AFRICA

Paris, France | AFP | France on Monday accepted a first group of 19 refugees identified in Africa under an overhauled asylum policy that will also see it expel thousands of economic migrants. While it has drawn little public outcry in France, the policy faces stiff opposition from the left …

Yaoundé, Cameroon | AFP | The Commonwealth secretary-general has urged Cameroon to resolve “through peaceful dialogue” a crisis that has shaken the country’s English-speaking regions since last year. Patricia Scotland, who is on a four-day official visit to the country, expressed “great sadness” with the violence in the Northwest and …

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Nigeria’s opposition has rejected a plan to spend a billion dollars of oil money to fight the Boko Haram insurgency in the country’s volatile northeast. Last week, the governor of the southern state of Edo, Godwin Obaseki, told reporters the federal government had been given …

Dakar, Senegal | AFP | Qatar’s emir landed in Senegal on Wednesday at the start of a six-nation tour of West Africa as Doha seeks out new markets after Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries cut ties with the wealthy emirate. Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani’s is expected to visit …

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | The European Union called Wednesday for an independent probe into clashes between two of Ethiopia’s largest ethnic groups, which officials say left at least 61 dead last week alone. There have been a string of recent clashes over the border between the two ethnically …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | State employees of the Democratic Republic of Congo helped organise the mission trip of two UN experts to the central Kasai region where they were killed, according to a Reuters and Radio France Internationale (RFI) report. The revelation that “four state agents and associates” …

Soweto, South Africa | AFP | Cyril Ramaphosa’s victory in the ANC leadership battle has sparked renewed hope among many in South Africa’s Soweto township where he grew up — and where frustration with the party has been mounting. “He is a model because he is one person that came …

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso | AFP | Burkina Faso is banning imports from North Korea to comply with tough UN economic sanctions punishing Pyongyang’s weapons programmes, the government said Wednesday. The decision comes after an inquiry by the United States in October showed that Burkina Faso was still trading with North …

Gbarnga, Liberia | AFP | Dekergar Duko, a lean father-of-two who crushes rocks for a living, often reminisces during his days of backbreaking labour about his life under Liberia’s warlord-turned-president, Charles Taylor. Living in a hovel metres (yards) away from the so-called “College of Knowledge” where the dreaded strongman trained child …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | The United Nations’ humanitarian coordinator in South Sudan called Tuesday for the “swift and safe” return of six aid workers who have disappeared in the northwest of the country. The co-ordinator, Alain Noudehou, said in a statement that one international and five national aid workers …