AFRICA

Paris, France | AFP | Rates of female genital mutilation among girls under 14 have fallen sharply in most regions of Africa over three decades, according to ground-breaking analysis cautiously welcomed by aid groups. The age-old ritual of cutting or removing the clitoris of young females has been decried by …

Antananarivo, Madagascar | AFP | Madagascar was voting on Wednesday for a new president in unprecedented polls in which the three front-runners are former heads of state facing-off amid efforts to defuse a political crisis. Attempts by the most recent president, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, to change the large Indian Ocean island’s …

Libreville, Gabon | AFP | Four out of six South African rhinos that were transferred to a park in southeast Chad in a bid to revive the endangered species have died, but not from poaching, conservationists say. “An additional two black rhino carcasses have been discovered in Zakouma National Park …

Yaoundé, Cameroon | AFP | Cameroon’s 85-year-old President Paul Biya was sworn in on Tuesday for a seventh term after disputed elections and amid mounting unrest in an English-speaking region. He pledged to uphold the “integrity (and) unity” of the West African nation in a ceremony overseen by parliament speaker …

Juba, South Sudan | AFP | South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has been appointed to mediate peace talks between Khartoum and rebels in the Blue Nile, South Kordofan and Darfur conflict zones. Tut Kew, Kiir’s security advisor, told journalists on Monday that the president had agreed “to mediate between the Khartoum …

Yaoundé, Cameroon | AFP | Gunmen kidnapped 79 school students on Monday in an English-speaking region of Cameroon where separatists are fighting an armed campaign for independence, security and government sources said. The abductions, the worst incident so far in 13 months of unrest, came just a day before longtime …

Yaoundé, Cameroon | AFP | Seventy-nine school students were kidnapped on Monday in an English-speaking region of Cameroon where separatists are fighting an armed campaign for independence, a government source said. The students were abducted along with their principal, a teacher and a driver, the official said, as a source …

Dakar, Senegal | AFP | A two-day African security forum was set to open in Dakar on Monday amid concerns about funding for a much-trumpeted initiative to bind five Sahel countries into an anti-terror force. Less than a quarter of the roughly 400 million euros ($455 million) pledged for the …

Antananarivo, Madagascar | AFP | Thirty-six candidates will do battle to win the presidency in polls on November 7. The three frontrunners are former presidents and here are their profiles: – Ravalomanana: milkman-turned-millionaire – Marc Ravalomanana, 68, was ejected from power in 2009 and is looking to get his revenge …

Douala, Cameroon | AFP | Police in Cameroon arrested 19 supporters of opposition leader Maurice Kamto, who disputes the results of October presidential elections, at protests against President Paul Biya on Sunday, local authorities and witnesses told AFP. The arrests happened at two different places in the town of Bafoussam …