Congo’s Former President Kabila Forms New Group to Replace M23 Insurgency
Former Congolese President Joseph Kabila has launched a new political-military coalition to replace the AFC-M23 alliance fighting government forces in eastern Congo, taking a more direct role in an insurgency he had previously stopped short of openly backing. The new ‘politico-military’ group known as the Front pour la Refondation de la Nation (FRN) will be headed by Kabila, with rebel leaders Corneille Nangaa, Bertrand Bisimwa, Freddy Kaniki and Sultani Makenga serving as deputies, the group’s adviser Claude Ibalanky announced at a press conference. Congolese authorities have for months accused Kabila of supporting AFC/M23, which captured vast territories in eastern Congo during an offensive last year, but the former president had denied involvement. … Kabila travelled to rebel-held Goma in 2025, and several former allies have since taken positions within AFC/M23, deepening perceptions of an alliance between the former president and the insurgency. Reuters
Sudan’s Famine Risk Worsened by Conflict, Drought and Funding Shortages, Report Says
Conflict and drought are worsening food insecurity across parts of Sudan’s Darfur and Kordofan regions, a global food crisis monitor warned on Monday. There is a “deteriorating humanitarian situation” across greater Darfur and Kordofan, including areas identified as at risk of famine, as well as other locations, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC. Severe drought linked to El Niño is affecting more than half of Sudan, causing localized crop failures and depriving households of food and income, it said. In May, nearly 19.5 million people — more than 40% of the population — were facing high levels of acute food insecurity, according to an IPC assessment. Of those, 135,000 were in Phase 5, the most severe classification, characterized by extreme food shortages, starvation, very high levels of malnutrition and deaths from disease or acute malnutrition. AP
Sudan Anti-war Coalition Meets African, International Envoys on Peace Roadmap
Sudan’s anti-war civilian coalition held talks on Monday with the African Union high-level mechanism, joined by former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and international envoys, to discuss efforts to end the country’s conflict. The meeting at African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa followed joint consultations held in New York by international mediation tracks, coalition leader Shehab Ibrahim told Sudan Tribune. … Ibrahim said the coalition presented a framework based on three parallel tracks: a temporary ceasefire, humanitarian aid delivery, and a comprehensive political dialogue. … The sides agreed to form a joint preparatory committee to set an agenda, determine participants, select venues for future talks, and expand engagement with international facilitators. … The talks also covered future constitutional structures and governance arrangements, which the parties agreed to include in broader political negotiations. Sudan Tribune
Clashes between Rival Groups in Central South Sudan Leave Scores Dead
Clashes last week between armed groups from rival communities in the central part of South Sudan left scores of people dead and overwhelmed a hospital with wounded people, officials said. The fighting swept through the Rumbek area of Lakes state on Friday as government soldiers and U.N. peacekeepers tried to maintain order. South Sudan’s Information Ministry said that about 70 people were killed, including four soldiers, but that the exact toll had yet to be verified. “We were overwhelmed with the gunshot patients,” Teran Madit, a clinical officer at Rumbek State Hospital, told The Associated Press by telephone Monday. He said the hospital received more than 50 wounded people, most with chest injuries. The fighting involved armed youths from the Pakam community in Rumbek North County fighting against armed youths of the Nyang community in Rumbek Central County, both part of the Dinka ethnic group. Disputes over cattle and grazing land, along with revenge killings, have fueled repeated violence in Lakes state, but the immediate cause of Friday’s clashes was unclear. AP
UN Alarmed as Number of Displaced in Central Sahel Reaches Nearly Four Million
The United Nations on Friday raised the alarm about a displacement crisis in the central Sahel where nearly four million people have been forced to flee their homes in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. The number is more than double that of six years ago, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said, before a wave of coups in a region bedevilled by instability and violence. It includes 818,000 refugees and asylum seekers, it added. “The crisis is being compounded by continued attacks affecting civilians, climate-related shocks and severe humanitarian funding shortfalls,” the UNHCR said in a statement. In 2020, the UNHCR said the region had counted more than 1.7 million internally displaced people and 365,000 refugees. … It warned the crisis was increasingly spreading beyond the central Sahel, with hundreds of thousands of people displaced to coastal west Africa, including Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Togo. RFI
Nigeria: CDS Raises Alarm Over AI Deepfakes Targeting Military Operations
The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Olufemi Oluyede, has warned that AI-generated fake videos, manipulated images and cloned voices are increasingly being used to mislead the public, discredit troops and undermine Nigeria’s national security operations. Oluyede said the spread of deepfakes had become a form of psychological warfare capable of eroding public trust in the Armed Forces and causing panic in communities. The CDS, who was represented by the Director of Defence Information (DDI) Maj.-Gen. Samaila Uba, at the Defence Correspondents Association of Nigeria (DECAN) Conference 2026 yesterday, said military operations were no longer fought on the battlefield alone but also in the information domain. He noted that a single AI-generated video could endanger troops, undermine operational gains and damage the relationship between the military and the public. … He challenged journalists to embrace intelligence-led reporting rather than sensational headlines, saying informed and technology-aware journalism could strengthen military cooperation, promote civil-military trust and counter extremist propaganda. PR Nigeria
Gunmen in Nigeria Kill 20 People Heading to Market
Gunmen ambushed a convoy of traders travelling to a market under military escort and killed at least 20 people in Nigeria’s northwestern Zamfara state, a witness and a military source said on Monday. Local resident Musa Danladi told Reuters the attack occurred around 2 p.m. on Saturday with the convoy en route to Nasarawa market in Bukkuyum district from Gwashi. Danladi, who helped retrieve the bodies, said four soldiers, three policemen and a Nigerian civil defence corps officer were among those killed, along with 12 civilians. Northwestern Nigeria has seen a surge in attacks by heavily armed gangs, known as bandits, who raid villages, abduct residents for ransom and rustle livestock. A military source confirmed the attack and said 19 people were also wounded. Reuters
How the Houthi-Saudi Conflict Is Affecting African Countries
In September, one of the major conflicts in the Middle East came within sight of Africa, as Iran-backed Houthi rebels captured Yemen’s Perim Island. The island forms the narrowest point of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the southern entrance of the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. It is roughly 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Djibouti and 20-minutes by air from Ethiopia. … African economies are already suffering from crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, which is making fuel and fertilizer scarce and more expensive. If the Bab el-Mandeb Strait also becomes impassable, the situation could deteriorate further. Shipping companies would have to make detours via the Suez Canal, which is controlled by Egypt, or the southern tip of Africa, as some already do. The additional costs would be passed on to consumers. … The human cost of the escalation in Yemen hit Djibouti almost immediately. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), at least 3,700 refugees have crossed from Yemen into Djibouti since September. … Ethiopia — the world’s most populous landlocked country — handles about 95% of its imports and exports through Djibouti’s ports. Price hikes resulting from higher shipping insurance premiums to cover for potential war-related loss are affecting the country greatly. DW
139 Migrants, Including Children, Die after Boat Capsizes off Djibouti
At least 139 people, including children, have died after a boat carrying more than 300 migrants capsized off the coast of Djibouti in east Africa, the International Organization for Migration said Sunday. That number only includes those buried by authorities in Djibouti. Others have been buried by the migrants themselves but they won’t be added to the official count until authorities can verify the bodies, Alexandre Coissac, IOM Chief of Mission in Djibouti, told the AP via the phone. … Coissac said the migrants boarded the ship in the evening of Oct. 8 and that it sank very soon after, close to the shore, “mainly because it was overcrowded.” … At least 84 people remained missing in one of the deadliest shipwrecks yet on the popular but perilous crossing from the Horn of Africa to the Arabian Peninsula, where many migrants seek work in rich Gulf nations. The boat was traveling from Djibouti to Yemen when it capsized on Thursday night or Friday morning, according to the IOM. More than 80 people survived, all of them Ethiopian nationals, it said. AP
A Year after Madagascar’s Gen Z Protests and Rajoelina’s Ouster, Little Promised Change
A year after Madagascar’s then-president Andry Rajoelina fled the country following more than two weeks of youth-led protests, the military-backed transition has yet to deliver on its promise of a political “refoundation.” On 12 October 2025, after eighteen days of protests, Rajoelina stepped down and left Madagascar aboard a French military aircraft. The military then installed Colonel Michael Randrianirina, commander of the Capsat military unit, as “President of the Refoundation of the Republic of Madagascar,”pledging to hold elections within two years. … “The basic demands still haven’t been met,” Mihary Rakotondravelo, a prominent generation Z activist involved in the protests, told the AFP news agency. Rakotondravelo’s group is represented on national consultation committees involved in the stalled process of drafting a new constitution. The military government has pledged to have the new text in place ahead of presidential elections scheduled for late 2027. The proposals are due to be presented in May before being put to a referendum, according to a timetable announced after the SADC regional bloc called in August for a “return to constitutional normalcy”. Rajoelina, meanwhile, spends most of his time in exile in Dubai, seeking support from other African leaders. RFI
Uganda Secures 3,000 Ebola Vaccine Trial Doses
Researchers have confirmed that Uganda received part of the 3,000 investigational Bundibugyo Ebola Virus vaccine doses allocated for the country’s phase I clinical trial. The study, launched in Masaka City last Monday, is being conducted through a partnership involving the Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (MRC/UVRI & LSHTM Uganda Research Unit). Researchers said a similar study is also underway in the United Kingdom to evaluate the safety and capability of the vaccine candidate, ChAdOx BDBV, to trigger an immune response against the deadly disease. “The Bundibugyo virus disease is a form of Ebola with no approved vaccine or specific treatment,” observed Prof Eugene Rugazira, the principal investigator for the Uganda study. He added: “By evaluating the ChAdOx-based Bundibugyo Ebola vaccine candidate in Uganda, we are generating the evidence needed to determine whether it is safe and capable of stimulating the immune responses that could help protect at-risk communities in future outbreaks.” Monitor
Moroccan Centrist Party Agrees to Form Coalition Government with Three Other Parties
Morocco’s centrist Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), who topped last month’s parliamentary election vote, will form a coalition government with three other parties, the four parties said on Monday. The four — which include moderate socialist parties and the nationalist Istiqlal — together hold 207 seats in parliament, above the 198 needed for a majority. The deal “produces a strong political government, made up of components marked by ideological and political proximity, united in, and committed to, a shared reformist vision,” the coalition said in a joint statement, adding that they will next propose a cabinet lineup. The king appointed PAM leader Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri as the country’s first woman to act as head of government and tasked her with forming a cabinet after PAM finished first in the September 23 vote. PAM was founded in 2008 by an adviser to the king and has positioned itself as a counterweight to the Islamist Justice and Development Party, advocating social modernisation. Reuters