AFRICA

Antananarivo, Madagascar | AFP | Former president Marc Ravalomanana has accepted defeat in Madagascar’s presidential election, a day after the country’s Constitutional Court confirmed Andry Rajoelina as the new leader of the Indian Ocean island nation. Ravalomanana had lodged a complaint alleging widespread fraud in the December 19 run-off vote …

Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | Boko Haram fighters have told civilians in northeast Nigeria to leave their homes, the army said on Thursday, as tensions mount in the long-running conflict. Army spokesman Onyema Nwachukwu said there was “credible information” the jihadists had “infiltrated some villages” near the Borno state capital Maiduguri. “They have clandestinely been …

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in northeast Nigeria after an increase in violence in the Boko Haram conflict, the United Nations said on Wednesday. “More than 30,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) have arrived in Maiduguri, mainly from Baga, in recent weeks,” …

Rabat, Morocco | AFP | Moroccan authorities closed 2,000 illegal mine shafts last year in Jerada, an impoverished former coal town that has been the site of a string of deadly mining accidents. The closure of the “abandoned and illicitly exploited shafts” was announced Wednesday by the energy and mines …

Popular anger in many countries’ politics in recent years is rooted in the failure of neoliberalism GLOBAL COMMENT | WINNIE BYANYIMA | Imagine a world in which women and girls have their rights respected, climate change receives the attention it so urgently requires, and poverty has been eliminated. Never before …

Paris, France | AFP |  The runner-up in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s long-awaited presidential poll Martin Fayulu on Thursday denounced the results as an “electoral coup”. His fellow opposition candidate Felix Tshisekedi was declared the winner of the December vote by the electoral commission early Thursday morning. “These results …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | The son of DR Congo’s veteran opposition leader, Felix Tshisekedi has taken the prize that eluded his late father — the presidency. On Thursday he was named by election officials as the provisional winner of an historic election in the country. He is the …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | The Democratic Republic of Congo is set to see its first handover of power in 18 years after opposition candidate Felix Tshisekedi was Thursday named by election officials as the provisional winner of an historic presidential poll. The election’s supervisors had faced mounting pressure …

Beni, DR Congo | AFP | Seven civilians and three soldiers were killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday when a militia attacked a military post in the restive east of the country, the army said. The attack, in Beni region, was carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist-rooted militia …

Mogadishu, Somalia | THE INDEPENDENT | The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) is reconstituting its Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) to enhance safety and security of its troops. The exercise will also involve reviewing the design and layout to help establish sustainable FOBs which have positive impact on troop protection, logistical …