AFRICA

Cotonou, Benin | AFP | Benin opposition politician Sebastien Ajavon on Wednesday took the country’s government to court, demanding nearly $990 million in damages after a string of arrests and prosecutions. One of the failed presidential candidate’s four lawyers, Julien Bensimhon, told the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights …

Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | The Nigerian government on Wednesday said it was acting to prevent the spread of Ebola from Democratic Republic of Congo where an outbreak of the disease has killed 17 people. The federal government had put in place an emergency programme to monitor all border activity …

Mogadishu, Somalia | AFP | Shabaab militants stoned a Somali woman to death on Wednesday after an Islamic court sentenced her to the punishment for having married 11 men, the Al-Qaeda-linked group and witnesses said. According to witnesses the woman was publicly executed in the Sablaale district of the lower …

Buhari Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | Nigeria’s main opposition party has said President Muhammadu Buhari is unfit to run the country after he again left for London on medical grounds. The 75-year-old former military ruler last year spent five months in London seeking treatment for an undisclosed illness that he …

Maiduguri, Nigeria | AFP | Despite military successes scored against Boko Haram jihadists, it will take years to “completely eliminate” the group, a United Nations envoy told AFP Tuesday. “Boko Haram has proven to be a resilient group…I think it will take time to totally eliminate,” said Muhammad Ibn Chambas, special …

  Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP |  Seventeen people in northwest Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have died from Ebola, the health ministry said on Tuesday, describing the fresh outbreak as a “public health emergency with international impact.” “Twenty-one cases of fever with haemorrhagic indications and 17 deaths” have been …

Benghazi, Libya | AFP | A suicide bomber on Tuesday attacked a checkpoint in eastern Libya held by militiamen loyal to strongman Khalifa Haftar, killing at least two people including a civilian, a senior security official said. The attacker also killed a fighter from Haftar’s self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) …

Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | President Muhammadu Buhari flew out of Nigeria on Tuesday, a source at the capital’s airport said, less than a day after Buhari announced he was heading to Britain for medical reasons. “I will be travelling to the United Kingdom tomorrow, to see my doctor, at …

Cape Town, South Africa | AFP | The mayor of Cape Town, South Africa’s second largest city, was ousted by her own party on Tuesday after her administration came under fire over mismanagement and alleged corruption. “Patricia de Lille is no longer the mayor of Cape Town because she is …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Nine Kenyan soldiers were killed in southern Somalia when their convoy hit a roadside bomb, authorities said Monday, in an attack claimed by the Islamist group Al-Shabaab. “Earlier today, I was appalled and saddened to learn that we had lost nine young patriots to a …