Clashes in al-Wazi’iyah reflect a power struggle between Tareq Affash’s militia forces and local tribes over control and influence in a strategically important area, amid wider regional tensions involving the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

The remote Benishangul-Gumuz region in western Ethiopia has quietly become a strategic UAE-backed base training thousands of fighters for Sudan’s RSF militias, with logistics, equipment, and instructors flowing directly from Abu Dhabi.

Al-Estiklal tracks the cyber war between Egypt and the UAE, revealing the Emirati funding of online committees and how Cairo-Abu Dhabi tensions exposed efforts to sabotage Egypt’s revolution.

In a move aimed at reshuffling the executive branch and offering a glimmer of hope to a crisis-weary public, PLC Chairman Rashad al-Alimi issued Republican Decree No. 3 of 2026, forming a new government headed by Shaea al-Zandani, who will also retain the foreign affairs portfolio.

Riyadh is no longer willing to position itself within “Israel’s” camp or play a subordinate role in regional arrangements, instead seeking to act as an independent power able to maneuver and impose its own terms.