Tag Archives: Africa

Only one woman survived after an inflatable dinghy from Africa sank on its way to the Spanish archipelago. More than 50 people are feared dead after a boat capsized in the Atlantic Ocean about 220 kilometres (135 miles) off Spain’s Canary Islands. Spain’s Maritime Rescue Service said a 30-year-old woman …

UN health agency says West Africa faces complex challenge of multiple outbreaks that could strain healthcare systems. The World Health Organization has warned that on top of the COVID-19 pandemic, West Africa is facing new outbreaks of the viral haemorrhagic fevers Marburg and Ebola, risking huge strains on ill-equipped health …

Police say the unclaimed attack was carried out on a convoy transporting workers to Shell oil and gas project, killing seven people. Seven people have been killed in an attack on a convoy transporting workers to a Shell oil and gas project in Nigeria’s southeast, police say. No group claimed …

Gunmen killed a police officer and six employees of Nigerian oil and gas services company Lee Engineering during an attack on a project site in the southeastern state of Imo, police said on Tuesday. Attacks on oil and gas facilities have long been a problem in Nigeria, where the multi-billion …

Opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema has defeated incumbent Edgar Lungu in Zambia’s presidential election, the electoral commission said on Monday when releasing the final results from 156 constituencies, barring one. In the final tally, Hichilema secured 2,810,777 votes while Lungu was in second place with 1,814,201 votes, out of 7 million …

Algerian police said Sunday they had arrested 36 people including three women after the lynching of a man suspected of having started one of the country’s deadly forest fires. Blazes spurred by a blistering heatwave have killed at least 90 people in the North African country in recent days, and …

Attackers killed 22 commuters on a road near the capital of Nigeria’s Plateau state, a morgue attendant told Reuters, in the latest outbreak of violence across Africa’s most populous nation in which scores of civilians have been killed this year. Armed attackers have increasingly targeted Nigeria’s roads and unrest has …

Zambian opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema took an early lead in the country’s presidential election over long-time rival and incumbent Edgar Lungu, according to first results issued by the electoral commission on Saturday. Lungu, 64 and in power since 2015, faces a potentially tight contest against Hichilema – known as “HH” …

France has suspended a deal on military cooperation with Ethiopia, two sources close to the issue said on Friday, as concern intensifies over the conflict in the country’s north. The deal agreed between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and President Emmanuel Macron in March 2019 was suspended at the beginning of …

Tunisia has taken 14 officials into custody on suspicion of corruption in the phosphate industry, Mohsen Dali, a judiciary spokesman, said on Thursday. The suspects included a former junior minister, a mines director, and procurement director at the Industry Ministry, and six managers, Dali said.

Zambians were voting for a new leader on Thursday, with long queues pointing to a high turnout in an election showdown between President Edgar Lungu and main opposition rival Hakainde Hichilema that looks too tight to call. The two rivals, who voted at different stations hours apart, were both confident …

Forces from Ethiopia’s rebellious Tigray region said on Wednesday they were in talks to forge a military alliance with insurgents from Ethiopia’s most populous region, Oromiya, heaping pressure on the central government in Addis Ababa. The move could signal an escalation in the country’s nine-month old war and comes a …

Ethiopia’s government on Tuesday urged citizens to join the fight against resurgent Tigrayan forces now pushing beyond their own region in a nine-month-old war that has sparked a major refugee crisis. The call to arms came in a statement from the office of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed: “Now is the …

A cholera outbreak in southern Niger has killed 12 people and infected 201 others across three regions, with heavy rains helping to further spread the disease, the country’s health minister said on Monday. Niger’s southern neighbor Nigeria is also dealing with a cholera outbreak, which has killed at least 653 …

Suspected jihadists massacred more than 40 civilians in northern Mali and killed 12 troops in an ambush in neighbouring Burkina Faso, officials said Monday, highlighting the security crisis gripping the two fragile states. More than 40 people were killed on Sunday when “terrorists” invaded the villages of Karou, Ouatagouna, and …

Mozambican and Rwandan security forces have recaptured the port town of Mocimboa da Praia, an insurgents’ stronghold, the two countries said on Sunday, adding to a growing list of retaken towns and villages. Mozambique’s northern-most province of Cabo Delgado, which has gas developments worth some $60 billion, has since 2017 …

Nigerian gunmen have kidnapped a Swiss national after opening fire on his police escort in the southwest of the country, police said on Sunday. Kidnappings occur mostly in the northwest and central states of Nigeria where heavily armed criminal gangs operate and foreign workers are also occasionally targeted for abduction …

A lawyer of Shia Muslim cleric Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky says the Nigerian government is seeking to file a new lawsuit against the leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria as part of attempts to prevent him from leaving the country for medical treatment. “We have news that the Nigerian government …

At least 20 people, including women and children, have been shot dead by members of a paramilitary group in southern Sudan, a tribal source says. The victims were those who were visiting farmers in Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region for the first time in years, said Ibrahim Ahmad, a tribal chief, …

Save the Children says 700,000 children under five are among the 2.3 million children affected by crisis. At least 2.3 million children and youth are going hungry in northeastern Nigeria where escalating violence has forced farmers to flee their fields and put the region on the brink of critical food …