Africa

Nigeria will reopen its airports for international flights from Aug. 29, its aviation minister said on Monday. The airports have been closed since March 23 to all but essential international flights as part of the country’s efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika said four flights would …

Sudanese security forces fired tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters who gathered on Monday, some burning car tyres, to mark the anniversary of a transitional power-sharing deal with demands for quicker political reform. The agreement set up a precarious alliance of civilian technocrats and military officials following the April …

Turkey and Qatar’s defence ministers and Germany’s foreign minister visited the Libyan capital Tripoli on Monday amid efforts to secure a ceasefire in the divided country, Libyan and Turkish media reported. Turkey provided crucial military support to the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) to help it stave off a …

At least 16 people were killed in an attack on Sunday by the Islamist group al Shabaab on a seaside hotel in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, according to government spokesman Ismail Mukhtar Omar. The toll includes 11 victims and five assailants, Omar said in a Tweet late on Sunday. “Security forces …

Militants stormed a high-end seaside hotel in Mogadishu on Sunday, killing at least seven people and injuring more than 20, in the second attack by Islamist insurgents on a highly fortified target in the Somali capital this week. Militant group al Shabaab claimed the attack on the Elite Hotel in …

People in Tripoli, Libya’s capital, set the United Arab Emirates’ embassy on fire in protest at Abdu Dhabi’s decision to normalize ties with the Zionist regime of Israel. Photos have been circulated in social media of the embassy after the fire was put out, arabi21 website reported. A much-condemned deal …

A ship that has leaked more than 1,000 tonnes of oil in pristine waters off the Mauritius coast has split into two, its Japanese operator said Sunday. The bulk carrier MK Wakashio ran aground on a coral reef off the southeastern coast of Mauritius on July 25 and began oozing …

Turkey has reportedly sent the latest KORKUT anti-aircraft system to Libya. The latest satellite images posted to a Twitter account showed that Turkish anti-aircraft systems in Korkut were located at Al-Watiya Air Base in western Libya, citing Pentapostagma. The air base is extensively equipped by both the Turkish Armed Forces …

At least three people died during protests in Ivory Coast on Thursday, police said, as small groups burned makeshift roadblocks in protests against President Alassane Ouattara’s decision to stand for a third term. The West African nation has seen a number of scattered protests since Ouattara announced last week he …

U.S. President Donald Trump and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan discussed steps to establish a demilitarised zone in Libya in a phone call, Al Jazeera said on Thursday. Trump and Erdoğan also discussed possible ways to achieve the withdrawal of all foreign forces and mercenaries from Libya and emphasised …

An outcry is rising in Somalia as parliament considers a bill that would allow child marriage once a girl’s sexual organs mature and would allow forced marriage as long as the family gives their consent. The bill is a dramatic reworking of years of efforts by civil society to bring …

At least 10 people died in clashes between protesters and security forces in Ethiopia’s southern region on Monday, health officials said, the latest violence as myriad ethnic groups clamour for more autonomy. The protests were sparked by Sunday’s arrest of local officials and activists seeking a new autonomous region for …

Tunisia prime minister-designate Hichem Mechichi said on Monday he will form a technocrat government without political parties, due to the disagreement between parties in the North Africa country. Mechichi’s decision will likely put him in confrontation with the moderate Islamist Ennahda Party, the largest party in Parliament, which announced its …

Urgent efforts increased in Mauritius on Monday to empty a stranded Japanese ship of an estimated 2,500 tons of oil before the vessel breaks up and increases the contamination of the island’s once-pristine Indian Ocean coastline. Already more than 1,000 tons of fuel have washed up on the eastern coast …

US-based researcher says the armed group is ‘regrouping’ and remains a ‘persistent’ threat in the oil-rich nation. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) remains a “persistent threat” in Libya and could rise again unless the country’s long-running conflict is brought to an end, a new …

Six French tourists, their local guide and driver were killed by unidentified gunmen riding motorcycles on Sunday in an area of southwestern Niger home to the last herd of West African giraffes, officials said. “There are eight dead: two Nigeriens including a guide and a driver, while the other six …

Anxious residents of the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius have stuffed fabric sacks with sugar cane leaves to create makeshift oil spill barriers as tonnes of fuel leaking from a grounded ship put endangered wildlife in further peril. The government on Saturday declared an environmental emergency as satellite images …

No one claimed responsibility for the attack in the commune of Fada N’Gourma, around where the army is carrying out a search operation. Gunmen have stormed a cattle market and opened fire in an eastern Burkina Faso village, killing at least 20 people and injuring many others, a local government …

A suicide bombing killed at least nine people and injured nearly 20 Saturday when the bomb-laden car detonated at the gates of a Somali military base, security officials and witnesses said. Security officials said that eight of the people killed were government soldiers and other casualties were family members of …

Egypt and Greece on Thursday signed a maritime deal that sets the sea boundary between the two countries and demarcates an exclusive economic zone for oil and gas drilling rights. The deal is a response to a similar agreement between Turkey and Libya’s Tripoli-based government last year that has spiked …