- Egypt arrested nearly 400 people leading up to April 25th protests.
- In defiance of the UN-backed Tripoli government, Libya’s eastern rebel government shipped its first cargo of crude oil.
- Rights groups in Mali say the government is torturing and killing civilians.
- The Islamic State celebrated its first training camp and first attack in Somalia.
- Assassinations and defections are weakening Burundi’s security forces.
- The International Criminal Court announced a preliminary examination of human rights abuses in Burundi.
- The death toll in Burundi this month is 31.
- Do Rwanda’s museums commemorate the past or bolster Kagame’s power?
- South Sudan’s rebel leader Riek Machar finally returned to Juba to be sworn in as vice president and continue to move the peace process forward.
- The US promised $90 million in extra aid to South Sudan, but warned of sanctions if there’s a lack of commitment to the peace process.
- February clashes inside a UN protection of civilians site in South Sudan raise questions about the sustainability of such sites, which house 180,000 people across the country.
- Fear of Boko Haram is keeping displaced people in Chad from returning home.
- Profile: How Abubekar Shekau transformed Boko Haram
- Sierra Leone’s Independence Day turned violent with police firing guns and tear gas at the opposition party’s headquarters.
- The UN Security Council has lifted remaining sanctions on the Ivory Coast and will end the peacekeeping mission there.
- Yemeni and Saudi-led coalition forces retook the port city of Mukalla, a longtime Al Qaeda stronghold.
- Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula would like to debate the Islamic State.
- The White House will expand Special Forces presence in Syria by 250 troops (there are already 50 there).
- The US admitted to killing 20 civilians in strikes intended for Islamic State targets between September and February.
- Airstrikes destroyed a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Aleppo, also destroying the eight-week-old ceasefire in the process. One of Aleppo’s last pediatricians is among the dead.
- “In the last 48 hours, we have had an average of one Syrian killed every 25 minutes, one Syrian wounded every 13 minutes.”
- US-Russia cooperation over Syria is unraveling.
- Long read: Ghaith Abdul-Ahad on leaving Syria behind and life on the refugee trail, with beautiful drawings.
- The Iraqi army made advances south of Mosul.
- Fallujajh’s residents suffer under the siege.
- The Islamic State is turning to fishing, selling cars and running factoriesto supplement its income as oil revenues dwindle.
- The number of foreign fighters entering Iraq and Syria decreased by 90 percent, says the Pentagon.
- The Pentagon will declassify the results of its internal investigation into the airstrikes on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz. 16 US forces weredisciplined as a result of the review.
- An Australian aid worker was kidnapped in Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan.
- The Bangladeshi branch of Al Qaeda claimed the brutal killing of LGBTQ activist and editor of the country’s only gay rights magazine, Xulhaz Mannan, along with theater actor Tanay Majumder.
- Here are some of the writings of Bangladeshi writers and bloggers murdered by extremists.
- A third North Korean missile test failed.
- Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam has been extradited to France.
- In an interview, Abdeslam’s former Belgian attorney called him a “little jerk” and described him as having “the intelligence of an empty ashtray.”
- Former Islamic State hostages identified Brussels suicide bomber Najim Laachraoui as one of their Syrian captors.
- 9,333 killed since the Ukraine conflict began.
- Ukraine says a stronger ceasefire is needed.
- President Putin used executive orders to form a new internal security service, the National Guard, likely to be tasked with “suppression of unauthorized mass actions.”
- Video: A young Colombian girl kidnapped at 9 by FARC was one of thousands of children forced to fight.
- Capt. Kristen Griest, one of two women to be the first to earn a Ranger tab, will now be the Army’s first female infantry officer.