Rebel News - Independent News and Analysis

US Marines have rescued an 8,000-ton, German-owned commercial ship which had been seized by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden.

On Thursday, US Marines from the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit's Maritime Raid Force aboard the USS Dubuque rescued the MV Magellan Star and its 18 crew members seized by the pirates a day before, a Press TV Correspondent reported.

Twin bomb blasts have killed at least 14 people and wounded several others in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, as violence continues to sweep through the African nation.

The bombs went off Thursday at the main entrance of Mogadishu airport, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame has been “disappointed” about a leaked report saying Rwandan troops may have committed genocide, UN chief Ban Ki-moon says.

The draft UN report accuses Rwandan troops of massacring civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1996-97.

At least eight civilians and three troops have been killed during new clashes between African Union (AU) forces and al-Shabab fighters in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu.

The civilians have lost their lives after they were caught in cross-fire between AU troops and al-Shabab fighters in the north and south of the capital, a government security official said.

Hundreds of inmates have escaped from a federal prison in northeastern Nigeria after heavily armed gunmen attacked the detention center, witnesses say.

Four people — two security forces and two civilians — were killed during the clashes between the gunmen and soldiers in prison in Bauchi on Tuesday night.

The United Nations admits it has failed to protect the civilians of the Democratic Republic of Congo from the "systematic rape" by armed rebels, a senior official says.

"While the primary responsibility for protection of civilians lies with the state, its national army and police force, clearly, we have also failed," the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Atul Khare told the UN Security Council.

South African public sector workers have returned to work after 21 days of strike, which was costing over $150 million per day to the country's economy.

The civil servants' unions said that this is only a suspension of the strike, since they are refusing the government's offer to increase employee salaries 7.5 percent and give a grant of 800 rands to cover housing costs, Fides news agency reports.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says at least 230 civilians have lost their lives in Somalia over the past two weeks.

According to the UNHCR, during the fourteen-day violence between government forces and al-Shabab fighters in the capital city of Mogadishu, 400 were wounded and 23,000 people were displaced.

Somalia's President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has fired military chief General Mohamed Gelle Kahiye along with several other top military and police commanders.

The move comes after thousands of tons of heavy weaponry were stolen from Somali government stores resulting in Sharif relieving the top military officials of their jobs on Sunday.

Violent clashes in Sudan's Darfur region have left more than 40 people dead this week, according to international peacekeepers.

The joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur (UNAMID) said clashes between different armed groups left six people dead and another 33 people injured on Saturday.