Djibouti Says Sudan Returning to IGAD Regional Bloc After Two-Year Suspension
Djibouti, the current chair of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), announced on Sunday that Sudan has rejoined the regional organization, a step intended to restore regional cooperation. Sudan quit the East African regional body in January 2024 to protest the participation of Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo at an IGAD summit in Uganda. … The Djibouti foreign ministry said the return was confirmed in an official letter from the Sudanese foreign minister to the IGAD executive secretary. … The decision follows a visit by Prime Minister Kamil Idris to Djibouti on January 28 for talks with President Ismail Omar Guelleh and IGAD leadership. Shortly after those meetings, the bloc issued a statement condemning the RSF for the first time since the conflict started 33 months ago. … IGAD is a regional grouping headquartered in Djibouti that includes Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, and Uganda. Eritrea’s membership is currently suspended. Sudan Tribune
Drone Attack by Paramilitary Group in Sudan Kills 24, Including 8 Children, Doctors’ Group Says
A drone attack by a notorious paramilitary group hit a vehicle carrying displaced families in central Sudan on Saturday, killing at least 24 people, including eight children, a doctors’ group said, a day after a World Food Program aid convoy was targeted. Saturday’s attack by the Rapid Support Forces took place close to the city of Rahad in North Kordofan province, said the Sudan Doctors Network, which tracks the country’s ongoing war. The vehicle was transporting displaced people who fled fighting in the Dubeiker area, the group said in a statement. Among the dead children were two infants. Several others were wounded and taken for treatment in Rahad, which suffers severe medical supplies shortages, like many areas in the Kordofan region, the statement said. … A drone attack on Friday on a WFP aid convoy in North Kordofan province killed one and wounded several others, said Denise Brown, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Sudan. Brown said the convoy was heading to deliver “life-saving food assistance” to displaced people in the city of Obeid in North Kordofan when it was struck. The attack burned the trucks and destroyed the aid, she said. AP
How Off-the-Shelf Drones Are Changing Jihadist Warfare in West Africa
Jihadist groups are increasingly carrying out drone strikes in West Africa, raising alarm that they are building the capacity to wage a “war from the skies”. A leading violence monitoring organisation, Acled, has recorded at least 69 drone strikes by [a jihadist group] in Burkina Faso and Mali since 2023, while two [other jihadist groups] have carried out around 20 – mostly in Nigeria, which has been battling numerous insurgent groups for almost 25 years. … The jihadists tended to carry out strikes with “commercially available, relatively inexpensive quadcopter [unmanned] drones” that were “rigged with explosives”, while also using them for reconnaissance and surveillance missions in preparation for ground attacks, Acled senior Africa analyst Ladd Serwat told the BBC. … “Drones lower the cost of conducting attacks, allow militants to gather intelligence with minimal risk and enable strikes on military targets that were previously harder to reach,” [security analyst Audu Bulama Bukarti said]. BBC
Military Drone Strike in Niger Killed 17 Civilians in January: HRW
A drone strike apparently carried out by Niger’s military killed 17 civilians, among them children, in western Niger last month, Human Rights Watch said Monday. Niger is plagued by jihadist violence in the western Tillaberi region, a flashpoint zone where the country’s borders meet those of its allies Burkina Faso and Mali. The tri-border area has become a haven for militants who have carried out deadly attacks for nearly a decade. Niger’s military junta, who came to power in a 2023 coup, has struggled to contain the jihadists in Tillaberi, despite maintaining a large army presence in the region. … “An apparent Nigerien military drone strike killed at least 17 civilians, including four children, and injured at least 13 others at a crowded market” on January 6, HRW said in a statement. Three Islamist fighters were also killed in the strike, it said. It took place in the village of Kokoloko in the Tillaberi region, about 120 kilometres west of Niamey and less than three km from the border with Burkina Faso, HRW said. Witnesses spoke of having seen a drone flying over the village twice during the morning and then drop munitions on it when hundreds of people were in the market, HRW said. AFP
Nigeria: US AFRICOM Commander Visits Tinubu
The Commander of the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM), Dagvin Anderson, on Sunday, 8 February, led a US delegation on a courtesy visit to President Bola Tinubu in Abuja. PREMIUM TIMES understands that the visit is part of ongoing engagements between Nigeria and the United States on security cooperation. … The visit also brought together Nigeria’s top security and intelligence leadership. Those present at the meeting included the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu; Minister of Defence, Christopher Musa; Chief of Defence Staff, Olufemi Oluyede; Chief of Army Staff, Waidi Shaibu; Chief of Defence Intelligence, Emmanuel Uandiandeye; Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Mohammed Mohammed; and the Director-General of the State Security Services (SSS), Tosin Ajayi. The engagement comes amid ongoing diplomatic and security interactions between Nigeria and the United States focused on security cooperation, intelligence coordination and strategic engagement through established bilateral frameworks. Premium Times
Egypt and Saudi Arabia Focus on Eritrea as UAE Bolsters Ties to Ethiopia
The insular but strategically positioned Red Sea country of Eritrea is coming under the radar of Arab capitals as a potential linchpin in Saudi Arabia and the UAE’s Red Sea rivalry. Two Arab officials familiar with recent diplomacy told Middle East Eye that Egypt is trying to broker deeper security links between Eritrea and Saudi Arabia, with an eye towards checking the UAE’s influence as it increases military ties to Ethiopia. … The three-way diplomacy underscores the complex and shifting alliances rippling across the Red Sea. At one time, both Eritrea and Egypt were seen as particularly close to the UAE. Ties between Cairo and Abu Dhabi are not at rock bottom, but have become strained over Sudan’s civil war and Gaza. Likewise, Eritrea, which has been ruled by former guerrilla leader President Isaias Afwerki since its independence from Ethiopia in 1993, was once aligned with the UAE. … For Egypt, bolstering the Eritreans is part of its efforts to check Ethiopia, whose Grand Renaissance Dam project is viewed in Cairo as a major threat to national security. Ethiopia officially inaugurated the dam in September 2025. The existing tensions between Ethiopia and Egypt have been turbocharged by Addis Ababa’s closer security cooperation with the UAE over Sudan. Middle East Eye
Lies, Horror, Trauma: Kenyans Recount Forced Russian Recruitment
Four Kenyans — Victor, Mark, Erik and Moses — recounted to AFP the web of deception that took them to the killing fields of Ukraine. … It began with promises of well-paying jobs in Russia from a Nairobi recruitment agency. Victor, 28, was supposed to be a salesman. Mark, 32, and Moses, 27, were told they would be security guards. Erik, 37, thought he had a ticket to high-end sports. They were all to be paid between $1,000 and $3,000 a month — a fortune in Kenya where jobs are scarce and the government encourages emigration to boost remittances. … Instead, Victor’s first day was in an abandoned house three hours outside Saint-Petersburg. The next day, he was taken to a Russian military base where soldiers presented him with a contract in Russian that he could not read. “They told us: ‘If you don’t sign, you’re dead’,” Victor told AFP, showing his Russian military service record and combat medallion. … The four men left for Russia through a Kenyan recruitment agency, Global Face Human Resources. … One of its employees, Edward Gituku, is being prosecuted for “human trafficking” after a police raid in September on an apartment he rented on the outskirts of the city. Twenty-one young men, who were about to fly to Russia, were rescued in the raid. … The four returnees interviewed by AFP said they encountered dozens of Africans in training camps and battlefields, including from Nigeria, Cameroon, Egypt and South Africa. AFP
Chad: Africa’s Refugee Haven Struggles With Its Own Stark Challenges
[A]s landlocked Chad has welcomed more than 900,000 Sudanese refugees across its eastern border since the start of the conflict, 40 per cent of its own population already needs humanitarian assistance. … An estimated two million Chadian children aged six to 59 months are suffering or expected to suffer acute malnutrition between October 2025 and September 2026, including nearly 484,000 children expected to suffer severe acute malnutrition, according to the global hunger monitor – the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. The security landscape is equally concerning. Violent extremist groups, including Boko Haram and its affiliates, have continued to drive insecurity in the Lake Chad Basin, displacing over 250,000 people. In the north, trafficking networks and illegal coal mining overlap with gender-based violence and exploitative child labour. UN News
Babies Among 53 Dead or Missing After Migrant Boat Sinks off Libya, UN Says
Two babies are among at least 53 people dead or missing after an inflatable migrant boat sank off Libya, the U.N. migration agency said on Monday, the latest tragedy on a dangerous route for those seeking a better life in Europe. The U.N.’s International Organization for Migration said in a statement the boat with 55 African migrants on board departed Libya’s western town of Zawaiya shortly before midnight on Thursday. Around six hours later it began taking on water and capsized on Friday morning north of the town of Zuwara, it said. … Human traffickers in recent years have benefited from the chaos in Libya, smuggling in migrants across the country’s lengthy borders, which it shares with six nations. The migrants are usually forced to sail on crowded, ill-equipped vessels, including rubber boats. Those who are intercepted and returned to Libya are held in government-run detention centers rife with abuses, including forced labor, beatings, rapes and torture — practices that amount to crimes against humanity, according to U.N.-commissioned investigators. AP
Thousands Displaced as Flooding Devastates Wetland Crops in Malawi
Kakuyu, in Malawi’s central district of Nkhotakota, provides hundreds of farmers with their livelihoods. Close to both the Dwangwa River and Lake Malawi, its swampy delta land makes it easy to grow crops such as rice and maize twice a year, without the need for fertilisers. But a heavy downpour in December displaced these farmers and washed away their crops, which were about to be harvested. Authorities say Nkhotakota and the surrounding districts received continuous rainfall from 25 December straight through to the end of the month, leading to rising water levels in rivers and streams which culminated in flooding of low lying areas. Malawi’s Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA) said on 22 January that “at least 40 people have died while more than 36,000 households have been affected by rain-related disasters during the 2025/26 rainfall season”, the Malawi News Agency reported. The statement, by Wilson Moleni, commissioner for Disaster Management Affairs, added that “209 people have sustained injuries, while 23 deaths were caused by lightning strikes and 17 by collapsing walls”. RFI
Ebo Taylor, Ghanaian Highlife Icon, Dies at 90
Ebo Taylor, the legendary Ghanaian guitarist, composer, and bandleader whose work defined highlife and inspired generations of musicians across Africa and beyond, has died at the age of 90, his family confirmed. Born Deroy Taylor in Cape Coast in 1936, he rose to prominence in the late 1950s and 60s, blending traditional Ghanaian rhythms with jazz, funk, soul, and early Afrobeat. A formative period in London saw him collaborating with fellow African musicians, including Fela Kuti, in what would become a key influence on the development of Afrobeat. Returning to Ghana, Taylor became a sought-after bandleader, arranger, and producer, working with top artists such as Pat Thomas and CK Mann. Over a career spanning six decades, Taylor’s music evolved but stayed rooted in Ghanaian culture. Albums like Love & Death, Appia Kwa Bridge, and Yen Ara brought his work to new international audiences in later years, while his tracks have been sampled by artists including Usher, the Black Eyed Peas, Kelly Rowland, and Jidenna, keeping his sound alive for a new generation. Africanews