AFP Africa

Joint US-Somalia air strikes and combat killed dozens of Al-Shabaab jihadists attacking a key town and a military base and also destroyed a shipment of weapons, the Somali government said on Thursday.Growing attacks by the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist group, including one on President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s convoy, are fuelling worries of a jihadist resurgence after militants …

Somalia air strikes, combat kill dozens of jihadists: govtThu, 17 Apr 2025 11:14:40 GMT Read More »

Football fans in China were outraged by Zhejiang FC’s decision to go ahead with a league match hours after the death of their Gabon international striker Aaron Boupendza.Police have ruled out foul play in the death of the 28-year-old, who died after falling from the 11th floor of a building in the eastern city of …

Anger as China club plays hours after striker Boupendza’s deathThu, 17 Apr 2025 10:59:16 GMT Read More »

The way Davido sees it, Nigerian culture is having a moment.”We’re very popular, not only in music,” the 32-year-old Afrobeats star told AFP during a recent interview in Paris, pointing to the film, food and fashion influence his country is increasingly exporting to the rest of the world.Even amid criticism from some that American artists …

Afrobeats star Davido sees Nigeria’s star risingThu, 17 Apr 2025 10:47:35 GMT Read More »

When the news came through of yet another massacre in the countryside in Nigeria’s volatile Plateau state, local Christian Jamaima Haruna was terrified for her Muslim husband.The slayings in the Bokkos district left 52 dead — one of two major bouts of suspected intercommunal violence this month, in a state where Muslim herders and mostly …

Nigerian mixed-faith families sense danger as violence flaresThu, 17 Apr 2025 04:03:31 GMT Read More »

The foreign ministers of Nigeria and Niger held talks Wednesday on cross-border security, terrorism and economic cooperation, despite tensions between the two neighbours since the July 2023 coup in Niger.It comes after Nigeria this month renewed calls for the release of Niger’s deposed president Mohamed Bazoum, who is being held at the presidential palace in …

Nigeria, Niger foreign ministers meet for security talksThu, 17 Apr 2025 02:19:47 GMT Read More »

People were hacked to death with machetes. Gunfire erupted everywhere, seemingly at random. No one was spared, including a nine-month-old baby.Two attacks in as many weeks in Nigeria’s Plateau state have left more than 100 people dead in a region known for intercommunal conflict and land disputes between herders and farmers.But the back-to-back massacres — …

None spared in Nigeria gun, machete massacre: survivorsWed, 16 Apr 2025 22:39:42 GMT Read More »

At least 8,000 people were reported missing in war-ravaged Sudan in 2024, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday, warning that the figure is just “the tip of the iceberg”.”These are just the cases we have collected directly,” Daniel O’Malley, head of the ICRC delegation in Sudan, told AFP in an …

‘Tip of the iceberg’: Red Cross says 8,000 missing in war-torn Sudan in 2024Wed, 16 Apr 2025 18:48:17 GMT Read More »

Jihadists are assumed to be behind the recent kidnapping of a Swiss woman in Niger, the latest in a series of abductions in the volatile country, analysts say.Large tracts of the west African state are in thrall to armed groups linked to Islamic State (IS) or Al-Qaeda, with the security risk heightened by the recent …

Jihadists likely behind kidnap of Swiss woman in Niger: analystsWed, 16 Apr 2025 16:32:32 GMT Read More »

The UK on Wednesday denounced a move by Sudan’s rebel paramilitary force to install a rival government in the war-torn country, and called for a civilian-led peace settlement.”Unilateral declarations to establish parallel governments on territory under their control are not the answer,” a foreign ministry spokesperson told AFP.”Instead, preserving Sudan’s territorial integrity and sovereignty are …

Rebel rival government in Sudan ‘not the answer’: UKWed, 16 Apr 2025 16:25:24 GMT Read More »

Attacks in Nigeria’s troubled north-central state of Plateau have killed more than more than 100 people in just under two weeks.Plateau, on the dividing line between Nigeria’s mostly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south, has historically been a flashpoint for intercommunal violence.Analysts say the situation in the region — the so-called Middle Belt — is …

What we know about central Nigeria’s surge in violenceWed, 16 Apr 2025 13:21:43 GMT Read More »