AFRICA

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa’s top court on Friday reinstated a 24 year prison sentence for a Nigerian oil militant convicted of a series of terror attacks in his home country eight years ago. Henry Okah was jailed in 2013 for masterminding a number of attacks, including …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Efforts to force DR Congo President Joseph Kabila to quit face a key test on Sunday when protestors, backed by the Catholic church, return to the streets after two demonstrations that the authorities bloodily repressed. Fifteen people were killed by security forces on New …

Bangui, Central African Republic | AFP | Three people were killed and at least seven others wounded in clashes which erupted overnight between armed groups in a flashpoint district of Bangui, Central African Republic’s capital, medical sources said. An AFP correspondent saw two bodies at the mosque in PK5, the last …

  Mogadishu, Somalia | AFP |  At least 18 people were killed and 20 wounded when two car bombs exploded on Friday near the presidential palace and a hotel in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, the city’s main ambulance service said. Jihadist rebels claimed the attack. “We have so far collected …

Juba, South Sudan | AFP | A UN rights commission in South Sudan said Friday there was sufficient evidence to charge at least 41 senior officers and officials with war crimes and crimes against humanity. South Sudan’s four-year-old civil war has been characterised by extreme brutality and attacks on civilians. …

Juba, South Sudan | AFP | A former South African soldier was sentenced to death in South Sudan on Friday for attempting to overthrow the government. Ex-colonel William Endley, 55, was “sentenced to death by hanging” for espionage and conspiring to overthrow the government, said judge Lado Eriminio Sekwat at …

Bamenda, Cameroon | AFP | Cameroon’s veteran opposition leader and perennial presidential hopeful John Fru Ndi said Thursday he will not challenge the long-ruling President Paul Biya in this year’s elections. Fru Ndi, 76, hailing from the troubled anglophone west of the country, has lost to Biya three times — …

Dapchi, Nigeria | AFP | Anger erupted in a town in remote northeast Nigeria on Thursday after officials fumbled to account for scores of schoolgirls who locals say have been kidnapped by Boko Haram jihadists — a disappearance reviving traumatic memories of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls. Police said on Wednesday …

Lubumbashi, DR Congo | AFP | Rebels have wanted to kill him, NGOs accuse him of exploitation and Chinese newcomers have rattled his Congo mining empire, but George Forrest, one of Africa’s biggest businessmen, remains unbowed. The head of the Forrest Group, which is worth an estimated $800 million (650 …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | An elderly British couple have been kidnapped in South Africa, police said Thursday, amid reports they were abducted by extremists suspected to have links to the Islamic State group. The British foreign office confirmed that a pair of Britons had been kidnapped and warned …