International

Three UN peacekeepers have been killed by unidentified combatants in the Central African Republic, the United Nations said, as the country prepares for a general election and fighting continues between rebels and government forces. The news came after a rebel coalition called off a ceasefire and said it would resume its march on the capital, as well as the arrival of troops from Russia and Rwanda to shore up the government of the resource-rich country. "Three peacekeepers from Burundi were killed and two others were wounded" following attacks on UN troops and Central African national defence and security forces, the UN said in a statement Friday. The assaults took place in Dekoa, central Kemo Prefecture, and in Bakouma, in the southern Mbomou Prefecture, it said, without providing further details. Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, strongly condemned the latest incident, and called on the CAR authorities to investigate the "heinous" assaults. He also warned that "attacks against United Nations peacekeepers may constitute a war crime." Ahead of the presidential and legislative elections to be held on Sunday, 63-year-old incumbent President Faustin Archange Touadera has accused his predecessor Francois Bozize of plotting a coup. Bozize -- who is under UN sanctions and barred from running -- denies the charges. On Tuesday a militia briefly seized the country's fourth biggest town, before it was retaken by security forces backed by UN peacekeepers. Meanwhile the Constitutional Court on Saturday rejected final appeals by the opposition to postpone Sunday's vote. At least six candidates had filed appeals arguing that insecurity in the country, and the recent withdrawal of one of the candidates, justified delaying the polls. "There is the decision of the Constitutional Court, which I respect, and the reality on the ground, which is that many voters will not be able to vote," said Anicet Georges Dologuele, Touadera's main challenger who is being backed by Bozize. Rebel groups launched an offensive a week ago threatening to march on the capital Bangui, in what the government described as an attempted coup, but their progress was halted with international help. However, a three-day ceasefire brokered ahead of the elections fell apart Friday with the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC) announcing that it would resume its push for the capital. The CPC -- whose components are drawn from militia groups that, together, control two-thirds of the country -- was created on December 19 by armed groups who accused Touadera of trying to fix the vote. Clashes resumed on Friday in Bakouma, about 800 kilometres (500 miles) northeast of Bangui, according to Vladimir Monteiro, spokesman for the UN's MINUSCA peacekeeping force. MINUSCA said Thursday that a 300-strong contingent of Rwandan reinforcements had arrived in the country. Russia, which recently signed a military cooperation agreement with Touadera's government, has also sent at least 300 military instructors to bolster the CAR's forces ahead of the polls. Sunday's elections are deemed a key test of CAR's ability to recover stability. But a crucial question is whether turnout will be badly affected by violence or intimidation, denting the credibility of the next president and the 140-seat legislature. Mineral-rich but rated the world's second-poorest country on the Human Development Index, the CAR has been chronically unstable since independence 60 years ago.

Ethiopia will hold a parliamentary election on June 5, 2021, the National Electoral Board said yesterday, as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed tries to quell outbreaks of deadly political and ethnic violence in several regions.  Abiy’s Prosperity Party, a pan-Ethiopian movement he founded a year ago, faces challenges from increasingly strident ethnically-based parties seeking more power for their regions. Africa’s second most populous nation has a federal system and 10 regional governments, many of whom have border disputes or face low-level unrest. In the northern Tigray region, thousands of people are believed to have died and 950,000 have fled their homes since fighting between regional forces and the federal government erupted on Nov. 4.  Tigray held its own elections in September in defiance of the federal government, which declared the polls illegal. The election board said its calendar for next year’s polls does not include an election in Tigray. It said it would announce a date for elections there once the interim government established during the conflict is able to support the opening of election offices there. For nearly three decades until Abiy’s appointment, Ethiopia was ruled by a coalition of four ethnically-based movements dominated by the party from Tigray. That administration ruled in an increasingly autocratic fashion until Abiy took power in 2018 following years of bloody anti-government street protests. The initial months after Abiy’s appointment saw a rush of political and economic reforms, including the release of tens of thousands of political prisoners. Last year Abiy merged three of the old parties to form the Prosperity Party – only the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) refused to join. Voter registration will take place from March 1 to 30, the election board said. Abiy’s peace deal with Ethiopia’s arch-enemy Eritrea helped earn him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019. But loosening the government’s iron grip was also followed by outbreaks of violence as regional powerbrokers jostled for resources and power. On Thursday, Abiy said he was sending forces to the western Benishangul-Gumuz region, which borders Sudan, the day after unidentified attackers torched homes and killed more than 100 people in a village there.  There is also a long-running insurgency in Oromiya region, Ethiopia’s most populous region. The Oromo Liberation Front, an opposition party from the Oromiya region which was once declared a terrorist movement before it was unbanned by Abiy, said on Dec. 12 that the government was using the prospect of an election to divert attention away from the myriad security problems. “Even though the ruling party wants to conceal the existing problems and divert attention towards the national election, it is obvious that the country has descended into complex security crises and political catastrophes,” it said. “We recommend that repairing the fractured administrative regions and restoring peace and security must be undertaken before the election takes place.” Many Oromo politicians are in jail, such as Jawar Mohamed, a prominent media mogul and member of the Oromo Federalist Congress party. He and other party leaders were in September charged with terrorism offences following the killing of the popular Oromo musician Haacaaluu Hundeessaa.  The death of Haacaaluu sparked protests that killed at least 178 people in Oromiya and the capital. Ethiopia’s parliamentary vote was postponed from August this year because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The chairman of the winning party becomes prime minister.

At least 26 people died when their boat sank on Lake Albert, which marks the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ugandan officials told AFP on Friday. The boat was carrying passengers between two Ugandan locations in the Lake's northeast on Wednesday when it "hit a strong wind" and "went under water", local official Ashraf Oromo said. "The boat had over 50 people on board, 26 bodies have been recovered, 21 people were rescued," Oromo said. "A search is ongoing and no more survivors are expected." A regional police marine officer, Samuel Onyango, confirmed the accident. "Because of failure to adhere to safety measures and fast changing weather patterns, Lake Albert has many accidents," Onyango said. Eighteen people drowned when two boats capsized in separate incidents in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo in June.

Boko Haram militants killed at least 11 people, burnt a church and seized a priest on Christmas Eve in Nigeria's restive northeast, local sources told AFP Friday. Security agencies had in recent days warned of an increased risk of attack during the holiday season. Fighters in trucks and motorcycles stormed Pemi, a predominantly Christian village in Borno state Thursday, shooting "indiscriminately" and setting buildings on fire, said Abwaku Kabu, a militia leader. In many parts of Nigeria, communities have resorted to armed vigilantes or militias, who work alongside the army, for self-defence. "The terrorists killed seven people, burnt 10 homes and looted food supplies that were meant to be distributed to residents to celebrate Christmas," Kabu said. "Four more dead bodies have been found in the nearby bushes by search and rescue volunteers," local community leader Ayuba Alamson said Friday. "This has moved the death toll to 11." The number of dead could rise as villagers fled to the bush and some people are still unaccounted for. The assailants, who drove from the group's nearby Sambisa forest enclave, looted medical supplies from a hospital before setting it ablaze, the militia leader said, adding they also burnt a church and abducted a priest. The village is located only 20 kilometres from Chibok, where Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls six years ago. In a separate raid on Thursday, gunmen attacked another Christian community in Garkida in the neighbouring Adamawa state, looting drug stores and food supplies before torching homes, residents told AFP. There were no reports of casualties. Nigeria's security agency had earlier this week asked Nigerians "to be extra vigilant and report strange movements." President Muhammadu Buhari in a statement Thursday "reiterated the promise of his administration to remain unyielding in confronting the Boko Haram insurgency as well as other forms of criminality." The 78-year-old urged citizens to volunteer "intelligence/information on activities of armed bandits, insurgents and other criminal elements within their communities in order to put an end to this blight." The decade-long conflict in Nigeria's northeast has killed 36,000 people and displaced around two million from their homes, according to the United Nations. Violence has spread to neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, prompting regional countries to form a military coalition to fight the militant groups.

Rwanda has deployed troops to the Central African Republic, where its soldiers serving in the UN peacekeeping force have been targeted by rebels, the defence ministry in Kigali said. "The Government of Rwanda has deployed force protection troops to the Central African Republic, under an existing bilateral agreement on defence," said a statement issued late Sunday. "The deployment is in response to the targeting of the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) contingent under the UN Peacekeeping force by rebels supported by (former president) Francois Bozize." On Saturday, the Central African Republic's government accused Bozize of leading an attempted coup as tensions mount ahead of key presidential and legislative elections on Sunday. A spokesman for the UN's MINUSCA peacekeeping force in CAR said Sunday that armed rebels that had been advancing on the capital Bangui had been pushed back. Rwanda has been a main contributor to MINUSCA since it first deployed in 2014. No details were given on when or how many Rwandan troops would be deployed, but the defence ministry said they would "also contribute to ensure a peaceful and secure general elections scheduled on Sunday". MINUSCA's Rwandan contingent is notably in charge of the security of Central African Republic President Faustin-Archange Touadera and the presidential palace. Bozize, who came to power in a coup in 2003 before himself being overthrown in 2013, had declared he was running in Sunday's vote and was considered Touadera's main rival. But the 74-year-old was barred from running by the country's top court, ruling that an warrant was out for his arrest on charges including murder, arbitrary arrest and torture. Touadera had previously said that Rwandan and Russian troops were on alert to help his country during the crisis. Russia on Monday confirmed it had sent several hundred soldiers to the Central African Republic.

After being relatively spared by coronavirus, Africa is bracing for the pandemic's second wave, noting how the microbe has once more cut a swathe through rich countries in Europe and North Africa. The continent's most-hit nations are again having to contemplate stringent public health measures as they await the arrival of the vaccine cavalry. In South Africa, the start of summer has triggered traffic jams on roads leading to coastal resorts. But this year, there will be no long, lazy days spent on the beach. In popular tourist destinations, the coronavirus is spreading at alarming speed. Authorities have ordered partial closures, limits on the size of gatherings and an extended curfew. As the African country worst hit in the pandemic, with almost 900,000 documented cases, South Africa is tightening up health restrictions. But around Africa, a continent of more than 1.2 billion people, there are stark contrasts in the prevalence of the disease. New cases are emerging in East Africa, in northern and southern Africa, but the trend in West Africa is a decline, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), an arm of the African Union. In Uganda, every region has been affected by the pandemic. Neighbouring Rwanda, a far smaller but densely populated country, registered almost as many new cases in December (722) as since the beginning of infection (797). Bars and nightclubs have been shut since March. Heavily fined for breaking regulations, the owner of a Kigali bar told AFP he had lost everything. "Clients were drinking, but the police forced us to close." In Kenya, a second wave of the virus struck in September and led to the closure of schools and the prolongation of a curfew. Some health professionals say they are already waiting for a third wave. For several weeks, Africa CDC and the World Health Organization (WHO) have been pressing African governments to up their game for an inevitable second wave. Nevertheless, the epidemic first reported in Africa nine months ago has not been as destructive as experts feared, across a poor continent severely lacking in health care structures. Africa has reported 2.4 million cases, just 3.6 percent of the world's total, according to a tally compiled by AFP. The whole continent has registered more than 57,000 deaths, fewer for instance than the total for France alone (59,072). While the low level of screening might call into question the reliability of the statistics, no African country has observed a peak in excess mortality, which would be a sign of the virus spreading under the radar. Experts are still trying to understand why Africa, so far, has not been affected to the same extent as other continents. Explanations include Africa's youthful population, cross-immunity derived from previous epidemics and a still predominantly rural economy, which means less density of population. Early and draconian measures imposed on citizens in most African countries clearly put the brakes on the spread of the disease. But the social and economic consequences of lockdown policies have been disastrous for the weakest economies. In nations where the stigma of Covid-19 has become less visible, daily life has rushed to resume its course, largely at the expense of social distancing and other barrier gestures. In central Africa, Cameroon is preparing to host the 2020 African Nations Championship football tournament in January, postponed from last April because of the virus. Officials are counting on a partial reopening of stadiums. Authorities in Senegal face calls for public protests against restrictions, while in Equatorial Guinea, nightclubs are the only places that remain closed. "Generally speaking, the virus is continuing to progress in Africa," warned Isabelle Defourny, operations director at Medecins sans frontieres (Doctors Without Borders, MSF). MSF has noted a resurgence of Covid-19 both in capital cities and in rural areas, notably in Chad. "We're also seeing an increase in severe cases where oxygen is needed, particularly in Bamako (Mali), which was not the case during the first wave," Defourny said. The battle Africa must wage for access to vaccines is far from won. The likely cost will be a around 4.7 billion euros ($5.76 billion), but only a quarter of the nations on the continent can muster the required resources, according to the WHO.

Dozens of kidnapped school boys arrived back home on Friday a day after security forces rescued them in northwest Nigeria. Television pictures showed the boys, many of them wearing light green uniforms and clutching blankets, arriving on buses, looking weary but otherwise well. Gunmen raided the boys' secondary school in Kankara town, Katsina state, on Friday last week and marched around 350 of them into the vast Rugu forest. It was not clear if all of them had been recovered in the rescue operation. None of the boys spoke as they walked from the bus in single file, flanked by soldiers, into a government building. A group of their parents waited to be reunited with them in another part of town. ‘I couldn't believe what I heard until neighbours came to inform me that it's true,’ Hafsat Funtua, mother of 16-year-old Hamza Naziru, said earlier in a phone interview. Describing the moment she heard the news, she said she ran out of her house with joy ‘not knowing where to go’ before returning home to pray. Another parent, Husseini Ahmed, whose 14-year-old Mohammed Husseini was also among those abducted, expressed happiness and relief that he would soon be reunited with his son. ‘We are happy and anxiously expecting their return,’ he said. Hours before the rescue of the boys was announced, a video started circulating online purportedly showing militants from Boko Haram with some of the boys. Reuters was unable to immediately verify the authenticity of the footage or who released it. The mass abduction has piled pressure onto the government to deal with militants in the north of the country, particularly on President Muhammadu Buhari , who comes from Katsina and has repeatedly said that Boko Haram has been ‘technically defeated’.

Militant group Boko Haram on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the abduction of hundreds of school students in northwest Nigeria. ‘I am Abubakar Shekau and our brothers are behind the kidnapping in Katsina,’ said the leader of the group that was also behind the 2014 abduction of hundreds of schoolgirls in Chibok, in a voice message. At least 333 students are still missing since the attack late Friday on the all-boys Government Science Secondary School in northwestern Katsina state. The attack was initially blamed on armed groups locally known as ‘bandits’, who are active in the unstable region where kidnappings for ransom are common. The army said Monday it had located the hideout of the men, and that a military operation was under way. More than 100 gunmen on motorcycles stormed the rural school north of Kankara town, forcing students to flee and hide in the surrounding bush. A number of boys were able to escape, but many were captured, split into groups and taken away, residents told AFP. The kidnappings occurred in the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari, who condemned the attack and ordered security stepped up in schools, with those in Katsina state closed. Tuesday's claim of responsibility marks a major turning point in the advance of militant groups in northwest Nigeria. Boko Haram, and a splinter group the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), are waging an insurgency in Nigeria northeast and are thought to have only a minor presence in the northwest. But concerns have grown of militant inroads into the region, especially after fighters claiming to be in the northwest released a 2020 propaganda video pledging allegiance to Boko Haram's leader. Buhari has made the fight against the group a priority, but the security situation in northern Nigeria has deteriorated since his 2015 election. #BringBackOurBoys has been trending on social media since the weekend -- a reference to a similar hashtag used after the girls' 2014 abduction.

Since its launch two years ago, more than 160,000 patients at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) and Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) have registered to access their medical records and other health information using the “MyHealth” patient portal. Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Clinical Information Systems at HMC Dr AbdulWahab al-Musleh says giving patients access to their personal health information allows them to become true partners in their healthcare. “MyHealth allows patients to share the responsibility for their own health by providing secure access to their electronic health data. Whether patients see a doctor at HMC or PHCC, receive care in the emergency department, get lab work or medical imaging services, or are admitted to hospital, they now have all their health information in a single electronic record,” said Dr al-Musleh “We have found that giving patients the ability to access their records has an empowering effect. This type of access can be especially important for those living with chronic or long-term medical conditions. These patients are better able to track their own health and it allows care teams at HMC and PHCC to work as a single team,” added Dr al-Musleh. “MyHealth” allows patients to review their test results, view their visit history, and access their preventative care immunisation record. The platform has the potential to improve patients’ health knowledge, reduce anxiety, and improve communications with their healthcare provider. It also has the power to improve patients’ overall health by allowing them to be more involved in their care.

Sudan’s premier said yesterday he had agreed with his counterpart in Addis Ababa to hold an urgent meeting of a bloc of east African countries to resolve the crisis in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. Ethiopia did not immediately confirm Sudanese Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok’s announcement of an “emergency” meeting of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development. Hamdok travelled to Addis Ababa yesterday to discuss the Tigray conflict with his counterpart Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the first foreign leader to visit the Ethiopian capital since fighting broke out in the region on November 4, creating a humanitarian crisis. “The visit led to fruitful negotiations and it was agreed to hold an emergency IGAD meeting,” Hamdok’s office said. IGAD was founded in 1996 and brings together the east African nations of Ethiopia, Sudan, Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan and Uganda. Thousands have been killed since the start of the conflict in Tigray, according to the International Crisis Group, and just over 50,000 people have fled to neighbouring Sudan since Abiy ordered troops into the region to confront its dissident ruling party. A Sudanese government official said the meeting between Hamdok and Abiy had been “fruitful, especially on the emergency meeting of IGAD” and on reviving a committee to work on delineating their shared border. Abiy, winner of last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, said Hamdok expressed support for the offensive against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) during face-to-face talks. “The Sudanese side reiterated their solidarity with the government of Ethiopia in the law enforcement operations it has been undertaking,” said a statement from Abiy’s office. Hamdok also recalled support Abiy had previously extended to Sudan, it added. The Sudanese premier had urged Abiy to engage in negotiations with the TPLF when fighting broke out six weeks ago, and encouraged African mediation to resolve the conflict as it threatened to draw in the wider region. Abiy has resisted international pressure to end the fighting and accept mediation, saying TPLF leaders needed to be disarmed and apprehended. On November 28 he declared the conflict over, saying the army had captured the regional capital Mekele. He has dismissed reports of ongoing clashes as “sporadic gunfire” not indicating major combat. Over the weekend, AFP journalists saw trucks of soldiers heading towards Tigray, and ambulances remain a common sight in southern Tigray and northern Amhara regions. Tens of thousands of refugees have crossed the border westward into one of the most impoverished regions of Sudan. They have arrived in a country in the midst of a fragile political transition since last year’s ouster of president Omar al-Bashir, along with an economic crisis that has been particularly harsh on the eastern states where Tigray refugees have arrived. Around 170 refugees crossed into Sudan from Tigray on Saturday, according to the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, compared to 1,100 on December 3.

The first international aid convoy arrived yesterday in the capital of Ethiopia’s Tigray region since fighting broke out more than a month ago, triggering a refugee crisis and humanitarian disaster. The International Committee of the Red Cross said seven trucks brought medicines and medical equipment for 400 wounded as well as relief supplies to Mekele, a city of half a million that had been all-but cut off to foreign aid since the conflict began on November 4. “It is the first international aid to arrive in Mekele since fighting erupted in Tigray more than one month ago,” the Geneva-based ICRC said, describing health care facilities in the city as “paralysed”. Patrick Youssef, ICRC regional director for Africa, said the supplies would “reduce those impossible life-or-death triage decisions” for doctors and nurses in Mekele who had endured for weeks without running water and electricity, let alone essential medicines. The convoy arrived as the United Nations expressed growing alarm over the plight of nearly 100,000 Eritrean refugees in Tigray and appealed for urgent access to assist them and 600,000 others dependent on food rations. Ethiopia had restricted access to Tigray, and a communications blackout has made it difficult to evaluate the humanitarian situation on the ground. Aid groups have been warning for weeks of a looming hunger crisis as food rations dwindled, and life-saving relief was repeatedly delayed. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, winner of last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, on Friday said his government would be in charge of handling the humanitarian response and access to Tigray, and that Ethiopia had this week dispatched tonnes of food and other relief supplies by trucks to Mekele and other cities in the region. Addis Ababa has rejected suggestions that outsiders might play a leading role in the relief effort and an agreement last week to allow the UN and aid agencies access to Tigray foundered, deepening international alarm, before another deal was announced on Wednesday. The UN refugee agency UNHCR said Friday it still has not been able to reach four camps for Eritrean refugees since the announcement of a major military offensive against forces loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said the UNHCR had received “an overwhelming number of disturbing reports” of refugees being killed or kidnapped and forcibly returned to Eritrea, a secretive country bordering Tigray to the north. “If confirmed, these actions would constitute a major violation of international law,” Grandi said. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said yesterday that “any act of refoulement or forced return should be prevented” and urged that aid groups be given “immediate, unhindered and unrestricted” access to Tigray. The International Rescue Committee said Friday that one of its staff was killed last month at an Eritrean refugee camp in Tigray. The Danish Refugee Council, which also assists Eritreans, said three of its guards were killed, but did not specify where. Ethiopia said Friday it was returning “misinformed” Eritrean refugees headed for Addis Ababa back to Tigray to receive aid and live “lawfully and peacefully”. “Forcibly sending Eritrean refugees back to camps in Tigray places them at unnecessary risk of harm and hunger,” Laetitia Bader, Horn of Africa director for Human Rights Watch, said yesterday. The UN migration agency IOM has denied its buses were used to transport refugees “to an unknown destination” and rejected allegations that Eritreans were being held at one of its transit centres in Addis Ababa and processed for forcible return. The International Organisation for Migration said it was “extremely concerned” by reports of Eritreans being relocated against their will and “does not under any circumstances conduct the forced return of migrants and refugees”.

An 18-year-old girl has been arrested in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos for allegedly faking her own kidnap to demand ransom from her family, police said Tuesday. Ujunwa Offiah is accused of conspiring with her boyfriend to stage her abduction, asking her family to pay 30 million naira (79,336 dollars, 65,500 euros). She was arrested along with another alleged accomplice, Precious Chukwu, 22, as the ransom money was being dropped, police said. "This is a case of conspiracy and staged kidnapping," state police commissioner Hakeem Odumosu said in a statement. He said Offiah's boyfriend, an Uber driver and "the man at the centre of this case", is still on the run. "We are going after him because he conspired with one of these two ladies, Offiah, who faked her kidnap." Odumosu said that after negotiation, the ransom was reduced to 700,000 naira (1,851 dollars). Kidnapping for ransom is common in southern Nigeria where oil workers, prominent Nigerians, including relatives of sports stars, have been abducted in recent years. The victims are usually released unhurt after ransom payments. In June, a 17-year-old girl in southwestern Ogun state was held for faking her own kidnap to demand ransom from her mother.

Suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen killed five south Yemen separatists in Abyan province on Monday, in the terror group's biggest attack in the region for months, a secessionist security official said. The five members of the Security Belt separatist force, which is dominated by the Southern Transitional Council (STC), were killed at dawn on the outskirts of Lawdar city, the official told AFP. "It was gunmen believed to be from Al-Qaeda who launched the attack and managed to escape," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. A medic in Lawdar confirmed the death toll, while Al-Qaeda has yet to issue any statements on the attack. The United States, which considers AQAP the terror group's most dangerous branch, has carried out a campaign of drone strikes against its leaders for the past two decades. Monday's attack was the biggest in southern Yemen since August, when Al-Qaeda killed a dentist in Al-Bayda accused of guiding US drone strikes against its militants and later that month blew up the medical centre in which he worked. Security Belt forces played a decisive role in fighting against Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, which were forced to withdraw from southern urban centres. The separatist STC wants the south to secede from the rest of the country, even while it is allied with the central government in a fight against their common foe, the Houthis, in the civil war. The government and rebels have been locked in a five-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands -- triggering what the UN terms the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Bombing, looting and skirmishes persisted in parts of Ethiopia’s Tigray yesterday, a rebellious force in the northern region said after government troops declared they were within days of capturing the group’s leaders. A month of fighting between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s federal army and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) is believed to have killed thousands of people and driven some 46,000 refugees into neighbouring Sudan. Abiy’s government has said the conflict is winding down a week after it seized Tigray’s regional capital, Mekelle, but TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael told Reuters in a text message yesterday there was still fighting outside the city. He said federal forces bombed the town of Abbi Adi on Friday, without giving further details, while a TPLF spokesman accused government troops of looting in Mekelle. “(They are) looting civilian properties, hotels and damaging factories after looting,” the spokesman Getachew Reda told a TPLF-owned TV station. The government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Most communications in Tigray are down and access to the area is severely restricted, making it hard to verify either side’s statements. Abiy used to be a political partner of the TPLF — which dominated Ethiopia’s governing coalition for nearly three decades — but he irked his former allies by putting Tigrayan officials on trial for corruption and rights abuses. They said the arrests were politically motivated, accusing Abiy of trying to tighten his grip over Ethiopia’s 10 semi-autonomous federal states. Abiy denies that, and has called the TPLF leaders criminals who mutinied against federal authority. Army Colonel Shambel Beyene said late on Friday that government forces were 10km away from a forest in the Gore area where Debretsion, Getachew and other TPLF members were thought to be hiding.  “We will only need a few days to get to them,” he said on state television. Relief agencies, meanwhile, are worried about a lack of food, fuel, medicines and even body bags in Tigray.

A move by Sudan's army chief to create a new body with broad powers has put him at odds with the country's transitional government. General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan heads Sudan's sovereign council, a military-civilian body established in August last year. It is Sudan's highest executive authority and is overseeing a fragile three-year transition to civilian rule after the April 2019 ouster of veteran strongman Omar al-Bashir. But a recent decree by Burhan has established a "Council of Transition Partners" (CTP) that is "responsible for leading the transition period, resolving differences (between those in power) and having all the necessary prerogatives to exercise its power", Sudan's SUNA news agency reported. The decree was made public earlier this week. Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok's transitional government has rejected the move, saying Burhan has overstepped his prerogatives by conferring excessive powers on the new body. Government spokesman Faisal Mohammed Saleh said in a statement Friday that Burhan's decree contradicted the "constitutional declaration" signed in August last year between pro-democracy activists and military generals. "It is imperative that we declare our disaccord with the creation of the CTP in its current form," said Saleh, who is also culture and information minister. The government and the sovereign council have agreed to limit the tasks of the new body to "coordinating and resolving disagreements that might emerge during the transitional period", he added. Local media reported that premier Hamdok told the Forces for Freedom and Change umbrella protest group of his disagreement with the powers accorded to the CTP. "Its role must be purely consultative and in no case must it interfere in the activities of the executive and legislative bodies, nor those of the sovereign council," Hamdok said, according to local media quoting political sources. The Forces for Freedom and Change was the movement that led mass protests against Bashir and plays a key role in Sudanese politics. It has also expressed its opposition to Burhan's decree.

* Tigrayan capital Mekelle fell to federal troops at weekend * TPLF leaders say they are still fighting from the mountains * PM Abiy's government promises to bring peace, aid to Tigray * Month-long war has shaken already volatile region of Africa The leader of Ethiopia's rebellious Tigrayan forces said on Friday that protests were breaking out in the regional capital which fell to federal troops days ago in their month-long war. However, state TV showed images of people shopping and sitting on stools in Mekelle, while the new government-appointed chief executive of Tigray said peace was returning to the area. Fighting between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's federal army and forces loyal to the region's former ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), has raged since Nov. 4. With communications largely down and access for media restricted, claims from all sides have been impossible to verify. But thousands of people are believed to have died while more than 45,000 refugees have crossed to neighbouring Sudan. TPLF leaders, who have enjoyed strong popular support for years in Tigray, appear to have fled to surrounding mountains and begun a guerrilla-style resistance. TPLF No. 1 Debretsion Gebremichael, the most wanted man in Ethiopia, told Reuters in a text message on Friday that there were popular protests in Mekelle, which is home to 500,000 people, due to looting by Eritrean soldiers. "Eritrean soldiers are everywhere," he said, repeating an accusation that President Isaias Afwerki has sent soldiers over the border to back Abiy against their mutual foe. Both Ethiopia and Eritrea have denied that. "Our people in town are protesting their looting. We do have captives but we'll gather more visual evidences," added Debretsion, a 57-year-old former guerrilla radio operator who was once in a coalition government with Abiy. He gave no evidence of looting or the presence of Eritreans. Abiy's spokeswoman Billene Seyoum said she would not comment on unverifiable text messages. Previously, she has called them the "delusions of a criminal clique". The United Nations and aid agencies are extremely worried about the humanitarian crisis in Tigray, where hundreds of thousands of people relied on food aid even before the war. Charitable organizations say food, fuel, medicines and even bodybags are running low. Convoys are on standby. Mulu Nega, appointed by Abiy as chief executive of a new Provisional Administration of Tigray, said the government was channelling help to parts of west Tigray including the towns of Humera, Dansha and Mai Kadra. "Our priority in the region now is to restore peace, stability and order," the 52-year-old former academic told state-run EBC. Abiy took office two years ago after nearly three decades of TPLF-led government following the overthrow of Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991. He began opening up a closed economy and repressive political system, won a Nobel Peace Prize for a peace pact with Eritrea and took action over past rights abuses and corruption. But the particular targeting of Tigrayan officials irked the TPLF and Abiy's initially glowing international reputation has come under scrutiny with the jailing of opposition figures and now his offensive against the northern region. The TPLF accuses their ex-military comrade and political partner of trying to increase his personal power over Ethiopia's 10 regions. Abiy denies that, calling them criminals who mutinied against federal authority, attacked a military base, and were unfairly over-represented in government for a group that only accounts for 6% of the population. At a US Congressional online hearing on Ethiopia late on Thursday, politicians expressed anxiety about instability both for an important US ally and the wider east Africa region. "There is a concern ... that the fall of the capital does not necessarily mark the end of the armed conflict," said Republican legislator Chris Smith. "We're very worried, all of us, about a protracted civil war."

* Militant groups cut off access to food, crops in Sahel * Half a million kids under 5 in Burkina Faso acutely malnourished * UN says thousands of people are one step from famine Habibou Sore had to pause for breath as she ran barefoot from the approaching gunmen. She was pregnant with twins, due any day. Soon after arriving at a nearby town in northern Burkina Faso, her feet cut and swollen, Sore gave birth. Then her battle with hunger began. Attacks by militant groups with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State have killed thousands of people this year in Africa's Sahel region, an arid belt to the south of the Sahara Desert. The escalating bloodshed has worsened food shortages that threaten millions in a region already hit by climate change, poverty and the Covid-19 pandemic. Sixteen months after fleeing her village, Sore lives with relatives in the town of Pisilla and eats one small meal a day. Her twin sons Hassan and Housein each weigh 7 kg (15.5 pounds), the equivalent of a healthy 4-month-old. Their bony legs are covered in sores, their scalps bare in patches. They scream for the milk their mother cannot provide. ‘I am worried about them,’ Sore said, as she rocked the boys on her lap in a clinic in the town of Kaya, surrounded by paintings showing mothers how to breastfeed and the foods required for a balanced diet. ‘They are not doing well.’ Over 7 million people face acute hunger in a vast area comprising landlocked Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, as armed groups cut off access to supplies and farmland, figures from the United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) show. Burkina Faso is deteriorating fastest. Over half a million children under 5 are acutely malnourished, UN figures show. WFP said in October that over 10,000 people were ‘one step short of famine’. ‘This year has been worse than anything we have seen in the last decade, a worsening situation that is obviously connected to growing conflicts,’ said Christelle Hure, spokeswoman for the Oslo-based Norwegian Refugee Council, which offers shelter for the displaced. 'GREAT LOSS' This summer's rainy season was one of the heaviest in years, bringing life to the hilly northern savannah where neem, eucalyptus and acacia trees tower over a sea of waist-high golden grass. Farmers say the conditions are perfect for crops and cattle - if only they could reach them. Sayouba Zabre should be harvesting 10 hectares of millet and sorghum and tending dozens of cattle near his hometown in the Soum region. Instead he is in a camp for displaced people in the Center-North region after fleeing an attack this year. Camp residents collect wood and dry hibiscus pods on the roofs of their makeshift tents - anything to make money. Zabre planted millet and peanuts, but it is not enough to feed his family. ‘This is a great loss. There is a lot out there this year,’ he said, referring to his farm. ‘I should be there.’ Many citizens rely on food from aid agencies that cannot reach some of the worst-hit areas. Twice this year, food deliveries were hijacked, said Antoine Renard, WFP's country director in Burkina Faso. Dozens of health facilities have closed and about 200 others are operating at minimum staff levels, government figures show. Malnutrition is overwhelming the clinic in Kaya where Sore took her twins. Before the crisis, it had about 30 child patients. Now it has 500. ‘Every day we take children, every day we have severe cases,’ said midwife Aminata Zabre. Mothers come regularly for sachets of baby food, though sometimes there is little improvement. ‘I asked one woman 'why is your child still coming to us?',’ Zabre said. ‘She told me her father-in-law was eating the child's rations.’

Suspected militants attacked several Malian and foreign military bases with mortars and rockets in the north of the country on Monday, military sources said. No casualties were immediately reported in the attacks on Menaka, Gao and Kidal in what appeared to be a rare attempt at a coordinated assault on foreign forces operating in the troubled west African country. "There were no casualties, but there was some material damage," an Malian military official told AFP. Mali is struggling with an insurgency that first erupted in the north but has since spread to the centre of the country and spilled over into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger. French military forces have around 5,000 troops in the Sahel as part of their Operation Barkane, and thousands UN peacekeepers are also operating in Mali. The European Takuba task force also includes special operations troops from several countries that advise and assist Malian forces. "The terrorists tried unsuccessfully to carry out a coordinated action against the camps of Barkhane, the UN peacekeepers, against the European force Takuba and against the Malian army in Gao, Menaka, and Kidal," a foreign military official said. "The situation is under control." French Barkhane forces are stationed in all three camps. "Indirect fire" targeted the camps, French army spokesman Colonel Frederic Barbry said, adding that no French personnel or materiel were damaged. A source within the UN mission in Kidal reported a dozen mortar shells "which did not cause casualties, but the damage is being assessed". The attack on Kidal was preceded by a group of men on motorcycles riding around the camp before dawn, a camp security officer said. "It was after they passed by that there was fire from rockets and machine guns. There were no deaths but there was significant material damage," he said. Northern Mali is one of the epicentres of violence and militant attacks since 2012, despite the presence of thousands of UN, foreign and French forces. Militants once controlled northern Mali and were routed in the French military operation but they have since regrouped. Large stretches of the country remain outside of government control. Thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed, and hundreds of thousands have had to flee their homes because of the fighting which has also enflamed ethnic tensions and clashes.

* PM Abiy's forces have captured Tigrayan capital Mekelle * TPLF says it is still 'fighting the invaders' * Some fear protracted guerrilla war in northern region * Nearly month-long war has destabilised east Africa The leader of rebel forces in northern Ethiopia said on Monday they were still fighting near the regional capital of Mekelle, which fell to government troops at the weekend after nearly a month of battles and air strikes. ‘I'm close to Mekelle in Tigray fighting the invaders,’ Debretsion Gebremichael told Reuters in a text message, which the government dismissed as a deluded claim. The war in Tigray region has killed hundreds and probably thousands, sent refugees into Sudan, enmeshed Eritrea, impeded a peacekeeping mission in Somalia, and heightened frictions between Ethiopia's myriad ethnic groups. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government launched an offensive on Nov. 4 against the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), accusing the ex-guerrilla movement, which dominated national government for nearly three decades until 2018, of insurrection. Abiy's federal forces took Mekelle, a highland city of 500,000 people, at the weekend with relatively little resistance, though the TPLF later said it had shot down a plane and retaken one town. TPLF leader Debretsion, a 57-year-old former radio operator, denied reports that he had fled to South Sudan and said his forces had captured some soldiers from neighbouring Eritrea around Wukro, about 50 km (30 miles) north of Mekelle. Abiy's spokeswoman Billene Seyoum dismissed Debretsion's comments, saying: ‘The Federal government as a priority is busy governing a country and bringing stability to those affected. Tracking and responding to the many delusions of a disintegrating criminal clique that has become irrelevant is not our focus.’ GUERRILLA WAR FEARED There was no immediate comment from the Eritrean government, though at the start of the conflict it had denied involvement. The TPLF has shelled Eritrea's capital Asmara. Claims from all sides are difficult to verify since phone and internet links to Tigray have largely been down and access has been tightly controlled since the war began. When he took office in 2018, Abiy pledged to unite Ethiopia's 115 million people, but there have been repeated bouts of bloody ethnic violence and hundreds of thousands have had to flee their homes. Both sides have spoken of hundreds of dead in the Tigray war, and diplomats believe the toll is in the thousands. Abiy told parliament on Monday that his troops had not killed a single civilian and were protecting Mekelle from damage. ‘We are not the (TPLF) junta. We have responsibilities. We conduct ourselves responsibly,’ he said. Debretsion's defiant comments raise the spectre of a drawn-out guerrilla war. The battle-hardened TPLF helped to topple Ethiopia's Marxist dictatorship in 1991 and knows how to exploit its mountainous terrain and borders with Sudan and Eritrea. Abiy won a Nobel Peace Prize last year for making peace with Eritrea, whose government also regards the TPLF as an enemy. The US State Department reported six explosions in Asmara on Saturday night, but without specifying the cause. Diplomats told Reuters they had been either rockets or missiles. Ethiopia is a major contributor to an African Union peacekeeping force fighting al Qaeda-linked militants in Somalia, but has disarmed several hundred soldiers there of Tigrayan ethnicity, questioning their loyalty.

Villagers in northeast Nigeria's Borno state on Sunday buried 43 farmers killed in an attack by suspected militants while security forces searched for dozens of people who are still missing. Roughly 30 of the men killed were also beheaded in the attack, which began on Saturday morning in Zabarmari village in northeast Borno state. Residents said a total of 70 people are feared dead. While no group claimed responsibility, such massacres have been carried out in the past by Boko Haram or the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). They are both active in the region, where militants have killed at least 30,000 people in the past decade. President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the killings and said "the entire country is hurt." In Zabarmari, dozens of mourners surrounded the bodies, which were wrapped in white burial shrouds and placed on wooden pallets, as clerics led prayers for the deceased. One resident and Amnesty International said 10 women were among those missing. Borno state governor Babagana Zulum, speaking at the burials, called on the federal government to recruit more soldiers, Civilian Joint Task Force members and civil defence fighters to protect farmers in the region. He described desperate choices facing people. "In one side, they stay at home they may be killed by hunger and starvation, on the other, they go out to their farmlands and risk getting killed by the insurgents," he said. Food prices in Nigeria have risen dramatically over the past year, driven by flooding, border closures and insecurity in some food-producing areas.