Africa

An oil tanker truck caught fire in Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos on Thursday, June 28, killing nine people and burning out 53 other vehicles, an emergency agency official said. Video seen by Reuters showed vehicles ablaze and thick black smoke billowing across a wide stretch of road. The accident happened on a motorway that connects […]

Leaders of warring factions in South Sudan signed a peace deal on June 28 which may bring an end to five bloody years of conflict which have cost tens of thousands of lives. After two days of talks, South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar, signed the peace agreement. While any agreement […]

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo—Democratic Republic of Congo moved closer to declaring its Ebola outbreak over when the health ministry said it had completed surveillance of the last people who came into contact with patients and had not found any new cases. If no further cases of the deadly disease are confirmed after one more […]

JOS, Nigeria—More than 200 people were killed over the weekend in violence in central Nigeria’s Plateau state, the state governor said, making it one of the bloodiest clashes in the months leading up to an election. Police previously said 86 had been killed. There has been a spike in communal violence since the start of […]

CASTILLE, Malta—A humanitarian ship that has had about 230 rescued migrants on board for almost a week will enter a Maltese port on Wednesday, ending a standoff with Italy which refused to let the ship dock. Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said seven European Union countries had offered to share the burden of the migrants […]

BAUCHI, Nigeria—Nigeria’s president called for calm on Sunday after at least 86 people died in clashes between farmers and semi-nomadic herders over the weekend. Authorities imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in central Plateau state after the fighting, part of an escalation of clashes that have raged for years, often over dwindling fertile land. A total of […]

ADDIS ABABA—Ethiopian police said on Saturday six suspects were under investigation for a grenade attack that killed two people and injured around 150 at rally in support of new Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in Addis Ababa earlier in the day. “Six suspects are currently under investigation for involvement in the attack,” the Federal Police […]

At least 31 people died and dozens more were injured after two suicide bombers and rocket-propelled grenades struck a northern Nigerian town, according to reports. The attacks took place on Saturday evening in Borno state as people were coming home after celebrating the Eid al-Fitr holiday. The Punch, a local newspaper, reported that 48 people […]

NAIROBI—Eight Kenyan police officials were killed in the eastern part of the country on Sunday after their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device planted by Somalia’s al Shabaab terrorist group, police said. Al Shabaab, an al-Qaida-linked jihadist fundamentalist group, is fighting to topple Somalia’s government, establish their own rule based on their strict interpretation of Islamic […]

JOHANNESBURG—Two people were stabbed to death on Thursday at a mosque in South Africa’s Malmesbury in the Western Cape before the attacker was shot dead by police. The attack comes a month after three knife-wielding men stormed a mosque north of Durban, killing one person and seriously injuring two others. Police said that incident showed […]

MOGADISHU—Somalia’s Islamist group al Shabaab has claimed responsibility for an attack in which a U.S. commando was killed and four others were wounded when they came under fire in the country. The U.S. special operations forces were fighting alongside about 800 troops from the Somali National Security Forces and Kenyan Defence Forces when they were […]

WASHINGTON–A U.S. commando was killed and four others were wounded on Friday when they came under fire in Somalia during an operation against al-Shabaab terrorists, the U.S. military said. The U.S. special operations forces were fighting alongside about 800 troops from the Somali National Security Forces and Kenyan Defense Forces when they were attacked about […]

A Protestant pastor was killed by a crocodile while performing a baptism ceremony in Ethiopia’s Lake Abaya on June 3. Pastor Dochio Eshete and about 80 members of his congregation were gathered on the shore of Lake Abaya for a traditional Christian baptism ceremony During the ceremony the baptismal candidate and the pastor stood in […]

China’s demand for donkey hide to produce herbal medicine is decimating the animal population in Kenya, according to a new report by France 24, a French television network. Furthermore, local farmers who depend on the animals for farm labor and transportation are seeing their livelihoods being threatened. “E jiao” is a type of traditional Chinese […]

Court documents newly unveiled from a civil lawsuit filed in Dallas, Texas, have revealed how Chinese telecoms giant ZTE bribed Liberian officials to win a contract to provide telecommunication services in the West African nation. Meanwhile, American software developer Seven Networks has just filed a patent infringement lawsuit against ZTE, also in Texas. The Dallas […]

NAIROB—Kenyan authorities charged 54 people, mainly civil servants, on Monday in an investigation into the theft of nearly $100 million of public funds, a rare move to hold officials to account for graft in a nation where it is widespread. Among the civil servants and businesspeople charged was the head of the National Youth Service, […]

JOHANNESBURG—South African authorities are investigating an alleged cryptocurrency scam that defrauded investors of 1 billion rand ($80 million) with promises of huge returns that never materialized, police said on Friday. The fraud investigation involves a company named BTC Global, which told clients they would earn 2 percent per day, 14 percent a week and 50 […]

Editor’s Note: This article contains graphic descriptions that some readers may find disturbing. There is a billion-dollar market for human body parts that, unlike the organ transplant market, is largely unregulated. Human heads, limbs, torsos, and everything else from arteries to fingernails are being traded by U.S. body brokers internationally. Most of the bodies originating […]

JOHANNESBURG—South Africa’s Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) said on Thursday it had suspended all flights of state-run airline SA Express over safety concerns. The decision comes after Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Thursday that he had appointed an “intervention team” to help at the troubled airline, which has lost several executive managers who have […]

OUAGADOUGOU/TAIPEI—Taiwan lost its second diplomatic ally in less than a month when Burkina Faso said on May 24 that it had cut ties with the self-ruled island, following intense pressure from the Chinese regime. The Chinese Communist Party considers Taiwan a part of its territory and insists on a “one China policy” that precludes any […]