Conflict

Following its call for applications for a three-day intensive fellowship on reporting conflict and missing persons issues in Nigeria, HumAngle, in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), has selected 10 middle-career and senior journalists from across the country. 

The selected fellows were drawn from media organisations like Daily Trust, Reuters, Premium Times, DW, African Independent Television (AIT), and others. 

“We received over 200 strong applications during the two-week application window,” commented Hauwa Shaffii Nuhu, HumAngle’s Managing Editor. “After a rigorous shortlisting and interviewing process, the final 10 emerged.”

The selected participants are expected to arrive in Abuja on Nov. 3, ahead of the three-day fellowship program scheduled to be held from November 4 to 6, 2025. 

Over the years, the ICRC has continued to support missing persons in Nigeria by tracing and facilitating reunions while also providing psychological and economic support, especially to those affected by conflict. HumAngle has also carried out extensive work on the missing persons crisis in Nigeria, particularly in the northeastern region, documenting thousands of cases across various local governments in Borno state through its Missing Persons Dashboard. 

While focused on deepening the understanding and reporting of the missing persons crisis in Nigeria, the training also aims to equip middle-career and senior journalists with the skills to report on conflict issues thoroughly through a trauma-informed lens. 

During the 3-day fellowship, the fellows will participate in sessions on human-centred conflict reporting, ethical frameworks in journalism, psychological well-being for reporters, and more. These sessions will be facilitated by experts from HumAngle and the ICRC.  By the end of the training, fellows are expected to have gained deeper insights into the scope and dynamics of the conflict reporting landscape in Nigeria. 

Israeli drone attack close to the southern city of Khan Younis kills at least 2 people despite ceasefire.

UN spokesman says incident involved a drone dropping a grenade near a patrol, and a tank opening fire on peacekeepers.

The United Nations and France have condemned an Israeli attack that hit UN peacekeeping troops in southern Lebanon.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Monday that the previous day’s attack on UNIFIL troops, which he said involved an Israeli drone dropping a grenade in the vicinity of a patrol, as well as a tank opening fire on peacekeepers near the border town of Kfar Kila, was “very, very dangerous”.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) works with the Lebanese army to enforce a ceasefire struck last year between Israel and the Lebanese armed groupd Hezbollah. Israel has violated the truce on a near-daily basis.

France’s Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs also condemned “the Israeli fire that targeted a UNIFIL detachment” and noted that the incidents followed similar attacks on October 1, 2 and 11.

Dujarric said: “It’s not the first time that we feel we’ve been targeted in different ways by the [Israeli army, including] pointing lasers or warning shots. He said his colleagues at UNIFIL were in touch with the Israeli military to “protest vehemently” against the attacks.

On Sunday, UNIFIL reported an Israeli drone flying over its patrol in an “aggressive manner”, saying its peacekeepers “applied necessary defensive countermeasures to neutralise the drone”. No injuries or damage were reported.

Israel still occupies five positions in southern Lebanon and has been launching near-daily attacks in defiance of the ceasefire. At least two brothers were killed in a strike on the village of al-Bayyad in the Tyre district on Monday.

The Lebanese official news agency ANI said that the two were killed in an attack on a sawmill in al-Bayyad.

Three people were killed on Sunday in raids on southern and eastern Lebanon.

The military says that it is targeting members of Hezbollah and its infrastructure, but Lebanese leaders have accused it of attempting to obstruct reconstruction by striking machinery like diggers and bulldozers.

The Israeli army said that its Sunday attacks targeted an arms dealer working for Hezbollah and another man who was “aiding the group’s attempts to rebuild its capacity for military action”.

Hezbollah, severely weakened by Israel’s attacks, has said it is ready to defend itself. “The possibility of war exists but is uncertain; it depends on their calculations,” said Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem in reference to Israel.

The United States government has been pressuring Lebanon to have the group surrender its arms to the country’s army.

US Middle East envoy Morgan Ortagus arrived late on Monday in Beirut, where she is scheduled to meet Lebanese leaders.

A crackdown by armed forces in Cameroon has killed at least four opposition supporters amid protests over the declared re-election win by President Paul Biya.

Protesters calling for fair results from the African country’s contested presidential election held on October 12 have hit the streets in several cities as 92-year-old Biya prepares for an eighth term, which could keep him in power until 2032 as he nears 100.

Biya, whose election win was finally confirmed by Cameroon’s Constitutional Council on Monday, is Africa’s oldest and among the world’s longest ruling leaders. He has spent 43 years – nearly half his life – in office. He has ruled Cameroon, a country of 30 million people, as president since 1982 through elections that political opponents said have been “stolen”.

What’s behind the deadly protests?

Supporters of opposition candidate Issa Tchiroma Bakary of the Front for the National Salvation of Cameroon party have defied a ban on protests, setting police cars on fire, barricading roads and burning tyres in the financial capital, Douala, before the announcement of the election result. Around 30 activists have been arrested.

Police fired tear gas and water cannon to break up the crowds that came out in support of Tchiroma, who had declared himself the real winner, and called for Biya to concede.

Samuel Dieudonne Ivaha Diboua, the governor of the region that includes Douala, told the AFP news agency that the protesters attacked police stations in the second and sixth districts of the city.

Several members of the security forces were wounded, and “four people unfortunately lost their lives,” he said. Tchiroma’s campaign team confirmed the deaths on Sunday were of protesters.

Opposition supporters claim the results of the election have been rigged by Biya and his supporters in power. In the lead-up to the announcement of the result, the current government rejected these accusations and urged people to wait for the result.

Who is the main opposition in Cameroon?

The Union for Change is a coalition of opposition parties that formed in September to counter Biya’s dominance of the political landscape.

The forum brought together more than two dozen political parties and civil society groups in opposition to Biya with an aim to field a consensus candidate.

In September, the group confirmed Tchiroma as its consensus candidate to run against Biya.

Tchiroma, 76, was formerly part of Biya’s government, holding several ministerial positions over 16 years. He also served as government spokesperson during the years of fighting the Boko Haram armed group, and he defended the army when it stood accused of killing civilians. He was once regarded as a member of Biya’s “old guard” but has campaigned on a promise of “change”.

What happened after the election?

After voting ended on October 12, Tchiroma claimed victory.

“Our victory is clear. It must be respected,” he said in a video statement posted on Facebook. He called on Biya to “accept the truth of the ballot box” or “plunge the country into turmoil”.

Tchiroma claimed that he had won the election with 55 percent of the vote. More than 8 million people were registered to vote in the election.

On Monday, however, the Constitutional Council announced Biya as the winner with 53.66 percent of the vote.

It said Tchiroma was the runner-up with 35.19 percent.

Announcing the results on Monday, the council’s leader, Clement Atangana, said the electoral process was “peaceful” and criticised the opposition for “anticipating the result”.

What are the main criticisms of Biya?

Under Biya’s rule, Cameroon has struggled with myriad challenges, including chronic corruption that critics say has dampened economic growth despite the country being rich in resources such as oil and cocoa.

The president, who has clinched wins in eight heavily contested elections held every seven years, is renowned for his absenteeism as he reportedly spends extended periods away from the country.

The 92-year-old appeared at just one campaign rally in the lead-up to this month’s election when he promised voters that “the best is still to come.”

He and his entourage are often away on private or medical treatment trips to Switzerland. An investigation in 2018 by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project found Biya had spent at least 1,645 days (nearly four and a half years) in the European country, excluding official visits, since being in power.

Under Biya, opposition politicians have frequently accused electoral authorities of colluding with the president to rig elections. In 2008, parliament voted to remove the limit on the number of terms a president may serve.

Before the election, the Constitutional Council barred another popular opposition candidate, Maurice Kamto of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, from running.

Some opposition leaders and their supporters have been detained by police on a slew of charges, including plotting violence.

On Friday, two prominent leaders, Anicet Ekane and Djeukam Tchameni of the Union for Change, were arrested.

The African Movement for New Independence and Democracy party also said its treasurer and other members had been “kidnapped” by local security forces, a move it claimed was designed “to intimidate Cameroonians”.

Analysts also said Biya’s hold on power could lead to instability when he eventually goes.

What is the security situation in Cameroon?

Since 2015, attacks by the armed group, Boko Haram, have become more and more frequent in the Far North Region of the country.

Furthermore, since gaining independence in 1960 from French rule, Cameroon has struggled with conflict rooted in the country’s deep linguistic and political divisions, which developed when French- and English-speaking regions were merged into a single state.

French is the official language, and Anglophone Cameroonians in the northwest and southwest have felt increasingly marginalised by the Francophone-dominated government in Yaounde.

Their grievances – over language, education, courts and distribution of resources – turned into mass protests in 2016 when teachers and lawyers demanded equal recognition of English-language institutions.

The government responded with arrests and internet blackouts, and the situation eventually built up to an armed separatist struggle for an independent state called Ambazonia.

The recent presidential election was the first to take place since the conflict intensified. Armed separatists have barred the Anglophone population from participating in government-organised activities, such as National Day celebrations and elections.

As a result, the Southwest and Northwest regions saw widespread abstention in voting on October 12 with a 53 percent turnout. The highest share of votes, according to the official results, went to Biya: 68.7 percent and 86.31 percent in the two regions, respectively.

What will happen now?

Protests are likely to spread, observers said.

After the deaths of four protesters before the results were announced, Tchiroma paid tribute “to those who fell to the bullets of a regime that has become criminal during a peaceful march”.

He called on Biya’s government to “stop these acts of barbarity, these killings and arbitrary arrests”.

“Tell the truth of the ballots, or we will all mobilise and march peacefully,” he said.

Military government orders two-week closure for schools and universities as blockade on fuel imports declared by JNIM causes further disruptions.

Mali’s military government has announced schools and universities nationwide will be closed for two weeks, as the landlocked country continues to suffer from the effects of a crippling blockade on fuel imports imposed by an armed group in September.

Education Minister Amadou Sy Savane said on Sunday the suspension until November 9 was “due to disruptions in fuel supplies that are affecting the movement of school staff”.

He added authorities were “doing everything possible” to restore normal fuel supplies before schools resume classes on November 10.

In a separate statement, the Interministerial Committee for Crisis and Disaster Management said restrictions will be placed on fuel supplies until “further notice”, with priority given at dedicated stations to “emergency, assistance, and public transport vehicles”.

It comes nearly two months after the Jama’at Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) armed group, one of the several operating in the Sahel, declared a blockade on fuel imported from neighbouring countries.

Since then, the al-Qaeda affiliate has been targeting fuel tankers coming mainly from Senegal and the Ivory Coast, through which most imported goods transit.

JNIM initially said the blockade was a retaliatory measure against the Malian authorities’ ban on selling fuel outside stations in rural areas, where fuel is transported in jerry cans to be sold later. Malian authorities said the measure was intended to cut off JNIM’s supply lines.

Endless queues

The blockade has squeezed Mali’s fragile economy, affecting the price of commodities and transport in a country that relies on fuel imports for domestic needs.

Its effects have also spread to the capital, Bamako, where endless queues have stretched in front of gas stations.

Mali, along with neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger, has for more than a decade battled armed groups, including some linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS), as well as local rebels.

Following military coups in all three countries in recent years, the new ruling authorities have expelled French forces and turned to Russia’s mercenary units for security assistance, which is seen as having made little difference.

Analysts say the blockade is a significant setback for Mali’s military government, which defended its forceful takeover of power in 2020 as a necessary step to end long-running security crises.

Palestinians returning to their homes in Gaza are facing danger from unexploded ordnance, with at least 53 people killed and hundreds injured by explosives.

The tribunal’s message came as it released its genocide verdict following four days of public hearings in Istanbul, Turkiye.

The Gaza Tribunal has issued its final findings, saying that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and that “Israeli perpetrators and their Western enablers” should not be allowed to escape justice for their crimes.

The unofficial tribunal, which was established in London last November, gave its “moral judgement” on Sunday, following four days of public hearings in Istanbul, Turkiye.

Presided over by Richard Falk, a former United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, the initiative comes in the tradition of the Russell Tribunal, which heard evidence in 1967 of United States war crimes in Vietnam.

The year-long Gaza process involved collecting information, hearing witnesses and survivors, and archiving the evidence.

In its ruling, the tribunal’s jury condemned the genocide in Gaza and crimes including the mass destruction of residential properties, the deliberate denial of food to the civilian population, torture, and the targeting of journalists.

Criticism of post-war plans

After saying that Israel’s war on Gaza shows global governance is failing to uphold its duties, the tribunal recommended that all “perpetrators, supporters and enablers” be held accountable and that Israel be suspended from international organisations like the UN.

The jury also found Western governments, “particularly the United States”, complicit with Israel through the provision of “diplomatic cover, weapons, weapon parts, intelligence, military assistance and training, and continuing economic relations”.

As well as calling for justice, the tribunal criticised two post-war plans put forward by US President Donald Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, suggesting they “ignore the rights of the Palestinian people under international law” while “doing nothing to rein in the perpetrators of genocide”.

“Palestinians must lead the restoration of Gaza, and Israel and its enablers must be held responsible for all reparations,” members of the tribunal said in a statement.

Given that it is not a court of law, the tribunal “does not purport to determine guilt or liability of any person, organisation or state”, but should rather be seen as a civil society response to the war on Gaza, the jury said.

“We believe that genocide must be named and documented and that impunity feeds continuing violence throughout the globe,” the jurors explained. “Genocide in Gaza is the concern of all humanity. When states are silent civil society can and must speak out.”

Israel is facing genocide accusations – brought by South Africa – at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Although it is likely to be years before the ICJ gives its judgement, it found in an interim ruling in January 2024 that it is “plausible” that Israel is violating the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.

Israel has repeatedly denied accusations that it has committed genocide in Gaza.

Israeli restrictions on the entry of heavy machinery are crippling Gaza City’s efforts to clear debris and rebuild critical infrastructure, the city’s mayor says, as tens of thousands of tonnes of unexploded Israeli bombs threaten lives across the Gaza Strip.

In a Sunday news conference, Mayor Yahya al-Sarraj said Gaza City requires at least 250 heavy vehicles and 1,000 tonnes of cement to maintain water networks and construct wells.

Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from az-Zawayda in Gaza, said only six trucks had entered the territory.

At least 9,000 Palestinians remain buried under the rubble. But the new equipment is being prioritised for recovering the remains of Israeli captives, rather than assisting Palestinians in locating their loved ones still trapped beneath rubble.

“Palestinians say they know there won’t be any developments in the ceasefire until the bodies of all the Israeli captives are returned,” Khoudary said.

Footage circulating on social media showed Red Cross vehicles arriving after meetings with Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, to guide them to the location of an Israeli captive in southern Rafah.

An Israeli government spokesperson said that to search for captives’ remains, the Red Cross and Egyptian teams have been permitted beyond the ceasefire’s “yellow line”, which allows Israel to retain control over 58 percent of the besieged enclave.

Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Amman, said Israel spent two weeks insisting that Hamas knew the locations of all the captives’ bodies.

“Two weeks into that, Israel has now allowed Egyptian teams and heavy machinery to enter the Gaza Strip to assist in the mammoth task of removing debris, of trying to get to the tunnels or underneath the homes or structures that the captives were held in and killed in,” she said.

Odeh added that Hamas had been unable to access a tunnel for two weeks due to the damage caused by Israeli bombing. “That change of policy is coming without explanation from Israel,” she said, noting that the Red Cross and Hamas have also been allowed to help locate potential burial sites under the rubble.

Netanyahu: ‘We control Gaza’

Meanwhile, on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to reassert political authority at home, saying that Israel controls which foreign forces may operate in Gaza.

“We control our own security, and we have made clear to international forces that Israel will decide which forces are unacceptable to us – and that is how we act and will continue to act,” he said. “This is, of course, accepted by the United States, as its most senior representatives expressed in recent days.”

Odeh explained that Netanyahu’s statements are intended to reassure the far-right base in Israel, which thinks he’s no longer calling the shots.

Those currently overseeing the ceasefire do not appear to be Israeli soldiers or army leadership, she explained, with Washington “requesting that Israel notify it ahead of time of any attack that Israel might be planning to conduct inside Gaza”.

Odeh noted that Israel’s insistence on controlling which foreign actors operate in Gaza – combined with the limited access for reconstruction – underscores a broader strategy to maintain political support at home.

Unexploded bombs a threat

Reconstruction in Gaza faces further obstacles from unexploded ordnance. Nicholas Torbet, Middle East director at HALO Trust in the United Kingdom, said Gaza is “essentially one giant city” where every part has been struck by explosives.

“Some munitions are designed to linger, but what we’re concerned about in Gaza is ordnance that is expected to explode upon impact but hasn’t,” he told Al Jazeera.

Torbet said clearing explosives is slowing the reconstruction process. His teams plan to work directly within communities to safely remove bombs rather than marking off large areas indefinitely. “The best way to dispose of a bomb is to use a small amount of explosives to blow it up,” he explained.

Torbet added that the necessary equipment is relatively simple and can be transported in small vehicles or by hand, and progress is beginning to take place.

The scale of explosives dropped by Israel has left Gaza littered with deadly remnants.

Mahmoud Basal, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defence, told Al Jazeera that Israel dropped at least 200,000 tonnes of explosives on the territory, with roughly 70,000 tonnes failing to detonate.

Children have been particularly affected, often mistaking bombs for toys. Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili reported the case of seven-year-old Yahya Shorbasi and his sister Nabila, who were playing outside when they found what appeared to be a toy.

“They found a regular children’s toy – just an ordinary one. The girl was holding it. Then the boy took it and started tapping it with a coin. Suddenly, we heard the sound of an explosion. It went off in their hands,” their mother Latifa Shorbasi told Al Jazeera.

Yahya’s right arm had to be amputated, while Nabila remains in intensive care.

Dr Harriet, an emergency doctor at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, described the situation as “a public health catastrophe waiting to unfold”. She said children are being injured by items that look harmless – toys, cans, or debris – but are actually live explosives.

United Nations Mine Action Service head Luke David Irving said 328 people have already been killed or injured by unexploded ordnance since October 2023.

Tens of thousands of tonnes of bombs, including landmines, mortar rounds, and large bombs capable of flattening concrete buildings, remain buried across Gaza. Basal said clearing the explosives could take years and require millions of dollars.

For Palestinians, the situation is a race against time. Al Jazeera’s Khoudary said civilians are pressing for faster progress: “They want reconstruction, they want freedom of movement, and they want to see and feel that the ceasefire is going to make it.”

United States President Donald Trump has said that an international stabilisation force will operate in Gaza soon.

But not long after, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel can veto which countries take part.

So what are the challenges in forming and maintaining such a force?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests:

Tamer Qarmout – Associate professor of public policy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Tahani Mustafa – Visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations

Mehmet Celik – Editorial co-ordinator at the Daily Sabah newspaper

Fighting comes as Taliban submits proposal at Pakistan-Afghanistan talks in Turkiye, while Islamabad warns of ‘open war’ if deal fails.

Fresh clashes near the border with Afghanistan have killed at least five Pakistani soldiers and 25 fighters, Pakistan’s army says, even as the two countries hold peace talks in Istanbul.

The Pakistani military said armed men attempted to cross from Afghanistan into Kurram and North Waziristan on Friday and Saturday, accusing the Taliban authorities of failing to act against armed groups operating from Afghan territory.

It said on Sunday that the attempted infiltrations raised questions over Kabul’s commitment to tackling “terrorism emanating from its soil”.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government has not commented on the latest clashes, but has repeatedly rejected accusations of harbouring armed fighters and instead accuses Pakistan of violating Afghan sovereignty with air strikes.

Delegations from both countries arrived in Istanbul, Turkiye on Saturday for talks aimed at preventing a return to full-scale conflict. The meeting comes days after Qatar and Turkiye brokered a ceasefire in Doha to halt the most serious border fighting since the Taliban takeover of Kabul in 2021.

The violence earlier this month killed dozens and wounded hundreds.

‘Open war’

Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said the ceasefire remains intact and that Kabul appears interested in peace, but warned that failure in Istanbul would leave Islamabad with “open war” as an option.

Pakistan’s military described those involved in the weekend infiltrations as members of what it calls “Fitna al-Khwarij”, a term it uses for ideologically motivated armed groups allegedly backed by foreign sponsors.

United States President Donald Trump also weighed in on Sunday, saying he would “solve the Afghanistan-Pakistan crisis very quickly”, telling reporters on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Malaysia that he had been briefed on the ongoing talks.

Separately, Taliban-controlled broadcaster RTA said on Sunday that Kabul’s delegation in Turkiye had submitted a proposal after more than 15 hours of discussions, calling for Pakistan to end cross-border strikes and block any “anti-Afghan group” from using its territory.

The Afghan side also signalled openness to a four-party monitoring mechanism to supervise the ceasefire and investigate violations.

Afghanistan’s delegation is led by Deputy Interior Minister Haji Najib. Pakistan has not publicly disclosed its representatives.

Analysts expect the core of the talks to revolve around intelligence-sharing, allowing Islamabad to hand over coordinates of suspected Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) fighters for the Taliban to take direct action, instead of Pakistan launching its own strikes.

The leaders of Thailand and Cambodia have expanded a ceasefire deal in the presence of US President Donald Trump, who is in Malaysia for the ASEAN summit. In July, the president helped bring an end to their five-day border conflict.

Thailand and Cambodia sign an enhanced ceasefire agreement following a deadly five-day conflict along their border in July.

Thailand and Cambodia have signed an expanded ceasefire agreement in the presence of United States President Donald Trump in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, building on a deal that ended deadly border fighting in July.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul signed the agreement on Sunday on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Kuala Lumpur, shortly after Trump’s arrival.

​​”We did something that a lot of people said couldn’t be done,” said Trump, who co-signed the agreement along with summit host Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, as he made his first trip to Asia since returning to the White House.

Thailand’s Anutin said the agreement creates “the building blocks for a lasting peace”, while the Cambodian premier Hun called it a “historic day”.

Tariffs wielded as threat

The agreement builds on a truce reached three months ago when Trump used the threat of higher tariffs against both countries to persuade them to end five days of fighting that resulted in dozens of deaths and the displacement of hundreds of thousands.

The first phase of the agreement involves Thailand releasing 18 Cambodian soldiers, and the removal of heavy weapons from the border region, with Malaysian troops to be deployed to ensure fighting does not restart.

Territory along the 800km (500-mile) frontier between Thailand and Cambodia has been disputed for decades.

Following the signing of the ceasefire agreement on Sunday, Trump inked separate economic deals with Cambodia and Thailand, involving an agreement on reciprocal trade with Phnom Penh and a deal on critical minerals with Bangkok.

Malaysia’s Anwar, who was also present at the signing, praised the agreement during his opening remarks at the summit, saying “it reminds us that reconciliation is not concession, but an act of courage.”

Thais cautious

Reporting from Sa Kaeo, Thailand, Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng said the agreement signed on Sunday essentially reinforced “agreements that have already been made”.

Malaysian troops had been supposed to deploy under the initial peace agreement signed in July, but had not yet arrived, he said.

He said that while Thais welcomed “any kind of move towards peace”, they were viewing the agreement as “the beginning of the end” to the conflict, rather than hailing it as having resolved the dispute in itself.

“The devil is going to be in the details of this agreement,” he said.

He said the Thai military had been working to clear some disputed border areas, at the same time as some villages had been building new bomb shelters in recent weeks.

“So people here are still concerned this could go either way,” he said.

Ou Virak, president of Phnom Penh’s Future Forum think tank, told The Associated Press news agency that Trump wielding the threat of tariffs had been a significant factor in bringing the fighting to a halt.

“That’s probably the main reason, if not the only reason, but definitely the main reason why the two sides agreed immediately to the ceasefire.”

Now, he said, “there’s a ceremony for Trump to be in front of cameras” so he can be “seen as the champion that brings an end to wars and conflicts”, giving him “more ammunition for his bid for [the] Nobel Peace Prize”.

Study finds that rates soar to 90 percent in some regions as humanitarian crises compound childhood exploitation.

Nearly two-thirds of South Sudanese children are engaged in the worst forms of child labour, with rates reaching as high as 90 percent in the hardest-hit regions, according to a government study released with the charity Save the Children.

The National Child Labour Study, published on Friday, surveyed more than 418 households across seven states and found that 64 percent of children aged between five and 17 are trapped in forced labour, sexual exploitation, theft and conflict.

The findings reveal a crisis far more complex than poverty alone, intensified by relentless flooding, the spread of disease, and conflict that have uprooted families and left millions on the brink of hunger.

In Kapoeta South, near the border with Uganda, nine out of 10 children work in gold mining, pastoralism and farming instead of attending school, the report said.

Yambio region, the country’s southwest, recorded similarly dire rates, with local conflict and child marriage driving children into labour.

Children typically start with simple jobs before being drawn into increasingly dangerous and exploitative work, the report found. About 10 percent of those surveyed reported involvement with armed groups, particularly in Akobo, Bentiu and Kapoeta South counties.

The types of exploitation children face differ by gender. Boys are more likely to work in dangerous industries or join armed groups, while girls disproportionately face forced marriage, household servitude and sexual abuse.

‘A crisis that goes beyond poverty’

Knowing the law does not stop child exploitation, researchers found.

The surveys showed that 70 percent of children stuck in dangerous or illegal work lives came from homes with adults who were familiar with legal protections. Two-thirds of children were unaware that help existed.

“When nearly two-thirds of a country’s children are working – and in some areas, almost every child – it signals a crisis that goes beyond poverty,” said Chris Nyamandi, Save the Children’s South Sudan country director.

South Sudan’s child labour prevalence vastly exceeds regional patterns. While East Africa has the continent’s worst record at 30 percent, according to ILO-UNICEF data, South Sudan’s 64 percent is more than double that figure.

“Education remains the strongest protective factor,” Nyamandi said, noting that children who attend school are far less likely to be exploited.

The government acknowledged the crisis at the report’s launch in Juba. Deng Tong, undersecretary at the Ministry of Labour, said officials would use the evidence as a “critical foundation for action”.

The report comes as nearly one million people have been impacted by severe flooding across South Sudan, with 335,000 displaced and more than 140 health facilities damaged or submerged.

The country faces a related malaria outbreak with more than 104,000 cases reported in the past week, while 7.7 million people confront acute hunger, the United Nations said.

South Sudan has also been gripped by fears of renewed civil war. A fragile 2018 peace deal between President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar appears increasingly strained, with armed clashes now occurring on a scale not seen since 2017, according to UN investigators.

Machar was arrested in March and charged in September with treason, murder and crimes against humanity. He has rejected all charges.

About 300,000 people have fled the country this year as violence has escalated.

Move to close Vilnius, Kaunas airports and border comes after helium balloons drifted into the country’s territory.

NATO member Lithuania has closed its two biggest airports and shut crossings on its border with Belarus after helium weather balloons drifted into its territory, the third such incident in the Baltic nation this month.

European aviation has repeatedly been thrown into chaos in recent weeks by drone sightings and other air incursions, including at airports in Copenhagen, Munich and the Baltic region.

The Vilnius and Kaunas airports were closed on Friday for safety reasons until 2am (23:00 GMT), while the Belarus border crossings will remain shut until midday on Sunday, authorities said.

Lithuania has said balloons are sent by smugglers transporting contraband cigarettes, but it also blames Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, for not stopping the practice.

“The National Security Commission will meet next week to assess … what can be done short-term that would be painful to the smugglers and to Lukashenko’s regime, which allows them to thrive,” Lithuania’s Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene said in a statement.

Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Centre said “tens of balloons” had been detected by radar on Friday.

Vilnius airport also closed on Tuesday of this week and on October 5, when smuggler balloons entered the capital city’s airspace, authorities said.

The incident comes after two Russian military aircraft briefly entered Lithuania’s airspace in what appeared to be a new provocation from Moscow.

Lithuania’s armed forces said in a statement that the two aircraft may have been conducting refuelling exercises in the neighbouring Russian exclave of Kaliningrad when they flew 700 metres (0.43 miles) into the country at 6pm local time (15:00 GMT) on Thursday.

“This is a blatant breach of international law and territorial integrity of Lithuania,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said on X in response to that incursion, adding that his country would summon Russian embassy representatives to protest against reckless and dangerous behaviour.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence, however, denied the incursion had taken place.

It said the flights were conducted “in strict compliance” with rules and “did not deviate from their route and did not violate the borders of other states”.

Russian aircraft and drones have reportedly also violated airspace in Estonia and Poland in recent weeks.

The events have heightened anxiety that Russia’s Putin might be testing NATO’s defensive reflexes.

The Israeli parliament has voted to annex the occupied West Bank – a move unlikely to become law but described as an “insult” by United States Vice President JD Vance.

President Donald Trump insists annexation won’t happen, but Israeli settler violence is escalating.

So are US-Israeli relations in upheaval?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests:

Alon Pinkas – Former Israeli ambassador and Consul General in New York

Mark Pfeifle – Republican strategist and president of Off the Record Strategies

Gideon Levy – Columnist at Haaretz newspaper and author of “The Punishment of Gaza”

Footage shows Israeli protesters blocking aid trucks at the Kerem Shalom crossing. They say Hamas broke ceasefire terms. WHO warns deliveries remain only a “fraction of what’s needed” and estimates $7 billion to rebuild Gaza’s shattered health system.

A Palestinian child has died of wounds sustained during an Israeli military raid in the Askar camp in Nablus, in the latest violence against civilians in the occupied West Bank, as a fragile ceasefire in Gaza brings little respite to Palestinians in the destroyed enclave.

Israeli forces on Friday also stormed the town of Aqaba, north of Tubas in the West Bank, and made a number of arrests earlier today in Hebron and Tal.

The Israeli army said they arrested 44 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank over the past week. A military statement says operations were carried out in various parts of the territory and all people detained were wanted by Israel. It added that troops also confiscated weapons and conducted interrogations during the operations.

Last week, 10-year-old Mohammad al-Hallaq was shot dead by Israeli forces while playing football in ar-Rihiya, Hebron.

According to the United Nations, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army and settlers since October 7, 2023, in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem.

A fifth of the victims are children, including 206 boys and seven girls, the UN said. The number also includes 20 women and at least seven people with disabilities. This does not include Palestinians who died in Israeli detention during the same period, the UN added.

A United States-brokered Gaza ceasefire deal has seen nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees released from Israeli jails, many bearing visible signs of abuse.

Dozens of Palestinian bodies returned have been badly mutilated and show signs of torture and execution.

Meanwhile, in tandem with the military’s sustained crackdown in the occupied territory, Israeli settlers have rampaged near Ramallah, destroying Palestinian property at an alarming rate daily with impunity, protected by the military.

Settlers set fire to several Palestinian vehicles in the hill area in Deir Dibwan, east of the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, at dawn this morning, the Wafa news agency reported.

On Sunday, an Israeli settler brutally assaulted a Palestinian woman while she was harvesting olives in the West Bank town of Turmus Aya.

Afaf Abu Alia, 53, suffered a brain haemorrhage due to the attack.

“The attack started with around 10 settlers, but more kept joining,” one Palestinian witness told Al Jazeera. “I think by the end, there were 40, protected by the army. We were outnumbered; we couldn’t defend ourselves.”

According to data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), settlers have attacked Palestinians nearly 3,000 times in the occupied West Bank over the past two years.

UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said on Friday that since October 7, 2023, “the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has also witnessed a sharp escalation in violence”.

“The increasing annexation of the West Bank is happening steadily in a gross violation of international law,” UNRWA said, referring to the expansion and recognition of illegal Israeli settlements.

US lays down law to Israel on annexation

After a vote in the Israeli parliament on Wednesday advancing a bill that would formalise the annexation of the occupied West Bank, senior US officials have been adamant it won’t happen under their watch.

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday, “Israel is not going to do anything with the West Bank” amid growing condemnation of an Israeli parliamentary motion that seeks to formally annex the occupied Palestinian territory.

Earlier in the day, in an interview with Time Magazine, Trump said that the US is firmly against Israeli annexation. “It won’t happen. It won’t happen. It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries. And you can’t do that now,” Trump told Time.

US Vice President JD Vance, meanwhile, while in Israel, also said that Trump’s policy remains that the occupied West Bank won’t be annexed by Israel, calling the parliamentary vote in favour of annexation a “very stupid political stunt” that he “personally” took some insult from.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in Israel to shore up the Gaza ceasefire and second-phase plans, has also lined up in the Trump’s administration’s firm opposition to Israeli annexation.

The body of a Thai farm worker killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack was returned home to Thailand. Sonthaya Oakkharasri’s body had been held in the Gaza Strip. Thai officials say 45 nationals have died in the conflict — the highest foreign toll among Israel’s foreign workers.

EXPLAINER

Satellite imagery shows Israel holds about 40 active military positions beyond the yellow line.

Satellite imagery analysis by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency Sanad shows that the Israeli army holds about 40 active military positions in the part of the Gaza Strip outside the yellow line, the invisible boundary established under the first phase of the ceasefire to which its troops had to move, according to the deal.

The images also show that Israel is upgrading several of these facilities, which help it maintain its occupation of 58 percent of Gaza even after the pullback by troops to the yellow line.

While the majority of sites are concentrated in southern Gaza, every governorate hosts at least one military position. Some sites are built on bases established during the war, while others are newly constructed. The total number of sites in each governorate is:

• North Gaza: 9
• Gaza City: 6
• Deir el-Balah: 1
• Khan Younis: 11
• Rafah: 13

One of the most prominent military points in Gaza City is located on top of al-Muntar Hill in the Shujayea neighbourhood of Gaza City. A comparison of images between September 21 and October 14 shows the base being paved and asphalted.

Where is the invisible yellow line?

Since the ceasefire took effect about two weeks ago, nearly 100 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across the Strip, with some attacks occurring near the yellow line.

On October 18, Israeli forces killed 11 members of the Abu Shaaban family in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, according to Gaza’s Civil Defence. Seven children and three women were among those killed when the Israeli military fired on the vehicle as the family attempted to return home to inspect it.

The Israeli military said soldiers had fired at a “suspicious vehicle” that had crossed the so-called yellow line. With no physical markers for the line, however, many Palestinians cannot determine the location of this invisible boundary. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has since said the army will install visual signs to indicate the line’s location.

In the first ceasefire phase, Israel retains control of more than half of the Gaza Strip, with areas beyond the yellow line still under its military presence. This has blocked residents of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoon, the neighbourhoods of Shujayea, Tuffah, Zeitoun, most of Khan Younis, and all of Rafah City from returning home.

What are the next phases of Trump’s 20-point Gaza plan?

According to the 20-point plan announced by United States President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on September 29 – developed without any Palestinian input – Israel is to withdraw its forces in three phases, as shown on an accompanying crude map, with each phase marked in a different colour:

• Initial withdrawal (yellow line): In the first phase, Israeli forces pulled back to the line designated in yellow on the map. Hamas has released all living Israeli captives that were in Gaza, and most of the dead bodies of captives who passed away in the enclave.
• Second withdrawal (red line): During the second phase, an International Stabilisation Force (ISF) will be mobilised to oversee security and support Palestinian policing, while Israeli forces are to retreat further to the line marked in red, reducing their direct presence in Gaza.
• Third withdrawal (security buffer zone): In the final phase, Israeli forces are to pull back to a designated “security buffer zone”, leaving a limited portion of Gaza under Israeli military control, while an international administrative body supervises governance and a transitional period.

Even after the third withdrawal phase, Palestinians will be confined to an area which is smaller than before the war, continuing a pattern of Israel’s control over Gaza and its people.

Many questions remain about how the plan will be implemented, the exact boundaries of Palestinian territory, the timing and scope of Israeli withdrawals, the role of the ISF, and the long-term implications for Palestinians across Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

The plan is also silent on whether Israel gets to continue its aerial and sea blockade of Gaza, which has been in place for the past 18 years.

Group of 27 Congress members call for release of Mohammed Ibrahim, 16, held in Israeli detention for eight months.

A group of United States lawmakers have urged the Trump administration to secure the release of a 16-year-old Palestinian American who has been held in Israeli detention centres for eight months.

In a letter sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, 27 members of the US Congress called for the release of Mohammed Ibrahim amid reports that he faces abusive conditions in detention.

“As we have been told repeatedly, ‘the Department of State has no higher priority than the safety and security of US citizens abroad,’” the letter, signed by figures such as Senators Bernie Sanders and Chris Von Hollen, states. “We share that view and urge you to fulfil this responsibility by engaging the Israeli government directly to secure the swift release of this American boy.”

Mohammed’s detention, which has now lasted for more than eight months, has underscored the harsh conditions faced by Palestinians held in Israeli prisons with little legal recourse.

“His family has received updates from US embassy staff and former detainees who described his alarming weight loss, deteriorating health, and signs of torture as his court hearings continue to be routinely postponed,” the letter said.

Analysts and rights advocates also say the case is demonstrative of a general apathy towards the plight of Palestinian Americans by the US government, which is quick to offer support to Israeli Americans who find themselves in harm’s way but slow to respond to instances of violence or abuse against Palestinians with US citizenship.

“The contrast has been made clear: The US government simply does not care about Palestinians with US citizenship who are killed or unjustly detained by Israel,” Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel programme at the Arab Center Washington DC, told Al Jazeera.

During his time in prison, Mohammed’s 20-year-old cousin, Sayfollah Musallet, was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. US Ambassador Huckabee called for the Israeli government to “aggressively investigate” the murder, but no arrests have been made thus far, and Israeli settlers who carry out violent attacks against Palestinian communities rarely face consequences.

Musallet’s family have called for the Trump administration to launch its own independent investigation.

“Our government is not unaware of these cases. They are themselves complicit,” said Munayyer. “In many cases where Palestinian Americans have been killed, the government does nothing. This is not unique to the Trump administration.”

In testimony obtained by the rights group Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP), Mohammed said that he was beaten with rifle butts as he was being transported and has been held in a cold cell with inadequate food. DCIP states that he has lost a “considerable amount of weight” since his arrest in February.

Israeli authorities have alleged that Mohammed, 15 years old at the time of his initial detention, threw stones at Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. He has not had a trial and denies the charge, and the letter from US lawmakers states that “no evidence has been publicly provided to support this allegation”.

Charges of stone throwing are widely used by Israeli authorities against Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli facilities are notorious for their mistreatment of detainees.

A DCIP investigation into the detention of Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank found that about 75 percent described being subjected to physical violence following their arrest and that 85.5 percent were not informed of the reason for their arrest.

“The abuse and imprisonment of an American teenager by any other foreign power should be met with outrage and decisive action by our government,” the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said in a statement about the case.

“The Trump administration must be America and American citizens first, and secure the release of Mohammed Ibrahim from Israel immediately. This 16-year-old from Florida belongs at home, safe with his family – not in Israeli military prisons notorious for human rights abuses.”