AFRICA

Bishoftu, Ethiopia | AFP | Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group on Sunday staged a peaceful anti-government protest at their biggest festival, where dozens were killed a year ago during a tear gas-induced stampede. Clad in traditional white, tens of thousands of Oromo people who gathered for the Irreecha festival, chanted “Down, down …

Antananarivo, Madagascar | AFP | The World Health Organisation said Sunday it was boosting its response to a plague outbreak in Madagascar that has killed 24 people, as the government banned public meetings to reduce infections. In a televised address Saturday, Prime Minister Olivier Mahafaly Solonandrasana said no public meetings or …

Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday railed against separatists seeking Nigeria’s “dismemberment” as it marked its 1960 independence from Britain and said corruption remained the African oil giant’s “number one enemy”. Buhari, who fought in the 1967-70 Biafran war, said those seeking to carve up the country …

Buea, Cameroon | AFP | The main city in a restive English-speaking region of Cameroon was a virtual ghost town Saturday, with armed police patrolled the streets on the eve of an expected — but symbolic — declaration of independence from the French-speaking country by anglophone separatists. In Buea, the …

Cape Town, South Africa | AFP | Eleven people were killed in a series of overnight shootings in a Cape Town township, police said Saturday, including four victims shot dead when gunmen opened fire in a bar. Extra police officers were deployed to the Philipi district of Cape Town, a …

Mogadishu, Somalia | AFP |  Turkey inaugurated on Saturday the largest foreign-run military training centre in Somalia, where local troops are due to take over the protection of a nation threatened by Shabaab Islamist attacks. Somalia’s fragile government and institutions, including its national army, are backed by the African Union’s …

At least 11 dead as DR Congo army plane crashes Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | A transport plane chartered by the Congolese army crashed near Kinshasa on Saturday, killing at least 11 people, military and airport sources told AFP. The Antonov transporter had just taken off with “several dozen …

Gaborone, Botswana | AFP |  A court in Botswana on Friday ruled that a transgender man who has been identified as a woman since birth should be allowed to change gender on his identity document, his lawyers said. The court in the southern town of Lobatse ordered the country’s registrar …

Mogadishu, Somalia | AFP |  Shabaab jihadists attacked an army base in the southern Somali town of Barire on Friday, killing at least 20 soldiers and looting equipment, local sources said. The assault on the Somali National Army military camp in Barire, around 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of the …

Abidjan, Ivory Coast | AFP |  The cocoa crop of Ivory Coast, the world’s biggest producer, increased 28.5 percent to a record 2.15 million tonnes in the 2016-17 season, the national Coffee and Cocoa Council said Friday. Exports increased by 23.3 percent to 1.9 million tonnes, helping to raise the …