NEWS

The UN Security Council says further extensions would hinge on real progress between Sudan and South Sudan.

The United Nations Security Council has voted to renew a UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), the peacekeeping mission in the oil-rich disputed region between Sudan and South Sudan, for another year.

A 12-0 vote late on Friday, which saw Russia, China and Pakistan abstain, extended the mission until November 2026, but warned that progress on ending bloody fighting in the region would be crucial to any potential future extensions.

The United States submitted the draft resolution that renewed the mandate, which was due to expire on November 15, and said it “negotiated this draft in good faith, asking only for reasonable and common-sense benchmarks for this mission”.

Friday’s resolution stated that further renewal would be based on “demonstrable progress” by Sudan and South Sudan, including the creation of a joint police force for Abyei and the complete demilitarisation of the region, as agreed upon by the two sides in 2011 when South Sudan gained independence.

The 4,000 police and soldiers of UNISFA are tasked with protecting civilians in the region plagued by frequent armed clashes.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is now tasked with presenting a report by August 2026 on whether Sudan and South Sudan have made any tangible progress, which would also enable the Security Council to assess the consequences of reducing the peacekeeping force.

“These benchmarks will help describe the mission’s impact and provide a critical tool to hold host governments accountable for measurable progress,” said US representative Dorothy Shea.

UNISFA is a small but politically sensitive mission, operating in a region where clashes have displaced thousands and humanitarian access has often been constrained by a lack of security and dangerous road conditions.

Unrest in the disputed area with South Sudan also continues at a time when Sudan is devastated by a civil war that erupted in April 2023, when two generals started fighting over control of the country.

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been committing atrocities in Darfur and other regions, have also been active in Abyei.

President Gustavo Petro says purchase of warplanes is a ‘deterrent weapon to achieve peace’ amid ‘messy’ geopolitics.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has announced a $4.3bn deal to buy Swedish warplanes at a time when his country is locked in tension with the United States.

Speaking on Friday, Petro confirmed an agreement was reached with Sweden’s Saab aircraft manufacturer to buy 17 Gripen fighter jets, giving the first confirmation of the size and cost of the military acquisition that was initially announced in April.

“This is a deterrent weapon to achieve peace,” Petro said in a post on social media.

The purchase of warplanes comes as Colombia and much of remaining Latin America are on edge due to a US military build-up in the region, and as US forces carry out a campaign of deadly attacks on vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.

Washington claims – but has provided no evidence – that it has targeted drug smuggling vessels in its 20 confirmed attacks that have killed about 80 people so far in international waters.

Latin American leaders, legal scholars and rights groups have accused the US of carrying out extrajudicial killings of people who should face the courts if suspected of breaking laws related to drug smuggling.

US President Donald Trump has also accused both Petro and his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolas Maduro, of being involved in the regional drug trade, a claim that both leaders have strenuously denied.

Petro said the new warplanes will be used to dissuade “aggression against Colombia, wherever it may come from”.

“In a world that is geopolitically messy,” he said, such aggression “can come from anywhere”.

The Colombian leader has for weeks traded insults with Donald Trump and said the ultimate goal of the US deployment in the region is to seize Venezuela’s oil wealth and destabilise Latin America.

Trump has long accused Venezuela’s Maduro of trafficking drugs and more recently branded Petro “an illegal drug leader” because of Colombia’s high level of cocaine production. Trump has also withdrawn US financial aid from Colombia and taken it off its list of countries seen as allies in fighting drug trafficking internationally.

Amid the war of words rumbling on between Washington and Bogota, Petro said last week that Colombia would suspend intelligence sharing with the US on combating drug trafficking, but officials in his government quickly rolled back that threat.

The AFP news agency reports that US and French firms had also tried to sell warplanes to Colombia, but, in the end, Bogota went with Sweden’s Saab.

Swedish Defence Minister Pal Jonson said Colombia was joining Sweden, Brazil and Thailand in choosing the Gripen fighter jet, and defence relations between Bogota and Stockholm would “deepen significantly” as a result.

🇸🇪🇨🇴I’m proud that Colombia today joins the Gripen E family, alongside Sweden, Brazil and Thailand. With the Colombian purchase of 17 Gripen E/F, our defence relations will deepen significantly & Colombia will receive one of the world’s greatest fighter jets. (1/4) pic.twitter.com/g0rESq69nD

— Pål Jonson (@PlJonson) November 14, 2025

The new Pentagon task force established to counter threats posed by small drones on Friday announced the creation of a hub for agencies to purchase counter-drone equipment and ways to improve how these systems work together. The effort comes as the U.S. faces an increasing number of incursions over these facilities, and about a year after a spate of them began popping up across the continent.

“We’re going to use all the tools at our disposal to be able to acquire new technology as quickly as possible to get it into the hands of the warfighter,” Brig. Gen. Matt Ross, director of the newly created Joint Interagency Task Force-401 (JIATF-401). Ross spoke on Friday to a small group of reporters, including from The War Zone.

The Army-led task force is creating what Ross calls a “UAS and counter-UAS marketplace” that will allow the installation commanders and interagency partners like the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and local law enforcement to shop for equipment and components. 

A task force spokesman described the effort as “an Amazon-like marketplace for the procurement of counter-drone technology and equipment where people can go online, look for capabilities and user feedback.” It will be similar to one being launched by the Army for the procurement of drones.

The marketplace “will provide authoritative data on how each of these systems performs under varying conditions and allow users or customers to select the tool that’s right for them,” Ross explained. “We’ve got a wide variety of counter-UAS tools, and I actually think that we need all of them, because depending on where you are or what threat you’re focused on, your requirements will be slightly different. So we want to ensure that we provide a range of options both to the Department of War and to our interagency partners.”

The task force is looking at systems and components already on the market as well as working with industry partners to develop new ones. There are “hundreds of components of counter-UAS systems that could go on to the marketplace today, and we need to start thinking about these counter-UAS systems as components that are interchangeable.”

He did not offer specific examples but said it includes a wide range of sensors to detect drones and low-collateral and non-kinetic effectors to defeat them. The task force is not looking at explosive interceptors because, as we pointed out in the past, there are concerns about collateral damage and what works in a combat zone is not applicable in the homeland. We have profiled a number of these systems in previous articles.

Providing individual components in addition to complete systems allows individual purchasers to better obtain what they need, Ross noted.

“When you look at a full-stack system, you may settle for a less-than-optimal configuration of your radar, your EO/IR camera, and your layered effectors,” Ross explained. “If I only need to sense 20 kilometers and not 40 kilometers and I could change out that radar, put a lower-cost radar on there, then I could put more systems out into the field. As we look at that marketplace, I really want it to be components, similar to what you would see on any other online marketplace, that are plug-and-play as part of a counter-UAS system.”

Beyond offering equipment, the task force is streamlining the command and control of the wide array of systems being used by the military and its agency partners.

“What’s critical in any counter-UAS system is the mission command that allows you to tie together disparate sensors and effectors,” he posited. “And so what we are going to do inside of JIATF-401 is ensure that we standardize the communications protocols on how we send and receive information so that every component of a counter-UAS system is plug and play.” “

“For too long, we’ve struggled with integration,” Ross suggested. “And as people use different mission command systems, they had to specifically integrate a new component. And just like when you buy something to put on your Wi-Fi network at home, you know it’s going to work because the communication protocols are already established. We want to do the exact same thing for counter-UAS systems, both internal to the Department of War and for our interagency partners.”

The task force has yet to settle on a specific system.

“We evaluated every service’s mission command system last month in Operation Clear Horizon,” the task force director explained. “We did that specifically to assess their quantitative performance and then qualitatively how the workflows affected the outcome of those mission command systems. And we’re evaluating that now.”

While the task force is creating a more unified mission command system, Ross said it is important for individual installations to be able to act quickly on their own.

“It’s important that we remain decentralized,” he said. “If you look at the speed at which these systems can present a threat, you have to have operators that are empowered, trained, and they understand their authorities to be able to counter those threats, because they just don’t have time to go up to a higher level for approval.”

The U.S., he added, has improved how installations respond to incursions after the ones last year over Picatinny Arsenal, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and several others, as well as those over Langley Air Force Base in 2023 that we were also the first to report.

“I think there’s a number of things that have changed,” the director pointed out. “Number one, we are consistently fielding new counter-UAS capabilities at our installations, and as we do that, we prioritize them based off what we have to protect at each of those installations.”

In addition, the task force has “also worked with the services that are responsible for each of the installations in NORTHCOM to provide additional options. So what you described is a very complex problem, and as you look at it at scale, there’s a lot of work to do.”

“We are helping the services with their assessments of critical infrastructure, determining what they need to close gaps, and then we’re helping them get it quickly. In areas where the services require assistance inside of the homeland.”

One example Ross pointed to is NORTHCOM’s new flyaway kits – equipment procured from Anduril and trained personnel that can board C-130 transports and respond within 24 hours to drone incursions at homeland installations.

According to the Army, the kits themselves are “an amalgamation of sensors and effectors that creates a total detect, track, identify and mitigation system including:

• The Heimdal mobile sensor trailer that includes a continuous 360-degree pan and tilt unit, thermal optics and a radar, all working together autonomously for target acquisition.
• Anvil drone interceptors and launch box, which operate autonomously to detect, track, shadow and mitigate threats.
• An electromagnetic warfare effector called Pulsar that features radio frequency detect, track, classify and deny options.
• The Wisp, a wide-area infrared system that is AI-enabled and offers 360-degree, full-motion sensoring that provides an accurate sight picture for operators.”

Last month, the kits attained operational certification, according to the Army. NORTHCOM told us they are the “final option in a series of escalating measures for the Department of War’s response to drone threats,” only called upon if an installation or the service that owns it can’t provide the needed tools and personnel.

Still, Ross insisted that military installations “are equipped to handle UAS incursions.”

“The specific equipment varies by location,” Ross proffered, “but what we’re trying to build at each location where we have critical infrastructure that needs to be protected is a layered defense that includes distributed sensing and layered effectors so that we have the ability to counter any and all threats.”

Another huge area of concern for the military are attacks like Ukraine’s Spider Web strike on Russian aviation and Israel’s Operation Rising Lion attack on air defense systems and other military targets and personnel. The incidents have highlighted the danger presented by near-field drone attacks launched deep within enemy territory, in close proximity to their targets. As we have pointed out for many years, military assets and other high-value targets are extremely vulnerable to these types of operations within the homeland. 

One of the most visible counter-drone efforts is taking place on the southern border, where President Donald Trump has ordered thousands of troops and equipment to prevent the flow of undocumented aliens and drugs into the country.

“I was actually at the southern border last week, spending time both with the NORTHCOM team and with the Joint Task Force Southern Border to understand the challenges that they’re facing,” he said. “I do that because understanding their challenges very specifically will allow us to focus our effort on closing that next gap. If you look across the 1,954-mile border, I think that we do face a challenge of unmanned systems, and NORTHCOM is focused on addressing those challenges now, in conjunction with other lead federal agencies.”

The task force is working toward “an integrated, distributed sensing network that includes both passive and active sensors, and then layering in effectors, or counter UAS effectors that will allow us to defeat a threat as it crosses the border,” Ross explained. “We’re working closely with DHS, Customs and Border Protection, the Department of Interior and other agencies that are working along the southern border.”

In addition, JIATF-401 is “also looking to integrate new technology like low-cost attritable interceptors that will provide additional options and more tools to our service members as they’re defending our southern border.”

These include “RF defeat, absolutely low-cost interceptors, a variety of different sensors that would include acoustic and active radar. And then we’re going to make sure that all of those sensors provide an integrated air awareness or air picture, so that we can choose the best effector to counter a UAS depending on its size, its activity in the location.”

Drones have already been taken down coming over the border, Ross stated, but he did not specifically say how. We reached out to NORTHCOM and the task force for further details.

It is one thing to have the equipment and personnel, but the task force is also pushing for increased authorities to act. That includes making sure all bases fall under the provisions of “130(i),” federal law covering current authorities for the “protection of certain facilities and assets from unmanned aircraft.”

Under 130i, the U.S. military has the authority to take “action” to defend against drones including with measures to “disrupt control of the unmanned aircraft system or unmanned aircraft, without prior consent, including by disabling the unmanned aircraft system or unmanned aircraft by intercepting, interfering, or causing interference with wire, oral, electronic, or radio communications used to control the unmanned aircraft system or unmanned aircraft” and “use reasonable force to disable, damage, or destroy the unmanned aircraft system or unmanned aircraft.”

However, only a portion of U.S. bases are covered and Ross wants to make it a blanket protection for all.

“We want to make sure that those authorities enable installation commanders with everything they need to be able to protect that critical infrastructure,” Ross explained. “That’s one part of it. The second part of it is making sure that what’s actually in the law is clearly communicated to those installation commanders so there’s no ambiguity, and they know exactly what they can do, both inside the fence line, outside the fence line, and in coordination with local law enforcement around those installations.”

On Nov. 25, JIATF-401 is going to hold what Ross calls “a counter-UAS summit” attended by subject matter experts from interagency partners. The summit will focus on intelligence gathering, policy, science and technology, and operations.

“We want to make sure that we’ve got an enduring partnership with each of those agencies because we know this problem is going to continue to evolve,” said Ross, “and we want to be able to move at the speed of relevance.”

Contact the author: [email protected]

Jawhar Ben Mbarek’s sister said his health had ‘severely deteriorated’ and a ‘dangerous toxin’ was detected in his body.

Jailed Tunisian opposition figure Jawhar Ben Mbarek has been hospitalised due to severe dehydration, his family has said, as his health continues to deteriorate after more than two weeks on hunger strike.

Ben Mbarek, the cofounder of Tunisia’s main opposition alliance, the National Salvation Front, started his hunger strike on October 29 to protest his detention in jail since February 2023.

In a Facebook post on Friday, Ben Mbarek’s sister, Dalila Ben Mbarek Msaddek, warned that her brother’s health had now “severely deteriorated” and doctors detected “a highly dangerous toxin” affecting his kidneys.

Msaddek said Ben Mbarek had “received treatment but refused nutritional supplements” at the hospital where he was transferred on Thursday night, insisting on continuing his now 17-day protest.

The politician was discharged from hospital on Friday afternoon and returned to prison, Msaddek added.

On Wednesday, Ben Mbarek’s lawyer Hanen Khmiri said he had “faced torture” at the hands of guards at Belli prison, as they attempted to force him to end his protest.

“He was severely beaten, we saw fractures and bruises on his body,” Khmiri said, adding that she had filed a complaint with the public prosecutor, who promised to investigate.

“He told me that four of the prison guards beat him severely in a place where there is no surveillance camera,” she said.

Ben Mbarek is one of the most prominent opponents of Tunisian strongman President Kais Saied, who has been in power since 2019.

In April, he was sentenced to 18 years in prison on charges of “conspiracy against state security” and “belonging to a terrorist group”, in a mass trial of opposition figures slammed by human rights groups as politically motivated.

Ben Mbarek has denied the charges, which he has called fabricated.

Rights groups have warned of a sharp decline in civil liberties in Tunisia since a sweeping power grab by Saied in July 2021, when he dissolved parliament and expanded executive power so he could rule by decree.

That decree was later enshrined in a new constitution, ratified by a widely boycotted 2022 referendum. Media figures and lawyers critical of Saied have also been prosecuted and detained under a harsh “fake news” law enacted the same year.

Last week, Ben Mbarek’s family and prominent members of Tunisia’s political opposition announced they would join him in a collective hunger strike.

Among the participants was Issam Chebbi, the leader of the centrist Al Joumhouri (Republican) Party, who is also behind bars after being convicted in the same mass trial as Ben Mbarek earlier this year.

Rached Ghannouchi, the 84-year-old leader of the Ennahdha party, who is also serving a hefty prison sentence, also said he would join the protest. Chebbi and Ghannouchi’s current condition is not known.

Prison authorities have maintained the men are under “continuous medical supervision” and denied “rumours about the deterioration in the health of any detainees”.

Explosives reportedly detonate during forensic investigation as part of probe into earlier blast in India’s capital New Delhi.

At least seven people have been killed and 27 more injured after a cache of confiscated explosives detonated in a police station in Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir’s main city.

The stockpile exploded late on Friday night at a police station in the Nowgam area in the south of Srinagar.

Most of those killed were policemen and forensic team officials who were examining the explosives at the time of the detonation, unnamed sources told Indian broadcaster NDTV. Two officials from the Srinagar administration also died in the blast.

With five people still in critical condition, the death toll could continue to climb, according to the media outlet.

“Not a terror attack. Police say it’s a very unfortunate incident,” NDTV’s senior executive editor Aditya Raj Kaul said in a post on social media.

“The blast happened when a forensics team and the police were checking the explosive material stored at the police station,” he said.

#BREAKING: J&K Police Top Officials tell me that the massive blast at Nowgam Police Station around 11:20pm tonight happened when FSL team along with Police and Tehsildar were inspecting the large Ammonium Nitrate explosive which was confiscated earlier. Casualties in the blast.… pic.twitter.com/67U143jOFg

— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) November 14, 2025

The huge blast comes days after Monday’s deadly car explosion in New Delhi, which killed at least 12 people near the city’s historic Red Fort and which officials have called a “terror” incident.

The explosion in the Indian capital occurred just hours after police arrested several people and seized explosive materials as well as assault rifles.

Police said the suspects were linked to Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), a Pakistan-based group that is seeking to end Indian rule in Kashmir, and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, a Kashmir offshoot linked to JeM.

Police in Indian-administered Kashmir also detained more than 650 people as part of their investigation following the New Delhi car blast.

According to reports, the Nowgam police station, where the blast took place on Friday, had led an investigation into posters that were displayed around the area by JeM, warning it would carry out attacks on security forces and “outsiders”.

Police said their investigation into the posters exposed a “white-collar terror ecosystem, involving radicalised professionals and students in contact with foreign handlers, operating from Pakistan and other countries”.

Police also recovered nearly 3,000kg (3 tonnes) of ammonium nitrate, a commonly used material in bomb making, saying the armed group was stockpiling enough explosives to carry out a major attack in India.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947, and both claim the Himalayan territory.

The two countries have fought three wars over Kashmir since the nations were partitioned in 1947, and tensions remain high between New Delhi and Islamabad over the status of the territory.

Jannik Sinner stayed on course to defend his ATP Finals title, while Felix Auger-Aliassime claimed the last semi spot.

Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime reached the last four of the ATP Finals with a 6-4 7-6(4) round-robin win over two-time winner Alexander Zverev on Friday, and Jannik Sinner extended his indoor hardcourt unbeaten run by beating American Ben Shelton.

Germany’s Zverev and Auger-Aliassime both defeated Shelton and lost to Sinner to set up a winner-takes-all clash for the runners-up spot in the Bjorn Borg Group, and the Canadian clinched a place in Saturday’s semifinal against world number one Carlos Alcaraz.

“You want to be in the final, but I’ll have to go through a great player to do that,” Auger-Aliassime said.

“I will take my chance if I have it.”

Zverev was left to rue his failure to take any of his seven break points against Sinner, and it was a similarly frustrating story against the Canadian.

The German held break points in both sets but again could not make them count, and the Canadian broke Zverev at 5-4 up to take the first set, before going on to win the second set tiebreak.

Auger-Aliassime was put under pressure in the opening set, saving break points at 2-2 and 4-4, while Zverev came back from 0-40 down only to lose serve and hand the Canadian the set.

Zverev spent much of the second set gesturing to his team, with Auger-Aliassime winning his first two service games to love before both players were guilty of throwing away chances to break.

Auger-Aliassime let slip a 2-0 lead in the tiebreak, but when Zverev stepped up to serve at 4-5, the Canadian came through to earn consecutive minibreaks and send the German home.

Sinner stays unbeaten

Sinner is unbeaten in 29 matches on indoor hardcourt after a 6-3 7-6(3) victory over Shelton in their dead rubber round-robin match.

There was a relaxed atmosphere in the Inalpi Arena as the Italian had already secured top spot in the group and a semifinal against Alex de Minaur.

Shelton was broken in the opening and closing games of the first set, unable to take advantage of a break point at 2-1 down, while Sinner was always capable of pulling out an ace at the crucial time, hitting two in that fourth game to hold serve.

The American put up more fight in the second set, serving to love on three occasions, rescuing a match point at 5-4 down and forcing Sinner into a tiebreak for the first time in the last two editions of the season-ending championships, before the Italian sealed the win.

Sinner’s chances of ending the year as world number one evaporated on Thursday when Alcaraz completed a clean sweep in the Jimmy Connors Group with a win over Lorenzo Musetti, leaving little at stake against Shelton apart from his unbeaten run.

Before Sinner and Shelton emerged, Alcaraz was presented on court with the ATP year-end world number one trophy, which the Italian won last year, and the pair may yet do battle one last time in 2025 in Sunday’s final.

“It’s a pleasure being the number one of the world. It’s something that I’m working really hard for every day. It is a goal, to be honest,” Alcaraz said.

“For me, it’s a great achievement. It means the world to me and I’m just really proud and happy.”

US President Donald Trump has said he will file legal action against the BBC next week over how his speech was edited by Panorama, after the corporation apologised but refused to compensate him.

Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One on Friday evening, Trump said: “We’ll sue them for anywhere between a billion and $5bn probably sometime next week.”

On Friday, the BBC said the edit of the 6 January 2021 speech had given “the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action”.

The BBC apologised but said it would not pay financial compensation.

Trump said he would discuss it with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer over the weekend.

Earlier this week Trump’s lawyers threatened to sue the BBC for $1bn in damages unless the corporation issued a retraction, apologised and compensated him.

Trump’s lawyers had given the BBC a deadline of 22:00 GMT (17:00 EST) on Friday 14 November to respond, which it did.

The controversy led to the resignations of BBC director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness on Sunday.

Searches of public court record databases earlier showed no legal action had been filed so far.

Federal and state courts in Florida, where a case would likely be filed, are now closed for the weekend.

Based on Pacer searches for federal cases related to the BBC, no case filed by the Trump administration has been filed.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated shortly.

Welcome to Bunker Talk. This is a weekend open discussion post for the best commenting crew on the net, in which we can chat about all the stuff that went on this week that we didn’t cover. We can also talk about the stuff we did or whatever else grabs your interest. In other words, it’s an off-topic thread.

This week’s caption reads: “Members of the 576th Flight Test Squadron install launch control panels Feb. 26, 2015, during the start-up of the Missile Alert Facility for Glory Trip-214 and Glory Trip-215 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The launch control panels are a vital safeguard for launching the Minuteman III missile in both test and field environments. For the operational test launches, unarmed Minuteman III missiles are used, with specialized data monitoring and test equipment.” — Airman 1st Class Ian Dudley

Confusing messages about Britain’s budget are damaging the government’s credibility, according to investors, businesses, and think tanks. Bond prices fell after finance minister Rachel Reeves changed her stance regarding income tax. After suggesting that she might raise income tax to stick to her fiscal plans, a Financial Times report confirmed that she had decided against it, raising concerns about the government’s commitment to its fiscal promises.

Reeves’ initial comments during a pre-budget speech hinted at a possible income tax increase, which would contradict the Labour Party’s pledges for the upcoming 2024 election. Andrew Goodwin, chief UK economist at Oxford Economics, described the situation as a communication failure, especially after the government had already retracted welfare reforms earlier in the year, making many question their ability to make tough financial decisions.

A government official mentioned that a better forecast from the budget watchdog might allow the abandonment of the income tax plan, further undermining the credibility of the government’s financial assumptions. Ben Zaranko from the Institute for Fiscal Studies criticized the inconsistent messaging, stating that it reflects poorly on the policy-making process, which appears rushed and unstable.

Business leaders are worried about these mixed signals, fearing the budget may only include minor tax adjustments that introduce uncertainty for companies. Mohammad Jamei from the Confederation of British Industry emphasized that such unpredictability would lead businesses to delay investment decisions. A senior executive expressed frustration over the political implications of the situation.

Financial markets are also concerned about a return to inconsistent tax increases, with experts believing this could suggest a lack of support for the chancellor from her party. Jane Foley from Rabobank noted that Reeves’ changing statements have harmed her credibility, affecting the UK asset market negatively. Long-dated government bond yields rose significantly in response to these developments.

Investors are reminded of the economic turmoil caused by former Prime Minister Liz Truss’s policies, which still impact their confidence in the UK’s financial stability. Stephen Millard from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research suggested that Reeves needs to create a financial buffer to ensure stability and reduce speculation about the government’s fiscal policies, leading to clearer communication and more dependable budget planning.

With information from Reuters

A resident of the Gaza Strip, who is one of 153 Palestinians that landed in South Africa without the correct paperwork this week, says the group did not know where they would end up when they left Israel.

Loay Abu Saif, who fled Gaza with his wife and children, told Al Jazeera on Friday that the journey out of the battered and besieged enclave was a “trip of suffering”.

“We were not too convinced that any group … would be able to make this kind of evacuation,” Abu Saif said from Johannesburg, a day after the chartered plane his group was on landed at the city’s OR Tambo International Airport.

“I can say I feel safe … which means a lot for Palestinians, especially for those in Gaza,” he added.

Details are slowly emerging of a controversial transit scheme run by a non-profit, through which activists say Israel is encouraging the displacement of Palestinians out of Gaza by helping them settle in other countries.

Based on Abu Saif’s testimony to Al Jazeera, the Israeli military appears to have facilitated his group’s transfer through an Israeli airport.

The flight carrying Abu Saif left Israel’s Ramon Airport and transited through Nairobi, Kenya, before landing in Johannesburg on Thursday morning, where authorities did not initially allow the passengers to disembark as the Palestinians did not have departure stamps from Israel on their documents.

All in all, the journey lasted more than 24 hours and involved a change of planes.

Abu Saif said his family left Gaza without knowing their final destination. They only learned they were bound for Johannesburg when boarding their connecting flight in Nairobi.

Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Amman, Jordan, on Friday, said Israel was yet to comment on the issue, but it was unlikely the Palestinians who left did so without “Israeli coordination”.

“Nobody can approach that imaginary yellow line [in Gaza] without being shot at. These people had to be bused through the yellow line, through the 53 percent of Gaza that the Israeli army still controls and is operating in out of Gaza, through Israel to the Ramon airport,” she reported.

Uncertainty loomed

According to Abu Saif, his wife registered the family with a nonprofit called Al-Majd Europe, with headquarters in Germany with an office in Jerusalem, according to their website.

The group advertised the registration form on social media, he revealed. On how he was selected, Abu Saif said the process appeared to focus on families with children and required a valid Palestinian travel document, along with security clearance from Israel.

“This is all what I know about the criteria,” he said.

When asked whether he knew in advance when they would leave Gaza, he said no timelines were given.

“They told us … we will inform you one day before – that’s what happened,” he said, adding that the organisation told them not to carry any personal bags or luggage except relevant documents.

In terms of cost, people were charged about $1,400-$2,000 per person for the trip, Abu Saif said. Parents also paid the same fee per child or baby they carried with them.

After they were selected to leave, Abu Saif and his family were taken by bus from the southern Gaza city of Rafah to the Karem Abu Salem crossing (called Kerem Shalom in Israel), along the border with Israel, where they underwent checks before being transferred onward towards Israel’s Ramon Airport.

He said their travel documents were not stamped by Israeli authorities, but he thought it was just a routine procedure since there were no Palestinian border officials in Gaza.

“We realised the problem … when we reached South Africa and they were asking us … ‘Where are you coming from?’” Abu Saif said.

Future plans

The group that organised the trip, Al-Majd Europe, said they would be able to help his family for a week or two, after which they would be on their own, Abu Saif said.

However, he added that the evacuees had made their own plans going forward.

“They have their papers for Australia, Indonesia, or Malaysia. We can say that 30 percent of the total number of passengers left South Africa on the same day or within the first two days,” he said, while others may choose to stay for several reasons, including receiving treatment.

South African authorities reported that of the 153 Palestinians who landed on Thursday, 130 entered the country, while 23 transferred to other destinations.

“People have calculated that the cost of life in any country … will be cheaper compared to the cost of living in Gaza,” said Abu Saif.

Questions have been raised over how hundreds of Palestinians were able to leave Gaza, board a plane in Israel, and arrive in South Africa without departure stamps in their passports or indication of their intended destination.

Swedish police say no information the Stockholm bus accident was an attack, without giving numbers of those killed.

Several people have been killed and injured when a bus hit a bus stop in central Stockholm, Swedish police said, adding that they had no information pointing to it being an attack.

There were six casualties in the incident on Friday, a spokesperson for Stockholm’s rescue services said, without giving the numbers of those killed and injured.

The spokesperson said there were no passengers on the bus at the time.

“It is being investigated as involuntary manslaughter. The bus driver has been arrested, but that is routine in such an incident,” a police spokesperson said.

Health authorities spokesperson Michelle Marcher told the AFP news agency that two seriously injured people had been transported to hospital.

Police said that several people were hit, but they were not immediately providing information on their number, gender or ages.

Ambulances, police and rescue services were working at the scene, they added.

A picture on daily Aftonbladet’s website showed emergency services at the site, surrounding a blue double-decker bus, with debris scattered around the vehicle.

The incident occurred near the Royal Institute of Technology university, police said.

‘Unreal’

A woman identified as Michelle Mac Key told the daily newspaper Expressen she stepped off another bus at the scene just after the accident happened.

“I crossed the road and saw the double-decker bus that had mowed down an entire bus stop queue,” she said. People were screaming and trying to help the injured.

She said she saw both injured and dead people lying on the ground. “There must have been more people under the bus,” she said.

A nurse by profession, she and another man who was a doctor, offered their help to police when they arrived.

“They told us to stand next to the dead bodies,” she said. “I thought it was an exercise at first. That maybe they were dolls. It was so unreal. Chaos.”

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said his thoughts were with the victims and their families.

“I have received the tragic news that several people have died and been injured at a bus stop in central Stockholm,” he wrote on X.

“People who might have been on their way home to family, friends, or a quiet evening at home. We do not yet know the cause, but right now my thoughts are primarily with those affected and their loved ones.”

China’s first super-sized Type 076 amphibious assault ship, the Sichuan, has left port for its first sea trials. The Type 076 is unlike any other big deck amphibious warship design globally, featuring an electromagnetically-powered catapult to support an air wing expected to include naval versions of the GJ-11 stealthy flying-wing uncrewed combat air vehicle (UCAV).

Sichuan, which has now also been assigned the hull number 51, left Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard in Shanghai on its maiden voyage earlier today. The ship, which is currently the only one of its type, has been under construction in that yard since at least 2023. A ceremony marking its launch was held on December 27, 2024, and it was actually floated for the first time in its basin sometime afterward.

“This sea trial will mainly test and verify the reliability and stability of the power, electrical, and other systems,” according to a release from China’s Ministry of National Defense. Since its launch, the ship “has successfully completed mooring tests and equipment installation and debugging, and has met the technical conditions for sea trials.”

There had already been signs in recent weeks of significant new progress on the final fitting out of Sichuan, including the painting of full markings on its flight deck.

Another image, seen in the social media post below, had emerged at the end of last month showing what is very likely a red-colored catapult test ‘truck’ on Sichuan‘s deck. This, in turn, had pointed to the start of testing of the ship’s lone catapult.

Shipbuilders and navies around the world, including China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and the U.S. Navy, have long used weighted trucks to test catapults on aircraft carriers as part of their construction or following maintenance. 

The video below shows testing of the catapults on the U.S. Navy’s supercarrier USS Gerald R. Ford using weighted trucks.

Overall, Sichuan represents a particularly notable development for the PLAN. Chinese officials have said the Type 076 displaces more than 40,000 metric tons (44,000 U.S. tons). TWZ has previously assessed that the ship is around 864 feet long and that it is some 141 feet wide (or 263 and nearly 43 meters, respectively). China’s previous Type 075 amphibious assault ships, of which there are now four in service, have a stated displacement of between 32,000 and 36,000 metric tons (35,000 to 40,000 U.S. tons) with a full load, and are just over 761 feet long and nearly 121 feet wide. Sichuan is also notably wider than other big deck amphibious warfare ships in service globally, including the U.S. Navy’s America class.

Sichuan‘s unusually wide flight deck is absolutely core to the design. Along with the ship’s two islands, this has long made clear the ship is heavily focused sustained flight operations. This will include fixed-wing types launched via the catapult at the bow end and recovered via some form of arresting gear.

There have been growing signs for years now that a navalized variant of the GJ-11 UCAV, also sometimes referred to as the GJ-21, will be an especially significant part of Sichuan‘s future air wing. Most recently, around the beginning of this month, pictures emerged showing a version of the drone with an arresting hook very prominently deployed. Last year, apparent GJ-11 mockups had also appeared at a test and/or training site right on Changxing Island in Shanghai, very close to where the Type 076 was being built.

As it seems, for the first time clear images of a GJ-21 in flight are posted and this one – based on the still installed pitots – has its tail hook down. pic.twitter.com/5h1nVZHzIe

— @Rupprecht_A (@RupprechtDeino) November 1, 2025

Just this week, Chinese authorities announced that the land-based version of the GJ-11, now officially named the Mysterious Dragon, had entered operational service with the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). Any future naval versions of the drone could also find their way onto other big deck ships in the PLAN’s inventory, including its first catapult-equipped aircraft carrier, the Fujian, which was commissioned last week.

Sichuan‘s air wing will not be limited to variations of the GJ-11 design, and is expected to include a host of other current and future crewed and uncrewed types. Various helicopters, as well as an as-yet unnamed crewed tiltrotor aircraft under development in China, which is now in flight testing, could be part of that mix.

The Type 076 design also has a well deck at the stern to support traditional amphibious assault operations.

As TWZ previously wrote about the overall significance of the Sichuan:

“The potential value to the PLAN of having a fleet of very large deck amphibious assault ships that are highly capable of large-scale drone operations as well as traditional amphibious assaults is clear. These ships could be used to launch and recover UCAVs like the GJ-11 and other types of drones to perform a host of missions from maritime strike to intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR). They could be used to provide additional ‘mass’ in support of the operations of larger carrier strike groups and help to free the air wings of flattops like Fujian up for tasks they might be better suited for. In addition, they could provide a lower tier of naval aviation support that could be employed independently.”

…

“Simply having more naval aviation capacity overall would give the PLAN added flexibility for various operations closer to the mainland, including a potential military intervention against Taiwan or defending its expansive and largely unrecognized territorial claims in places like the South China Sea. Type 076s could also help project naval and air power further from China’s shores, something that has also been a driving factor behind the country’s broader carrier ambitions.”

…

“The Type 076 could help provide support during humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations. Big deck amphibious warfare ships, in general, provide their operators with immensely valuable platforms for projecting both hard and soft power.”

Sichuan is reflective of a larger effort by the PLAN to significantly expand its capabilities and operational capacity, including for projecting power well beyond China’s shores and any regional contingencies. A dramatic expansion in the naval aviation realm has been a particular centerpiece of this modernization push, which traces all the way back to the 1990s. This is all further underscored by the increasingly strong evidence that China’s next supercarrier will be a nuclear-powered design.

Whether the PLAN’s current ambitions include plans to acquire more Type 076s is unclear. Putting to sea now is certainly another major step in the process of getting Sichuan into actual operational service.

Contact the author: [email protected]

The US-imposed ceasefire of October 10 has not stopped Israel’s regular attacks on the Gaza Strip. Nor has it threatened to hold a parliament and society that largely cheered on the war, which has been deemed genocidal by multiple international bodies, accountable for their actions.

Instead, fuelled by what analysts from within Israel have described as an absolute sense of impunity, anti-Palestinian violence has intensified across the country and the occupied West Bank while much of the world continues to look away, convinced that the work of the ceasefire is done.

In the parliament, or Knesset, a senior lawmaker and member of the governing party openly defended convicted ultranationalist Meir Kahane, long considered beyond the pale even by members of Israel’s right wing and whose Kach movement has been banned as a “terrorist organisation”. At the same time, the parliament is debating reintroducing the death penalty, as well as expanding the terms of the offences for which it might apply – both unambiguously targeting Palestinians.

Under the legislation, proposed by ultranationalist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir – who himself has past “terrorism”-related convictions for his outspoken support of Kahane –  anyone found guilty of killing Israelis because of “racist” motives and “with the aim of harming the State of Israel and the revival of the Jewish people in its land” would face execution.

That bill passed its first reading this week.

“The absence of any attempt to assert accountability from the outside, from Israel’s allies, echoes into Israel’s own Knesset,” analyst and former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy said. “There’s no sense that Israel has done anything wrong or that anyone should be held to account.”

Even Israel’s media, traditionally cheerleaders of the country’s war on Gaza, has not proven exempt from the hardening of attitudes. Legislation is already under way to close Army Radio because it had been broadcasting what Defence Minister Israel Katz described as political content that could undermine the army, as well as extend what lawmakers have referred to as the so-called “Al Jazeera law”, allowing them to shutter any foreign media perceived as a threat to Israel’s national security.

“Israel has built up this energy through two years of genocide,” Orly Noy, editor of the Hebrew-language Local Call, told Al Jazeera. “That hasn’t gone anywhere.

“Just because there’s a ceasefire and the hostages are back, the racism, the supremacy and the unmasked violence didn’t just disappear. We’re seeing daily pogroms by soldiers and settlers in the West Bank. There are daily attacks on Palestinian bus drivers. It’s become dangerous to speak Arabic, not just within the ‘48, but anywhere,” she said, referring to Israel’s initial borders of 1948.

‘May your village burn’

In the West Bank, Israeli violence against Palestinians has reached unprecedented proportions. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), there were 264 attacks against Palestinians in the month the ceasefire was announced: the equivalent of eight attacks per day, the highest number since the agency first started tracking attacks in 2006.

Israel’s interior appears no less secure from the mob. On Tuesday, a meeting at a private house in Pardes Hanna near Haifa, hosted by Ayman Odeh, a Palestinian member of the Knesset, was surrounded and attacked by a mob of right-wing protesters. As police reportedly stood nearby, Israeli protesters surrounded the house, chanting “Terrorist! Terrorist!” and singing “May your village burn” in an attempt to interrupt the meeting, which was billed as a chance to build “partnership and peace” after “two years characterised mainly by pain and hostility”.

And in the Israeli Supreme Court on Monday, two of the soldiers accused of the brutal gang rape of a Palestinian prisoner at Sde Teiman prison last year were met, not by condemnation, but applause and chants of “We are all Unit 100”, referring to the military unit accused of raping the Palestinian man.

“They’re not cheering rapists, they’re cheering this idea that nothing matters any more,” Ori Goldberg, a political scientist based near Tel Aviv, said. “Genocide devalues everything. Once you’ve carried out a genocide, nothing matters any more. Not the lives of those you’ve killed and, by extension, not your own. Nothing carries any consequence. Not your actions, nothing. We’ve become hollow.”

Seeming to prove Goldberg’s point in the Knesset on Wednesday was Nissim Vaturi, the body’s deputy speaker and a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing Likud party. Vaturi crossed one of Israel’s few political rubicons and directly referenced Kahane, whose name has become a rallying cry for settlers and ultranationalist groups across Israel.

Asked if he was in favour of “Jewish terror”, Vaturi replied “I support it. Believe me, Kahane was right in many ways where we were wrong, where the people of Israel were wrong,” he said, referencing the former lawmakers convicted of “terrorism” offences in both Israel and the US and whose party, Kach, remains a proscribed “terrorist group” across much of the world.

“Once you’ve manufactured consent for genocide, you need to be proactive in dialling the cruelty levels down, which is something we’re not seeing,” analyst and former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy said. “If anything, we’re just seeing it continue. They have dialled the cruelty levels up to 11 …  and they’re leaving them there.”

UN rights chief urges countries to ‘stand up against atrocities’ committed by paramilitary RSF in takeover of the city.

The United Nations’s top human rights body has ordered a probe into abuses in Sudan’s el-Fasher, where mass killings have been reported since the city fell to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) last month.

During a special session in Geneva on Friday, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution ordering the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan to urgently investigate violations in el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state.

The resolution also called on the investigative team to “identify, where possible” suspected perpetrators in an effort to ensure they are “held accountable”.

The move comes weeks after the RSF, which has been battling the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for control of Sudan since April 2023, took full control of el-Fasher on October 26 after an 18-month siege on the city.

Nearly 100,000 people have fled el-Fasher since the RSF’s takeover, with displaced Sudanese civilians saying they faced indiscriminate attacks and sexual violence, among other abuses. Many said they saw dead bodies lining the streets.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk told the council on Friday that the “atrocities that are unfolding in el-Fasher were foreseen and preventable” and “constitute the gravest of crimes”.

He said the UN had warned that the fall of el-Fasher “would result in a bloodbath”.

“So none of us should be surprised by reports that since the RSF took control of el-Fasher, there have been mass killings of civilians, ethnically targeted executions, sexual violence including gang rape, abductions for ransom, widespread arbitrary detentions, attacks on health facilities, medical staff and humanitarian workers, and other appalling atrocities,” Turk said.

“The international community has a clear duty to act. There has been too much pretence and performance and too little action. It must stand up against these atrocities, a display of naked cruelty used to subjugate and control an entire population.”

Violence spreading

The RSF has denied targeting civilians or blocking aid, saying such activities are due to rogue actors.

But the UN, human rights groups and other observers have said evidence suggests that mass killings were committed by the paramilitary group.

Sudanese medics have also warned that the RSF appears to be trying to bury the bodies of those killed in el-Fasher in an effort to conceal what happened.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people are believed to remain trapped in the city, prompting the head of the UN’s migration agency this week to urgently call for a ceasefire and a humanitarian corridor to provide aid to those civilians.

During Friday’s Human Rights Council session, Mona Rishmawi, a member of the UN’s independent fact-finding mission on Sudan, described examples of rape, killing and torture and said a comprehensive investigation is required to establish the full picture.

She said RSF forces had turned el-Fasher University, where thousands of civilians had been sheltering, “into a killing ground”.

Meanwhile, Turk warned that violence is “surging” to the neighbouring Kordofan region, where bombardments, blockades and forced displacement have been reported. “Kordofan must not suffer the same fate as Darfur,” he said.

The council, which is made up of 47 UN member countries, does not have the power to force countries or others to comply, but can shine a spotlight on rights violations and help document them for possible use in places like the International Criminal Court (ICC).

In early November, the ICC said it was “taking immediate steps regarding the alleged crimes in el-Fasher to preserve and collect relevant evidence for its use in future prosecutions” as part of an ongoing investigation into abuses committed in Darfur since April 2023.

Flooding is likely, especially within the Amber warning areas.

With flood warnings in place in some parts of the country already, Ben Lukey, Flood Duty Manager at the Environment Agency, said:

“Storm Claudia will bring heavy prolonged rainfall across parts of England, with significant surface water flooding probable across parts of central England on Friday, while significant river flooding impacts are also possible, and into Saturday.”

There will also be some difficult driving conditions with transport disruption.

RAC breakdown spokesperson Alice Simpson said: “We urge drivers to take the amber weather warnings associated with Storm Claudia extremely seriously, as they indicate roads are likely to become flooded and therefore represent a risk to life.”

“Drivers may wish to consider delaying their journeys until the worst of the impacts are over, especially in areas that are hardest hit this weekend”.

National Highways said it was checking culverts, gullies and drains to help drain rainwater on the motorway.

The old walls of St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, South West Nigeria, shook at 9:30 a.m. on June 5, 2022. It was Pentecost Sunday, and the priest’s burning of incense hung in the air. The choir was mid-hymn when the first explosion fractured the rhythm.

Eyewitnesses recalled two men stationed by the doors, firing automatic rifles into the congregation. When the smoke cleared, over 40 worshippers lay dead — children, ushers, and the parish catechist among them. HumAngle spoke to families of the victims, including Akinyemi Emmanuel, whose wife was killed, and Christopher, whose older brother was also a casualty.

The massacre made global headlines, but beyond the horror lay a familiar pattern — the tactics, the timing, and the grim echoes of earlier carnage: Madalla’s St. Theresa’s Church (2011), Kano’s Central Mosque (2014), Kaduna’s Murtala Square (2014),  and Mubi’s Madina Mosque (2017).

The data of devastation

HumAngle’s field researchers verified 20 major attacks on places of worship across Nigeria between 2011 and 2025. Each incident was cross-checked against ACLED, CFR’s Nigeria Security Tracker, official statements, and humanitarian field reports.

“Every line of data is a broken family,” said a researcher who assisted in the compilation. “We tracked events, but what we found was grief mapped onto geography.”

Key Figures

From 2011 to 2015, churches bore the brunt — Boko Haram’s campaign against the state and society, often weaponising sectarian imagery. Between 2016 and 2021, mosques and Islamic gatherings became targets as extremists purged dissenting clerics. By 2022, the pattern shifted again — terrorists and militias attacked worshippers of both faiths for ransom or reprisal.

Early years of fire (2000–2010): Shari’a, riots, and mob rule

The roots of Nigeria’s religious bloodshed date back to pre-independence; however, this report will examine only the events from 2000 to 2025. In the year 2000 when 12 northern states reintroduced Shari’a law. What began as a demand for moral order soon morphed into violent attacks against non-Muslims.

By 2001, the tension had already turned deadly. Over 100 people were killed in Kano, according to The Guardian (UK), after riotous Muslim youths attacked the minority Christian population in the city. Human Rights Watch later documented the carnage of reprisal that took place in Jos, with similar riots in Kaduna.

Shari’a’s reintroduction became both symbol and signal — a moral protest against state failure but also a green light for mob justice.

The spiral continued. In 2002, Kaduna was a flashpoint again. The infamous Miss World Contest riots, triggered by a controversial ThisDay article deemed blasphemous against Islam. The riots left at least 200 dead.

As the years passed, intolerance became routine. In 2006, a Bauchi-based teacher, Florence Chukwu, was lynched for allegedly confiscating a Qur’an from a student. A year later in Gombe, another teacher, Christiana Oluwasesin, met the same fate. Then, in 2007, Kano’s Tudun Wada suburb witnessed the killing of dozens of Christians after a student was accused of alleged blasphemy.  

Two decades later, the script remained tragically familiar. In May 2022, a Christian student, Deborah Samuel Yakubu, at Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto State (a Muslim-majority state), was accused of blasphemy, then stoned, beaten and set on fire by a mob of Muslim students.

Even Muslims have not been spared from mob attacks due to alleged blasphemy against Islam. In 2008, a 50-year-old man was beaten to death in Kano, while Ahmad Usman, a Muslim vigilante, was burnt alive in Abuja in 2022.

In 2023, Usman Buda, a butcher in Sokoto, was stoned to death by his peers. In 2025, food vendor Ammaye met a similar fate in Niger State after an argument over religious differences.

From Pandogari to Sokoto, Facebook posts, WhatsApp messages, and street rumours have become digital triggers for extra-judicial deaths.

Nigeria’s decade of supposedly holy violence took a new form with Boko Haram’s rise. The insurgency’s ideological war turned places of worship into battlefields  as they circulated videos of beheading of Christians and the Muslims they accused of spying for the Nigerian state.

The Madalla Christmas massacre — 2011

On Christmas morning, a suicide bomber detonated a car outside St. Theresa’s Catholic Church in Madalla, Niger State, killing at least 40. Boko Haram claimed responsibility, vowing more attacks against Christians “for government sins”.

Attack on COCIN Headquarters in Jos — Feb 2012

A year later, a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden vehicle into the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) headquarters in Jos during Sunday service, killing at least three worshippers and injuring dozens. The blast destroyed parts of the church and nearby buildings.

Suicide Bomb Attack at St Finbar’s Jos — March 2012

Barely a month after the attack, a car bomber targeted St. Finbar’s Church in the Rayfield area of Jos during Mass. The explosion killed 14 people and wounded over 20, causing extensive damage to the church premises.

Silencing the critics — 2011–2014

In Biu, Borno State, Shaykh Ibrahim Burkui was assassinated in June 2011 for criticising Boko Haram. His death, along with that of Ibrahim Gomari in Maiduguri and Shaykh Albani Zaria in 2014, underscored the extension of the group’s wrath to Muslims who opposed its doctrine.

Kano Central Mosque bloodbath — 2014

On Nov. 28, 2014, twin suicide blasts struck Kano’s Central Mosque. As worshippers fled, gunmen opened fire. About 80 died. Boko Haram attacked Sunni Muslims loyal to the Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who had condemned extremism.

Eid of Ashes — Damaturu 2015

A 10-year-old girl walked into an Eid prayer ground in Yobe and detonated explosives, killing 50. A morning of celebration turned into a funeral for hundreds of people.

Mutations of terror (2016–2021)

AAfter the insurgency’s initial high tide receded, violence splintered into ideological and economic strands.

• 2016 (Molai-Umarari, Borno): Two female suicide bombers killed 24 during dawn prayers.
• 2017 (Mubi, Adamawa): A teenage bomber killed 50 in a mosque.
• 2017 (Ozubulu, Anambra): Gunmen killed 12 during a Mass — incident later linked to a local feud.
• 2018 (Mubi, Adamawa): 86 worshippers were killed after two suicide bombers detonated explosives in a mosque during an afternoon prayer. 
• 2021 (Mazakuka, Niger): Terrorists killed at least 18 worshippers at a local mosque during Fajr prayers.
• 2021 (Yasore, Katsina): 10  killed in evening prayers.
• 2021 (Okene, Kogi): Three people were abducted from a Living Faith Church during a prayer meeting. They were later released. 
• 2021 (Fadan Kagoma, Kaduna): Terrorists attacked and kidnapped three seminarians at Christ the King Major Seminary. Michael Nnadi, one of the captives, was later killed, while the others were released.

“The violence metastasised,” said Olawale Ayeni, an analyst in Abuja. “What began as jihadist warfare became an economy of fear — raids, ransoms, and retaliations.”

The new normal (2022–2025): Terrorism meets belief

Owo, Ondo State — June 2022

On Pentecost Sunday, attackers detonated explosives and opened fire at St. Francis Xavier Church, killing 41 and injuring 70. Initially attributed to ISWAP, investigations revealed financial links to northwestern terrorist networks.

Kafin Koro, Niger State — January 2023

Isaac Achi, a Catholic priest, was burnt to death in the early hours of the morning at the presbytery of Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, Kafin Koro, in Niger State. The residence was also reduced to ashes. Achi was the parish priest in charge of St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madalla, when it was attacked in 2011.

Kajuru, Kaduna State – September 2024

Gunmen invaded two churches in Bakinpah-Maro during service, killing three and abducting several others. Videos later surfaced showing captives reciting prayers under duress.

Bushe, Sokoto – February 2025 

Terrorists invaded a mosque in Bushe Community of Sabon Birni LGA, Sokoro State. They kidnapped the Imam and 10 other worshippers during the dawn prayer. 

Marnona Mosque Attack, Sokoto – August 2025

On Sunday, Aug.  12, terrorists stormed a mosque in Marnona village in Wurno LGA of Sokoto State, killing one worshipper and abducting several others. 

Unguwan Mantau, Katsina — August 2025

During early morning prayers, terrorists opened fire inside a mosque, killing 27. Survivors said the attackers accused locals of tipping off soldiers.

Gidan Turbe, Zamfara State – September 2025

Terrorists stormed a mosque in Gidan Turbe of Tsafe LGA, Zamfara State, and abducted 40 worshippers during a dawn prayer. Reports indicated that the attack happened barely 24 hours after a peace deal with the gunmen terrorising the village. 

In recent years, the distinction between ideology and economics has become increasingly blurred.  Many southerners who are predominantly Christians living in the north are business owners; oftentimes, they are attacked, not for their beliefs but for their wealth.

Documented discrimination against Igbo Muslims

While the north burned, intolerance also took other forms in the country’s southeastern region. Minority Muslim residents, including Igbo indigenes, who practice Islam, face periodic attacks and persistent discrimination, such as institutional exclusion and social ostracism. 

In Nsukka, Enugu State, mobs razed two mosques between Oct.  31, 2020 and Nov.  2, 2020, looting Muslim-owned shops after a local dispute spiralled. Though the state later rebuilt and returned the mosques to the Muslim community in 2021, the incident exposed how fragile interfaith coexistence remains. 

Around the same period, in Afikpo, Ebonyi State, an Islamic school reportedly received threats of invasion, prompting nationwide Muslim organisations to condemn what they described as “a wave of attacks on Muslims in the South East”.

Beyond physical violence, Igbo Muslims speak of systemic discrimination in both public and social spheres. The Chief Imam of Imo State, Sheikh Suleiman Njoku, in March 2024, lamented how Muslim indigenes are stigmatised – denied marriage prospects, labelled traitors, and treated as outsiders in their ancestral communities.

Similar accounts featured in a 2021 Premium Times report, where Igbo Muslims detailed how even acquiring land to build mosques or express faith publicly invites suspicion and resistance. 

Their testimonies mirror those of Christian minorities in majority-Muslim northern states, where churches are denied land ownership, leading to social alienation. There are also allegations of these minorities being denied state-of-origin certification. 

This reciprocal intolerance across regions highlights a broader national crisis in which faith identity, rather than shared citizenship, continues to shape belonging, opportunity, and trust among Nigerians.

School segregation

In northern Nigeria, school segregation along religious lines has deeply eroded interfaith tolerance and national cohesion. Historically, Christian mission schools, Islamic schools and public institutions evolved in isolation, reflecting entrenched religious divisions rather than shared civic identity. 

In many states, such as Kano, Kaduna, and Sokoto, Christian students often face discrimination or limited access to education in public schools dominated by Muslim administrators. Research shows that separate religious instruction – Christian Religious Knowledge (CRK) for Christians and Islamic Religious Knowledge (IRK) for Muslims —.has created parallel moral universes with little mutual understanding. This separation sustains mistrust and heightens communal suspicion.

The Deborah Samuel case in 2022, where a Christian student was lynched in Sokoto over alleged blasphemy, exemplifies how intolerance fostered from childhood schooling silos can erupt violently in adulthood. Studies by the EU Asylum Agency highlight that exclusion from inclusive schooling deprives youth of empathy across faiths, embedding prejudice into the social fabric. When children never learn together, they rarely learn tolerance. Unless education in northern Nigeria becomes deliberately integrative through mixed enrollment, pluralist curricula and interfaith engagement, religious segregation will continue to reproduce the fear, inequality and division that weaken Nigeria’s fragile unity.

Mass school abductions

Over the past 12 years, Nigeria has witnessed a series of mass school abductions that expose the evolving tactics of both terrorists and armed groups. Notably, on April 14,  2014, Boko Haram abducted 276 girls from Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, sparking the global #BringBackOurGirls campaign. 

Years later, in February and March 2021, a wave of similar attacks swept across the north: 279 girls were taken from Government Girls’ Science Secondary School, Jangebe (Zamfara); 27 students and staff were kidnapped from Government Science College, Kagara (Niger); and 39 students were seized from the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka (Kaduna). 

The cycle continued in March 2024, when gunmen abducted about 287 pupils from a school in Kuriga, Chikun Local Government Area, Kaduna State — one of the most significant of such incidents in recent years.

These abductions mark a clear shift from Boko Haram’s ideology-driven kidnappings to the ransom-motivated tactics of armed groups operating across the North West and North East. Christianity and Islam were affected by these abductions, and adherents have endured rape and psychological struggles following their ordeals. 

Among these tragedies, Leah Sharibu’s story remains one of the most haunting. 

On Feb. 19, 2018, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), a Boko Haram offshoot, abducted 110 schoolgirls from Government Girls’  Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State. While most were later freed, Leah was held back for refusing to convert from Christianity to Islam. Now in her seventh year of captivity, she has become a symbol of religious persecution and the wider suffering of abducted girls. Her story underscores how Nigeria’s school kidnapping crisis intersects with issues of faith, gender  and insurgency.

In contrast, Lillian Daniel’s ordeal highlights the hundreds of lesser-known victims whose abductions pass with minimal notice. The 20-year-old zoology student of the University of Maiduguri, originally from Barkin Ladi, Plateau State, was kidnapped on Jan. 9,  2020, while travelling along the Benisheikh–Jakana–Maiduguri road.

Her abductors were ISWAP terrorists who disguised themselves as security personnel. Another passenger was released, but Lillian remains missing. Her case, briefly reported but soon forgotten, reflects the anonymity of many victims caught in transit through conflict zones.

In summary, Leah Sharibu embodies the now globally recognised face of Nigeria’s school abduction crisis, shaped by ideology and prolonged captivity. At the same time, Lillian Daniel represents its hidden dimension — solitary, underreported, and tragically routine. Together, their stories reveal the spectacle and the silence of Nigeria’s enduring tragedy of school abductions.

When clergy became premium kidnapping targets.

Each ransom funds further raids. Analysts estimate that up to 15 per cent of ransom payments flow back into logistics for insurgents in Zamfara and Katsina.

Faith and identity: The shari’a factor revisited

The Shari’a revival was more than a legal reform; it was a reclamation of identity amid state collapse. Many Muslims saw it as a return to the moral order of the Sokoto Caliphate; others viewed it as the spark of two decades of religious strife.

Public institutions that once integrated faiths became segregated. Teachers and traders were attacked or expelled. The divide deepened, from classrooms to markets.

Shari’a, in principle, reserves blasphemy trials for qualified jurists. But in practice, mobs assumed divine authority, executing citizens in the name of faith. Many Christians and a few Muslims became victims of this street theocracy.

The justice vacuum

Out of the 20 worship-site attacks recorded, only one — Owo 2022 — reached federal arraignment. Fourteen remain unprosecuted; five are stalled as “unknown gunmen” cases.  

On the  Kano Central Mosque attack, no suspect has faced trial, while the Madalla bombing file remains “under review”.

“Justice in Nigeria moves slower than grief,” said a human rights lawyer in Abuja. “When the killers are never named, the dead are never remembered.”

Impunity has become policy. Each unsolved massacre guarantees the next.

A geography of grief

Nigeria’s worship-site attacks reveal a tragic spatial logic:

• North East (Borno, Yobe, Adamawa): Insurgent bombings, suicide IEDs, and procession attacks.
• North West (Katsina, Zamfara, Niger): Terrorists storming mosques during fajr prayers.
• North Central (Benue, Plateau, Kaduna): Reprisal killings and clergy kidnappings.
• South (Ondo, Anambra): Rare, symbolic assaults for national impact.

These are not frontlines of faith but fault lines of governance — places where the state’s absence defines daily life. 

At a mosque in Konduga, the imam now carries a walkie-talkie. In a church in Makurdi, ushers rehearse evacuation drills. Security has become as sacred as scripture. Concrete barriers line entrances. Metal detectors hum where choirs once sang. Pastors rotate parishes weekly to confuse abductors.

“When we gather,” said a priest in southern Kaduna, “someone must always watch the door. It used to be an usher. Now it’s a man with a rifle.”

Multiple faces of mob justice, one failure of the state

Mob justice in Nigeria takes many forms. In the north, a whisper of blasphemy or even sexual orientation can summon a crowd to lynch anyone to death. In the south, a cry of “Ole” (thief) or even an allegation of witchcraft can become a death sentence, with tyres and fire replacing the courtroom and the judge. 

The motives differ, but the barbarity does not.

Accused of robbing point of sale (PoS) machine operators, for instance, three women were burnt to death along the Aba-Owerri road in Aba, Abia State, on July 3, 2022. In March of this year, 16 hunters travelling from Rivers State capital Port Harcourt to Kano State were tied to used tyres and set ablaze in Uromi, Edo State, on suspicion of kidnapping.

What unites these episodes is a simple truth: they are crimes, yet their prosecutions are rare. That gap between law and practice isn’t a cultural quirk; its Local Security Equals High Fatality Rates. 

Across faiths, executioners signal that citizens expect neither safety nor fairness from the state. Each unpunished lynching teaches the next crowd that there will be no price to pay.

Lessons in numbers

From 15 years of blood and rebuilding, four insights emerge:

1. Predictable Patterns: Attacks cluster around worship hours and feast days.
2. Declining Ideology: Ransom and revenge now outweigh religion.
3. Governance Gaps: Weak local security equals high fatality rates — across faiths.
4. Institutionalised Impunity: No justice, no deterrence.

Policy paralysis

Successive Nigerian administrations have treated worship-site attacks as isolated tragedies, not system failures. Troops arrive shortly after each attack. Condolences flow. Then silence.

“There is no single desk in Abuja tracking attacks on religious sites,” admitted a senior intelligence official. “The data is fragmented, politicised, and rarely analysed.”

Without institutional memory, the nation is condemned to repetition.

Reconstructing faith’s refuge

HumAngle analysts recommend modest, achievable reforms:

• Architectural retrofits: Two outward exits for every 150 congregants; Eid checkpoints relocated from dense zones.
• Safety training: Rotating volunteer marshals during peak services.
• Clergy protection: GPS-tracked parish vehicles and secure communications.
• Public case tracker: Government–media collaboration to document investigations and trials.

Each measure is a step toward rehumanising worship in a country where prayer itself is perilous.

Faith beyond fear

In Konduga, survivors of a 2013 mosque attack still gather under a patched tarpaulin. In Owo, St. Francis Church has reopened — some survivors sit by the very pews where they once fell to the ground.

“They wanted to destroy faith,” said Sister Agatha, who lost her niece in Owo. “But faith is the only thing that made us rebuild.”

Nigeria’s crisis of worship-site violence is neither a Christian nor a Muslim story. It is a national failure of protection and justice.

When a mosque burns in Borno and a church is bombed in Ondo, the message is the same: extremism recognises no creed. The silence that follows — the absence of trials, the forgetting of names — has become a form of complicity.

Faith in Nigeria today is more than belief. It is resistance — quiet, fearful, and defiant. From Madalla to Owo, from Kano to Katsina, the faithful still gather. Each whispered prayer in a bullet-scarred hall is an act of remembrance and a testament to resilience.

To remember both streams of suffering in one chronicle is to reject the propaganda of division. It is to insist that faith, stripped of politics, can still illuminate what violence seeks to obscure: our shared humanity.

Data collection by Abdussamad Ahmad Yusuf