Residents of a violence-torn province in northern Colombia are bracing for further bloodshed as a conflict between rival armed groups spread to a regional capital in scenes residents said they had not witnessed since the cartel unrest of the 1990s. 

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), accused of carrying out crimes against humanity as it fights the country’s army in a 20-month war, has signed a charter with allied political and armed groups to establish a “government of peace and unity”, its signatories said. 

The signing ceremony was held behind closed doors in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, but it was not immediately clear whether the document was signed late on Saturday or on Sunday. 

Ugandan opposition figure Kizza Besigye was charged with treason in an escalation of legal troubles stemming from allegations he plotted to remove the country’s long-time leader by force. 

Besigye, a four-time presidential candidate in the east African country, sat in a wheelchair as he faced the charges in a courtroom in the capital, Kampala. Treason carries the death penalty in Uganda. 

Thousands flooded the streets of Serbia’s capital in a noisy support rally for protesting university students and their monthslong struggle against corruption and for changes in the Balkan country. 

Belgrade residents organized in five columns from various parts of the city before marching to a key intersection where striking students have been holding their daily protest blockades for more than two months. 

A national committee to chart Niger’s future proposed that the junta-ruled country return to civilian administration in five years under new rules that strictly limit the number of political parties. The junta leader expressed his support for the plan. 

Ivory Coast officially took control of the last remaining French military base in the country as the majority of French forces departed from countries across West Africa. 

Some 80 French servicemen will continue to stay in the country to advise and train the Ivorian military, according to the French Minister of the Armed Forces, at a joint conference with Téné Birahima Ouattara, the Ivorian defense and state minister. 

Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy party took an initial step toward dissolving Thursday, in the latest sign of the Chinese territory’s narrowing space for civil society groups following Beijng’s crackdown on dissent. 

The Democratic Party’s central committee decided to set up a task force to look into the procedures involved in dissolving the party. A final decision would require approval of the party’s members. 

Former colonial powers must apologize and pay compensation for their historic role in the enslavement of Africans, Grenadian Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell told European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. 

Mitchell addressed von der Leyen late on Wednesday at the 48th heads of government meeting of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in Barbados, which the European leader attended for the first time. 

Hamas has handed over the bodies of an Israeli woman, her two young children, and an elderly man who were taken captive during the October 2023 attack on southern Israel. 

Hamas staged a public handover ceremony in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, displaying four coffins on a stage in front of a poster depicting the likeness of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with fangs and blood on his face.