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, told a public meeting in… Read moreVigilantism fears in Nigeria’s conflicted north
