An Iraqi military official on Jan. 15 denied reports of a deployment of more US troops to the country, asserting that Baghdad does not need foreign forces. CBS News reported the previous day that 1,500 troops from the New Jersey National Guard are being sent to Iraq and Syria to join the US-led coalition established to fight ISIS. This would constitute the largest reserve deployment out of New Jersey since 2008. CBS cited the state's Gov. Phil Murphy as saying the troops were being mobilized for Operation Inherent Resolve. But the report was refuted by Maj. Gen. Tahsin al-Khafaji, the head of Iraq's Security Media Cell—a body that officially cooperates with the US-led coalition to counter online disinformation.

The Colombian Ombudsman's Office (Defensoría del Pueblo de Colombia, DPC) reported Jan. 9 that 181 social leaders and human rights defenders were murdered in 2023. The DPC, in its "Annual report on the killings of social leaders and human rights defenders," counted 160 men and 21 women among the victims. The ombudsman, Carlos Camargo Assis, stated: "It is an unacceptable situation that every two days last year, on average, a social leader or human rights defender was murdered in Colombia. Every life lost is a tragedy for their families, for the communities, and for the defense of fundamental rights in the country."

The Iraqi government condemned air-strikes by the US military on its territory as "hostile acts" after the Pentagon said it hit sites used by Iran-backed forces. The strikes killed one member of the Iraqi security forces and wounded 18 people, including civilians, Baghdad said Dec. 26, calling the raids an "unacceptable attack on Iraqi sovereignty." Washington said the strikes targeted three sites used by Kataib Hezbollah, part of the network of Shi'ite militias in Iraq, in retaliation for a drone attack the day before on Erbil airbase that wounded three US service members, one of them critically,. (Al Jazeera)

Former Russian military intelligence officer Igor Salikov arrived in the Netherlands this week to testify as a witness at the International Criminal Court (ICC) regarding Russian war crimes. Salikov took part in operations in Eastern Ukraine as an officer of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (commonly kown as the Main Intelligence Directorate, GRU) between 2014 and 2015. In 2017, he served as a senior instructor for the private military company Wagner in Syria. In 2022, he was a commander in the private military company Redut during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Regional NGO alliance the People's Coalition for the Sahel is demanding the immediate return alive of human rights defender Daouda Diallo, secretary general of Burkina Faso's Collective Against Impunity & Stigmatization of Communities (CISC). The CISC announced Dec. 3 that shortly after Diallo left the passport office in Ouagadougou that afternoon, he was abducted by at least four unidentified men in civilian clothes. Diallo's CISC has been riasing the alarm about ethnically targeted killings in Burkina Faso under the military regimes that have been in power since a January 2022 coup.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change, Ian Fry, called Nov. 15 for the disbandment of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), which he called a "counter-insurgency force" in the Philippines.

Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are ousting the army from military bases across the western Darfur region, leading to fears the country will be split in a similar way to neighboring Libya, which is ruled by rival governments. Even as the RSF has engaged in talks with the army in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah, the group has launched attacks on the capitals of three of Darfur's five states, leading to mass displacement and large civilian casualties. Last month, it took full control over Nyala and Zalingei (the capitals of South Darfur and Central Darfur), while last week it seized the main army base in West Darfur's El Geneina. Over 1,000 people from the Masalit ethnic group were reportedly killed by RSF and allied militia fighters during the West Darfur takeover, which may amount to the worst civilian atrocity since Sudan's current war erupted on April 15. RSF leaders are now threatening to seize El Fasher in North Darfur, which has been a safe haven in recent months, and has attracted hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) indigenous rebel group in southern Mexico has announced the dissolution of its "autonomous municipalities" in the mountains and jungle of Chiapas state. A statement signed by Zapatista leader Subcomandante Moisés said the decision was taken "after a long and profound critical and self-critical analysis." The Zapatista Rebel Autonomous Municipalities (MAREZ), overseen by rotating Good Government Juntas, have been maintained since the Zapatistas' initial uprising in 1994. Moisés said that future communiques "will describe the reasons and the processes involved in taking this decision," as well as "what the new structure of Zapatista autonomy will look like." The communique did, however, mention a new pressure in the growing power of "disorganized crime cartels" in Chiapas, a reference to the narco-gangs seeking to control "the entire border strip with Guatemala." (AP, Mexico New Daily)