AFRICA

Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | Nigerian troops were back in a strategic town on the shores of Lake Chad, military and civilian sources said Thursday, after Boko Haram attacks forced tens of thousands to flee. Fighters from the self-styled Islamic State West Africa Province overran a naval base and another housing troops from a regional …

Accra, Ghana | AFP | Norway’s Aker Energy on Thursday said it had discovered oil in commercial quantities off Ghana, which the government welcomed as a potential boost to the economy. The oil and gas operator said exploratory drilling indicated an “estimated 450-550 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe)” in the Pecan field, 166 kilometres …

Brussels, Belgium | AFP | The European Union said Thursday it had “taken note” of the surprise result of DR Congo’s controversial presidential election — as well as objections by the runner-up that the outcome amounted to a “coup”. A spokeswoman for the European Commission said the bloc was waiting for clarification from international observers, …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | A suitcase containing $150,000 in cash was stolen from ousted Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, a court in Harare has heard, with the suspected thieves spending the money on cars, houses and farm animals. The three accused — which include Constancia Mugabe, 50, a relative of the president — appeared before …

Antananarivo, Madagascar | AFP | Former president Marc Ravalomanana has accepted defeat in Madagascar’s presidential election, a day after the country’s Constitutional Court confirmed Andry Rajoelina as the new leader of the Indian Ocean island nation. Ravalomanana had lodged a complaint alleging widespread fraud in the December 19 run-off vote …

Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | Boko Haram fighters have told civilians in northeast Nigeria to leave their homes, the army said on Thursday, as tensions mount in the long-running conflict. Army spokesman Onyema Nwachukwu said there was “credible information” the jihadists had “infiltrated some villages” near the Borno state capital Maiduguri. “They have clandestinely been …

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in northeast Nigeria after an increase in violence in the Boko Haram conflict, the United Nations said on Wednesday. “More than 30,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) have arrived in Maiduguri, mainly from Baga, in recent weeks,” …

Rabat, Morocco | AFP | Moroccan authorities closed 2,000 illegal mine shafts last year in Jerada, an impoverished former coal town that has been the site of a string of deadly mining accidents. The closure of the “abandoned and illicitly exploited shafts” was announced Wednesday by the energy and mines …

Popular anger in many countries’ politics in recent years is rooted in the failure of neoliberalism GLOBAL COMMENT | WINNIE BYANYIMA | Imagine a world in which women and girls have their rights respected, climate change receives the attention it so urgently requires, and poverty has been eliminated. Never before …

Paris, France | AFP |  The runner-up in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s long-awaited presidential poll Martin Fayulu on Thursday denounced the results as an “electoral coup”. His fellow opposition candidate Felix Tshisekedi was declared the winner of the December vote by the electoral commission early Thursday morning. “These results …