Somalia

Paris has suspended an agreement on military cooperation between France and Ethiopia, sources said on Friday in the middle of the ongoing conflict in the north of the African country. The agreement between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and President Emmanuel Macron in March 2019 was terminated in early July. Macron and Abiy had signed an agreement in which France would borrow 85 million euros ($ 100 million) to support Ethiopia's ambition to build a navy. Abiy was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for…

Delegates from war-torn Libya on Wednesday launched a new round of UN-led talks via video conferencing in order to reach a compromise ahead of planned elections in December. The meeting comes six weeks after unsuccessful negotiations in Switzerland between the 75 participants from all sides gathered for Libya's political dialogue forum. The United Nations Support Mission in Libya was forced to admit that the session failed after four days due to a lack of consensus among the delegates. On Wednesday,…

Obsessed with violence, engulfed in chaos for years, Yemen's problems may be growing even more and even entering an environmental crisis. Yemeni lumberjack Ali al-Emadi spends hours chopping down an acacia tree with an ax as his 12-year-old nephew helps split logs. In a war-torn country, al-Emadi must turn to logging in its northern al-Mahweet region to earn a living. An economic collapse has wiped out the agricultural and construction work for which he used to travel around the country. However, as…

Ethiopian and Eritrean troops have raped hundreds of women and girls during the Tigray War and subjected some to sexual slavery and mutilation, Amnesty International said in a report on Wednesday. Based on interviews with 63 survivors, the report sheds new light on a scourge already being investigated by Ethiopian law enforcement officials, with at least three soldiers convicted and 25 others charged. Some survivors said they had been raped while held captive for weeks on end. Others described being…

The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said on Tuesday night that it "condemned" what it describes as the "abduction" of the chief of staff to a senior politician in the capital Tripoli. The kidnapping is the latest in a series of incidents that have called into question the war - torn country's progress towards planned free and fair national polls in December, including a new collapse of talks on an election format. UNSMIL said in a statement on Twitter that it was "deeply concerned about the…

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced on Tuesday that all eligible civilians would join the armed forces as fighting raged in several regions of Africa's second most populous nation. "Now is the time for all talented Ethiopians who are of age to join the armed forces, special forces and militias and show your patriotism," the Abiy office said in a statement released less than two months after declaring a unilateral ceasefire. against Tigray rebels. Northern Ethiopia has been devastated by…

Putschist General Khalifa Haftar's so-called Libyan National Army (LNA) will not be subordinate to the current Libyan government, the warlord said on Monday. In a speech marking the 81st anniversary of the founding of the Libyan army, Haftar emphasized that his militia "will not be subject to any authority other than an authority that will be directly elected by the people." Haftar, who is based in the eastern city of Benghazi, added that his militia would resist any pressure sent in its direction and…

A massive Chinese-funded dam in Cambodia has "washed away the livelihood" of tens of thousands of villagers while not promising energy production, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday. The 400 megawatt lower Sesan II dam in the north-east of the kingdom has caused controversy since long before its launch in December 2018. Fisheries experts had warned to stem the confluence of the Sesan and Srepok rivers - two major tributaries to the resource-rich Mekong River - that would threaten fish stocks for…

An explosion has temporarily put South Africa's largest coal-fired power plant out of operation, just a week after it came online. The state power plant Eskom announced that an explosion occurred at Medupi power station late on Sunday evening for reasons that are still unknown. Although there were reportedly no injuries, a total of seven employees had to be treated for shock. The power plant came online just a week ago, about 14 years after construction began, the delay due to several costs and time…

South Africa's imprisoned former president Jacob Zuma has been admitted to hospital for observation near the Estcourt Correctional Center, where he is currently serving a 15-month sentence, the government announced on Friday. Zuma is in jail for defying an ordinance court order to testify at a state-sponsored investigation into allegations of corruption during his 2009-2018 presidency. A routine check indicated that Zuma would be admitted to a hospital, according to the prison service's statement.…