Authorities in Peru Feb. 4 announced the declaration of a no-fly zone over the conflicted coca-producing region known as the VRAEM, for the Valley of the Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro rivers, in the country's southeast jungles. The head of Peru's anti-drug agency DEVIDA, Alberto Otarola (a former defense minister), spoke in blunt terms at a Lima press conference: "Any flight that is not reported to the aviation authority will be considered hostile and illegal. Peru must exercise the full sovereignty and jurisdiction of its airspace."

Colombia's humanitarian situation remains severe in spite of ongoing peace talks with the FARC, the United Nations said in a report released Feb. 12. Raising concern over illegal armed groups not incuded in the dialogue, it found that the grim situation is likely to persist even if a peace deal is struck in the talks. The report, entitled "The Humanitarian Dimension in the Aftermath of a Peace Agreement: proposals for the international community in Colombia," was commissioned by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and supported by the Norwegian Centre for Peace-building (NOREF). At least 347,286 people were displaced in Colombia between November 2012, when the talks began, and September 2014, the report found. Nearly half of these displacements (48%) resulted from FARC or ELN actions, with 19% blamed on neo-paramilitary groups. The report also found that 62 social leaders and human rights defenders were killed in Colombia in 2014.

Hundreds of indigenous and Afro-Colombian protesters from La Toma, Suárez municipality, in Colombia's southwest Cauca region, marched over the weekend against illegal gold mining taking place in their territories. The communities, angry about environmental damage caused by the activity, said they had received threats from the Rastrojos paramilitary group for their opposition to the mining. The three-day cross-country march along the Pan-American Highway culminated Feb. 16 at Buenos Aires, in northern Cauca.

Protesters led by the Party of Labor and the People (PTP) held a march Feb. 13 at Bajada del Agrio, in Argentina's Neuquén province, to oppose plans for a spaceport to be built in cooperation with China. The PTP's Popular Front issued a statement accusing national and provincial authorities of "deepening the dependence of our country on Chinese imperialism." It said the deal would establish a "foreign enclave" and constitute a "cession of Argentine sovereignty." Protesters marched to the construction site at Quintuco, where the base is to be operated by China Satellite Launch and Tracking Control General (CLTC), an agency closely linked to the People's Liberation Army. (ImNequen.com, Neuquén Al Instante, Feb. 13)

Sudanese army forces raped more than 200 women and girls in an organized attack on the north Darfur town of Tabit in October, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Feb. 11. The report, "Mass Rape in Darfur: Sudanese Army Attacks Against Civilians in Tabit," documents army attacks in which at least 221 women and girls were raped in Tabit over 36 hours beginning on Oct. 30. "The deliberate attack on Tabit and the mass rape of the town's women and girls is a new low in the catalog of atrocities in Darfur," said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "The Sudanese government should stop the denials and immediately give peacekeepers and international investigators access to Tabit."

Claims of an active Libyan branch of the ISIS franchise are given grim credence by photos circulating on social media purporting to show abducted Coptic Christians in the charactersitic pose of ISIS captives—kneeling in orange jump-suits as black-clad masked me stand over them menacingly. Text says they will be punished (presumably executed) as "revenge for the Muslims persecuted by the Coptic Crusaders of Egypt." A total of 21 Copts, all migrant laborers from Egypt, were abducted in the Libyan city of Sirte on in two incidents Dec. 31 and Jan. 3. Egypt's Foreign Ministry is investigating the authenticity of the photos, and has organized an emergency evacuation of Egyptian nationals from Libya. The anti-terrorist Quilliam Foundation is meanwhile claiming that ISIS has seized control of a radio station in Sirte. (Al Arabiya, Newsweek, Feb. 13; Egyptian Streets, Feb. 12)

Two have been killed by National Police and army troops in militant protests against the operations of PlusPetrol at Pichanaki, on the edge of the Amazon rainforest in Chanchamayo province of Peru's Junín region. In an action organized by the Environmental Defense Front of Pichanaki, some 500 campesinos and indigenous Asháninka and Nomatsiguenga warriors blocked access roads on Feb. 9 and two days later invaded a military base established to protect the PlusPetrol operations at Lot 108. The protesters are demanding the ouster of PlusPetrol and SIMSA mining company from the territory, saying their demands for dialogue over ecological damage have for years been rebuffed. On Feb. 12, the government finally did agree to send a delegation to meet with the protesters, headed by Justice Minister Daniel Figallo and Energy and Mines Minister Eleodoro Mayorga. The protesters have relaxed their blockades while the talks are underway. (Andina, Feb. 13; TeleSUR, Radio Azul, Puno, Feb. 12; La Republica, El Comercio, Feb. 11; La Republica, Feb. 9) 

The brutal Boko Haram rebels are gaining ground at a frightening pace in northwest Nigeria, even mounting a bloody attack this week on the region's major city, Maiduguri. Reports are mounting that the extremist movement is funding its insurgency by exploiting Nigeria's strategic place as a crossroads of the global narco-traffick. BBC News on Jan. 25 asked "How have Nigeria's militants become so strong?" It cited the findings of the International Crisis Group that Boko Haram "has forged ties with arms smugglers in the lawless parts of the vast Sahel region." Plenty of its arms (including tanks and armored vehicles) have been plundered from the Nigerian army itself. But plenty more are thought to have come from Libya, where arms depots were looted when Moammar Qaddafi's regime was overthrown in 2011. Trafficking networks have been moving that plundered war material across the Sahel and Sahara, integrating the traffick into routes already established for moving drugs and other contraband between West Africa, Europe and Asia.