Africa

Pro-government armed groups in Mali seized the northern town of Menaka from Tuareg separatists on Monday during fierce fighting, a spokesman for the group and a resident said. The clashes come after months of relative calm and risk derailing a fragile United Nations peace process that aims to settle the …

Suspected Boko Haram fighters in motorised canoes have attacked a Niger army base on an island in Lake Chad, the body of water touching all four countries that have been targeted by Nigeria’s Islamic insurgency, says Niger’s defense ministry.

Central African Republic’s transitional government has postponed a peace forum involving factions in a two-year-old conflict that has killed thousands, a statement from parliament said, as the country prepares for elections by the end of the year.

The UN has warned on Monday it had received only a fraction of the funds needed to address strife-torn Central African Republic’s towering humanitarian crisis, forcing it to cut desperately needed aid. “We must prevent the Central African Republic from becoming a forgotten crisis,” said Claire Bourgeois, the UN humanitarian …

The signing of the peace and reconciliation agreement in Mali, scheduled for 15 May in Bamako, will open a “new page” in the history of this country, which is seeking stability, security and development. Signed in Algiers on March 1st by the government of Mali and the political-military groups of …

An Egyptian court on Tuesday sentenced ousted president Mohamed Morsi to 20 years in prison for inciting the killings of protestors outside the Ittihadiya presidential palace in December 2012. However, Morsi and all other 14 defendants in the case were acquitted of committing premeditated murder and possessing weapons. This is …

Nine Kenyan security officials from Garissa have been suspended and could face charges of criminal negligence over the massacre at the town’s university earlier this month, the government announced on Tuesday. Militants from Somalia’s al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab rebels attacked the university in the northeastern town of Garissa on April 2, lining …

The UN Security Council is set to push for more intensive negotiations to settle the decades-old dispute over Western Sahara, at the centre of tensions between Morocco and African countries. A draft resolution under discussion this week extends the mandate of the MINURSO peace mission for a year and calls …

At least seven people were killed in an attack on a UN vehicle in Garowe, the capital of Puntland in northeastern Somalia, on Monday. Four UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) staff members were among the dead and four other staff members were in serious condition, the agency said in a statement.

Egypt’s armed forces killed 57 suspected militants in raids it conducted in North Sinai during the past 10 days, the army spokesman announced on Monday. Spokesman Mohamed Samir said in a statement that the armed forces conducted raids on the North Sinai cities of al-Arish, Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah from …