Africa News

Ouagadougou – The United Nations secretary general says he is deeply concerned by attacks by Islamic extremists in Burkina Faso and West Africa, urging a global response. Ban Ki-moon spoke on Thursday in Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou. Extremists in January attacked a café and hotel here, killing at least 30 …

Washington – A US drone strike on a Shebaab training camp in Somalia over the weekend killed more than 150 fighters who were planning a “large-scale” attack, the Pentagon said on Monday. Pentagon spokesperson Captain Jeff Davis said the strike occurred sometime on Saturday (US time) on a camp called …

Tunis – At least 45 people were killed on Monday near Tunisia’s border with Libya in one of the deadliest clashes seen so far between Tunisian forces and extremist attackers, the government said. The fighting in the border town of Ben Guerdane in eastern Tunisia comes amid increasing concern that …

Algerian Minister of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Ramtane Lamamra said Thursday that Algeria “will not be involved in military intervention in Libya or elsewhere,” insisting on the need for political solution to the Libyan crisis. In a statement to the press following his talks with Angolan …

Tunis – Tunisian security forces killed five militants near the Libyan border on Wednesday in a gunbattle in which one civilian also died and an army commander was wounded, the government said. Troops had been on alert after receiving reports that militants had slipped across the border over the past …

New York – South Sudan’s humanitarian crisis is catastrophic and continues to worsen as warring sides are “dragging their feet” in implementing a peace deal, the UN peacekeeping chief said Wednesday. Herve Ladsous said “tens of thousands of people have died, we’ve lost count” and some two million have been …

Cairo – Algeria, Egypt and Italy on Sunday called for a political solution in Libya, on the eve of UN-mediated talks aimed at forming a unity government in the war-torn country. Libya plunged into chaos after a 2011 Nato-backed uprising toppled and killed veteran dictator Muammar Gaddafi, with heavily armed …

Libya’s internationally recognised government denied last Thursday reports that French special forces had been fighting the Islamic State group in the troubled country, after the rival administration in Tripoli confirmed them. The recognised government “didn’t allow and won’t allow any foreign forces to enter Libyan territories”, spokesperson Hatem el-Ouraybi told …

Lagos – Nigerian troops have rescued 195 Boko Haram hostages and killed a number of “terrorists” in raids on villages across the restive northeast, the army said on Thursday. Troops descended on towns suspected to be controlled by the Islamist group in the state of Borno and “rescued 195 persons …

A British military training team had arrived in Tunisia last February to provide practical and theoretical courses in border protection, spokesman for the National Defence Ministry Lieutenant-Colonel Belhassen Oueslati said on Tuesday. In a statement to TAP, he said a first session of a training programme for the Tunisian Army …