South African police said Thursday they had rescued 44 Ethiopian nationals, 17 of them minors, who were being held against their will in an upscale neighbourhood of Johannesburg. The incident is the latest in a string of human-trafficking cases in Africa’s most industrialised nation, a magnet for undocumented migrants from across the continent. Officers on patrol were alerted to the discovery by screams coming from the house in Sandton, spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Mavela Masondo told journalists…In March, dozens of young Ethiopian adults and children who were also allegedly held captive in a suburban house in Johannesburg escaped, with police finding 32…In January, police rescued 26 undocumented Ethiopians found naked and without documents in Johannesburg, held by suspected traffickers. Last August, more than 80 were discovered locked in a house in inhumane conditions in another suburb of the city. (AFP)

The al-Shabaab militants suffered a series of setbacks, Tuesday, following a security operation conducted by the Macawislay fighters in central regions, marking yet another significant gain against the group in recent weeks. Security teams confirmed the death of several militants in central Somalia, with the Macawislay fighters seizing weapons during the planned operation in the dense forests of Ciid-Ciidka within Mahaday, Middle Shabelle. One of the commanding officers, Osman Beerey, who was in charge of the raid, said multiple militants were killed in some of the hideouts targeted by the military backers. The Macawislay fighters work closely with the Somali National Army…The al-Shabaab militants have been trying to disrupt supply routes within the country while taking over strategic areas that had been recovered by the Somali National Army with assistance from the US Africa Command and the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) forces. (Garowe Online)

The first U.N. food aid since Sudan’s conflict began two years ago has reached the centre of the capital Khartoum, the United Nations said on Wednesday. Relief efforts are also scaling up in the western Darfur region amid large-scale displacement. Distributions of 70 metric tonnes of World Food Programme (WFP) supplies for nearly 8,000 people in Khartoum’s Burri neighbourhood are set to begin on Thursday, U.N. deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters. These mark the first distributions in the downtown area since the conflict erupted. Aid distributions have also started in the Alazhari neighbourhood in south Khartoum, targeting 20,000 people in an area the U.N. considers at high risk of famine, Haq said. Separately, the U.N. is dispatching more humanitarian supplies to Tawila in North Darfur state, where Haq said more than 300,000 people have sought safety after fleeing recent attacks in the Zamzam displacement camp. (Sudan Tribune)