Ahead of presidential and legislative elections in Rwanda, tense relations with Rwanda’s bigger neighbor, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), remain a deepening challenge for both countries and the broader region, say analysts. 

The U.S. and other western governments criticized a controversial security bill in South Sudan that would allow the government to detain people without warrants, saying it would undermine open political and civil space ahead of the country’s elections. 

The U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo will pause its withdrawal, with no timeline set for the next phase following the initial one in June, the government and mission said. 

Ukraine’s top prosecutor has called for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute Russia over a missile strike on a children’s hospital in Kyiv earlier this week. 

Gambia's parliament on July 15 rejected a bill that would have ended a ban on female genital mutilation (FGM), after lawmakers voted down all the clauses in the proposed law. 

Israel said it targeted Hamas’ shadowy military commander in a massive strike on July 13 in the crowded southern Gaza Strip that killed at least 90 people including children, according to local health officials.  

Taiwanese honor guards will no longer perform changing of the guard ceremonies around a giant statue of the island’s first president, Chiang Kai-shek, as part of a national effort to stop “worshiping authoritarianism.”. 

Ukraine has documented the deaths of nearly 300 civilians from mines left by Russia and is collecting evidence for the International Criminal Court (ICC), Kyiv's domestic security service said on July 12. 

Colombia's government has ended a ceasefire with some factions of the EMC rebels, led by commander Ivan Mordisco, who reject peace talks, the defense ministry said on July 16. 

The Estado Mayor Central (EMC) was formed by dissident former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) fighters who themselves reject a 2016 peace deal with the state. 

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has met Sudan’s armed forces chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan as regional and world powers seek an end to the conflict between the military and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).