West Africa

Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio has declared three days of national mourning after a fuel tanker explosion on Friday killed more than 100 people. Mr Maada Bio said the country must learn from the incident, adding that those injured would be given free treatment. A task force is set …

A parliamentarian in Cape Verde has been found guilty of violently assaulting his wife and given a three-year suspended sentence after being news site RFI reports. Damião Medina had initially been sentenced to two years in prison but this was reversed, a decision that has been criticised in the country. …

Security forces in Nigeria have rescued six people abducted by armed men from a university in Abuja this week, in what was a rare kidnapping at a higher education institution in the country’s capital, police said on Friday. Gunmen abducted four members of staff and two of their children from …

More than 80 migrants have been rescued off the coast of West Africa by Senegal’s navy, AFP news agency reports quoting Senegal’s armed forces. The migrants’ boat had capsized while they were apparently trying to reach the Canary Islands, which are part of Spain, the report adds. The vessel had …

Nigerian Borno state Governor Babagana Zulum has reopened a major road that was closed nine years ago over insecurity. The Bama-Banki road, in the north-east, connects the country to neighbouring Cameroon and extends to the Central African Republic. It was closed when insurgents attacked and destroyed the historical town of …

According to the executive director of the United Nations AIDS agency, HIV infections could have a peak in the western and central regions of Africa due to the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic in health services. “We are seeing across countries, a decrease in people receiving prevention, a decrease in …

A dozen civilians were killed on Monday and four others are reported missing in northern Burkina Faso in attacks attributed to jihadists near the border with Niger. The unidentified armed men attacked the group of civilians as they were going to a weekly market in the town of Markoye, about …

Two survivors have been rescued from a collapsed building in Nigeria’s commercial city of Lagos, news agency AFP reports. The partially built 22-storey block of luxury apartments came down on Monday in the wealthy Ikoyi neighbourhood. At least five people have died and dozens are missing, the authorities say. Despite …

Six people including four lecturers have been kidnapped by armed men in the University of Abuja in Nigeria’s capital, the local police has announced. The attackers invaded the living quarters of the university and abducted the victims in the early hours of Tuesday, the police said. The armed men have …

Three Chinese nationals kidnapped in July escaped their captors and were rescued by security forces, the Malian army said in a statement. The three Chinese were kidnapped by armed men at a construction site in the south of the country. In a statement, the army said the hostages had managed …