Tag Archives: Africa

Two policemen were killed and two civilians were injured in a roadside blast in Mogadishu on Wednesday, witnesses said. Police cordoned off the area but a vehicle damaged by an explosion could be seen, witnesses said. Police did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the blast in the …

More than 166 people were killed during anti-government protests in Ethiopia last week, the government said on Sunday, as the capital and other hotspots remained closely guarded by security forces and a blanket Internet shutdown entered its sixth day. Large protests broke out in Addis Ababa and spread to the …

An explosion shook parts of the Somali capital of Mogadishu early on Saturday as a suicide car bomber drove into a checkpoint just outside the port, witnesses said, but police made no immediate comment on casualties. “Metal debris fell all over us inside the port and we heard gunfire,” said …

At least 27 civilians were killed when unidentified armed men on motorbikes attacked ethnic Dogon farming villages in central Mali on Wednesday, local authorities said. The attackers targeted the villages of Gouari, Djindo, and Fangadougou in the Mopti region, which has seen dozens of tit-for-tat ethnic massacres as well as …

Six people were injured on Thursday in scuffles between Ethiopian security forces and mourners trying to attend the funeral of singer Haacaaluu Hundeessaa, whose killing earlier this week sparked protests that killed more than 80 people, a witness said. Residents reported soldiers, federal police and regional police lining the roads …

Belgium’s King Philippe expressed deep regret on Tuesday for the “suffering and humiliation” inflicted on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) during its 75-year period under Belgian rule. It is the first such expression of regret for Belgium’s colonial past by a reigning monarch, the royal palace said. It …

The “liberation” of Sirte and Jufra from Khalifa Haftar’s forces has become “more urgent than ever” for Libya’s Government of National Accord (GNA) following the deployment of mercenaries in the country, the United Nations-recognised government’s army spokesperson said. In a statement on Saturday, Muhammad Qanunu said “Sirte was the most …

A woman who gave birth at sea was among 93 migrants rescued off Libyan shores as they tried to reach Europe, but six others died along the way, the UN’s migration agency said. The survivors were brought back overnight to the port city of Khoms, 120km (75 miles) west of …

Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan will agree on a deal to fill the giant Blue Nile dam in two to three weeks, following mediation by the African Union to broker a deal to end a decade-long dispute over water supplies. Tortuous negotiations over the years have left the two nations and …

Ethiopia has reiterated it will start filling the reservoir of a controversial dam on the Nile – that has been at the center of a decade-long dispute in East Africa – even without an agreement from Egypt and Sudan. The construction of the $4.6bn Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on …

DR Congo’s government on Thursday officially declared an end to an Ebola epidemic that broke out in the east of the troubled country in August 2018 and went on to claim 2,277 lives. The outbreak was “the longest, most complex and deadliest” in the 60-year history of the Democratic Republic …

Libya’s coast guard intercepted 71 migrants hoping to make it to Europe, including four women and two children and returned them to the capital Tripoli, the U.N. migration organization said Thursday. The International Organization for Migration tweeted that the migrants, who were stopped late Wednesday, were given food and emergency …

Police in Nigeria have rescued 300 people they say were locked in a rice-processing factory and forced to work throughout a coronavirus lockdown. From the end of March the men were allegedly not allowed to leave the mill in the northern city of Kano. The workers were promised an additional …

Two people were killed after a suicide bomber detonated his explosives outside Turkey’s largest overseas military base in Mogadishu on Tuesday, Somali officials said, the latest reminder of Somalia’s struggle to curb the deadly attacks that have haunted the country for years. The attack, which bears the hallmarks of the …

At least seven people have died in two separate bomb attacks in southern and central Somalia in the last 24 hours, police and military officers said on Sunday. In the first incident, two bombs planted in front of the house of a military official in Wanlaweyn town, 90 km northwest …

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Saturday said his country has a legitimate right to intervene in neighbouring Libya and ordered his army to be ready to carry out any mission outside the country, if necessary. Sisi’s comments came amid high tensions over regional rival Turkey’s intervention in Libya. He …

The United Nations’ Secretary-General has called for calm and dialogue in Mali after tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in the capital Bamako on Friday demanding President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita step down. Keita was re-elected in 2018 for a second five-year term but has struggled with a …

Skywatchers along with a narrow band from west Africa to the Arabian Peninsula, India, and southern China will witness the most dramatic “ring of fire” solar eclipse to shadow the Earth in years on Sunday. Annular eclipses occur when the Moon – passing between Earth and the Sun – is …

A police operation is underway in the French city of Dijon following earlier gang violence in the city, the local police force said on Friday. “Following the events of the last few days in the Dijon area, police operation is underway in the Dijon districts of Gresilles and Chenove,” it …

Could Algeria soon send troops from its army, the pillar of the regime, to join peace-keeping missions led by the United Nations or African Union? President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has urged a constitutional change that would allow deployments abroad, signalling a departure from a military doctrine that has barred interventions outside …