When gunmen arrived in her village for the second time, Alexandrina Calisto realised it was time to take her terrified family to join the latest wave of people fleeing Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province.The lawless region has been prey to a jihadist insurgency for more than six years, but in recent weeks there has been a …

Displaced Mozambicans recall terror of new jihadist attacksThu, 29 Feb 2024 19:34:43 GMT Read More »

Former Tanzanian president Ali Hassan Mwinyi, who introduced multi-party democracy to the East African nation, died on Thursday aged 98, the presidency said.”Dear citizens, it is with great sadness that I announce the death of the retired president… at 5:30 in the evening,” President Samia Suluhu Hassan said on state television TBC1.Mwinyi, who served two terms, …

Former Tanzanian president Ali Hassan Mwinyi dies aged 98Thu, 29 Feb 2024 19:26:27 GMT Read More »

A major Senegalese civil society collective said Thursday it was joining forces with the opposition to ensure the presidential election is held before April 2, when President Macky Sall’s mandate runs out.The traditionally stable West African country plunged into its worst turmoil in decades after Sall’s last-minute deferral of the presidential election, that was due …

Senegal civil society, opposition unite for vote before April 2Thu, 29 Feb 2024 16:00:07 GMT Read More »

At least 24 people seeking to reach Europe drowned off northern Senegal when their loaded vessel sank, the governor of the Saint Louis region told AFP on Thursday.Governor Alioune Badara Samb said 24 bodies had been found since Wednesday when the boat got into difficulty in a particularly dangerous part of the northern coast. He …

At least 24 dead in migrant shipwreck off SenegalThu, 29 Feb 2024 12:51:19 GMT Read More »

Road blocks and heavy security were in place around an opposition party’s HQ in Chad’s capital on Thursday, a day after gunfire erupted nearby following a deadly attack on the security agency.Soldiers were deployed around the headquarters of the opposition Socialist Party Without Borders (PSF).The junta-led government has accused the party of being responsible for …

Heavy security in Chad capital after attack on intelligence HQThu, 29 Feb 2024 10:22:23 GMT Read More »

A new truck arrives in the South Sudanese town of Renk, packed with dozens of elderly men, women and children, their exhausted faces betraying the strain of their traumatic journey out of war-ravaged Sudan.They are among more than half a million people who have crossed the border into South Sudan, which is struggling to accommodate …

Sudanese refugees face gruelling wait in overcrowded S.Sudan campsThu, 29 Feb 2024 08:38:21 GMT Read More »

Napoleon Krizoa gazed stunned at the rubble before him, all that was left of his house, of his whole neighbourhood — swept away in a vast demolition operation by the Abidjan city authorities.”It was all torn down in front of us,” said his wife, Flora Seka, as she nursed their months-old baby daughter.She had only …

Outcry over ‘insanitary’ houses demolished in ICoast’s AbidjanThu, 29 Feb 2024 07:07:41 GMT Read More »

At a South African farm, hundreds of ostriches stretch their slender necks and shake their black feathers under the setting sun. The birds’ lanky legs raise a cloud of ochre dust in their enclosure, one of dozens dotting the rugged landscape surrounding the southern town of Oudtshoorn. “May the feathers be with you,” reads an inscription welcoming …

South African town sees gold in ostrich plumesThu, 29 Feb 2024 06:51:49 GMT Read More »

Democracy faced sharp, widespread setbacks worldwide in 2023 with violence and manipulation marring a series of elections, Freedom House said Thursday.In its annual report, the US-funded pro-democracy advocacy and research group switched classifications for two countries, downgrading Ecuador from free to partly free and upgrading Thailand from not free to partly free.Overall, political rights and …

Global freedom drops sharply in 2023, study saysThu, 29 Feb 2024 05:24:30 GMT Read More »

A “general search” of vehicles and passersby was under way late Wednesday in Chad’s capital after gunfire erupted near an opposition party’s headquarters.The sound of automatic weapons fire earlier in the day prompted people to leave the area in the centre of N’Djamena where the Socialist Party Without Borders’ (PSF) main office had been surrounded …

Chad government on alert after attack on security servicesThu, 29 Feb 2024 02:36:30 GMT Read More »