Washington, United States | AFP | US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Wednesday that he opposed invoking a rarely used law to deploy military to quell nationwide protests over police brutality against African Americans. “I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act,” Esper said, two days after President Donald Trump said …
Read More »Trump threatens military mobilization against violent US protests
Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump vowed Monday to order a military crackdown on once-in-a-generation violent protests gripping the United States, saying he was sending thousands of troops onto the streets of the capital and threatening to deploy soldiers to states unable to regain control. The dramatic escalation …
Read More »Belarus volunteers plug gaps in supplies to virus-hit medics
Minsk, Belarus | AFP | Young men in dark hoodies and tracksuit bottoms form a human chain to pass down black sacks from a storeroom and pile them in the back of a car. These Belarusian volunteers have stepped in to rush free supplies of much-needed protective equipment to hospitals as authorities …
Read More »Russia begins building first stealth bomber: report
Moscow, Russia | AFP | Russia has begun manufacturing the prototype of its first strategic stealth bomber, state news agency TASS reported on Tuesday, as the country presses ahead with the modernisation of its military. Quoting defence industry sources, TASS said the state-controlled United Aircraft Corporation was overseeing the project. It said material was being shipped …
Read More »Somali jihadists kill 3 Americans in attack on Kenya military base
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Jihadists from Somalia’s Al-Shabaab group on Sunday stormed a military base used by US forces in Kenya’s coastal Lamu region, killing three American citizens and destroying several aircraft and military vehicles, officials said. Attackers breached heavy security at Camp Simba at dawn but were pushed …
Read More »Taiwan says military chief of staff missing after helicopter crash
Taipei, Taiwan | AFP | Taiwanese rescuers were searching for the chief of military staff and two others who went missing after a helicopter crashed landed in a mountain Thursday, the defence ministry said. The UH-60M helicopter carrying 13 people including chief of general staff for the military Shen Yi-ming …
Read More »US double strike in Somalia kill four militants
Washington, United States | AFP | The United States military said it killed four “terrorists” in airstrikes against the Al-Shabaab militant group in Somalia on Sunday, a day after the country’s deadliest attack in two years. US Africa Command (AFRICOM) conducted three airstrikes in two locations in the conflict-hit east …
Read More »Who’s buying the biggest guns in East Africa?
Latest in Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Burundi firepower Kampala, Uganda | INDEPENDENT TEAM | Countries in the East African region continue to spend more on strengthening their armed forces, according to latest data. Although Kenya and Tanzania are the biggest spenders because of their relatively big budgets, most attention is on Uganda, …
Read More »Foreign forces in Sahel struggle with flagging public support
Bamako, Mali | AFP | If military operations depend on winning hearts and minds, the thousands of foreign troops deployed to the Sahel to combat jihadism seem to be on losing ground. At first welcomed, these troops find themselves today in the crosshairs as a growing number of locals in this …
Read More »37 killed in Burkina Faso’s deadliest attack in five years
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso | AFP | An ambush on a convoy transporting employees of a Canadian mining company in Burkina Faso killed 37 people on Wednesday, the deadliest attack in nearly five years of jihadist violence in the West African country. The impoverished and politically fragile Sahel country has been struggling …
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