Lamu County has taken its peacebuilding experience to the United Nations General Assembly, with Governor Issa Timamy calling for stronger partnerships between local governments, communities and international actors to prevent conflict and promote development. Timamy said lasting peace is built at the community level, where people experience security, access to services, trust in institutions and social cohesion. … Timamy noted that Lamu’s experience showed that peacebuilding works best when communities are involved and when governance is built around trust, resilience and partnerships. He also linked the county’s improved peace and stability to its economic prospects, saying investors were increasingly able to view Lamu as a place where they can plan for the long term rather than one defined by security risks. The Standard

Eight South Sudanese opposition groups and civil society organisations have called on regional bloc IGAD to review the country’s peace agreement and convene an inclusive national political dialogue. In a joint letter dated 23 September … [t]hey said the transitional arrangements had reached 22 September without an agreed successor framework, creating what they described as a constitutional and political crisis. The groups also criticised recent changes to the 2018 peace agreement and electoral laws. They said amendments to the R-ARCSS in July had removed the link between elections and completion of a permanent constitution and national census. They further said President Salva Kiir Mayardit had assented on 21 September to amendments to the National Elections Act that would keep the president in office during the electoral period while allowing for the removal of the first vice-president and other vice-presidents. The signatories argued that the changes undermined the power-sharing structure established under the peace agreement, which provides for a president, first vice-president and other vice-presidents. Radio Tamazuj

Thousands of displaced people in Somalia’s southwest could experience famine between October and December ​if El Nino causes worse-than-expected flooding and humanitarian ‌aid remains insufficient, a global hunger monitor said on Wednesday. Baidoa, one of Somalia’s biggest cities, is home to hundreds of ​thousands displaced by conflict and hunger. A report ​by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), an ⁠initiative of UN agencies, regional bodies and aid ​groups, said that 5% of displaced people in ​Baidoa, or about 26,000, were likely to face starvation and a collapse in livelihoods in October to December. More than 5 ​million Somalis, 26% of the analysed population, are already ​suffering crisis-level food insecurity or worse due to repeated droughts, conflict ‌and ⁠aid shortfalls, the report said. … Somalia last experienced famine in 2011, ⁠when ​around 250,000 people died, and ​came close in 2017 and 2022. (Reuters)

Regional forces in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray on Wednesday seized control of three airports and clashed in multiple locations with federal troops, signalling the start of a major offensive after months of growing tensions. The move shatters a peace deal that ended the 2020-2022 conflict between ​the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and federal forces, and comes amid a backdrop of deteriorating ties between Ethiopia and Eritrea, ‌Sudan’s civil war, tensions over Red Sea access, and the Horn of Africa being dragged into Middle East conflicts. … Diplomats warn that a renewed Tigray war would no longer be a largely isolated Ethiopian conflict. Instead, it would unfold as the Horn of Africa ​faces its most volatile security environment in years, with war raging in Sudan, persistent instability in Somalia, ​tensions over the Nile ⁠and expanding war and geopolitics from the Middle East spilling into the region. (Reuters)