Expanding Al Shabaab–Houthi Ties Escalate Security Threats to Red Sea Region
Evidence of growing collaboration between al Shabaab in Somalia and Yemen’s Houthis is heightening risks to maritime traffic in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Western Indian Ocean while strengthening the disruptive capacity of both groups…Al Shabaab gains improved materiel (weaponized drones, ballistic missiles) and training from this relationship. Al Shabaab is simultaneously able to further expand and entrench the criminal enterprises that fund its operations. The Houthis benefit from Al Shabaab’s support of disruptive piracy activity in the Gulf of Aden and Western Indian Ocean as well as from more diversified supply arteries. This strengthens the Houthis’ ability to threaten maritime traffic in the region while deepening their leverage vis-à-vis the United Nations-backed government in Yemen. This cooperation is expanding the destabilizing capacities of these militant groups on both sides of the Bab al Mandab Strait while further complicating the challenges of monitoring 1,800 miles of vulnerable coastline along the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Western Indian Ocean. Africa Center for Strategic Studies
Sudan: El Fasher Faces Starvation as RSF Siege Cuts Supplies, Activists Warn
Activists warned on Wednesday of a looming collapse in living conditions in El Fasher, capital of Sudan’s North Darfur state, as essential goods vanish from remaining markets, threatening thousands of trapped residents with starvation. A siege by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on the historic capital of the Darfur region since April 2024 has worsened residents’ suffering, leading to severe food and medicine shortages amid fears of widespread famine and disease, according to reports…The Nivasha market, reportedly the only one in El Fasher still operating at around 50% capacity, faces daily artillery shelling by the RSF, according to the Sudan Tribune report…Thousands in El Fasher and the Abu Shouk camp are surviving on “imbaz,” a peanut residue commonly used as animal fodder. Displaced people are crowding the oil presses in Abu Shouk camp to obtain it. Sudan Tribune
Sudan’s RSF Detains Civilians, Offers Fight-or-pay Ultimatum – Doctors Group
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have detained civilians in East Darfur state, western Sudan, offering them a choice between fighting in its ranks or paying a ransom, the Sudan Doctors Network said on Wednesday. The RSF announced a general mobilisation earlier this week to recruit new fighters, vowing to punish anyone obstructing the call-up. An RSF force arrested 178 people, including one medical worker, in the city of El Daein as part of a “campaign of forcibly recruiting civilians and compelling them to fight in its ranks,” the network said in a statement. The RSF offered detainees the choice of fighting alongside them or paying a ransom for their release, the network said. The detention of civilians for ransom is one of many violations committed by RSF elements in areas under their control, the network’s statement suggested, alluding to a pattern of such abuses. The Sudan Doctors Network specifically highlighted the case of nurse Hamdan Abdallah Musa, among those detained, whose family was told to pay a ransom or he would be forced into combat. Sudan Tribune
Former DRC President Kabila Visits Rebel-held Goma for Controversial Talks
The former president of the Democratic Republic of Congo Joseph Kabila has arrived in the rebel-held city of Goma in the east of the country for talks with locals, according to sources close to him, after declaring he wanted to help end the crisis in the war-ravaged region. Kabila has been holding meetings with his staff in Goma for three days, according to his associates and the Congo River Alliance/March 23 Movement rebel coalition (AFC-M23), and plans to begin what he calls consultations. While government spokesman Patrick Muyaya has accused Kabila of wanting to wage war, the former president’s supporters insist he is not in Goma to lead the AFC-M23. Kabila’s immunity as former president has recently been lifted, and the Senate has authorised his prosecution for treason and participation in an insurrection, among other charges. RFI
Guinea Jails Opposition Member For ‘Insulting’ Junta Head
A Guinean appeals court on Wednesday upheld a two-year jail term for a key opposition figure convicted of “offending and insulting” junta leader General Mamadi Doumbouya, his defence team told AFP. The court confirmed the two-year sentence given to Aliou Bah, leader of the Liberal Democratic Movement (Model), who had been in custody since December and was initially sentenced last January, said lawyer Hady Galissa. The prosecution had called for a five-year jail term for Bah, whose appeal began in March and who pleaded not guilty. Bah stood accused of having, during rallies, “called on (Guinean) religious leaders to break their silence” over the political situation in Guinea and of having described the CNRD, the junta’s governing body, as “incompetent”…Fabien Offner, of Amnesty International, said the military government was “clearly ready to do anything to stifle criticism, especially to those that remind it of its commitments”…Bah’s sentence on appeal comes in a climate of tension marked by the disappearance of several regime opponents and a severe restriction of freedoms in the west African country. AFP
Niger Troops Killed in Jihadist Attack: Local Source
Several soldiers were killed in a jihadist attack on Niger troops in the southwest of the country, a local source said Wednesday. The source said an army river brigade had been attacked in the Falmey district of Dosso region and there were “several dead”, without giving a figure. The Wamaps west African network of security journalists said that up to 44 troops were killed Monday by the Katiba Hanifa group…It was the latest in a series of major raids on the Niger army by jihadist forces. Several soldiers were killed Sunday in an attack on a military position at Eknewan, near the Mali border in western Niger. AFP
Abandoned Boat and 11 Bodies Found on Eastern Caribbean Island with Mali Passports
Authorities in the Caribbean country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines say they have discovered an abandoned boat and the remains of 11 people along with passports from the west African country of Mali. The boat was found on the shores of Canouan island in the eastern Caribbean, police said in a statement Tuesday. Authorities said they are working with regional and international partners to identify the victims and the origin of the boat, which was discovered on Monday…In January, officials in the eastern Caribbean island of St. Kitts and Nevis said they found a boat with the bodies of 19 people, some with identifications from Mali. Meanwhile, in May 2021, the bodies of more than a dozen men were found on a boat drifting near the twin-island Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago. An Associated Press investigation found that they were part of a group of 43 people believed to have left Mauritania for Spain’s Canary Islands but instead were swept away by the Atlantic Ocean. AP
Jihadist Attacks Hit Mozambique as Total Readies to Resume Gas Project
A series of attacks in northern Mozambique this month point to a resurgence of violence by [Islamist] militants as energy giant TotalEnergies prepares to resume a major gas project, analysts say. The group terrorised northern Mozambique for years before brazenly vowing in 2020 to turn the northern gas-rich Cabo Delgado province into a caliphate. TotalEnergies paused a multi-billion-dollar liquefied natural gas project there in 2021 following a wave of bloody raids that forced more than a million people to flee. The insurgency was pushed to the background by a months-long unrest that followed elections in October. But there has been a new wave of violence. In May, the Islamists attacked two military installations, claiming to kill 11 soldiers in the first and 10 in the second…There were two dramatic strikes earlier — a raid on a wildlife reserve in the neighbouring Niassa province late April killed at least two rangers, while an ambush in Cabo Delgado claimed the lives of three Rwandan soldiers…”Clearly there is a cause and effect because some actions correspond exactly to important announcements in the gas area,” said Fernando Lima, a researcher with the Cabo Ligado conflict observatory which monitors violence in Mozambique, referring to the $4.7 billion funding approved in mid-March by the US Export-Import Bank for the long-delayed gas project. AFP
Egypt Ex-presidential Hopeful Freed from Jail: Lawyer
Former Egyptian presidential hopeful Ahmed Tantawi was released from prison on Wednesday after serving a one-year sentence for election-related offences, his lawyer told AFP…Tantawi, a former member of parliament and vocal critic of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, had sought to challenge the incumbent in the 2023 presidential vote. But he and 22 campaign staff were convicted of “circulating unauthorised election materials” — a charge critics saw as a thinly veiled blocking tactic. The 45-year-old Tantawi had accused authorities of sabotaging his effort to gather the 25,000 official endorsements required to enter the race, citing repeated technical failures in government-run systems. In response, he turned to “popular endorsement forms” filled out by supporters — an improvisation that prosecutors later branded as electoral fraud. He ultimately fell short, collecting just 14,000 signatures, and withdrew his candidature…In April this year, just weeks before his scheduled release, he was questioned in connection with two other cases…The new accusations raised fears about Egypt’s so-called “revolving door policy” in which dissidents are freed only to be rearrested on new charges. AFP
Senegal President Opens Dialogue on Political Reform
Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye on Wednesday formally opened a national dialogue aimed at steering the west African country through political reform and “consolidating democracy” after a series of violent crises. The move, which the head of state launched along with his prime minister, Ousmane Sonko, comes against a backdrop of tension between Faye’s administration and the opposition. Several opposition parties boycotted the process, however, including that of former president Macky Sall, who was succeeded by Faye last year after 12 years at the helm and who accuses the authorities of persecuting his party’s officials…Most opposition forces did, however, take part in the opening ceremony of the consultation in the new town of Diamniadio, just outside the capital, Dakar. The consultations, presented as the fifth edition of a “National Dialogue” first initiated by Sall himself, also bring together members of civil society, unions, experts and academics. Topics will include overhauling the political party system, the “status” of the opposition, the revision of the sponsorship system required to be a presidential candidate and the transformation of the existing Constitutional Council into a Constitutional Court. The goal is to create a “strong consensus to sustainably strengthen Senegalese democracy and fully guarantee the exercise of fundamental rights and freedoms”, according to the government. AFP
Social Media Platforms “Failed to Adequately Moderate Genocidal Content” during Tigray War, Study Finds
A recent study by the Distributed AI Research Institute, an interdisciplinary research organization focused on equitable and community-rooted AI development, examining content moderation during the 2020–2022 war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region has found that social media platforms “failed to adequately moderate genocidal content,” allowing hate speech, violent incitement, and denial of atrocities to circulate widely online. The researchers, a team of journalists, activists, data archivists, and former content moderators—including DAIR founder Timnit Gebru—wrote that platforms “prioritized superficial cultural awareness and language skills of dominant languages in a region,” while neglecting “in-depth familiarity with dialects, cultural practices, and broader social contexts” needed to properly moderate harmful content…To understand the expertise required to moderate wartime content, the researchers conducted a four-month annotation study of 340 X (formerly Twitter) posts drawn from a dataset of 5.5 million. Seven experts fluent in Amharic, Tigrinya, Arabic, and English took part in the labeling process…The study recommends platforms to “ensure dialectical diversity amongst moderators speaking the same language and hire moderators with in-depth cultural and contextual knowledge.” It also calls on companies to “remove overly punitive measures against moderators with lower than standard rates twice in a row,” stating that “the focus on accuracy rates coupled with overly punitive measures discourages moderators who have this knowledge from raising disagreement.” Addis Standard
Kenya Extends Investigation into Filmmakers
A Kenyan court on Wednesday gave prosecutors more time to investigate four filmmakers arrested in the wake of a BBC documentary about police killings of protesters. The four independent filmmakers — Nicholas Wambugu Gichuki, Brian Adagala, Mark Karubiu and Chris Wamae — were arrested on May 2 in the capital Nairobi and charged with “publishing false information”. Activists linked the detentions to a BBC documentary about security service killings during anti-government protests last year, despite the BBC saying none of the men was involved in the film, “Blood Parliament”. In court on Wednesday, police were given until June 16 to make further investigations, but were also barred from re-arresting or charging the filmmakers until that time. Two of the quartet told local media earlier this month that their laptops, hard drives and phones had been taken by police…At least 60 people were killed during weeks of protests that began in June over tax rises in a finance bill from the government of President William Ruto. Dozens were later abducted and detained illegally, rights groups say, with many still missing. AFP
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Giant of African Literature, Dies Aged 87
The Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, who was censored, imprisoned and forced into exile by the dictator Daniel arap Moi, a perennial contender for the Nobel prize for literature and one of few writers working in an indigenous African language, has died aged 87…Ngũgĩ explored the troubled legacy of colonialism through essays, plays and novels including Weep Not, Child (1964), Devil on the Cross (1980) and Wizard of the Crow (2006). Considered a giant of the modern African pantheon, he had been a favourite for the Nobel prize in literature for years…In 1977, he published his fourth novel, Petals of Blood, and a play, The Trial of Dedan Kimathi, which dealt with the troubled legacy of the Mau Mau uprising, but it was his co-authoring of a play written in Gikuyu, I Will Marry When I Want, which led to his arrest and imprisonment in Mamiti maximum security prison. “In prison I began to think in a more systematic way about language,” he told the Guardian in 2006. “Why was I not detained before, when I wrote in English?” He decided from then on to write in Gikuyu, that “the only language I could use was my own”. The Guardian