The Irish nationalist party, Sinn Féin made substantial gains in Northern Ireland's snap election this week, leaving the pro-union DUP with only a one seat advantage. 

In elections which saw the highest voter turn out since the initial, elections after the 1998 Good Friday agreement, Sinn Fein won 27 of the 90 seats, whilst DUP won 28. 

Previously the DUP had a 10 seat advantage over Sinn Féin. 

The elections were called after the power sharing agreement fell apart last month. Sinn Féin and DUP have three weeks to form a government to avoid direct rule from Westminster. 
 

The massacre committed in 2014 against the village of Mutarule, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has been acknowledged to be a crime against humanity.

However, none of the defendants were convicted for crimes against humanity.

Two senior military leaders resigned this week accusing the South Sudanese president of war crimes, genocidal acts and ethnic cleansing against those not from the Dinka group. 

"Your regime committed sundry war crimes... genocidal acts and ethnic cleansing," Brigadier General Henry Oyay Nyago wrote in his resignation letter, which details specific crimes and atrocities committed. 

"I cannot continue to be silent or taciturn when you are finishing and slaughtering the innocent people of South Sudan," he went on to add. 

Bosnia will appeal a seven-year-old UN court ruling that cleared Serbia of genocide charges.

Although the 2007 judgment by the International Court of Justice concluded that genocide had taken place in Srebrenica in 1995, when around 8000 Muslims were massacred by Bosnian Serbs, the court did not find Serbia directly responsible.

The Muslim Bosniak member of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency, Bakir Izetbegovic, announced that the appeal request would be submitted before next week’s deadline, despite lack of consent from his Croat and Serb presidential counterparts.

An Israeli government spokesperson has confirmed that German Chancellor Angela Merkel cancelled a joint summit with the government of Israel, with reports that it was partly due to Israel’s new law to seize private Palestinian lands.

The official reasoning given for the cancellation was the scheduling constraints due to Germany’s elections in September. However, sources say that there was great dismay against Israel’s new law and that the German government has initiated a number of public and diplomatic steps to express their disapproval of the legislation.

A UN report issued on Friday stated that the widespread human rights violations perpetrated by Myanmar’s security forces against the Rohingya population is likely to constitute crimes against humanity.

The report released by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights was based on interviews with those who fled Myanmar in early October. According to the UN News Centre, the report documented “mass gang-rape, killings, including of babies and young children, brutal beatings, disappearances and other serious human rights violations by the country's security forces.”

An Israeli MP who was due to be arrested over war crimes allegations in Belgium has cancelled her trip to the country, citing health reasons.

Belgium’s federal prosecutor confirmed the prosecution’s intention to arrest Tzipi Livni, a former foreign minister, over allegations filed in 2010 concerning possible war crimes committed during Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip in December 2008 and January 2009.

The Israeli foreign ministry rejected the “cynical abuse of the Belgian legal system to advance a political agenda,” a ministry spokesperson said.

The Gambia's defeated president has agreed to step down from office and leave the country after over 12 hours of diplomatic talks. 

The defeated president, Yahya Jammeh, who was in power for 22 years, appeared on state TV after the talks. 

“I believe in the importance of dialogue. I have decided today in good conscience to relinquish the mantle of this great nation,” he said.

“All the issues we currently face can be resolved peacefully. I believe in the capacity of Africans to decide for themselves all the issues on the way to democracy, social and economic development."

Gambian army chief, General Ousman Badjie on Friday told Reuters that he recognised the newly elected Adama Barrow as the country's official president and new commander-in-chief. 

General Badjie told the news wire that the army would not step in to fight against a regional force that was preparing itself to overthrow President Yahya Jammeh, who has vowed to hold onto the power, rejecting the recent electoral result. 

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said this the Nigerian air force killed at least 52 people in an air strike on a refugee camp. 

The air strike was intended to target Boko Haram fighters, the Nigerian air force said. 

"At least 52 people were killed and 120 wounded," Tim Shenk, a spokesperson for MSF told Reuters. 

"The organisation's medical and surgical teams in the region are preparing to treat evacuated patients," Mr Shank added.

A spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross said that six of its workers were killed and 13 wounded.