Syrian army retakes most of rebel-held Damascus district

The Nigerian Army fired live rounds at peaceful protesters at a toll gate in Lagos in October 2020, according to a leaked report into the incident seen by Reuters and verified by three sources close to the panel that drafted it. The report described the incident as a "massacre", said most of the army officers deployed to the Lekki Toll Gate were "not fit and proper to serve" and recommended prosecuting certain policemen for their actions.

Fighting continues in Ethiopia, where rebel groups are advancing on the capital Addis Ababa. While much has been said about the northern front, where the army is at war with the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF), another armed group – allied to Tigrayans – is fighting from the south and west of the country. The Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) now controls a large swathe of territory. Together, the TDF and OLA plan to topple the government and take over the capital. The government accuses these rebel groups of committing crimes against civilians, including several massacres. Our regional correspondent reports.

A historic trial against members of Bashar al-Asad's regime has moved on to its main defendant. Germany is holding the trial under the principle of universal jurisdiction.

The raids hit the main port through which goods flow into Syria. According to the state-controlled Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), the fires were later extinguished. ... "Our air defenses repelled the Israeli aggression in Latakia," a Syrian military source told SANA.4 hours ago

Syrian doctor Alaa M. is standing trial in Frankfurt, accused of having been part of the Syrian torture system. Torture takes place in over 100 countries worldwide — and doctors are almost always involved.

A video that shows park rangers in a helicopter in Central African Republic has been used to incorrectly point the finger at the French army for supporting terrorists in Mali. We take a closer look in this edition of Truth or Fake.

On January 13, in the first European trial against a high-ranking Syrian regime official, a former senior intelligence officer was sentenced to life in prison in Germany for crimes against humanity. Former head of interrogation at a detention centre in Damascus, Anwar Raslan was found guilty on 4,000 counts of torture and the murder of 27 detainees, less than a year after one of his subordinates was convicted by the same German court. It’s been a long road to justice for victims and their lawyers tracking down former torturers who have settled in Europe since 2013.

Heavy gunfire could be heard coming from several military camps in Burkina Faso early on Sunday (January 23), the government said, but it denied the military had seized power. Heavy arms fire at the capital Ouagadougou's Sangoule Lamizana camp, which houses the army's general staff and a prison whose inmates include soldiers involved in a failed 2015 coup attempt, began at least as early as 5:00 a.m. (0500 GMT), a Reuters reporter said. The reporter later saw soldiers firing into the air in the camp. A witness also reported gunfire at a military camp in Kaya, around 100 kms (62 miles) north of Ouagadougou.

After being driven out of Uganda, the Lord's Resistance Army ran riot in the Central African Republic, where it behaved more like a criminal gang than a terrorist militia. Now the LRA's days seem to be numbered.

A German court has found a Syrian former army colonel guilty of crimes against humanity, handing him a life sentence. It was a landmark trial to examine state-sponsored torture during the Syrian civil war.

This week on The Observers, we investigated an incident in Nia Ouro, Mali on January 4. Residents claimed that men dressed in Malian military uniforms killed four civilians and reduced buildings in the village to ashes. We spoke to an eyewitness, analysed videos taken after the event and cross-referenced satellite imagery to put together the days events.

France says nearly 60 fighters from Islamist militias were killed in the days leading up to the coup. The jihadists were killed by forces involved with Operation Barkhane led by France.