April 16, 2011 (Saturday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Burkina Faso unrest
- Hundreds of traders in Burkina Faso set fire to the ruling Congress for Democracy and Progress headquarters and ransack other government buildings, after mutinous soldiers looted their shops. (Reuters) (Al Jazeera)
- The capital Ouagadougou is placed under curfew. (BBC)
- Second Ivorian Civil War: Ivorian Popular Front, the party of ousted Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, calls upon its supporters to end the unrest in the country after his arrest. (AFP via Google News)
- Arab Spring
- 2011 Syrian protests
- President Bashar al-Assad announces that the 48-year-old state of emergency law will be lifted next week. (Al Jazeera)
- Pro-democracy protests continue in Syria. (Syrian Arab News Agency) (The Guardian)
- 2011 Libyan civil war
- Fighting intensifies in the western city of Misrata. (BBC)
- Rebel forces advance towards the oil town of Brega. (Times of India)
- 2011 Iranian protests
- One person is killed in a second day of clashes between protesters and security forces in Ahvaz, western Iran. (Al Arabiya)
- 2011 Jordanian protests
- 70 Islamists are arrested after clashes with pro-monarchy groups in Zarqa and Rassifeh, Jordan. (Al Arabiya)
- 2011 Syrian protests
- Philippine Army soldiers kill two Abu Sayyaf fighters in Al-Barka, Basilan. (AP via The Guardian)
- The United Nations calls for an investigation after an Iraqi raid into an Iranian opposition Camp Ashraf which left 34 people dead. (AFP via Google News)
- Insurgency in Laos: A human rights group accuses Laos and Vietnam of killing four Hmong Christians. (Straits Times)
Disasters
- Tornadoes kill several people in the US states of North Carolina and South Carolina with storms killing at least 20 people in the southern United States over the past few days. (CBS News), (Reuters)
Law and crime
- A United Nations expert panel finds "credible allegations" which, if proven, indicate that war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed both by the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE in the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War. (PTI/The Hindu) (AFP/France 24)
- Mexican authorities announce the arrest of Los Zetas Cartel leader Martin Omar Estrada "El Kilo" Luna. (CNN)
Politics
- A 50,000-strong anti-government demonstration calling for snap elections takes place in Belgrade, Serbia, with leader of the opposition Serbian Progressive Party Tomislav Nikolić announcing he is to begin a hunger strike until new elections. (Deutsche Welle)
- Pro and anti-government rallies against corruption take place in Moscow, Russia. (RIA Novosti)
- Cuban President Raúl Castro proposes term limits for public office. (CNN)
- The ruling National Front coalition in Malaysia win an election in the country's largest state Sarawak. (Al Jazeera) (Bernama)
- An Egyptian court orders the dissolution of the former ruling National Democratic Party of Hosni Mubarak. (Reuters)
- A presidential election takes place in Nigeria. (iAfrica) (BBC)