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A new offensive by Mozambique’s Islamic extremist rebels in the embattled northern province of Cabo Delgado has increased the number of displaced by 80,000 and undermines the government’s claims of containing the insurgency.
The rebels’ drive began on June 5 following a period of relative calm when the commander-general of Mozambique’s national police had declared that “the war against terrorism is almost at an end.”
Islamic militants have stormed a hotel in Somalia’s capital, engaging in an hours-long exchange of fire with the security forces that left at least 20 people dead, according to police and witnesses.
In addition, at least 40 people were wounded in the late Friday night attack and security forces rescued many others, including children, from the scene at Mogadishu’s popular Hayat Hotel, they said Saturday.
The relevant statement was made by Kharkiv Regional Military Administration Head Oleh Syniehubov on Telegram, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
“During the night, Russians launched massive rocket attacks on Kharkiv. Russian terrorists again targeted peaceful ‘sleeper’ neighborhoods with civilians,” Syniehubov wrote.
Some 37 Myanmar junta soldiers were killed on Saturday in clashes with the Rakhine ethnic armed organization the Arakan Army (AA), according to the AA’s information department.
The AA and military regime troops clashed in three locations in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State on Saturday, as well as in one location in neighboring Chin State’s Paletwa Township.
The Ethiopian government and Tigrayan rebels have had “direct engagements,” the African Union said in a statement made public on Thursday, in the first official confirmation of such contacts between the two warring sides.
The government has been locked in a grinding conflict with the rebels, but in recent weeks both sides have mooted the possibility of talks to end the 21-month war, with Ethiopia pushing for the AU to lead any negotiations.