More than 3,000 people have been displaced by heavy clashes between Colombian non-state armed groups and the Venezuelan army in La Victoria and rural surroundings in Venezuela. Displaced communities are fleeing into Colombia, many in need of aid.

“It was reported that families continue to flee across the border in search of safety as the violence in the area has not completely stopped. People we have spoken with are terrified and fear for their lives,” said Dominika Arseniuk, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s (NRC) Country Director in Colombia.

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At least 11 people have been killed in three separate jihadist attacks in the western Tillaberi region that is close to Mali, local officials said.

The militants arrived in the villages on motorbikes on Wednesday and set classrooms on fire, looted a health centre and stole livestock.

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The Philippine military said Wednesday that its troops have killed at least 16 Muslim rebels aligned with the Islamic State group in a series of clashes over the last week that have displaced thousands of villagers in a southern province.

The heaviest fighting began March 17 and lasted four days in Maguindanao province’s Datu Saudi Ampatuan town, regional military spokesman Lt. Col. John Paul Baldomar said. He said troops killed 14 militants, from both the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and the Dawlah Islamiyah groups, and wounded another 25.

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Leader of the ISIS terrorist organization in the Sinai Peninsula, Salim Salma Said Mahmoud al-Hamadin, was killed during clashes with Bedouin and Egyptian forces near Al-Barth, south of Rafah and near the border with Israel, according to Arabic media. A bodyguard and escort were also detained.

Hamadin, referred to as the “most dangerous and oldest of the takfiri elements in the Sinai,” was responsible for the murder of hundreds of civilians and Egyptian soldiers, according to the reports. “Takfiri” is a word often used to refer to armed extremist groups, but originally referred to Muslim apostates or infidels.

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Saudi Arabia has announced a plan to offer its rivals in Yemen’s long-running war a nationwide ceasefire under the auspices of the United Nations, the kingdom’s foreign minister said.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, the kingdom’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, said the ceasefire proposed to the Houthi rebels is envisioned “for the entire conflict”, including allowing for the main airport in Yemen’s rebel-held capital, Sanaa, to reopen.

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The Turkish air force conducted its first strikes in 17 months against a zone in north Syria held by Kurdish militia on Saturday night, according to a UK-based activist group.

“A Turkish fighter jet has struck military positions of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Saida village in Ain Issa countryside… which caused loud explosions,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

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At least 31 soldiers were killed in an attack in northern Mali this week, an army officer said Wednesday, in one of the deadliest assaults on the military this year.

Dozens of assailants on motorbikes and pickup trucks on Monday stormed a military post southwest of the town of Ansongo, near the borders with Burkina Faso and Niger, the army said on social media.

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