Djibouti
At least 139 people, including at least 15 children, drowned after a boat capsized while sailing from Djibouti to Yemen, according to the United Nations' International Organization for Migration (IOM). About 84 passengers from the vessel, which was carrying more than 300 people, are unaccounted for, meaning the death toll may rise. There were around 82 survivors, the IOM said, all of whom are Ethiopian nationals. People fleeing war and poverty, many from Ethiopia and Somalia, often risk perilous crossings to Yemen, hoping to go on to wealthy Gulf countries in search of work. In 2025, more than 900 people died or went missing along the route, according to IOM’s Missing Migrants Project.
More from Reuters here.
Pakistan
Pakistan has declared a state of emergency in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan, and suspended its government, run by jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s PTI party, as his supporters plan a march on the capital Islamabad to demand his release. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi accused the PTI of failing to tackle rebels, who Pakistan says are supported by Afghanistan, in favor of concentrating on securing Khan’s release. The former cricket star fell out with the military, considered by most to be the main arbiter of politics in Pakistan, before he was ousted by parliament in 2022 and then arrested on corruption charges the following year. Naqvi has warned marchers they will be forcibly stopped from entering Islamabad.
More from AP here.
Guinea-Bissau
A medical trial funded by the United States that will withhold hepatitis B vaccines from thousands of newborn babies in Guinea-Bissau has been given the green light despite howls of protest. The trial, which will be carried out by Danish researchers, appears central to efforts by anti-vaccine U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to slash vaccine provision at home. Late last year, Kennedy’s advisers removed universal hepatitis B vaccine recommendations for American infants. The trial will reportedly involve 14,000 babies in Guinea-Bissau, which has some of the highest rates of hepatitis B in the world, with the vaccine withheld from half of them for the first six weeks of their lives. “He’s taking advantage of a developing country,” said Paul Offit, an infectious disease physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, referring to Kennedy. “Is it because children in Africa are more expendable than children here?”
More from the Guardian here.