Russian military trainers arrived this week in Niger to reinforce the country’s air defenses as the west African nation pulls away from close cooperation with the U.S. in counterterrorism efforts, turning instead to Russia for help as it fights Islamic insurgents.

The mass abduction of 276 schoolgirls a decade ago in Nigeria marked a new era of fear in Africa’s most populous country. Since the Chibok abductions in April 2014, at least 1,500 students have been kidnapped, as armed groups increasingly find in them a lucrative way to fund other crimes.

Three Tanzanian soldiers have been killed and three others injured after a mortar shell landed near their camp in eastern Congo, where they’re deployed under the the banner of a regional bloc to help quell violence.

A makeshift ferry overcrowded with residents reportedly fleeing a feared cholera outbreak capsized off Mozambique’s northern coast, killing at least 98 people including children, local media said Monday.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame blamed the inaction of the international community for allowing the 1994 genocide to happen as Rwandans on Sunday commemorated 30 years since an estimated 800,000 people were killed by government-backed extremists.

Zimbabwe, in its latest bid to end the serial collapse of the local dollar, has replaced it with a new unit called ZiG, which will be backed by a basket of foreign currencies, gold and other precious metals.

It has been nearly a year since fighting broke out between the military, headed by Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), headed by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

Civilian deaths from drone and air strikes soared in Africa to 1,418 in 2023 from 149 in 2020. “We’re seeing a pattern of them being used in ways they are causing an awful lot of harm to civilians,” said Nathan Allen, associate professor at the US defense department’s Africa Center for Strategic Studies.

The sheer availability of Starlink on the black market suggests that its misuse is a systemic global problem, raising questions about the company’s control of a system with clear national security dimensions.

American forces are not yet being kicked out of Niger, a top Pentagon policymaker told House lawmakers Thursday just days after the country’s military junta announced it was severing ties with the U.S. military.