AFRICA

Tripoli, Libya | AFP |  Libya’s National Oil Company warned Friday against threats to block oil exports, the war-torn country’s main income source, two days before a Berlin conference aimed at relaunching a peace process. Tribes close to eastern Libya-based military strongman Khalifa Haftar had called for a blockade of coastal …

Monrovia, Liberia | AFP |  Dominic Kpadeh heaves a hammer over his head to crack a half-tonne rock in a northern suburb of Liberia’s capital Monrovia, knowing his hard labour earns him far less than a year ago. Kpadeh and his colleagues used to go home with $1,000 (900 euros) a …

Istanbul, Turkey | AFP | Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned Europe it could face new threats from terrorist organisations if Libya’s UN-recognised government in Tripoli were to fall. In the article, published on Saturday on the eve of a Libya peace conference in Berlin, Erdogan said the EU’s …

Juba, South Sudan | AFP | The latest round of peace talks between South Sudan’s two rival leaders has failed to strike a deal on the vital issue of internal boundaries, mediators said on Friday. Critics have accused President Salva Kiir of reorganising state boundaries to shore up his power and …

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP |  Diekoye Oyeyinka, 33, has been billed as one of the most promising Nigerian writers of his generation. He went to some of the finest schools in his West African homeland but says that like the majority of his classmates he “didn’t know about Biafra until …

Aboard a US military aircraft, Undefined | AFP | The United States will make a decision on the level of its presence in Africa, particularly in the Sahel region, in about two months, Washington’s top military officer said Thursday. Washington has some 7,000 special forces on rotation in Africa carrying out …

Malawi anti-bribery protest draws thousands Lilongwe, Malawi | AFP |  Tens of thousands of Malawians took part in protests on Thursday at alleged attempts to bribe judges overseeing a legal challenge to the re-election last year of President Peter Mutharika. People took to the streets after the country’s chief justice …

Abuja, Nigeria | AFP |  English-speaking West African countries on Thursday criticised a move to rename the CFA franc used by former French colonies, saying the move jarred with plans to introduce a region-wide currency of the same name. Members of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) Convergence Council said …

Isabel dos Santos says run for president ‘possible’ Luanda, Angola | AFP | The billionaire daughter of Angola’s ex-president, Isabel dos Santos, says she would consider running for president in the next election in 2022. Dos Santos is being probed under an anti-graft campaign launched by her father’s successor President …

Banjul, Gambia | AFP |  Thousands of supporters of Gambia’s former dictator Yahya Jammeh demonstrated Thursday on the outskirts of the capital Banjul, demanding his return from exile. The protest came days after the former autocrat was heard in a leaked audio recording insisting that the tiny West African state …