2025

By Karam al-Masri

LATAKIA, Syria Dec 28 – Three people were killed on Sunday when protests in Syria’s Alawite heartland of Latakia spiralled into gunfire and other violence, according to the province’s media office. 

Syria has been rocked by several episodes of sectarian bloodshed since longtime leader Bashar al-Assad, who hails from the Muslim Alawite minority, was ousted by a rebel offensive last year and replaced by a Sunni-led government.

Thousands of Alawite protesters gathered on Sunday in Azhari Square in Latakia city to demand a decentralized political system in Syria and the release of thousands of Alawite prisoners. 

About two hours into the protest, gunshots rang out from an unidentified location, according to a Reuters reporter at the scene. Security forces then fired in the air and the protest descended into chaos, with demonstrators carrying wounded people away on foot. 

A written statement from the Latakia province’s media office that was distributed to reporters said three people were killed and more than 40 people wounded. It did not specify if the casualties were all in Azhari Square or in other towns where protests were also taking place. 

UNKNOWN ATTACKERS

Syrian state news agency SANA reported that one member of the security forces was killed by gunfire from “armed remnants of the former regime” in Latakia. It said civilians and security personnel were wounded in gunfire by unknown assailants near Azhari Square. 

Sunday’s rally had been called for by the head of the Supreme Alawite Islamic Council, Ghazal Ghazal. 

A similar protest in November lasted barely an hour before being confronted by a rival protest in support of Syria’s new government. Syrian security forces used gunfire to break up both.  

Protesters on Sunday chanted: “We want federalism!” and, “The Syrian people are one!” 

“We came to demand our dignity, a living, we came to demand political federalism just like big states such as America, Germany and the (United Arab) Emirates,” one demonstrator, Salman Mansour, told Reuters. 

“We came to ask for our right of living after we were killed in our lands,” he added. More than 1,000 Alawites were killed in March after a failed insurrection by Assad loyalists sparked revenge killings by government-affiliated forces. 

Last week, eight people were killed when a bomb detonated at an Alawite mosque in the nearby city of Homs.

“ًWe will keep asking for federalism for our dignity. They say we hate each other – no!” said another protester, Nisreen Khazem. 

(Reporting by Karam al-Masri; Writing by Maya Gebeily;Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

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BANGUI Dec 28 (Reuters) – Central African Republic President Faustin-Archange Touadera is seeking a third term on Sunday as the chronically unstable country holds national elections, touting security gains made with the help of Russian mercenaries and Rwandan soldiers.

The 68-year-old mathematician oversaw a constitutional referendum in 2023 that scrapped the presidential term limit, drawing an outcry from his critics who accused him of seeking to rule for life.

A Touadera victory – the expected outcome – would likely further the interests of Russia, which has traded security assistance for access to resources including gold and diamonds. Touadera is also offering access to the country’s lithium and uranium reserves to anyone interested.

The opposition field of six candidates is led by two former prime ministers, Anicet-Georges Dologuele and Henri-Marie Dondra, both of whom survived attempts by Touadera’s supporters to have them disqualified for allegedly holding foreign citizenship.

Though both men remain on the ballot, Touadera is still seen as the favourite given his control over state institutions and superior financial resources, analysts say.

The challenges to the candidacies of Dologuele and Dondra “aligned with an apparent pattern of administrative manoeuvring that has disproportionately impeded opposition politicians while favouring the ruling United Hearts Party,” Human Rights Watch said last month.

“Their late admission to the race raises questions about whether voters have been given a genuine choice.”

RUSSIA AND RWANDA REINFORCE TOUADERA

In 2018, CAR became the first country in West and Central Africa to bring in Russia’s Wagner mercenaries, a step since also taken by Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

Two years later Rwanda deployed troops to shore up Touadera’s government as rebel groups threatened the capital and tried to disrupt the 2020 elections, ultimately preventing voting at 800 polling stations across the country, or 14% of the total.

The country is more secure now after Touadera signed several peace deals with rebel groups this year.

But those gains remain fragile: Rebels have not fully disarmed, reintegration is incomplete, and incursions by combatants from neighbouring Sudan fuel insecurity in the east.Beyond the presidential contest, the elections on Sunday cover legislative, regional and municipal positions.

Provisional results are expected by January 5.

If no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, a presidential runoff will take place on February 15, while legislative runoffs will take place on April 5.

Pangea-Risk, a consultancy, wrote in a note to clients that the risk of unrest after the election was high as opponents were likely to challenge Touadera’s expected victory.

A smooth voting process could reinforce Touadera’s claim that stability is returning, which was buttressed last year with the U.N. Security Council’s lifting of an arms embargo and the lifting of a separate embargo on diamond exports.

In November, the U.N. Security Council extended the mandate of its peacekeeping mission. The U.S. opposed the decision, calling for a shorter extension and a handover of security to Bangui.

(Reporting by Pacome Pabandji; Writing by Robbie Corey-Boulet; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

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PALM BEACH, Florida, Dec 28 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and U.S. President Donald Trump will meet in Florida on Sunday to hammer out a plan to end the war in Ukraine, but face major differences on crucial issues and provocations from Russian air attacks.

Russia struck Kyiv and other parts of war-torn Ukraine with hundreds of missiles and drones on Saturday, knocking out power and heat in parts of the capital. Zelenskiy called it Russia’s response to the ongoing U.S.-brokered peace efforts.

Zelenskiy has told journalists that he plans to discuss the fate of eastern Ukraine’s contested Donbas region during the meeting at Trump’s Florida residence, as well as the future of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and other topics.

Moscow has repeatedly insisted that Ukraine yield all of the Donbas, even areas still under Kyiv’s control, and Russian officials have objected to other parts of the latest proposal, sparking doubts about whether Russian President Vladimir Putin would accept whatever Sunday’s talks might produce.

The Ukrainian president told Axios on Friday he still hopes to soften a U.S. proposal for Ukrainian forces to withdraw completely from the Donbas. Failing that, Zelenskiy said the entire 20-point plan, the result of weeks of negotiations, should be put to a referendum vote.

Axios said U.S. officials viewed Zelenskiy’s willingness to hold a referendum as a major step forward and a sign that he was no longer ruling out territorial concessions, although he said Russia would need to agree to a 60-day ceasefire to allow Ukraine to prepare for and hold such a vote. A recent poll suggests that Ukrainian voters may also reject the plan.

Zelenskiy’s in-person meeting with Trump, scheduled for 1 p.m. (1800 GMT), follows weeks of diplomatic efforts. European allies, while at times cut out of the loop, have stepped up efforts to sketch out the contours of a post-war security guarantee for Kyiv that would be supported by the United States.

STICKING POINTS OVER TERRITORY

Kyiv and Washington have agreed on many issues, and Zelenskiy said on Friday that the 20-point plan was 90% finished. But the issue of what territory, if any, will be ceded to Russia remains unresolved.

While Moscow insists on getting all of the Donbas, Kyiv wants the map frozen at current battle lines.

The United States, seeking a compromise, has proposed a free economic zone if Ukraine leaves the area, although it remains unclear how that zone would function in practical terms.

Zelenskiy, whose past meetings with Trump have not always gone smoothly, worries along with his European allies that Trump could sell out Ukraine and leave European powers to foot the bill for supporting a devastated nation, after Russian forces took 12 to 17 square km (4.6-6.6 square miles) of its territory per day in 2025.

Russia controls all of Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, and since its invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago has taken control of about 12% of its territory, including about 90% of Donbas, 75% of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and slivers of the Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions, according to Russian estimates.

Putin said on December 19 that he thought a peace deal should be based on conditions he set out in 2024: Ukraine withdrawing from all of the Donbas, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and Kyiv officially renouncing its aim to join NATO.

Ukrainian officials and European leaders view the war as an imperial-style land grab by Moscow and have warned that if Russia gets its way with Ukraine, it will one day attack NATO members. 

The 20-point plan was spun off from a Russian-led 28-point plan, which emerged from talks between U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev, and which became public in November.

Subsequent talks between Ukrainian officials and U.S. negotiators have produced the more Kyiv-friendly 20-point plan.

CANADA, EUROPEAN ALLIES RALLY BEHIND KYIV

Saturday’s air attacks show that Putin does not want peace, Zelenskiy said to reporters after arriving in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he met with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

In a brief statement with Zelenskiy by his side, Carney said peace “requires a willing Russia.”

“The barbarism that we saw overnight — the attack on Kyiv — shows just how important it is that we stand with Ukraine in this difficult time,” Carney said, pledging C$2.5 billion (US$1.83 billion) in additional economic aid to Ukraine.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who spoke with Zelenskiy along with other European leaders on Saturday, said on X that their shared objective remained “a just and lasting peace” that preserved Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, while strengthening the country’s security and defense capabilities.

Zelenskiy said he would speak with European leaders again after his meeting with Trump.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal in Palm Beach, Florida, and Gram Slattery in Washington; Editing by Sergio Non and Edmund Klamann)

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