AFP Africa

The UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has begun closing several of its bases in the country, AFP saw on Friday, citing a budget shortfall, despite the precarious security situation in the impoverished nation.After gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan disintegrated into a bloody civil war between 2013 and 2018 that claimed …

UN closing bases in S.Sudan despite tense security concernsFri, 19 Dec 2025 17:20:49 GMT Read More »

Sweden said Friday it believed Swedish-Eritrean journalist Dawit Isaak, held without trial in Eritrea for 24 years with no news of his fate, was still alive.The claim came after the Swedish government’s first visit to the repressive nation in more than 30 years.Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said she visited Asmara this week and …

Sweden says journalist held 24 years in Eritrea is aliveFri, 19 Dec 2025 13:23:40 GMT Read More »

When Sudanese nurse Asmaa returned to the Darfur city of El-Fasher, she found only bodies where her neighbours once lived and no sign of the family she had come to save.The Rapid Support Forces, battling Sudan’s military since April 2023, seized the army’s last stronghold in Darfur on October 26 in a bloody offensive marked …

Sudan’s El-Fasher under the RSF, destroyed and ‘full of bodies’Fri, 19 Dec 2025 11:24:10 GMT Read More »

A scramble for gold reserves dug up in illegal mines is fuelling violence by criminal gangs in parts of Nigeria, officials, expert reports and local residents say, with much of it smuggled to Dubai.Northwestern and central Nigerian states have long been terrorised by criminal gangs locally called “bandits” who raid villages, abduct residents and loot …

Illegal gold mining stokes bandit violence in NigeriaFri, 19 Dec 2025 06:32:31 GMT Read More »

A few months ago, farmer Belete Melke was sheltering from a heavy downpour in a remote village in Ethiopia’s Amhara region when suddenly gunfire erupted around him.”We were caught in the crossfire,” he told AFP, after being struck by a stray bullet.Northern Amhara is Ethiopia’s second most populated region with roughly 23 million inhabitants, and …

Ethiopian civilians ‘caught in the crossfire’ of Amhara conflictFri, 19 Dec 2025 06:23:25 GMT Read More »

Washington on Thursday accused South Africa of harassing US government employees working with Afrikaners, the white minority to whom President Donald Trump is granting refugee status, in the latest escalation of tensions.The State Department said that passport information of US officials was leaked and warned in a statement that “failure by the South African government …

US accuses S.Africa of harassing US officials working with AfrikanersThu, 18 Dec 2025 18:53:19 GMT Read More »

Washington on Thursday accused South Africa of harassing US government employees working with Afrikaners, the white minority to whom President Donald Trump is granting refugee status, in the latest escalation of tensions.The State Department said that passport information of US officials was leaked and warned in a statement that “failure by the South African government …

US accuses S. Africa of harassing US officials working with AfrikanersThu, 18 Dec 2025 15:55:30 GMT Read More »

Benin President Patrice Talon said Thursday that the bulk of the army did not back a recent foiled coup bid whose leaders recruited young trainee soldiers. “No significant segment of the army joined” the attempted coup of December 7, which saw a group of soldiers claim on national television that they had deposed the president, Talon …

Benin president says bulk of military not behind failed coupThu, 18 Dec 2025 15:00:06 GMT Read More »

M23 police and plain-clothed intelligence agents were still deployed Thursday in Uvira, local and security sources said, after the armed group announced it had begun withdrawing from the eastern DR Congo city.After seizing the major cities of Goma and Bukavu early this year, fighters from the Rwanda-backed M23 group captured Uvira near the border with …

M23 police still present as armed group withdraws from DR Congo cityThu, 18 Dec 2025 13:03:13 GMT Read More »

The US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) said it has agreed a loan for the refurbishment of a rail link in Angola strategic for the transport of minerals which are in high demand at American firms.In an announcement Wednesday, the DFC said the rail link runs between the Lobito port on the Atlantic coast to …

US grants loan for strategic Angola rail lineThu, 18 Dec 2025 09:24:11 GMT Read More »