At least 56 rebels and four government soldiers were killed over the weekend as heavy clashes erupted in northeastern South Sudan, an army spokesman said Monday. “The dead bodies of the rebels confirmed after count was 56 … on our side we lost four SPLA fighters and twenty were wounded,” …

This used to be South Sudan’s second largest city, a bustling center on the White Nile River of more than 120 000 people, many employed in the oil fields nearby. Today Malakal is rubble and almost entirely deserted by civilians, a city emptied by three years of civil war and …

Fighting between Somali troops and al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab fighters was ongoing on Tuesday in the key city of Afgoye, some 30km northwest of the capital Mogadishu, a security source and a witness said.