AFRICA

Washington, United States | AFP | The United States on Wednesday announced $550 million in assistance to Senegal to help the fast-growing country meet rising demand for electricity The Millennium Challenge Cooperation, a US government body created in 2004 that awards grants to countries that commit to good governance and …

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Gunmen have abducted four Catholic priests in southern Nigeria, a local state official told AFP Wednesday. The kidnapping happened on Tuesday at a border community between Edo and Delta States in the south, said Andrew Aniamaka, a spokesman for Delta State. “They were abducted on …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Forty-seven people were killed in Zimbabwe Wednesday when two buses collided on a road between the capital Harare and the eastern town of Rusape, police told AFP. “We confirm 47 people have died in a road traffic accident at the 166-kilometre peg along the Harare-Mutare …

Antananarivo, Madagascar | AFP | Election officials began counting ballots in Madagascar after Wednesday’s vote for a new president in which three former heads of state ran as the Indian Ocean island seeks to defuse a political crisis. Attempts by the most recent president Hery Rajaonarimampianina to change the island’s …

Washington, United States | AFP |  The United States said Wednesday it was willing to remove Sudan from its blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism if the country undertakes further reforms. In a statement released after talks in Washington, the State Department called on Sudan to step up anti-terrorism cooperation …

Yaoundé, Cameroon | AFP | Seventy-nine school pupils abducted by gunmen this week in a troubled English-speaking region of Cameroon have been freed, the country’s communications minister told AFP Wednesday. The kidnappings on Monday were the first such mass abductions seen in Cameroon and coincide with an upsurge of political …

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 …