West Africa's regional bloc known as ECOWAS has lifted travel, commercial and economic sanctions imposed on Niger that were aimed at reversing the coup staged in the country last year, a senior official announced Saturday. The sanctions will be lifted with immediate effect, the president of the ECOWAS Commission, Omar Alieu Touray said after ...

 Zambia has seen a surge in cholera cases since January 2024 with fatalities reaching 700, medical charity Doctors Without Borders said in a statement. The country has recorded nearly 20,000 infections since the outbreak started in October 2023. While at the beginning of the outbreak cases were restricted to Lusaka and Ndola , the two largest ...

 Jean-Marie Bockel, French President Emmanuel Macron's envoy for Africa, spoke on Wednesday with the Ivorian head of state Alassane Ouattara in Abidjan, discussing "a remodelling" of the French military presence in Ivory Coast. "The term [remodeled] seems the clearest. Because it is a global meeting. There is the presence dimension (...). Some...

 The United Nations has warned that the humanitarian situation in the restive eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has worsened, including with gender-based violence. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Bruno Lemarquis at the UN Stabilization Mission (MONUSCO), in the DRC gave the warning on Tuesday. "The crisis in the DR...

 Extremist rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have killed at least two dozen civilians in separate attacks this week, local authorities and a civil society group said Tuesday. Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels , who have links to the Islamic State group , killed 13 people in Mambasa territory, Ituri province , on Tuesday, said ...

 Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the head of UN peacekeeping arrived today (18 Feb) in South Sudan to assess progress made on the peace process and preparations underway for the upcoming elections scheduled for December, the country's first since independence. In Juba, he is expected to hold meetings with leaders of the Transitional Government of Nationa...

 Kenyan scientists and conservationists are intensifying efforts to safeguard these elusive creatures from extinction. "We have been able to sacrifice one pangolin to understand how the scales lose their weight and so when at the airport you are found with a suitcase or a bag of pangolin scales we can be able to determine how many pangolins ar...

 Senegalese citizens took to the streets to protest against the potential extension of President Macky Sall's term beyond April 2nd, the date designated by the constitution for the transfer of power. Carrying flags and banners emblazoned with messages such as "Election by force" and "Terminus April 2nd," demonstrators voiced their staunch oppo...

 The defence and foreign affairs ministers from Mali and Niger arrived in Burkina Faso's capital on Thursday for a meeting between the three countries. It comes just weeks after their withdrawal from regional bloc ECOWAS. The three members of the Alliance of Sahel States are now laying the steps to create a tri-state confederation. Spokesman f...

 The U.S. will build up to five military bases for the Somali army in a project that seeks to bolster the Somalian national army's capabilities amid ongoing threats from an extremist group. Somalia's defense minister and the U.S. charge d'affaires signed a memorandum of understanding Thursday in Mogadishu, the Somali capital. The agreement com...

 Emilio Nsue, top scorer in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Ivory Coast has been suspended indefinitely by his country's football federation. The Equatorial Guinea striker was allegedly involved in "several episodes of serious indiscipline" during the AFCON 2023 according to the Equatoguinean federation (Feguifut). Nsue, 34, finished...

 Ethiopia's human rights watchdog says at least 45 people were killed during door-to-door raids by federal security forces in the country's northern Amhara region in in late January. The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) on Tuesday confirmed the identity of the civilians who is says "were extrajudicially killed by government security fo...

 Marathon world record-holder Kelvin Kiptum and his coach died in a car crash in Kenya late Sunday, a fellow athlete who went to the hospital and saw Kiptum's body said. Kiptum was 24 and on course to be a superstar of long-distance running. Kiptum and his Rwandan coach Gervais Hakizimana were killed in the crash at around 11 p.m., said Kenyan...

 Delegates from around the world gathered in Panama City for the tenth conference of the Parties (COP) to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, known as the WHO FCTC. It was the first in-person COP since 2018, with earlier meetings held remotely because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although in the past 20 years tobacco prevalence among...

 South Sudan is heading towards its first elections at the end of this year. The United Nations Mission in the nation and the UN Development Programme recently held an interactive workshop in the capital Juba. Despite the magnitude of the task ahead, the Chair of South Sudan's electoral Commission believes free, fair, and credible elections ca...

 Iconic buildings and recreation spaces in the Kenyan capital Nairobi have been dazzling in red since Thursday to celebrate the arrival of Chinese Spring festival,which falls on Saturday. The Spring Festival, or the Chinese New Year, is China's grandest traditional festival marked by family reunions. Chinese people usually host colorful activi...

 The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has convened an emergency meeting to address pressing issues across the region. Among the key concerns are the political turmoil in Senegal and ongoing tensions with military regimes in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. The gathering in Abuja, Nigeria, scheduled for Thursday, February 8, wil...

 A South African court on Tuesday upheld a ban on opposition party leaders from attending President Cyril Ramaphosa's speech this week to mark the opening of the new parliamentary session, after were sanctioned for disrupting the event a year ago. The leader, deputy leader and four other representatives of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) ,...

 Senegal's parliament backed late Monday (Feb. 05) the postpone****ment of the February 25 election and the extension of the mandate of president Macky Sall which was due to expire on April 2nd. The news hit like a bomb and has divided Senegalese since. "Just like thousands of Senegalese, I feel frustrated because we didn't expect Macky Sall t...

 On February 5th, Burkina Faso became the second country in the African Region to integrate the malaria vaccine into its routine immunization schedule. The country has officially introduced the RTS,S malaria vaccine into its expanded vaccination programme across 27 health districts. The World Health Organization endorsed the vaccine two years ...