Niger, Gaza, DR Congo
Today's three stories you should know
Niger
The death toll from an attack on the main airport in Niger’s capital Niamey has risen to at least 35, the defense ministry said, adding that the dead comprised 22 attackers, 11 soldiers and two civilians. The attack, the second on the airport in just five months, was claimed by the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), which has been growing in strength in recent months as it seeks to overthrow Niger’s military rulers. The army seized power in a 2023 coup, saying it was necessary to fight back the rebel, but it has so far had little success. Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, all military governments, are locked in a cross-border battle with several al-Qaeda- and ISIS-linked groups.
More from BBC here.
Episode 4 of The Proximities Podcast, a conversation with Taiwanese-American writer and professor Michelle Kuo, is now available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
Gaza
Children caught up in war were victims of a record number of violations last year, including killings, rape and recruitment as fighters, according to a U.N. report, and for the first time it was government forces and not armed groups that carried out the most atrocities. Nearly 25,000 children were affected by violations, which also included abductions, attacks on schools and denial of aid, with a third of them girls and thousands of children subjected to multiple violations. Topping the list of those responsible for the abuses were the Israeli military and security forces, with 12,445 recorded violations, followed by the Democratic Republic of Congo, with 4,114 violations. The governments of Myanmar and Somalia, and armed groups in Nigeria were reported to have committed over 2,000 violations.
More from AP here.
DR Congo
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda has claimed 200 lives in the month since it was declared, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said, making it the worst on record for that stage. There have been 894 confirmed cases and up to 35,000 suspected potential contacts. “For those 800 confirmed cases, we should have between 17,000 to 35,000 contacts that should be in our contact list,” Dr. Wessam Mankoula, a medical epidemiologist at Africa CDC, said. “Currently only around 4,000 contacts have been tracked and are being evaluated, less than 15%.” The outbreak is of the rare Bundibugyo strain, which has no approved vaccine, and the response has been complicated by the epicenter’s location in a conflict zone.
More from Africa News here.