#KYIV, Ukraine -Ukrainian troops have for the first time engaged with North Korean units that were recently deployed to help Russia in the war with its neighbour, Ukraine's defence minister said Tuesday.

Another #Kyiv official said Ukraine's army fired artillery at North Korean soldiers in Russia's Kursk border region.

The comments were the first official reports that Ukrainian and North Korean forces have engaged in combat, following a deployment that has given the war a new complexion as it approaches its 1,000-day milestone.
Neither claim could be independently confirmed.

The Ukrainian and North Korean troops engaged in “small-scale” fighting that amounted to the start of Pyongyang’s direct involvement in Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov told South Korea’s public broadcaster KBS in an interview.

North Korean soldiers are mixed with Russian troops and are misidentified on their uniforms, Umerov was quoted as saying by KBS. That makes it hard to say whether there were any North Korean casualties, he said.

Umerov reportedly said he expects that five North Korean units, each consisting of about 3,000 soldiers, will be deployed to the Kursk area.

Meanwhile, Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the counter-disinformation branch of Ukraine’s Security Council, said “the first North Korean troops have already been shelled, in the Kursk region.”

He provided no further details.

Western governments had expected that the North Korean soldiers would be sent to Russia’s Kursk border region, where a 3-month-old incursion by the Ukrainian army is the first occupation of Russian territory since World War II and has embarrassed the Kremlin.

U.S., South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence assessments say up to 12,000 North Korean combat troops are being sent by Pyongyang to the war under a pact with Moscow.

The Pentagon said Monday that at least 10,000 North Korean soldiers were in Russia near Ukraine’s border.

More troops from North Korea’s 1.3-million-strong army may be slated for deployment in Russia, according to an analysis published Tuesday by the European Council on Foreign Relations, an international think tank.

The ramifications extend far beyond Europe, it said.

The #Nigerian president and the UK prime minister held discreet talks at 10 Downing Street in early October. Since July, Britain's new Labour government has stepped up its contacts with Nigeria, where the UK foreign secretary is expected on 4 November.

#Botswana president concedes election defeat, BDP loses power after 58 years

President Mokgweetsi Masisi says he will ‘step aside’ after shock outcome for the governing Botswana Democratic Party.

#NAIROBI, October 21. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which take part in the conflict in Sudan, could have downed a cargo #plane, which supposedly carried Russian #citizens, having mistaken it for a military plane, the Sudan War Monitor website reported.

According to the report, one RSF commander said on a video, published by the militia, that it downed an "Egyptian Antonov plane" using "guided missiles." The website points out that, previously, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo accused Egypt of engaging its planes in the conflict - an allegation rejected by Cairo.

The Sudan War Monitor claims that an Il-76 plane was downed instead, with one crew member allegedly having an ID of Viktor Granov - chief engineer or Airline Transport Incorporation FZC, based in the UAE and affiliated with Kyrgyzstan. Another crew member had a Russian passport. No survivors have been reported, and the bulk of the plane has burned, the report says.

Previously, the Russian embassy in Sudan said that it is investigating the circumstances of the crash of a plane that could have potentially carried Russian citizens. According to the embassy, the "situation is complicated by the fact that the crash site is located in the region of Darfur, which is currently engulfed in fighting.".

#Ramaphosa orders probe into Guptas' breakfast briefings, which cost the #SABC R20m

#Ghana: Youth Harvest Foundation Commissions Borehole for Yikene Community #News #borehole #BoreholeCommissioning #GilbertAzeemTiroog #GNA

Kaizer Chiefs' coach Nasreddine Nabi admitted that they weren't at their best in their 4-0 win over #SuperSport United, but got the victory in honour of the club's chairman

The DR #Congo government has launched fresh military operations in North Kivu after a potential deal to ease tensions in the province fell through. They are no longer aimed solely at the #M23 rebel group, but also at the Rwandan #FDLR, one of Kinshasa's main allied forces in the conflict

Ending conflict in #DRC, #Sudan, lifting sanctions against #Zimbabwe key priorities for #Angola.

It is with a very particular sense of honour that I address you and all the participants in this 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, which is taking place within a very worrying international context, where tensions in international relations are worsening due to the multiplicity of conflicts of different natures and intensities in various parts of our planet.

It is understandable, of course, that in an environment of such instability and insecurity, it is much more challenging to achieve the major Sustainable Development Goals and others set by this organisation, so that we can achieve all the goals we have set ourselves.

Since the creation of the United Nations, after the end of the Second World War, the peoples of our planet have longed for peaceful coexistence at a global level, believing that any episodes that could jeopardise harmony, peace and universal security would be the object of careful attention and preventive measures taken within the framework of our organisation, so that they would not degenerate into conflicts and wars that would bring back to life the distressing moments experienced during the period from 1939 to 1945.

Almost eight decades on, the objective observation we can make today is that not only has this perspective not been realised, but we seem to be moving away from the founding purposes of the United Nations.

Faced with this reality, we need to consider where we have failed and what collective measures we should take to make the United Nations' intervention more active in the search for solutions that contribute to conflict prevention, the strengthening of world peace and security, the strengthening of trade and international co-operation, to ensure the prosperity of nations and the wellbeing of the peoples of our planet.

Today we are witnessing an attempt to undermine, ignore or even replace the role and importance of the United Nations in resolving the major issues that afflict humanity, particularly those that have to do with universal peace and security.

In this context, there is no more appropriate stage than this Magna Assembly to reverse this reality and assume the urgent need to reform this institution, placing special emphasis on adapting the Security Council to the realities of the contemporary world.

Its current format and composition still reflect the reality of the post-war period, far outstripped by the time and development of other regions of the planet, many of them colonised countries that are now independent members of the United Nations.

The reform of the United Nations Security Council and of the international financial institutions that emerged from Brettonwoods is urgent and necessary in order to give a voice to the countries of the global south, namely Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and the Indian sub-continent.

#Gabon marks the first anniversary of its "liberation coup"