South Sudan's government is closing down all schools starting Monday as the country prepares for a wave of extreme heat expected to last two weeks. The health and education ministries advised parents to keep all children indoors as temperatures are expected to soar to 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit), in a statement late Saturday, They war...
Congo has lifted a more than two-decade-old moratorium on the death penalty as authorities struggle to curb violence and militant attacks in the country, according to a justice ministry statement released on Friday. The statement, dated earlier this week, said the ban from 2003 allowed offenders accused of treason and espionage to get away wi...
Security forces in Somalia say they have killed all five attackers who laid siege to a hotel in a normally secure area of the capital. Police spokesperson Kasim Roble said Friday that three soldiers were killed and 27 people injured in the Thursday night attack on the SYL Hotel in Mogadishu. The Somali extremist group al-Shabab said on Telegr...
Supporters of Senegal's top opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, took to the streets of Dakar early Friday following his release from jail late Thursday, ahead of the presidential election later this month. Sonko is widely seen as the main challenger to President Macky Sall's ruling party. He was greeted outside the prison by crowds of supporters...
Eight children and an adult died after eating sea turtle meat on Pemba Island in the Zanzibar archipelago and 78 other people were hospitalized, authorities said Saturday. Sea turtle meat is considered a delicacy by Zanzibar's people even though it periodically results in deaths from chelonitoxism, a type of food poisoning. The adult who died...
Three Egyptian Coptic monks have been tragically killed in what's described as a "criminal assault" within a monastery in South Africa, according to the Christian Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt. The incident is under investigation by South African authorities as a triple murder. The church spokesman stated on Facebook, "Three monks were subj...
Suspected Islamist insurgents kidnapped 50 people, mostly women, in northeastern Nigeria this week, local officials and a resident said on Wednesday, the latest mass abduction by fighters who have waged an insurgency for more than a decade. Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) fighters have mainly operated in Borno state ...
These prickly plants are the stars of the show at a new exhibition in Marrakech. 'CACTUS' at the Yves Saint Laurent Museum is a tribute to the spiny flora. With over 1,700 species of cacti known worldwide, the aim is to highlight their remarkable diversity through various artistic mediums. Some are old specimens, like these "Pachycereus Pecte...
A UN Security Council meeting focused Thursday (Mar. 07) on the war in Sudan. The United Nations Secretary-General warned that the nearly year-long conflict risks escalating regional instability and further fracturing the country. The conflict pits the Sudanese army gainst the paramilitary RSF. "The conflict has taken a devastating toll on th...
In the arid depths of Ethiopia's Tigray region, where drought and conflict have become a cruel reality, Tigray is on the brink of famine, ravaged by two years of war and the unforgiving effects of climate change. Once-lush fields now lie barren, a stark testament to the harsh challenges faced by the inhabitants. At the Fenarwa health center, Ada Ar...
Ministers of Health from the 12 African countries with the highest burden of malaria gathered in Yaoundé, Cameroon, on Wednesday (Mar. 06). Ending deaths from the disease remains a challenge despite a package of measures that have proven to be inefficient and not adapted to the continent. Mali's minister of health and social development, Dr. ...
A rebel group with alleged links to neighbouring Rwanda seized a town in Congo's conflict-hit eastern region following attacks that killed at least 10 people and displaced thousands, reports said Wednesday. The seizure of Nyanzale by M23 rebels came after days of fighting with security forces, local civil society leader Jonas Pandasi said. He...
Somalia has gained full membership of the East African Community (EAC). At a brief ceremony held Monday (Mar. 04) at the EAC headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania, Somalia's Minister of Commerce and Industry,Jibril Abdirashid Haji, presented the instrument of ratification to the bloc's Secretary-General, completing the admission process. EAC Secre...
The South African navy was brought in Monday to help with a search for a 6-year-old girl who has been missing for two weeks in a case that has captured national attention, forcing police to ask people to give them space to work and stop encroaching on the operation and recording it on their cell phones. Joslin Smith went missing on Feb. 19 in...
At least 170 people were killed in northern Burkina Faso last week, a regional prosecutor said in a statement on Sunday. Aly Benjamin Coulibaly said attackers targeted four villages in Yatenga province before 'executing around 170 people' on February 25. The statement did not name the attackers. Burkina Faso is battling an Islamist militant i...
A bomb scare shut down Zimbabwe's Victoria Falls Airport on Friday, forcing the country's president to cancel a planned address at a conference on renewable energy, an official said. Zimbabwean President Edson Mnangagwa was due to address the conference in the morning, but "had to suspend his trip to allow for investigations which are already...
Paramilitary forces and their allied militias fighting for power in Sudan have carried out large-scale ethnic killings and rapes as they take control of much of West Darfur, which could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, UN experts said in a new report. The report to the United Nations Security Council, obtained Thursday by The...
A meningitis outbreak has killed 20 students in northern Nigeria, local media reported Wednesday (Feb. 28). The death toll which remains provisional was announced by the Yobe state Education commissioner. The outbreak has been recorded in some secondary schools in the state. Over a hundred cases have allegedly been reported with three patient...
Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday granted reparations of more than 52 million euros ($56 million) to thousands of victims of a convicted commander in the shadowy Ugandan rebel group the Lord's Resistance Army. Dominic Ongwen was found guilty of 61 war crimes and crimes against humanity by the ICC in February 2021. ...
Nigeria's government and union workers took to the streets of Lagos Tuesday as part of a new nationwide protest that threatened to shut down key services, with people angry about soaring inflation and growing economic pain. Since assuming office last year, President Bola Tinubu has enacted a range of controversial policies including scrapping...
