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Somali government forces with the support of African Union troops have this morning captured three strategic towns from the al-Qaeda affiliated terror group al-Shabaab.
In simultaneous operations, the joint forces faced little resistance as they secured the towns of Janalle, Aw Dhigle and Barire, located South West of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, along the Shabelle River.
The Government of Sudan and one of the main rebel factions in Darfur have signed a ceasefire agreement to move the peace process forward, the United Nations-African Union mediator announced today.
“This is a major breakthrough in the road towards a comprehensive and lasting peace accord in Darfur,” said Aïchatou Mindaoudou, who is also the Acting Joint Special Representative in the UN-AU peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID).
More than 100 civilians and soldiers were killed on Feb. 8 by anti-government militia fighters and cattle raiders in Southern Sudan’s Jonglei state, according to State Governor Kuol Manyang and military spokesman Philip Aguer.
Cattle herders from the Lou Nuer tribe and an army platoon that was accompanying them were attacked as they travelled from their wet season home to the Sobat River, where they water their cattle during the dry season, the officials said.
A gunbattle between Malian soldiers and suspected Islamist fighters erupted in the center of Gao on Sunday, as militants defied a security lock-down by French and Malian troops following two suicide bomb attacks in two days.
Residents and journalists reported heavy gunfire and several explosions near a police station in the sprawling Saharan town, the largest in northern Mali. They said government forces were fighting rebels from the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, or MUJAO.
Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA
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French and Chadian forces in Mali on Friday took control of the airfield and town of Tessalit in the remote northeast, near the border with Algeria, France’s defence ministry said.
The Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) has claimed that fighters of a Malian Islamist group have arrived in North Darfur state as they fled northern Mali after attacks by the French and Malian armies.
In a statement released on Tuesday, SRF spokesperson Abul Gasim Imam affirmed that members of Ansar Dine group entered into the country through Al-Kufra, Libya, in full co-ordination with the Sudanese government and the North Darfur authorities.
Pro-autonomy Tuareg rebels in Mali said on Tuesday they had occupied the northeastern town of Menaka, seeking to extend their presence as they push for talks with the government after the retreat of al-Qaeda-linked insurgents.
It was not possible to independently verify whether the MNLA’s fighters had entered Menaka, some 250 km (156 miles) southeast of their stronghold of Kidal. Menaka was a cradle of their uprising last year that seized northern Mali but was subsequently hijacked by al-Qaeda and its allies.