MOZAMBIQUE: The UN refugee chief raised a new alert today over 780,000 displaced people in Mozambique.

The warning follows an upsurge in new attacks by the Islamic State Mozambique group in Cabo Delgado since January that has caused 80,000 new displacements, taking the total number of people forced to abandon their homes and villages and currently displaced in Mozambique to over three quarters of a million, according to the UN.

SAHEL: A joint security force was announced today by the leaders of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso to fight worsening extremist violence in their Sahel region countries.

The three west African countries, which have all undergone military coups opposing French economic influence, have withdrawn from the France-linked G5 military bloc over the last two years.

GERMANY: Police today carried out raids across Germany against people suspected of posting misogynistic hate speech on the internet as part of a co-ordinated push to shine the spotlight on online violence against women.

Officers raided homes and interrogated 45 suspects in 11 states. None of the suspects were detained, Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office said in a statement. 

NIGERIA: At least 200 people, mostly women and children displaced by violence in the north-east, were abducted by Islamic extremists while they were searching for firewood near the border with Chad, the United Nations said late on Wednesday.

“The exact number of people abducted remains unknown but is estimated at over 200 people,” the UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Nigeria Mohamed Fall said in a statement.