AFRICA

Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | The West African bloc ECOWAS declared itself “satisfied” with Sierra Leone’s run-off presidential vote, as vote counting continued Sunday, while noting intimidating levels of security at some polling stations. The second round vote pitted challenger Julius Maada Bio of the opposition Sierra Leone People’s …

Bangui, Central African Republic | AFP | UN peacekeepers on patrol in the Central African Republic exchanged fire with members of an armed group in a Muslim enclave of the capital Bangui, the United Nations said Sunday. The peacekeepers were fired at in the Muslim rebel bastion called PK5, home …

Gaborone, Botswana | AFP | Botswana prepared to inaugurate Mokgweetsi Masisi as president on Sunday in a ceremony designed to highlight a smooth handover of power in one of Africa’s most stable countries. Ian Khama, the son of Botswana’s first post-independence leader, officially stepped down as president on Saturday after …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | The Democratic Republic of Congo’s main opposition party on Saturday chose the son of its founder, a historic opposition figure, as its leader and presidential candidate in long delayed polls due at the end of the year. The Union for Democracy and Social Progress …

Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | Voting began Saturday in Sierra Leone in the final round of a delayed run-off presidential election after a campaign marked by verbal sparring, sporadic violence and a last-minute legal battle. A wafer-thin margin separated the two frontrunners after the first round on March 7, …

Nouakchott, Mauritania | AFP | A Mauritanian court has jailed three people for between 10 and 20 years for slavery, a crime that critics say has gone widely unpunished in the conservative West African country. A judicial source said a special court in the northwest town of Nouadhibou this week …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Illegal gold miners in Zimbabwe have seized a farm belonging to former first lady Grace Mugabe, local media reported, just four months after former President Robert Mugabe was ousted from power. Hundreds of aggressive squatters have taken over portions of Grace’s Smithfield estate in Mazowe, …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Around 230,000 people have been driven from their homes in Democratic Republic of Congo, the government estimated Friday, a vastly different figure from the reports of humanitarian groups in the conflict-torn country. Kinshasa put the figure at “231,241 internally displaced people” compared with the …

Dakar, Senegal | AFP | Leading Senegalese politician Khalifa Sall was handed a five-year jail term for fraud on Friday, a sentence that will rule him out of presidential elections due next February. Sall, 62, who is mayor of Dakar, had denied the charges against him as politically motivated. He …

Kano, Nigeria | AFP | The death toll from an attack by suspected cattle rustlers on a herding village in northern Nigeria’s Zamfara state has risen to 36, the local traditional ruler said on Friday. Motorcycle-riding gunmen stormed the village of Bawon-Danji on Wednesday, opening fire on herders and forcing …