NAIROBI, Kenya — At least four people sustained gunshot wounds as police clashed with protesters in Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp, in the country’s north.

Thousands of refugees in the camp, which hosts people fleeing from conflict and drought in neighboring South Sudan, Ethiopia, Burundi and Congo, protested Monday against food rationing due to funding constraints.

The World Food Program, which is in charge of food distribution at the refugee camp, said last December the food rations to refugee camps were “at 45 percent of the minimum food basket due to resource constraints.”

The WFP has warned for years that it is facing shortfalls in the contributions from governments it relies on for funding, and on Monday it announced that it is closing its office in South Africa due to U.S. President Donald Trump’s cuts in foreign aid.

A refugee from neighboring South Sudan, John Garang, held up a roughly 4 liter pot.

“This is the container they are now using to measure beans and oil and the other one for rice. And this is equivalent for one month for your food. Assume you don’t have another income, it’s only this. Is this enough for you,” he asked.

Kenya is currently in the process of transitioning refugees into integrated settlements as opposed to the previous system of refugee camps, which are donor reliant, and has already gazetted Kakuma and Dadaab as municipalities.
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GENEVA — M23 rebels launching an offensive in east Congo abducted at least 130 sick and wounded men from two hospitals in the city of Goma last week, the United Nations said Monday.

M23 fighters raided CBCA Ndosho Hospital and Heal Africa Hospital during the night of Feb. 28, taking 116 and 15 patients respectively, U.N. Human Rights Office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said in a statement.

The abducted men were suspected of being Democratic Republic of Congo soldiers or members of a pro-government militia known as Wazalendo.

“It is deeply distressing that M23 is snatching patients from hospital beds in coordinated raids and holding them incommunicado in undisclosed locations,” Shamdasani said, calling for their immediate release.

M23 spokespersons Willy Ngoma and Lawrence Kanyuka Kingston did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Tutsi-led M23 marched into the city of Goma at the end of January and have since made an unprecedented advance into east Congo, seizing territory and gaining access to valuable minerals.

Their ongoing advance, which started in late December, is already the gravest escalation a long-running conflict rooted in the spill over into Congo of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and the struggle for control of Congo’s vast mineral resources.

Congo, U.N. experts and Western powers accuse Rwanda of backing the group.

Rwanda denies this and says it is defending itself against ethnic Hutu-led militias bent on slaughtering Tutsis in Congo and threatening Rwanda.

About 7,000 people have been killed in east Congo since January and almost half a million people were left without shelter after 90 displacement camps were destroyed in the fighting, according to the government.

International sanctions, renewed investigations by the International Criminal Court and Africa-led peace negotiations have failed to halt the advance by the rebels, who have captured east Congo’s two major cities, Goma and Bukavu.

 
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Windhoek, Namibia — Thousands of Namibians gathered on the outskirts of the capital Windhoek on Saturday to bid farewell to the country’s founding president, Sam Nujoma, who died last month in a private hospital at the age of 95. Heads of state from southern African countries joined Namibians at the funeral for Nujoma, who led the country to independence from apartheid-era South Africa.

As early as six o’clock on Saturday morning, Namibians could be seen making their way, some on foot and others in their vehicles, to the National Shrine, the Heroes Acre, on the outskirts of Windhoek.

They came pay their final respects to the man who is credited with bringing independence to the southern African country thirty-five years ago.

Sam Nujoma died in a Windhoek hospital on February 8th after being hospitalized for three weeks.

Namibia’s current president, Nangolo Mbumba, described Nujoma as a giant who stood firm in the country’s 24-year armed struggle for independence from South Africa.

“Although our hearts are laden with grief, we take solace that President Sam Nujoma will now rest amongst his fellow illustrious heroes and heroines,” he said. “[He] has completed his mission with distinction, fulfilling his destiny and leaving behind the most precious gift of freedom and independence for the people of Namibia.”

Among the VIPs in attendance Saturday were South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa, and Angola’s President João Lourenco.

Former presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique could also be seen in the crowds of mourners who came to pay their last respects to the elder statesman.

Nujoma was the first leader of Namibia’s independence movement, the South West Africa People’s Organization, and later served three terms as Namibia’s president.

Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana is his niece and a former cabinet minister who served as Namibia’s Attorney General. She is also vice-chairperson of the Sam Nujoma Foundation.

“Nujoma united the people of Namibia who were divided according to the ethnic languages,” she said. “During the war our people were made to fight against each other and at independence he introduced a policy of national reconciliation to forgive one another as brothers and sisters.”

Public servant Chrispin Kapalu was also among the mourners who sang and danced as they braved the burning hot Namibian sun to bid farewell to the leader, whose name is captured in revolutionary struggle songs like “Sema Uulipeni Elula Ee pandela, eelula epandela ola Namibia.”

The lyrics mean “Sam Nujoma where are you, raise the flag.”

“Growing up we knew about Nujoma, different interpretations but after independence as young people then we could see the reality why our forefathers have to sacrifice their lives,” said Kapalu.
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Kinshasa, DRC — The Democratic Republic of Congo’s army denied Sunday that 20 fighters linked to the Rwandan genocide had been captured on its territory, calling a video of their handover to Rwanda “faked.”

The statement came after the M23 armed group in eastern DRC said Saturday it had captured fighters from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a militia founded by ethnic Hutus who took part in the genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994.

Rwanda has long pointed to the alleged presence of the FDLR in eastern DRC.

The M23 has seized swathes of the DRC’s troubled, mineral-rich east in recent months, including the key provincial capitals of Goma and Bukavu.

The M23 released a video showing its forces handing over 20 alleged FDLR fighters to Rwanda at a border post between the two countries.

“This is a faked incident in poor taste orchestrated with the sole aim of discrediting our army,” the Congolese armed forces chiefs of staff said in a statement.

“This is part of the Rwandan strategy to justify the invasion of parts of the DRC’s territory,” it added.

“The Rwandan authorities, who specialize in the art of lies and manipulation, took old FDLR detainees, dressed them in new military fatigues, and passed them off as FDLR fighters newly captured in Goma.”

The DRC high command also accused the Rwandan army of “summary executions” of wounded and ill soldiers at a field hospital in Goma, which “constitutes a war crime and crime against humanity,” it said.

The escalating conflict in eastern DRC has raised fears it could spiral into a wider regional war, drawing in Rwanda, Uganda and other countries.

The DRC government has repeatedly accused Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebel group, a claim that Rwanda denies. Kigali, in turn, alleges that Kinshasa collaborates with the FDLR, an allegation the DRC rejects.

Military operations in the region remain fluid, with clashes leading to significant displacement and humanitarian concerns. Analysts warn that continued instability risks deepening the regional conflict and several peacekeepers from the Southern African Development Community, or SADC, have already been killed since the recent rebel offensives. 
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KAMPALA, UGANDA — A second Ebola patient, a 4-year-old child, has died in Uganda, the World Health Organization said, citing the country’s health ministry.

The fatality brings the number of confirmed cases in Uganda to 10.

The East African country declared an outbreak of the highly infectious and often fatal hemorrhagic disease in January after the death of a male nurse at the Mulago National Referral Hospital in the capital of Kampala.

The WHO’s Uganda office posted late on Saturday on X that the ministry had reported “an additional positive case in Mulago hospital of a 4 1/2-year-old child, who tragically passed away” on Tuesday.

Mulago is the country’s sole national referral hospital for Ebola cases.

The ministry said on Feb. 18 that all eight Ebola patients under care had been discharged but that at least 265 contacts remained under strict quarantine in Kampala and two other cities.

Ebola symptoms include fever, headache and muscle pains. The virus is transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluids and tissue. 
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BASANKUSU, Democratic Republic of Congo — Authorities investigating the deaths of at least 60 people in northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo suspect the water source in one of the areas may have been contaminated, the World Health Organization said Friday. But the agency said it’s too early for a definitive conclusion.

Doctors are investigating more than 1,000 illnesses that have emerged since late January in five villages in Congo’s Equateur province, where high rates of malaria have complicated efforts to diagnose the cases and where officials have said they’ve been unable so far to confirm the main cause.

WHO emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan said during an online briefing Friday that for one of the villages there is “a very strong level of suspicion … related to the poisoning of a water source.”

Ryan did not clarify whether he was referring to contamination by accident, negligence or deliberate action. He also did not identify the village where the poisoning was suspected.

“We will not stop investigating until we are sure that the true cause or the absolute cause of what is occurring here is fully investigated,” Ryan said.

Illnesses were first detected in late January in the village of Boloko after three children ate a bat and died within 48 hours.

Twelve cases and eight deaths in total have been recorded in Boloko, with no new cases recorded since January, officials say, adding that nearly half of deaths there occurred within hours of the onset of symptoms.

The village of Bomate in Basankusu health zone, around 200 kilometers from Boloko, has been hit the most: 98% of the cases and 86% of deaths have been recorded there, health officials say.

WHO said on Thursday that hundreds of the patients have tested positive for malaria, which is common in the region. In addition to common malaria symptoms such as fever and body aches, patients have also shown symptoms such as chills, sweating, stiff neck, runny or bleeding nose, cough, vomiting and diarrhea.

The health crisis has caused fear among residents, some of whom have said they fled the villages to avoid falling sick.

Experts say that access to the sick has been hindered by the remote locations of the affected villages and that several people died before medical teams were able to reach them.
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GABORONE, BOTSWANA — Southern Africa energy experts and political leaders pledged to improve access to energy at a summit in Botswana this week. The commitments come as most countries in the region still rely on coal, a major contributor to global warming.

More than 500 participants from 16 Southern African Development Community, or SADC, member states, as well as other African countries, participated in the energy gathering.

Moses Ntlamelle, a senior SADC programs officer, said pursuing a more inclusive transition to cleaner energy was one of the resolutions that regional representatives adopted at the summit.

“The region is recommended to expedite just energy transition and explore the development of a regional renewable energy market,” he said. “This is to ensure that nobody is left behind. … Inasmuch as we are going for cleaner energy, we must ensure that this energy transition is just to everybody.”

Botswanan President Duma Boko spoke about the need to end energy poverty.

“Countries across the SADC region face challenges related to energy poverty,” Boko said. “This constrains our economies, leaving millions of people, especially in rural areas, without access to critical services like health, education, communication, among others. A clarion call for an energy-secure region is, therefore, urgent in order to drive industrialization and integration of our economies.”

Most Southern Africa countries rely on coal for energy. Boko called on the region to cut its dependence on fossil fuels and speed up the transition to green energy.

“We should incentivize renewable energy and energy-efficiency projects and initiatives, enforce environmental protections and establish clear roadmaps for a just and equitable energy transition, which is relevant to the realities of our countries and region,” he said. “As a region, let us set tangible targets not only to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels but also to increase the use of renewables.”

Yunus Alokore, a technical expert at the intergovernmental organization East Africa Center for Renewable Energy and Efficiency, told VOA that if Africa wants to accelerate its transition to sustainable energy, several key elements are needed.

“There has to be policies in place and regulatory framework,” Alokore said. “What this does is that it creates transparent, long-term, consistent target, which is something that investors and development partners need.”

Alokore said access to finance is also key.
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GENEVA — The U.N. human rights chief warned of the risk of a further escalation of the war in Sudan on Thursday and said there was a growing risk of deaths from starvation on a wide scale. 

Volker Türk’s warning came a day after the U.N. World Food Program has temporarily stopped distributing food aid in a famine-struck camp for displaced people in Sudan’s North Darfur amid escalating violence. 

“Sudan is a powder keg, on the verge of a further explosion into chaos, and at increasing risk of atrocity crimes and mass deaths from famine,” he told the Human Rights Council in Geneva. “The danger of escalation has never been higher.” 

War erupted in April 2023 amid a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule, triggering the world’s largest displacement and hunger crisis. 

Already, famine conditions have been reported in at least five locations in Sudan, including displacement camps in Darfur, according to the United Nations. 

Türk said that recent moves by the RSF towards establishing governing authority in areas it controls were likely to “further entrench divisions and the risk of continued hostilities.” 

He also noted continued supplies of weapons to the warring parties from outside the country, including more advanced arms.
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united nations — U.N. Security Council members expressed deep concern Wednesday over the announcement earlier this week by the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that it plans to establish a parallel governing authority in parts of the country under its control.

“This is a dangerous step that fuels further fragmentation in Sudan and derails ongoing efforts toward peace and dialogue,” said Algeria’s Deputy Ambassador Toufik Koudri on behalf of the three African members of the council plus Guyana. “We call for these actions to be reversed and urge the RSF and their allies to put the unity and national interests of Sudan above all other considerations.”

The RSF and allied political and armed groups signed a 16-page “charter” in Kenya over the weekend to establish a governing authority. The rebels control much of western Sudan, including most of the Darfur region.

Council diplomats said the African members — Algeria, Sierra Leone and Somalia — have proposed a draft statement for the council’s consideration expressing “grave concern” over the development, reaffirming its commitment to Sudan’s unity and urging the parties to engage in negotiations. It would require the consensus of all 15 members.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Monday that the RSF’s move could deepen the nearly two-year-old civil war.

Nearly every council member expressed concern and disapproval of the RSF’s move, which comes as the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have been making progress in its bid to recapture districts in the greater Khartoum area, including Omdurman and Khartoum North.

“We support the restoration of civilian governance in a peaceful, unified Sudan. In this regard, we support efforts to promote a civilian political dialogue to foster a political process,” said U.S. political coordinator John Kelley. “Attempts by the RSF and aligned actors to establish a government in RSF-controlled territory in Sudan are unhelpful for the cause of peace and security in Sudan and risk a de facto partition of the country.”

“Respect for Sudan’s [U.N.] Charter rights — its unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity — is vital and will be necessary for a sustainable end to this war,” said British Ambassador Barbara Woodward.

She said Foreign Secretary David Lammy plans to convene 20 states and international organizations in London in April for talks on supporting a peaceful way forward for Sudan.

South Korea’s envoy warned of the potential consequences of a fragmented Sudan, which is the continent’s third-largest country by size and home to 50 million people.

“The disintegration of such a vast, large nation would have profound and lasting ramifications and repercussions on the peace and prosperity of neighboring states and the wider region,” said Ambassador Hwang Joonkook.

Sudan’s envoy, Al-Harith Idriss al-Harith Mohamed, criticized Kenya for allowing the signing of the RSF’s charter in its country, saying the agreement seeks to dismantle his country.

“I reiterate that neither President William Ruto nor the government of Kenya has recognized any independent entity in the Sudan or elsewhere,” Kenya’s Ambassador Erastus Lokaale responded in the council.

“Kenya believes strongly in availing the opportunity for dialogue and negotiations to diverse groups of Sudanese society and has remained consistent in its commitment to facilitate the expansion of Sudanese consensus across the political divide towards achieving a swift end to the conflict in the Sudan,” said Lokaale.

 

Fighting continues

The SAF-backed authorities have presented their own road map for ending the war that includes an inclusive national dialogue, the formation of a caretaker transitional government and the selection of a civilian prime minister.

“We call on the United Nations and the [U.N. secretary-general’s personal Sudan] envoy to support this road map, because it’s the practical and realistic means to end the crisis,” Mohamed said.

On Monday, the RSF announced a new assault on North Darfur’s embattled capital, El-Fasher, which is still held by the Sudanese military.

“But any ceasefire is rejected if El Fasher’s siege is not lifted,” Mohamed added. “The rebels, within any agreement, must withdraw from the areas they continue to occupy because they target civilians and deliberately kill them.”

The fighting in El Fasher, specifically in and around Zamzam displaced person’s camp, has caused the World Food Program to temporarily pause its distribution of critical food and nutrition assistance to the famine-affected camp.

WFP said Wednesday that Zamzam’s market was destroyed by shelling, further hurting residents’ ability to access food. About a half million people live in the camp.

On Monday, Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, said it was also halting health and nutrition work at Zamzam because of insecurity.

The United Nations says more than 12 million people have been displaced by the fighting between Sudan’s two rival generals, and nearly half the country’s population is experiencing acute hunger.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press. 
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ROME — The U.N. World Food Program said Wednesday that it was forced to suspend operations in and around the famine-hit Zamzam displacement camp in Sudan’s North Darfur because of escalating violence.

“Intense fighting in Zamzam camp in Sudan’s North Darfur region has forced” the Rome-based agency “to temporarily pause the distribution of life-saving food and nutrition assistance in the famine-hit camp for displaced people.”

“Over the past two weeks escalating violence left WFP’s partners with no choice but to evacuate staff for safety,” it said in a statement.

Fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, intensified this month in the camp, which the United Nations says shelters more than half a million people.

“Without immediate assistance, thousands of desperate families in Zamzam could starve in the coming weeks,” said Laurent Bukera, WFP’s regional director for Eastern Africa and acting country director for Sudan.

“We must resume the delivery of life-saving aid in and around Zamzam safely, quickly and at scale. For that, the fighting must stop and humanitarian organizations must be granted security guarantees,” Bukera said.

The RSF stormed Zamzam on Feb. 11, triggering two days of clashes with the army and allied militias and forcing about 10,000 families to flee, according to the International Organization for Migration.

“The recent violence left Zamzam’s Central Market destroyed by shelling, pushing residents of the camp … further away from accessing essential food and supplies,” the WFP statement said.

Famine was first declared in Zamzam in August and has since spread to two more displacement camps near the North Darfur capital of El-Fasher.

It is expected to expand to five more areas, including El-Fasher itself, by May, according to a U.N.-backed assessment.

Before the latest violence, around 1.7 million people were displaced in North Darfur alone, with 2 million civilians facing extreme food insecurity, the United Nations said.

Established in 2004, Zamzam has received waves of displaced Sudanese during the current war.
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TUNIS, TUNISIA — A Tunisian court sentenced eight defendants to death on Tuesday over the 2013 assassination of leftist opposition figure Mohamed Brahmi, according to local reports. 

Charges included “attempting to change the state’s nature” and “inciting armed conflict,” local media reported. 

Three of the defendants also received additional death sentences for “deliberate participation in premeditated murder,” according to the reports. 

A ninth, who is on the run, was sentenced to five years in prison for “failing to report terrorist crimes to the authorities,” said the reports. 

Tunisia still hands down death sentences, particularly in “terrorism” cases, even though a de facto moratorium in effect since 1991 means they are effectively commuted to life terms. 

The verdict marked the first set of rulings in the case of Brahmi’s assassination, which took place outside his home on July 25, 2013, amid Tunisia’s turbulent post-revolution political landscape. 

Demonstrators took to the streets across the country, as Brahmi’s distinctive round face and thick mustache became symbols of protest against militant violence. 

Brahmi, a nationalist left-wing leader of the People’s Movement and member of Tunisia’s Constituent Assembly, was an outspoken critic of the Islamist-inspired government dominated by Ennahdha at the time. 

His assassination further shocked the nation as it came less than six months after the killing of another prominent leftist figure, Chokri Belaid, who was also gunned down outside his home. 

Brahmi had been elected in Sidi Bouzid, the birthplace of the 2011 revolution that toppled ex-president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and later swept through the Arab world. 

He was shot 14 times by two assailants in front of his wife and children. 

His family had long accused Ennahdha of being behind the murder, but the then-ruling party denied the allegations. 

It had also pushed back against accusations of excessive leniency, blacklisting the formerly legal Salafist movement Ansar al-Charia as a terrorist organization. 

Fighters affiliated with the Islamic State claimed responsibility for both the Brahmi and Belaid assassinations. 

The aftermath of the 2011 revolution saw a surge in Islamist radicalism in Tunisia with thousands of volunteers leaving to fight in Syria, Iraq and neighboring Libya. 

Tunisia faced heightened security threats, with armed groups operating from the Chaambi Mountains near the Algerian border, primarily targeting security forces and the military.  

In 2015, attacks in Sousse and the capital Tunis killed dozens of tourists and police, although authorities say they have since made significant progress against the extremists. 

In recent years, Tunisian authorities claim significant progress in combating violence, but the country remains under a state of emergency.   

In 2022, President Kais Saied — who has framed the murders of Brahmi and Belaid as national issues and often called them “martyrs” — dismissed dozens of judges after alleging they had obstructed investigations.   

The high-profile killings, and the mass protests they drew, ultimately forced Ennahdha to relinquish power to a technocratic government following the adoption of a new constitution. 

The crisis had nearly derailed Tunisia’s fragile democratic transition. 

But political dialogue led by four civil society organizations, including the Tunisian General Labour Union, helped restore stability and earned the nation of 12 million the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize. 
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The federal government of Somalia and the African Union have agreed on the number of troop-contributing countries for a new AU mission following weeks of differences between Ethiopia and Somalia, and later on between Somalia and Burundi over the number of troops coming from each country.

An AU official, who requested anonymity because he does not have authorization to speak with media, told VOA that Burundian forces who have been in Somalia since 2007 will be leaving the country after the two governments disagreed on the number of troops coming from Burundi.

The African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia, or AUSSOM, is expected to have 11,900 personnel operating on the ground in Somalia, including soldiers, police and civilian support staff, according to Somali and AU officials.

The new arrangement allocates 4,500 soldiers to Uganda, 2,500 to Ethiopia, 1,520 to Djibouti, 1,410 to Kenya and 1,091 to Egypt, according to the official.

A second AU diplomat who requested anonymity for the same reasons told VOA that the negotiations about Burundian soldiers in Somalia are still ongoing.

“The departure of Burundi would have significant political and financial repercussions for the AU,” the second diplomat said.

“In addition, there is still a major issue of funding for AUSSOM that has not been resolved. Burundi sacrificed a lot, and they deserve to have their concerns addressed,” he added.

There will also be several hundred police personnel from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Egypt, to be based in Mogadishu, Jowhar, and Baidoa.

The completion of the troop-contributing countries was delayed by diplomatic tension between Somalia and landlocked Ethiopia over the latter’s controversial sea access deal with Somaliland on Jan. 1, 2024. Mogadishu protested the deal as a “violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity.” Somaliland is a breakaway region of Somalia.

The tensions eased after the two sides reached a breakthrough agreement on Dec. 11 in Ankara with the mediation of Turkey, where they pledged to end their differences.

This week, Somalia and Ethiopia signed an agreement that secured the participation of Ethiopian troops in the new African Union mission in Somalia.

The agreement followed a visit to Mogadishu over the weekend by an Ethiopian delegation led by military chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula, accompanied by Ethiopian intelligence chief Redwan Hussien, where they met with their Somali counterparts, General Odawa Yusuf Rage and Abdullahi Mohamed Ali Sanbalolshe. State media in Somalia and Ethiopia both confirmed the visit.

Somalia’s National News Agency, or SONNA, said the talks focused on counterterrorism, regional stability and the role of Ethiopian forces in AUSSOM.

“The chiefs underscored the role of ENDF (Ethiopian National Defense Force) in African Union peace support operations and agreed on the Force disposition of ENDF in the African Union Support and Stabilization mission in Somalia (AUSSOM),” said a communique published by SONNA.

Ethiopian troops will be deployed to the same Somali regions where they were stationed over the years — Gedo, Bay, Bakool and Hiran regions. The only new troops joining the mission will come from Egypt, which supported Somalia in Mogadishu’s dispute with Ethiopia.

Ethiopia also maintains troops outside the AU mission based on a bilateral agreement. This week’s deal between Ethiopian and Somali officials extends that arrangement.

“At bilateral level, the Chiefs agreed to develop a Status of Force Agreement a (SOFA) for all the bilateral forces that will operate in Somalia,” Sunday’s communique read.

The first AU contingent from Uganda was deployed in Somalia in March 2007 at a time when al-Shabab was gaining a foothold in the country.

The U.S.-designated terrorist group remains a threat to the international community-backed government. On Tuesday, al-Shabab launched multiple front attacks in central Somalia, entering small towns and villages before government forces repelled them.

In the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, security forces are continuing their almost two months long offensive against Islamic State militants, taking one town after the other.

Local security officials say they are confident of capturing the largest main base of the group within days.

This story originated in VOA’s Africa Division.
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