Maputo, Mozambique | AFP | Mozambique’s president said the country’s fragile peace process must not collapse after rebel leader Afonso Dhlakama, who had opened talks with the government, died unexpectedly aged 65. President Filipe Nyusi hailed Dhlakama as “a citizen who has always worked for Mozambique” and said he was …
Read More »Four killed in suspected Shabaab attack in northern Kenya
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Four people were killed in the northern Kenyan town of Mandera, which borders Somalia, police said Friday, in an attack blamed on Islamist group Al-Shabaab. The four men, all non-Muslims who were not from the area, were attacked at a remote quarry on Thursday night, …
Read More »Six endangered black rhinos flown from S. Africa to Chad
Addo, South Africa | AFP | Six critically endangered black rhinos were flown from South Africa to Chad on Thursday in a pioneering project to re-introduce the animals to a country where they were wiped out by poaching nearly 50 years ago. The wild black rhinos were loaded onto a …
Read More »Nile dam won’t harm Egypt, says new Ethiopian leader
Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Ethiopia’s newly appointed prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, said on Thursday that the controversial dam his country is building on the Nile will not harm Egypt’s share of water supplies. Egypt relies almost totally on the Nile for irrigation and drinking water, and says it has “historic …
Read More »Guinea president to take legal action over Bollore row
Conakry, Guinea | AFP | Guinean President Alpha Conde said Thursday he would file a complaint in the French courts over allegations raised in a corruption case embroiling French billionaire Vincent Bollore. “I shall bring a complaint in Paris for false accusation,” Conde told reporters in Conakry, without giving further …
Read More »UN takes 1,500 economic migrants to Niger from Algeria
Abidjan, Ivory Coast | AFP | Around 1,500 economic migrants have been taken from Algeria to Niger in recent days by the UN’s migration agency, its Niamey chief said on Thursday. Giuseppe Loprete from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) told AFP around “600 Cameroonians, two large groups of Malians …
Read More »Chad PM resigns as constitutional changes boost president’s powers
N’Djamena, Chad | AFP | Chad’s prime minister and his government resigned on Thursday, according to a presidential statement, as controversial constitutional changes took effect in a move that bolsters President Idriss Deby’s powers. Deby — in power for more than two decades in the oil-rich landlocked African state — …
Read More »Mozambique rebel leader Dhlakama dead
Maputo, Mozambique | AFP | Mozambique’s veteran rebel leader Afonso Dhlakama, who mixed guerrilla warfare with opposition politics, has died aged 65, party sources said Thursday. Several sources in Dhlakama’s Renamo party told AFP that Dhlakama passed away after an unconfirmed heart attack, with local television stations also reporting …
Read More »MUSEVENI: Drop violence as a means of conflict resolution
Juba, South Sudan | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has addressed the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) National Liberation Council Meeting where he appealed to its leaders to drop violence as a means of conflict resolution. “Force should be reserved for the enemy. A disagreement among brothers should not …
Read More »Fear and exodus on front line of jihadist fight in Burkina Faso
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso | AFP | On the edge of the forbidding Sahara in the dusty northern market town of Djibo, Burkina Faso’s battle against jihadism is at its most acute. This impoverished corner of West Africa has always seemed distant from the central government in Ouagadougou. Today, though, that …
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