Africa

Russia is trying to expand its influence in Libya through a combination of military means and oil and weapons sales, a top US general said Friday. General Thomas Tom Waldhauser, who heads the US military’s Africa Command, said Russia is “on the ground” in the border region between Egypt and …

Algeria “strongly” condemned the terrorist attack perpetrated Wednesday, in Westminster, in the British capital. “The attack that struck, this afternoon, the British capital is a coward terrorist attack that we condemn in the strongest terms, underlined the spokesperson of the ministry of Foreign Affairs Abdelaziz Benali Cherif in a statement …

Burkina Faso’s government says its military forces have killed a key jihadist and arrested 18 others in the country’s north, close to the West African nation’s border with Mali. Security Minister Simon Compaore said on Friday that forces also seized weapons and ammunition in Wednesday’s operation.

An organisation that monitors extremist groups says al-Shabab has claimed to kill 17 soldiers and wound 22 in an attack in southwestern Somalia. The SITE Intelligence Group says in a statement Thursday that the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab’s news agency posted a claim on Facebook about attacking the coastal city of Barawe.

Egypt’s ousted president Hosni Mubarak left a military hospital on Friday where he had spent much of his six-year detention, his lawyer said. Mubarak had been cleared for release earlier this month after a top court finally acquitted him of involvement in protester deaths during the 2011 revolt that ousted …

At least 50 people have been killed and dozens more injured since Tuesday after armed men attacked three villages in the central Bambari region of the Central African Republic, local residents who fled their homes told AFP. Prosper Tchoulekrayo, who escaped from Yasseneme village, said the attackers had “fired indiscriminately …

The UN under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, Herve Ladsous, on Friday kicked off his visit to Mali and South Sudan with his successor, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, who was appointed to replace Ladsous next month, a UN spokesman told reporters here.

Libya’s major oil ports of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf are resuming operations and preparing to export crude after a two-week halt in shipments due to armed clashes in the holder of Africa’s largest crude reserves. Libya’s total production rose on Monday to 646,000 barrels a day from 621,000, mostly …

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has arrived in Egypt where he is scheduled to meet with President Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi and Prime Minister Sharif Ismail with the view of strengthening ties between the two countries. Hariri will also meet with Pope Tawadros II of the Coptic Church and Grand Imam …

US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis’ spoke with Egyptian Minister of Defense General Sedki Sobhy on Tuesday during which Mattis expressed his “commitment to advancing the US-Egyptian defense partnership.”