AFRICA

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Zimbabwe’s new government ordered Thursday that land confiscated from a white farmer to give to an ally of former president Robert Mugabe must be returned. Robert Smart, who grew tobacco and corn on his farm in Makoni in eastern Zimbabwe, was evicted in June after …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  Months of electoral upheaval, sporadic unrest and economic slowdown have hit young Kenyans hard, a nationwide youth survey found Thursday. The struggle to make ends meet has left them disillusioned, apathetic and angry, according to the annual survey of nearly 3,000 Kenyans aged 15-24 years …

Diass, Senegal | AFP | Senegal opens a flagship new airport on Thursday seven years later than originally planned but with ambitions to become a west African regional hub with a capacity for three million passengers. President Macky Sall will cut the ribbon at Blaise Diagne International Airport (AIBD) at …

Tripoli, Libya | AFP | Human Rights Watch on Thursday denounced a series of attacks against shrines of the mystical Sufi branch of Sunni Islam in Libya by “extremist” militias. “Sufi religious sites are under assault in Libya,” the New York-based rights watchdog said after two attacks in the capital Tripoli …

Niamey, Niger | AFP | Niger has flown home more than 500 of its citizens from Libya as part of an urgent repatriation plan which will see up to 4,000 people evacuated, the foreign ministry has said. The move follows global shock over the atrocities suffered in Libya by African migrants, …

Kenya government threatens opposition with ‘treason’ charge Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Kenya’s attorney general said Thursday that an opposition plan to have its leader Raila Odinga sworn in as an alternative president would amount to treason. Odinga challenged the result of August’s presidential election but then boycotted the court-ordered October …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Roadblocks in war-torn areas of Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo provide armed groups with millions of euros (dollars) in annual income, a report said Wednesday. A year-long study by the International Peace Information Service (IPIS), a Belgian research group, found 1,082 …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | The most complete skeleton ever found of an australopithecus, a forerunner to modern man, went on display for the first time in Johannesburg on Wednesday following a 20-year process to excavate and assemble the 3.67 million-year-old remains. Known as “Little Foot” because four small …

Algiers, Algeria | AFP | French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday made his first official visit to Algeria, announcing that he came as a “friend” despite France’s historically prickly relationship with its former colony. Ties between Paris and Algiers have defrosted in recent years, a half-century after French forces brutally …

Tripoli, Libya | AFP | Libya on Wednesday launched a UN-brokered effort to hold elections in the strife-torn country with a campaign to register new voters. Imed al-Sayeh, head of the country’s High National Election Commission (HNEC), announced the launch in Tripoli alongside the UN envoy Ghassan Salame. The campaign …