Tag Archives: unrest

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP |  Dozens of prisoners escaped from a jail in Democratic Republic of Congo early Friday, less than 48 hours after rebels attacked Kinshasa’s main prison, freeing their leader and 50 others. “Among the 74 prisoners housed in the dilapidated prison in Kasangulu, 68 escaped,” local …

Gao, Mali | AFP | President Emmanuel Macron visited French troops fighting jihadists in conflict-torn Mali on Friday and urged faster progress on a peace accord signed in 2015. At the end of his first week in office, Macron flew into Gao, a city in Mali’s deeply-troubled north, where he …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP |  Rebels from an outlawed political-religious group attacked Kinshasa’s central prison on Wednesday, breaking out their leader and about 50 other prisoners, the Congolese government said. “Followers of the Bundu Dia Kongo (BDK) attacked Makala prison at dawn and broke out around 50 prisoners including …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP |  Two decades after Kinshasa gave itself up willingly to rebel commander Laurent-Desire Kabila, his son Joseph remains at the helm of this vast, conflict-ravaged nation although his rule is mired in political crisis. Back in 1997, the country then known as Zaire was struggling …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  At least four people died on Tuesday when their vehicle set off an improvised explosive device in a small Kenyan town near the border with Somalia, police said. The blast was the second in two days to hit border towns after suspected Shabaab militants attacked …

Bouaké, Ivory Coast | AFP |  Heavy gunfire rang out Monday in Ivory Coast’s two biggest cities as a four-day mutiny by disgruntled soldiers spread nationwide but the government claimed a deal to end the crisis had been reached. Banks, offices and department stores closed in the heart of the …

Kano, Nigeria | AFP |  Boko Haram late on Friday released a video claiming to show the Chibok schoolgirls who refused to be rescued as part of a recent swap deal with the Nigerian government. In the three-minute video, a woman who claims to be Maida Yakubu, one of the …

Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | A schoolgirl who was among more than 200 kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014 refused to be part of a release deal because she is now married to a militant fighter, Nigeria’s government said Tuesday. The disclosure underlines the complex psychological effects of a lengthy …

Kano, Nigeria | AFP | Military pressure, in-fighting within Boko Haram and Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s health combined to secure the release of 82 kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls, sources said Monday. The latest batch of the more than 200 schoolgirls abducted in April 2014 were freed Saturday in a prisoner swap …

UN worried about DRC. Up to 4,600 people flee their homes in DR Congo daily Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | An average of 4,600 people flee their homes every day in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the UN said Monday, warning of a dramatically deteriorating humanitarian situation in the country. A …