AFRICA

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso | AFP | A suspected key figure in the deadly Burkina Faso attacks has been arrested, a government source said Sunday. Saying the person held could be “one of the brains” behind Friday’s attacks, the source told AFP there were “very strong suspicions” that “army infiltrators” had …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | Radical South African opposition leader Julius Malema launched on Sunday his campaign to be elected president in 2019 by aggressively distancing his party from a one-time coalition partner. The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader used a speech at a packed arena in Johannesburg to …

Douala, Cameroon | AFP | Talking fast and dreaming big, William Elong shows off the first “made in Cameroon” drone at his sixth-floor workshop in downtown Douala, minutes from the economic capital’s Atlantic seafront. The 25-year-old, known as a high-flyer after being named one of Forbes’ most promising young Africans …

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Fishing boats look like specks alongside Egina, which has been moored for the last month in Lagos. Even the container ships that normally dominate the port look like small boats. The floating production storage and offloading facility (FPSO), developed by the French group Total, looks …

Cairo, Egypt | AFP | Egypt’s constitutional court on Saturday voided contradictory lower court rulings on the controversial transfer of two islands to Saudi Arabia, state media reported. The ruling on the transfer of the Tiran and Sanafir islands in the Red Sea, which sparked protests in Egypt, effectively ends …

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso | AFP | Authorities in Burkina Faso were on Saturday hunting for clues about the masterminds behind Friday’s deadly twin attacks on the French embassy and the country’s military HQ. The coordinated attacks in Ouagadougou, which coincided with a meeting of regional anti-jihadist forces, underlined the struggle …

Yaoundé, Cameroon | AFP | Drivers in one of Cameroon’s restive English-speaking provinces have been banned from driving at night for a month, as tensions run high between government forces and separatists. Vehicles in five of the Southwest Region’s six districts are not allowed on the road between 7:00 pm …

United Nations, United States | AFP | Insecurity in Mali “continues to rage” and is progressing toward the center of the country, according to an interim UN report. Members of Plateforme, an armed pro-government coalition, and the CMA rebel alliance, who were signatories to a 2015 peace deal, are seeing …

United Nations, United States | AFP | The United Nations on Friday conceded that an attack that killed 15 peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo late last year exposed “gaps” in how UN troops are trained. The December 7 attack in the Beni territory of North Kivu province was …

East African nations urge UN to review pullout of Somali peace mission Kampala, Uganda | AFP |  East African representatives said Friday the drawdown of an African Union mission fighting jihadists in Somalia could “reverse gains” and urged the United Nations to reconsider plans to withdraw troops by December 2020. …