BLACKWATER USA | DAILY BRIEF - Blackwater Worldwide

Posted by BW Actual on Mar 24th 2025

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Ukraine

Ukrainian and U.S. officials met in Riyadh yesterday, and may continue their summit today. They aim to finalize details surrounding the 30-day pause on striking energy infrastructure.
U.S. officials in Riyadh will also meet with Russian officials today. Russia has already agreed to the pause on energy infrastructure strikes, so these meetings will seek to advance an additional maritime ceasefire.
China is reportedly considering contributing peacekeepers to uphold a post-war truce in Ukraine "in accordance with the wishes of the parties." Russia had previously rejected the idea of NATO peacekeepers in Ukraine, but would probably be more amenable if China participated in the mission.

Gaza

U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff told Fox News Sunday that Hamas seemed to initially accept his bridge proposal to extend the Gaza ceasefire last week, but then reneged and rejected it. Witkoff blamed Hamas for the failure to find a truce and the descent to resumed fighting.
Israel targeted Hamas's prime minister in Gaza, Ismail Barhoum, killing him in a hospital where he was receiving treatment for injuries he sustained in another Israeli strike. Barhoum had only been prime minister for a few days after his predecessor was killed earlier in the week - also by an Israeli strike.
Hamas's health ministry said Gaza's wartime death toll has now surpassed 50,000. Hamas doesn't distinguish between dead civilians and combatants.
Israel's Security Cabinet inaugurated a new directorate to assist Palestinians who want to be resettled abroad, and the new directorate kicked off its mission by flying 70 Gazans with foreign citizenships or family ties to Europe, where they'll resettle.

Yemen

Yemen's Houthis fired a Palestine 2 ballistic missile in the general direction of Israel's Ben Gurion Airport, but it was easily intercepted before it reached Israeli airspace (despite Houthi claims that it reached its target).

Sudan

After seizing the presidential palace from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Friday, Sudan's military continued to retake key sites in Khartoum. Over the weekend, it recaptured the Central Bank, the intelligence headquarters, and the Corinthia Hotel.
The army's recent success in Khartoum doesn't mean the war is over: the RSF still holds parts of the capital, as well as large swathes of western Sudan.

DRC

Nearly a week after Presidents Tshisekedi and Kagame agreed on the necessity of imposing a ceasefire in eastern DRC, the leaders of the Rwanda-backed rebel umbrella group Alliance Fleuve Congo (which includes the M23) said it supported a truce and announced that its fighters would withdraw from the mining town of Walikale, which they captured the day after Tshisekedi and Kagame met in Doha.
Tshisekedi then kindly asked (but did not order) his troops to observe the ceasefire too.
Both sides seem skeptical of the truce and ready to resume fighting at any moment. Rwanda and the rebels it backs are not ceding Goma or their other major spoils of war, and the Congolese military warned that it "reserves the right to intervene in the event of any hostile movement likely to compromise the pause in fighting."

Sahel

Gunmen attacked a mosque in the southwestern Nigerien town of Fambita during midday prayers on Friday, killing at least 44 worshippers.
No group has claimed the attack yet, but Niger's army blamed Islamic State in the Greater Sahel (ISGS) for it. Just two days prior, the army had targeted ISGS with a successful operation in which it claimed to have killed 45 militants; ISGS often retaliates after suffering such losses.
Attacks like Friday's embarrass Niger's junta, which staged its 2023 coup in part because of frustrations with the deposed civilian government's inability to stop jihadist violence. Like their fellow juntas in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, Niger's new military leaders have failed to improve security since overthrowing the governments they blamed for it - despite help from Russian mercenaries.

South Korea

South Korea's Constitutional Court overturned Prime Minister Han Duck-soo's impeachment and reinstated him as the acting president. The Court has yet to rule on the more consequential question of President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment and return to duty.

Pakistan

Pakistani border guards engaged armed militants who reportedly crossed over the border from Afghanistan on Saturday night, killing 16 of them.
Islamabad partially blamed the Afghan Taliban for failing to "ensure effective border management on their side of the border," where Pakistan claims the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP, aka Pakistani Taliban) is hiding out and planning attacks.

Boxing

Boxing legend George Foreman passed away at 76. Foreman was the world heavyweight boxing champion two times - 21 years apart! - but he reportedly made more than twice as much money from 30 years of royalties from the "Lean Mean Grilling Machine" that bears his name than he did from 30 years of professional boxing.