Portal:Current events/2025 March 12

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Somali Civil War
  • 2025 Shabelle offensive
    • 2025 Beledweyne hotel attack
      • Somali security forces end the 24-hour siege at a hotel in Beledweyne, Hiran, Somalia, with at least fifteen civilians and all six Al-Shabaab attackers killed. (BBC News) (AP)
      • Following the attack, over 100 Somali parliament members urge President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to resign, citing leadership failures amid worsening security and governance crises. (Idil News) (Garowe Online)
• Syrian civil war
  • Western Syria clashes
    • 2025 massacres of Syrian Alawites, March 2025 Western Syria clashes
      • The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documents three further reprisal massacres of Alawite minority communities on 12 March in which 158 civilians were killed, totaling 1,383 civilian deaths as a result of fifty separate massacres conducted in western Syria since March 6. (Barron's)
• Insurgency in Balochistan
  • 2025 Jaffar Express hijacking
    • Security forces rescue all surviving passengers and security personnel from yesterday's hijacking of the Jaffar Express passenger train in Pakistan by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA). Officials confirm the deaths of all 33 BLA militants, as well as 29 passengers, and 8 soldiers. (News 24) (Al Jazeera)
• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • Kursk offensive
    • Russian troops, backed by close air support, enter the town of Sudzha in Kursk Oblast, ending seven months of Ukrainian occupation. (MSN) (Reuters)
    • Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov says that remaining Ukrainian forces in Kursk Oblast are entirely surrounded. (Proto Thema)

Business and economy

• 2025 United States trade war with Canada and Mexico, Canada–United States relations
  • Canadian finance minister Dominic LeBlanc announces retaliatory tariffs on CAD$29.8 billion (US$20.7 billion) of goods from the United States after U.S. president Donald Trump announced additional tariffs on Canadian metals. (DW)

International relations

• Democratic Republic of the Congo–Rwanda conflict
  • Angola confirms that peace talks between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Rwandan-backed March 23 Movement will begin on 18 March, after the DRC previously insisted on solely negotiating with Rwanda. (DW)
• Iran–United States relations
  • Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei rejects negotiations with the U.S. regarding Iran's nuclear program, stating that Iran is "not interested in nuclear weapons". (BBC News)
• Red Sea crisis
  • The Houthi movement in Yemen announces it will resume targeting Israeli ships because its deadline for Israel to resume aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip has passed. (Al Jazeera)

Law and crime

• The City Court in Tbilisi, Georgia, convicts former president Mikheil Saakashvili of embezzlement and sentences him to nine years in prison. The court also fines the former head of the Special State Protection Service, Teimuraz Janashia, ₾300,000 (€99,936) in connection to the case. (DW)

Politics and elections

• 2025 Belizean general election
  • Belizeans vote to elect the 31 members of the House of Representatives between the incumbent People's United Party and the opposition United Democratic Party. The ruling party is re-elected by 26 seats to 5. (Breaking Belize News) (Jamaica Observer)
• The Syrian presidential office announces the creation of the National Security Council as a means of confronting national and internal security problems. (Reuters)
• 2025 Swiss Federal Council election
  • Following the resignation of Swiss Defense Minister Viola Amherd, the Federal Assembly votes to elect the new member of the Federal Council. Martin Pfister is elected as the head of the defense ministry. (Reuters) (Radio SRF)

Sports

• 2024–25 FIS Ski Jumping World Cup
  • Norwegian ski jumpers Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang are suspended by FIS and will not participate in Raw Air due to an ongoing investigation involving the manipulation of ski equipment. (Reuters)