Gaza, Pakistan, Senegal
Today's three stories you should know
Gaza
A six-year-old Palestinian girl was among two people killed in an Israeli strike on a tent in which at least 17 people, including children, were also wounded, health officials said. The girl, Menna Abu Libda, was killed alongside 31-year-old woman Hanan Mahmoud in the strike on an area for displaced people. Witnesses reported that the attack was carried out by two helicopters – the Israeli army said it had targeted combatants in the area but provided no further comment. In footage shared on social media, Menna’s father can be seen weeping over her dead body on the floor of a clinic. At least 900 people have been killed by Israeli attacks on Gaza since an ostensible ceasefire was agreed in October.
More from Reuters here.
Pakistan
The death toll from a suicide attack on a train carrying military personnel and their families in Pakistan has risen to at least 30, authorities said. The train was traveling through the city of Quetta when it was rammed by an explosives-packed car in an attack claimed by Balochistan separatist fighters. The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA)has been fighting for independence for decades, arguing that local people are not given a fair share of the region’s abundant mineral resources. In March last year, the BLA attacked a train in the same area, taking hundreds of people hostage. Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif strongly condemned yesterday's incident, calling it “cowardly act of terrorism.”
More from Sky News here.
Senegal
A political crisis in Senegal deepened when the speaker of parliament resigned two days after Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko was sacked by the president. The move capped months of public sniping between Sonko and President Bassirou Diomaye Faye amid a faltering economy and disagreements on policies such as the negotiation of a loan from the International Monetary Fund. Speaker El Malick Ndiaye said he had stepped down after "deep reflection" on "the sense of statehood." Sonko, hugely popular with Senegal’s youth, had been barred from running in a presidential election in 2024, so then ally Faye ran in his place and appointed him prime minister upon victory. The row now sets up the possibility of a face-off between the two at the next election in 2029.
More from BBC here.