AFRICA

Benghazi, Libya | AFP | Libyan deputies voted Saturday for a break in diplomatic relations with Turkey over its controversial agreements with the UN-recognised government that is contested inside the North African country. At an emergency meeting in the eastern city of Benghazi, parliament also urged the international community to …

Benghazi, Libya | AFP |  Libya’s military strongman Khalifa Haftar has called on all Libyans to take up arms in response to a prospective military intervention from Turkey aimed at shoring up the UN-backed government in Tripoli. The beleaguered Tripoli government, headed by Fayez al-Sarraj, has been under sustained attack …

Juba, South Sudan | AFP |  South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has pardoned a Harvard-educated economist whose conviction earlier this year on spying charges drew international criticism. Peter Biar Ajak was among 30 prisoners on a pardon list seen by AFP and dated January 1. A spokesman for the main …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP |  Four children were among 18 people killed Thursday when a Sudanese military transport plane crashed after take off from West Darfur state, an army spokesman said. The plane crashed five minutes after take off from an airport in the state capital El Geneina, after delivering …

Embalo wins Guinea-Bissau presidency, beaten PAIGC cries foul Bissau, Guinea-Bissau | AFP | Opposition leader Umaro Sissoco Embalo won the presidential election in the volatile West African state of Guinea-Bissau, the National Electoral Commission (CNE) announced Wednesday, but the country’s historic ruling PAIGC party cried foul. Embalo won 53.55 percent …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | In the past decade, Somali Islamist group Al-Shabaab has lost territory, suffered defections and faced mounting US air strikes, but analysts say the group is as strong a threat as ever, flourishing under the country’s weak government. Despite years of costly efforts to combat the group, …

Brazzaville, Congo | AFP | Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso has been chosen by his party to run again for the top job in 2021, having already led the central African country for a total of 35 years. During its congress in Brazzaville overnight Monday, his Congolese Party of Labour (PCT) …

Abidjan, Ivory Coast | AFP |  Former Ivory Coast political leader Charles Ble Goude said Monday he had been sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison by an Ivorian court over murder, rape and torture charges. Ble Goude was cleared of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in the …

Nyeri, Kenya | AFP |  In a humming factory in Kenya’s highlands, tea is hand-plucked from the fields, cured and shredded into the fine leaves that have sated drinkers from London to Lahore for generations. But Kenya’s prized black tea isn’t fetching the prices it once did, forcing the top supplier …

Beni, DR Congo | AFP |  Eighteen people in eastern DR Congo’s troubled region of Beni have been killed in a fresh attack by a notorious armed group, a local official said on Monday. “There was an incursion in Apetina-Sana by the ADF last night,” Beni administrator Donat Kibwana told …