AFRICA

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP |  Five candidates running for African Union chief took part Friday in the bloc’s first leadership debate, calling for more youth involvement in the grouping and greater integration between member nations. The candidates from Kenya, Senegal, Chad, Botswana and Equatorial Guinea took to the stage …

Mogadishu, Somalia | AFP |  Somalia’s top political leaders have announced the presidential election will be held on December 28, the fourth date so far set to conclude drawn-out, delayed and limited polls. The new timetable was laid out in a joint statement issued late Thursday by the government, the …

Banjul, Gambia | AFP | Gambia’s President-elect Adama Barrow vowed Thursday to set up a South Africa-style truth commission as he claimed the army’s support after his surprise election in the west African nation. Barrow, whose shock victory this month ended the 22-year rule of Yahya Jammeh, said the country’s …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |   A British journalist working for The Times of London newspaper said Friday he was being deported from Kenya after being detained for more than a day at the airport without explanation or charge. Jerome Starkey, 35, was locked in a cell overnight after arriving …

Accra, Ghana | AFP | Ghana’s President John Mahama conceded defeat Friday two days after a hotly contested election, seen as a test for a country generally viewed as a beacon of stability in west Africa. Mahama called to congratulate opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo, whose supporters had already gathered outside …

Ghana President Mahama concedes defeat Accra, Ghana | AFP | Ghana’s President John Mahama called opposition Nana Akufo-Addo on Friday to concede defeat and congratulate him on victory in the country’s hotly contested election, a party official said. “Yes he has conceded defeat,” George Lawson of Mahama’s New Democratic Congress …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  The latest effort to end Burundi’s dragging political crisis ran into trouble Friday as the opposition accused the mediator of siding with government by accepting it as “legitimate”. Former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa has failed to get peace talks off the ground since he was …

Kano, Nigeria | AFP |  At least 30 people were killed on Friday when two female suicide bombers detonated their explosives in a busy market in northeast Nigeria, the military said. “At least 30 people have been killed in the suicide blasts carried out by two female suicide bombers in …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  Kenya deployed army doctors on Friday to the country’s main teaching and referral hospital where the last remaining doctors joined a five-day strike that has crippled healthcare services around the country. “Our doctors are already at the hospital to help needy cases,” said military spokesman …

Accra, Ghana | AFP | Opposition challenger Nana Akufo-Addo has a clear lead in Ghana’s hotly contested presidential election, local media reported Friday, although official results have yet to be released two days after the vote. And supporters of incumbent President John Mahama insisted he had emerged triumphant again, despite …