AFRICA

LIBREVILLE, Gabon | AFP | One of Africa’s largest oil producers and among the continent’s wealthier nations, small lush Gabon holds a presidential election Saturday at a time of rising social tension due to the global slump in oil prices. The vote sees one of the strongest challenges yet to …

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | Olympic marathon silver medallist Feyisa Lilesa failed to return to Ethiopia Monday night despite assurances he would not be punished for his Rio protest over political repression in his country. An AFP journalist at the airport in Addis Ababa said Lilesa was not onboard …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | South Sudan’s former rebel leader Riek Machar has arrived in Khartoum for “medical treatment,” the Sudanese government said Tuesday, after he escaped to the Democratic Republic of Congo following deadly clashes last month. Machar was replaced by Taban Deng Gai as South Sudan’s first vice …

The Hague, Netherlands | AFP |    A Malian jihadist pleaded guilty Monday to attacking the fabled city of Timbuktu and begged forgiveness as the world was shown sickening videos of him and other fundamentalists tearing down centuries-old Muslim shrines with pick-axes. At the opening of his unprecedented war crimes …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | US Secretary of State John Kerry called on Monday for the deployment of a 4,000-strong “protection force” to bolster the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan. “There is absolutely no question that we need to move forward with the deployment of the regional protection force …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | South Sudan’s new Vice President Taban Deng Gai and Sudanese officials on Sunday discussed outstanding issues since Sudan’s north-south split in 2011 as he began his two-day visit to Khartoum. Deng’s first visit to Sudan as vice president comes weeks after he replaced former rebel …

Beni, DR Congo | AFP |  Six suspected members of a Ugandan rebel group went before a Congolese military court on Saturday accused of taking part in the killing last weekend of 51 people, the latest in a string of massacres in the restive east of the country. The gruesome …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP |  South Africa’s ruling ANC lost control of the capital Pretoria for the first time since the end of apartheid two decades ago, as an opposition councillor was elected mayor on Friday. Solly Msimanga, 36, of the liberal centre-right Democratic Alliance (DA), was elected unopposed …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  The Kenyan government announced on Thursday it had opened an investigation over the alleged disappearance of Olympic kits worn by athletes at the Rio Games. Each Kenyan athlete was supposed to receive three different kits from the country’s equipment supplier, with one for training, another …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Thursday South Sudan’s former rebel leader and ex-vice president Riek Machar has escaped to the capital of Democratic Republic of Congo following violent clashes last month, an official said Thursday. “Riek Machar is currently in DRC, in Kinshasa, and wants to go as soon as …