Global News

By Reuters | Posted by TOE Yemen’s Houthi-run maritime ⁠coordination ⁠body denied on ⁠Saturday that it planned to impose ​fees on commercial ships transiting the Bab el-Mandeb ‌strait, saying no such ‌decision had been taken and that passage ⁠through ⁠the strategic waterway remained free. The statement follows a ​Reuters report on Wednesday, citing regional sources, that the Iran-aligned Houthis were considering imposing fees on ships ​sailing through the southern Red Sea, a week ⁠after ⁠declaring a maritime blockade ⁠on ​Saudi Arabia. The sources in the Reuters report had said ​the proposal ⁠on fees was discussed with Iranian officials during a visit to Tehran by Houthi officials in July, although no timeframe for implementation ⁠had been decided. The Houthi-run Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center (HOCC) said its “safe ⁠transit service was a voluntary and cost-free service”. “The HOCC categorically confirms that any individual or ent...

By Jay DESHMUKH AFP | Posted by TOE Hamas said Friday it had agreed to a deal announced by US President Donald Trump to end the war with Israel, that includes it handing over its weapons to a Palestinian governing committee and the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. Israel did not immediately comment on the announcement, but shortly beforehand an Israeli political source had told AFP the proposed agreement did not “satisfactorily” address Israeli demands for the full demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip. The source also said that “the issue of Gaza did not come up at all” in this week’s meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Trump in Washington. The Palestinian Islamist group’s weapons have been one of the key sticking points in implementing a ceasefire deal in place since October, but Trump announced late Thursday an agreement for Hamas’s “complete disarmament”, calling it a critical st...

By Lucía DIAZ AFP | Posted by TOE Madrid said on Thursday it would despatch soldiers to Ceuta to ensure security after hundreds of migrants entered Spain’s north African exclave from neighbouring Morocco and hundreds more headed there. The Spanish government’s delegation in the enclave told AFP that the bodies of nine migrants who died while trying to reach Ceuta by swimming had been recovered. Migration from Morocco into Spain’s two north African territories, Ceuta and Melilla, has long been a politically sensitive issue between the two countries, as thousands cross the border at times. Italy called on Thursday for Spain to be suspended from Europe’s open-borders Schengen zone, prompting a backlash from Spain, which summoned the Italian envoy to Madrid. AFP reporters saw a stream of adults and children, most of them soaked, entering the town of Ceuta after having swum there. Discarded flotation rings and clothes were discarded on the shore n...

By Reuters | Posted by TOE Congo said a Rwandan armed group operating in eastern Congo had signed a protocol committing to ‌disarmament, but Rwanda rejected the move as inconsistent with a U.S.-brokered ‌peace agreement between the two countries. • Congo’s government said the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of ​Rwanda (FDLR), a group founded by ethnic Hutu fighters including some linked to the perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, had signed a protocol on disarmament, demobilisation and cantonment. • The FDLR is a central issue in a peace deal signed by Congo ‌and Rwanda in Washington ⁠last year aimed at ending the conflict in eastern Congo. The agreement commits the parties to implement a plan providing for ⁠the neutralisation of the FDLR and the disengagement of Rwandan forces in eastern Congo, making progress on the group a key test of the deal. • Rwanda has ​long accused ​Congo of cooperating with the group, ​while Kinshasa accuses Kigali of backin...

BY RODNEY MUHUMUZA REUTERS | POSTED BY TOE Authorities in Uganda declared the East Africa nation free of  Ebola  on Tuesday following the discharge of the country’s last patient in mid-June, a delicate milestone as the virus continues to plague neighboring Congo. Uganda has maintained since the outset that its cases were linked to  the larger outbreak  in eastern Congo’s remote province of Ituri, which borders Uganda. The first cases in Uganda were  Congolese who crossed the border  to seek treatment for an unknown illness before it was known they had Ebola, health authorities have said. After what health officials believe was weeks of transmission, Congo announced its outbreak on May 15, the same day that Uganda confirmed two Ebola cases — including a man who had already died. While a total of 20 cases were reported in Uganda, health authorities say there is currently no indication of further spread within the country. The ...

By DYEPKAZAH SHIBAYAN, Associated Press Gunmen attacked a community in northwestern Nigeria, killing at least 30 people and injuring several others, residents said Monday, in the latest violence in the conflict-hit region. The attack occurred late Sunday night in the Naridon village in Kaduna state’s Kaura council area, said Derek Christopher, chairman of the civil society group Southern Kaduna Peace and Security Network. “The same community was attacked last year around this time,” Christopher said in a statement, suggesting that the government has abandoned any intention of protecting the area from attacks by armed groups. “I don’t know who these people have left to fight for them,” he said. Raphael Joshua, a resident who was helping the injured, told The Associated Press that bodies of the victims had been deposited at a nearby hospital and that arrangements were being made for their burials. The commissioner for home affairs and internal security in Kaduna Stat...