WarFronts Weekly 3.20.2026: Friday Blitz.

20.03.2026

Due to the constantly developing nature of the Iran conflict, and the sheer volume of Iran-focused updates on a daily basis, our team is exploring other ways to provide consistent coverage of the war on Fronts.co and direct to your inbox. For the duration of the conflict, WarFronts Weekly will remain primarily focused on other global developments. More information coming soon, and thanks for your patronage.

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Sudan, RSF, Chad Risk Expanding Conflict:

Tensions between the nation of Chad and the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been building for months, as RSF supply-chain issues intersect with Chadian ethnic tensions. At WarFronts, we’ve covered the situation in depth here.

This week, however, Chadian leaders were forced to acknowledge a difficult reality: N’Djamena has no true allies on either side of the Sudan conflict. Within the span of hardly a day, a suspected Sudanese Armed Forces drone strike killed over a dozen people on Chadian soil, as the RSF raised its flag over a critical border town.

The SAF’s drone strike hit the Chadian border city of Tine, an epicenter of cross-border tensions over the last several weeks. The Wednesday attack hit a home during funeral proceedings for a relative of the targeted family; the reason for the attack is unknown, as of the time of writing.

While both the SAF and RSF denied responsibility, and local officials initially declined to pin blame on either side, conflict experts indicated that the SAF was likely responsible. Seventeen people were reported killed in the strike, and 123 others wounded, sixty-six of whom were seriously injured.

If the SAF truly was responsible, its attack was likely related to events that took place on the following day. On Thursday, the RSF seized the city of Tina, which sits opposite Tine on the Sudanese side of the border. Most of the time, the two towns are separated only by a dry stream-bed, which fills seasonally, but rarely impedes movement across the border.

The SAF and RSF have been fighting over Tina for months, and previous border clashes have left fifteen Chadian soldiers and eight civilians dead. The border town is critical to both sides, as they look to cement their control over a border region where RSF forces threaten pro-SAF militia enclaves.

The latest fighting has forced Chadian President Idriss Mahamat Deby to respond, ordering a “total closure” of the Sudanese border on Wednesday, and placing his forces on high alert. Deby ordered retaliation against any Sudanese armed group that launches an attack on Chadian soil, and local Chadian sources reported the deployment of over two hundred military vehicles to Tine. As of the time of writing, no further attacks have been reported.

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Around the World:

Nigerian troops and air support defended a military base in northeastern Borno State from a massive jihadist assault, killing an estimated eighty fighters—including commanders—in the process. The attempted attack on the base came just two days after a trio of suicide bombings in Borno State’s capital city, killing at least twenty-three, most likely carried out by Boko Haram. The Wednesday assault on the military base, however, was suspected to have been the work of the Islamic State – West Africa Province, which tends to target military units, and conducted its own series of probing attacks around Borno’s capital city last weekend. Nigerian authorities noted that Wednesday’s attackers deployed armed drones; neighboring Niger assisted with airstrikes against retreating jihadist forces.

Also in Nigeria, at least eighteen locals were killed in the northwestern state of Katsina, in the latest of a series of attacks carried out by local armed bandits. Three of the dead were bandits themselves, killed by a vigilante patrol; the other fifteen were locals killed in reprisals across two small villages.

A Mexican security raid on a Sinaloa Cartel-affiliated residence led to the deaths of eleven suspected cartel members in a gun battle. The Thursday operation resulted in the capture of high-level Sinaloa member Omar Oswaldo Torres, a key member of the Los Mayos faction of the cartel. Mexico also reported the seizure of high-powered weapons in the raid.

Pakistan’s Jaffar Express train, in the nation’s southern Balochistan region, narrowly avoided an improvised explosive attack by suspected Baloch militants this week. Local officials indicated that militants also shot at the train, which was the target of a prolonged siege by Baloch separatist insurgents in 2025. Also this week, Baloch insurgents killed multiple Pakistani soldiers on a raid at a military checkpoint.

A Russian strike on a Ukrainian hydroelectric power plant cut off water access for tens of thousands of people in neighboring Moldova, after the strike sent oil flowing into the Dniester River. The dam is located just fifteen kilometers away from the Moldovan border, while the river forms the dividing line between Moldova and breakaway Transnistria.

This week, Somalia’s South West State became the latest to formally break tieswith Mogadishu, joining breakaway Somaliland, autonomous Puntland, and newly autonomous Jubaland in pursuing self-rule. South West leaders accused Mogadishu of arming militias to oppose the state-level government, and of trying to overthrow the president of South West State; flights between Mogadishu and state capital Baidoa have been suspended.

A Russian Su-30 fighter aircraft entered Estonian airspace without approval and remained for approximately one minute, in Russia’s latest airspace violation of a NATO member state. While the Su-30 only overflew Estonian territory briefly, its presence echoed the September 2025 overflight of three armed MiG-31s for a period of twelve minutes, one of the incidents that prompted an ongoing effort to recalibrate NATO air defense capabilities.

Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez ousted Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, a highly influential figure who boasted close ties to Nicolas Maduro. Rodriguez indicated that she will elevate a high-ranking general to the position, as she secures her hold on power in collaboration with her brother, who serves as the president of the National Assembly.

The US federal legislature, and top officials from American spy agencies, are working to renew Section 702 of America’s Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows US law enforcement to use foreign-sourced intelligence to gather information on Americans without legal approval. Past attempts to renew the legislation have prompted public, tense debates on US surveillance of its own citizens, requiring four attempts at renewal in 2024.

Legislators in Macau unanimously approved a law that will allow behind-closed-doors legal proceedings in the city, as part of its ongoing subordination to federal Chinese law. The expansion of Chinese policies in Macau mirrors Beijing’s progressive takeover of Hong Kong, and is expected to reduce Macau’s remaining autonomy as a special administrative region.

Denis Sassou Nguesso, long-time president of the Republic of the Congo, officially won re-election with nearly 95% of the vote after last week’s election. The vote was widely denounced abroad as a sham, with opposition leaders barred or abstaining from the contest; Sassou has ruled the Congo for over forty years.

A pro-Kremlin military blogger named Ilya Remeslo was placed in a psychiatric facility this week, after unexpectedly lambasting Vladimir Putin and the ongoing invasion of Ukraine earlier this week. Remeslo accused Putin of killing millions of people, and told his following on Telegram that Putin is an illegitimate president and a war criminal.

Chad will fully deploy a cohort of troops to Haiti by October of this year, replacing a force of Kenyan troops that will gradually withdraw during a managed transition. Chad will dispatch roughly 5,500 troops to Haiti in total, with the first groups of soldiers expected to travel to the country by April after completing training in the US.

European officials confirmed key details to the Financial Times this week, on Denmark’s plans to respond to a potential US attack on Greenland earlier this year. Per the FT, Denmark planned to plant explosives and destroy Greenland’s two main runways, and were equipped with blood supplies to deal with casualties in the event of direct engagements.

Rwandan and Congolese leaders agreed to de-escalate tensions in the eastern DRC, in a meeting in Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday. While prior efforts to contain or draw down the conflict have been ineffective at best, and have, at times, seemed to be a façade to cover ongoing fighting, the new agreement provides both Kigali and Kinshasa an opportunity to shift the conflict toward a genuine drawdown.

US prosecutors unveiled charges against American tech executives on charges of smuggling high-powered Nvidia artificial intelligence chips to China in 2024 and 2025, by diverting equipment worth billions of dollars. The charges come as Washington and Beijing battle for advantages in the ongoing AI race, which is deeply related to national security for both global superpowers.

The United States inadvertently provided the world with its closest-ever look at the RQ-180 stealth drone, when a copy of the drone was forced to land at an airbase in Larissa, Greece, under unclear circumstances. The US government does not formally acknowledge the RQ-180’s existence, and the aircraft has never been spotted so close to civilian observers.

Japan conducted the first test flight of its indigenously designed Kawasaki EC-2electronic warfare jet this week, as Tokyo works to expand its military ahead of a likely attempt at constitutional reform. The EC-2, described by The War Zoneas “without question, one of the ugliest military aircraft to grace an apron today”, is intended to conduct long-range interference with adversary electromagnetic systems.

Germany and France will have until mid-April to reach agreement on the FCAS sixth-generation fighter program, according to a German government official speaking anonymously to Reuters. Per that official, Berlin and Paris have agreed on one final attempt to bridge divides of the program, which has been plagued by fundamental disagreements between the two capitals. Spain also participates in the program.

In sharp contrast to the FCAS program, Europe’s other sixth-generation fighter project, the GCAP, is likely to welcome Poland to its collaborative program in the near future. The GCAP currently includes Britain, Italy, and Japan, and has pursued an ambitious set of goals for the fighter, drawing interest from Germany, Australia, and several other nations.

Peace & Progress:

Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to temporarily halt their ongoing conflict during the holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which began Wednesday night and will continue through midnight on Monday morning. While the agreement has not prompted known discussions on an extended ceasefire, it demonstrates at least a limited willingness in both Islamabad and Kabul, to set limits on the conflict and prioritize civilian interests.

Syria unveiled a long-awaited chemical weapons disarmament plan on Wednesday, outlining Damascus’ approach to the identification and destruction of chemical weapons produced under Bashar al-Assad. Syria declared a stockpile of 1,300 tons of weapons in 2013, but the true size of the Syrian program has never been disclosed; clearing operations will require the inspection of up to 100 sites.

Belarus released 250 political prisoners from custody on Thursday, including fifteen sent abroad to Lithuania. The nation’s latest US-brokered amnesty deal was paired with American pledges to provide sanctions relief for Belarusian finance, and to end sanctions on Belarusian fertilizers.