An armed clash at a mountain village in Mexico's border state of Chihuahua left at least 25 dead—the latest indication that narco-gangs are stronger than the government across much of the country's drug-producing sierras. The shoot-out erupted in the pueblo of Las Varas, in the foothills of the Sierra Tarahumara—Mexico's prime cannabis and opium cultivation area.
The United Nations charged that Colombia's government is undermining the country's peace process by failing to release imprisoned FARC members and protect disarmed guerillas as promised in the peace deal. Although mores of the 3,400 imprisoned FARC adherents have been officially amnestied, only 837 have been released. More than 1,400 imprisoned FARC members have gone on hunger strike to demand their release. Meanwhile, even released FARC veterans are being targeted for deadly reprisal attacks by right-wing paramilitaries.
One year after Rodrigo Duterte took office on a pledge to expunge the "virulent social disease" of drug abuse, the civilian death toll in his crackdown may be as high as 8,000. Among the upwards of 80,000 arrested under Duterte's rule are some, including opposition politicians, who have been clearly framed for speaking out against him. And in the restive southern island of Mindanao, he has made good on his threats to instate martial law.
The full liberation of Mosul from ISIS has been declared, but at a terrible cost in human lives—and multiple contradictions among the alliance assembled to take the city could open a new war in Iraq's north.
The daughter of assassinated Honduran environmentalist Berta Cáceres survived an armed attack, weeks after being named leader of the indigenous alliance formerly led by her mother.
Armed groups continue to commit war crimes with impunity in the Central African Republic, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch, calling for international efforts to bring perpetrators to justice.
Even as Colombian leaders celebrated completion of the FARC disarmament process, remnant paramilitary forces carry out deadly reprisals against demobilized guerillas.
With the Syrian Kurds now facing open war from both Turkey and the Assad regime, the imminent taking of Raqqa portends a multi-sided scramble for former ISIS territory.
Turkish government claims that Kurdish rebels in the country's east are profiting from the hashish trade point to an integrated counter-insurgency and drug enforcement campaign.
Both the FARC and ELN guerillas denied responsibility for the deadly terror attack in Bogotá, but National Police had warned of an imminent provocation by right-wing paramilitaries.
Several civilians were killed when US air-strikes reportedly targeted ISIS-held Raqqa with white phosphorus—banned by the Geneva Convention as a weapon of war.
After all-night negotiations with protest leaders in Colombia's Pacific port of Buenaventura, government representatives pledged to invest $517 million in local infrastructure.
