KINSHASA, DR Congo — An unknown illness has killed over 50 people in northwestern Congo, according to doctors on the ground and the World Health Organization on Monday. 

The interval between the onset of symptoms and death has been 48 hours in the majority of cases, and “that’s what’s really worrying,” Serge Ngalebato, medical director of Bikoro Hospital, a regional monitoring center, told The Associated Press. 

The latest disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo began on Jan. 21, and 419 cases have been recorded including 53 deaths. 

According to the WHO’s Africa office, the first outbreak in the town of Boloko began after three children ate a bat and died within 48 hours following hemorrhagic fever symptoms. 

There have long been concerns about diseases jumping from animals to humans in places where wild animals are popularly eaten. The number of such outbreaks in Africa has surged by more than 60% in the last decade, the WHO said in 2022. 

After the second outbreak of the current mystery disease began in the town of Bomate on Feb. 9, samples from 13 cases have been sent to the National Institute for Biomedical Research in Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, for testing, the WHO said. 

All samples have been negative for Ebola or other common hemorrhagic fever diseases like Marburg. Some tested positive for malaria. 
…

Kinshasa, DR Congo — The prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) Karim Khan has arrived in the DR Congo, his office said Tuesday, as the country grapples with an upsurge in fighting in the east. 

The Rwanda-backed M23 has in recent weeks seized two major cities in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, giving the armed group a major foothold in the region since taking up arms again in late 2021. 

“We are extremely worried about recent developments in Congo, we know the situation particularly in the east is acute,” Khan told reporters on his arrival in the capital Kinshasa. 

“The message has to be conveyed very clearly: any armed group, any armed forces, any allies to armed groups or armed forces don’t have a blank cheque,” he said. 

“They must comply to international humanitarian law,” Khan added. 

According to UN experts, the M23 is supported by around 4,000 Rwandan soldiers. 

Since its resurgence, the fighting between the group and Congolese armed forces has provoked a humanitarian crisis in a region plagued by conflict for three decades. 

“This is a moment where we will see if international humanitarian law can withstand the demands that the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo insist upon, which is the equal application of the law,” Khan said.  

“The people of the DRC are as precious as… the people of Ukraine, the people of Israel or Palestine, girls or women of Afghanistan,” he added. 

Khan is set to meet DRC President Felix Tshisekedi, government ministers, the U.N. Secretary General’s country representative Bintou Keita, as well as victims of the conflict and civil society members.  

The first investigation that the ICC opened after it began its work in 2002 concerned the DRC. 

Since then, the court has convicted three people for crimes committed in the country. 

The ICC prosecutor’s office also opened an investigation in 2023 into allegations of crimes committed since January 2022 in North Kivu province in the east of the vast nation. 

Khan’s office, which visited the country in May 2023, indicated early this month that the current situation in eastern DRC “is part of the ongoing investigation.”  

                 
…

GABORONE, BOTSWANA — Botswana authorities say at least nine people were confirmed dead Monday, as rare flooding hit the semi-arid country. More than 5,000 people have been affected by the floods as record rainfall fell over the last week.     

Addressing Parliament on Monday, Moeti Mohwasa, the minister for state president, said the nine people who died had all drowned. Of the deceased, six were minors.

“While the risk level has generally reduced … I regret to inform this house that we have lost one more person yesterday evening, bringing to nine the total number of fatalities to date. … So far, the number of people evacuated has increased to 1,806 from 1,749 reported yesterday,” Mohwasa said.   

The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) said at least 600,000 schoolchildren were experiencing disruptions due to the floods. 

Schools have been closed since last week, but Mohwasa said most are expected to reopen Tuesday. 

“After a thorough assessment of the situation, I am happy to announce that schools will reopen tomorrow, February 25, 2025,” he said. “Another positive note is that our critical infrastructure remain[s] stable, with both electricity and water supply fully restored. Our 24-hour clinics, primary hospitals, and referral hospitals are operational and accessible to all, although there may be occasional interruptions in service provision.”  

While the situation is improving with rain subsiding, more than 600 people remained at evacuation centers Monday. 

Calvin Moalosi, a Gaborone resident who was at one of the centers, said he lost his belongings due to the floods. 

“I have never seen so much water in my life. The house became a pool of water, and it is really sad that some people were swept away in the floods,” Moalosi said. “The government has done its best to evacuate people and take them to safe areas.”   

Most parts of the country recorded heavy rains from 150 mm (6 inches) to 200 mm (8 inches) in a 24-hour period several times last week. 

Kutlwano Mukokomani, chief executive at the local Red Cross Society, said the organization is continuing to provide relief at evacuation centers across the country. 

“The Botswana Red Cross Society provided relief items to evacuation centers. We continue to provide these relief items to ensure that our communities are kept safe. We provided food items, blankets, mattresses and also hygiene packs. We are also doing assessments so that they can further guide our response,” Mukokomani said.   

Botswana, like most southern African countries, has been recovering from the devastating El Nino-induced drought.
…

A Kenyan police officer died Sunday during a shootout with armed gangs in the Savien region of Haiti. The officer was evacuated by plane to a hospital for treatment after sustaining injuries in the gun battle but later died. He is the first member of the multinational security force for Haiti (MMSS) to be killed.

Click here for the full story in Creole.
…

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A Kenyan police officer was killed on Sunday in Haiti, north of the capital, Port-au-Prince, the first casualty since the Kenyan-led security mission arrived in the Caribbean country in June 2024, the mission’s authorities said.

The Multinational Security Support Mission to Haiti said in a statement on Sunday that the Kenyan officer was injured during an operation in the Artibonite department and then airlifted to a hospital, where he died.

Jack Ombaka, the mission’s spokesperson, told Reuters that Sunday’s casualty was the first the mission has suffered since the U.N.-backed anti-gang force arrived in the country, where rampant gang violence has displaced more than a million people.

The officer was killed during a confrontation with gang members, Ombaka wrote in a statement.

“We salute our fallen hero,” the statement read. “We will pursue these gangs to the last man standing. We will not let you down.”

The death on Sunday came amid a surge in gang-related violence in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince over the last week.
…

Cairo — Sudan’s military on Sunday broke a more than year-long siege on the crucial city of Obeid, restoring access to a strategic area in the south-central region and strengthening crucial supply routes in its nearly two years of war against a notorious paramilitary group, officials said.

The military also kicked the Rapid Support Forces from its last stronghold in the White Nile province in another setback to the notorious group, military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Nabil Abdullah said in a statement.

Sudan was plunged into chaos in April last year when simmering tensions between the military and the RSF exploded into open warfare across the country.

The fighting, which wrecked the capital, Khartoum, and other urban areas has been marked by atrocities including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially in the western region of Darfur, according to the United Nations and international rights groups.

Abdullah, the spokesperson, said military troops in the al-Sayyad axis managed to reopen the road to the city of Obeid and break the RSF siege on the city which serves as the provincial capital of North Kordofan province. The city hosts a sprawling airbase and the military’s 5th Infantry Division known as Haganah.

A commercial and transportation hub, Obeid is located on a railway linking Khartoum to Nyala, the provincial capital of South Darfur province. It was besieged by the RSF since the onset of the ongoing conflict in April 2023.

Finance Minister Jibril Ibrahim hailed the military’s advances in Obeid as a “massive step” to lift the RSF siege on Al-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur province, as well as delivering humanitarian aid to the Kordofan area.

Sunday’s RSF defeats were the latest in a series of setbacks for the notorious group that started in September when the military launched an offensive aimed at recapturing the Great Khartoum area — Khartoum and its two sister cities of Omdurman and Khartoum North, or Bahri.

The military has since captured strategic areas including its own main headquarters and is now close to recapturing the Republican Palace which RSF fighters stormed in the first hours of the war trying to kill military chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan.

The RSF has also suffered multiple battlefield setbacks elsewhere in the country. It lost control of the city of Wad Medani, the capital of Gezira province, and other areas in the province. The military also regained control of the country’s largest oil refinery.

The developments on the ground have given the military the upper hand in the war, which is approaching its 2-year mark with no peaceful settlement on the horizon. International mediation attempts and pressure tactics, including a U.S. assessment that the RSF and its proxies are committing genocide, have not halted the conflict.

The RSF and its allies meanwhile signed a charter that paved the way for the establishment of a parallel government to challenge the military-backed administration. The move has raised concerns about a potential split of the country.

Cholera spreading to another city

Cholera has spread to Rabak, the provincial capital of White Nile province, according to health authorities in the province. The disease first hit Kosti, another White Nile city, before reaching Rabak, the health ministry said.

A total of 68 people died from cholera in the two cities between Thursday and Sunday, according to the health ministry. More than 1,860 others were diagnosed with the disease, it said.

An anti-cholera vaccination campaign in Kosti and Rabak reached 67% of its targeted people in the last two days, according to the ministry.

The outbreak was blamed mainly on contaminated drinking water after Kosti’s water supply facility was knocked out during an attack by the RSF, the health ministry said. The facility was later fixed as part of the government’s efforts to fight the disease.

Cholera is a highly contagious disease that causes diarrhea leading to severe dehydration and can be fatal if not immediately treated, according to the World Health Organization. It’s transmitted through the ingestion of contaminated food or water.

Cholera outbreaks are not uncommon in Sudan. The disease killed more than 600 and sickened over 21,000 others in Sudan between July and October last year, mostly in the country’s eastern areas where millions of people displaced by the conflict were located.
…

KINSHASA — Congo’s president says he is going to launch a unity government, as violence spreads across the country’s east and pressure mounts over his handling of the crisis. 

On Saturday, in some of his first statements since M23 rebels captured major cities in eastern Congo, President Felix Tshisekedi, told a meeting of the Sacred Union of the Nation ruling coalition not to be distracted by internal quarrels. 

“I lost the battle and not the war. I must reach out to everyone including the opposition. There will be a government of national unity,” said Tshisekedi. He didn’t give more details on what that would entail or when it would happen. 

M23 rebels — the most prominent of more than 100 armed groups vying for control and influence in eastern Congo — have swept through the region seizing key cities, killing some 3,000 people. In a lightning three-week offensive, the M23 took control of eastern Congo’s main city Goma and seized the second largest city, Bukavu. 

The rebels are supported by about 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to U.N. experts, and at times have vowed to march as far as Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, over 1,000 miles away. 

Rwanda has accused Congo of enlisting ethnic Hutu fighters responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda of minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus. 

M23 says it’s fighting to protect Tutsis and Congolese of Rwandan origin from discrimination and wants to transform Congo from a failed state to a modern one. Analysts have called those pretexts for Rwanda’s involvement. 

On Saturday, Tshisekedi paid tribute to soldiers who were killed and vowed to prop up the army. 

The DRC government has officially designated the M23 rebel group as a terrorist organization, while the United Nations and the United States classify it as an armed rebel group. 

The DRC government has repeatedly accused Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebel group, a claim that Rwanda denies. 
…

CHINGUETTI, MAURITANIA — For centuries, poets, scholars and theologians have flocked to Chinguetti, a trans-Saharan trading post home to more than a dozen libraries containing thousands of manuscripts.

But it now stands on the brink of oblivion.

Shifting sands have long covered the ancient city’s 8th-century core and are encroaching on neighborhoods at its current edge.

Residents say the desert is their destiny. As the world’s climate gets hotter and drier, sandstorms are more frequently depositing centimeters of dunes onto Chinguetti’s streets and in people’s homes, submerging some entirely. Tree-planting projects are trying to keep the invading sands at bay, but so far, they haven’t eased the deep-rooted worries about the future.

Chinguetti is one of four UNESCO World Heritage sites in Mauritania, a West African nation where only 0.5% of land is considered farmable. In Africa — the continent that contributes the least to fossil fuel emissions — only Somalia and Eswatini have experienced more climate change impacts, according to World Bank data.

Mauritanians believe Chinguetti is among Islam’s holiest cities. Its dry stone and mud mortar homes, mosques and libraries store some of West Africa’s oldest quranic texts and manuscripts, covering topics ranging from law to mathematics.

Community leader Melainine Med El Wely feels agonized over the stakes for residents and the history contained within Chinguetti’s walls. It’s like watching a natural disaster in slow motion, he said. “It’s a city surrounded by an ocean of sand that’s advancing every minute,” El Wely, the president of the local Association for Participatory Oasis Management, said. “There are places that I walk now that I remember being the roofs of houses when I was a kid.”

He remembers that once when enough sand blew into his neighborhood to cover the palms used to make roofs, an unknowing camel walking through the neighborhood plunged into what was once someone’s living room.

Research suggests sand migration plays a significant role in desertification. Deserts, including the Sahara, are expanding at unprecedented rates and “sand seas” are being reactivated, with blowing dunes transforming landscapes where vegetation once stood.

“What we used to think of as the worst case scenario five to 10 years ago is now actually looking like a more likely scenario than we had in mind,” said Andreas Baas, an earth scientist from King’s College London who researches how winds and the way they blow sand are changing.

More than three-quarters of the earth’s land has become drier in recent decades, according to a 2024 United Nations report on desertification. The aridity has imperiled ability of plants, humans and animals to survive. It robs lands of the moisture needed to sustain life, kills crops and can cause sandstorms and wildfires.

“Human-caused climate change is the culprit; known for making the planet warmer, it is also making more and more land drier,” the U.N. report said. “Aridity-related water scarcity is causing illness and death and spurring large-scale forced migration around the world.”

Scientists and policymakers are mostly concerned about soils degrading in once-fertile regions that are gradually becoming wastelands, rather than areas deep in the Sahara Desert.

Still, in Chinguetti, a changing climate is ushering in many of the consequences that officials have warned about. Trees are withering, wells are running dry and livelihoods are vanishing.

Date farmers like 50-year-old Salima Ould Salem have found it increasingly difficult to nourish their palm trees, and now have to pipe in water from tanks and prune more thoroughly to make sure it’s used efficiently.

Salem’s neighborhood used to be full of families, but they’ve gradually moved away. Sand now blocks the doorway to his home. It’s buried those where some of his neighbors once lived. And a nearby guesthouse built by a Belgian investor decades ago is now half-submerged in a rippling copper-hued dune.

Though many have departed, Salem remains, aware that each time a member of the community leaves, their home can no long serve as a bulwark and the rest of the community therefore becomes more likely to be swallowed by the desert. “We prefer to stay here. If I leave, my place will disappear,” Salem said.

Acacia, gum and palm trees once shielded the neighborhood from encroaching dunes, but they’ve gradually disappeared. The trees have either died of thirst or have been cut down by residents needing firewood or foliage for their herds to feed on.

Sandstorms are not new but have become increasingly intrusive, each leaving inches or feet in the neighborhoods on the edge of the city, retired teacher Mohamed Lemine Bahane said. Residents use mules and carts to remove the sand because the old city’s streets are too narrow to accommodate cars or bulldozers. When sand piles high enough, some build new walls atop existing structures.

“When you remove the vegetation, it gives the dunes a chance to become more active, because it’s ultimately the vegetation that can hold down the sand so it doesn’t blow too much,” Bahane said.

Bahane has for years taken measurements of the sand deposits and rains and says that Chinguetti has received an annual average of 2.5 centimeters of rainfall over the past decade. As rainfall plummets, trees die, and more sand migrates into town. And with shorter acacia trees submerged in sand, some herders resort to cutting down date palm trees to feed their flocks, further disrupting the ecosystem and date farming economy.

The sands also raise public health concerns for the community breathing in the dust, Bahane said. The solution, he believes, has to be planting more trees both in neighborhoods and along the perimeter of town.

Such “green belts” have been proposed on a continent-wide scale as Africa’s “Great Green Wall” as well as locally, in towns like Chinguetti. Mauritania’s Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Agriculture as well as European-funded NGOs have floated projects to plant trees to insulate the city’s libraries and manuscripts from the incoming desert.

Though some have been replanted, there’s little sign that it has contributed to stopping the desert in its tracks. It can take years for taproots to grow deep enough into the earth to access groundwater.

“We’re convinced that desertification is our destiny. But thankfully, there are still people convinced that it can be resisted,” El Wely, the community leader, said.
…

Crowds of Congolese police officers who switched to the M23 rebel group sang and clapped in occupied Bukavu city on Saturday, preparing for retraining under the authority of the rebels who are intent on showing they plan to stick around and govern. 

The M23 rebels advanced a week ago into eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s second-largest city, which was rocked by looting and unrest as Congolese forces withdrew without a fight. 

The M23’s capture of swaths of eastern Congo and valuable mineral deposits has fanned fears of a wider war and led the United Nations Security Council to demand unanimously Friday that it cease hostilities and withdraw. 

In Bukavu, there was no sign this call would be heeded. The assembled police, wearing brand new uniforms and black berets, were told they would leave for a few days of training and come back to support the M23 rebels. 

“May you come back to us in good shape so that together we can continue to liberate our country,” said Police Commander Jackson Kamba.  

Around 1,800 police officers have surrendered and were going for retraining with 500 more due to do so, said Lawrence Kanyuka, a spokesperson for the AFC rebel alliance that includes the M23 group. 

The Congolese government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The ongoing crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) continues to escalate, with tensions involving the Congolese government, and the M23 rebel group. The DRC government has officially designated the M23 rebel group as a terrorist organization, while the United Nations and the United States classify it as an armed rebel group. 

Several locals expressed skepticism. The M23’s arrival in Bukavu “has paralyzed the entire life of the whole area, even if some activities are resuming in different ways,” said resident Josue Kayeye. “We cannot applaud anything done by force.” 

Congolese troops are under pressure on multiple fronts. The town of Minembwe in the mountains of South Kivu and its airfield were captured Friday by a Tutsi militia allegedly allied with the M23, a local official, a military source and a U.N. source said. A few days earlier, its leader, Colonel Makanika, was killed by a Congolese military drone. 

East African defense chiefs met in Nairobi, Kenya, on Friday to discuss the crisis. An internal report on the meeting, seen by Reuters, showed that the group noted that there was “no clear picture of the situation on the ground” amid the escalation and M23’s occupation of major cities and airports.  

The group emphasized the need for direct engagement between all parties to the conflict, according to the report. 

Congo has repeatedly refused to hold talks with M23. 

The ethnic Tutsi-led M23 is the latest in a string of groups to take up arms in the name of Tutsis in Congo. The M23 and neighboring Rwanda reject allegations from Congo that it is a Rwandan proxy bent on looting the east’s reserves of gold and coltan. 
…

The Kenyan-led Multinational Support and Security Mission for Haiti denies losing officers during a gunfight with armed gangs in Kenscoff. Spokesperson Godfrey Otunge says news to the contrary published and shared on social media is “propaganda.”

Click here for the full story in Creole. 

 
…

united nations — The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution Friday demanding that the M23 rebels in eastern Congo immediately cease hostilities and withdraw from territories they have seized. The council also threatened sanctions on those who prolong the conflict.

France, which drafted the text, said it sends a clear message that there is no military solution to the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

“The priority is to reach an effective, unconditional and immediate ceasefire agreement,” Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere said. “A restoration of dialogue is urgent, with support from mediation at the regional level. The sovereignty and territorial integrity of the DRC needs to be respected.”

The resolution also calls on the Rwanda Defense Forces to cease their support “to the M23 and immediately withdraw from DRC territory without preconditions.” Council members accuse the Rwandan Defense Forces of “direct support” of the M23. Rwanda has repeatedly denied allegations that it supports the rebels.

The Security Council also strongly urged the the DRC and Rwanda “to return without preconditions to diplomatic talks as a matter of urgency” and to implement their existing commitments under two regional mediations known as the Luanda and Nairobi processes.

Land grab

Thousands of Rwandan-backed M23 rebels continue to seize territory in the mineral-rich eastern part of the DRC with little resistance from the national army.

Since mid-December, they have focused on the provinces of North and South Kivu, seizing North Kivu’s capital, Goma, in late January and moving to South Kivu’s capital, Bukavu, on February 14. The rebels have also taken control of other important towns, including Masisi, Sake and Nyabibwe, and have established “parallel administrations” in some of the territories they control.

On Friday, the head of the U.N. mission in the eastern DRC said the rebels appear to have their sights set on the capital, Kinshasa.

“Very public declarations and statements by AFC/M23, clearly repeated over time and including last week, show that the intent is to go up to Kinshasa,” Bintou Keita, the U.N. special representative of the secretary-general in the DRC, told reporters in a video briefing from Kinshasa. “It is our understanding, looking at what is going on in North Kivu, but also the onward push towards South Kivu, and we understand they are pushing a bit further to Tanganyika.”

Rwanda alleges that Kinshasa collaborates with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or the FDLR, a Hutu armed group with ties to the perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, an allegation the DRC rejects.

“We believe that any outcome that doesn’t take Rwanda’s security concerns seriously will not offer a sustainable solution to the conflict,” said Rwandan Ambassador Ernest Rwamucyo. “The security challenges posed by FDLR and its splinter groups are of very serious concern for Rwanda. DRC must be held accountable for its continued preservation of FDLR, embedding it in its army, equipping the FDLR with sophisticated weapons and using it as an ally and fighting force.”

In its resolution, the council condemned “support provided by DRC military forces to specific armed groups, in particular the FDLR,” calling for it to stop. The council also urged the parties to rapidly implement “the harmonized plan for the neutralization” of the FDLR and the “disengagement of forces from the territory of the DRC.”

Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been caught up in the fighting. The U.N. refugee agency said Friday that it needs $40.4 million to assist 275,000 internally displaced people in eastern DRC and to support a potential influx of 258,000 refugees and returnees going to neighboring countries.

The DRC government has officially designated the M23 as a terrorist organization, while the United Nations and the United States classify it as an armed rebel group.

Congolese Ambassador Zenon Ngay Mukongo welcomed the council’s action but said it came late, after weeks of repeated appeals from his government.

“In this particular case, the council’s paralysis gave free rein to the illegal occupation of DRC territory by the Rwandan Defense Forces and their supporters in the AFC/M23,” he said, “in the knowledge that every further day of inaction compromises regional and international peace and security, only strengthens the aggressor, and undermines the United Nations’ credibility.”

On Thursday, the United States unilaterally imposed sanctions on a senior Rwandan official and a spokesperson for a coalition of armed groups that includes the M23 for fueling violence in the eastern DRC.

“We applaud similar actions taken by other member states aimed at compelling Rwanda to return to the negotiating table and bring this violence to an end,” U.S. envoy Dorothy Shea said.

Sierra Leone’s envoy offered a lesson to the parties from his country’s 11-year civil war in the 1990s. Ambassador Michael Kanu said that at some point the parties realized the conflict would not end on the battlefield and that dialogue was the only viable path to sustainable peace.

“We had to talk with each other in good faith and commit to signing a peace agreement with the necessary political will,” Kanu said. “Talking to adversaries is hard. Perhaps a taboo for some. But we do not make peace with friends, but with adversaries.”
…

UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations Security Council will vote Friday to call on Rwanda’s military to stop supporting the M23 rebel group in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and immediately withdraw all troops from Congolese territory “without preconditions.” 

The M23 has captured the two largest cities in eastern Congo and stoked fears of a wider war. Rwanda denies allegations from Congo and the U.N. that it supports the M23 with arms and troops. It says it is defending itself against Hutu militias which it accuses of fighting alongside the Congolese military. 

The French-drafted U.N. resolution “strongly condemns the ongoing offensive and advances of the M23 in North-Kivu and South Kivu with the support of Rwanda Defense Forces (RDF)” and demands that M23 immediately stop its hostilities and withdraw. 

A council resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, Russia, China, Britain or France to be adopted. Several diplomats said it is expected to pass. 

Congo says Rwanda has used the M23 rebels as a proxy to loot its minerals such as gold and coltan, used in smartphones and computers. The U.S. has imposed sanctions on a Rwandan minister and a senior rebel for their alleged role in the conflict. 

The text also condemns support by Congolese troops “to specific armed groups, in particular the FDLR [Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda], and calls for the cessation of such support and for the urgent implementation of commitments to neutralize the group.” 

Rwanda accuses Congo of fighting alongside the FDLR. The Congolese military has vowed to arrest soldiers who cooperate with the FDLR, but the government has continued to use FDLR fighters as proxies, U.N. experts said in December. 

The M23 vows to defend Tutsi interests, particularly against ethnic Hutu militias such as the FDLR. The FDLR was founded by Hutus who fled Rwanda after participating in the 1994 genocide that killed close to 1 million Tutsis and moderate Hutus. 

The U.N. draft resolution urges the DRC and Rwanda to return to diplomatic talks to achieve a lasting peaceful resolution. 

The escalation of a decade-old insurgency has killed several peacekeepers with the U.N. force in Congo, known as MONUSCO. 

The draft U.N. resolution warns that “attacks against peacekeepers may constitute war crimes and that planning, directing, sponsoring or participating in attacks against MONUSCO peacekeepers constitutes a basis for sanctions.” 
…

Officials in Somalia say 130 militants were killed Thursday as Somali National Army troops “repulsed” attacks on four government military bases in the center of the country.

VOA Somali was not able to immediately confirm the death toll from the fighting, which took place in an area where government forces have clashed repeatedly with al-Shabab in recent days.

In a statement, Somalia’s Ministry of Information said that militants used explosives to attack the bases in the Middle Shabelle region.

“Al-Shabab suffered a heavy defeat and our brave heroes are actively pursuing the remaining militants. Somalia will never falter in its fight against terrorism,” the ministry said.

The statement said government forces also recovered weapons from the defeated militant fighters.

For the last couple of weeks, Somali government forces, supported by local clan militias, have carried out operations aimed at securing rural villages along the Shabelle River that were recently liberated from al-Shabab.

General Ibrahim Mumin, the commander of the 3rd division of the Somali National Army, told VOA Somali that Thursday’s al-Shabab attacks “failed” as government troops fought off the militants.

Mumin said defensive barriers erected by the soldiers in anticipation of al-Shabab attacks prevented the explosives from penetrating the military bases.

Neither the information ministry nor the commander provided casualty totals for government forces, but a local resident told VOA at least five soldiers were killed and more than 10 others injured.

In separate clashes on Thursday, at least 20 Islamic State militants were killed, and dozens were injured in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region, according to officials.

Puntland police commissioner Brigadier General Mumin Abdi Shire told VOA that Islamic state militants suffered heavy casualties.

“Our brave men carried out military operations around the villages of Dhasaq and Dandamale near the Togga Jacel area of the Cal Miskaad mountains, killing at least 20 militants. All of them foreigners,” Shire said.

Al-Shabab has been fighting Somali governments since 2007 to impose its strict brand of Islamic law on the country.

In the northeast, Puntland began a major offensive against Islamic State in December and claims to have since killed nearly 200 Islamic State fighters, dozens of them foreign fighters, and captured villages and bases in the mountainous area controlled by IS.

This month, U.S. warplanes twice targeted the Islamic State affiliate in the area, hitting what officials described as high-ranking operatives in the terror group’s mountainous stronghold.

Among those killed was Ahmed Maeleninine, an Omani-born leader of Islamic State, officials of the Puntland region said last week.
…

ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST — Ivory Coast officially took control of the last remaining French military base in the country Thursday as most French forces departed from countries across West Africa.

Some 80 French troops will stay in the country to advise and train the Ivorian military, Tene Birahima Ouattara, the Ivorian defense and state minister, said at a news conference with the French minister of the armed forces.

“The world is changing and changing fast,” Ouattara said. “It’s clear that our defense relationship also had to evolve and be based more on future prospects in the face of the realities of threats and those of a world that has become complex in terms of security, and not on a defense relationship inspired by the past.

“France is transforming its presence. France is not disappearing,” he said.

Ivory Coast’s announcement follows that of other leaders across West Africa, where the French military is being asked to leave. Analysts have described the requests as part of a broader structural transformation in the region’s engagement with Paris amid growing local sentiments against France, especially in coup-hit countries.

French troops who have long been on the ground have in recent years been kicked out of several West African countries, including Niger, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Chad, considered France’s most stable and loyal partner in Africa.

France has now been asked to leave more than 70% of African countries where it had a troop presence since ending its colonial rule. The French remain only in Djibouti, with 1,500 soldiers, and Gabon, with 350 troops.

After expelling French troops, military leaders of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have moved closer to Russia, which has mercenaries deployed across the Sahel who have been accused of abuses against civilians.

However, the security situation has worsened in those countries, with increasing numbers of extremist attacks and civilian deaths from armed groups and government forces.

The French government has been making efforts to revive its waning political and military influence on the continent by devising a new military strategy.
…

Archaeologists in Egypt say they have unearthed the ancient tomb of King Thutmose II, the first discovery in 100 years of a tomb of an Egyptian royal.

The discovery near Luxor is the first of a pharaonic royal tomb since the treasures of Tutankhamun’s tomb were found over a century ago in 1922, Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said Tuesday.

Thutmose’s tomb was found west of the Valley of the Kings, one of the world’s most important archaeological sites and home to the burial sites of many ancient Egyptian royals and nobles, including Tutankhamun, also known as King Tut.

Thutmose, an ancestor of Tutankhamun, lived nearly 3,500 years ago. His wife, Queen Hatshepsut, was one of the few women known to have ruled Egypt. Her mortuary temple is on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor, not far from where her husband’s tomb was found.

Thutmose was a king of ancient Egypt’s 18th dynasty. His tomb was the last undiscovered tomb of that group.

An archaeology team found the entrance to Thutmose’s tomb in October 2022, according to the online magazine Archaeology News, but they thought it was likely the burial site of a queen. As they dug deeper, they found inscriptions referring to Thutmose II as the “deceased king” and Hatshepsut.

The tomb flooded soon after the king’s burial, damaging most of its contents, but some funerary furniture was recovered. Egypt’s antiquities ministry said Tuesday the discovery of the tomb is “one of the most significant archaeological breakthroughs in recent years.”

Professor Mohamed Abdel-Badel, who heads Egypt’s Antiquities Sector, told Archaeology News that the team “recovered and restored fallen plaster fragments” that had blue inscriptions on them, including from the Book of the Amduat, which the website described as “a key funerary text used in royal burials.”

Thutmose’s tomb can now be listed among the wonders of ancient Egypt that draw hordes of tourists to the country. Last year, Egypt hosted 15.7 million tourists and aims to attract 18 million visitors in 2025, according to Agence France-Presse. Egypt may reach that goal with the long-awaited opening this year of the Grand Egyptian Museum at the foot of the legendary pyramids in Giza.

Some information for this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
…

NAIROBI, KENYA — Milk and egg vendor Caroline Mukundi has lost a lot of her stock in her years of selling fresh food at a Nairobi market.

Mukundi said she had no way to keep food fresh, and the cost of refrigerating was out of reach.

“The food would go bad,” she said, and she would have to throw it away. “It was a big challenge for me.”

Mukundi said her situation turned around when she acquired a solar-powered refrigerator.

The refrigerators, named Koolboks and manufactured in Kenya, are fitted with ice compartments that can chill food even without a source of power. The devices can keep food cool for up to four days without electricity, even with limited sunlight.

Customers can buy the refrigerators on a customized payment model, said Natalie Casey, chief business officer at the Koolboks startup company.

“They can be between 1,500 and 3,000 US dollars, because it includes not only the appliances but also the solar panels and battery storage to enable the continuous cooling,” she said. “We’ve decided what might be more accessible to them is to first pay a down payment between 20 and 35% of the total, and the customer can pay in installments of up to 24 months.”

Koolboks has sold about 7,000 solar-powered refrigerators.

Conventional refrigerators for businesses can cost anywhere from $11,000 to $100,000 or more, said Dorothy Otieno, program manager at the Center for Environmental Justice and Development.

“Some businesses, especially small businesses, are not able to afford it,” she said.

“We are looking at, for example, how businesses can be supported to get access to [the Koolboks refrigerators], especially for communities that are not able to afford,” she said.

The refrigerator was among dozens of innovations showcased at the recent Africa Tech Summit in Nairobi. The conference’s founder, Andrew Fassnidge, told VOA that such creations are crucial to solving local problems on the continent.

“What’s interesting with … Koolboks refrigeration is, if we look at the Covid vaccine, one of the biggest issues at the time was refrigeration, and it’s still an issue in most markets,” he said.

Koolboks markets a refrigerator specifically for vaccines.

The refrigerators could have an impact on climate change, too.

A 2024 survey by the U.N. Environmental Program showed Kenya has a high level of food waste, with annual waste ranging from 40 to 100 kilograms per person.

Environmentalists say high levels of organic waste worsen climate change, so preventing food waste can have an impact.
…

Analysts say Russian propaganda and disinformation campaigns have been key factors behind the departure of French troops from Chad and other countries in Africa’s Sahel region. In this report from N’djamena, Chad, Henry Wilkins takes a closer look at Russia’s media strategies in the Sahel as French troops depart.
…

CAIRO — Attacks by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Force have killed hundreds of civilians, including infants, in White Nile state, Sudanese officials and rights groups said Tuesday. 

Sudan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the paramilitary group targeted civilians in the past few days in villages in the al-Gitaina area after they were “overwhelmed by its devastating defeat” by the Sudanese army. The statement put the death toll at 433, while the Preliminary Committee of Sudan Doctors’ Trade Union put that figure at 300. 

Emergency Lawyers, a rights group tracking violence against civilians, said in a statement Tuesday morning that more than 200 people, including women and children, were killed in RSF attacks and hundreds of others were injured over the past three days. 

“The attacks included executions, kidnapping, forced disappearance, looting, and shooting those trying to escape,” the group said. 

Minister of Culture and Information Khalid Ali Aleisir said on Facebook that recent attacks by the RSF in Al-Kadaris and Al-Khalwat villages in White Nile state are the latest “systematic violence against defenseless civilians.” 

The Sudanese military said Saturday it had advanced in White Nile and “liberated more cities and villages,” cutting crucial supply routes to the RSF, a rival group it has battled for control of the country since April 2023. 

The war in Sudan has killed more than 24,000 people and driven more than 14 million people — about 30% of the population — from their homes, according to the United Nations. An estimated 3.2 million Sudanese have escaped to neighboring countries. 

The U.N. on Tuesday said that throughout 2024, its human rights office documented more than 4,200 civilian killings, adding that the total number is likely much higher. 

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs appealed on Monday for $6 billion for its 2025 humanitarian response in Sudan, to help about 21 million people in the country and the millions who fled the war abroad. 

“This is a humanitarian crisis that is truly unprecedented in its scale and gravity,” said U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher in a statement, “and it demands a response unprecedented in scale and intent.” 

Meanwhile, Norwegian Minister of International Development Asmund Aukrust denounced the escalation in violence and attacks against civilians. 

“I am deeply concerned about the sharp increase in civilian deaths caused by the intensified conflict in Sudan. I am also shocked by reports of indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure. Any such attacks must stop immediately,” Aukrust said in a statement published on the web portal for the Norwegian government. 

The developments on the ground have given the military the upper hand in the war as the paramilitary suffered multiple blows, including losing control of the city of Wad Medani, the capital of Gezira province, and other areas in the province. The Sudanese military also regained control of the country’s largest oil refinery. 

The RSF appears to have lost control of the Greater Khartoum area and the cities of Omdurman and Khartoum Bahri. 

The war has shown no end in sight despite international mediation attempts, including a U.S. assessment that the RSF and its proxies are committing genocide. 
…

Fourteen-year-old Gesma fled Sudan’s Darfur region after armed militias killed her parents and brother, leaving her to care for her younger siblings. Now living in a refugee camp in Chad, she works long hours to keep her family fed, a reality faced by many children displaced by brutal violence in Darfur. Henry Wilkins reports.
…

ABUJA, NIGERIA — Regional analysts are calling for the swift implementation of resolutions made at the recently concluded African Union (AU) Summit in Ethiopia. The summit was dominated by discussions on escalating conflicts in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Sudan, as well as concerns over the impact of U.S. aid cuts on the continent.

African leaders and delegates from more than 50 countries gathered in Addis Ababa for the 38th AU Summit on Saturday and Sunday.

Leaders at the summit called for dialogue to end conflicts in the DRC and Sudan and renewed calls to merge two existing peace processes — the Rwanda Process and the Nairobi Peace Process — to streamline negotiations between the DRC government and M23 rebels.

Bankole Adeoye is the AU commissioner for political affairs, peace, and security, expressed concerns about the escalation of the conflict in the DRC.

“We are all very, very concerned about the risk of an open regional war over eastern DRC,” Adeoye said. “We have reiterated the need for caution and called on the M23 rebels and their supporters to disarm and withdraw.”

More than 3,000 people have been killed in clashes between government forces and the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group. The rebels have captured large Congolese cities, including Goma and Bukavu.

African leaders also condemned human rights violations caused by the nearly two-year conflict in Sudan.

But security analyst Senator Iroegbu said African leaders need to match words with action this time.

“If what’s happening in DRC is not well managed it will escalate,” Iroegbu said. “[It’s] not just issuing a communique at the end of the meeting; it should be followed up with some strategic measures or plans to ensure that they bring some of these issues to the table and set up mediation teams and let’s look for African solutions to African problems.”

Beyond security, leaders further addressed the impact of climate change and food security on the continent, while demanding reparations for centuries of slavery and colonialism.

John Mahama, president of the Republic of Ghana, said the economic impact of colonialism has been profound.

“The continent lost trillions of dollars in both human and material resources due to colonial exploitation,” he said. “Today the descendants of enslaved Africans continue to face economic disparities, social inequality, systemic discrimination and racial prejudices. Addressing these challenges [requires] more than just acknowledging them, it demands action.”

African leaders also discussed the impact of U.S. aid cuts, urging the continent to focus on self-sufficiency and domestic funding for development projects.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director-general of the World Trade Organization, spoke to Lagos-based Channels Television on the sidelines of the summit.

“Africa we really need to change our mindsets — access to aid I think we can think of it as a thing of the past,” she said. “We really have to focus on two things — attracting investments and mobilizing our own domestic resources. I think that is the theme that is running through almost all the meetings here at the AU.”

Many observers will be watching to see how quickly African leaders move to implement summit resolutions.

But analysts warn that delays in securing peace in Sudan and Congo could lead to more casualties and prolonged instability.
…

NAIROBI, KENYA — Human rights activists, lawyers and medical practitioners in East Africa called on the Ugandan government Tuesday to release opposition leader Kizza Besigye, who has spent the past three months in military detention.

Besigye, who was abducted while on a trip to Kenya in November, was recently rushed to a hospital after going on a hunger strike to protest his imprisonment.

Reading a statement on behalf of 12 organizations in Nairobi, the head of one of the groups, Khalid Hussein, said they condemn the militarization of justice and escalating government repression in Uganda.

“We call on Ugandan authorities to immediately release Kizza Besigye, Hajj Obeid Lutale, Eron Kiiza and others unlawfully detained,” Hussein said. “The abduction and rendition of Kizza Besigye and Hajj Obeid Lutale blatantly violated international human rights law and the principles of extradition treaties.”

A politician who ran against Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in three elections, Besigye was abducted by unidentified men while on a visit to Kenya in November and taken to Luzira Maximum Security Prison in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

He appeared before a military court, where former Kenyan justice minister and lawyer Martha Karua defended him. He is charged with treason, illegal possession of a firearm and threatening national security.

Last week, the 68-year-old fell ill and was taken to a hospital after going on a hunger strike to protest his arrest and the charges.

Ugandan lawyer Andrew Karamagi said the treatment of Besigye and other Museveni critics exposes ongoing rights violations in his country.

“The medical union has spoken out and given a scientific medical analysis of Dr. Besigye’s health, which is in serious jeopardy,” he said. “Citizens who have attempted to protest this have as well been detained, and I should add, violently arrested, as some of you might have seen. This is a culmination of years of human rights abuses [and] disregard for the constitution.”

On Jan. 31, the Ugandan Supreme Court ruled that the trial of civilians in a military court is unconstitutional and that such cases must be transferred to ordinary courts. But the government rejected the ruling, saying such trials protect the country from criminals.

In a statement posted on X, Museveni called on those demanding the release of Besigye to instead demand a quick trial to establish the facts. Otherwise, he said, such demands promote insecurity, which is dangerous for the country.

Amnesty International East African regional researcher Roland Ebole said a united voice against human rights violations can help end abuses.

“We are having cross-border repression,” Ebole said. “We are having a transnational repression where we are seeing abductions happening beyond borders. And these abductions are happening sanctioned or blessed by presidents, blessed by heads of state. And they are taking advantage of the fact that on the ground, we are not as united against them.”

Rights groups say they will circulate petitions and reach out to other nations and organizations to demand the release of unlawfully detained Ugandans.

The 12 organizations that took part in today’s demonstration have called for people to join a march on Friday to the Ugandan embassy in Nairobi and the parliament building to present a petition for justice and the release of Besigye and those detained alongside him.
…

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — The leaders of Ethiopia’s Tigray region have called for the full implementation of the Pretoria agreement that ended the conflict between Ethiopia’s federal government and the Tigray rebels in 2022.

The bloc released a report about the agreement during the African Union Summit over the weekend in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.

The two main leaders of Tigray, who also are political rivals, urged the AU to pay attention to the implementation of the agreement.

The AU-brokered agreement, reached in November 2022, required the cessation of hostilities, return of internally displaced people, disarmament, expedition of humanitarian access, and restoration of services in the region.

The agreement ended the two-year conflict and prompted the return of some social services. 

Just over two months ago, the first phase of the Pretoria agreement’s disarmament, demobilization and reintegration program, known as DDR, was launched in Tigray. DDR aims to demobilize 371,971 combatants overall in Ethiopia, including 75,000 combatants from Tigray region in its first phase. 

But the Tigray region’s leaders say there are outstanding issues. Some territories have not yet been returned by the federal government, and internally displaced people have not returned to disputed areas in Western Tigray. 

The president of the Tigray interim regional administration, Getachew Reda, who signed the agreement on behalf of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, told AU leaders that “many contents of the agreement have not been implemented.”

“Most of the focus of the international community on DDR is on the first ‘D,’ the disarmament process, but the most important aspect for us is, where we disarm, should not be the end,” he said.

“Whether we demobilize and reinstate the people who have been the former combatants is something that should be taken into account. The international community, the AU, should take this process seriously, and it should continue to press all of us to focus on this part of the Pretoria agreement.”

TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael, who was president of the region at the time of the conflict, said that while the cessation of hostilities has been a “significant milestone” there have been shortcomings.

“We must acknowledge that critical components such as the constitutional restoration of occupied territories, the withdrawal of non-ENDF forces, and the resettlement of the displaced persons, as well as TPLF legal reinstatement, require accelerated action,” he said.

The “non-ENDF forces” that Debretsion refers to are Eritrean and Amhara region forces that have been allies of the federal Ethiopian National Defense force, or ENDF, during the conflict. 

Eritrea denies having forces in Ethiopian territory. Regarding the resettlement of disputed Western Tigray, the Ethiopian government’s position is that it will be resolved through a referendum.

Ethiopian Minister of Foreign Affairs Gedion Timothewos said the way ahead must be conducted through “constructive engagement” and in “strict adherence” to the rule of law.

He told the AU that the Ethiopian government is taking steps to implement the agreement and it “must be fulfilled in the manner specified.”

Gedion added: “With good faith implementation, as provided in the peace agreement, we are convinced that the remaining and outstanding important measures are within our reach and could be fulfilled.”

AU chief negotiator and former president of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, said that the issues of the DDR program and contested areas should continue to be addressed in a phased manner until they are resolved, and that they should not “hold back the implementation of the agreement.”

He said the Pretoria peace agreement reflected the principle of “African solutions to African problems.”

“It underscores the capability of African statesmen and institutions to resolve conflicts and foster peace within our continent,’’ Obasanjo said.

Rift between Tigray’s leaders

The two main leaders of Tigray, Getachew and Debretsion, shook hands at Sunday’s AU event, but the duo have been involved in a bitter political dispute that crippled the region’s administration and functions for months. 

The dispute is rooted in differences over the implementation of the Pretoria agreement. Debretsion accuses his former TPLF deputy chairman of not representing the region’s interests, a charge Getachew denies. The two also clashed over the convening of the TPLF party congress and the appointment of local administration.

TPLF held a congress in August during which it expelled 15 members including Getachew from the central committee, a move Getachew described as “null and void.”

Getachew accuses the TPLF leadership of orchestrating “a coup d’état” against his administration and alleges the TPLF leaders are working to dismantle the regional government. The TPLF has made the same accusation against Getachew.

Last month, over 200 Tigray security force commanders sided with Debretsion after staying neutral for many months, accusing Getachew of betraying Tigray’s interests.

Getachew hit back, saying the use of security forces for the benefit of a particular political faction is unacceptable.

On Thursday, the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) suspended TPLF from conducting any political activities for three months because it has yet to convene a general assembly.

TPLF rejected the suspension, accusing NEBE of meddling.

“Whilst TPLF leadership is dealing and negotiating with relevant stakeholders to amend relations, the National Board of Elections is going out of its way to intervene and taint the party negatively,” TPLF said in a statement on Friday.

“As a signatory of the Pretoria agreement, we make clear our stand that the board is meddling. … We appeal to the federal government that if anything goes wrong, the responsibility lies on the board.” 

In a statement on his Facebook page Ethiopia’s prime minister recently called on Tigray elites to solve their internal differences in dialogue, and he added that any other differences, be it with other forces or federal government, should be addressed based on the national constitution. 

Mulugeta Atsbeha contributed to this report.
…

DAKAR, Senegal — Around 20 people were killed in northern Mali on Monday when the vehicles they were traveling in came under attack, with local sources telling Agence France-Presse that Wagner mercenaries and Mali’s army were responsible.

A relative of the driver of one of the vehicles told AFP from the northern city of Gao that the group was bound for Algeria when the deadly attack occurred.

“The driver of the first vehicle is my cousin,” they said on the condition of anonymity.

“They encountered a group of Wagner mercenaries and some Malian soldiers who shot at them. In the first car, everyone died. My cousin too,” they said, specifying that the passengers included illegal migrants and nomads.

Mali’s army did not provide an official comment on the accusations when approached by AFP on Monday.

However, a military source refuted the claims, saying an investigation was underway but “the army killed no one.”

“What happened is serious. These were civilians who were killed in the two vehicles in the Tilemsi region,” a representative from the Gao region told AFP.

“In total, in the two vehicles, there are at least 20 dead,” he said.

The separatist rebel group Front for the Liberation of Azawad (FLA) condemned the continuation of “ethnic cleansing carried out by the Bamako junta against the Azawad population.”

The FLA statement claimed two vehicles “were intercepted by the terrorist coalition FAMA (Malian Armed Forces)/Wagner.”

“Among the passengers, at least 24 people, including women and children, were coldly executed by the Malian army and Wagner’s Russian mercenaries,” the statement continued.

Mali, run by a military junta following coups in 2020 and 2021, has spent the past dozen years mired in a security crisis due to violence by groups affiliated with Al-Qaida and Islamic State.

The military junta has been supported by Wagner mercenaries since breaking ties with former colonial ruler France.

The nongovernmental organization Human Rights Watch in December denounced the “atrocities” committed against civilians by the Malian army and its Russian ally Wagner, as well as by Islamist armed groups.
…

Washington — U.S. airstrikes killed 16 militants affiliated with the Islamic State terrorist group in northern Somalia, officials there said Monday.

A spokesperson for security operations in the Puntland region, Brigadier General Mohamud Mohamed Ahmed, disclosed the death toll in an interview VOA’s Somali Service.  

“The strike carried out by our international security partners killed at least 16 militants including two senior members identified as the group’s bomb-makers, and a bomb factory was destroyed,” Ahmed said.

He said local officials are working to verify the names and nationalities of the bomb-makers.  

Ahmed said that the United Arab Emirates played a role Sunday’s attack.

“The United States government and the United Arab Emirates, both our partners supporting us in the fight against terrorists, were involved [in] the strikes on Sunday night,” he added.

Ahmed said the strikes targeted Godka Kunle and Xankookin, two villages in the Cal Miskaad mountain range in Puntland’s Bari region.

Ahmed said during the airstrikes, the militants launched drone attacks on the bases of the Puntland security forces in the area.

“Trying to hit back the bases of our security forces, the militants used seven drones. Puntland forces shot down five of them and two others, apparently with explosives, went off,” Ahmed claimed.

Somali and U.S. authorities have been working to root out Islamic State groups that established hideouts in mountainous parts of Puntland, a semi-autonomous region in northern Somalia.  

The U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) said in a statement Monday that it conducted an airstrike against ISIS-Somalia in the country’s northeast Sunday, killing two terrorists, according to an initial assessment.

AFRICOM said no civilians were harmed in the operation and said it would continue to evaluate the results and provide updates as necessary.

Speaking in Mogadishu, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud commended the U.S. airstrikes.

“The latest U.S. precision strikes against terrorist elements in Puntland reaffirms the strong partnership between Somalia and the United States in the fight against terrorism,” Mohamud said in a statement posted by the Somali National News Agency (SONNA). 

Sunday’s airstrike is the second the U.S. military carried out in Somalia this month.

A similar operation on Feb. 1, which targeted senior ISIS-Somalia leadership in a network of cave complexes in Puntland’s Golis Mountains, killed approximately 14 ISIS operatives, including Ahmed Maeleninine, who the U.S. identified as a key recruiter and financier responsible for coordinating jihadi movements into the U.S. and Europe.

Puntland authorities recently launched a military offensive against extremist groups in the region following months of preparations.

Puntland claims to have since killed more than 200 Islamic State fighters, dozens of them foreign fighters, and captured villages and bases in the mountainous area controlled by IS.
…