Armed anti-government fighters advanced after launching an attack in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, local and security sources said Monday.
The front lines have remained relatively stable since the signing of a US-brokered peace agreement between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda in December.
Washington imposed sanctions on the Rwandan Ministry of Defense and a financial institution in this Central African country, against the backdrop of their supposed ties to the M23 armed movement fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The M23 movement, which changed its name last month to the “Front for the Reconstruction of the Nation,” has controlled large areas of eastern Democratic Congo, which is rich in precious metals, since resuming arms in 2021.
The rebels in the east of the country, who aim to overthrow the Congolese government, appointed former President Joseph Kabila as their leader.
On Friday evening, the “Front for the Reconstruction of the Nation” launched an attack in South Kivu Province, and advanced about 50 kilometers along a main road northwest towards the strategic town of Walikale, without reaching it, according to local and security sources.
The army spokesman in the region, Major Dieudonné Kasirika, told Agence France-Presse on Monday that the town of Kambale, located several kilometers from Bunyakiri, is “under enemy control.”
A civil society representative told the French Agency, requesting that his identity not be revealed, that “a large portion of the population remained in their homes,” while many fled to areas under government control.
Walikale, located about 140 kilometers from Bunyakiri, is a strategic crossroads leading to the west of the country, and one of the main bases of the Congolese army in North Kivu province.
At least 39 people died when a boat carrying migrants sank off the coast of Senegal, according to an updated toll announced by local authorities. This toll is one of the heaviest in terms of irregular migration in Senegal in recent years.
Nadia Nguinar Ambudj, the governor of the Louga region, located in northwestern Senegal, announced in a press conference that 4 additional bodies had been found on Monday morning, raising the death toll from 35 to 39 dead. She said: “23 bodies have been identified and delivered to their families.” The regional governor made these statements during an inspection visit conducted by Senegalese Interior Minister Mohamed Mokhtar Cisse.
For years, thousands of West Africans, most of them young men, have been trying to reach Europe irregularly across the Atlantic Ocean, especially through the Canary Islands archipelago, with boats overloaded and often dilapidated. Thousands of people have died or gone missing in recent years while trying to migrate to Europe by these means, and the recent tightening of maritime controls by Senegal, Mauritania and Morocco has prompted migration boats heading to the Spanish Canary Islands to set off from locations further south, on the coasts of Gambia, Guinea Bissau and Guinea. How long these dangerous journeys have taken.
The African National Congress is witnessing a growing decline in its popularity and political influence in South Africa, with its loss of more seats in local elections, in a path that reflects profound transformations in the political scene, and the erosion of the party’s legacy that led the country to end the apartheid regime.
Experts in African affairs who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat confirm that the political scene is heading towards a new formation of coalitions, necessitating the ruling party to return its papers before any new electoral entitlements.
The official South African news agency reported that “the Electoral Commission will announce the results of the 2026 local elections” on Sunday evening.
Preliminary results showed, on Friday, that the African National Congress (ANC) is heading towards incurring heavy losses in the municipal elections, according to what Reuters reported, which paves the way for political battles to form multi-party coalitions with the aim of controlling Johannesburg and other major cities.
This potential trend comes especially since, with 81 percent of the votes counted, the African National Congress Party obtained 32 percent of the votes, compared to 25 percent for its main competitor, the Democratic Alliance (DA), according to what was reported by Reuters.
Reuters reported that if these results continue, the party that has dominated the political scene in South Africa since the end of the apartheid regime will have lost about 14 percentage points compared to the results of the 2021 municipal elections, which at that time was the worst local result ever recorded by the party.
It quoted South African political analyst Ralph Mathekga as saying, “The most direct path for the Democratic Alliance Party to form stable governments may be to conclude agreements with the African National Congress (ANC), its partner in the national government.” But he warned that “such a move could alienate voters who have just punished the ANC,” according to the agency.
Hussein Al-Behairi, an African affairs expert at the National Center for Middle East Studies, explained that “these results reflect a decline in the former ruling party after it lost its luster with the death of its founder, Nelson Mandela, a symbol of liberation from colonialism and the elimination of apartheid policies since 1994, and the inability of the current leaders of this party to maintain the popular bases that support the party,” according to his opinion.
He believes that these results reflect a “punitive vote,” and he attributed this to “the inability of the ruling party to solve the worsening economic problems in the country during the recent period, which contributed to the voters’ tendency to vote in favor of the opposition parties that offer economic alternatives through which they can improve the economic conditions and then improve the social and living conditions that witnessed a decline due to the previous inability of the ruling party to solve these problems.”
Sudanese analyst specializing in African affairs, Muhammad Shams al-Din, believes that “the opposition’s continued progress reflects a radical and profound shift in the general popular mood in South Africa,” pointing out that “the African National Congress Party relied on its historical balance as a national liberation movement to ensure the loyalty of voters, but this balance is no longer sufficient today to guarantee the electoral mandate, in light of South Africa’s suffering from record unemployment rates.”
It is believed that the advance of classic opposition parties such as the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the rise of new forces such as the MKP party is a realistic referendum and not just a temporary punitive vote. It is also considered a strategic repositioning of the South African voter towards political options that promise accountability, efficiency, and breaking the monopoly of power.
Before announcing the results, the leader of the Democratic Alliance Party, Jordyn Hill-Lewis, said that his party had already begun communicating with potential partners to form coalitions, adding: “We will deal during the next few weeks with respect for the mandates that these parties obtained from their voters, and with a degree of humility, with a commitment to seeking to form local governments that ensure the effective functioning of work in those cities and towns.”
Al-Behairi believes that the ruling party is now required to present alternatives and projects that do not depend solely on the historical legacy, but rather depend on improving the economic conditions within the country, and thus preserving the voting bloc that the party has always relied on to remain at the helm of power.
He explains that these results are a direct message from voters to the ruling party about “the necessity of changing its policies, rethinking its electoral program, and relying on its actual ability to move in the streets in South Africa to regain the confidence of its popular bases again, to overcome any failures in the upcoming electoral elections.”
Regarding the future, Shams al-Din believes that “the declining performance indicators of the African National Congress Party indicate that what South Africa is witnessing is the beginning of a long-term, structural political transformation and not a temporary electoral stumble that is easy to contain,” pointing out that the country has actually entered the era of “coalition politics” and the establishment of national unity governments.
