Estelle Shirbon

Jan 27, 2025 | businesslive.co.za | David Lewis |Estelle Shirbon

Goma — Rwandan-backed rebels marched into Democratic Republic of Congo’s largest eastern city, Goma, on Monday and troops from the East African neighbours exchanged fire over the border in the worst escalation of the long-running conflict for more than a decade. The rebel alliance, spearheaded by the ethnic Tutsi-led M23 militia, said it had captured the lakeside city of more than 1-million people, which lies on the border with Rwanda and was also briefly occupied by M23 in 2012.

Jan 15, 2025 | the-tls.co.uk | Estelle Shirbon |Caroline Moorehead |Thomas de Waal |Heather White

In early 1982 Ethiopia’s socialist military regime, the Derg, launched an offensive against Eritrean insurgents fighting for independence in what was then a northern province of Ethiopia. The Red Star campaign, as it was called, involved months of all-out military assaults on the rebels’ stronghold at Nakfa, in Eritrea’s arid Sahel mountains, and a propaganda blitz glorifying Ethiopia’s socialist revolution and vilifying the insurgents as imperialist stooges.

Jan 15, 2025 | the-tls.co.uk | Thomas de Waal |Estelle Shirbon |Caroline Moorehead |Heather White

People and Trees is a pastoral set in Soviet Azerbaijan in the 1940s. If that sounds dull, then do not be deceived: Akram Aylisli’s novel is anything but. Aylisli, who recently turned eighty-seven, is best known for Stone Dreams (2012; 2022 in English), a novel that challenged his country’s ethno-nationalist orthodoxy concerning its conflict with Armenia.

Jul 10, 2024 | sightmagazine.com.au | Inti Landauro |Estelle Shirbon |David Adams

Paris, FranceReutersThe spire of the gothic cathedral of the French city of Rouen in Normandy caught fire on Thursday during renovation works, television images showed. The cathedral, one of France’s finest, was painted several times by impressionist artist Claude Monet in the 19th century. Television images on BFM channel showed a dark plume of smoke rising from the spire and people in the streets below looking up in horror.

Jul 9, 2024 | reuters.com | Estelle Shirbon |Tassilo Hummel

France in political limbo as Paris Olympics loom Left-wing NFP came first in parliamentary election Leaders say they want to fully implement their plans Centrists say that is unrealistic without majority Socialist leader rejects idea of breaking up NFP PARIS, July 9 (Reuters) - French political leaders from the left-wing bloc that came first in Sunday's legislative election said they intended to govern according to their high-spending programme, but centrists said they should play a role as...