Burkina Faso, Lebanon, Sudan

Today's three stories you should know

Burkina Faso

At least 20 people, including eight Ghanaian tomato traders said to have been “burned beyond recognition,” were killed in an attack in Burkina Faso as an insurgency continues to heap pressure on the country’s military government. Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, a powerful armed group operating across the Sahel region, claimed responsibility for the attack, which was one of a spate in recent days. The western Sahel has been at the center of a conflict between the governments of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger and armed groups with links to al-Qaeda and ISIS for years. Burkina Faso's military ruler, the hugely popular Capt. Ibrahim Traoré, seized power in a 2022 coup, promising to defeat the rebels.

More from BBC here.

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Lebanon

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem has criticized Lebanon’s government over plans to disarm the group at the behest of Israel. Qassem’s remarks came in a televised speech marking the killings of three of Hezbollah’s leaders by Israel, as Lebanese military leaders briefed the cabinet on the plan to bring all arms under state control. Qassem hit out at what he called "continuous concessions" to Tel Aviv despite it carrying out strikes in southern Lebanon on an almost daily basis since ostensibly agreeing to a ceasefire with Hezbollah more than a year ago.

More from the New Arab here.

Sudan

At least 28 people have been killed and dozens wounded in a drone strike on a market in Sudan’s Kordofan region, a rights group said, as the country’s civil war nears its third anniversary. The Emergency Lawyers activist organization, which did not say who was behind the attack, reported that the death toll was likely to rise and warned that a surge in drone attacks was having a severe impact on the civilian population. The conflict erupted in April 2023 when Sudan’s military rulers fell out with their allies in the powerful Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia. Since then, Sudan has become the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

More from Africa News here.