AFRICA

Bobigny, France | AFP |  A French court on Saturday upheld a 25 year prison sentence handed to a former Rwandan intelligence agent jailed in France’s first trial over the African country’s 1994 genocide. Pascal Simbikangwa was found guilty of genocide and complicity in crimes against humanity in a landmark …

Banjul, Gambia | AFP | The Gambia’s President-elect Adama Barrow held talks with his team Saturday to plot his transition to power, with the release of political prisoners emerging as a top priority for the new administration. Barrow’s shock election victory ended the iron-fisted 22-year rule of Yahya Jammeh on …

  Kasese, Uganda | AFP |  Outside the mortuary in Kasese, grief-stricken families wait to find out if their missing relatives were among scores killed by Ugandan security forces at the weekend. Huddling in groups, some pull clothes over their mouths and noses to mask the sickening stench of the …

Luanda, Angola | AFP | Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who has ruled for 37 years, will stand down before next year’s general election, state radio said Friday citing sources in the ruling MPLA party. The autocratic Dos Santos, 74, became president in 1979, making him Africa’s second-longest serving …

Adama Barrow: Gambia’s estate agent of change Banjul, Gambia | AFP | He is quiet, understated and until recently unknown, but now presidential election winner Adama Barrow has become the flagbearer for a new era of change in The Gambia. A political novice whose lack of baggage has endeared him …

Gambian president Jammeh ‘concedes’ defeat in election Banjul, Gambia | AFP | Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has conceded defeat to the opposition, the chairman of the electoral commission said Friday, bringing a dramatic end to his 22 years in power. “It’s really unique that someone who has been ruling this …

Juba, South Sudan | AFP |  UN human rights experts on Thursday said “ethnic cleansing” was under way in South Sudan after visiting the country where violence has soared since a peace deal collapsed in July. “There is already a steady process of ethnic cleansing underway in several areas of …

Banjul, Gambia | AFP | Gambian President Yahya Jammeh faced the strongest electoral challenge of his 22-year rule Thursday as voters went to the polls, braving an internet and phone blackout the government defended as a security measure. After an unprecedented two-week opposition campaign that has energised his rivals, Jammeh …

Kibeho, Rwanda | AFP | Christian pilgrims gather each year in their thousands in the southern Rwandan hill town of Kibeho, some hopeful of miracles where three schoolgirls said the Virgin Mary came to them. A service held Monday in the small, isolated town marked the 35th anniversary of the …

Libreville, Gabon | AFP |  Eleven countries, meeting Wednesday on security in central Africa, urged the Democratic Republic of Congo’s opposition to back a deal that could keep its president in office far beyond his official mandate. Leaders or their representatives from the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) …