#Ethiopia prepared to inaugurate Africa's largest hydroelectric project on Tuesday that has promised to revolutionise the country's energy sector but that has sparked diplomatic rows with downstream neighbours.

Umar Bulama lay among the corpses, hoping that Boko Haram fighters would mistake him for one of the dead after a brutal weekend attack on a northern Nigerian town.

Pressing his face “into the blood-soaked sand”, Bulama, 34, was lucky: he survived Friday’s assault on the northeastern town of Darul Jamal near the Cameroonian border.

The town was mostly abandoned after a Boko Haram assault about a decade ago, and people like Bulama had only started returning earlier this year, as the government moves to close down displaced persons camps.

But the night raid, in which the attackers torched homes, was a stark reminder that wide swathes of rural Nigeria are still outside government control, with authorities saying at least 63 were killed -- and local sources putting the toll around 90.

Eventually, Bulama, who sells firewood for a living, walked for hours until he reached a military checkpoint near the town of Banki.

“I escaped... but I left my neighbours behind forever,” he said.

#UN experts slam ‘widespread impunity’ in Burundi. United Nations experts on Monday voiced deep concerns about a surge in serious human rights violations in Burundi, including attacks against political opponents.

“These violations were allegedly committed by state agents or by individuals acting with their complicity,” they said, “in a climate of widespread impunity”.

The experts said that between January 2024 and May 2025, Burundian civil society organizations documented at least 200 cases of sexual violence, including child rape.

They also documented 58 enforced disappearances, 62 acts of torture, 892 arbitrary detentions, and 605 extrajudicial executions.

“We deplore the fact that these serious human rights violations are being used to intimidate the population during election periods, for the benefit of the ruling party,” the experts warned.

In a June election in the Great Lakes nation, the incumbent CNDD-FDD party swept 96 per cent of the vote and all 100 seats in parliament.

UN experts are independent figures appointed by the Human Rights Council, mandated to report their findings. They do not, therefore, speak for the United Nations itself.

President Evariste Ndayishimiye took the reins of the country in 2020 after the death of his predecessor, Pierre Nkurunziza, who ruled with an iron fist for 15 years.

Ndayishimiye has switched between signs of seeking to open up and toughening his control of the country including through attacks on human rights, according to non-government groups and UN experts.

#Ethiopia’s record of detaining journalists and attempts to control the media has caused concern as the country prepares for high-stakes election in 2026. Rights groups warn of a growing crackdown.

Former president Jacob Zuma has hailed KwaZulu-Natal police chief Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi as a “highly qualified whistleblower”, just like his controversial former spy boss, Arthur Fraser.

#War-displaced Sudanese return to shattered Khartoum eager to rebuild lives and homes.

Al-Tayeb had been displaced with her son Mohamed al-Khedr and their family at least four times since the civil war in the North African nation broke out over two years ago. They were displaced in different areas in Khartoum, yet nothing has ever felt as comforting as their house in the Al-Qawz district of Khartoum City.

She misses the photographs of her parents and late husband which were lost when her home was damaged by fire in March, along with all her other possessions. The loss of her home left her in tears and deep sorrow, she told The Associated Press.

The family was first displaced to the Hilaliya area, in Gezira province, taking nothing but the clothes they were wearing, until the RSF made advances in the province and forced them to return to Al-Qawz.

Al-Tayeb said RSF fighters then expelled her and her family, and they had to flee to east Khartoum onto Shendi and then Om Durman city.

“They looked very strange — indescribable — and their appearance was frightening,” she said of the RSF fighters who raided her home.

Al-Tayeb and her son are among roughly 1.2 million people who returned to Sudan between December 2024 and May this year, according to the latest estimates by the International Organization for Migration.
‘Dismantling of the infrastructure’

The UN’s refugee agency says more than 12 million people have been forcibly displaced since the current conflict began in April 2023, with 3.2 million Sudanese seeking refuge in neighboring countries.

The conflict has killed more than 40,000 people, pushed many to the brink of famine, and caused several disease outbreaks.

Khartoum was the epicenter of fighting at the start of the war, but the army said it had recaptured the capital earlier this year, including important landmarks such as the airport and ministerial buildings. Army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan returned to the capital in March for the first time since the war began when his military-led government had fled Khartoum for the Red Sea city of Port Sudan.

Mohanad Elbalal, cofounder of Khartoum Aid Kitchen, said that in areas recaptured by the military in Khartoum province people are returning to find their homes destroyed, neighborhoods shattered, often with no electricity and scarce food, water and services, but they’re returning to rebuild their homes.

In Khartoum City, electric substations have been destroyed and cables have been torn from the ground.

“In some areas in the Khartoum locality, there’s been a complete dismantling of the infrastructure,” Elbalal told AP. “Hospitals have even had their beds shipped out and stolen, along with mattresses.”

Of the more than 60 electricity and water facilities that have been partially or fully damaged as a result of the conflict, 16 served Khartoum, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data monitoring organization.

Altyeb Saad, spokesperson for the Khartoum province government, said 77 power transfer stations across the province have been looted and destroyed along with generators that distribute electricity to residential areas.

“Khartoum took serious steps towards repairment despite this destruction to rebuild the province,” he said, adding that the first phase of rebuilding is nearing completion. The work has focused on removing corpses, clearing unexploded ordnance and other war remnants, opening blocked roads and sanitizing neighborhoods to prevent disease outbreaks.

Khartoum officials are now focusing on restoring basic services, including electricity, water pumps, pavements, sidewalks, and solar panels. Saad said electricity is expected to return soon to the districts of Bahri, East Nile, and Khartoum.

Sudanese officials estimate that reconstruction of Khartoum will cost billions of dollars. Kholood Khair, founding director of Confluence Advisory, said the capital is likely to face another attack with the ongoing war and that would discourage international donors, who she noted would struggle to find a single trusted governing partner if they chose to help rebuild Khartoum.
No basic necessities

When Al-Tayeb returned to her damaged and empty home, even the gold that she had buried underneath the floors of her house had been stolen. With the RSF gone from their neighborhood, the family still struggles due to the lack of water, electricity and medical care, relying on costly drinking water and solar panels for power.

“There’s no services at all in Al-Qawz. Why did they liberate Khartoum if we’re left for months without basic services or at least make some of it available or provide some help?” she asked.

Her neighbor, Nasser al-Assad, has been displaced five times since the war began but returned to his home on July 26 to find it partially destroyed by shelling. He and his family are struggling to secure basic necessities.

Khartoum hasn’t invested in its rehabilitation and community members worked together to rewire electricity, install solar panels and connect taps to wells in some areas, Khair said.

AP footage this month showed young men in Khartoum taking it upon themselves to clean their neighborhoods. One man was seen clearing the entrance of the Al-Qawz social and sports club, while others swept away charred tree branches, trash and piles of ash.
‘Perfect recipe for organized crime’

Elbalal said a lack of essential infrastructure makes it difficult for people to find jobs, so they are heavily dependent on charity kitchens for food.

“It’s expensive for most people but at the moment most are spending the majority of their income on food because before that wasn’t even possible,” he said. “But they’re not getting the nutritional balance that they need. With the (charity) kitchens and the food they’re able to buy, the food situation is manageable.”

At the height of the conflict, Khartoum Aid Kitchen’s branches across the province served around 4,000 people a day. While that figure is down by half, many still need the kitchens to survive.

Khair said that while returnees to Khartoum are relieved their areas are free of the RSF, they still face insecurity. Acts of robbery, ethnic profiling and illegal occupation of homes continue in the absence of proper civil order and the rule of law.

“The lack of services and increased militarization ... are the perfect recipe for organized crime to take root,” she added.

Hazem Hassan And Fatma Khaled, The Associated Press

US$346 million U.S.-Nigeria arms deal sets rights groups on edge. Rights groups are questioning a multimillion-dollar arms sale by the United States to Nigeria as security forces in the west African nation continue to be accused of killing civilians with impunity.

Last week the State Department approved the possible sale of US$346 million in weapons, including bombs, rockets and munitions, to Nigeria, which is battling jihadist militants in the northeast, armed “bandit” gangs in the northwest and separatists in the southeast.

Civilians have often been caught in the crossfire: in May, the Nigerian air force bombed a local self-defence group in Zamfara state, mistaking them for bandits, residents told AFP.

The U.S. State Department’s own annual human rights report on Nigeria, released the same week it approved the weapons sale, warned of air strikes killing civilians and torture of detainees.

The sale announcement was “conspicuously silent on the Nigerian military’s record of serious human rights abuses and on what safeguards, if any, will be implemented”, Anietie Ewang, Nigeria researcher for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

In an interview with AFP, she added that the U.S. Congress, which has the authority to pause such sales, “really needs to ask these tough questions that the State Department is dancing around”.

Spokespeople for the Nigerian army, air force and the U.S. embassy in Abuja did not respond to requests for comment.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed in air strikes in Nigeria in recent years, though the authorities sometimes dispute hitting civilians.

In the Zamfara bombing, the air force said it struck “terrorists”.

Though violence linked to the Boko Haram uprising has receded since its peak between 2013 and 2015, Nigeria’s security situation remains dire as jihadist attacks continue, including from the Islamic State West Africa Province group.
US sales ‘good news’

The United States is not Nigeria’s top weapons supplier, typically trailing third behind China and Russia, according to a database on arms sales from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

In the past five years, that landscape has shifted, with China, Turkey, Brazil, Pakistan and the Netherlands making up the top suppliers, according to SIPRI’s database of publicly available “major conventional arms” transfers.

But “the U.S. still remains the beacon of democracy, and it should still be an example of holding those human rights standards”, Isa Sanusi, Nigeria director for Amnesty International, told AFP, calling on Washington to strictly monitor how its arms are used, and whether any are tied to abuses.

In a report released this month, the rights group warned of extrajudicial killings by the army in Nigeria’s southeast, along with civilian casualties from airstrikes.

Sadeeq Shehu, a former air force spokesman, told broadcaster Arise News that the sale was “very good news”, and served as proof of increased civilian protection mechanisms.

“There are alternatives, but then certain things, you have to get from the Americans,” Shehu said.
Previous sales paused

The United States supplied US$232 million in “security sector assistance”, US$593 million in foreign military sales and US$305 million in “direct commercial sales” from private companies to the country from 2000 to 2021, according to a report from Brown University.

But alleged corruption and rights abuses in Nigeria have weighed on the relationship in the past: under president Barack Obama, the United States government blocked arms sales to the country and mostly worked with neighbouring Chad and Niger in the fight against Boko Haram.

In 2021, U.S. lawmakers temporarily held up a sale of attack helicopters worth nearly US$1 billion over human rights concerns, though it ultimately went through.

Malik Samuel, an Abuja-based conflict researcher with the non-profit Good Governance Africa, said while a lack of accountability was a problem in the army, it was also worth questioning why the military’s superior weaponry has not led it to victory.

“You can’t tell me that the Boko Haram factions or even the bandits... have more sophisticated weapons,” he said, calling for an emphasis on better strategy and intelligence gathering.

#Drone attack destroys 16 trucks carrying UN food to Sudan’s famine-hit Darfur region.

UNITED NATIONS — A drone attack on a UN convoy set fire to all 16 trucks carrying desperately needed food to Sudan’s famine-hit North Darfur region and destroyed all the vehicles, the United Nations said Thursday.

UN associate spokesperson Daniela Gross told reporters that all drivers and personnel traveling with the World Food Program convoy are safe.

Gross said it was not yet clear who was responsibility for Wednesday’s attack, the second in the past three months to prevent a UN convoy from delivering to North Dafur. In early June, a convoy from the World Food Program and UNICEF was attacked while awaiting clearance to proceed to North Darfur’s besieged capital, el-Fasher, killing five people and injuring several others.

Sudan plunged into conflict in April 2023, when violence sparked by long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders erupted in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other regions, including western Darfur. Some 40,000 people have been killed and nearly 13 million displaced, UN agencies say. Nearly 25 million people are experiencing acute hunger, Gross said.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and their allies announced in late June that they had formed a parallel government in areas they control, mainly in the vast Darfur region where allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity are being investigated.

The RSF has encircled el-Fasher, where the UN says people are facing starvation. It is the only capital the paramilitary forces don’t hold in Darfur, which is comprised of five states.

Over a year ago, famine was declared in the Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur. The risk of famine has since spread to 17 areas in Darfur and the Kordofan region, which is adjacent to North Darfur and west of Khartoum, the UN says.

Edith M. Lederer, The Associated Press

Death toll rises to 50 in attack on mosque and villages in Nigeria, an official says.

ABUJA, #Nigeria — The death toll from a shooting at a mosque and attacks on several nearby villages in northwestern Nigeria has risen to 50, a local official said Wednesday.

Gunmen stormed the mosque in Unguwan Mantau town in Katsina state during morning prayers on Tuesday, according to lawmaker Aminu Ibrahim.

“The bandits killed 30 people and burnt 20 others during attacks on several villages,” Ibrahim told the state parliament. Authorities earlier reported at least 13 people killed at the mosque.

There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Such attacks are common in Nigeria’s northwestern and north-central regions, where herders and farmers often clash over limited access to land and water. An attack last month in north-central Nigeria killed 150 people.

The conflict has become deadlier in recent years, with authorities and analysts warning that more herdsmen are taking up arms.

On Tuesday the Katsina state commissioner, Nasir Mu’azu, said the army and police have deployed in the area of Unguwan Mantau to prevent further attacks, adding that gunmen often hide among farm crops during the rainy season to carry out assaults on communities.

He said the mosque attack was likely in retaliation for a raid by Unguwan Mantau townspeople over the weekend in which several gunmen were ambushed and killed.

Dozens of armed groups take advantage of the limited security presence in Nigeria’s mineral-rich regions, attacking villages and along major roads.

The farmers accuse the herders, mostly of Fulani origin, of grazing their livestock on their farms and destroying their produce. The herders insist that the lands are grazing routes first backed by law in 1965, five years after the country’s independence.

Separate from that conflict, Nigeria is battling to contain Boko Haram insurgents in the northeast, where some 35,000 civilians have been killed and more than 2 million displaced, according to the United Nations.

Dyepkazah Shibayan, The Associated Press

#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.