West Africa

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara is in self-isolation after being in contact with someone who had tested positive for Covid-19, the presidency has said. The name of the person was not revealed. President Ouattara has encouraged the Ivorian population to get vaccinated while respecting the protection measures in place in …

A Senegalese university student is in trouble for disguising himself as a woman to sit his girlfriend’s school-leaving English paper. Images of the Khadim Mboup dressed in women’s clothes, including a red veil, have been shared widely on social media and news outlets in Senegal. The 22-year-old student, who was …

Authorities in Nigeria have received from the US government, a donation of four million doses of Covid-19 vaccine. The US embassy in Nigeria says the donated vaccines are part of the “US pledge to initially provide at least 25 million of the 80 million doses globally to Africa”. Nigeria receives …

After the government failed to respond to their grievances, doctors in Nigeria’s public hospitals are set to begin an indefinite strike over poor pay. The National Association of Resident Doctors (Nard) said its members would begin the strike on Monday at 08:00 local time. The union accused the government of …

Fifteen soldiers have been killed in what Niger’s defence ministry described as a “terrorist attack” in the south-west of the country, near the border with Burkina Faso. According to the defence ministry, soldiers in the Torodi area of the Tillaberi region were ambushed and then hit by an improvised explosive …

A group of Nigerian athletes who were ruled ineligible to compete at the Olympics in Tokyo have held a protest in the Japanese city. On Wednesday, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) ruled that a total of 20 competitors, including 10 from Nigeria, would be unable to take part in the …

Ivorian ex-first lady Simone Ehivet Gbagbo has been acquitted by the International criminal court. The arrest warrant issued against her has been lifted. She was facing accusations of crimes against humanity committed during the country’s 2010-2011 post-election crisis, after her husband’s refusal to hand over power to Alassane Ouattara, who …

Ghanaian information minister says politicians have “no intention” of changing its laws on sexuality, after an anti-gay bill was submitted to parliament. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said that the country’s current laws on “matters of sexuality” were “adequate”. Ghana’s criminal code outlaws what it describes as “unnatural carnal knowledge” but does …

They are at least eighteen people to have been killed by gunmen in Niger in an area near the border with Mali. The area has been the scene of frequent attacks by Islamist militants. According to a local authority, armed men on motorbikes attacked the village of Dèye Koukou on …

Authorities in Equatorial Guinea have detained six French soldiers who were travelling in a helicopter that had stopped to refuel in the port city of Bata, the AFP news agency reports. The detention came on the same day that the top appeals court in France upheld the conviction of Equatorial …