Follow our latest reporting and browse earlier stories from the Sahel.
A local emergency group in Sudan alleged that Rapid Support Forces fighters shut satellite internet and took civilians at gunpoint towards an area of fighting in West Kordofan. The account, reported on Sunday, puts civilian movement and access to communications alongside army-allied claims of fresh clashes; the coercion allegations remain independently unverified.
Burkina Faso's higher education minister has told students who complained of overcrowded campuses that if the country does not suit them they should go back where they came from. RFI reported the remarks on Sunday, as the government pushes young people to study at home rather than abroad.
Chad’s president suspended a regional army commander on Saturday, saying earlier orders to disarm two communities in a water-and-pasture dispute had gone unenforced. Local administrators were removed and a force attached to the presidency was ordered to disarm civilians, putting the state’s capacity to prevent armed confrontation under scrutiny.
In Sudan, therapeutic milk for malnourished children is free at a Port Sudan hospital, but fluids and medicines remain costly, a counsellor told Al Jazeera. The account exposes a treatment barrier alongside a nationwide care gap: by August, only about a quarter of children needing treatment for severe malnutrition with complications had received it.
Mauritania’s prime minister promised on Saturday to revise fuel pricing with state support, add meat to existing food-price caps and temporarily pay part of low-income households’ water and electricity bills. The programme combines broader price controls with targeted household help, but the scale and start date of the new support remain unspecified.
Mali received a convoy of 665 fuel tankers in Bamako on Saturday, according to a state agency cited by Malijet. Officials counted the vehicles on arrival, with police escorts to filling stations due after customs formalities; the reported arrival is a supply step, not evidence that fuel has reached pumps or queues have eased.
Chad’s health ministry said on Saturday it had received 9,050 rapid dengue tests donated by the World Bank and would send them to health facilities immediately. The supplies add to the response as cases rise, particularly in N’Djamena, while the ministry repeats its promise of free diagnosis and treatment in public facilities.
Sudan’s UN migration agency says its warehouses are empty after its last stocked trucks reached Darfur. The warning exposes a supply crisis even as access improves: millions needing shelter, including families returning to damaged homes, face winter without adequate supplies while agencies struggle to replenish a shared relief pipeline.
Mali’s cabinet has approved a draft decree authorising CFA125 billion in emergency spending credits for hospital construction, priority projects and personnel costs. The measure uses advance-budget powers requiring parliamentary scrutiny, as the country expands a hospital programme and raises security spending; the source of the additional financing remains unspecified.
Chad’s senators have challenged whether the government’s promise of free dengue treatment has reached hospitals and clinics with instructions and resources. The health minister defended the official death toll and acknowledged gaps in counting deaths outside facilities, leaving an important question over how the pledge is being implemented.
Senegal’s foreign minister visited Niger with a message for its military leader and a plea to keep goods and people moving across West Africa’s institutional divide. The contact keeps a channel open between ECOWAS and the Sahel alliance, but announced no agreement changing the terms of trade or travel.
Mali’s leader carried a personal message from Vladimir Putin to allies in Niger and Burkina Faso, RFI reports, citing sources close to the meetings. The account describes Russia’s continuing security role while Niger’s leader was said to have reassured his allies that rapprochement with Algeria was not directed against their confederation.
Chad's cabinet approved a 2027 budget that expands spending sharply and relies on a projected 52% jump in oil revenue plus larger foreign grants. Parliament is due to vote in late December, and the promised health spending, recruitment and road, water and energy investment depend on that money arriving.
Mali's prime minister's office says more than 40,000 people have been registered at the Guinean border after Guinea banned unregulated gold mining, and that thousands have reached the capital, Bamako. Burkina Faso says its citizens were among those forced out and is arranging buses home.
Nigeria's military says it is exploring diplomatic options with Sahel states that left the regional bloc ECOWAS, as it tries to strengthen the Lake Chad anti-jihadist force that Niger quit in 2025. The proposals being implemented remain unspecified, and the briefing announced no return by Niger.
Chad's state mediator has asked all sides to stop fighting around Miski, in the northern Tibesti province, from 7 November. The appeal seeks to preserve a 2025 peace accord after two earlier calls went unheeded, according to local reporting, which records no acceptance by the fighting groups.
Médecins Sans Frontières says it has sent a medical team to Macina, a town in central Mali's Ségou region, to support health services after new displaced families arrived this week. A site manager says many newcomers sleep outside without enough food, shelter or water, adding to pressure on a town whose reception capacity was already strained.
Thousands of Burkinabè, people from Burkina Faso, who worked in Guinea’s gold mines are heading home through Mali after Guinea banned unregulated mining in its north-east. Burkina Faso’s security minister, speaking in Mali’s capital Bamako, said some of his compatriots were wounded, some by gunfire; Guinea says it is targeting illegal mining, not nationalities.
Ethiopia has expelled six Sudanese consular staff and closed Sudan’s consulate in a western border city, AP and Reuters reported. Sudan accuses Ethiopia of letting drones that struck its power grid launch from Ethiopian soil; Ethiopia denies backing the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, and no reason for the expulsions was given.
Mauritania’s cabinet approved implementing rules for its new public-procurement law that would create a regulator and require procurement officials to declare their assets and interests. The government says the rules aim to cut corruption risks, speed up state contracts and widen access for Mauritanian companies.
Sudan’s top UN official says hundreds of aid trucks cannot move for lack of fuel, even though permits for aid workers have improved. She links the shortage to drone strikes on power and fuel sites that have also cut hospital electricity, while Sudan’s energy minister says national fuel supplies are sufficient.
Human Rights Watch says al-Qaeda-linked JNIM killed at least 24 civilians at a gold-mining site in northern Burkina Faso in September. JNIM admits attacking the site but says the dead were government-allied militia, while witnesses told the rights group that no soldiers or militia were there.
Mauritania’s energy ministry has signed production-sharing contracts with US company Murphy Oil for two offshore blocks, C10 and Tiof. The ministry says they will help restart offshore exploration; they are exploration and production contracts, not an announcement of new output, as Mauritania also pursues gas projects with Senegal and a new gas-fired power plant.
Chad, the Central African Republic and the UN refugee agency opened talks in N’Djamena on 3 November to prepare voluntary returns of Central African refugees. Chad, which hosts more than 140,000 of them, says no one will be forced to leave and those choosing to stay will retain protection and assistance.
