Nigeria recorded the largest increase in terrorism deaths globally in 2025, with fatalities rising by 46% from 513 in 2024 to 750, placing it fourth in the Global Terrorism Index, behind Pakistan, Burkina Faso and Niger. Africa's most populous nation is grappling with a multifaceted security crisis as extremist groups such as Boko Haram and its offshoots attempt to carve out control of swathes of territory.
More than 6,000 people were killed in over three days when a Sudanese paramilitary group unleashed "a wave of intense violence shocking in its scale and brutality" in Sudan's Darfur region in late October, according to the United Nations. The Rapid Support Forces' offensive to capture the city of el-Fasher included widespread atrocities that amount to war crimes and possible crimes against humanity, the U.N. Human Rights Office said in a report released on Friday.
Sudan's military says it has broken through a siege by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group of the South Kordofan capital of Kadugli, marking its second major advance in less than a week. General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the de facto leader of the country, visited Sudan's public television station in the city of Omdurman on Tuesday to assert that his forces had opened a supply route to the capital.
The 39th African Union (AU) summit is set to be dominated by pressing security concerns across Africa, as the continent continues to face escalating conflicts. However, there are mounting questions on whether the pan-African body can actually deliver on peace and security strategies: A study conducted by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in 2023 revealed that a staggering 90% of the decisions made by the AU's Peace and Security Council (PSC) have not been implemented since the inception of the PSC in 2004.
Armed extremists attacked a pair of villages in western Nigeria overnight, a lawmaker and medics said on Wednesday, killing at least 162 people in one of the deadliest assaults of its kind in recent months. The attacks targeted the villages of Woro and Nuku in Kwara state, Mohammed Omar Bio, a member of parliament representing the area, told the Associated Press.