Africa

The leader of the Western Sahara independence movement, Brahim Ghali, returned to Algeria on Wednesday after spending more than a month in hospital in Spain – a stay which triggered a diplomatic row between Spain and Morocco. “He arrived safe and sound,” said Jalil Mohamed, the Polisario Front’s spokesman in …

Much of Africa may have been spared the death toll that COVID-19 brought to other regions, but it now faces recession, growing violence, and higher unemployment because of the pandemic, a report said on Wednesday. “The global economic shutdown has driven Africa into recession for the first time in 30 …

Germany and the United Nations plan to host a conference on Libya this month in Berlin Germany and the United Nations plan to host a conference on Libya this month in Berlin, a gathering that aims to bring together powers with interests in the North African country and its transitional …

People who promote insurrection in Nigeria face a “rude shock”, its president warned on Tuesday, raising the possibility of a fierce crackdown on rising violence in the southeast that has included arson attacks on police stations and electoral offices. Security forces are already grappling with criminal gangs in the northwest …

Nigerian authorities said on Tuesday that about 200 children had been seized in the latest school kidnapping in its violent north but they ruled out securing their freedom by paying a ransom. Police were trying to track the route the kidnappers had taken with the children, who were seized in …

Gunmen sprayed bullets at a car carrying a Ugandan government minister in an attempted assassination on Tuesday, wounding the former army commander and killing his daughter and driver, an army spokeswoman and local media reports said. Four attackers on motorcycles opened fire at a vehicle carrying General Katumba Wamala, the …

Tensions between Morocco and Spain have escalated, with each side accusing the other of violating good ‘neighborliness’ in a dispute triggered by the Western Sahara territorial issue. Last month, the Spanish North African enclave of Ceuta saw an unprecedented influx of migrants crossing from Morocco. That was seen as retaliation …

At least 55 people were killed overnight in two attacks on villages in eastern Congo, the United Nations said on Monday, in potentially the worst night of violence the area has seen in at least four years. The army and a local civil rights group blamed the Allied Democratic Forces …

West African leaders condemn the coup and call for a return to democracy, but stop short of imposing new sanctions. West African leaders have suspended Mali from their regional bloc in response to last week’s coup but stopped short of imposing new sanctions. Leaders of the 15-member Economic Community of …

Kidnappers abducted students in an attack on a school in the north-central Nigerian state of Niger, a state government official said on Sunday. Armed groups carrying out kidnapping for ransom have carried out a series of raids on schools and universities in northern Nigeria in recent months, abducting more than …

Insurgents from the terrorist group Boko Haram killed four soldiers and four civilians in an attack on Niger’s southeastern desert town of Diffa, the defence ministry said. At least six terrorists were killed in the raid on Friday, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday. The insurgents attacked Diffa …

French president says Paris will withdraw soldiers if Mali lurches towards what he called “radical Islamism” after the second coup in a year. President Emmanuel Macron warned in comments published on Sunday that France will pull its troops out of Mali if it lurches towards what he called “radical Islamism” …

Attackers release 14 remaining students abducted from Greenfield University in northwest Nigeria last month. Kidnappers have released the remaining 14 students who had been held captive after being abducted last month from a northern Nigerian university, officials said. Armed groups have repeatedly attacked schools and universities in northwest Nigeria in …

DR Congo’s government said Saturday that the eruption of the second volcano in the country’s east that been announced hours earlier was a “false alarm” after a plane did not spot any activity. “False alarm on Nyamuragira. A plane has just flown over the entire area on the sides of …

Coup leader’s appointment raises the stakes as West African leaders prepare to respond to the coup in Mali. Mali’s constitutional court has named the colonel who led a military coup this week as the country’s new interim leader. The ruling, issued late on Friday, said Assimi Goita would “lead the …

Nigerian authorities have recovered the bodies of more than 70 people after an overloaded boat capsized in the northwestern state of Kebbi on Wednesday, a state spokesman said. “Seventy-six corpses have so far been recovered, while 22 (people) were rescued, divers are still looking for more bodies,” Abubakar Dakingari, spokesman …

More than 100 years after the crimes were committed, Germany formally confessed on Friday to having committed genocide as the colonial power in what is now Namibia. After years of negotiations, the German government recognized the atrocities committed against the Herero and Nama ethnic groups as genocide and said reparations …

The eastern DR Congo city of Goma was eerily deserted on Friday after nearly 400,000 of its inhabitants fled following warnings that nearby Mount Nyiragongo volcano may erupt again. The authorities geared for a major humanitarian effort, centered on Sake, around 25 kilometers (15 miles) west of the city, where …

The United Nations refugee agency voiced deep concern on Friday at reports of soldiers taking hundreds of people away from displacement camps in the Tigray region of Ethiopia earlier this week, saying such sites should be a safe haven. Three aid workers and a doctor told Reuters this week that …

More than 20,000 people are homeless and 40 are still missing in the aftermath of a volcanic eruption which killed dozens in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, the UN humanitarian agency says. The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement on Wednesday the …