UN Accuses M23 Rebels in DR Congo of Killing Scores of Civilians
The United Nations says M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo killed at least 169 farmers and other civilians earlier this month. In a report that its human rights office shared with news agency, Reuters, it said the attack took place on 9 July in the Rutshuru territory of North Kivu province. The UN said the M23 targeted suspected members of another rebel group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda. … Trump is expected to host leaders of the DR Congo and Rwanda – Félix Tshisekedi and Paul Kagame – in the coming weeks to seal a peace agreement. A deal between the two sides, signed in Washington in June, requires Kinshasa to “neutralise” the FDLR as Rwanda withdraws from Congolese territory. Both the Congolese operations against the FDLR and the Rwandan withdrawal were supposed to have started on Sunday, but it is unclear what progress has been made. AfricaNews
At Least 22 Killed at Angola Fuel Price Hike Protests, Authorities Say
At least 22 people were killed and 197 others were injured in violence that erupted during protests against a fuel price hike this week, Angola’s government has said. The unrest broke out on Monday when minibus taxi associations launched a three-day strike against a government decision to increase the price of diesel by one-third, part of efforts to curb costly subsidies and shore up public finances. Looting, vandalism and clashes with police started in the capital, Luanda, and then spread to six other provinces. Sporadic gunfire was heard across Luanda and several other cities on Monday and Tuesday as people looted shops and clashed with police. President Joao Lourenco’s cabinet met on Wednesday and received an update on the security situation and police response. … Authorities have often been accused of clamping down harshly on protests to silence dissent in Angola, an oil-rich nation on Africa’s Atlantic coast where the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola party has been in power for 50 years – since independence from Portugal in 1975. Al Jazeera
A Surprise Attack Pits Ally Against Ally in East Africa
Backed by tanks and artillery, soldiers from Uganda sneaked across the border with South Sudan and opened fire on troops long considered to be allies, South Sudanese officials said on Wednesday. When the firefight was over, the bodies of eight men, some in army fatigues, one in bluejeans, were left crumpled and bleeding on the ground. It was not immediately clear what prompted the surprise attack in the border county of Kajo Keji in South Sudan, a country teetering on the edge of civil war. Uganda has long provided military support to the South Sudanese government. … More than 100 people were displaced by the fighting, Bishop Nicanor said. The firefight, which erupted on Monday, represented a rare clash between the longtime security partners at a time when the hard-won stability of oil-rich South Sudan is increasingly at risk. In March, after years of slow progress toward cohesion, the South Sudanese vice president was placed under house arrest in a political standoff. The same month a Ugandan official said the country had deployed troops to South Sudan’s capital, Juba, in support of the South Sudanese president. New York Times
From Bad to Worse’: Ugandan Opposition Figure Describes Struggle Ahead of Next Year’s Vote
Opposition figure Bobi Wine said the political climate in Uganda has “gone from bad to worse” ahead of presidential polls set for early next year, citing threats to himself and other activists mobilizing against the longtime president.Wine, a singer-turned-lawmaker whose real name is Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, said the threats he faces as President Yoweri Museveni’s main opponent “come in no unclear terms.” … Wine, 43, spoke to The Associated Press in an exclusive interview at the headquarters of his National Unity Platform party in the Ugandan capital of Kampala, a site briefly occupied by security forces in a raid last month. … Wine told the AP he is mobilizing his supporters to show up in what he calls a “protest vote” against everything he believes is wrong with the government. But his attempts to hold rallies across the country are often thwarted by security forces who cite a need to protect public order. AP
Ivory Coast’s President Says Will Seek Fourth Term in Office
Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara has announced he will seek a fourth term leading the West African nation, as tensions rise over the exclusion of many heavyweight opposition candidates. Earlier, he had been officially nominated by his ruling Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP) party as its candidate, but had not yet said if he would contest the October 25 election. With the country’s most high-profile opposition politicians ruled ineligible, Ouattara is the clear frontrunner. The 83-year-old president, who has led the country since 2011, declared his plan in a televised announcement on Tuesday. … Ouattara won a third term in 2020 after the constitution was changed to reset the presidential term limit. He had said he was not going to run again, but he changed his position following the death of his hand-picked successor, Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly. … Some previous elections in the Ivory Coast have been fraught with tension and violence. When Ouattara announced his third-term bid, several people were killed in the ensuing violence. There have been protests against the court’s decision to bar Thiam from contesting the election. Al Jazeera
US Calls Off Sudan Peace Talks After Post‑War Power Dispute
The US has postponed a meeting of foreign ministers to discuss the war in Sudan because of a dispute over the wording of a proposed joint statement, according to people familiar with the matter. US secretary of state Marco Rubio was scheduled to host the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt in Washington on Wednesday. The discussions by the so-called Quad of countries were aimed at advancing peace talks between two Sudanese generals who have been at war for two years. The failure to proceed with negotiations came after Egypt disagreed with the wording of a planned communique that stated neither the Sudanese Armed Forces nor the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group should have a leading role in a postwar transitional government. Bloomberg
Nigeria: Flash Floods Leave Dozens Dead in Adamawa State
Flash floods in Nigeria’s Adamawa state have killed at least 23 people and left thousands homeless, the UN humanitarian agency (OCHA) said Tuesday, adding that 11 other people are still missing. The flooding, which began on Sunday in five communities in the Yola area of the state, has so far displaced 5,560 people, according to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). Heavy rains tend to hit Nigeria between June and November, triggering floods where weak infrastructure and poor drainage often exacerbate the problem across Africa’s most populous country. More than 200 people have been killed in floods in Nigeria since the start of the rainy season in May this year. Most of those who perished were in the north-central Niger state. In 2024, more than 300 people were killed and over a million displaced in at least 34 out of the country’s 36 states, making it one of Nigeria’s worst flood seasons in decades, according to OCHA. Meteorologists have warned of more floods across Nigeria this rainy season. DW
We Are Being Driven from the Land.’ Nigerian Village Buries Its Dead After a Massacre
Villagers scrub streaks of blood from the walls of brick huts and barns. Others still search through torched sacks of crops, clothes and scattered belongings, to salvage what they can, weeks after a massacre. Last month, dozens of attackers stormed the farming village of Yelwata in Benue state — Nigeria’s fertile “breadbasket” — killing at least 160 people. Armed with rifles, machetes and fuel, they struck as families slept. The assault, one of the deadliest in recent memory, sparked outrage from religious leaders and lawmakers around the world. The massacre unfolded in the country’s volatile Middle Belt, where Christian farming communities like Yelwata sit on fertile land—and at the fault lines of Nigeria’s deepening farmer-herder crisis. … In Benue close to 300 people have been killed since April this year according to local media, while almost half a million people have been displaced by the violence, according to the United Nations — most from farming communities that have suffered massacres. NPR
Kenya Ranked the World’s Top User of ChatGPT, Beating Tech Giants Like the US, Japan, China
Kenya has emerged as the world’s number one user of ChatGPT, beating powerhouse economies and tech-savvy nations in a new global report that highlights Africa’s fast-growing appetite for artificial intelligence tools. According to the latest data from Datareportal, 42.1 percent of Kenyan internet users aged 16 and above used ChatGPT in the past month—ranking the country at the very top globally. This puts Kenya ahead of the United Arab Emirates (42 percent) and Israel (41.4 percent), countries often associated with advanced digital economies. The report, which sought to measure monthly user interaction with the popular AI chatbot developed by OpenAI, underlines Kenya’s growing digital curiosity and innovation culture—driven largely by a tech-savvy youth population. Citizen