Chad's cabinet approved a 2027 budget that expands spending sharply and relies on a projected 52% jump in oil revenue plus larger foreign grants. Parliament is due to vote in late December, and the promised health spending, recruitment and road, water and energy investment depend on that money arriving.
Mali's prime minister's office says more than 40,000 people have been registered at the Guinean border after Guinea banned unregulated gold mining, and that thousands have reached the capital, Bamako. Burkina Faso says its citizens were among those forced out and is arranging buses home.
Nigeria's military says it is exploring diplomatic options with Sahel states that left the regional bloc ECOWAS, as it tries to strengthen the Lake Chad anti-jihadist force that Niger quit in 2025. The proposals being implemented remain unspecified, and the briefing announced no return by Niger.
Chad's state mediator has asked all sides to stop fighting around Miski, in the northern Tibesti province, from 7 November. The appeal seeks to preserve a 2025 peace accord after two earlier calls went unheeded, according to local reporting, which records no acceptance by the fighting groups.
Médecins Sans Frontières says it has sent a medical team to Macina, a town in central Mali's Ségou region, to support health services after new displaced families arrived this week. A site manager says many newcomers sleep outside without enough food, shelter or water, adding to pressure on a town whose reception capacity was already strained.
Thousands of Burkinabè, people from Burkina Faso, who worked in Guinea’s gold mines are heading home through Mali after Guinea banned unregulated mining in its north-east. Burkina Faso’s security minister, speaking in Mali’s capital Bamako, said some of his compatriots were wounded, some by gunfire; Guinea says it is targeting illegal mining, not nationalities.
Ethiopia has expelled six Sudanese consular staff and closed Sudan’s consulate in a western border city, AP and Reuters reported. Sudan accuses Ethiopia of letting drones that struck its power grid launch from Ethiopian soil; Ethiopia denies backing the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, and no reason for the expulsions was given.
Nigeria’s new diplomatic outreach raises the prospect of repairing security ties with the Republic of Niger. But returning to the Lake Chad force would not mean rebuilding cooperation from nothing—or making civilians safe overnight. Existing military contacts, missing capabilities and continuing refugee access show what formal reintegration could change, and what it could not.
In March, traders described moving Niger’s onions around a politically blocked border; an October cooperative account showed nearby markets still out of reach amid insecurity. Their experiences, alongside research on storage, reveal why restoring a trade route and preserving a grower’s ability to earn are different tasks.
Burkina Faso’s gold-driven revenue has not shrunk its 2026 deficit target: the IMF says stronger receipts are matched by higher spending, particularly public investment. Parliament’s budget papers list roads, buildings, vehicles and a city-surveillance programme, while the IMF says fuel and food prices remain a risk for households.
