Africa

28, April 2025

Dozens of African migrants killed in US strike on Yemen ⁰

At least 68 African migrants have been killed in a US air strike on a detention centre in Houthi-controlled north-western Yemen, the armed group’s TV channel says.

Al Masirah reported that another 47 migrants were injured, most of them critically, when the centre in Saada province was bombed. It posted graphic footage showing multiple bodies covered in the rubble of a destroyed building.

There was no immediate comment from the US military.

But it came hours after US Central Command announced that its forces had hit more than 800 targets since President Donald Trump ordered an intensification of the air campaign against the Houthis on 15 March.

It said the strikes had “killed hundreds of Houthi fighters and numerous Houthi leaders”, including senior officials overseeing missile and drone programmes.

Houthi-run authorities have said the strikes have killed dozens of civilians, but they have reported few casualties among the group’s members.

The migrant detention centre in Saada was reportedly holding 115 Africans when it was hit on Sunday night.

Despite the humanitarian crisis in Yemen caused by 11 years of conflict, migrants continue to arrive in the country by boat from the Horn of Africa, most of them intending to cross into neighbouring Saudi Arabia to find work.

Instead, they face exploitation, detention, violence, and dangerous journeys through active conflict zones, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

In 2024 alone, it says, almost 60,900 migrants arrived in the country, often with no means to survive.

Earlier this month, the Houthi-run government said a series of US air strikes on the Ras Isa oil terminal on the Red Sea coast killed at least 74 people and wounded 171 others. It said the terminal was a civilian facility and that the strikes constituted a “war crime”.

Centcom said the attack destroyed the ability of Ras Isa to accept fuel and that it would “begin to impact Houthi ability to not only conduct operations, but also to generate millions of dollars in revenue for their terror activities”.

Source: BBC

25, April 2025

Rwanda and DR Congo set May 2 deadline for peace deal ⁰

Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday set a goal of reaching a draft peace agreement by May 2 and vowed to respect each other’s sovereignty following sweeping rebel gains.

The top diplomats of Rwanda, which has faced criticism for backing the M23 rebels, and DR Congo, which has seen major cities fall in its turbulent but mineral-rich east, signed a declaration in Washington in the presence of Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The foreign ministers “commit to coordinate through existing channels to generate an initial draft peace agreement for the Participants’ mutual review no later than May 2”, it said.

The two countries “mutually acknowledge each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and commit to a pathway to resolve their disputes by peaceful means grounded in diplomacy and negotiation rather than hostile force or rhetoric”, the declaration said.

Without naming the M23 rebels explicitly, the statement said that both countries acknowledged concerns of the other and would “refrain from providing state military support to non-state armed groups”.

The two sides also said they would establish a “joint security coordination mechanism to counter non-state armed groups”.

In a surprise announcement Wednesday, the DRC and M23 rebels said they had agreed to halt fighting in the east of the country while they work toward a permanent truce.

Thousands have been killed in a conflict that has raged along the border of the two countries since January.

UN experts, the United States and other Western governments say that Rwanda supports the M23. Rwanda denies providing military support to the M23.

A new US envoy for Africa – businessman Massad Boulos, who is the father-in-law of President Donald Trump’s daughter Tiffany – visited both capitals this month and has called for Rwanda to halt support and withdraw “all Rwandan troops from DRC territory”.

Qatar, which has worked with Washington on a range of thorny diplomatic issues, spearheaded talks between Rwanda and the DRC.

The DRC has sought US support in part by offering to reach its own agreement with the United States on access to critical minerals found in the country that are vital for advanced technologies.

The joint declaration said the two sides expected “significant investments” facilitated by the US government and US private sector.

It said that the two countries would work with the United States on areas including mineral value chains and hydropower development.

Rwanda says its security in the eastern DRC is threatened by armed groups, notably the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, created by former Hutu leaders linked to the 1994 genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda.

The M23 consists mostly of Tutsis.

Source: AFP

8, April 2025

Algeria blocks flights from Mali after drone shot down ⁰

Algeria has closed its airspace to all flights to and from Mali as the row over a drone that was shot down close to their common border escalates.

On Sunday, Mali accused its northern neighbour of being a sponsor and exporter of terrorism after Algeria attacked one of its drones last week.

A strongly worded statement from Mali’s foreign ministry challenged Algeria’s earlier explanation that the unmanned surveillance aircraft had violated its airspace.

The statement described the downing of the drone as a “hostile premeditated action”. Algeria described the allegations as “lacking in seriousness [and they]… warrant no attention or response”.

Mali’s armed forces are fighting ethnic Tuareg separatists in the north. They have a stronghold in the town of Tinzaoutin, which straddles the Mali-Algeria border.

The shooting down of the drone raised diplomatic tensions, as Mali, along with its allies Niger and Burkina Faso, recalled their ambassadors from Algiers.

Last year, the three junta-led countries formed a regional bloc, the Alliance of Sahel States, known by its French acronym AES.

In their joint statement condemning Algeria, they said the shooting down of the drone “prevented the neutralisation of a terrorist group that was planning terrorist acts against the AES”.

Mali has also summoned the Algerian ambassador in Bamako over the incident, declaring that it would file a complaint with “international bodies”. It also withdrew from a regional security grouping that includes Algeria.

In its response on Monday, Algeria said it noted the Malian and AES statements with “deep dismay”. It described Mali’s allegations as an attempt to divert attention away from its own failures.

It also said this was the third violation of its airspace in recent months.

“Due to the repeated violations of our airspace by Mali, the Algerian government has decided to close it to air traffic coming from or to Mali, effective today,” Algeria’s defence ministry said on Monday.

Last Wednesday, Algeria acknowledged that it had shot down an “armed reconnaissance drone” close to Tinzaoutin saying it had “penetrated our airspace over a distance of 2km”.

But the junta in Bamako denied that the drone had violated Algeria’s airspace. It said that the aircraft’s wreckage was found 9.5km inside its borders.

Giving more details on Monday, Algeria said that the aircraft had entered its airspace “then exited before returning on an attack trajectory”.

Mali regularly accuses Algeria of giving shelter to Tuareg armed groups.

The north African country once served as a key mediator during more than a decade of conflict between Mali and the separatists. Their relations have soured since 2020 after the military took power in Bamako.

Algeria recently deployed troops along its borders to prevent the infiltration of militants and weapons from jihadist groups who operate in Mali and other countries in West Africa’s Sahel region.

Source: BBC

1, April 2025

Niger’s junta withdraws from Lake Chad anti-Boko Haram force ⁰

Niger’s ruling junta has quit a regional force fighting armed Islamist groups in west Africa’s Lake Chad area, cementing an acrimonious split from former allies in the region.

The decision to exit the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) was announced in a bulletin on state television over the weekend. The move “reflects a stated intent to reinforce security for oil sites”, the bulletin stated, without providing further details.

The MNJTF was formed in 2015 by Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria in the wake of increasing jihadist attacks across their territories. At its peak, it had an estimated 10,000 troops and fought many armed groups, especially Boko Haram and its offshoots. But any serious progress has been hampered or even undone by poor collaboration and equipping, analysts say.

“The force was never that effective, said Ulf Laessing, the Bamako-based director of the Sahel programme at Konrad Adenauer Foundation, a German thinktank. Its decline, he added, was “good news for jihadists and it is bad news for villagers on the lake side, fishers or farmers who just want to go about their business but who will now get less military support”.

Niger’s exit from MNJTF came days after the junta’s leader, Abdourahmane Tiani, was sworn in as president until 2030 under a new charter that suspended the constitution and dissolved all political parties.

Niger has also isolated itself from the Economic Community of West African State (Ecowas), after Ecowas imposed a range of sanctions following the coup that ousted the democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, in July 2023.

Within two months of the coup, it had joined the splinter Alliance of Sahel States (AES) along with Burkina Faso and Mali, where there have also been military takeovers since 2020.

Since then, AES has introduced new biometric passports to replace the old regional passports and on Monday, it announced a 0.5% levy on imported goods from Ecowas states.

Ikemesit Effiong, managing partner at Nigerian geopolitical risk advisory SBM Intelligence, said the levy put an end to “a long history of free trade across the western Sahel” and could change the dynamics of Ecowas’s negotiations with AES.

“When squared with Ecowas’s statement commitment to keep open trade and borders with AES states, I think this [levy] will force Ecowas to drop its kid gloves strategy and be more forceful with the AES,” Effiong said.

It remains unclear what impact Niger’s withdrawal from the MNJTF will have on a security agreement signed with neighbouring Nigeria last August. The countries share a border that spans 1,000 miles but Nigeria-led Ecowas’s push for a rapid return to democratic governance has caused friction between both countries.

Effiong said recent moves in the capital, Niamey, which has been seeking new military and economic partners since expelling French troops in 2023, are unsurprising.

“Niger has been pulling out of all its main regional bilateral and multilateral commitments, much of which it sees as western influenced or inspired,” said Effiong, who noted that MTNJTF had received military and intelligence aid from western partners in the past.

Source: The Guardian

25, March 2025

President Kagame of Rwanda planning to attack Burundi ⁰

Burundi’s president has told the BBC he has seen “credible intelligence” that Rwanda plans to attack his country.

Évariste Ndayishimiye also said that Rwanda had tried to launch a coup a decade ago in Burundi, akin to “what it’s doing in the Democratic Republic of Congo” now.

Rwanda has already hit back, calling the president’s comments “surprising” and insisting that the two neighbours are co-operating on security plans for their shared border, which has been shut for over a year.

Despite extensive UN evidence, Rwanda has always denied arming and backing the M23 rebel group, which has recently seized large parts of eastern DR Congo alongside Rwandan troops.

Rwanda has also denied links to the resurgent Red Tabara rebel group, which President Ndayishimiye says is a proxy force similar to the M23 and is being supported by Rwanda to destabilise Burundi.

“They would say it’s an internal problem when it’s Rwanda [who is] the problem. We know that he [Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame] has a plan to attack Burundi,” Ndayishimiye added.

“Burundians will not accept to be killed as Congolese are being killed. Burundian people are fighters.

“But now we don’t have any plans to attack Rwanda. We want to resolve that problem by dialogue.”

At the heart of Ndayishimiye’s comments was a call for peace and the full implementation of an agreement between the two nations – a peace deal that had been signed in previous years but, according to Burundi, had not been honoured by Rwanda.

“The people who did the 2015 coup [were] organised by Rwanda, and then they ran away. Rwanda organised them – it went to recruit the youth in Mahama camp. It trained them, it gave them arms, it financed them. They are living in the hand of Rwanda,” he alleges.

“If Rwanda accepts to hand over them and bring them to justice, the problem would be finished.”

Source: BBC

24, February 2025

7,000+ killed in eastern DR Congo since January ⁰

More than 7,000 people, many of them civilians, have been killed in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo since January, Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka said on Monday.

Armed members of the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group, who have seized large swathes of the mineral-rich eastern DRC, including the main eastern cities of Goma and Bukavu, have met with the limited resistance of the fleeing Congolese armed forces.

“The security situation in eastern DRC has reached alarming levels,” Tuluka warned, addressing the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.

She said the fatalities include “more than 2,500 bodies buried without being identified” and 1,500 bodies were still in the morgue.

The prime minister said “for the moment… we have not yet been able to identify all of these people.” She noted, however, that “there is a significant mass of civilians who are part of these dead.”

According to UN reports, the rebels, backed by some 4,000 Rwandan troops, have made rapid advances, sending thousands of people fleeing from the region.

Protesters have attacked the embassies of the United States and France in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The rebel forces took control of the South Kivu provincial capital Bukavu recently, after first capturing Goma, the capital city of North Kivu province.

Congo’s prime minister said more than 3,000 people had been killed in Goma alone.

The M23 is the most potent of the many armed groups vying for a foothold in Congo’s east, which has trillions of dollars of mostly untapped mineral wealth such as lithium, which is used in technology for batteries in devices such as mobile phones and laptops.

In related news, Kaja Kallas, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said Congo’s territorial integrity was “non-negotiable.”

The EU’s top diplomat said Brussels defense consultations with Rwanda have been suspended while their memorandum of understanding (MOU) on critical raw materials production is under review.

The EU and Rwanda had signed the MOU to “nurture sustainable and resilient value chains for critical raw materials,” she said.

The African country “produces tin, tungsten, gold and niobium, and has potential for lithium and rare earth elements,” she said.

Source: Presstv

26, January 2025

DR Congo rebels close in on key city as 13 peacekeepers killed ⁰

UN Secretary General António Guterres has called on Rwanda to withdraw its forces from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s territory and on the M23 rebel group to stop its advance on the eastern city of Goma amid intense fighting.

At a UN Security Council emergency meeting on Sunday, Congo’s foreign minister accused Rwanda of declaring war by sending its troops over the border to help the rebels.

Rwanda’s representative did not deny backing M23.

The calls come after 13 soldiers serving with peacekeeping forces in the DR Congo were killed in clashes with M23 rebels, UN and army officials have said.

South Africa said nine of its soldiers were killed while deterring an advance on Goma.

Three Malawian soldiers were killed, the UN said, while Uruguay’s army said one of its soldiers had died.

M23 rebels have taken control of vast parts of mineral-rich eastern DR Congo since 2021. Hundreds of thousands have fled their homes, the UN said.

In the past few weeks the group has been advancing swiftly on Goma, a city of more than one million residents, amid intense fighting.

Guterres, in a statement through his spokesman, called on Rwanda to “cease support to the M23 and withdraw from DRC territory”. He also called on the M23 to “immediately cease all hostile actions and withdraw from occupied areas”.

As Sunday’s UN Security Council got under way in New York City, reports of Rwandan drone strikes aimed at targets near Goma emerged.

Bintou Keita, from the UN peacekeeping force Monusco, told the council that despite ongoing UN efforts, M23 and Rwandan forces had captured the outskirts of Goma, “causing mass panic and fright across the population”.

“Roads are blocked and the airport can no longer be used for evacuation or humanitarian efforts. M23 has declared the airspace over Goma closed. In other words, we are cut,” Ms Keita added.

The UK called for an end to attacks on peacekeepers, while France’s UN representative, Nicolas de Rivière, reiterated Guterres’ call for Rwanda to withdraw its troops from the DR Congo.

Both DR Congo and the UN say the M23 is backed by Rwanda.

Instead, Rwanda blames the DR Congo for the current conflict.

Speaking at the Security Council meeting, Rwanda’s UN representative Ernest Rwamucyo said he regrets that the international community chooses to condemn the M23 group rather than the Congolese army, who he said violated the ceasefire.

“Rwanda also notes with disappointment the international community’s failure to condemn the use of foreign mercenaries in this conflict,” Mr Rwamucyo said, adding that the military escalation “represents an unprecedented security threat to Rwanda”.

It comes one day after the UN said it would be pulling all of its non-essential staff out of Goma. Essential operations are ongoing in the DR Congo.

Since the start of 2025 more than 400,000 people have been displaced in North and South Kivu, provinces near the border with Rwanda, according to the UN’s refugee agency.

One displaced woman, Alice Feza, said she is at a loss of what to do next, as she has fled from Kiwanja, Rutshuru, Kibumba and now, Goma.

“People are fleeing everywhere, and we don’t know where to go anymore, because we started fleeing a long time ago,” Ms Feza said, adding: “The war catches us here among the host families, now we have nowhere to go”.

In the past few days, several countries have urged their citizens to leave Goma, including the UK, France, Germany and the US.

The M23 group has called on Congolese troops in Goma to surrender in order to avoid bloodshed.

Meanwhile, DR Congo has severed diplomatic ties with neighbouring Rwanda, accusing the country of being behind the rebellion.

The move comes after M23 fighters killed a Congolese military governor who was visiting the frontline on Thursday.

Map showing the Democratic Republic of Congo

The M23 formed as an offshoot of another rebel group in 2012, ostensibly to protect the Tutsi population in the east of DR Congo, which had long complained of persecution and discrimination.

Rwanda has previously said the authorities in DR Congo were working with some of those responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide against ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

However, Rwanda’s critics accuse it of using the M23 to loot eastern DR Congo’s minerals such as gold, cobalt and tantalum.

Human Rights Watch has warned of escalating risks to civilians as DR Congo’s army battle the M23 rebels. The humanitarian group has accused both sides of committing grave abuses against civilians.

Getty Images Non essential civil personnel of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) are seen leaving ahead of their evacuation in Goma on January 25, 2025 — As many as 400,000 people in eastern DR Congo have been displaced since the start of the year, according to the UN

Last week, local leaders said more than 200 civilians had been killed in areas captured by the M23, with hospitals in Goma treating hundreds of patients.

Martin Gordon, an Anglican bishop in Goma, told the BBC fighting in the country had gone on “way too long” and people “will do anything for peace”.

Within reach of major mining towns supplying metals and minerals in high demand such as gold, tin and coltan, Goma has become a vital economic hub. Its road and air transport links, and the fact that it has a huge UN peacekeeping base, has attracted a host of businesses, international organisations and diplomatic consulates.

As such, Goma is a valuable strategic target. In February last year the town was the focus of a resurgence in fighting between the M23 group and the Congolese army.

Source: BBC

14, January 2025

South Africa: Dead bodies seen in videos from disused gold mine ⁰

Disturbing videos have emerged showing the dire situation at a disused gold mine in South Africa where scores of illegal miners have reportedly been living underground for months.

They have been there since police operations targeting illicit mining started last year across the country.

In one of the videos, which the BBC has not independently verified, corpses wrapped in makeshift body bags can be seen. A second shows the emaciated figures of some miners who are still alive.

A long-delayed rescue operation, that last week a court ordered the government to facilitate, began on Monday.

Last year, arguing that the miners had entered the shaft in Stilfontein deliberately without permission, the authorities took a hard line, blocking food and water supplies.

In November, one government minister said: “We are going to smoke them out.”

More than 100 of the illegal miners, known locally as “zama zamas”, have reportedly died underground since the crack down began at the mine some 145km (90 miles) south-west of Johannesburg.

The authorities however, have not confirmed this figure as it is yet to be “verified by an official source”, a spokesperson told the BBC.

Hundreds are thought to be still in the mine while more than 1,000 have surfaced in the past few months.

In one of the videos released by a trade union, the General Industries Workers of South Africa (Giwusa), dozens of shirtless men can be seen sitting on a dirty floor. Their faces have been blurred. A male voice off camera can be heard saying that the men are hungry and need help.

Source: BBC

13, December 2024

Niger suspends BBC radio for ‘spreading false news’ ⁰

Niger on Thursday announced it was suspending BBC radio for three months, with the British broadcaster joining the growing list of Western media sanctioned by military juntas in the Sahel.

The ban on the BBC – accused of airing “erroneous information likely to destabilise social peace and undermine the morale of the troops” fighting jihadists – will come into force “with immediate effect” countrywide, the leadership said.

Popular BBC programmes including ones in the Hausa language are broadcast in Niger via local radio partners.

Since seizing power in a July 2023 coup, the military government has banned several Western media outlets.

Besides the BBC, two French broadcasters, Radio France Internationale (RFI) and France 24, have been banned there since August 2023.

On Thursday evening, the junta also said it was “filing a complaint” against RFI.

No programme in particular was mentioned in the decisions taken concerning the BBC and RFI.

But on Wednesday both broadcasters reported that jihadists had killed 90 soldiers and upwards of 40 civilians in Chatoumane, in the western Tera region bordering Burkina Faso teeming with armed fighters.

Although AFP was unable to verify those numbers from an independent local source, a Western security source told AFP that 90 to 100 people died in Tuesday’s attack.

‘Baseless assertions’

But on Wednesday Niger’s junta denied the attack happened, describing reports of the atrocity as “baseless assertions” and a “campaign of intoxication”.

For years Niger – along with its two neighbours Burkina Faso and Mali – has been plagued by jihadist violence.

The frontier lands straddling the three states – where Tuesday’s attack is said to have taken place – have long been a hideout for jihadists linked to the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda.

All three of those Sahel countries have experienced military coups in recent years, and Niger’s fellow juntas have likewise suspended foreign media outlets.

With the three turning their backs on former colonial ruler France, many French media outlets have been suspended on accusations of being propaganda mouthpieces for Paris.

Other voices deemed critical of the military authorities have been silenced.

All three juntas have turned towards Russia for their security needs and expelled French troops stationed in the Sahel to fight against jihadists.

Niger’s army occasionally releases official reports on some of the jihadists’ attacks, which it says are carried out by “terrorists”.

On Wednesday it announced the death of 10 soldiers in an attack the previous day in the west of the country.

Near the borders with Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria, Niger’s far southeast also faces attacks from Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP) group.

Jihadist attacks have killed at least 1,500 civilians and troops in Niger in the past year, according to conflict monitoring group ACLED – more than double the 650 killed from July 2022 to July 2023.

Source: AFP

29, November 2024

Chad ends military cooperation with France ⁰

Chad announced Thursday that it was ending military cooperation with former colonial power France, just hours after a visit by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot.

“The government of the Republic of Chad informs national and international opinion of its decision to end the accord in the field of defence signed with the French republic,” foreign minister Abderaman Koulamallah said in a statement on Facebook.

Chad is a key link in France’s military presence in Africa, constituting Paris’s last foothold in the Sahel after the forced withdrawal of its troops from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

“This is not a break with France like Niger or elsewhere,” Koulamallah, whose country still hosts around a thousand French troops, told AFP.

At a press briefing after a meeting between President Mahamat Idriss Deby and Barrot, Koulamallah called France “an essential partner” but added it “must now also consider that Chad has grown up, matured and is a sovereign state that is very jealous of its sovereignty”.

Barrot, who arrived in Ethiopia on Thursday evening, could not immediately be reached for comment.

‘Historic turning point’

Chad is the last Sahel country to host French troops.

It has been led by Deby since 2021, when his father Idriss Deby Itno was killed by rebels after 30 years in power.

The elder Deby frequently relied on French military support to fend off rebel offensives, including in 2008 and 2019.

The landlocked nation faces a potent threat from Boko Haram and other militant groups.

It borders the Central African Republic, Sudan, Libya and Niger, all of which host Russian paramilitary forces from the Wagner group.

Deby has sought closer ties with Moscow in recent months, but talks to strengthen economic cooperation with Russia have yet to bear concrete results.

Koulamallah called the decision to end military cooperation a “historic turning point”, adding it was made after “in-depth analysis”.

“Chad, in accordance with the provisions of the agreement, undertakes to respect the terms laid down for its termination, including the notice period”, he said in the statement, which did not give a date for the withdrawal of French troops.

The announcement comes just days after Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye indicated in an interview with AFP that France should close its military bases in that country.

“Senegal is an independent country, it is a sovereign country and sovereignty does not accept the presence of military bases in a sovereign country,” Faye told AFP on Thursday.

Source: AFP