AFRICA

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | African nations mediating South Sudan’s peace efforts must not “squander” the opportunity of a renewed push to end the country’s war, the head of an international ceasefire monitoring team said Saturday. Festus Mogae, a former president of Botswana who leads the Joint Monitoring and …

N’Djamena, Chad | AFP | Chad’s President Idriss Deby Itno on Friday evening reshuffled the government, including the replacement of its public security minister, officials said. In office since a reshuffle on December 25, public security minister Amadai Abdelkerim is to be replaced by Ahmat Mahamat Bachir, it was announced …

Libreville, Gabon | AFP | An internal inquiry for the United Nations recommends tactical changes to the UN mission in the Central African Republic to protect civilians, according to findings made available Friday to AFP. “(The mission) MINUSCA should overhaul its strategy to protect civilians to ensure that its operational …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Burundi’s government claimed a diplomatic victory Friday with the announcement that it would host a regional trade summit later this year. The tiny central African nation has been in the cold since President Pierre Nkurunziza’s run for a controversial third term in 2015 plunged the …

Paris, France | AFP | The great global reckoning with sexual harassment is “long overdue”, says acclaimed Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, but the feminist figurehead in Africa hopes it is not “a passing fad”. As the global #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct continues in the wake of the disgraced …

United Nations, United States | AFP | The United Nations is in talks with countries that contribute peacekeepers to its mission in the Central African Republic after an investigation found their response to attacks last year fell short, a UN spokesman said Friday. A special investigation led by a retired …

Beirut, Lebanon | AFP | Lebanese authorities on Friday said Israel was involved in a car bomb blast that targeted an official of the Palestinian movement Hamas in southern Lebanon earlier this month. Mohammad Hamdan was wounded when a bomb placed in his car detonated in the southern port city …

Ziguinchor, Senegal | AFP | A group of Spanish tourists were robbed and raped in Senegal’s restive Casamance region by armed men, a security source and state media said on Friday. The tourists’ vehicle was stopped near the village of Karonge, around 60 kilometres (37 miles) from the regional capital …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | DR Congo President Joseph Kabila on Friday stood by the timetable for delayed elections despite demands that he step down ahead of the poll. “We have to have elections as scheduled,” Kabila said at his first press conference since 2012, referring to the date …

Washington, United States | AFP | The US military has opened an investigation after images surfaced online this week that appear to have been taken from the helmet camera of one of the US soldiers killed in an ambush in Niger. Grainy photographs posted and circulated on Twitter purportedly show …