Serbia votes in historic election as students seek to end Vucic’s long grip on power

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By Mina PEJAKOVIC AFP | Posted by TOE Voting was under way in Serbia on Sunday in what is set to be its most fiercely contested parliamentary election in more than 14 years, as a student-led movement seeks to oust the party of veteran leader Aleksandar Vucic. The snap vote is the culmination of nearly two years of student-led protests sparked by the 2024 collapse of a canopy at Novi Sad railway station that killed 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on corruption. The disaster triggered some of Serbia’s largest protests since the fall of strongman Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. The Students’ List, a selection of candidates backed by the largely leaderless movement, now poses the biggest challenge to Vucic’s right-wing populist Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which has dominated politics throughout its tenure. – High turnout – Eighteen electoral lists are vying for seats in Serbia’s 250-member parliament, but polls suggest ...
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Army returns to strategic east Congo town after rebel withdrawal

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Congolese soldiers and combatants from a pro-government militia have re-entered the eastern town of Uvira, residents said on Monday, just over a month after it fell to Rwanda-backed M23 rebels ‍in a blow to peace efforts mediated by the Trump administration.

M23 entered Uvira, an important base for the Congolese army near the border with Burundi, on December 10, days after Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan leader Paul Kagame met President Donald Trump in Washington and reaffirmed a U.S.-brokered peace deal.

The capture marked the rebels’ biggest ‌gains in months, fueling fears of regional spillover from fighting ‌that has killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands in the last year.

M23 staged a lightning advance in January 2025 and still holds more territory than ever before, including Goma and Bukavu, the capitals of North and South Kivu provinces respectively.

HEAVY ​FIGHTING, LOOTING

After U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in December that Rwanda’s actions in mineral-rich eastern Congo were violating the peace deal, M23 ‍pledged to withdraw from Uvira to give peace ​talks a chance.

Heavy fighting has continued on the outskirts of ​Uvira, and M23 and the Congolese government on Sunday traded accusations of looting ‍inside the town.

Two residents and a civil society activist based in Uvira said on Monday that Congolese soldiers and members of the Wazalendo militia returned over the weekend and were visible throughout the town, having retaken positions they occupied before M23’s arrival.

Jean-Jacques Purusi, the Kinshasa-appointed governor of South Kivu province ‍where Uvira is located, said the Gatumba crossing at the Congo-Burundi border, which closed when M23 took Uvira, would soon reopen.

Rwanda denies backing M23 and has blamed ‍Congolese and Burundian forces for ‍the renewed fighting. A report by a United Nations ​group of experts in July assessed that Rwanda exercised ​command and ⁠control over the rebels.

The United States has hosted talks ‌between Congo and Rwanda, while Qatar has hosted separate talks between Congo and M23.

During a meeting in Togo focused on eastern Congo, African leaders on Saturday reaffirmed their support for the Doha talks and called for them to resume without delay.

Source: Thomson Reuters



from The Times Of Earth https://ift.tt/WPNhEIz

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