Senegal’s army says 10 people have been killed by separatist rebels in the country’s restive south.

Army spokesman Col. Aboubakrine Kebe said Tuesday that the civilians were working in the jungles of the Casamance region when they were attacked by the fighters Monday.

The Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance has waged a low-level insurgency against Senegal’s government since the early 1980s, though attacks have declined in recent years.

Casamance has been plagued by sporadic violence as the rebels have fought for independence and against each other.

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The new Libyan government is well on its way to help Syrian fighters against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime with arms after a meeting held in Istanbul between the two sides, a newspaper reported Saturday.

A Libyan source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Britain’s Telegraph, that the aid will extend beyond providing the Syrian fighters with arms but that Libya could also offer potential volunteers to help up rebels in their struggle against Assad’s regime.

“There is something being planned to send weapons and even Libyan fighters to Syria,” said the Libyan source.

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In a huge setback to Maoists, its top leader Kishanji was today killed in a gunbattle with security forces in a forest in West Midnapore district of West Bengal, a day after he narrowly escaped from there.

The body of 58-year-old Molajula Koteswar Rao, better known as Kishanji, was found and identified after the encounter, a top counter-insurgency force official said.

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The Sudanese army said on Tuesday that it has taken control of another position held by the rebel Sudan - People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) twenty days after the capture of the rebel stronghold of Kurmuk in Blue Nile border state.

The Sudanese army, which is fighting the SPLM-N in the Blue Nile since the first of last September, intensified its efforts to clear the region from the rebels pushing them South in a series of attacks hampered by the rainy season.

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Five ethnic armed groups, including two major Karen and Shan rebel organizations, held peace talks with a Naypyidaw delegation at the Thai-Burmese border on Saturday and three informally agreed a ceasefire, according to sources.

The Karen National Union (KNU) and Shan State Army-South (SSA-South) met with a Burmese government delegation led by Aung Min, the minister for railways, who was sent by President Thein Sein.

“We talked about peace. We asked what was the role for ethnic armed groups in the government’s peace process,” said Maj Sai Lao Hseng, a spokesperson for the SSA-South.

“The Minister, Aung Min, explained to us that there are three steps toward the emergence of peace—a ceasefire, cooperation between ceasefire groups and Naypyidaw for development, and a meeting hosted by the government to tackle unsolved political conflicts,” he added.

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At least 40 al Shabaab fighters are reported to have been seriously injured following fighting between them and Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government troops in Kulbiyow and Badhaadhe areas in Lower Juba.

Kenya Defence Forces and TFG troops backed by Ras Kamboni militia have been slowly moving into al Shabaab strongholds and taking over training camps in the joint quest to rout the militia.

The injured fighters who have since withdrawn from their camps were transported from a forested area between Kulbiyow and Badhaadhe in their battle wagons to a hospital.

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Several hundred Ethiopian troops crossed on Saturday into southern and central Somalia, local elders said, but Addis Ababa dismissed the reports as ‘absolutely not true.’

‘There are several hundred Ethiopian troops here in lorries and some armoured vehicles too,’ said elder Abdi Ibrahim Warsame, speaking by telephone from Gurel town, in Somalia’s central Galgudud region.

Ethiopian forces were also reported in the Hiran region at the town of Beletweyne, some 30 kilometres (18 miles) into Somalia, an area contested by Islamist al-Shabaab rebels and pro-government militia.

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