Sudan, Yemen, Syria-Iraq.

Today's three stories you should know.

Sudan

As I’ve said in many previous newsletters now, the protesters in Sudan just keep on coming. They simply refuse to accept October’s military coup. And, as also mentioned in previous newsletters, they are paying for their defiance with their lives. Today, 27-year-old Mohamed Yousif Ismail was killed by security forces, according to a pro-democracy doctors’ union, as thousands took to the streets of the capital Khartoum and other cities despite a standing ban on protests. Ismail is the 79th protester to be killed by security forces since the coup. Most of them have been shot dead.

More from Al Jazeera here.

Yemen

A group of experts, in a report to the UN, has said almost 1,500 child soldiers fighting for Yemen’s Houthi rebels were killed on the battlefield in 2020, and more than 500 in the first five months of 2021. The report said the rebels used summer camps and mosques to recruit children. Yemen’s seven-year war erupted when the Iran-backed Houthis overthrew President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. A coalition of nations led by Saudi-Arabia then intervened to back Hadi. The UN estimates 377,000 people have died due to the war, either on the battlefield or from starvation and disease.

More from BBC here.

Syria-Iraq

Is ISIS on the rise again? Its recent attack on a jail holding thousands of its members in Syria was its boldest move since it was largely defeated three years ago, its remaining members retreating into the shadows. The Associated Press News agency today published an interesting deep-dive on the group’s activities in Syria and Iraq.

More from AP here.