Dakar, Senegal | AFP | A lawyer for Dakar mayor Khalifa Sall, detained since March on corruption charges, on Friday said the prosecutor’s office had ordered his trial to begin next week, despite pending appeals. Sall is accused of misappropriating 1.83 billion CFA francs ($2.85 million, 2.7 million euros) of city …

Ahmedabad, India | AFP | Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat began voting on Saturday, in a key electoral test of his popularity after a series of controversial economic reforms. Voters, with their election cards in hand, started lining up at polling booths early in the morning …

Brasília, Brazil | AFP | Brazil’s prison population more than doubled between 2005 and 2016 and cells are now so crowded that there are almost two people for every space, the justice ministry said Friday. With 726,712 detainees in June 2016, Latin America’s biggest country now has the third highest prison …

Bangui, Central African Republic | AFP | Humanitarian groups in the Central African Republic (CAR) have suspended operations, the UN said Friday, after an aid worker was killed in the north of the restive, landlocked nation. “The humanitarian community in CAR continues to pay a heavy price from the rise in …

United Nations, United States | AFP | The Security Council on Friday unanimously adopted a resolution authorizing UN peacekeepers in Mali to provide logistical and operational support to the new G5 Sahel anti-jihadist force there. The resolution, drafted by France, was the subject of tough negotiations with the United States, which …

Oslo, Norway | AFP | A controversial former leader of Norway’s anti-immigration party on Friday failed in his bid to join the committee that awards the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize. According to Alfred Nobel’s will, the five members of the committee are elected by the Norwegian Parliament, which takes into account …

N’Djamena, Chad | AFP | Chad’s interior minister has said that a ban on some protests in the country is justified because of security risks. It comes after a coalition of activist groups earlier this week said they were planning to defy the ban and hold a major anti-government march. Interior …

Yaoundé, Cameroon | AFP | Nigeria called for an end to violence in neighbouring Cameroon, where a crisis sparked by a separatist drive in English-speaking areas has forced thousands of people to seek sanctuary across the border. “The Nigerian state by no means supports the secessionists,” Nigerian ambassador Lawan Abba Gashagar …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa’s deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa has said he believes the woman who accused President Jacob Zuma of rape, triggered an immediate riposte from the presidential office. Ramaphosa is a leading contender to take over from Zuma as head of the ANC ruling party later …

Six barriers that make it difficult for African states to use research for policy COMMENT | WILLEM FOURIE | African policymakers need access to high quality evidence to implement the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) successfully. The SDGs are arguably the most broad-ranging development goals to be ratified by United Nations member …