Africa

The US launched air strikes on Islamic State targets in Libya this week. How did Libya get to this point?

Sadio Mane scores his first goal for Liverpool as they thrash Barcelona 4-0 in the International Champions Cup at Wembley.

South Africa's opposition Democratic Alliance beats the African National Congress in local polls in Pretoria, in the ANC's worst election setback since 1994.

The BBC hears from people rescued from the Mediterranean Sea by the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

August 6, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Leader of the East African block have decided to send a regional force to the South Sudan to protect civilians and to back the reinstatement of Riek Machar as First Vice President to ensure the implementation of a peace agreement they brokered in August last year.

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) heads of state and government and the African Union Ad-hoc Committee on South Sudan, referred to as the IGAD Plus met to discuss the situation in South Sudan in Addis Ababa on Friday.

The meeting was attended by all the IGAD leaders, except President Salva Kiir who dispatched the newly appointed First Vice President Taban Deng Gai. JMEC and UNMISS chiefs were part of the meeting which was chaired by the Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

“The IGAD leader unanimously decided to work to stop the fighting in South Sudan and secure Juba through a regional force to be agreed by the chiefs of staff of the armies of the east African block ,” said the Sudanese Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour after the return of President Omer al Bashir from Addis Abba on Friday evening.

Ghandour further said the meeting has “called for a dialogue between Kiie and Machar, agreed to work for Machar's reinstatement as First Vice President, and to implement the security arrangements as provided in chapter II of the peace agreement in order to stop definitively the fighting and move forward towards the full implementation of the agreement”.

The Sudanese top diplomat who accompanied al-Bashir to the meeting pointed that these decisions have been adopted unanimously with the participation of Taban Deng, “who expressed his willingness to work with IGAD and its partners in order to implement these decisions”.

The Arabic service of the Turkish news agency Anadolu reported similar statements attributed to the IGAD Executive Secretary Mahboub Maalim.

A detailed statement on the outcome of the meeting would be released on Saturday.

After the meeting, South Sudanese information minister Michael Makuei Lueth, expressed his government support to the decisions of the IGAD summit, saying the regional force is “a protection and not intervention force”.

The South Sudanese government “will take part in the arrangements for those troops to be deployed in specific areas of southern Sudan" Lueth further said in a statement to Anadolu.

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August 5, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Sudanese government announced on Friday it will participate in a “consultation meeting” with the opposition Sudan Call Groups in Addis Ababa next week.

Sudan's Presidential aide Ibrahim Moahmoud Hamid and AUHIP chair sign the Roadmap Agreement in Addis Ababa on 21 March 2016 (courtesy photo of AUHIP )

The opposition Sudan Call Groups calls to organize a preparatory meeting before joining the national dialogue inside the country, while the government and the National Dialogue Coordination Committee (7+7) say the meeting is “consultative” and not “preparatory meeting”.

Sudanese Presidential Assistant and the head of government negotiation team for the Two Areas, Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid, announced that government delegation will participate in the “consultation meeting” with armed groups, National Umma Party of Sadiq al-Mahdi and allied opposition groups after receiving an invitation from the African Union High Implementation Panel (AUHIP) to participate in the meeting next week.

“The government delegation will meet Sadig al-Mahdi, Darfur rebels, SPLM-N immediately after they sign the Roadmap Agreement in their meeting with AUHIP in Addis Ababa on Monday and Tuesday,” said Hamid.

He pointed the meeting will discuss the cessation of hostilities, the humanitarian access and the framework agreement. He added the latter will be finalized according to the deal of 2011 which the government and the SPLM-N agreed on 90% of its items.

The government delegation and (7+7) committee will travel to Addis Ababa to resume talks on the Two Areas and Darfur from nine to eleven August.

The meeting was initially planned to be between the four opposition groups and the 7+7 committee. However, to make more inclusive now it will include the Sudan Call forces and not only the four groups, the dialogue committee and the Sudanese government. Also the opposition Future Forces for Change (FFC) will attend the meeting as an observer.

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(Kampala) – Ugandan police unlawfully raided an event late in the evening of August 4, 2016, the third night of a week of Ugandan LGBTI Pride celebrations, brutally assaulting participants, seven human rights groups said today.   Expand

The venue for Uganda’s Pride 2016 pageant that police raided  on August 4, 2016.

© Edward Echwalu 2016 The event was a pageant in Kampala’s Club Venom to crown Mr/Ms/Mx Uganda Pride. Police claimed that they had been told a “gay wedding” was taking place and that the celebration was “unlawful” because police had not been informed of the event. However, police had been duly informed, and the prior two Pride events, on August 2 and 3, were conducted without incident.

“We strongly condemn these violations of Ugandans’ rights to peaceful association and assembly,” said Nicholas Opiyo, a human rights lawyer and executive director at Chapter Four Uganda. “These brutal actions by police are unacceptable and must face the full force of Ugandan law.”

The police locked the gates of the club, arrested more than 16 people – the majority of whom are Ugandan LGBT rights activists – and detained hundreds more for over 90 minutes, beating and humiliating people; taking pictures of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) Ugandans and threatening to publish them; and confiscating cameras. Witnesses reported that the police assaulted many participants, in particular transgender women and men, in some cases groping and fondling them. One person jumped from a sixth-floor window to avoid police abuse and is in a hospital in critical condition.

By approximately 1:20 a.m., all those arrested had been released without charge from the Kabalagala Police Station. This episode of police brutality did not happen in isolation, the groups said. It comes at a time of escalating police violence targeting media, independent organizations, and the political opposition.

“Any force by Ugandan police targeting a peaceful and lawful assembly is outrageous,” said Frank Mugisha, executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), who was among those arrested. “The LGBTI community stands with all Ugandan civil society movements against police brutality.”

“The Ugandan government should condemn violent illegal actions by police targeting the LGBTI community and all Ugandans,” said Asia Russell at Health GAP. “The US and all governments should challenge President Museveni to intervene immediately and hold his police force accountable.”

LGBTI Ugandans routinely face violence, discrimination, bigotry, blackmail, and extortion. The unlawful government raid on a spirited celebration displays the impunity under which Ugandan police are operating. “The state has a duty to protect all citizens’ enjoyment of their rights, including the right to peacefully assemble to celebrate Pride Uganda,” said Hassan Shire, executive director at Defend Defenders. “A swift and transparent investigation should be conducted into last night’s unacceptable demonstration of police brutality.”

Activists called on the governments to immediately and publicly condemn the raid and to take swift disciplinary action against those responsible for the gross violations of rights and freedoms. The organizers said that Pride Uganda celebrations will continue as planned, with a celebration on August 6.

“Our pride and resilience remain steadfast despite these horrible and shameful actions by Ugandan police,” said Clare Byarugaba of Chapter Four Uganda.

“Celebrating with LGBTI people and demonstrating solidarity in calling for their rights to be respected is as basic a show of free expression and association under human rights law as you can get,” said Maria Burnett, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Ugandan authorities should not only refrain from trying to stop such activities, but they have binding legal obligations to ensure others do not interfere in this fundamental exercise of basic rights.”

Signatories:
Chapter Four Uganda
Defend Defenders
Health GAP
Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum
Human Rights Watch
Sexual Minorities Uganda
Uganda Pride Committee

 

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Opposition supporters demonstrate on April 16, 2016 in the Gambian capital, Banjul, following the death in custody of opposition activist Solo Sandeng. Gambian security forces broke up the protest and arrested more than 20 demonstrators, including opposition leader Ousainou Darboe.

© 2016 Getty Images

Gathered together on the floor of a dusty house, Solo Sandeng’s children remember their father with a mix of sadness, anger and pride. “We want him to be remembered for what he did,” Aminata, 24, tells me, “But we also want justice.”

Her sister, Fatoumatta, 22, listens to my questions with her eyes fixed to the floor, her head wrapped in a black headscarf. When she looks up, the calm authority in her voice suggests she will continue her father’s struggle. “The Gambian government wants to silence us,” she says. “But what they did to Solo, they created an anger that will not relent.”

Sandeng, a prominent Gambian opposition politician, was allegedly beaten to death by members of the Gambian security services within hours of his arrest on April 14. That day, he and a small group of activists had taken part in a demonstration calling for electoral reform ahead of December’s presidential election.

The protest was a rare example of dissent in a country that a former army officer, Yahya Jammeh, has ruled with an iron fist since coming to power in a 1994 coup. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has documented how Jammeh’s regime uses arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and torture to create a climate of fear that suppresses opposition.

The government’s response to the protest in April was a stark reminder of the risks that opposition parties face in the run-up to elections. “In a country where there was any sort of democracy, my father’s actions would have been taken with grace,” Fatoumatta told me. Instead, Gambian police quickly descended on the protest, arrested Sandeng and his fellow protesters and eventually charged 25 with public order offenses. Several allege that, like Sandeng, they were badly beaten while in detention.

Upon hearing media reports of her father’s death in the early hours of April 16, Fatoumatta and her brother, 19-year-old Muhammed, marched with leaders of Sandeng’s political party, the United Democratic Party (UDP), toward the police headquarters where Sandeng had initially been detained. The demonstrators chanted, “Release Solo Sandeng, Dead or Alive.”

Fatoumatta recalled that as they walked, she kept thinking that “after all they did to Solo, they will leave us alone.” But the police fired teargas to disperse the crowd and beat protesters with batons. Fatoumatta escaped after being ushered hastily into a taxi. Muhammed was chased by police officers and struck on the arm, but eventually got away. More than 20 other protesters, including UDP leader Ousainou Darboe and several UDP executive members, were arrested.

News of Sandeng’s death and the arrest of the UDP leadership led to widespread condemnation from African human rights bodies, the United Nations, the European Union, and the United States. President Jammeh responded in May, saying that human rights groups and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon could “go to hell.”  On June 22, Saihou Omar Jeng, a senior official at Gambia’s National Intelligence Agency, stated that Sandeng had died in custody of “shock” and “respiratory failure” but provided no explanation of the circumstances that led to his death.

Half an hour after Fatoumatta and Muhammed arrived home on April 16, a police convoy drove up to their gate. They understood what it meant. “Family members of people involved in the April 14 and 16 protests were being targeted,” Fatoumatta says. “So we knew it wasn’t safe, we never went back to our house.” A subsequent protest on May 9 in solidarity with those arrested on April 14 and 16 was quickly suppressed.

Now in exile, Sandeng’s children hope that people remember the call for electoral reform that led to their father’s death. On July 20, Darboe and several UDP executives were sentenced to three years in prison, meaning the UDP’s leadership will remain in detention during the upcoming presidential elections. Eleven protesters arrested with Sandeng were also sentenced, on July 21, to three years in prison.

Gambian government officials told HRW that opposition groups are able to operate without restrictions. But leaders from opposition parties decry their lack of access to media, with state radio and television dominated by Jammeh and the ruling party. An inter-party dialogue intended as a forum to discuss electoral reform has stalled.

As the elections approach, the U.S. and EU should consider imposing targeted sanctions—such as travel bans and asset freezes—on senior officials implicated in human rights violations unless the government begins an impartial and transparent investigation into Sandeng’s death, releases all peaceful protesters, and engages in a genuine dialogue over electoral reform. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) should consider suspending Gambia from ECOWAS decision-making bodies if the human rights situation does not improve, and improve quickly.

Fatoumatta hopes that her father’s death will be a turning point for Gambia. But she acknowledges that the threat of arrest still stifles independent voices. “Fear still rules in Gambia,” says Fatoumatta. “Only if that changes can we really talk about free elections.”

Jim Wormington is an Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. He tweets @jwormington.

In 2014, I spoke to several military lawyers and judges from Uganda, Burundi and Kenya to understand how Somalis abused by soldiers from the African Union forces in Somalia (AMISOM) could seek justice. I was told the best chance was to hold prosecutions in Somalia itself, not hundreds of miles away in Uganda, Kenya, or Burundi, which would make it more difficult for witnesses to appear. “Without witnesses, the cases will be easy to throw out,” one Ugandan judge advocate said.

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A commuter taxi drives past an African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) armoured vehicle, December 2010.

AU-UN IST PHOTO / STUART PRICE

On Tuesday, Uganda’s military justice system held a court martial in Mogadishu. and for the first time ever, the media was invited to cover the hearings.

Despite serious concerns about the fairness of trials before Uganda’s military court, holding public hearings in Mogadishu is an important step in bringing greater transparency to the process and providing a model of in-country proceedings. The military court is currently trying military offences and not abuses against civilians, but the example of access to proceedings for victims and witnesses and the court presence inside Somalia offers AMISOM and troop-contributing countries the opportunity to press ahead with setting up a jurisdiction for cases of crimes against civilians as well.

The countries that contribute troops to AMISOM have exclusive jurisdiction over their personnel for any criminal offenses they commit in Somalia and so are in charge of investigations and all criminal prosecutions. These countries are bound by memorandums of understanding signed with the AU, and international human rights and humanitarian obligations to investigate and if established, prosecute, allegations of serious violations and crimes.

We have documented abuses by Ugandan forces as part of AMISOM on a number of occasions, including sexual exploitation and abuse of Somali women and girls, and indiscriminate killings of civilians. But the Ugandan forces are not the only ones implicated in abuses; and yet, so far, the others have shown little interest in holding their troops accountable.

In our 2014 report, we called on the AU to urge all troop-contributing countries to look at sending their military courts either permanently or on a rotating basis to Somalia. The AU had considered the recommendation, and in an April 2015 investigation report said that with one exception, all contributing countries agreed in principle to holding ad hoc court martials in Somalia.

Uganda has now shown this is possible when there is political will to get it done. The AU, international supporters to AMISOM, and the Somali government should now push other troop contributors to follow suit. All victims of AMISOM abuses should be given the equal opportunities to access redress and justice.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said today that it is responding to a growing food security emergency causing malnutrition in children in both rural and urban areas of crisis-gripped South Sudan.

August 5, 2016 (JUBA) - South Sudan President, Salva Kiir, has dispatched a high level delegation on Friday to attend a regional summit at which its political and security situation tops the agenda.

President Salva Kiir (R) embraces Taban Deng Gai after his swearing-in ceremony as FVP at the Presidential Palace in the capital of Juba, July 26, 2016 (Photo Reuters Jok Solumun)

However, the delegation led by the newly appointed First Vice President, Taban Deng Gai, has reportedly been denied access to the official IGAD summit of the Heads of State and Government.

The government sanctioned delegation, confirmed in a statement from the office of the president, is being led by Gai, who has replaced the armed opposition leader, Riek Machar.

“The First Vice President of the Republic Taban Deng Gai is travelling to Addis Ababa to represent South Sudan at the emergency IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) summit. The summit is being convened to discuss the recent fighting that broke out in South Sudan. The meeting is also scheduled to discuss a regional response, including the issue of intervention force,” the statement reads in part.

This comes after armed opposition leadership under Riek Machar issued a strong statement criticizing the manner in which international community and guarantors of peace process have acted at the time amid violations, accusing them of being passive to the political turmoil in the country. The guarantors include Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and other African countries in the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) trade bloc.

“There is a serious lack of support from the international community and the guarantors to the peace agreement,” Machar's Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army in Opposition (SPLM/A-IO) said in a statement Wednesday.

According to the statement, “the daily violation of peace by the government followed by illegal appointment of Taban Deng Gai resulted in the collapse of the peace agreement.”

Machar fled Juba in July and went into hiding after new clashes broke out between his forces and government soldiers, saying he would only return when a third-party force is deployed to act as a buffer.

On July 25, South Sudan's President Salva Kiir sacked Machar as first vice-president, replacing him with Gai. The move threatens to split the armed opposition into two factions: one backing Gai in Juba to support implementation of the peace implementation, and another faction that only recognizes Machar as the first vice-president according to the peace accord signed in August 2015.

East Africa's eight-nation trade and security bloc, IGAD, is scheduled to meet in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Friday to look into the crisis in South Sudan, which has been a growing concern for the region. The latest statement comes after Kiir, acting on advice from his new vice president dismissed about half a dozen ministers representing the SPLM/A-IO.

On Monday, a prominent opposition figure who had held ministerial position in the Transitional Government of National Unity announced his resignation, saying the government in Juba was “dead”.

“We are not surprised by the steps being taken by President Kiir and Taban Deng changing IO ministerial position and Transitional Legislative Assembly,” the SPLM-IO statement said.

“We are just waiting for the deployment of the regional force [a third-party intervention recommended by the IGAD and the UN] …so we can take further steps towards putting an end to the suffering of the people of South Sudan,” it added.

Gai, the new first vice president, is reportedly denied attending the official IGAD summit of the Heads of State and Government as South Sudan was not invited to participate in the matter discussing its conflicts.

Observers however said Gai may only meet IGAD officials in the corridors to argue his position, but not in the official deliberations on South Sudan. The SPLM-IO delegation loyal to Machar will equally do the same.

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 following 50 years of Africa's long-running civil war.

Two years later the country slide back into chaos after Kiir accused his longtime rival Machar of a coup attempt which resulted in the death of tens of thousands of people and displaced 2.4 million others.

Machar dismissed the coup narrative as false and a way by President Kiir to silence the voices calling for democracy in the country.

The ongoing fighting between forces loyal to the two leaders threatens the peace deal itself.

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August 5, 2016 (EL-FASHER) - Thousands of South Sudanese refugees in North Darfur state have launched an appeal to the Sudanese government and aid groups to provide them with food, clothing and shelter.

Last month Sudan said it has received 500,000 South Sudanese refugees since 2013.
South Sudanese tribal chief Ajack Deng Kual told Sudan Tribune that 7,000 refugees have arrived in the locality of Al-Leit, 325 km. south east of North Darfur capital, El-Fasher from Bahr el-Ghazal region in South Sudan.

He pointed that there are no official statistics on the exact number of refugees who arrived in North Darfur, saying they are in dire need for food, shelter, drugs and clothing.

For his part, Deng Malonk Akol, a refugee from Awil town, pointed to the miserable situation in South Sudan, saying the vast majority of refugees in North Darfur are women, children and the elderly.

Joseph Garang Atak, a refugee from north Bahr el-Ghazal, said they sleep on the floor of the farms in which they took refuge, demanding the Sudanese government and aid groups to provide them with shelter.

Last month, fighting erupted in South Sudan's capital Juba between followers of President Salva Kiir and Riek Machar, the former rebel leader who became vice president under a deal to end a two-year civil war.

The violence, which has killed hundreds of people, broke out as the world's newest nation prepared to mark five years of independence from Sudan on July 9.

Last month, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that refugees fleeing conflict and food insecurity in South Sudan continue to arrive in Sudan.

It pointed out that “as of 3 July, 79,571 people from South Sudan had arrived in Sudan since 1 January 2016, of whom 53,273 in East Darfur”.

On 17 March, Sudanese government announced a decision that all South Sudanese in Sudan are to be treated as foreigners, instead of ‘brothers and sisters' as they were previously regarded.

South Sudan broke away from Sudan in July 2011 and established its own independent state after decades of war between the two former northern and southern regions of one country.

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August 5, 2016 (JUBA) – The ruling party in South Sudan, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) chaired by President Salva Kiir, has dismissed suggestions that a peace deal signed in August last year has collapsed.

South Sudanese president Salva Kiir (L) shakes hands with rebel leader and former vice-president Riek Machar after signing an agreement on the reunifiation of the SPLM in Arusha, Tanzania on 21 January 2015 (AP)

It also condemned the recent media comments by the party's former secretary general, Pagan Amum, who called for international intervention and for the country to be put under United Nations trusteeship.

Amum said the leadership of South Sudan has failed its people and the nation and therefore the need for the United Nations to take it over for a period of time.

However, a senior official of the SPLM in government accused Amum of inviting foreigners to meddle in the internal matters.

“The SPLM party denounces in the strongest terms the call by Pagam Amum, the former Secretary General and leader of the SPLM Former Detainees (SPLM-FDs) for the intervention of the international and regional communities in the internal affairs of South Sudan. Political coercion insights conflict, no one should understand this more clearly than Pagan; a politician whose actions contributed to turmoil in the country,” said Mangar Amerdid, adviser for political affairs and mobilization in the ruling party.

“The false claim being perpetuated by Pagan that the peace agreement has collapsed is his way of attempting to revive his political career. The peace agreement has not collapsed and it is being implemented daily by the various political organs of TGoNU [Transitional Government of National Unity]. The primary interest of TGoNU is to serve the people of South Sudan while working to restore peace and stability in the country,” he added.

He warned that any intervention that is not approved by the TGoNU that aims to invade or meddle in the affairs of a sovereign State will “warrant a strong response.”

He also said the new first vice president, Taban Deng Gai was nominated by the opposition faction of the SPLM-IO, adding there was nothing wrong about it.

The party adviser's official was responding to the conclusions that the peace deal has collapsed and that the nomination of Gai was not consistent with the August 2015 peace agreement and did not qualify the internal process of the SPLM-IO.

“The mandates of the Peace Agreement signed in August 2015 stipulate that the First Vice President (FVP) of the TGoNU shall be selected by the SPLA-IO. This was successfully accomplished with the appointment of Taban Deng Gai by the SPLM/A-IO as the FVP and was warmly received by President Kiir,” he argued.

AMUM AND AGOOT TRAITORS?

Another official described Amum and Majak Agoot as traitors for supporting regional and international intervention in South Sudan's conflicts.

Gordon Buay, a South Sudan diplomat residing Washington DC, vowed that he would block Amum from conducting a rally in the US to mobilize support for the international intervention.

“I am appealing to South Sudanese in the U.S not to attend Pagan Amum's rally scheduled for August, 11 in New York city at UN Building. Mr. Amum's agenda is to push for UN takeover of South Sudan,” Buay wrote in a statement extended to Sudan Tribune.

“Pagan Amum and Majak Agoot drafted a document entitled "United Nations Temporary Administration For South Sudan" to urge the UN Security Council to pass a resolution for UN Trusteeship.”

He said any South Sudanese who will attend the rally organized by Amum will be declared a “traitor.”

“Pagan Amum is the number one traitor now followed by Majak Agoot. These traitors think that the only way to get to power is through UN Trusteeship,” he added.

He said “in few weeks, the supporters of South Sudan independence and territorial integrity will organize “a rally of 10,000 compatriots in the U.S who will go to UN Building to condemn Pagan Amum as a traitor number one.”

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August 5, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Mauritanian government has decided not to impose financial penalties on Sudanese miners who were arrested while illegally prospecting for gold in its territories, said Sudan's Foreign Ministry.

Workers break rocks at the Wad Bushara gold mine near Abu Delelq in Gadarif State, Wad Bushara on 27 April 2013 (Photo: Reuters/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah)

Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Gharib Allah Khidir said the Sudanese ambassador to Nouakchott has discussed the issue of the Sudanese gold prospectors with the Mauritanian minister of interior, saying the latter decided not to impose a fine on them.

He told the official news agency (SUNA) that the Mauritanian government has handed the miners their travel documents back and asked them not to conduct surface mining unless approved by the competent authorities.

Khidir said the Mauritanian government has mentioned that surface mining is a prohibited practice according to the regulations, saying those who violate the law would incur a daily fine that could exceed $90.

He added the Mauritanian law also provides for the detention of those who practice surface mining and to seize their passports, saying the authorities usually hand them their travel documents back upon deportation.

According to Khidir, the Sudanese ambassador to Nouakchott said the Mauritanian minister of interior assured him that there are no Sudanese nationals in their prisons.

The spokesperson called on those who wish to visit Mauritania to observe laws pertaining to the surface mining, saying Mauritania welcomes Sudanese to work and invest in any other field.

Last Monday, Sudan's Foreign Ministry said Mauritania would deport 100 Sudanese miners who had sneaked into its territory illegally.

In 2014, hundreds of Sudanese gold prospectors were evacuated from Niger to the Chadian city of Abeche before being transferred to the West Darfur state capital, Al-Geneina.

Also, in August 2015, Egyptian authorities released 37 miners after being held for 5 five months on charges of cross-border infiltration. But their properties estimated at $8 million are still held by the Egyptian Army.

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South Sudan's government agrees to let in a new international protection force to try to save a peace deal, the Igad regional body says.

South Africa's governing African National Congress (ANC) has suffered its worst electoral setback since apartheid ended in 1994.

Nigeria is in chaos after nearly half of its U-17 squad are found to be over age ahead of African Nations' Cup qualifier.

Olufunke Oshonaike is about to appear at her sixth Olympic Games - only the second African woman to do so.

South Africa's governing African National Congress (ANC) suffers its worst electoral setback since apartheid ended in 1994.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has commended the European Union (EU) Commission for its 50 million euro contribution to the multinational task force, created by Lake Chad Basin countries – Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria – and Benin to combat Boko Haram insurgents in the sub-region.