<p>Syria’s state agencies reported that its army entered the Kurdish-held city of Manbij, on the invitation of the Kurdish YPG to protect it from a threatened Turkish offensive.</p> <p>However US military officials and some locals have refuted the claim.</p> <p>The New York Times said the move came as Kurds felt “betrayed” by the United States’ decision to withdraw from Syria and that the “request amounted to a United States ally [Kurds] calling on an enemy of the United States [Syrian government] to protect it from another American ally, Turkey.”</p>

<p>French investigators have dropped charges against nine Rwandan officials, including former defense minister James Kabarebe, who were suspected of playing a role in the 1994 plane crash which killed President Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane alongside the French crew.&nbsp;</p> <p>The crash preceded the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi minority which saw an estimated 800,000 people killed.&nbsp;</p> <p>The investigation was dropped citing a lack of sufficient evidence.&nbsp;<br> Rwandan government officials have welcomed the closing of this investigation, which they assert was politically motivated.</p>

<p>Russia has sent over one dozen fighter jets to Belbek military base in the Ukrainian region of Crimea, which it has occupied since its annexation in 2014.&nbsp;</p> <p>Witnesses told Reuters that they had seen Su-27 and Su-30 fighter jets arrive in the air base on December 22.&nbsp;</p> <p>The United States, United Kingdom and Lithuania have offered military assistance to Ukraine against the onset of Russian advances.&nbsp;</p> <p>The US State Department offered to provide an additional US $10 million to support Ukraine’s navy, to protect against what they termed a “dangerous escalation”.&nbsp;</p>

<p>A former Serbian police chief and current official within the ruling Progressive Party, Goran Radosavljevic, has been banned from entering the United States due to allegations of human rights abuse.&nbsp;</p> <p>In a statement the US State Department announced that they were publicly designating Radosavljevic under Section 7031(c) of the FY 2018 Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Act.&nbsp;</p> <p>This maintains that those found to be involved in significant corruption or gross violations of human rights will not be eligible for entry into the US nor will their immediate family members.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Four imprisoned Catalan leaders who are currently on a hunger strike have sent letters to over 40 European heads of state, calling for their case be heard by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).&nbsp;</p> <p>The four leaders, Jordi Sànchez, Jordi Turull, Josep Rull and Joaquim Forn, alongside 14 other separatist activists face accusations of engaging in rebellion, sedition, disobedience, and the misuse of public funds.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Zimbabwe's post-election violence, following the victory of Emmerson Mnangagwa, which included the use of live bullets, has been criticised as "disproportionate and unjustified" by an investigation launched by the government.&nbsp;</p> <p>The investigation, headed by the former South African President, Kgalema Motlante noted the “deaths of these six people and injuries sustained by the 35 others arose from the actions of the military and the police”.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The Nigerian military has released a statement calling for the suspension of operations carried out by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in the North East of Nigeria, accusing the organisation of having terrorist sympathies.</p> <p>The statement was signed off by Onyema Nwachukwu, a colonel and deputy director public relations however, it remains&nbsp;unclear whether the military gained the permission of President Muhammadu Buhari before making this declaration.</p> <p>In its statement the military alleges UNICEF “train and deploy spies who support the insurgents and their sympathisers”.</p>

A statue of Mohandas K Gandhi has been removed from the Legon campus on the University of Ghana in Accra on Tuesday night. 

The statue was initially unveiled in 2016 with the presence of the former Indian President Pranab Mukherjee and was meant to symbolise the unity between the two nations however this move caused a significant backlash with the students and academics, who criticised Gandhi's racist views towards Africans, describing them as inferior and using the derogatory term “kaffir”. 

<p>The US Senate approved a resolution calling for an end to United States military support in the Saudi-UAE led campaign in Yemen.</p> <p>The final vote was 56-41 with seven Republicans defying their party by voting in support of the motion on Thursday.</p> <p>Speaking to <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/defying-trump-senate-approves-ye…">Al Jazeera</a>, a Republican Senator who sponsored the resolution said,</p>

<p>Chile announced this weekend it would be pulling out of the UN Migration Pact.&nbsp;</p> <p>The pact, whilst non-binding, offers guidance on how to protect migrants, help them integrate into society, and to help them return to their home countries when it no longer poses a risk.&nbsp;</p> <p>So far 150 nations have agreed to be signatories of the pact.&nbsp;</p>