The Malian army and its Russian paramilitary allies have killed civilians in violation of international law, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said in a new report, which also confirms the al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group (JNIM) summarily executed Malian soldiers following an attack on a military convoy in July.

"The Malian military, armed groups and insurgent forces are committing grave laws-of-war violations while international organisations and governments largely stand by," the rights watchdog said in a new report published Monday.

It urged the African Union's Peace and Security Council to "urgently take action to prevent further atrocities" in the west African country.

Mali has been plagued since 2012 by a security crisis pitting the army and its Russian allies against jihadist fighters, Tuareg separatist groups and criminal gangs.

The junta that has ruled Mali since back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021 has turned to Russia for support, enlisting the services of paramilitaries from the Wagner Group, which became the Africa Corps in 2025.

"Mali's military and the allied Russia-controlled Africa Corps... have killed and wounded scores of civilians in attacks and in custody in violation of international humanitarian law," HRW said.

"Islamist and separatist fighters have also violated the laws-of-war, including torturing and executing captured Malian soldiers," it continued.

Abuses against civilians by the army and the paramilitaries have been extensively documented.

HRW's latest report is based on interviews between 30 July and 20 September with 30 people in central and northern Mali, including human rights activists, community leaders, journalists and a Malian soldier.

The NGO said it had documented "two apparently indiscriminate Malian military drone attacks".

One partially destroyed a health centre in Talhandak village in the northern Kidal region in July.

Another, which hit a market in the central village of Tombonkore in August, "killed six civilians and injured at least 20 others".

HRW said Malian soldiers "shot and killed five girls" during a counter-insurgency operation in mid-July in the central Segou region, while their Dozo militia allies "killed three civilians" later that month in the central Mopti region – "all with impunity".

In late September, a report by rights group Amnesty International said Mali’s armed forces and Wagner Group personnel had committed war crimes, including killings and torture of civilians, during joint operations across the country between 2023 and 2025.

HRW also cited abuses by fighters from the al-Qaeda-affiliated JNIM (Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims) and separatists from the mainly Tuareg Azawad Liberation Front (FLA).

On 18 July, the JNIM and FLA attacked a military convoy in Tabrichat, in the northeastern Gao region, and then "tortured and executed at least 19 Malian soldiers taken prisoner".

The JNIM admitted prisoners were killed there but denied having ordered the deaths, HRW said.

The FLA, meanwhile, acknowledged clashes with the army and the Russians in Tabrichat but denied executing soldiers.

(with newswires)

Seoul (AFP) – The powerful sister of North Korea's leader said Monday that "a grave situation is prevailing" along the Southern border, according to state media, and Pyongyang was considering deploying "more tactical strike means" to the area.

The announcement comes amid heightened tensions between the two Koreas, with the nuclear-armed North stepping up weapons tests in recent days, including of a "new-type" precision-guided torpedo system that uses artificial intelligence to detect and track targets.

"Now the situation of the southern border is very unstable," Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said in a statement.

"A grave situation is prevailing along the southern border due to the reckless behavior of the ROK military gangsters," she said in the English-language statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

Citing South Korea's firing of warning shots, broadcasts from propaganda loudspeakers and what she called a "mine explosion farce", Kim said the incidents had "gone beyond the red line".

North Korea has rejected claims it was behind an explosion that injured three soldiers last month inside the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), the heavily mined buffer area that has divided the two Koreas since their 1953 armistice.

A joint Seoul-United Nations Command investigation concluded the blast was caused by North Korean mines laid on the South Korean side of the border.

"Our military leadership is examining the issues of deploying more tactical strike means along the southern border as a preemptive and suppressive measure to deal with contingency," said Kim, but did not specify the details of the tactical strike.

Kim also added that the North is reviewing "resuming the loudspeaker broadcasting against the ROK and considering other necessary and appropriate measures".

She warned that if the actions were to continue, "Seoul will surely regret and face uncontrollably terrible danger".

In 2024, North Korea sent thousands of trash-carrying balloons southwards, saying they were retaliation for anti-North propaganda balloons floated by South Korean activists.

Later, the South turned on border loudspeaker broadcasts for the first time in six years -- including K-pop tunes and international news -- and the North started transmitting strange sounds along the frontier, unsettling South Korean residents.

Loudspeaker broadcasts, a tactic that dates back to the Korean War, have previously prompted Pyongyang to threaten artillery strikes on Seoul's speaker units.

South Korea's President Lee Jae Myung has vowed to reach out to the nuclear-armed North and pursue dialogue without preconditions -- a reversal from his hawkish predecessor.

Last year the South's defence ministry removed loudspeakers from its side of the border as "a practical measure aimed at helping ease tensions with the North".

Melbourne (AFP) – Australian independent lawmaker Helen Haines was being treated in hospital for critical injuries on Monday after being struck deliberately by a car in what officials described as a "violent" attack.

Political violence is rare in Australia, but law enforcement officials have documented a steady rise in threats and abuse directed towards the nation's elected officials in recent years.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese led an outpouring of support for Haines, widely praised for her efforts to increase transparency in politics and crack down on corruption.

She was hit by a Toyota Land Cruiser outside her office in the town of Wangaratta, just over 200 kilometres (124 miles) northeast of Melbourne, at around 3:35 pm (0435 GMT).

Witnesses told national broadcaster ABC they heard a bang and saw a woman pinned between two cars.

Police said the 65-year-old was critically injured.

She has been airlifted to Melbourne for emergency treatment, ABC reported.

The 43-year-old male driver of the vehicle was detained by civilians, Mason said, before being arrested by police, who found a knife in his car.

Australian media reported that he was known to police.

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Jakarta (Indonesia) (AFP) – Fires in Indonesia burned through over 1.9 million hectares between January and the end of September this year, a monitor analysing satellite imagery said on Monday.

The figure, an area nearly 12 times larger than London, is a conservative estimate in part because haze has complicated satellite verification, said David Gaveau, founder of deforestation monitoring site Nusantara Atlas.

Indonesia's government has not provided official figures for areas burned since announcing 202,000 hectares had been razed by the end of July.

Gaveau said the true scale of the burning was likely to be even higher than the 1,916,588 hectares his organisation has detected so far.

"Our burned-area estimates are conservative for two reasons. First, we exclude individual burn scars smaller than 6.25 hectares... Second, we prioritise avoiding false detections," he said.

This year, the calculation has also been impacted by heavy haze, which has obscured satellite images at times.

"The total reported burned area therefore underestimates the true area burned," he said.

Even so, Nusantara Atlas data shows the area burned by the end of September this year was 38 percent higher than the same point in 2019.

The satellites the monitor uses were not available during severe fires in 2015, so comparable data is not available.

But Gaveau said it was likely this year would be similarly bad.

"My intuition is that it probably is as bad. If you look at the sheer number of hotspots, it's still trending up and up," he said.

Beit Hanina (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – The World Food Programme said Monday it would end monthly assistance to 500,000 people in Gaza due to a funding shortfall, despite acute needs in the war-battered Palestinian territory.

With the cutbacks, 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza -- still about half the population -- will be receiving either food or cash assistance each month from the UN agency, in reduced amounts.

The World Food Programme said its efforts had mitigated the effects during a famine last year in Gaza -- a description of the situation disputed by Israel -- and warned that conditions had not improved to the point that it can take away aid.

"People are not safe. Airstrikes continue on a daily basis. People continue to be displaced," Shaun Hughes, the WFP country director, told AFP at the agency's office in east Jerusalem.

"Almost everybody remains without a permanent home to live in. And the humanitarian conditions are brutal," he said.

According to the latest assessments, 1.4 million people -- or two-thirds of Gaza's population -- are still "acutely food insecure" and need humanitarian assistance to survive, he said.

In August last year, the UN's Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said that Gaza was suffering famine conditions. [...].

The famine classification was lifted in December, two months after a US-brokered ceasefire was announced in Gaza. Israel has kept striking Gaza since then, [...].

Since the ceasefire, the WFP has been able to step up assistance and had been reaching between 1.5 million and 1.8 million people every month.

"This has been a lifeline. But now, rather than being able to sustain and scale up that assistance, we're actually having to reduce it," Hughes said.

"And that's not because we don't have humanitarian access to deliver food; that's because we don't have funding."

In addition to reducing the number of people who receive rations, the WFP has been forced to shrink the content.

Families receiving food assistance will now get only one food parcel instead of two and a smaller bag of wheat flour, the WFP said in an operational note.

The 75,000 families who receive assistance in cash will see the amount reduced from 1,250 to 750 shekels ($400 to $240) per month.

The WFP is funded by governments as well as private donors. It has seen a sharp drop in resources, including after President Donald Trump returned to power in the United States and drastically slashed contributions to UN agencies as well as bilateral aid.

The agency says it needs about $450 million over the next six months for its operations in Gaza and the West Bank, but in 2026 it has only received about half the usual financing for the Palestinian territories.

In September, the agency also reduced by half the number of aid recipients in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, from 400,000 to 200,000.

"Now is not the time in the history of Palestine and Gaza to turn away from what is happening in Gaza," Hughes said.

The WFP says that conditions have moderately improved in Gaza but noted that needs could rise again with the onset of winter.

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Sydney (AFP) – Australia is boosting its undersea warfare capability by equipping its Ghost Shark autonomous submarine with "swarms" of aerial drones and sea mines, its defence ministry said Monday.

US defence technology start-up Anduril jointly developed the extra large submarine drone with Australia's defence scientists, and is building a Ghost Shark fleet for Canberra under a Au$1.8 billion (US$1.3 billion) contract.

The AUKUS partners of Australia, Britain and the US pledged this year to develop interchangeable payloads for drones used in undersea warfare, in addition to their nuclear submarine cooperation.

Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said in Sydney on Monday that after secret trials three payloads had been approved to "do things we don't want humans to do".

The Ghost Shark will carry up to 12 sea mines, equipment for special forces, and Anduril's Altius aerial drone that can be launched at sea to form swarms to conduct reconnaissance and strike, he told reporters.

Potential adversaries will have to consider that any shipping container at an Australian wharf could have a Ghost Shark in it, he said.

"Not only could there be Ghost Sharks in those shipping containers, but those Ghost Sharks now have teeth," he said.

Australia, concerned at the rapid build-up of China's navy and tensions in the South China Sea, is rapidly expanding its investment in drones.

The Ghost Shark can travel long distances and would work in tandem with the crewed submarine fleet, officials said.

"A range of other countries" had expressed interest in acquiring the Ghost Shark, Conroy said.

China is focused on developing undersea sensors, weapons and autonomous vehicles to counter US submarines, the US Navy's intelligence director told a US government committee in May.

Anduril earlier this month won a $2.9 billion US Navy contract to build components for the US Navy's Virginia-class submarine and said it will build a new submarine shipyard in the US.

The US is seeking to speed up production so it can sell the submarines to Australia under the AUKUS agreement.

Amman (AFP) – At 15 years old, Mahmoud Abou Nusair recalls the love he had for football, before Israeli fire in Gaza took his leg and his dreams away.

He is one of more than 450 Palestinian amputees receiving care and prosthetic limbs at a centre in Amman and in Gaza, part of an initiative run by Jordan's Restoring Hope Society.

Mahmoud, 15

On October 31, 2025, during the ongoing Gaza ceasefire agreed that month, Mahmoud Abou Nusair was looking for firewood in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, when a bullet struck his right leg.

With Gaza's healthcare system decimated after three years of war, he had to undergo an amputation below the knee after his injury worsened.

"The doctor came to see me and told me, 'We have to amputate your foot'," he told AFP.

"My mother said, 'No, doctor, that's his soul. What will he do if he wants to go out, play football, skate or go to the beach? It's a sin to cut off his foot'."

"My first reaction was to scream," he said. "Then I took a look at the injured people around me in the hospital. They all had amputated arms and legs, so I told myself: my injury is better.

"Then I said, 'Amputate it, doctor'."

After his injury, he recalls having to wait half an hour until a horse-drawn cart picked him up and took him to Al-Aqsa hospital.

He was taken to Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, where he spent two weeks.

He still mourns the loss of his sports equipment and his five balls, all of which he lost when his home was destroyed.

Zuhdi, 17

At the facility in Amman, Zuhdi Abou Shanab, 17, says he lost his entire right leg in a strike that killed nine people and injured 28 others on September 8, 2025.

"I was on my way to buy groceries for my mother and I ran into a friend so we stopped to talk," he told AFP.

"When they struck the building we were standing next to, I lost consciousness and when I woke up, I found myself wounded and bleeding.

"A week later, the doctors told me that I was suffering from an infection in the artery in my leg and that three veins and three arteries in my leg had been severed," he continued.

"I underwent an operation to reattach the arteries and veins, but it failed, so they decided to amputate my leg."

"The war has devastated us and torn us away from our friends... there is nothing left," he added.

But he still holds on to hope that his condition will improve, dreaming of "returning to Gaza".

"I miss my mother, my brothers and my sisters."

Abdulrahman, 16

Abdulrahman Rihan lost the use of his legs when his family home in Jabalia, northern Gaza was bombed, the morning of January 12, 2025.

Both he and his father suffered severe wounds. They were taken to multiple hospitals in Gaza, where they "underwent difficult and painful surgeries", Abdulrahman recounted.

Three of his brothers were also wounded. Their father, Imad Rihan, 42, said he had to "undergo some surgeries without anaesthetic in Gaza".

"This war was very hard on us," said the father, who lost his left leg.

"No matter how much we talk about the war, or how much you have seen of it, all of this remains but a drop in the ocean compared to the reality that we witnessed with our own eyes."

Wainwright (Canada) (AFP) – Four soldiers were killed and dozens injured in a fire at a military base in Alberta province, one of the worst peacetime tragedies to hit Canada's armed forces on home soil, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday.

Carney made the solemn announcement without providing details on what caused the fire at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright on Saturday.

"It is with deep sadness that I can confirm, at this time, that four service members have lost their lives and that their loved ones have been notified," Carney said in the capital Ottawa, adding that "dozens of others have been seriously injured."

"This is one of the worst tragedies the Canadian Armed Forces have experienced on Canadian soil in peacetime," he said.

Additionally, 19 were critically injured, eight were stable and 12 were ambulatory after being treated for injuries, officials told reporters at a news conference Sunday.

According to the Department of National Defence, the fire broke out around 4:00 pm local time (2200 GMT) Saturday in the base's training area.

Major General Wade Rutland told reporters that during "an outdoor exercise on the Alberta prairie," soldiers were caught off guard by the advancing flames.

"Within 30 seconds to a minute, they saw no fire, and then there was a fire on top of them," Rutland said.

"The fire did originate within the training area and did cross established fire guards before being contained, in conjunction with municipal authorities," Rutland said.

Rutland said it would be "at least a month" before he expected investigators to determine a cause, but responded to a suggestion circulating online that a hydrocarbon pipeline could have been hit by a munition.

"You may have heard reports of explosions. Certainly, we do not believe this to be as a result of any oil and gas infrastructure, nor any outside interference," Rutland said, adding that initial inspections indicated no damage to gas and oil infrastructure "but we will definitely check."

The Municipal District of Wainwright posted on social media that the fire had "spread rapidly due to high winds."

"Military and civilian crews fought this fire throughout the night in some of the worst conditions imaginable, risking their lives to protect their fellow Canadians," Carney said.

...

Tirana (Albania) (AFP) – Albanian police fired water cannon and tear gas Sunday as violent anti-government protests entered a sixth day and Prime Minister Edi Rama rejected demonstrators demands that he resign.

Violent demonstrations have rocked Tirana since Tuesday with protesters calling for action over poor university conditions, high tuition fees and corruption.

Hundreds of protesters gathered again at noon in front of the education ministry chanting "Rama, resign" amid a tense standoff with police.

After police bid to disperse the crowds the protests scattered across the city centre, escalating in hours-long violent clashes.

Protesters set ablaze litter bins in the streets, smashed windows, including at the headquarters of the governing Socialist party, and set fire to a police station and the entrance of the interior ministry.

Chaotic clashes extended to main boulevard and square with demonstrators throwing rocks, Molotov cocktails and charging pyrotechnic devices, as the police responded with rubber bullets and tear gas, according to an AFP journalist.

Ambulances were seen rushing in and out of the scenes of clashes to pick up the injured.

The ministry of Health told AFP that 16 police officers were injured -- 14 of them when protesters attacked the police station.

Before the protest, shops and offices in the city centre secured their doors and windows with metal shutters, while city workers removed paving stones to prevent them being thrown by protesters.

In a video broadcast lasting more than an hour, Rama ruled out resigning, stating that the protests are the "work of an outside hand".

According to Austrian federal press service Rama’s official visit to Federal Chancellor Christian Stocker scheduled for Monday, has been cancelled by the Albanian side.

...

Moscow (AFP) – Shipping Russian diesel to the US market will take 15 to 20 days once contracts are signed, a senior Russian official said in an interview broadcast Sunday, though a date for that signing has yet to be announced.

US President Donald Trump announced the controversial agreement with Moscow last week, seen as a way to try to lower fuel prices for American consumers ahead of crucial midterm elections on November 3.

"Negotiations are currently under way regarding the commercial terms -- that is, on finalisation of the contracts," Russian Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Alexander Novak said in an interview with state-run media outlet Vesti.

"Once the contracts are signed, the fuel will reach the markets -- in this case, the US markets -- within 15 to 20 days," said Novak, without setting a date for signing the contracts.

On Wednesday, the Kremlin’s adviser on international economic cooperation, Kirill Dmitriev, had said the contracts would be signed within days.

Unhappiness in the United States at rising pump prices since the beginning of the US and Israeli war on Iran has raised the spectre of heavy electoral losses next month for Trump's Republicans.

Many experts also believe the diesel accord with Moscow will not fundamentally make a difference when it comes to consumers' wallets.

The United States consumes 3.9 million barrels of diesel a day, whereas the accord with Moscow initially concerns 2.22 million barrels total -- barely enough for half a day of US consumption.

Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) (AFP) – Riyadh's Kingdom Centre skyscraper ordered remote working for office tenants on Sunday following repeated Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, as the Saudi-led coalition said two pilots were killed in a crash near the Yemen border.

The imposing, 99-storey landmark announced "mandatory" remote working until further notice. No reason was given for the order, but it comes a week after 13 people were killed in a major Houthi attack on Riyadh's international airport.

The Saudi coalition's decade-plus war with the Iran-backed Houthis has reignited during the US-Iran war, with regular attacks reported by both sides.

Tenants of the Kingdom Centre, which towers over central Riyadh, include financial services giant Merril Lynch, management consultancy McKinsey and the International Monetary Fund.

"Please be advised that remote working arrangements are mandatory for all office employees at Kingdom Centre, effective immediately and until further notice," the building's management said in an email seen by AFP.

"Kindly refrain from attending the offices during this period," it added. The mall at the foot of the building remains open.

It comes as schools recently extended remote learning measures and Riyadh's airport remains closed after last week's attack.

The order came after the coalition announced the death of two helicopter pilots in Najran near the border with Yemen, blaming a "technical malfunction", after the Houthis said they shot down an Apache helicopter in the area.

"An AH-6i reconnaissance helicopter belonging to the Ministry of National Guard crashed inside Saudi territory in Najran Region due to a technical malfunction," coalition spokesman Turki Al-Malki said, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

"The accident resulted in the martyrdom of its aircrew, consisting of two officers."

Late on Saturday, Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree said the group had "downed an Apache helicopter belonging to the Saudi enemy" in the same area.

...

Ibl Al-Saqi (Lebanon) (AFP) – From his shop in south Lebanon near the Israeli border, Mark Diab says life in his village will be turned upside down when a decades-long United Nations peacekeeping force pulls out next year.

"UNIFIL isn't just business, to us it's family," said Diab, 59, whose sister is among residents of Ibl al-Saqi who have married peacekeepers from the UN Interim Force in Lebanon over the years. She now lives in Spain.

"We're basically open because of the UN. We started when I was young," Diab said from his shop, just down the road from a UNIFIL base, selling clothes along with other items including alcohol and headphones.

The force's withdrawal will hurt the local economy and "will impact our relationships... and we'll lose security and stability," he said, as the sound of an explosion rang out in the distance.

"I'm very sad they're leaving... We've spent a lifetime with them."

UNIFIL has served as a buffer since Israel first invaded Lebanon in 1978.

It has become part of the fabric of south Lebanese villages like Ibl al-Saqi after decades spent monitoring border hostilities and supporting local communities, including with humanitarian assistance.

But after pressure from Washington, the UN Security Council last year voted to end the force's mandate on December 31, 2026.

In a narrow garden in Ibl al-Saqi called Norway Square, tattered Norwegian and Lebanese flags flew near plaques paying tribute to peacekeepers from the Scandinavian country whose arrival decades ago forged ties that run deep.

A street sign points to a town in Norway about 5,200 kilometres (more than 3,200 miles) away.

Nearby, an Indian flag flew at Mahatma Gandhi Park close to a statue, posters and plaques set up by Indian peacekeepers.

Ibl al-Saqi is located just outside an Israeli-declared "security zone" which runs around 10 kilometres deep in Lebanese territory along the border. It was established after the latest war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group erupted this year.

Israeli troops operate nearby, and locals advised AFP journalists to avoid southern parts of the otherwise quiet, peaceful village, nestled among hills covered in olive groves.

From his municipal office near framed UNIFIL pictures and paraphernalia, mayor George Rahhal said the peacekeepers had brought stability and reassurance to villagers over years of conflict and uncertainty.

"They've left a positive mark on everybody's hearts, firstly through security, then the economy, healthcare, supporting schools, the sick," said Rahhal, who like others in the village also has Norwegian citizenship and speaks the language.

"At some point the UN has to leave... but not in these circumstances."

Lebanon has called for UNIFIL's mandate to be extended, fearing a security vacuum at a time when hostilities prevent the Lebanese army, whose resources are limited, from deploying across the country's south.

Rahhal said many Ibl al-Saqi residents were UNIFIL employees or contractors.

Almost "the entire community will be impacted" economically by the withdrawal, directly or indirectly, he said.

"We can live after the international force (leaves), but how and where and who will be responsible for us?"

UNIFIL now counts about 7,500 personnel from nearly 50 countries.

Spokesperson Kandice Ardiel told AFP it also "has around 400 national staff" and works with numerous local companies providing contracted services.

Peacekeepers are stationed in many Israeli-occupied areas now off-limits to most Lebanese after the most recent war. Many border villages have seen heavy destruction.

More than 4,300 people have been killed in Lebanon since March, including seven peacekeepers caught in the crossfire.

Israel still carries out strikes and demolitions despite a lull in hostilities since late June.

Andrea Tenenti, who served as UNIFIL spokesperson for almost 20 years, told AFP that the force's presence "was not simply about maintaining peace and security".

UNIFIL "has long been the second largest employer and economic contributor in southern Lebanon, after the Lebanese state", he said.

"Its economic footprint, however, extended far beyond its direct workforce," he added, with associated activities "supporting a much wider network of businesses and livelihoods".

Its withdrawal "risks creating a significant vacuum... at a particularly critical time".

At a workshop in Ibl al-Saqi, labourers supervised clattering embroidery machines sewing customised items including banners and tags for peacekeepers stationed nearby.

Shelves were packed with colourful souvenirs and keepsakes for UNIFIL personnel -- the business's main market after Lebanon's economy collapsed in 2019.

Co-owner Khaled Nahra, 48, said the workshop had been running for some 25 years and had around a dozen employees, but would be forced to close when UNIFIL leaves.

"We've stayed in our village... this was the best thing about working with the UN," he said.

"There are people who've been working here for 15... 20 years. They're like me. They don't know what to do."