Wars in the World

A suspected al-Qaeda attack in southern Yemen has killed a military commander and three soldiers from a secessionist group, security officials and a witness said.

Commander Abd al-Latif al-Sayyid and the three fighters from the Security Belt Forces, an armed group loyal to Yemen’s secessionist Southern Transitional Council, were killed in an explosion while travelling in a convoy through southern Abyan governorate, the three officials and the witness said.

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The Kachin Independent Army (KIA) says it seized two Myanmar junta outposts and one held by the regime-allied Shan Nationalities Army (SNA) in Hpakant Township, Kachin State, on Monday.

The KIA attacked outposts on Mt Kathaing and at Nam Hmaw village and an SNA position near a bridge in Sal Zin village in Myanmar’s jade-mining hub, according to Colonel Naw Bu, the KIA spokesman.

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Ethiopia’s military has clashed with fighters from a militia in the Amhara region, residents said on Wednesday, in an escalation of a simmering feud between the two former allies that a doctor said had caused more than a dozen injuries.

Fano, a part-time militia with no formal command structure, backed federal troops in a two-year civil war in the neighbouring Tigray region that ended with a truce last November.

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Niger’s military leaders have warned against any armed intervention in the country as West African heads of state gather in Nigeria’s capital for an emergency summit to decide on further actions to pressure the army to restore constitutional order.

Heads of state of the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the eight-member West African Economic and Monetary Union, also known by its French acronym UEMOA, could suspend Niger from their institutions, cut off the country from the regional central bank and financial market, and close borders.

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Disgruntled members of the elite Presidential Guard sealed off access to the president’s residence and offices in the capital Niamey on Wednesday, and after talks broke down “refused to release the president”, a presidential source said.

“We, the defence and security forces … have decided to put an end to the regime” of President Bazoum, said Colonel-Major Amadou Abdramane in a televised address, surrounded by nine other uniformed soldiers.

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