Sudanese Paramilitary Forces Mass near El Obeid Ahead of Expected Assault
Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have deployed unprecedented military reinforcements around El Obeid, military sources said on Monday, amid expectations of a large-scale ground assault within the next 72 hours. The capital of North Kordofan state has been under a tight RSF siege since the early months of the war, severely deteriorating security and living conditions for residents. The Sudanese army managed to break the blockade in February 2025, subsequently transforming the strategic city into an advanced military operations centre for the Kordofan and Darfur regions. The RSF currently controls vast areas of North Kordofan, with the exception of the Sheikan, Um Rawaba, and Al-Rahad localities situated along the national highway connecting North Kordofan to White Nile State and the capital, Khartoum. Military sources told Sudan Tribune that the RSF mobilized large numbers of fighters from Darfur and West Kordofan states, backed by armoured vehicles and heavy combat machinery, to target the army’s defensive lines around the city. … Sources also reported additional build-ups in the Kazgail and Al-Rayash areas south of El Obeid, alongside major troop concentrations in Bara and Jurayjikh to the north, stoking fears of a multi-axis offensive. In response, the Sudanese air force has maintained continuous sorties targeting RSF positions and movements around the city, seeking to disperse the gatherings and disrupt any potential advance. Sudan Tribune
Kidnapped Nigerian Retired General Dies in Captivity
A retired Nigerian army general who had been kidnapped by gunmen in the country’s north-west has died while being held captive, the military has said. Maj Gen Rabe Abubakar, who had a high-profile job as military spokesman between 2015 and 2017, was abducted with his wife while travelling in Katsina state last month. No group has said it was behind the kidnappings. The abduction and death of Abubakar highlights the continuing security challenges facing parts of north-west Nigeria, where criminal gangs known locally as “bandits” frequently carry out kidnappings for ransom, as well as cattle rustling and attacks on rural communities. The Katsina state government said Abubakar died from natural causes. … Meanwhile, the late soldier’s family has called on the authorities to intensify efforts to rescue his wife, who is still with the kidnappers. … Local media reported that the retired officer had been going to a wedding on 30 May when armed men attacked his vehicle and seized him, his wife and their driver. Days before news of his death emerged, a video shared on social media appeared to show Abubakar in captivity. He was seen with an apparent injury to his left leg alongside his wife and other hostages. BBC
At Least 17 People Killed by Gunmen in Northwestern Nigeria
Gunmen killed at least 17 farmers and wounded at least 13 others as they worked in their fields in northwestern Nigeria, a local official and a resident said. The attack occurred on Friday in the town of Goron Namaye in the Maradun area of Zamfara state. No group has claimed responsibility but attacks by armed gangs have increased in recent months. “The farmers were working on their lands when the bandits suddenly attacked and killed 17 of them,” Shehu Musa, a resident of Maradun, told The Associated Press on Saturday, adding that the wounded were being treated at a hospital. The attack was a result of the refusal of the Zamfara state government to negotiate with the gunmen, Sanusi Dosara, chairman of the Maradun local government, said in a statement. Dosara appealed on government forces to dismantle the Bayan-Ruwa enclave in the Maradun forest, where the gunmen were hiding. AP
Cameroon Opposition Figure Files Complaint in France against President Biya
Former Cameroonian presidential candidate Issa Tchiroma Bakary says he’s filed two complaints with the Paris Judicial Court against President Paul Biya, citing the principle of universal jurisdiction. The former minister, now living in exile in The Gambia, said on Friday that the complaints relate to the crackdown on protests following the 12 October 2025 presidential election. He also claimed that several thousand Cameroonians remain detained in prisons across the country in conditions he described as “illegal” and contrary to fundamental rights. The complaints target President Biya and around 20 senior officials, including the secretary-general of the presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, ministers and senior figures from the army, gendarmerie and police. At least 23 people were killed in Cameroon in the crackdown by security forces in the wake of the contested elections, according to civil society group known as “Stand up for Cameroon”. Tchiroma, 78, said he had turned to the French court because of what he described as continuing obstruction in Cameroon. “The Paris Judicial Court benefits from universal jurisdiction without requiring the crime to have a territorial link with that state,” said Calvin Job, a lawyer registered with the Cameroon and Paris bars. RFI
How Cabo Delgado’s Riches Became Fuel for the Islamist Insurgency in Mozambique
For almost a decade, an Islamist group has terrorised Mozambique’s northern province of Cabo Delgado. Despite vast reserves of rubies, timber and natural gas, the region remains the country’s poorest. … Anger had been building for years in rural communities. One of the Al-Shabab movement’s leaders, Maulana Ali Cassimo, was a former agriculture ministry official who travelled through the countryside on a motorbike denouncing forced evictions, police brutality and what he described as Maputo’s control of Cabo Delgado’s wealth. Promises of a fairer system formed part of the group’s appeal, said Vasco King of Kundeleya, a human rights organisation based in Pemba. “Al-Shabab wants to establish an Islamic caliphate,” he said. “They believe a fairer order should be put in place. They capitalise on a social situation marked by unemployment and underdevelopment.” Those tensions erupted into open violence in October 2017. Several police stations in the coastal town of Mocimboa da Praia were attacked and around 15 people were killed. … Driving foreign economic players out of Cabo Delgado became a stated objective of the group. … The conflict has displaced at least 1 million people, a United Nations agency said. RFI
Congolese Security Forces Disperse Protesters Opposing Constitutional Change
Security forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo dispersed a crowd outside the parliament building in Kinshasa on Friday, witnesses and opposition politicians said, as demonstrators gathered to oppose planned constitutional changes they say could allow President Felix Tshisekedi to run for a third term. The sit-in was organized by Coalition Article 64 (C64), a broad opposition alliance that includes former presidential candidates Martin Fayulu and Moise Katumbi. The protest turned violent when security forces fired tear gas and live ammunition to disperse demonstrators who threw rocks, local residents told Reuters. A member of Fayulu’s political party, Jean-Baptiste Kasekwa, told Reuters that several protesters, including some prominent political figures, were injured. He said police, army and militants aligned with Tshisekedi’s party had been deployed outside parliament since dawn to prevent the sit-in from taking place. … The demonstration came three days after Congo’s National Assembly passed a bill that would allow constitutional changes to be put to a public referendum, a move opposition leaders say is designed to pave the way for scrapping presidential term limits and allow Tshisekedi to run for a third consecutive term. Under the Congolese constitution, Tshisekedi is not allowed to stand for re-election after serving two terms. He was first elected in 2018 and again in 2023. Reuters
Congo Reports Record One-day Increase in Ebola Cases, a Month after Outbreak’s Declaration
Congolese authorities have reported one of the highest increase in Ebola cases in one day, as weak contact tracing, insecurity and funding gaps continue to hinder the response a month after the outbreak was declared. The Congolese Ministry of Health said Sunday 72 new cases were reported in a 24-hour period, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 782. This includes 181 confirmed deaths, after 32 new deaths were confirmed. However, the number of cases in Congo is believed to be higher because the outbreak was confirmed on May 15, weeks after it is suspected to have begun, and the contact tracing coverage rate is at 56%, a sharp decrease from last week. … The outbreak is concentrated in Congo’s eastern province of Ituri, which accounts for more than 90% of the cases. Cases have also been recorded in the North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, and have spread across the border to Uganda. Nearly a million people have been displaced by conflict in Ituri, according to the U.N. humanitarian office, making contact tracing difficult as people flee attacks or move frequently in the vast province with dense forests, poor roads and remote villages that can take days to reach. Tracing is also difficult among the thousands of artisanal miners who regularly move between remote sites in the mineral-rich region. AP
Doctors Without Borders Report Found Cases of Abuse and Exploitation by Staff in Chad
The international aid group Doctors Without Borders found a pattern of abuse and sexual exploitation by some local and foreign staff working in Chad along the Sudanese border, in some cases targeting underage girls or trading food or jobs for sex with refugees, according to a confidential internal memo obtained by The Associated Press. The Doctors Without Borders report — completed in July and first reported Saturday by The Associated Press — found 59 allegations of abuse and said 18 staff members were dismissed and barred from future employment. In some cases, the group told AP, the allegations couldn’t be verified or the perpetrators identified. The report also said some of the repeated exploitation suggested potentially organized “sexual trafficking.” The organization said it launched the monthslong investigation in response to AP reporting that women had accused staff of sexually exploiting them in displacement sites in Chad, where hundreds of thousands fled from Sudan’s devastating civil war, now in its fourth year. … In addition, some female Chadian staff were threatened with losing their jobs if they refused to have sex with supervisors or colleagues, the investigation found. … The memo said the urgent need for personnel and the absence of reference checks had resulted in the hiring of people with a history of misconduct or abuse. AP
Mass Shootings in South Africa’s Poorest Areas Are a Symptom of Organized Crime and Police Failures
A mass shooting in South Africa [last] week was the latest in a trend of killings in some of the country’s poorest areas that experts say is a symptom of organized crime gangs taking advantage of the failures and sometimes absence of police. The shooting carried out by multiple suspects in an informal settlement of shacks in Johannesburg left 12 people dead and at least 15 wounded, according to authorities. … Recent mass shootings — including two in December that left more than 20 people dead — have occurred in poor areas away from city centers where organized crime gangs take advantage of conditions like a lack of security, poor lighting and slow police responses, experts say. “Criminal syndicates explicitly capitalize on this to hide weapons, execute hits, and vanish into the shadows,” Jacob Mofokeng, a professor of criminology at the University of South Africa, told The Associated Press. … South Africa has very high levels of violent crime, with the most recent annual statistics showing an average of more than 60 homicides a day. But the vast majority of killings occur in poor townships or informal settlements. South Africa has a long history of deep inequality that is reflected in its crime: rich neighborhoods have much lower violent crime rates. … Analysts say police in South Africa are underresourced, but allegations of corruption in the force have also seriously undermined its credibility. AP
Somaliland President Makes ‘Historic’ Visit to Israel
Somaliland’s President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi met his Israeli counterpart on Sunday in Jerusalem in his first-ever state visit, which comes months after Israel officially recognised the breakaway African state. In December, Israel became the first country to recognise the independence of Somaliland since it declared its autonomy from Somalia in 1991 following a civil war. … Somaliland enjoys a strategic position on the Gulf of Aden and has its own currency, passport and army, but has struggled to win international recognition amid concerns in many capitals that this would provoke Somalia and encourage other separatist movements in Africa. Herzog said that Abdullahi’s visit “symbolises the great potential of this wonderful new partnership”, according to the statement, adding that he hoped for increased bilateral “cooperation in a range of fields”. … The visit comes just weeks after Israel appointed its first ambassador to Somaliland, a reciprocal move after Somaliland named its own envoy to Israel. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar had travelled to Somaliland in January — a trip that drew sharp condemnation from Somalia, which described it as an “unauthorised incursion”. RFI