Africa

The latest upsurge in deadly violence in the Central African Republic saw the first use of heavy weapons and more sophisticated military tactics by a predominantly Christian armed group, a senior U.N. official said Thursday. Diane Corner, the U.N. deputy special representative in the beleaguered country, said that since May …

French President Emmanuel Macron visited French troops fighting jihadists in conflict-torn Mali on Friday and urged faster progress on a peace accord signed in 2015. At the end of his first week in office, Macron flew into Gao, a city in Mali’s deeply-troubled north, where he was met by his …

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he would visit Egypt soon during talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in the Saudi capital. “We will absolutely be putting that on the list very soon,” Trump said at the beginning of bilateral talks with Sisi, which came hours before …

Three Algerian naval officers were killed when their helicopter crashed after striking power lines during a night patrol southwest of Algiers, the defence ministry said on Monday. The navy rescue helicopter went down on Sunday night in Tipaza province, 70km from the capital, it said.

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir declared a unilateral ceasefire on Monday as he launched a national dialogue, a controversial bid to end a civil war that excludes his rival Riek Machar. It is not the first time Kiir has vowed the army will lay down arms in the three-year conflict, …

Mali will keep fighting “terrorist groups” in the country until they engage in serious peace talks, the country’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has said. Despite continued French troop deployments, a UN peacekeeping mission comprising 11,000 soldiers and years of peace talks, Mali remains beset by political unrest and ethnic strife.

The UN mission in Mali on Tuesday condemned the attack on Timbuktu UN Base and called for implementation of the peace deal, a UN spokesman said. “The UN Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) reports that its camp in Timbuktu was targeted in a mortar attack Monday,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for …

Egyptian Defense Minister Sedqi Sobhi on Wednesday held talks in Cairo with General Joseph L. Lengyel, head of the U.S. National Guard, in which the two men discussed regional developments and military cooperation. “Attended by high-ranking Egyptian army officials, discussions tackled a range of issues, including current challenges faced by …

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir on Wednesday called for international support to the government efforts to implement the peace deal signed in August 2015 saying that the process is entering a critical stage. President Kiir made the remark on Wednesday after meeting the Egyptian ambassador to the South Sudan who …

Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and King Abdullah II of Jordan stressed the importance of fostering international efforts to fight terrorism in the region during a meeting in Cairo on Wednesday. Abdullah arrived in Cairo for a short visit earlier today to discuss bilateral relations as well as regional issues, including …