AFRICA

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP |  Four children were among 18 people killed Thursday when a Sudanese military transport plane crashed after take off from West Darfur state, an army spokesman said. The plane crashed five minutes after take off from an airport in the state capital El Geneina, after delivering …

Embalo wins Guinea-Bissau presidency, beaten PAIGC cries foul Bissau, Guinea-Bissau | AFP | Opposition leader Umaro Sissoco Embalo won the presidential election in the volatile West African state of Guinea-Bissau, the National Electoral Commission (CNE) announced Wednesday, but the country’s historic ruling PAIGC party cried foul. Embalo won 53.55 percent …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | In the past decade, Somali Islamist group Al-Shabaab has lost territory, suffered defections and faced mounting US air strikes, but analysts say the group is as strong a threat as ever, flourishing under the country’s weak government. Despite years of costly efforts to combat the group, …

Brazzaville, Congo | AFP | Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso has been chosen by his party to run again for the top job in 2021, having already led the central African country for a total of 35 years. During its congress in Brazzaville overnight Monday, his Congolese Party of Labour (PCT) …

Abidjan, Ivory Coast | AFP |  Former Ivory Coast political leader Charles Ble Goude said Monday he had been sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison by an Ivorian court over murder, rape and torture charges. Ble Goude was cleared of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in the …

Nyeri, Kenya | AFP |  In a humming factory in Kenya’s highlands, tea is hand-plucked from the fields, cured and shredded into the fine leaves that have sated drinkers from London to Lahore for generations. But Kenya’s prized black tea isn’t fetching the prices it once did, forcing the top supplier …

Beni, DR Congo | AFP |  Eighteen people in eastern DR Congo’s troubled region of Beni have been killed in a fresh attack by a notorious armed group, a local official said on Monday. “There was an incursion in Apetina-Sana by the ADF last night,” Beni administrator Donat Kibwana told …

Omdurman, Sudan | AFP |  A Sudanese court on Monday sentenced 27 intelligence agents to death for torturing and killing a protester early this year, an AFP correspondent said. The defendants were found guilty of torturing to death Ahmed al-Kheir Awadh at an intelligence services facility and sentenced to be …

Washington, United States | AFP | The United States military said it killed four “terrorists” in airstrikes against the Al-Shabaab militant group in Somalia on Sunday, a day after the country’s deadliest attack in two years. US Africa Command (AFRICOM) conducted three airstrikes in two locations in the conflict-hit east …

Mogadishu, Somalia | AFP |  A Turkish military plane arrived in Mogadishu on Sunday to evacuate those gravely wounded in a devastating bombing that killed 79 people and overwhelmed local health services, in the latest attack on a city dogged by insecurity. The aircraft also brought doctors to help treat …