Africa

Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean independence icon turned authoritarian leader, has died aged 95. Mr. Mugabe had been receiving treatment in a hospital in Singapore since April. He was ousted in a military coup in 2017 after 37 years in power. The former president was praised for broadening access to health …

According to Sudanese authorities, at least 62 people have been killed and 100 injured after two months of heavy rain caused severe flooding across Sudan. According to state news agency SUNA, all but one of Sudan’s provinces were affected by the heavy flooding and reportedly 35,750 homes were destroyed. The …

About 40 people are feared dead or missing after the latest wreck of a boat carrying migrants bound for Europe off the coast of Libya, while about 60 people may have been rescued, the U.N. refugee agency said on Tuesday. “Terrible news coming in of potentially large loss of life …

Congolese authorities and health workers vaccinated more than 200,000 people against Ebola in August, the government said on Sunday, using a Merck vaccine they hope will help rein in the world’s second-worst epidemic. Figures released by the government’s Ebola committee showed that 204,044 people had been inoculated since August 8. …

A missile hit the car park of Libya’s only functioning airport in Tripoli on Saturday, forcing flights to be grounded for almost three hours before operations resumed, the airport and a witness said. The airport said on its website that Mitiga airport “was exposed to a missile, coinciding with the …

At least 19 people were killed when a fuel truck exploded after losing control and ramming into three cars in western Uganda on Sunday, police said in a statement. The blast occurred Sunday evening in the Kyambura trading center, a mountainous area near the Queen Elizabeth National Park. “Ten people …

Sudan’s ousted president Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Monday arrived amid heavy security at the courthouse in the capital Khartoum where he is facing corruption charges. Bashir is charged with illicit possession of foreign currency and accepting gifts in an unofficial manner, prosecutor Alaa al-Din Abdallah said in June. His trial …

Chad President Idriss Deby declared a state of emergency in two eastern provinces on Sunday after violent intercommunal clashes left dozens dead earlier this month. The state of emergency will run for three months in Sila and Ouaddai regions where 50 people have died since August 9 in fighting between …

Leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky has left India after rejecting the Nigerian government’s “obstruction” of his medical treatment. Speaking to the AFP on Friday, Zakzaky’s daughter Suhailah Zakzaky confirmed that Zakzaky had left New Delhi for Nigeria. “They did fly with Ethiopian Airlines,” she …

Militant terrorist group al Shabaab struck a Somali government military base on Wednesday with car bombs and gunfire in a battle that both sides said caused multiple deaths to the other. Witnesses said some local residents were also killed by stray crossfire during the mid-morning attack on the base in …

A fuel tanker exploded in eastern Tanzania on Saturday killing at least 60 people, authorities said, as flames ripped through a crowd that had gathered to siphon petrol from it. Video clips circulating on social media showed the charred remains of dozens of young men and burnt motorbikes. In footage …

Libya’s government, which is facing a campaign by eastern troops to take the capital, has accepted a United Nations proposal for a ceasefire during the Eid al-Adha religious holiday, a statement said on Friday. It was not clear whether fighting over the capital would actually cease after four months of …

The Nigerian judiciary allowed Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zaqzaki to leave for India for treatment with intelligence agents Sheikh Zakzaki’s deputy and his wife had asked the government to allow them to travel abroad for treatment, he said, adding that the second Sheikh’s eye was threatened after losing his first eye. In …

Rwanda has closed part of its border with DR Congo, where an Ebola outbreak has killed more than 1,800 people in the past year. At least two people have died from the virus in the past month in the crowded Congolese border city of Goma. It is the worst Ebola …

A blogger in Mauritania who drew international attention after he was sentenced to death over blasphemy has been released, his lawyer and campaign group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said. Cheikh Ould Mohamed Ould Mkhaitir, 36, was sentenced to death in 2014 over a Facebook post about Islam but was then …

Mourners and international delegates have gathered at Tunisia’s Carthage Palace to bid farewell to the country’s first democratically elected president Beji Caid Essebsi. The state funeral was attended by foreign leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, Qatar’s Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Spanish King Felipe VI, Algerian President Abdelkader …

Mohamed Ennaceur, speaker of the Tunisian Parliament, on Thursday announced himself new president succeeding Beji Caid Essebsi who died earlier at age 92. “I would like to pay tribute to the late President Beji Caid Essebsi for [efforts in] the establishment of the independent state and then the presidency in …

Nigerian security forces have killed at least 20 members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) during protests calling for the release of senior cleric Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, the movement’s leader, this week. Spokesmen for the IMN said on Friday clashes that erupted between police forces and protesters in the …

Sudan’s military said on Wednesday that it had thwarted a coup attempt and arrested an unspecified number of senior officers in connection with a plot to restore the party of ousted President Omar al-Bashir to power. The ruling military council took over after the military ousted Bashir on April 11 …

Nigerian security forces have killed at least six protesters who were demanding the immediate release of the senior Muslim figure Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky, who has been locked up in a government jail since 2015. The deadly clashes occurred in capital Abuja on Monday when security forces attacked a group of …