Sudanese Army Allies and RSF Clash near Chadian Border
Military clashes renewed on Friday between the Joint Force allied with the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) near the border with Chad, amid conflicting reports regarding control of the territory. … Military sources told Sudan Tribune that the RSF, supported by fighters from the Sudan Liberation Forces Gathering led by El Tahir Hajar and a faction of the Justice and Equality Movement led by Suleiman Sandal, attacked Joint Force positions in the town of Jargira early Friday. The attack initially forced the Joint Force to withdraw toward Tina. The sources said the Joint Force later regained control of the town, supported by drone strikes targeting RSF mobile units around Jargira and other sites near Kulbus in West Darfur. … Field reports regarding actual territorial control remain contradictory. Jargira is strategically located between North and West Darfur, approximately 30 kilometres south of Tina and over 100 kilometres north of El Geneina. The town serves as an advanced defence point used by army allies to protect positions in Tina and other areas near the Chadian border. Sudan Tribune
Pakistan Nears $1.5 Billion Deal to Supply Weapons, Jets to Sudan, Sources Say
Pakistan is in the final phases of striking a $1.5-billion deal to supply weapons and jets to Sudan, a former top air force official and three sources said, promising a major boost for Sudan’s army, battling the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Their conflict has stoked the world’s worst humanitarian crisis for more than 2-1/2 years, drawing in myriad foreign interests, and threatening to fragment the strategic Red Sea country, a major gold producer. The deal with Pakistan encompasses 10 Karakoram-8 light attack aircraft, more than 200 drones for scouting and kamikaze attacks, and advanced air defence systems, said two of the three sources with knowledge of the matter, who all sought anonymity. … Besides the Karakoram-8 jets, it includes Super Mushshak training aircraft, and perhaps some coveted JF-17 fighters developed jointly with China and produced in Pakistan, [one source] added, without giving figures or a delivery schedule. Reuters
Berlin Says Plans to Host Sudan Aid Conference
Germany plans to host a Sudan aid conference in the spring to raise emergency relief funds for the war-torn country, the foreign ministry said on Friday. Brutal fighting between Sudanese government forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has devastated the country, with reports of atrocities, starvation and mass killings. “Today, the world commemorates a sad date: 1,000 days of war in Sudan,” a foreign ministry spokeswoman said. “Far too many people continue to suffer and die there, victims of hunger, thirst, displacement and rape.” The conference would be held around the anniversary of the 2023 outbreak of the civil war in April, the spokeswoman said. AFP
Guinea Opposition Party Says One of Its Officials Abducted
A high-level member of a main opposition party in Guinea was abducted from her home in the capital, her party said Saturday, the latest disappearance in a country accustomed to kidnappings of junta opponents. Nene Oussou Diallo, a member of the UFDG party’s national executive bureau, was taken by “uniformed agents wearing balaclavas and arriving in unregistered pickup trucks” from her home in Conakry on Friday morning, the party said in a statement. “Given the modus operandi, it is reasonable to believe that Ms Diallo is the victim of enforced disappearance”, the UFDG said. The party’s exiled leader, Cellou Dalein Diallo, condemned the abduction on Facebook, calling for an immediate release and holding the junta responsible “for anything that might happen”. Efforts to locate Nene Oussou Diallo have so far been unsuccessful, he added. Abductions have multiplied in the west African country since General Mamady Doumbouya came to power in a 2021 coup. … Cellou Dalein Diallo said Nene Oussou Diallo was regularly approached to join the junta’s governing body, the CNRD, as well as a dissident branch of the UFDG. “She consistently declined these offers”, he said, adding that despite threats of arrest and kidnapping “she never ceased to publicly affirm her loyalty to the UFDG and its president”. AFP
ISWAP Militants Acquire More Drones, Plan Coordinated Attacks on Nigerian Troops
The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) has significantly expanded its drone capability and is finalising plans to launch coordinated aerial attacks on Nigerian military positions in parts of Yobe and Borno states, PREMIUM TIMES can report. A confidential security assessment sighted by PREMIUM TIMES indicates that the militants intend to deploy Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) against military formations and patrol teams operating in key conflict areas across the two states. … The sources disclosed that fighters loyal to the group in the Timbuktu Triangle and Sambisa Forest axis recently received a new batch of about 35 drones, allegedly transported through the Lake Chad corridor, a notorious logistics route used by insurgents operating around Nigeria’s north-eastern borders. Security officials said the newly acquired UAVs have already undergone test flights and were confirmed to be operationally ready, raising concerns within the military about a possible escalation in the group’s use of asymmetric warfare tactics. ISWAP has increasingly relied on drone technology in recent years, both for reconnaissance and offensive operations, marking a dangerous evolution in the conflict that has raged in the North-East for over a decade. Premium Times
Nigerian Gunmen Free Kidnapped Muslim Religious Travellers
Gunmen have released a group of people they kidnapped in central Nigeria who were travelling for a Muslim religious event, the brother of one of the victims told AFP Saturday. On December 21, unidentified attackers abducted 28 people, including women and children, in Plateau state while they were travelling to a Malud gathering to mark the birth of the Prophet Mohammed. Kidnappings for ransom are common in the west African country. But the abduction in Plateau state came after a spate of mass kidnappings in November that drew international scrutiny over the country’s grim security situation. … It was unclear how the Plateau travellers were freed. Paying ransoms is technically illegal in Nigeria, though the government is often suspected of doing so. AFP
Uganda: Prayers Held for Kizza Besigye Ahead of Polls
Special prayers were held yesterday for jailed veteran Opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye and other political prisoners, amid mounting criticism of what Opposition figures describe as escalating repression ahead of Thursday’s elections. The prayers held at Besigye’s Kasangati home in Wakiso District brought together Opposition leaders, families of detainees, religious leaders, and supporters, who called for the release of political prisoners and peaceful elections. … [Ms Winnie Byanyima, Dr Besigye’s wife] said jailing political opponents and their supporters was a sign of weakness rather than strength, and urged Ugandans to reject violence and brutality. … The National Unity Platform (NUP) presidential candidate, Mr Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, said: “The hardest part of politics is standing before the relatives of political prisoners. Sometimes I break down. What affects one of us affects all of us as a country.” He thanked families of detainees for their resilience and solidarity, and said Dr Besigye had contacted him from prison to express support. Monitor
“Intended Killings”: Tanzania’s Election Violence Ensnared Unsuspecting Victim
Around 8:30 p.m. on October 31, a group of policemen appeared in the Mjimwema neighbourhood of the Tanzanian city of Mwanza, where residents were running errands and drinking coffee. Without warning, they opened fire in different directions, triggering panic. The officers ordered men who had taken shelter in a nearby cafe to lie on the ground and then shot at them, three witnesses told Reuters. By the time shooting subsided, more than a dozen lay dead, they said. A video posted on social media in early November and verified by Reuters shows the aftermath – 13 limp bodies splayed on the blood-soaked ground. The massacre in Mjimwema, reported by Reuters in detail for the first time, is one of the deadliest known incidents from days of violence around Tanzania’s October 29 elections. It was not an isolated case. Reuters interviewed nine witnesses to eight other incidents in Mwanza as well as Tanzania’s commercial capital Dar es Salaam and the northern city of Arusha who said they saw officers shoot at people who were not protesting, sometimes kilometres away from any known demonstrations. Reuters
Lawyers Ask EACJ to Nullify Tanzania Election
Two rights activists have filed a case against the Tanzanian government at the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) over alleged violations of procedures and standards during the October 29, 2025 General Election. The suit is the second legal challenge before the regional court arising from the disputed poll, following an earlier case filed by the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) over a nationwide internet shutdown imposed between October 29 and November 4, 2025. In the new case, Reference No. 59 of 2025, Tito Magoti and Bob Wangwe — practising advocates — are challenging both the conduct and outcome of the election, arguing that it failed to meet the minimum standards of a democratic process and was marked by widespread human rights violations. They allege that the election was a sham and was conducted in breach of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community (EAC). … The applicants further want the court to find that the scale of rights violations before, during and after the election rendered the process invalid and contrary to the EAC Treaty and established democratic principles. The East African
Armed Pirates Abduct Nine Sailors off Gabon
Armed assailants boarded a fishing trawler off Gabon’s coast over the weekend and abducted nine sailors, the defence ministry said. The incident on Saturday night was the latest act of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, which spans more than 5,700 kilometres (3,500 miles) from Senegal to Angola off Africa’s west coast. “This attack, perpetrated by three armed individuals, led to the abduction of nine crew members, including five Chinese nationals and four Indonesians,” the navy’s chief of staff Hubert Bekale Meyong said in a video statement broadcast by Gabonese media on Monday. “The trawler IB Fish 7, flying the Gabonese flag, was the victim of a pirate attack while engaged in fishing about seven nautical miles southwest of Ekwata, in Gabonese waters,” he added. Six other sailors of Indonesian, Chinese and Burkinabe nationalities remained onboard the vessel, he said. Gabonese authorities located the trawler before it was escorted to the port of Libreville and an inquiry has been opened. AFP
Fresh Violence Tests Touadéra’s New Mandate in the Central African Republic
Barely one week after being sworn in, Touadéra is confronting an armed challenge in Haut-Mbomou prefecture, where deadly clashes have erupted between government forces and the Azandé Ani Kpi Gbè militia, known as the AAKG. The security situation remains far calmer than in 2016, when Touadéra first came to power amid a civil war that left most of the country under rebel control. But fresh fighting has flared since the presidential election on 28 December. Since that day, Haut-Mbomou has been rocked by violence. The AAKG, drawn from the Zandé community, was originally supported by Russia’s Wagner network before rebelling against authorities in Bangui. … “The choice of the election date was no coincidence,” explains Fulbert Ngodji, a researcher with the International Crisis Group and author of a report on the AAKG. “By attacking state symbols, the militia is showing its strength. It looks like the beginning of a shift from an ethnic self-defence group to a rebel movement openly opposing the government.” RFI
Humanitarian Workers Face Rising Attacks in Eastern DR Congo
In eastern DR Congo, humanitarian workers are facing rising risks as insecurity surges in the region. According to OCHA, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 48 incidents involving aid personnel were recorded in December 2025, with half occurring in South Kivu, ten more cases than in November. North Kivu follows, then Ituri, reflecting long-standing instability in the area. These provinces have been plagued for years by clashes between government forces, local militias, and armed groups vying for control of territory and resources, leaving civilians and aid workers in a precarious situation. Most of the incidents in December involved burglaries, thefts, and break-ins, but aid workers have also faced movement restrictions, intimidation, threats, and even assaults. As a result, teams are limiting travel, operations are slowed, and many vulnerable communities are now harder to reach. Africanews with AP