Saturday 8 March 2025

2025 Shabelle offensive

Al Shabaab seizes the town of Cadale and some villages including Bushra Sheekh, Ceel Xarar and Xaruur, around 70 km (43 mi) of Mogadishu. Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud asks Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for help. Ethiopia sends ten thousand ENDF troops near the Ethiopia–Somalia border.

2025 Shabelle offensive

Dozens of people are killed, including a senior police commander, as heavy fighting breaks out after Al-Shabaab fighters attack the Police Force. Al-Shabaab claims to have taken over new areas of Al-Kawthar and Boos-Hareeri in Middle Shabelle region, Hirshabelle State, Somalia.

Disasters

Five people are killed after a truck lost control and rammed into two Boda Boda riders in Webuye, Kenya.

Crime & Justice

Eight people are injured, including two critically, in a vehicle-ramming attack at a CarMax car dealership in Inglewood, California, United States.

Cyclone Alfred

One person is confirmed killed and thirteen others are injured in floods caused by Cyclone Alfred as it passes through Queensland and New South Wales, Australia.

Canada–China trade war

China announces that it will implement 100% tariffs on several Canadian agricultural exports, including rapeseed and peas, and 25% tariffs on pork and aquacultural products will be implemented on March 20 in retaliation against earlier tariffs instituted by Canada on Chinese electric vehicles and metal exports.

Attacks on civilians in the Russian invasion of Ukraine

A Russian ballistic missile strike on Dobropillia, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, kills at least eleven people and injures 37 others.

Attacks on civilians in the Russian invasion of Ukraine

A Russian Shahed drone strike on a business park in Bohodukhiv, Kharkiv Oblast, kills three people and wounds seven others.

FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2025

Two ski jumpers from the Norwegian ski jumping team, Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang, are disqualified for cheating and Lindvik loses the silver in the men's individual normal hill in Granåsen, Trondheim.

2025 massacres of Syrian Alawites

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that groups attributed to the Syrian Ministry of Defense have killed over 750 Alawite civilians across several massacres in western Syria.

Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip

Three Palestinians are killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, two by a drone strike in Rafah and one by gunfire in al-Tannour, Rafah Governorate, which violates the 2025 ceasefire.