Africa

Hospitals in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital Kinshasa are “overwhelmed” by a rise in COVID-19 infections, President Felix Tshisekedi said on Saturday, as the country was hit by a third wave of the disease. Like many African countries, Congo has officially registered relatively few cases. But the virus has …

Assailants on motorbikes raided several villages in the northern states, attacking farmers and pursuing those who attempted to flee, police and residents say. Armed assailants have killed 53 people in northwest Nigeria’s Zamfara state, according to police and local residents, the latest violence to hit the restive region. Many motorcycle-riding …

Men of the Lagos State Police Command on Saturday morning fired tear gas canisters at the protesters gathered at the Gani Fawehinmi Park in Lagos, venue of the June 12 Democracy Day protest, The PUNCH reports. The protesters were demanding an end to bad governance when they were tear-gassed by …

Polls opened in Algeria on Saturday for a parliamentary election that the ruling establishment hopes will turn a page on two years of political unrest, but which many voters are expected to ignore. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has called for a high turnout, but there has been little public enthusiasm for …

A French military offensive in Mali has killed an extremist leader linked to al-Qaeda who is believed to have helped orchestrate the kidnapping and killing of two French journalists in 2013, France’s defense minister said Friday. Three other extremists were also killed in the weekend anti-terrorist operation around Aguelhok in …

Amnesty says arrests of Khaled Drareni, Ihsane El-Kadi, and Karim Tabbou are evidence of ‘chilling escalation’ in the clampdown on dissent. Authorities in Algeria have arrested two prominent journalists and a well-known opposition figure, just days before the country’s parliamentary election. Algeria is set to hold its first legislative election …

Almost 10,000 Mozambicans have been forcibly removed from Tanzania so far this year after fleeing a deadly Islamist insurgency in their homeland, a spokesperson for the U.N. refugee agency said on Friday. Mozambique’s northern-most province of Cabo Delgado has been the focus of an insurgency linked to the Islamic State …

An analysis by United Nations agencies and aid groups estimates that about 350,000 people in Ethiopia’s conflict-torn Tigray region are in famine conditions, according to an internal U.N. document seen by Reuters on Wednesday. The Ethiopian government disputes the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis, according to the notes …

Report by Save the Children says 51 minors taken by armed groups in conflict-hit Cabo Delgado in 2020, a figure likely an underestimate. Fighters in conflict-hit northern Mozambique abducted dozens of children during raids in 2020, according to a new analysis by Save the Children. The charity said in a …

Sudan and Egypt agreed on Wednesday to coordinate efforts to push Ethiopia to negotiate “seriously” on an agreement on filling and operating a giant dam it is building on the Blue Nile, a joint statement said. The two countries, which are downstream from the dam, issued the statement after African …

France has suspended aid and military cooperation in the Central African Republic because of what it says is the government’s failure to stop “massive disinformation campaigns” against France that have targeted its officials, the armed forces ministry said. France has cut 10 million euros ($12.18 million) in budget support for …

One soldier was killed on Monday evening when armed men attacked the northern Ivory Coast town of Tougbo, near the border with Burkina Faso, the army said on Tuesday. Ivorian troops were already deployed in the town and quickly pushed back the assailants. No civilians were killed, said the head …

The Senegalese navy on Sunday intercepted a boat smuggling over 8 tonnes of cannabis resin through the waters off the West African nation’s coast, the armed forces ministry said in a statement. The vessel, which was flying a Togolese flag, was stopped 140 kilometres (87 miles) from the coastal capital …

A blast struck a checkpoint in the southern Libyan city of Sebha on Sunday, killing at least two people including a senior police officer, local police, city officials and medics said. A security source in Sebha said the blast was caused by a suicide bomber who detonated a car bomb. …

The Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP) terrorist group said in an audio recording on Sunday that Abubakar Shekau, leader of rival Nigerian terrorist Islamist group Boko Haram, was dead. Shekau died around May 18 after detonating an explosive device when he was pursued by ISWAP fighters following a battle, …

Burkina Faso mourns as UN chief calls on countries to redouble efforts to fight ‘violent extremism and its unacceptable human toll’. Gunmen have killed at least 132 people in Burkina Faso’s volatile north, the government said, as the United Nations chief condemned “the heinous attack” and called on countries to …

The death toll from the worst militant attack in Burkina Faso in recent years has risen to 132, the government said on Saturday, after armed assailants laid siege overnight to a village in the jihadist-plagued northeast. The attackers struck during the night on Friday, killing residents of the village of …

Nigeria said on Friday it had indefinitely suspended Twitter’s activities, two days after the social media giant removed a post from President Muhammadu Buhari that threatened to punish regional secessionists. Information Minister Lai Mohammed said the government had acted because of “the persistent use of the platform for activities that …

Gunmen abducted 136 students from an Islamic school in the north-central Nigerian state of Niger on Sunday, a state official said on Wednesday, lower than the estimate of 200 previously offered by the federal government. An armed gang on motorcycles attacked the town of Tegina in the state on Sunday. …

Twitter removed on Wednesday a post by Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari threatening punishment for regional secessionists blamed for attacks on government buildings. The social media firm said Buhari’s tweet, referring to the 1967-70 civil war in the southeastern Biafra region that killed 1 million people, violated its “abusive behaviour” policy …