South Sudan’s deputy president warns of return ‘back to war’

South Sudan’s vice president is urging regional mediators to intervene to protect the country’s fragile peace deal, warning of a return to war amid alleged attacks by government troops on his forces.

Riek Machar accused President Salva Kiir of violating a 2018 truce in a letter to the regional mediator, the 8-nation Intergovernmental Authority on Development, or IGAD.

Ethiopia Truce an Uncertain Prospect

Last week, good news emerged from Ethiopia. The federal government announced a truce in its sixteen-month conflict with Tigrayan forces, expressing hope that its action would improve the humanitarian situation in the region and pave the way for lasting peace. Tigrayan forces responded in kind, pledging to make the truce a success.

Tunisia says it has dismantled 150 militant cells in past 6 months

Tunisian police forces have dismantled about 150 militant cells in the past six months, a spokesman for the National Guard said on Saturday.

He added that some of the foreign militants arrested were planning to join “Jond Kilafha”, a group linked to Islamic State in Libya and in the mountains on the Tunisian-Algerian border.

‘They Keep Killing Us’: Violence Rages in Sudan’s Darfur Two Decades On

A soot-streaked shell is all that remains of Awatif Fadl’s house, destroyed a year ago when gunmen riding camels, horses and motorcycles stormed through Krinding, a remote camp in Darfur, western Sudan, firing their weapons and burning every home in sight.

Dozens of people were killed, including nine members of Ms. Fadl’s family. Thousands fled, some across the border to Chad. “Nobody came to save us,” she said.

Four Mali Soldiers Killed in Twin Attacks: Army

Four Malian troops were killed in separate suspected jihadist attacks Monday, the army said, two in the east and two in the country’s center.

In central Boni, the army said it “recorded two dead and seven wounded” following an ambush while 13 attackers were killed and two “terrorists” arrested, the statement said.

Ukraine-Russia War: Africa Undercuts Ability to Mediate, Analysts Say

Political analysts say South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has undercut his own utility as a potential mediator of the war in Ukraine with a controversial suggestion that NATO’s own actions are to blame for Russia’s invasion of its western neighbor.

Ramaphosa has said he prefers negotiations over weapons or economic sanctions, in reference to sanctions piled on Russia by the United States and Western allies in the aftermath of the invasion, now in its fourth week.

DR Congo: Fourteen killed in machete attack in Ituri province

Seven children, including a two-year-old girl, and five women aged between 25 and 32 were killed, says Red Cross.

Fourteen people, including seven children, have been killed with machetes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Red Cross has said, as a community leader blamed a notorious armed group for the bloody attack.

Somalia Continues to Deteriorate as Al-Shabaab Gains Ground

Al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab, a jihadist militant group active in Somalia and throughout the broader Horn of Africa, is experiencing a resurgence.

S. Army Gen. Steven Townsend told Congress that “we may be backsliding” and that the departure of U.S. troops from Somalia has limited Washington’s ability to contain jihadist groups including al-Shabaab.

Ukraine War Reveals Africa Divided

Ukraine has withdrawn an important contingent of peacekeepers from the United Nations (UN) Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) to defend their homeland. The move symbolises wider concerns that Europe may retreat from Africa as it confronts a growing threat from Russia that so blatantly manifested itself on 24 February.

Redefining the African Union’s utility

As it turns 20, hard questions are being asked about the AU’s authority to resolve security challenges in Africa.

February’s African Union (AU) summit was symbolic in several ways. It was held in person in Addis Ababa after nearly two years of online meetings due to COVID-19, signalling a growing confidence in the management of the pandemic. For Ethiopian authorities, the summit was an opportunity to show the government’s control over the fragile security situation in the country.