AFRICA

Cairo, Egypt | AFP | Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Friday he would stand in a presidential election due to take place in March. “I announce to you in the honesty and transparency which we are used to… my candidacy for the post of president of the republic,” Sisi …

Washington, United States | AFP | US forces in Somalia said Friday that four Al-Shabaab militants were killed in an airstrike as part of the ongoing offensive against the jihadist rebels. The US Africa Command said the strike took place on Thursday in southern Somalia, around 50 kilometers (30 miles) …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | The defence minister for the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday said the army was waging ‘war’ against two militia forces in the country’s troubled east. Crispin Atama Thabe told AFP that government forces were tackling rebels in both South Kivu province and neighbouring …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | A South African court on Friday struck down a long-running effort by late president Nelson Mandela’s ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela to claim ownership of his former rural home. The Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed her appeal against a lower court’s ruling that she was not …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | A former leader of a black tribal homeland that was one of the so-called Bantustans that helped to underpin South Africa’s apartheid system has died, local media reported on Friday. Lucas Mangope, 94, was president of Bophuthatswana until democracy in 1994 after which the …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP |  A general commanding military operations in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo was ambushed, army sources said on Friday, as rebels launched fresh attacks in the troubled region. A convoy that included General Philemon Yav, in charge of forces in the region, came under fire …

Niamey, Niger | AFP | At least seven Niger soldiers were killed and more than a dozen others wounded this week in an attack by suspected Boko Haram militants in the country’s southeast, the government said on Friday. “The provisional toll for the cowardly terror attack on Wednesday night in Toummour …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa wants international observers including UN officials to watch over the country’s upcoming elections, he said in a Financial Times interview. Mnangagwa has adopted a more diplomatic tone since taking over as leader in November, after the ousting of the authoritarian …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | Britain is set to send helicopters to bolster a key French counter-terrorism operation in Mali in a package of measures to be agreed at a summit near London on Thursday. The commitment will come as Prime Minister Theresa May meets French President Emmanuel Macron …

Washington, United States | AFP | South Africa’s central bank chief Lesetja Kganyago will take over as chair of the International Monetary Fund’s policy advisory committee, the IMF announced Thursday. Kganyago, who has served as governor of the South African Reserve Bank since late 2014, takes on a three-year post …