AFRICA

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Sudan’s state security prosecutor has charged the country’s main opposition leader, Sadiq al-Mahdi, with collaborating with rebel groups to overthrow the regime of President Omar al-Bashir, a media network reported Tuesday. Bashir, backed by Islamists, toppled Mahdi’s civilian government in a 1989 coup after which …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | The Democratic Republic of Congo wants the UN mission to leave the country in 2020, Foreign Minister Leonard She Okitundu said Tuesday, following a UN Security Council vote last week extending the peacekeepers’ mandate for another year. “We have let the Security Council know that …

Jerusalem, Undefined | AFP | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled an agreement with the UN refugee agency on Tuesday aimed at avoiding forced deportations of thousands of African migrants only hours after having announced the deal himself. The stunning turnaround after Netanyahu announced the accord in a televised address …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | The kidnappers of a Catholic priest abducted in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo at the weekend are demanding $500,000 for his release, the church said on Tuesday. Father Celestin Ngango was taken away by armed men on Sunday shortly after he had celebrated Easter …

Conakry, Guinea | AFP | Guinean opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo on Monday called for an end to protests over disputed local election results that has left at least 15 people dead after violent confrontations with the security services. Former prime minister Diallo earlier met President Alpha Conde to discuss how …

Bamako, Mali | AFP | Amnesty International on Tuesday called on authorities in Mali to investigate extrajudicial killings following the discovery last week of a mass grave containing six bodies. The rights group said it had collected evidence that “the six bodies found in a mass grave on 25 March had …

Beijing, China | AFP | Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa was due to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday as he seeks economic support from a major partner that previously backed his ousted predecessor Robert Mugabe. Mnangagwa, who received military training in China when he was a young liberation fighter decades …

United Nations, United States | AFP | The United Nations on Monday disputed claims by Morocco that the Polisario Front had carried out incursions in a buffer zone of Western Sahara, where a UN mission is monitoring a ceasefire. Morocco wrote to the Security Council on Sunday to report that …

Meeting raises hope for improved relations between Kampala and Kigali Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | A recent one-day state visit by Rwandan President Paul Kagame to Uganda on March.25 has raised hopes that relations between the two countries might return to normalcy again after several months of heightened tensions. …

Cairo, Egypt | AFP | Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi swept to a second term with 97 percent of valid votes, official results showed Monday, dominating an election last week that saw him face no serious rivals. The head of the election authority Lasheen Ibrahim said at a press conference that …