At least 80,000 people have been displaced in three months of inter-communal violence in a north-central Nigerian state, a local official said, as the army reinforced security to end the clashes. ALSO READ: Civilian plane crash in war-torn Sudan leaves nine dead Since May, Plateau State has seen a surge of attacks among mostly Muslim […]

At least 33 people died and 21 others were injured when a building collapsed in Cameroon’s business hub Douala, a senior fire officer and the regional governor told AFP on Monday. ALSO READ: WATCH: Building collapse claims 16 lives in Cameroon [VIDEO] The four-storey block of flats collapsed onto another residential building in the north of the […]

BABANANGO GETS THE BIG 5 After many years of rewilding and significant efforts, KwaZulu-Natal’s Babanango Game Reserve has attained full Big 5 status, and is now home to lion, rhino, buffalo, leopard and elephant, among many other species. ALSO READ: Zululand treasures: Three things you shouldn’t miss According to Tourism Update, a small breeding herd of seven […]

Kenya’s opposition Saturday 22 July 2023 called a fresh anti-government rally next week to protest rising prices and taxes after three previous demonstrations largely failed to mobilise supporters. Last week saw a trio of protests against the administration of President William Ruto, taking the total of such marches to eight since March. But while a […]

The South African Minister of Home Affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi, recently lost a court case that anyone could have anticipated was unwinnable. He probably expected to lose it too. He lost it on humanitarian and technical grounds. It prevents him from terminating the South African government’s concession to refugees from neighbouring Zimbabwe nearly fifteen years ago. […]

Nine people, including four soldiers, were killed Sunday evening when a civilian plane crashed in Sudan due to “technical” reasons, the army said, as the war in the east African country entered its 100th day. The fighting has left millions trapped in their homes and some without water, particularly in the suburbs of the capital […]

Kenyans largely ignored a call by the opposition to boost anti-government protests on Thursday 20 July 2023, although isolated clashes flared in the capital between police and stone-throwing demonstrators. Police fired tear gas and live rounds at protesters in Nairobi’s Kibera slum, an opposition stronghold, AFP journalists saw, but no violence was reported elsewhere in contrast to […]

Liberia’s election commission published Thursday 20 July 2023 a preliminary list of candidates for October’s legislative election, with women accounting for only 15 per cent of nominees despite efforts for a 30 per cent quota. Only 159 of the 1,030 people nominated to the West African country’s Senate and House of Representatives are women, the […]

Egyptian researcher Patrick Zaki and lawyer Mohamed al-Baqer walked out of prison Thursday 20 July 2023, relatives said, a day after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pardoned them in the wake of an international outcry. Zaki was sentenced to three years in prison on Tuesday for “spreading false news”, prompting some participants to walk out of […]

Algeria on Thursday 20 July 2023 denounced Israel’s backing of Morocco’s “claimed sovereignty” over the disputed Western Sahara region as a “flagrant violation” of international law. The Western Sahara conflict pits Morocco against Sahrawi separatists of the Algiers-backed Polisario Front. The dispute dates back to 1975, when colonial ruler Spain withdrew from the territory, sparking […]

A Malawian court on Thursday 20 July 2023 convicted a Chinese national accused of racism and exploiting children in relation to a series of online videos and ordered him to leave the country. ALSO READ: Chinese nationals arrested in Crackdown on crypto mining HE WAS GIVEN A WEEK TO LEAVE MALAWI A judge in the African […]

Nigeria’s military has sent reinforcements to calm tensions in a troubled northern central state, where local officials say at least 300 people have been killed in three months of inter-communal violence. ALSO READ: Blasphemy leaves one muslim dead in northern Nigeria Plateau State has been struggling since May with a surge in clashes and raids between […]

At least 13 Senegalese migrants from the same town died when their boat sank off the coast of Morocco late last week, the town’s mayor told AFP on Thursday 20 July 2023. The news comes amid heightened attention on the Atlantic migration route — from the coast of West Africa to the Spanish Canary Islands — after […]

Namibian lawmakers on Wednesday 20 July 2023 approved legislation to ban same-sex marriage and punish its supporters in what critics said was an unconstitutional attack on the LGBTQ community. The bill seeks to reverse a Supreme Court ruling that allowed for the recognition of some unions contracted abroad. The legislation sailed through the upper house […]

Morocco’s top court has rejected the final appeals of two journalists, Omar Radi and Soulaimane Raissouni, imprisoned on sexual assault charges they deny, their lawyer said Wednesday 19 July 2023. The court of cassation in Rabat on Tuesday “rejected our appeal and confirmed the prison sentences” of the two men who have been behind bars […]

Shops and schools reopened Thursday 20 July 2023 as Kenya resumed normal life, despite an opposition call to join anti-government protests after earlier demonstrations prompted widespread closures and resulted in deadly clashes. ALSO READ: Social media access in Ethiopia resumes after 5-month blackout Veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga has staged several demonstrations since March against […]

About 50 Zimbabwean opposition activists clad in yellow T-shirts were knocking on doors and handing out election flyers in Harare when a dozen riot police arrived and told them to disperse. ALSO READ: Zimbabwe opposition launches election rallies after multiple bans For the campaigners, the intervention was one more sign of a strategy to wreck their […]

Air strikes, street battles and artillery fire shook Sudan’s capital Khartoum and the major southern city of El-Obeid on Thursday, witnesses told AFP. “Artillery fire targeted paramilitary bases of the Rapid Support Forces,” said a resident of El-Obeid, 350 kilometres (220 miles) southwest of Khartoum. ALSO READ: Saudi Arabia holds talks with Sudanese army representatives Fighting between […]

At least nine people have been killed and 16 injured after an explosive device accidentally detonated in a field in conflict-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, local sources said on Thursday. ALSO READ: DRC: ICC establishes a new way to tackle war crimes The blast occurred on Wednesday evening in Lubwe Sud in North Kivu province’s Rutshuru […]

A road crash in Algeria killed 34 people when a passenger bus collided head-on with a pickup truck carrying fuel cans and burst into flames Wednesday 19 July 2023, deep in the southern Sahara region, officials said. The North African country’s deadliest road crash in years also left 12 others injured, many with severe burns, […]

The United States called on Egypt Wednesday 19 July 2023 to release rights researcher Patrick Zaki, a day after he was sentenced to three years in prison for “spreading false news”. “Concerned by 3-year sentence of Egyptian human rights defender Patrick Zaki,” the US State Department said on Twitter, urging the “immediate release of him […]

Social media networks like Facebook and Instagram were back online in Ethiopia on Wednesday 19 July 2023 after being blocked for five months, according to an internet advocacy organisation and an AFP journalist. A service run by the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI), an association that tracks online censorship, showed that access to social networks […]

Mahana Abdelrahman used to crisscross Sudan in his truck, delivering shipments across the vast country, but three months of brutal war have drastically reduced road transportation, grinding business to a halt. Now, the 45-year-old driver chain-smokes and sips coffee at a cafe on the outskirts of Wad Madani, a city that has welcomed him and […]

Several West African leaders met Tuesday in Nigeria to discuss how to manage security at the end of a UN peacekeeping mission in Mali and push for a return to democracy after a series of coups. ALSO READ: Mali security deteriorates as jihadists commit murder, rape The UN Security Council last month voted to end a decade-old peacekeeping […]

Burkina Faso’s junta leader on Tuesday lashed out at the “cowardice” of the country’s jihadist rebels after local and security sources reported at least 10 civilian deaths in two attacks. ALSO READ: Ghana accused of deporting 500 Burkina nationals: UN agency Residents of Nouna, local capital of Kossi province in the west, contacted by telephone, said […]