AFRICA

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | Ethiopia’s former opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa, who recently returned from exile, was on Thursday named as head of the country’s election body ahead of the 2020 polls. Birtukan’s appointment makes her the latest woman to be appointed to a high-profile role and the most …

Paris, France | AFP | African museum directors on Wednesday welcomed an expert report calling on France to allow the return of thousands of African treasures and artworks, a radical policy shift that could put pressure on other former colonial powers. Calls have been growing in Africa for restitution, but …

Yaoundé, Cameroon | AFP |  A Kenyan priest was killed in francophone Cameroon’s volatile English-speaking Southwest region where violence has surged after separatists declared an independent state, church sources told AFP on Thursday. “A Kenyan priest was shot dead in Kembong yesterday,” one source said. “There was no fighting, he …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | Ivory Coast and Chelsea great Didier Drogba announced his retirement on Wednesday after a 20-year career. The 40-year-old scored 164 goals in 381 appearances for Chelsea, winning four Premier League titles, four FA Cups and the 2012 Champions League, while he is also Ivory …

Niamey, Niger | AFP | Part of a group of a rare giraffes that has become a Niger tourist attraction is to be moved to a reserve 600 kilometres (400 miles) away owing to encroaching desert, farmland and increasing instances of them being struck by vehicles, officials said Wednesday. “It’s …

Bamako, Mali | AFP | An armed group of ethnic Dogon hunters have rejected a recent ceasefire with Fulani herders in central Mali, arguing they need to protect fellow tribe members after several were killed by Mali army troops, a military-wing spokesperson said Wednesday. The armed group, known as Dan …

Former Angolan president rejects he left state coffers ’empty’ Luanda, Angola | AFP |  Former Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos on Wednesday refuted allegations by his successor Joao Lourenco that he left the country’s finances “empty”. The row comes just over a year after Dos Santos stepped down in …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | An armed gang abducted an Italian woman from a village in southeast Kenya, shooting and wounding five residents in the raid, police said Wednesday. “The attackers fired indiscriminately at residents” before kidnapping the 23-year-old, who worked as a volunteer for an Italian charity, during the …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | After two years of setbacks, broken promises and delays, the Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday effectively opened the starting gates for a crucial election that could alleviate — or perhaps worsen — the decades-long crisis gripping the vast central African nation. “May the …

Juba, South Sudan | AFP | South Sudan said Wednesday that the country’s latest peace deal had helped revive its war-battered oil sector, with an increase of 20,000 barrels per day in the past two months. The country’s warring parties in September signed a new peace deal to end five …