#Mali’s military leadership has said it thwarted a coup attempt and arrested two generals as well as a French national who they say is a suspected foreign agent, among others.

Combat resumes between #M23, Congo army in east #DRC. Violent combat has broken out between the Congolese army and the M23 armed group in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo despite a peace treaty, security and local sources told AFP on Monday.

Kinshasa and the M23 signed a declaration of principles on July 19, in which they committed to a permanent ceasefire, following the signing of a peace agreement between the DRC and Rwanda in late June.

However, these accords have not stopped the violence, and fighting between Rwanda-backed M23 and local groups affiliated with Kinshasa has intensified since Friday around the town of Mulamba, in South Kivu province.

The M23 pushed back militiamen and Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC) soldiers present in the area after clashes involving heavy and light weapons, according to local and security sources.

On Sunday, both sides sent in reinforcements, the sources reported.

Fighting was still ongoing Monday around Mulamba, a town located about 80 kilometres (50 miles) southwest of Bukavu, the provincial capital.

“Both forces are using heavy weapons” and “bombs are being fired in all directions at Mulamba,” said a resident contacted by telephone by AFP on Monday.

Neither side has provided any casualty figures.

In a statement Monday, M23 spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka accused Kinshasa of conducting “offensive military maneuvers with a view to a large-scale conflict.”

Since its resurgence in 2021, M23 has seized large swathes of territory in resource-rich eastern DRC, including the major cities of Goma in January and Bukavu in February.

More than two million people have fled violence in the east since January, according to a report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs published in late July.

#Mali arrested about 20 soldiers suspected of plotting to overthrow the junta that seized power in a coup, with authorities confirming an attempt to destabilize the country’s institutions.

#Limpopo police are searching for a man who stabbed another man during a heated argument over a trolley outside a supermarket in Church Street in the Polokwane CBD.

#Burkina Faso has suspended Radio Omega’s licence for three months over alleged insults to the military government, continuing a pattern of media crackdowns since Captain Ibrahim #Traore’s 2022 coup.

#Mali ex-prime minister to stand trial over social media post, lawyer says:

Mara is one of few public figures in the country who has been willing to openly question moves taken this year to dissolve political parties and grant the military government, led by Assimi Goita, a five-year mandate without elections.

Last month, authorities formally approved Goita’s five-year term and said it could be renewed as many times as necessary as Mali struggles to respond to a long-running jihadist insurgency.

Goita assumed power after military coups in 2020 and 2021.

Mara had been summoned several times for questioning this month over a social media post dated July 4 expressing solidarity with government critics who have been jailed.

#Jihadists kill ‘dozens’ of soldiers and civilians in Burkina Faso. In a “major” attack carried out on Monday, a military unit in the village of Dargo was targeted by “armed terrorist groups”, leaving “several dozens of deaths on each side”, one of the regional security sources said.

The other security source told AFP that jihadists waged a second attack on Monday, on a supply convoy going between the towns of Dori and Gorom-Gorom.

“In that ambush, several soldiers were killed, along with civilians, notably truck drivers transporting supplies,” said the source.

A manager in a road haulage company confirmed the convoy attack, and said that “some 20 drivers and their apprentices were killed”.

The attack on the military base was claimed by the JNIM, an armed Islamist militant group affiliated with Al-Qaeda that is active also in Mali and Niger.

The JNIM has risen to become the most influential jihadist threat in the Sahel region, according to the United Nations.

Burkina Faso has been plagued by attacks by the JNIM and the Islamic State group since 2015.

delegations from the #DRC and Rwanda in Washington, D.C. for the inaugural Joint Oversight Committee meeting and the initialing of the Regional Economic Integration Framework (REIF) Tenets.

The sustained stability of the FX market is beginning to reflect positively on the financial performance of listed companies as the combined six-month profit of the three listed cement-producing giants. #nigeria

It is an alarming experience for students of Government Secondary School Bachirawa, Ungogo LGA in Kano State.
The school’s classrooms lack windows, furniture, and doors. The walls are cracked, and students sit under exposed ceilings. #Nigeria