• Deaths in Mogadishu hotel siege

    Mar 28

    A Somalian diplomat was among at least 20 people who died when Al Shabaab militants launched an attack on a hotel in Mogadishu.

    The Maka al-Mukarama Hotel was targeted by a car bomb on Friday evening, before being stormed by armed suicide bombers, who all died in the attack.

    Security forces retook the hotel on Saturday morning. Somalia's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva Yusuf Mohamed Bari Bari died in hospital, after being admitted with serious injuries.

    Information Minister Mohamed Abdi Mareye led a government delegation to the scene on Saturday morning.

  • Voting continues for second day in Nigeria

    The Nigerian elections continued for a second day, after technical problems hit around 300 polling stations.

    About 300 out of around 150,000 were affected by the glitch, which left voters, including President Goodluck Jonathan, unable to cast their vote.

  • Nuclear talks with Iran enter final stages

    Talks with Iran on its nuclear programme are intensifying as the deadline for a deal at the end of the month draws close.

    The talks, attended by Iran and the P5+1 group, the US, China, Russia, France, the UK and Germany, are intended to seek a deal to prevent Iran from seeking a nuclear agreement.

    The US Secretary of State John Kerry and his German and French counterparts have cancelled their travel plans for the last few days of the talks, in order to push for a resolution ahead of the March 31 deadline.

    Iran, which denies it is pursuing nuclear weapons, is hoping to achieve the lifting of international sanctions through a deal.

    US officials said all parties, including Iran, had agreed "there needs to be a phased step by step reciprocal approach", so that Iran's steps to scale back its nuclear programme are met with a phased lifting of sanctions, the BBC said.

  • Idlib captured by Syrian rebels

    Syrian rebels captured the key Syrian city of Idlib from government forces, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

    The monitoring group said that the Ahrar al-Sham, Jund al-Aqsa and Nusra Front groups had taken the city on Saturday.

  • Nigerian voters killed by Boko Haram attacks
    Boko Haram militants killed 6 people in two separate attacks on Nigerian voters on Saturday.

    Gunmen opened fire on voters as they made their way into polling stations, reports Channel 4 news.

    One polling station was hit by a bomb, whilst in a separate incident, a Nigerian soldier was killed in an ambush by the militants.
  • UN diplomats evacuate Yemen as Saudi Arabia intervenes
    United Nations staff were pulled out from Yemen on Saturday after a third day of Saudi-led air strikes to tackle advances of Houthi militants left the area inhabitable.

    Saudi Arabia’s navy evacuated dozens of diplomats from the region amidst attempts to quash the advances of Iranian allied Shi’ite Houthi fighters, reports Reuters.
  • Libya calls for lift of UN arms embargo
    The Libyan government made fresh calls for a UN arms embargo on the country to be lifted as a measure to help combat the advance of Islamic State militants in the region.

    Speaking at an a meeting of the Arab League leaders in Egypt on Saturday, the president of Libya’s internationally recognised parliament, Aquila Saleh, said,
  • Boko Haram head quarters retaken by Nigerian army

    Nigeria’s army announced it has recaptured the town of Gwoza, thought to be the headquarters of Boko Haram.

    The group have suffered a serious of setbacks in recent months and have lost a large amount of the territory it held since Nigeria's neighbours, Cameroon, Chad and Niger sent troops to help it earlier this year.

  • Chadian policemen sentenced to life for torture

    Seven former policemen in Chad have been sentenced to life imprisonment for torture, in the first trial of former president Hissene Habre's accomplices.

    Under Mr Habre's rule from 1982 to 1990 thousands of people are thought to have been killed and tortured. He is currently being held in Senegal awaiting a war crimes trial.

  • OHCHR highlights 'obligation to prosecute' after investigations into disappeared persons
    The Chief of Rule of Law, Equality and Non-Discrimination of the OHCHR highlighted the obligation to persecute violations of international humanitarian law at an event presenting the ‘Good practice guide for the use of forensic genetics in investigations into human rights and international humanitarian law violations’ at the UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday.

    Panellists at the event included the Permanent Representative of Argentina (H.E. Ambassador Alberto D’Alotto), the Deputy Head of Operations of ICRC (Christophe Martin), the Chief of Rule of Law, Equality and Non-Discrimination of the OHCHR (Mona Rishmawi), along with several experts on forensic genetics involved in the drafting process.

    In her presentation Ms Rishmawi made clear that states have an obligation under international human rights law and international humanitarian law to investigate gross violations of human rights, of which enforced disappearances is one. She said that this obligation to investigate was “very closely tied” to the “obligation to prosecute” and “the right to truth” and that the right to truth included the right to know what happened to the person, the circumstances under which the disappearance occurred, the gross violations of rights, the status of progress made, results of identification processes, and the identity of perpetrators.
  • Saudi Arabia leads air strikes against Houthi rebels as President Hadi flees

    The Saudi air force has led air attacks on Houthi rebels in Yemen, as Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi left the country and arrived in Riyadh.

    Iran has described the air strikes as "dangerous", while Saudi Arabia said it was "defending the legitimate government" of President Hadi.

    Reports say at least 13 civilians died in air strikes in the capital Sanaa.

    On Wednesday, the Saudi ambassador to the US, Adel al-Jubair, announced the beginning of the air strikes.

  • Global asylum claims in industrialized countries rise 45% in 2014
    In their annual report on asylum claims in 44 industrialized countries released today, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) found that the number of asylum claims globally rose by 45% from 2013 to 2014.

    There were approximately 866,000 asylum claims filed in 2014 - the second highest figure since the early 1980s when the UNHCR started systemically collecting statistics.

    The report explains the overall increase as the result of, “[a] combination of armed conflict, deterioration of security or humanitarian situation and human rights concerns in a number of countries – notably the Syrian Arab Republic.” Syria went from being ranked 20th as a source of asylum-seekers in 2010, to 1st in 2013 and 2014.
  • US supports Iraqi controlled forces and militia with airstrikes
    A US led coalition of warplanes launched their first airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq, in collaboration with Iraqi forces working with Iran backed militia on the ground, reports Reuters.
  • Human Rights Watch launches 'Votes Count' website monitoring countries’ voting record at Human Rights Council
    Human Rights Watch launched a new website, ‘Votes Count’ to monitor and make available countries’ voting records on issues concerning international human rights violations.
  • Two states is the best path forward' says US President Obama on Israel-Palestine
    US President Barack Obama reiterated his support for a two state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, where he criticised comments made by the newly re-elected Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

    During a joint press conference with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Tuesday, Mr Obama said,
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