The twin airstrikes launched in coordination with the Somali government targeted al-Shabab compounds near the town of Qunyo Barrow, AFRICOM said in a statement.

U.S. Africa Command, citing security concerns, declined to say Friday how many troops have already been moved or when the withdrawal will be completed.

Libyan officials from rival administrations began talks Tuesday in an Egyptian Red Sea resort on constitutional arrangements laying the legal groundwork for presidential and parliamentary elections later this year, the United Nations said.

A former Defense Department official was charged in connection with allegations he received $34,000 in illegal gratuity from a private party while serving in a government position, the U.S. Attorney’s central district office in California said.

The Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group, which includes an array of support ships, joins the Navy’s USS Hershel “Woody” Williams off the coast of Somalia.

French President Emmanuel Macron wants to take further steps to reckon with France's colonial-era wrongs in Algeria but is not considering an official apology, his office said.

A boat carrying migrants bound for Europe capsized in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya, drowning at least 43 people, the U.N. migration agency said Wednesday.

The most deadly incident for American forces overseas last year was a helicopter crash in the Sinai Peninsula in November, in which five American troops died and one was injured.

U.S. airstrikes killed eight al-Shabab bomb makers this week in Somalia, marking the first such attack in the country since the Pentagon directed the military to withdraw its forces from the country by early next year.

U.S. Africa Command is slated to get almost $40 million more than the Pentagon sought for it after lawmakers added funds to the headquarters’ budget, citing concerns it lacks casualty evacuation capabilities.

Analysis

A growing groundswell of youth unrest, tapping into a well of economic frustration, is sweeping Tunisia and worrying its leadership all the way to the top. It is, after all, the country that triggered the 2011 Arab Spring revolutions.

A Sudanese military helicopter loaded with weapons and ammunition crashed Wednesday, shortly after taking off from an airport in an eastern province bordering Ethiopia, officials said.

Ugandan presidential challenger Bobi Wine has emerged from last week's disputed election as the country's most powerful opposition leader after his party won the most seats of any opposition group in the national assembly.

A United Nations peacekeeper from Egypt was killed in Mali's northern Kidal region on Friday, and another was seriously injured, after their vehicle hit an explosive device during a logistics convoy, the U.N. said.

The top U.N. official for Libya said Saturday that an advisory committee for representatives of Libya's different regions has proposed a way forward for choosing a transitional government that would lead the war-torn country to elections late this year.

The violence led to local authorities imposing a round-the-clock curfew on the entire province. The ruling sovereign council met Sunday and said security forces would be deployed to the area.

The death toll from tribal clashes between Arabs and non-Arabs in Sudan’s western Darfur region reached around 130 people, including children and women, doctors and an aid worker said Monday, as families began burying their dead.

Longtime Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni won a sixth term as president with about 60% of the vote, according to election results Saturday, in an election that highlighted the many tactics used for decades to steamroll Museveni's opponents.

Three United Nations peacekeepers died and six more were wounded Wednesday in northern Mali hours before the U.N.'s top official in the country expressed cautious optimism that a new roadmap would lead the turbulent West African nation to elections in March 2022.

Security forces in Central African Republic repelled attacks by rebels trying to seize the capital early Wednesday after intense fighting on the city's outskirts, officials said, in a major escalation of violence that has rocked the country since last month.

France's defense minister on Sunday denied reports that its fighter jets struck civilians at a wedding party in central Mali a week ago, saying that only jihadis were targeted and hit and that she verified the information herself after claims that at least 20 civilians were killed.

Zimbabwe’s Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo, who gained prominence in 2017 as the military general who announced the coup against then-president Robert Mugabe on television, has died from COVID-19, the government announced Wednesday. He was 61.

Hospitals in Sudan's West Darfur province Tuesday received at least 29 more bodies, doctors said, bringing the tally from clashes between Arab and non-Arab tribes to some 160 dead, including women and children.

Ugandan opposition presidential candidate Bobi Wine said Friday the military had entered and "taken control" of his home and "we are in serious trouble," while the country waited for election results amid a government-ordered internet blackout.

Two U.N. peacekeepers were killed in an attack Monday in the Central African Republic, the United Nations said.

Many feel disappointed that on the 10th anniversary of the uprising that ousted the autocratic former president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, little seems to have improved.

Jared Kushner helped broker a normalization deal between Morocco and Israel announced last month, part of a series of historic accords that won Arab countries major favors from Washington in exchange.

Ugandans voted Thursday in a presidential election tainted by widespread violence that some fear could escalate as security forces try to stop supporters of leading opposition challenger Bobi Wine from monitoring polling stations. Internet access has been cut off.

Deadly protests and attacks in Ethiopia in which over 100 people died after the assassination of prominent musician Hachalu Hundessa constitute crimes against humanity and require further investigation, according to a human rights body.

The United States has invested billions of dollars in Somalia over the past decade, in part to build and train Danab, the only effective, apolitical fighting unit in the country's war against al-Qaida-affiliated al-Shabab.

Colorado's Ethiopian communities don't agree about the cause of the problems in their home country, particularly over which entity is the aggressor, but they worry about their families and friends who live there.

Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the debate was ongoing about the positioning of some 700 U.S. troops in Somalia, confirming news reports that the White House was seeking a change in the military posture there.

Most of the troops to be removed from Somalia will be relocated to neighboring countries, from where they will continue efforts against the al-Qaida-aligned al-Shabab group.

Coronavirus mutations identified in the United Kingdom and South Africa may be provoking alarm, but infectious-disease experts are optimistic the new variants are still vulnerable to the powerful hammer of newly authorized vaccines.

Acting defense secretary’s visit comes as Trump’s administration considers reducing U.S. troops in the country, according to news reports.

The Army says it wants a slogan that captures the spirit of both its Europe and Africa missions.

The plan circulating in the Pentagon would cut virtually all troops in Somalia, who conduct counterterrorism and training missions, The New York Times reported.