AFRICA

Maputo, Mozambique | AFP | Twelve people have been killed in a suspected Islamist militant attack in northern Mozambique, with thousands of villagers fleeing into neighbouring Tanzania, police sources said Sunday. Hardline Islamists have launched several attacks in the majority -Muslim province during the last year, stoking unrest just as …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Burundi authorities have arrested four retired army officers suspected of a role in the 1993 assassination of the country’s first democratically elected President Melchior Ndadaye, a judicial source said. The source said the four arrested Saturday are suspcted of involvement in the killing of Ndadaye, …

Cairo, Egypt | AFP | An Egyptian court on Sunday upheld death sentences for nine people convicted of the murder of a top prosecutor in a car bombing three years ago, a judiciary source said. Hisham Barakat was killed in June 2015 when a bomb struck his convoy in Cairo …

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | A South African mercenary who fought Boko Haram jihadists in Nigeria spoke out on Sunday against President Muhammadu Buhari’s handling of the Islamist insurgency, blaming “poor political decisions” for an upsurge in violence. In a statement posted to Facebook on Sunday, Eeben Barlow criticised Buhari …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | The influential Catholic Church joined the electoral fray Sunday as the Democratic Republic of Congo gears up for next month’s watershed presidential election to chose a successor to veteran leader Joseph Kabila. Addressing several thousand attending mass, new archbishop of Kinshasa, Fridolin Ambongo, made …

  Caxito, Angola | AFP |  Boxes of still-green bananas were shifted one-by-one from a towering stack of crates into a refrigerated shipping container. Stamped “From Angola, with love”, the fruit is shipped to consumers 6,000 kilometres (3,700 miles) away and are part of Luanda’s drive to diversify its economy …

        Libreville, Gabon | AFP |  Gabon authorities said Saturday they have banned an opposition party from state media for three months over statements about the health of President Omar Bongo, who has been in a Saudi hospital for a month. Bongo, 59, was rushed to hospital …

  Zvimba, Zimbabwe | AFP |  Zimbabwe’s ex-leader Robert Mugabe is in Singapore for medical care and now unable to walk because of ill health and old age, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said on Saturday. Mnangagwa told his ZANU-PF party supporters at a rally that the 94-year-old Mugabe had been receiving …

Bangui, Central African Republic | AFP | At least four people have been killed in fighting between the army and militias in the capital of Central African Republic, sources said on Friday. The clashes erupted in Bangui’s mainly Muslim PK5 district — an area that has become a flashpoint in …

The Hague, Netherlands | AFP | A former militia leader from the Central African Republic known as “Colonel Rambo” was tortured in detention before his transfer to The Hague on war crimes charges, his lawyer said Friday. The arrest of Alfred Yekatom, who made his first appearance at the International …