Africa

Local community leaders in central Mali say pro-government fighters have killed more than a dozen members of an ethnic group accused of links to Islamic extremism. Sekou Bah, the secretary-general of a group called Dental Wuwarbe, said four members of the Peuhl ethnic group were killed while eating at a …

Burundi’s government on Wednesday refused to participate in stalled talks to end months of political crisis unless it was first consulted on who else was taking part. As Washington urged the authorities to defuse a year-long crisis, a presidential statement, broadcast on national radio and monitored in Nairobi, issued a …

Cambodia dispatched on Wednesday the third batch of troops to join a United Nations peacekeeping mission in the conflict-torn West African nation of Mali, a senior military official said. The 309-member group would replace the second team, whose one-year term had come to an end, said Gen. Sem Sovanny, director-general …

he political division in Libya still poses an obstacle to the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group despite signing a UN-sponsored peace agreement and the appointment of a unity government. The UN-backed Libyan unity government called in a statement Thursday on its military forces to suspend any military operation …

Egypt will head the UN Security Council in May, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, vowing to push African issues forward and put the spotlight on security challenges facing the international community. Egypt will handle several important regional issues such as the Palestinian case and the crises in Libya, Syria …

Nigeria and France on Thursday signed an agreement on closer military co-operation, including intelligence sharing, to strengthen the fight against Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region. Nigerian Defence Minister Mansur Dan Ali said the agreement was evidence of a “growing partnership” between Abuja and Paris, as he met his …

South Sudan President Salva Kiir has named his transitional unity government, sharing power with ex-rebels in a key step in a long-delayed peace process, a decree read out on Friday said. Under terms of an August 2015 peace deal, the 30 ministerial posts are split between Kiir, former rebel chief …

The UN Security Council is calling for the urgent return of the UN peacekeeping mission in the disputed Western Sahara to its full operation in a rebuke to Morocco, which expelled most of its civilian staff to protest a comment by the UN secretary general.

Algerian troops on Friday killed three armed Islamist fighters in the Skidda region west of the capital during an operation in the area, the defence ministry said. A statement said the suspects were killed in the afternoon during a search which is still under way, and described the gunmen as …

Four years after Muammar Gaddafi was killed in an uprising, the dictator’s legacy continues to haunt oil-rich Libya as it struggles to find its national identity. “Gaddafi chose to build the idea of a state around his personality,” said Michael Nayebi-Oskoui, senior Middle East analyst at the US-based global intelligence …