A human rights group released the death toll as security forces continue to wage an increasing deadly campaign against anti-coup protesters.

Islamists in the West African state have killed scores of civilians and set fire to their homes and businesses, according to the government.

More than 40 villagers were massacred by suspected extremists in northern Mali, while 12 troops were killed in neighboring Burkina Faso.

Abiy Ahmed has said civilians should take up arms to halt the advance of Tigrayan forces "once and for all." A conflict, which has killed thousands since November, is spreading with no end in sight.

Authorities in Amhara accuse rebels from the neighbouring Ethiopian region of Tigray of having killed dozens of civilians after a military loss. Also, Moroccans turn out to the polls for legislative and regional elections that are likely to be a close race. Finally, a woman in Uganda gives coding classes to children in her garden in a bid to encourage more young people to discover maths and science.

Nine people are reported to have died after Nigerian air force jets fired on a village in Yobe State whilst targeting Boko Haram militants in the area.

With an increase of attacks from Boko Haram, ordinary people in northern Cameroon have banded together to stop the militants from terrorizing their villages. But there are many challenges facing the local vigilante members, who are putting themselves at risk for others.

"We apologize and we will endeavor to learn from this horrible mistake," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby says of a drone strike in the Afghan capital Kabul that mistakenly killed 10 civilians, including children, during the chaotic US pullout last month. Kirby was delivering the message on behalf of US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during a press briefing at the Pentagon.

A US general said the drone strike "tragically killed" as many as 10 civilians, including seven children. At the time, the Pentagon said they hit "IS" terrorists heading to Kabul airport in an explosive-laden vehicle.

Rebels from Ethiopia's war-hit Tigray region opened fire on civilians while looting and shelling towns in the neighbouring Amhara region earlier this month. Our journalists were able to report from the Amhara region, where civilians are paying the price of this conflict. Also, violence in rural areas of Nigeria is creating a food security crisis. Finally, Nigerian artists offer to donate art to the British Museum in London in exchange for their looted bronzes.

At least 10 civilians were killed and another 35 injured on Wednesday by an Assad regime attack in Idlib, northwestern Syria, according to medical sources. Artillery of regime forces and Iranian-backed foreign terrorist groups targeted a marketplace in the center of the town of Ariha in rural southern Idlib, an area under opposition control.

Nobody was ever held responsible for strikes that killed thousands of civilians in Afghanistan and the Middle East, a New York Times report has found. A US strike cell routinely sidestepped safety procedures, it found.