Portal:Current events/2025 February 15

February 15, 2025 (Saturday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Kivu conflict
- M23 campaign
  - 2025 Bukavu offensive
    - Mass looting and sporadic gunfire is reported in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, as M23 rebels advance into the city. Mobs loot several facilities, including a World Food Programme depot. (BBC News)
    - The Congolese military withdraws from Bukavu heading south towards Tanganyika Province. (AP)
- Ituri conflict
  - General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Chief of the Ugandan military, claiming to act with the authority of his father, President Yoweri Museveni, threatens to invade the Democratic Republic of the Congo and take control of Bunia, the capital of Ituri Province, unless local forces surrender their weapons within 24 hours. Kainerugaba alleges that the Hema people are being killed. (Reuters)
Gaza war
- 2025 Gaza war ceasefire
  - Hamas releases three Israeli hostages in exchange for the Israeli government releasing 369 Palestinian prisoners, most without criminal charges or convictions, as part of the first stage of the 2025 ceasefire. (Al Jazeera) (AP)
2025 Munich car attack
- A 37-year-old woman and her two-year-old child die as a result of injuries sustained in a vehicle-ramming attack in Munich, Germany, on Thursday. (Stern)
2025 Villach stabbing attack
- A 14-year-old boy is killed and five other people are injured in a mass stabbing on a street in Villach, Carinthia, Austria. A 23-year-old man, an Islamic State member, is arrested. (AP) (DW)

Business and economy

Disasters and accidents

2025 New Delhi railway station stampede
- A crowd crush kills at least 18 people, including three children, and injures ten others at New Delhi railway station in New Delhi, India. (BBC News) (CNN) (Al Jazeera)
At least 49 people are killed and several others are injured when a gold mine collapses in Kéniéba, Mali. (AP) (Bloomberg)

International relations

Russia–United States relations
- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speak by telephone about the Russo-Ukrainian War, the Gaza war, the sanctions against Russia, and removing restrictions on each country's diplomatic missions. They also discuss preparations for a high-level summit in Saudi Arabia. This is the first time the U.S. and Russia had contact at the foreign minister level in almost two years. (Financial Times)
South Africa–United States relations
- Hundreds of White South Africans hold a protest outside the U.S. embassy in Pretoria, South Africa, in support of U.S. President Donald Trump's claims that the South African government is discriminating against the country's white minority. (AP)
Weimar+
- French President Emmanuel Macron announces an emergency summit in Paris, France, between European leaders following a controversial speech given by U.S. Vice President JD Vance at the Munich Security Conference in which he criticized European leadership as the worst threat to Europe, particularly for imposing too much censorship and too little control over migration. (Ukrinform) (BBC News) (Voice of America)

Law and crime

2025 Beirut attack on UN convoy
- The Lebanese Armed Forces arrest over 25 people on suspicion of attacking a UNIFIL convoy and United Nations peacekeepers near Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut. (Al Jazeera)
Muhsin Hendricks, the first openly gay imam, is assassinated by two unidentified assailants while driving near Gqeberha, South Africa. (CTV News) (BBC News)
A man is shot dead at the Clemenceau metro station in Brussels, Belgium. The shooting is connected to the ongoing drug war in the city since the start of the year, which has already killed another person and wounded three more. (The Brussels Time)

Politics and elections