The African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), a peacekeeping force, is committed to withdrawing by Dec. 31, when a smaller new force is expected to replace it. However, in a letter last month to the acting chair of the African Union Peace and Security Council the government asked to delay until September the withdrawal of half the 4,000 troops due to leave by the end of June…The government had previously recommended, in a joint assessment with the AU in March, reviewed by Reuters, that the overall withdrawal timeline be adjusted “based on the actual readiness and capabilities” of Somali forces. The joint assessment, which was mandated by the U.N. Security Council, warned that a “hasty drawdown of ATMIS personnel will contribute to a security vacuum”…The Peace and Security Council is due to meet on Somalia later on Thursday to discuss the drawdown and follow up mission.

(Reuters)

A team of Haitian police commanders on Tuesday met Kenya’s inspector general of police ahead of a planned deployment to the violence-hit Caribbean country expected to take place by the end of June. Kenya is set to lead a U.N.-backed multinational peacekeeping mission with officers drawn from several countries to combat gang violence in Haiti that has left thousands of people dead and forced more than 360,000 others to flee their homes…The Haitian police also met commanders of the 1,000 Kenyan officers who will be deployed as part of the multinational peacekeeping mission. Kenya will also host Haitian police for training, and the delegation in Nairobi on Tuesday visited the barracks where drills will take place, Kenyan police said…The deployment that was set to take place in May was postponed to allow completion of bases where the officers will operate from and the procurement of key equipment including vehicles.

(AP)

In all, Reuters identified 14 burial grounds in five communities across Darfur that have expanded rapidly in recent months. The area of new graves at these burial grounds has grown up to three times faster in the first half of 2024 than in the second half of last year. That increase, moreover, came on top of an already-high base: The region saw weeks of violence in the last six months of 2023 that resulted in many deaths…The satellite images – combined with food insecurity data, photos and videos of emaciated children, and interviews with dozens of people from 20 communities across Darfur – reveal how hunger and disease are spreading rapidly in Sudan…In charting the spike in mortality in the five Darfur communities, Reuters reviewed hundreds of satellite images of burial grounds over a period of several years. The recent expansion in the area of new graves may in part be due to higher mortality as a result of the influx of people into the camps who have fled violence. Nevertheless, the Reuters calculation of how much the burial grounds have expanded is likely an underestimate: It doesn’t account for new graves that have been dug in between existing ones in many places, for instance, or for the fact that there are small patches of graves not easily identifiable in satellite images. Reuters only reviewed communities in which there hasn’t been fighting in the past six months to rule out the possibility that this year’s burial-ground expansion may be due to an increase in the number of people killed in conflict.

(Reuters)

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), in collaboration with the African Union Commission (AUC) and the African Development Bank (AfDB), is convening an Expert Group Meeting (EGM) in Douala, Cameroon, from 20 to 22 June 2024, to review the eleventh draft edition of the flagship report on Assessing Regional Integration in Africa (ARIA-11) under the theme “Delivering on the African Economic Community: Towards a Continental Customs Union and Common Market”.

Since the late 1950s, regional integration has been a cornerstone of Africa’s development, aimed at overcoming the fragmented markets inherited from the colonial era. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), adopted in 2018 as part of Agenda 2063, is a key initiative to accelerate Africa’s economic integration. While the AfCFTA represents a significant departure from the roadmap outlined in the Abuja Treaty, it facilitates the realisation of its core objectives, including the establishment of a continental customs union and common market.

 (Press release)