Burkina Faso
Yet more innocents killed in an attack in Burkina Faso. Rebels today killed 30 civilians, 14 soldiers and three government-allied militiamen in an attack near the town of Arbinda, according to state media. As mentioned in several previous newsletters, the western Sahel region has for years been the epicenter of a conflict between the governments of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger and armed groups with links to al-Qaeda and ISIS. The violence appears to have spiralled in recent months.
More from Africa News here.
Afghanistan
Several new developments in Afghanistan today. Taliban fighters attacked protesters in the city of Jalalabad who had taken down a Taliban flag and replaced it with the flag of Afghanistan. At least three people were killed, according to local reports. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, speaking from the United Arab Emirates, denied that he had fled the country with millions of dollars in cash. And US President Joe Biden told ABC News that US forces could stay in Afghanistan beyond their August 31 deadline for withdrawal if any Americans remained who needed evacuating.
Al Jazeera is running a live blog here.
Ethiopia
Ethnic Tigrayans accused of supporting a Tigrayan armed group battling the Ethiopian government are being arrested in a new wave of detentions, according to a report from the Associated Press news agency, which said children under three had also been swept up. The war in the northern Tigray region erupted late last year and has driven hundreds of thousands of people to the brink of starvation.
More from the AP here.