Terrorist turf war battle in north-eastern Nigeria leaves about 200 dead

Fighting between Boko Haram and rival militants from Islamic State West Africa Province broke out on shores of Lake Chad

As many as 200 terrorists were killed in a turf war on Sunday between rival jihadists in north-east Nigeria.

The fighting between Boko Haram and rival militants from Islamic State West Africa Province (Iswap) broke out over the weekend in the village of Dogon Chiku, which lies on the shores of Lake Chad, a restive area located at the junction of Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

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Tanzania police arrest opposition party official after deadly election protests

Chadema party says deputy secretary general arrested and calls election of incumbent president fraudulent

Tanzanian authorities have detained a senior official from the main opposition party, Chadema, amid a spate of arrests in connection to deadly protests during elections last week.

More than 1,000 people were killed by security forces during the demonstrations, according to Chadema and human rights bodies. The Tanzanian government has said these figures were exaggerated but did not give its own figures.

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Trump says US will boycott G20 summit in South Africa, citing treatment of white farmers

Administration has long accused South Africa of allowing white Afrikaner farmers to be persecuted and attacked

Donald Trump said Friday that no US government officials would be attending the Group of 20 summit this year in South Africa, citing the country’s treatment of white farmers.

The US president had already announced he would not attend the annual summit for heads of state from the globe’s leading and emerging economies. JD Vance had been scheduled to attend in Trump’s place, but a person familiar with Vance’s plans who was granted anonymity to talk about his schedule said Vance would no longer travel there for the summit.

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Civil rescue groups in Mediterranean cut ties with Libyan coastguard

Accusations of violent interceptions and human rights violations levelled at EU-funded Libyan services by NGOs

More than a dozen NGO rescue vessels operating in the Mediterranean have suspended communication with the Libyan coastguard, citing escalating incidents of asylum seekers being violently intercepted at sea and taken to camps rife with torture, rape and forced labour.

The 13 search-and-rescue organisations described their decision as a rejection of mounting pressure by the EU, and Italy in particular, to share information with the Libyan coastguard, which receives training, equipment and funding from the EU.

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UK rejected atrocity prevention plans for Sudan despite warning of possible genocide

Exclusive: British government adopted ‘least ambitious’ option months before RSF’s massacres in El Fasher

Britain rejected atrocity prevention plans for Sudan despite intelligence warnings that the city of El Fasher would fall amid a wave of ethnic cleansing and possible genocide, according to a report seen by the Guardian.

Government officials turned down the plans six months into the 18-month siege of El Fasher in favour of the “least ambitious” option of four presented.

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Sudanese militia group accused of war crimes agrees to a ceasefire

International mediators broker three-month halt to civil war as further evidence emerges of mass civilian killings

A Sudanese paramilitary group accused of killing thousands of unarmed civilians in an ethnically motivated massacre has agreed to a truce.

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which is facing mounting criticism over apparent war crimes committed by its fighters in the city of El Fasher last month, said it had agreed to a “humanitarian ceasefire” put forward by the quad countries of the US, Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

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US ends deportation protection for South Sudanese nationals

South Sudanese people with temporary protected status now have 60 days to leave

The US is ending temporary deportation protection for South Sudanese nationals, which for more than a decade allowed people from the east African country to stay in the US after escaping conflict.

In a notice published on Wednesday, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said conditions in South Sudan no longer met the statutory requirements for temporary protected status. The agency said South Sudanese nationals with status through the programme had 60 days to leave the US or face deportation.

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Ugandans view Mamdani’s NYC win as a ‘beacon of hope’ amid democratic struggle

Ugandans react with joy after Kampala-born Mamdani’s victory during a trying time for democracy in east Africa

Ugandans reacted with joy and hope to the news that Kampala-born Zohran Mamdani had been elected mayor of New York City, amid a stormy democratic and rights environment in east Africa.

Mamdani, who was born in Uganda 34 years ago to a family of Indian origin, on Tuesday defeated former governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa to become the city’s first Muslim mayor and the first of south Asian heritage.

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Libyan general accused of crimes against humanity arrested in Tripoli

Osama Almasri Najim was arrested in Italy in January on an ICC warrant, only to be released and flown back to Libya

A Libyan general wanted by the international criminal court (ICC) for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity has been arrested in Tripoli.

Osama Almasri Najim, the former chief of Libya’s judicial police, was arrested over allegations of torturing prisoners, leading to the death of one, at Tripoli’s main prison, Libya’s prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday.

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Sudan civil war spiralling out of control, UN secretary general says

António Guterres calls for the violence to end but there appears little appetite for ceasefire proposed by US

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said the war in Sudan is spiralling out of control as he called for a halt to the fighting and an end to the violence.

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which are reportedly backed by the United Arab Emirates, seized El Fasher in Darfur last week after a near 18-month siege. Some of its soldiers have posted videos of civilians being shot, including in the town’s maternity hospital.

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Teenager taken to Ghana away from UK ‘gang culture’ to stay for now, court rules

Boy had sought court order to force his return, after parents took him on trip to Ghana and returned without him

A British teenager whose parents left him in Ghana, fearing he was at risk from “gang culture” in the UK, should stay there until at least the end of his GCSE exams, a judge sitting at London’s high court has ruled.

The boy took legal action against his parents, seeking a court order that would force his return, after they enrolled him in a boarding school and arranged for him to live with extended family in Ghana without telling him.

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As criticism grows, is UAE ready to walk away from Sudan’s RSF militia?

After mass killings in El Fasher and four years on from a coup, UAE now admits its Sudan policy has gone wrong

The United Arab Emirates’ diplomatic machine is for the first time admitting to mistakes in its Sudan policy after suffering reputational damage over its support for the Rapid Support Forces, the Sudanese paramilitary group that has carried out mass killings in El Fasher since it captured the city late last month.

Speaking in Bahrain on Sunday, Anwar Gargash, the UAE’s senior diplomatic envoy, said the UAE and others had been wrong not to impose sanctions on the instigators of the 2021 coup – led jointly by the RSF and the army – that overthrew Sudan’s transitional civilian government.

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My Father’s Shadow looms over competition at British independent film awards

Akinola Davies Jr’s Nigeria-set drama has 12 nominations, including best film and besr director

Nigeria-set drama My Father’s Shadow is the leading contender at this year’s British independent film awards (Bifas), after it scooped 12 nominations, including best British independent film, best director for Akinola Davies Jr, and best screenplay for Davies’s brother Wale. The film came out ahead of Pillion, adapted from Adam Mars-Jones’s coming-of-age relationship story, which got 10 nominations, and biopic I Swear, which got nine.

My Father’s Shadow, which stars Sope Dirisu and is Davies’s debut feature as a director, premiered at the Cannes film festival to admiring reviews. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw described it as “a transparently personal project and a coming-of-age film in its (traumatised) way, a moving account of how, just for one day, two young boys glimpse the real life and real history of their father who has been mostly absent for much of their lives”. The film is yet to be released in the UK, but has already come out in Nigeria.

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He told the world what was happening in El Fasher. Then they sought him out. How Sudan lost ‘a true hero of the war’

For months, Mohamed Khamis Douda shared accounts of what life was like under siege. He was killed when RSF fighters finally took the Darfur city, raising fears activists and civil society figures are being hunted down

For months, militiamen on the perimeters of El Fasher have asked those few who managed to escape the besieged Sudanese city whether Mohamed Khamis Douda was still inside. They shared videos threatening to kill him, which, as they hoped, made their way to the activist.

Even as the hunger and fear of living under siege and bombardment made him desperate to leave, Douda remained inside El Fasher, constantly working to let the outside world know what was happening to the people there. Then, on Sunday 26 October, Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces overran the city and it was too late. His friends and family have confirmed to the Guardian that Douda has been killed.

Monday 4 August

I awake each morning tired from the efforts of the previous day. Our first struggle is the merciless hunger and the second is the constant artillery shelling.

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How al-Qaida-linked jihadist group JNIM is bringing Mali to its knees

Political instability and fuel shortages caused by rebel group is driving Mali to brink of becoming Islamist republic

Armed groups of JNIM fighters have blocked key routes used by fuel tankers, disrupting supply lines to the capital Bamako and other regions across Mali.

The al-Qaida-linked jihadist group Jama’at Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) is gradually converging on Mali’s capital, Bamako, with increasing attacks in recent weeks, including on army-backed convoys.

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UN expert urged to investigate Lebanon over alleged torture of Egyptian-Turkish poet

Abdulrahman al-Qaradawi has been imprisoned in the UAE for almost a year for criticising Emirati, Egyptian and Saudi governments

The UN special rapporteur on torture is being urged to investigate Lebanon’s role in the treatment of the Egyptian-Turkish poet and activist Abdulrahman al-Qaradawi, a dissident who has been imprisoned in the United Arab Emirates for more than 10 months over a post he made on social media.

Legal counsel representing Qaradawi filed a complaint to the UN rapporteur on Thursday, asking it to examine the situation.

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Tanzania’s Hassan declared landslide winner in election that triggered violent protests

The result hands Hassan, who took power in 2021, a five-year term following opposition repression

Tanzania’s president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, has been declared the winner of the country’s disputed election with more than 97% of the vote following violent protests across the country earlier in the week.

The landslide result announced by Tanzania’s electoral commission hands Hassan, who took power in 2021 after the death in office of her predecessor, a five-year term to govern the east African country of 68 million people.

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UN approves resolution supporting Morocco’s claim to Western Sahara

Move is strongest endorsement yet for retained rule over disputed territory, despite fierce opposition from Algeria

The UN security council has approved a US-backed resolution supporting Morocco’s claim to the disputed Western Sahara, despite fierce opposition from Algeria.

Although Friday’s vote was divided, the resolution offers the strongest endorsement yet for Morocco’s plan to keep sovereignty over the territory, which also has backing from most European Union members and a growing number of African allies.

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Sudan’s RSF accused of ‘PR stunt’ after arresting fighters behind civilian killings

Reports of indiscriminate violence and ethnic targeting in El Fasher have led to growing global outrage

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces claim to have arrested several of their fighters after outrage over the extent of killing in the city of El Fasher continues to build.

But the paramilitary group’s move has been greeted with scepticism from human rights campaigners and Sudanese people, who see it as an attempt to temper criticism over the violence.

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About 700 killed in Tanzania election protests, opposition says

Demonstrators took to streets after president’s main challengers were excluded from ballot

About 700 people have been killed during three days of election protests in Tanzania, the main opposition party has said.

Protests erupted on election day on Wednesday over what demonstrators said was the stifling of the opposition after the exclusion of key candidates from the presidential ballot.

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