The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group has approved over $31 million in funding under its African Climate Action Window (CAW) to strengthen climate resilience in Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Djibouti, and Madagascar.

The Climate Action Window of the Bank Group’s African Development Fund seeks to mobilize $4 billion by 2025 to provide rapid and coherent access to climate finance, support co-financing, and prioritize the most vulnerable countries, fragile states, and those affected by conflict. The African Development Fund is the concessional arm of the Bank Group.

The funding, approved in November and December 2024,  will support innovative projects that respond to the CAW’s first call for project proposals. Forty-one pioneering climate adaptation projects valued at $321.75 million have been selected in the initial funding wave, with a focus on tackling climate change, bolstering livelihoods of vulnerable communities, including women and youth, and enhancing climate information systems.

A delegation comprising representatives from the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, France, and the European Union arrived in Mekelle [Tuesday] to discuss the current situation in Tigray…The visit comes amid a deepening rift within the TPLF, particularly between factions led by Debretsion Gebremichael and Interim Administration President Getachew Reda, with tensions escalating since the TPLF’s 14th Congress. This internal split previously led to Debretsion’s group removing Getachew and others from their roles, while the interim administration under Getachew repeatedly accused Debretsion’s faction of attempting to “destabilize” the region through a “coup d’état.” Tensions have risen recently after some senior members of the Tigray military forces made an unprecedented announcement calling for the dissolution and restructuring of the region’s interim administration. They expressed support for one faction within the TPLF’s politic

Ahmed Maeleninine, an Omani-born leader of Islamic State, was killed in U.S. airstrikes against the terror group in Somalia earlier this month, officials of the Puntland region said Wednesday. Maeleninine was the main target of the Feb. 1 airstrike against Islamic State hideouts in the semi-autonomous region of northern Somalia. In an interview with VOA Somali, the Puntland state minister for presidency, Abdifitah Mohamed Abdinur, said Somalia and its international security partners had been watching Maeleninine’s movements in the region…The U.S. Africa Command confirmed late Tuesday that Maeleninine and 13 other operatives linked to the Islamic State were killed in the Feb. 1 operation, which it said was run in coordination with the Somali government. In a statement, AFRICOM described Maeleninine as a “recruiter, financier, and external operations leader responsible for the deployment of jihadists into the United States and across Europe.”…IS has increased its presence in Somalia over the past several years, while IS-Somalia has become a key cog in the IS financial network, funneling money to affiliates in Afghanistan and elsewhere in Africa. VOA

Sudan has said a final deal has been agreed with Russia to establish a naval base on the war-torn country’s Red Sea coast, saying there were “no obstacles” to it…Sudan’s Foreign Minister Ali Youssef said on Wednesday a deal had been signed and they were in “complete agreement” with Russia over the establishment of the port. He said what remained was only the ratification of the deal. The US, China and France already have a naval presence in the seas off the Horn of Africa – a key strategic and trading route…The port agreement, which was to last for 25 years, had been for Russia to establish a naval logistics hub, with warships including nuclear-powered vessels, and up to 300 personnel. The Red Sea provides a strategic route that is vital to global commerce as well as a defence and geopolitical hotspot. Russian interests in Port Sudan are said to have grown amid fears of losing its military assets in Syria. The new government in Syria last month terminated a treaty granting Russia a long-term lease for a port where Russia has had its only foreign naval base. BBC