Wednesday 29 January 2025

M23 rebels solidify control of Goma, North Kivu Province, and are confirmed to be holding captured Congolese troops and allied Wazalendo militants at the Stade de l'Unité. They also begin advancing on Bukavu, capital of the South Kivu Province, according to senior Congolese officials and a Rwandan diplomat.

In an emergency address to the nation, Congolese president Félix Tshisekedi calls for calm and says "a vigorous and coordinated response against these terrorists and their sponsors is underway" by the armed forces, and also cancels participation in a regional summit with Rwandan president Paul Kagame.

Around 280 Romanian mercenaries fighting alongside the Congolese military in North Kivu surrender to the M23, according to the Rwandan military. They are now being transported to Kigali after being handed over to Rwandan authorities.

U.S. Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff visits the Gaza Strip and meets with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to assure that the ceasefire remains intact.

Russian forces capture the city of Chasiv Yar in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, after a year of intense fighting for control of the front line city.

Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger formally withdraw from the ECOWAS regional bloc.

Ahmed al-Sharaa is declared the president of Syria during the transition period, a month after Bashar al-Assad was ousted by rebel forces.

President Trump announces plans to transform the United States detention facility in Cuba's Guantánamo Bay into a holding center for undocumented immigrants, capable of hosting 30,000 people.

Former U.S. Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey is sentenced to 11 years in prison, following his conviction on bribery and corruption charges.

Police in Stuttgart, Germany, arrest 59 French fans of the Paris Saint-Germain football club for hooliganism before a match against German club VfB Stuttgart.

A PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ-700 operating as American Eagle Flight 5342 collides with a U.S. Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk over the Potomac River near Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., United States, killing 67 people between both aircraft and causing a shutdown of flights in and out of the airport, leaving no survivors.

Thirteen artisanal miners, including three children, are killed when a tunnel at a gold mine floods after a reservoir spill in Kangaba, Koulikoro, Mali.

A Venezuelan Ministry of Interior, Justice and Peace Cessna Citation II aircraft crashes shortly after takeoff from Generalissimo Francisco de Miranda Air Base in Caracas, Venezuela, killing all three people on board.

At least 30 people are killed in a crowd crush at a Hindu festival in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India.

Five people, four from Norway and one from Switzerland, are killed in two separate avalanches while off-piste skiing in the French Alps.