Clashes between the Ethiopian army and Tigrayan forces have led to hundreds of civilians crossing into neighboring Sudan, marking another serious threat to a 2022 peace agreement. Heavy artillery and drones were used during the fighting, which was concentrated in contested western Tigray. Both sides have been amassing troops in recent months and there has been a significant recruitment drive in Tigray, where regional authorities have forcibly conscripted civilians, including children, according to Human Rights Watch.

More than 10,000 civilians are reported displaced in South Sudan’s Central Equatoria state following clashes between government troops and Ugandan forces. The fighting marks a sharp escalation in a long-running border dispute. Talks are underway at the scene to try to resolve the conflict over the contested area in Kajo-Keji county, along the frontier with Uganda's West Nile region. (TNH, Radio Tamazuj)

The "Memorandum of Understanding" signed by Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is contingent on the cooperation of two entities not a party to it: Hezbollah and Israel—which continues to commit war crimes in Lebanon. The provisions on Iran's nuclear program do not even recoup the progress won in Obama's nuclear deal that Trump tore up in his first term. And Trump's claim when hostilities began back in February to be acting on behalf of Iranians who rose up in mass protests against the regime are now completely betrayed in a "non-interference" pledge. In Episode 334 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg continues to urge support for alternative voices that take a neither/nor position regarding MAGA-imperialism and the Islamic Republic, and again recalls the anarchist slogan: Neither your war nor your peace!

The United States and Iran have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that aims to end the war the US and Israel launched on Iran on Feb. 28. The 14-point agreement, signed by Donald Trump at a June 17 gathering hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron in the Palace of Versailles—where the treaty to end World War I was signed in 1919—opens up the Strait of Hormuz for a 60-day ceasefire window, during which the two sides have vowed to negotiate a long-term resolution to the Iranian nuclear standoff. The US will also terminate all sanctions against Iran, provide $300 billion for post-war reconstruction, and unlock all frozen Iranian funds and assets.

US President Donald Trump suggested June 16 that Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa could wipe out Hezbollah if Israel was unable to do so without causing heavy civilian casualties. The comment came in spite of repeated statements from Damascus ruling out any military intervention in neighboring Lebanon.

The head of the World Health Organization has appealed for a ceasefire in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Ituri province, where Ebola is rapidly spreading. Director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus' statement said even a temporary truce would allow health workers through and save lives. "I urge you, I implore you: give us the space to help the people who need it most," he said, addressing the armed factions active in the province. Out of nearly a thousand suspected Ebola cases in the DRC and Uganda, over 220 people may have died, with the WHO warning that the outbreak could potentially be much larger.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said May 28 that he had ordered the Israeli military to take over 70% of the territory of the Gaza Strip. "Let's start with that," he added. A day earlier, Minister of Defense Israel Katz said the government is planning for large numbers of Palestinians to leave the enclave "at the right time and in the right manner," which rights groups say amounts to ethnic cleansing.

While Pope Leo XIV's castigation of warmongers has so far failed to turn around the hawks in the current US administration, it has won Cameroonians a temporary reprieve from secessionist violence. To mark the pope's visit April 14, anglophone separatist groups said they would pause their fighting and allow the free movement of people. The pontiff may have stopped short of trying to mediate the nearly decade-long conflict in the majority French-speaking country, but he did urge President Paul Biya to root out corruption—and then lashed out at foreign exploitation of the continent. Leo also returned to his spiritual feud with the US administration. "Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth," he told a gathering at Saint Joseph Cathedral in the city of Bamenda. "They turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on killing and devastation, yet the resources needed for healing, education and restoration are nowhere to be found."