Tag Archives: africa

Extreme weather attributed to the El Niño phenomenon is causing a surge in hunger in several countries, including Zambia and Afghanistan, the UN’s World Food Programme said Wednesday, and called on donors for much-needed help. El Niño is a natural, temporary and occasional warming of part of the Pacific that shifts global weather patterns, and studies say that as the …

Hundreds of hostages, mostly children and women, who were held captive for months or years by Boko Haram extremists in northeastern Nigeria have been rescued from a forest enclave and handed over to authorities, the army said. The 350 hostages had been held in the Sambisa Forest, a hideout for the extremist group which launched an insurgency in 2009, Maj. …

Congo’s army spokesman on Tuesday released the name of the third American involved in a foiled coup plot in Kinshasa, while family members in Utah gathered to mourn Christian Malanga, the eccentric leader of the brazen and ill-fated attack targeting the presidential palace over the weekend. Brig. Gen. Sylvain Ekenge told The Associated Press the third American was Taylor Thomson. …

At least six Egyptian women died Tuesday after a vehicle carrying about two dozen people slid off a ferry and plunged into the Nile River just outside Cairo, authorities said. The accident, which happened in Monshat el-Kanater town in Giza province, also injured nine other passengers, the Health Ministry said in a statement. Giza is one of three provinces forming …

Three Americans involved in a brazen weekend attack on Congo’s presidential palace formed an unlikely band under the leadership of eccentric opposition figure Christian Malanga, who dabbled in gold mining and used cars before persuading his Utah-born son to join in the foiled coup, according to officials’ description of events. Six people, including Malanga, were dead and dozens arrested, including …

Senegal’s new prime minister, who was freed from jail weeks before the presidential election earlier this year and propelled his party to victory, has criticized the French military presence in the West African country. Ousmane Sonko also criticized efforts by France and the West to promote values that he said didn’t fit with those held by Senegal and other African …

U.N. experts say South Sudan is close to securing a $13 billion loan from a company in the United Arab Emirates, despite the oil-rich country’s difficulties in managing debts backed by its oil reserves. The panel of experts said in a report to the U.N. Security Council that loan documents it has seen indicate the deal with the company, Hamad …

South Africa’s election will determine how weary the country has become of the ruling African National Congress party that has been in power since the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule 30 years ago. President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC are struggling to keep their parliamentary majority and opinion polls predict that the party will likely receive …

Lawyers in Tunisia took to the streets on Thursday to protest a string of recent arrests that have convulsed the country over the past week and provoked international outcry. The demonstration in the North African country’s capital came days after two lawyers were arrested — one brusquely extracted from the bar association headquarters and the other needing to be hospitalized …

The legal defense team for nine Egyptian men due to go on trial in southern Greece next week accused of causing one of the Mediterranean’s deadliest shipwrecks said Thursday they will argue that Greece has no jurisdiction in the case, and insisted their clients were innocent survivors who have been unjustly prosecuted. The nine, whose ages range from early 20s …