Ethiopia warned Friday it could deploy its “entire defensive capability” after advances by Tigrayan rebels into neighbouring regions.

The government “is being pushed to mobilise and deploy the entire defensive capability of the state if its humanitarian overtures for a peaceful resolution of the conflict remain unreciprocated,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

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Forces loyal to Vice President Riek Machar and a splinter group have clashed in South Sudan, but the two sides gave conflicting reports on Saturday - with each claiming to have killed dozens of soldiers from the other side.

The latest clashes, threatening the country’s fragile peace process, occurred in Magenis in the Upper Nile region, between forces loyal to Machar and those backing First Lieutenant General Simon Gatwech Dual.

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A city in southwestern Afghanistan has become the country’s first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban in recent years.

Multiple local officials said the Taliban had captured Zaranj, in Nimroz province, on Friday afternoon, in a significant blow to government forces.

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Rebels from Ethiopia’s war-hit Tigray region on Thursday seized Lalibela, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the neighbouring Amhara region famed for its 12th-century rock-hewn churches, residents told AFP.

“They came in the afternoon, and there was not any fighting. There were no security forces around. The TPLF forces are in the town now,” said one resident, referring to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.

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Fighting is raging around three major cities in southern and western Afghanistan as Taliban militants seek to seize them from government forces.

Taliban fighters have entered parts of Herat, Lashkar Gah and Kandahar.

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