African Union Urges Ethiopia, Eritrea and Egypt to Refrain from Actions that Could Undermine Stability
The African Union Commission has called on Ethiopia, Eritrea and Egypt to exercise maximum restraint and refrain from actions or statements that could worsen tensions and undermine regional peace and stability. “The Commission urges the three countries to address their differences through established diplomatic channels and peaceful dialogue,” it said in a statement late on Thursday. On Thursday, Ethiopia ordered the closure of its embassy in Eritrea and declared 10 Eritrean diplomats persona non grata, prompting Asmara to sever all diplomatic ties with its neighbour. It also declared an Egyptian diplomat persona non grata and ordered him to leave the country within 48 hours, and Cairo responded in kind by declaring an Ethiopian embassy counsellor in Egypt persona non grata and giving him 48 hours to leave. Reuters
US Warns Houthi Ties with Al-Shabaab Threaten Red Sea Trade
Strengthening ties between the Houthis and al-Shabaab militants in Somalia pose an “escalatory” threat to regional stability, US officials have warned, as Yemeni rebels battle to consolidate control over the Red Sea coast following a string of recent victories. The Houthis have sold weapons to al-Shabaab, trained hundreds of fighters in drone and explosive use and frequently travelled to areas of southern Somalia controlled by group according to security and military experts. The traffic between Yemen’s resurgent Houthi rebels and al-Shabaab, Sunni Islamist extremists, now represents a serious danger to global trade, oil flows and shipping, they said. The Iran-backed Houthis are consolidating a recent advance down the Red Sea coast of Yemen. They seized the port of Mocha this month and advanced on the narrow Bab al-Mandeb strait, through which a tenth of global trade flows. At the same time, the Yemeni insurgents have been developing their tactical foothold on the other side of the Gulf of Aden through their growing ties with al-Shabaab. Financial Times
Guinea-Bissau Military Leaders Bar Ousted President’s Return
The military leaders of Guinea-Bissau have decided to block former President Umaro Sissoco Embalo from returning to the West African country, citing national security concerns and the need to preserve public order. Embalo, who was toppled in a military coup last November, had planned to return on Sunday and contest a presidential election scheduled for December, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters earlier this week. The coup last year came shortly before results from presidential and legislative elections were due to be announced. The senior army officers who carried it out suspended the electoral process and installed Major-General Horta Inta-a as transitional president. Embalo has been in exile since then. Reuters
ISWAP Loses Key Buduma Unit Following Internal Clash
Yaku Buduma served as an amirul fi’a, an Arabic title for the commander of a large fighting unit. Four qaids, or field commanders, operated under him. His band of over a thousand was particularly valuable to ISWAP terrorists. They are waterborne combatants with extensive knowledge of Lake Chad’s islands, channels and marshes. They led some of ISWAP’s most difficult operations against Bakura Doro’s Boko Haram faction, using their knowledge of the terrain to move fighters, weapons and supplies across the lake. The rupture also dismantles a relationship cultivated by Abubakar Mainok, also known as Abu Bilal al-Mainuki. Mainok maintained close ties with the Buduma after relocating to the Lake Chad area at the height of the insurgency around 2014. … Mainok was killed in May during a joint Nigerian and US counter-terrorism operation announced by US President Donald Trump. Ba Shuwa’s subsequent takeover of ISWAP and purge of suspected dissenters have deepened tensions within the group. Losing Yaku’s band weakens ISWAP on two fronts. It reduces its capacity to confront Bakura’s faction and leaves its operations across the waterways more exposed to the Nigerian armed forces. It also presents Ba Shuwa with an immediate command crisis: measures designed to prevent defections have instead driven out one of ISWAP’s most capable and locally embedded fighting units. HumAngle
Malawi Ex-army Chief Arrested Following Allegations Over Sudan Arms
Malawi’s anti-corruption agency said it arrested the previous army chief on Thursday on allegations including dealing in property linked to “terrorism”. General Paul Valentino Phiri’s arrest comes months after the Platform for Investigative Journalism (PIJ) reported unverified allegations, based on purported US intelligence, that Malawi military personnel may have helped Sudanese rebels acquire heavy weaponry. “The charges arise from allegations concerning his role in facilitating illegal arms trafficking in June and July 2025,” the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) said in a statement announcing Phiri’s arrest. The retired general was facing five counts “relating to abuse of office and dealing in terrorist property”, it said, giving no other details. AFP
South Sudan’s Green Book Law Brings Harsh Justice, but Little Lasting Peace
A controversial law that treats harsh punishment as a remedy for insecurity in two South Sudanese states has failed to stem conflict and led to a spate of human rights abuses, according to activists and local community leaders. The so-called Green Book legislation was passed by lawmakers in Lakes state in 2022 and Warrap state in 2024, authorising execution by firing squad for offences including cattle raiding, murder, forced marriage, rape, and kidnapping. The law gained some grassroots support as the two states experienced particularly high levels of violence in recent years. Advocates argue that it has successfully targeted criminals and contributed to drops in violent crime at different periods. Critics, however, say the law violates constitutional guarantees of fair trial, legal representation, and the presumption of innocence, while doing little to address key drivers of conflict between and within communities. UN human rights investigators have documented extrajudicial killings over minor offences, while activists say the law is applied unfairly, with people who have connections to political leaders sometimes escaping punishment. The New Humanitarian
Britain Sends Team to South Sudan as Country Braces for Ebola
British Ebola specialists have been deployed to South Sudan because of fears the haemorrhagic fever will spread from neighbouring Congo. … To prepare for the threat of imported cases, Britain has positioned three experts in and around the South Sudanese capital, Juba. They will assist and train local authorities on infection control, set up awareness campaigns for local communities, and test people crossing the border for the virus. … Experts fear it is only a matter of time before the virus spreads to South Sudan, which shares a 500-mile border with the DRC. Thousands of people cross the frontier each day to work, attend school and trade goods, mostly fish, in lucrative markets between the two countries. … The British government has also helped to facilitate a memorandum of understanding between South Sudan and the DRC to share information in relation to the outbreak to help both countries track and trace cases. Telegraph
AfDB to Launch Effort to Help African Countries Manage Credit Ratings, President Says
The African Development Bank will launch an initiative to help countries on the continent better prepare for credit ratings, President Sidi Ould Tah said on Thursday. “What is missed in Africa is the data and the infrastructure…the opacity in some markets creates this notion of high risk, which leads to high cost of borrowing,” Tah said at the S&P emerging markets conference in London. African leaders have long said that funding costs on the continent are unfairly high. The “big three” ratings agencies say their ratings follow the same formula across the world. The African Development Bank will soon launch an initiative via the African Legal Support Facility to help countries prepare for ratings through better data and more transparency, Tah said. Tah said improving credit ratings was a common goal across the continent, with only 3 out of 54 nations currently investment grade. … The AfDB is also leading a continent-wide effort to enable more local financing, and Tah said it has met a range of stakeholders including pension funds and banks to identify and address impediments to the development of strong capital markets and domestic resource mobilization. Reuters
How Gen Z Could Shape Kenya’s Next Election
Ademba Allans is making it “cool” to vote in Kenya. The student journalist turned civic mobiliser launched a voter registration drive on social media earlier this year, using snappy selfies infused with music and humour to target young people. The result astonished him and many observers of Kenyan politics – by the time the registration period ended, 2.6 million new voters across the country had signed up. He is aiming to get another 2.3 million on board in the next round. “It was the Gen Z way of doing politics,” he tells me. “Fun, trendy, sexy, fashionable. Because of how we created the hype around it, people had the fear of missing out. Everybody wanted to be involved.” … One of the strengths of the digitally savvy Gen Z activists is that they have been able to mobilise outside the party structures and ethnic allegiances that anchor Kenyan politics. Allans has been careful not to advocate a particular candidate or party – emphasising leadership rather than politicians, marshalling a new force, he says, outside traditional tribal voting blocs. BBC
Libya’s Pay Strike Rallies Teachers Across Divided Nation
In Libya, a teachers’ strike over pay has shut schools and delayed the start of the school year, rallying educators across the oil-rich but politically divided country. Their demands include higher salaries, health insurance and compensation for overtime. Classes for some 1.6 million public-school students were due to start in early September but have been postponed indefinitely, as teachers regularly take to the streets to protest over unmet demands. … The so-called “teachers’ movement”, now backed by the Libya teachers’ union, held a large protest outside the government headquarters in the capital Tripoli. Last week, it had already brought together thousands of protesters and threatened a general strike. Libya has been beset by violence and instability since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. … Thousands of teachers have protested regularly since mid-September as the movement against “unfulfilled promises” spread from Tripoli to Benghazi, in the east. The teachers want fair pay in accordance with the salary scale for all state workers, to ensure “social justice and decent living conditions in the face of inflation”, said Achraf Abou Raoui, spokesman for the Libyan general teachers’ union. AFP
2025 AFCON Final: CAS to Hear Senegal Appeal on October 8
The Court of Arbitration for Sport will hear Senegal’s appeal over the disputed 2025 Africa Cup of Nations final against Morocco on October 8 in Lausanne. The Senegalese Football Federation is challenging a CAF decision that declared Senegal the loser by forfeit and awarded Morocco a 3-0 victory. The decision followed a controversial interruption during the final in Rabat on January 18. Senegal’s players left the pitch for more than 15 minutes after Morocco were awarded a penalty, before returning to the game. Senegal went on to win 1-0 in extra time, but CAF later overturned the result following a complaint from Morocco. The CAS hearing will be held behind closed doors and conducted in French. A three-member panel, chaired by Frenchman Gérald Simon, will examine the case. A ruling will determine whether CAF’s decision stands or is overturned. Africanews