Protest organizers in Sudan's capital Khartoum announced two days of strikes and civil disobedience after security forces used gunfire and teargas on Monday to disperse demonstrations. The violence was against a coup and medics said seven people had been killed. The toll marked one of the bloodiest days since pro-democracy groups began a campaign of anti-military protests following the October  25 coup, and threatened to deepen the gulf between military leaders and a large protest movement. 

South Africa has bid farewell to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the last great hero of the struggle against apartheid. The requiem mass was held on January 1 at Cape Town’s St George’s Cathedral where, for years, Tutu used the pulpit to rail against a brutal white minority regime. Tutu died last Sunday aged 90, triggering grief among South Africans and tributes from world leaders.

Tigrayan forces fighting the central government have withdrawn from neighboring regions in Ethiopia's north, a Tigrayan spokesman Getachew Reda said, a step towards a possible ceasefire after major territorial gains by the Ethiopian military. 

On Twitter, Getachew added that the Tigray People's Liberation Front hoped the pullout would induce the international community to put pressure on the governments of Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea, allies in the conflict, to cease military operations in Tigray. 

The United Nations Human Rights Council has voted to launch an international investigation into abuses in Ethiopia’s 13-month conflict amid warnings of looming “generalized violence.”

The resolution, brought by the European Union and backed by Western states, passed despite objections from Ethiopia’s government, which accused the UN body of being used as an “instrument of political pressure” and pledged not to cooperate.