Somalia said Thursday it had restored diplomatic ties with Kenya, five months after bilateral relations were suspended between the often-tense neighbours over allegations of interference.

Somalia cut ties on December 15 after Kenya hosted the leadership of Somaliland, a breakaway state not recognised by the central government in Mogadishu.

“The Federal Government of Somalia announces that in keeping with the interests of good neighbourliness, it has resumed diplomatic relations with the Republic of Kenya,” the ministry of information said in a statement.

“The two governments agree to keep friendly relations between the two countries on the basis of principles of mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-interference in each other internation affair.”

The statement thanked the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, whom it credited with playing a part in the reconciliation, and said the thaw had been welcomed by Kenya.

Nairobi said it took note of the statement and was looking forward “to further normalisation of relations by the Somali authorities.”

“The ministry of foreign affairs acknowledges the continued support that has been extended from the international community, and in particular the government of Qatar, in efforts to normalise the diplomatic relations between Somalia and Kenya,” it said in a statement.

Somalia has long bristled over what it calls Kenya’s meddling in regions over its border, while Nairobi has accused Mogadishu of using it as a scapegoat for its own political problems.

The pair have also engaged in a long-running territorial dispute over a stretch of the Indian Ocean claimed by both nations believed to hold valuable deposits of oil and gas, and have sought international arbitration over the matter.

The row over which nation controls access to the lucrative deposits escalated in early 2019 after Somalia decided to auction off oil and gas blocks in a disputed maritime area, prompting Kenya to recall its ambassador from Mogadishu in February of that year.

The Republic of Congo’s government has resigned, public television announced on Thursday, a procedural move three weeks after the central African nation’s veteran leader began a new term as president.

Prime Minister Clement Mouamba submitted his government’s resignation to President Denis Sassou Nguesso on Wednesday, according to the statement read out on television.

The outgoing team will continue in its tasks until Sassou Nguesso names a new premier. He has not yet announced when he will do so.

Sassou Nguesso was sworn in for a new five-year term as president on April 16.

Mouamba, a 77-year-old former finance minister and senior executive of the six-nation Bank of Central African States (BEAC), has been prime minister since 2016.

One of the world’s longest serving leaders, Sassou Nguesso has been in power for an accumulated 36 years, first taking the helm in 1979.

Critics accuse the former paratrooper of iron-fisted rule and turning a blind eye to poverty and inequality despite Congo’s oil wealth.

He was re-elected on March 21 with 88.4 percent of the vote, in his fourth successive win since 2002.

The Malawian government has ordered thousands of long-integrated refugees to return to its sole but badly overcrowded refugee camp, in a controversial move that many have vowed to resist.

The UN estimates there are around 2,000 refugees residing outside the camp at Dzaleka, about 40 kilometres (30 miles) north of the capital Lilongwe.

Many have lived there for years, setting up businesses in the town or marrying Malawians and having children with them.

But the government argues they pose a potential danger to national security by living among locals.

“We are not chasing them, and we just want them to be where they should be,” Homeland Security Minister Richard Chimwendo told correspondents.

“Those who have businesses… will have to operate from Dzaleka.”

“If they are married they must apply for permanent residence” instead of “just spreading themselves across the country.”

“We are not sending them back to their countries,” he argued.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR in Malawi said the directive was in line with the country’s encampment laws, but advised the government to reconsider.

It said, according to an official communication it received from the Homeland Security ministry, the decision was also taken in the light of “security concerns in order to protect both refugees and host communities following the volatile situation in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado area”.

But Chimwendo said the decision to relocate the refugees was not linked to the insurgency in neighbouring northern Mozambique, where jihadists have wreaked havoc for over three years.

With an initial capacity of between 10,000 and 14,000 refugees around 1994, the camp now houses 49,386 people and several hundred continue to arrive each month, according to the UNHCR.

The deadline for refugees to return to the camp was April 28, but a last-minute court injunction gave them a brief respite.

Rebels who launched an offensive in northern Chad, sparking clashes that claimed the life of veteran president Idriss Deby Itno, are in flight, the country’s new defence minister said on Thursday.

“The security forces are thoroughly sweeping the operational area. Most of the prisoners are in the hands of the gendarmerie (police) and are being well-treated. The enemy is fleeing,” Defence Minister Brahim Daoud Yaya told a news conference.

“We are never going to dialogue with terrorists.”

The Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), a large armed group with a rear base in Libya, mounted an offensive on April 11 as the country was to hold presidential elections.

Deby, a former general who had been in power for 30 years, led the fighting against the insurgents.

According to the authorities, he died on April 19 from combat injuries in the Kanem desert region, about 300 kilometres (200 miles) north of the capital N’Djamena, close to the border with Niger.