The most important developments in sub-Saharan Africa. Six days a week.
Ethiopia closed its embassy in Asmara on 1 October and gave 10 Eritrean diplomats 48 hours to leave, citing "direct and indirect acts of hostility and belligerence". Eritrea rejected the charge and severed all diplomatic ties. Addis Ababa accuses Asmara of backing the alliance led by the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which has fought federal forces since 23 September, while Eritrea says Ethiopia arms Eritrean rebels and covets its Red Sea coast. The break reverses the 2018 peace deal and removes a direct channel between two armies facing each other across a heavily militarised border. Any clash there would turn Ethiopia's internal war into an interstate one.
Explosions were heard overnight in Addis Ababa on 1 October, diplomatic sources told Reuters, and a source in the rebel alliance claimed drone strikes on targets including the military headquarters. The national intelligence service has banned all drone flights over the capital indefinitely; the government did not comment. In the north, a medic told the BBC that at least 52 civilians died in three days of fighting around Alamata, while more than 700 wounded reached hospitals supported by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). The rebels were not previously known to use armed drones. Strikes on the capital would carry the war far beyond the northern front line.
Ethiopia is preparing to withdraw more than 3,000 soldiers from Somalia within days or weeks to reinforce its war against Tigrayan and other rebels, Bloomberg reported on 1 October. Somalia's defence ministry said it had not been told of any such plan. Ethiopian units serve in the Bay, Bakool, Gedo and Hiiraan regions, under the African Union mission and bilateral deals, and have helped defend Baidoa; Ethiopia made a similar pullout when the first Tigray war began in November 2020. A withdrawal would open gaps in areas where al-Shabaab remains active, while the Somali army also fights regional forces around Baidoa. Watch whether other African Union contributors fill them.
A drone strike on a University of Kordofan dormitory in El Obeid killed five people and wounded 47 on 1 October, the Sudan Doctors Network said, blaming the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The RSF did not comment. El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, shelters about 500,000 people, including more than 83,000 displaced, and has faced repeated drone attacks since June. The city is the army's main hub on the route linking Khartoum with Darfur, which makes it the RSF's chief target in Kordofan. Sustained attacks threaten the army's hold on that corridor and the aid deliveries that move along it.
School closures caused by insecurity in Mali keep rising: 2,444 of the country's 11,860 schools could not reopen when the school year began on 1 October. The closures, recorded by the education cluster led by the education ministry and partners, keep about 733,200 children out of class, against 1,300 closed schools in 2020 and 1,800 in 2024. Jihadist groups have forced schools shut, and teachers and families have fled attacks; in Kidal, 84% of schools are closed. President Assimi Goïta declared 2026–27 the "Year of Education and Culture". The figures show how far state services have retreated from the north and centre, where armed groups control most rural areas.
