Africa

MOGADISHU—At least 6 people died on Sunday after a suicide bomber blew himself up in a restaurant just outside a senior official’s office in the central Somali city of Beledweyne, police and residents said. The al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group said it was behind the attack. “At least six people died and several others were […]

The United Nations has launched global efforts and resolutions to increase the number of women in police forces and peacekeeping. On Aug. 29, 2017, U.N. Women released a new strategic plan committed to increasing the number of female peacekeepers. In it, they explain how they will work to increase the number of women mediators, negotiators, […]

ABUJA—The Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram has killed 381 civilians in Nigeria and Cameroon since the beginning of April, rights group Amnesty International said on Tuesday, a testament to the terrorist group’s deadly resurgence. The Nigerian military has repeatedly said Boko Haram has been “defeated”. But in recent months, it has carried out a string […]

ABUJA—Nigeria’s economy emerged from recession in the second quarter, expanding 0.55 percent year-on-year, the statistics office said on Tuesday, as economists expressed concern at the sluggish recovery. Africa’s largest economy shrank by 1.5 percent in 2016 for its first annual contraction in 25 years. It also declined in the first quarter of this year, due […]

NAIROBI—Seven Kenyan teenage schoolgirls died and 10 more were hospitalized after a fire engulfed their boarding school dormitory in Nairobi early on Saturday morning, a government official said. The cause of the fire was not known, and the government ordered Moi Girls School closed for two weeks while it investigated, education minister Fred Matiangi told […]

  A poor South African student went on a 73-day spending spree after she received a financial aid check worth over $1 million. She spent money on clothes, parties, concerts, and gifts for friends. Accounting student Sibongile Mani, 27, didn’t inform school officials about the puzzlingly enormous sum. Her usual financial aid check is $108 a […]

The ISIS terrorist group is being blamed for the beheading of at least 11 people at a checkpoint in Libya—two civilians and nine soldiers loyal to the Libyan National Army (LNA). The attack took place in the central district of al-Jufra, about 400 miles southeast of Tripoli and some 220 miles south of the coastal […]

FREETOWN—Rescue workers have recovered 270 bodies so far from a mudslide in the outskirts of Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown, the mayor said on Tuesday, as rescue operations continued and morgues struggled to find space for all the dead. President Ernest Bai Koroma urged residents of Regent and other flooded areas around Freetown to evacuate immediately so that […]

Hundreds of people are believed to have been killed when a mudslide struck the outskirts ofSierra Leone’s capital Freetown on Monday, Vice President Victor Foh said. The Red Cross put the number of bodies so far at the central morgue at 179. Earlier, an official at the morgue at Connaught Hospital in Freetown said it had […]

OUAGADOUGOU–Suspected radical Islamic terrorists killed at least 18 people and wounded several during a raid on a restaurant in Burkina Faso’s capital overnight, but security forces shot dead both attackers and freed people trapped inside the building. “This is a terrorist attack,” Communications Minister Remi Dandjinou told a news conference on Monday. Burkina Faso, like […]

Bill Gates has told Reuters his foundation plans to spend more than $300 million in Tanzania this year on public health and poverty reduction programs. In an interview, the billionaire said aid was now being spent “in a smarter way” in some parts of the world. “Some countries have made good progress in the reduction […]

CAIRO—An Egyptian prosecutor has ordered the detention of the train drivers and their assistants involved in the fatal collision in Alexandria on Friday, state news agency MENA said. At least 41 people were killed and 133 injured, the health ministry said, when two trains collided in the coastal city on Friday, the latest in a […]

NAIROBI—Kenya was largely quiet on Sunday following violence in the aftermath of elections, as opposition leader Raila Odinga came under growing international pressure to concede defeat. The election commission on Friday declared incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta winner of the presidential poll by 1.4 million votes. International observers said Tuesday’s election was largely fair but Odinga disputes […]

NAIROBI/KISUMU, Kenya—Kenyan police killed at least 11 people in a crackdown on protests as anger at the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta erupted in the western city of Kisumu and slums ringing the capital, officials and witnesses said on Saturday. The bodies of nine young men shot dead overnight in Nairobi’s Mathare slum had been […]

ABUJA—Gunmen killed 11 people and wounded 18 others in a church in southeastern Nigeria on Sunday in an attack arising from a feud between members of the local community, officials said. However, police believe that a man the gunmen were hunting for was not present in the church and so escaped the attack. The attackers […]

DOUALA—A suicide bomber has killed at least seven people in a small town in northern Cameroon near the Nigeria border, a local official and a military source said on Sunday. The attack occurred on Saturday near Amchide in Cameroon’s Far North region, which has become a target for Boko Haram suicide bombers, many of whom […]

Police found four donkeys trying to drag a Mercedes-Benz across a border into Zimbabwe. The car smugglers had apparently abandoned the attempt after the donkeys couldn’t continue to drag the car through the sand. The car was a Mercedes-Benz C220. The vehicle and donkeys were found still in South Africa. The animals were unable to […]

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria—A suicide bomber killed 14 people in northeast Nigeria, the state emergency agency said on Saturday, in an attack that bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram, days after a resurgence in the jihadist group’s activities prompted a shift in military tactics. The attack in the town of Dikwa in Borno state came days after […]

ELDORET, Kenya—A gunman and a police officer were killed in an attack on the home of Kenya’s deputy president in the western town of Eldoret, a senior administrator said on Sunday, just over a week before a national election. Deputy President William Ruto and his family were not at home at the time of the […]

MOGADISHU—Somalia’s al Shabaab insurgents and troops from the African Union peacekeeping mission clashed on Sunday, a senior military officer said, while the group said it had killed 39 soldiers. The incident took place in Bulamareer district in Lower Shabelle region about 140 km southwest of Mogadishu. The al Shabaab fighters ambushed a convoy carrying troops […]