- After the liberation of Sirte from the Islamic State, Libyans recount the horrors of imprisonment.
- The US is reportedly using Tunisia to launch drone operations in Libya.
- An Egyptian court upheld life sentences for the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and 36 others.
- Political violence increased dramatically in Zimbabwe this year.
- A regional summit on security issues in the Democratic Republic of Congo ended without major progress.
- After South Africa and Burundi began the withdrawal process from the International Criminal Court last week, Gambia has announced its intentions to do the same.
- Boko Haram proves itself far from defeated.
- A few months ago, the tiny Ugandan town of Bidi Bidi was mostly grassland. Now it is the world’s fourth largest refugee camp.
- As Kenya shuts down Dadaab refugee camp, authorities are repatriating (read: dumping) 400 people a day, forcing them back into war-torn Somalia without appropriate shelter.
- The surviving members of the Naham 3 crew, who endured years of captivity by Somali pirates, have finally been freed.
- The Islamic State raised its flag over Qandala, a Somali port town on the Gulf of Aden.
- There have been 31 US airstrikes against Al Qaeda in Yemen in 2016––already exceeding the number from previous years.
- Turkey’s military purge continues.
- Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired a ballistic missile toward Mecca.
- Leaked documents show that the UN has hired many friends, relatives and political allies of Bashar al-Assad for the Syrian relief effort. Leaks also show that 2/3 of aid goes to people in government-held areas of the country.
- Rebels have begun an offensive to break the government siege of opposition-held areas of Aleppo.
- The US believes either Russia or Syria is responsible for an attack on a school in Idlib that left nearly 40 people dead.
- Responsibility for a third chemical weapons attack on a rebel-held area––chlorine gas in Idlib province in March 2015––has been laid at the feet of the Syrian government.
- Dispatch from Mosul: As opposing forces advance, the Islamic State resorts to scorched earth tactics: setting oil wells on fire, using civilians as human shields, and executing those who try to flee.
- As part of the campaign to retake the city, Iraqi Shi’ite militias are preparing to move on Islamic State positions west of Mosul.
- The Islamic State killed 23 civilian hostages in Ghor province in western Afghanistan.
- A Taliban offensive has blocked a major highway between Kabul and Kandahar.
- The Taliban took over a base in southern Uruzgan province.
- Afghan forces struggle under the pressure of Taliban gains, mounting casualties and increasing desertions, surrenders, and defections.
- American airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan last Sunday targeted two senior Al Qaeda commanders. The US has ramped up airstrikes in the country in 2016.
- Afghanistan suffers a migration crisis as Pakistan and Iran force refugees back, splitting up families and sending people back into conflict zones.
- In Pakistan, authorities have banned public rallies and arrested dozens of supporters of opposition leader Imran Khan.
- An attack on a police training college in Quetta left 61 dead.
- India and Pakistan have expelled one another’s diplomats.
- In Kashmir, ad hoc schools are popping up as refuges for children amid strikes and curfews.
- In the weeks following an attack on a guard post, Myanmar’s army and border police have looted shops, and raped and killed members of the Rohingya population in Rakhine state, which remains inaccessible to aid organizations.
- Activists decry the lack of attention to southern Thailand’s long-running separatist conflict.
- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte says he wants the US military out of the country in two years.
- Did North Korea just try to launch two long-range missiles?
- Analysis: Close defense cooperation among European militaries is a “pipe dream.”
- Russia is upgrading the firepower of its Baltic fleet.
- In Berlin, a museum replica of Hitler’s bunker is causing a stir.
- France declared the Calais migrant camp empty.
- Eastern Europe’s defense industry is on the rise.
- Ukrainian hackers released emails reportedly showing a top Kremlin official’s links to the 2014 uprising in eastern Ukraine.
- A Russian cultural center in Lviv has been evicted.
- Interactive: Budapest 60 years after the uprising.
- Two Yazidi activists and survivors of Islamic State sexual enslavement received the prestigious Sakharov prize.
- Meet one of the six Syrian refugees taken in by Japan.
- Most UN members voted to hold talks on a treaty to ban nuclear weapons.
- Colombia suspended talks with the ELN, the country’s second-largest rebel group over a politician who remains their hostage.