West Africa

Special Forces Group Commander Colonel Mahamady Doumbouya confirmed the takeover of power from President Alpha Conde on Sunday on state TV and pledged to oversee a peaceful transition. Little is known about Col Doumbouya’s early life, except that he is a Malinke like President Conde and hails from Guinea’s eastern …

Soldiers who carried out the coup in Guinea on Sunday ordered government ministers and national figures to attend a meeting later on Monday. The special forces officers warned that anybody who failed to appear would be regarded as a rebel. Regional governors have been replaced by military commanders. “Ousted President …

Through statements, the head of the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the US State Department have condemned the Coup d’Etat in Guinea. The head of African Union Felix Tshisekedi and the AU Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat called on the African Union Peace and …

The Nigerian army has announced that nearly 6,000 Boko Haram members have surrendered to the authorities in the past two weeks. These are the commanders, the combatants and their families. The army describes the massive surrender of members of the militant group as the result of the intense military offensive …

Five girls among dozens of students abducted from a secondary school in the northern Nigerian state of Zamfara have escaped from captivity. Gunmen attacked their school in Kaya-Maradun town on Wednesday and seized more than 70 students, most of them girls and a senior member of staff. Parents of the …

Six illegal miners died after sneaking into the old pits of a gold mine in Burkina Faso. Seven others were injured after police fired tear gas, BBC reports. Police said the miners died from lack of oxygen in the deep pits, but did not say anything about the use of …

In Nigeria, the authorities are very criticized in the aftermath of the kidnapping of 73 students from Kaya high school by armed men. The abduction was the umpteenth targeting schools in a few months. Security has since been stepped up in the village of Kaya and its surroundings to prevent …

Defence ministers of the G5 Sahel countries are meeting in Niger’s capital, Niamey, to find out a new approach to the jihadist insurgency in the region. Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Chad are facing major challenges with a wave of jihadist attacks and the planned withdrawal of the French-led …

Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari has sacked two of his ministers in a rare reshuffle. Those affected are the minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Mohammed Sabo Nanono and his counterpart from the Ministry of Power, Sale Mamman. The cause of their removal has not been evoked but a statement from …

After new analyzes by the Institut Pasteur in Lyon (France) on the samples taken from a young Guinean presented by the Ivorian authorities as infected, the World Health Organization (WHO), announced on Tuesday that there is “no proof” of the presence of the Ebola virus in the country. The World …