Bogota, Colombia | AFP | Nine suspected FARC dissidents were killed Monday in a military operation in southern Colombia, the defense ministry said. The operation was carried out in the municipality of Calamar, in the southern central department of Guaviare, the ministry said on Twitter. Defense minister Luis Carlos Villegas …
Read More »Five killed by suspected ADF rebels in eastern DR Congo
Goma, DR Congo | AFP | Five people were killed Saturday in an ambush by suspected Ugandan Islamist rebels in the Beni region of Democratic Republic of Congo’s chronically troubled east, officials said. Local official Leon Bahungako said the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) group were behind the attack in which …
Read More »ELN rebel leader arrested for Colombia attacks
Bogota, Colombia | AFP | A leader of Colombia’s ELN guerrillas was arrested Thursday in Bogota on suspicion of planning two attacks on police that killed seven and left dozens wounded, prosecutors said. Rafael Antonio Botero Restrepo, known by the nickname “Tista,” was arrested in a joint operation carried out …
Read More »DR Congo govt recruited rebels for deadly crackdown on protests: HRW
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | Former militants were recruited by the Democratic Republic of Congo government for a bloody crackdown on protests against the president that left dozens of people dead last year, a rights group alleged Monday. Human Rights Watch said President Joseph Kabila’s regime had drafted in fighters previously …
Read More »At least 25 dead in South Sudan oil state battle
Juba, South Sudan | AFP | An outbreak of fighting between government and rebel forces in South Sudan’s oil-producing north left at least 25 people dead, a state official said Tuesday. The clash between rebels loyal to exiled former deputy president Riek Machar and government forces occurred early Monday in …
Read More »Colombia FARC rebels reborn as ‘revolutionary force’ party
Bogota, Colombia | AFP | Colombia’s FARC former guerrilla force on Thursday re baptized itself the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force, as it transformed into a political party following its disarmament. In spite of earlier resistance from some members of the movement, the name retains the revolutionary spirit of the communist guerrilla group, which …
Read More »Troops loyal to Machar say they carried out deadly road ambush
Juba, South Sudan | AFP | South Sudanese rebels on Friday claimed responsibility for an ambush that killed at least 15 people on the main road between the capital and the Ugandan border. In a statement, Lam Paul Gabriel, spokesman for the SPLA-IO rebel group led by exiled former vice …
Read More »Bodies found of two UN experts in DRC amid spiralling violence
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Two foreign UN experts who were kidnapped in DR Congo have been found dead, one of them decapitated, the government said Tuesday, as spiralling violence in the vast country sparked international condemnation. The bodies of American Michael Sharp and Swedish national Zahida Catalan were …
Read More »DRC accuses rebels of killing 39 police officers
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Congolese national police accused rebels Monday of massacring 39 of their officers in the violence-wracked Kasai region. The victims were killed in an “ambush” early Friday and buried in a mass grave by supporters of late militia leader Kamwina Nsapu around 75 kilometres north …
Read More »Sudan’s Bashir pardons 259 rebels
Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Wednesday pardoned 259 rebels captured in fighting with government forces, including dozens who had been sentenced to death, the presidency said. Bashir’s order came three days after a prominent insurgent group freed dozens of prisoners, mostly soldiers, it had captured in …
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