West Africa

A prominent Malian economist and professor Étienne Fakaba Sissoko has been sentenced to two years in jail, one of which was suspended, for criticizing the military authorities. He was also ordered to pay a fine of 3m CFA francs ($4,900). The 41-year-old academic, who has been in custody since March, …

The US and Niger authorities have agreed that US troops will leave the country no later than 15 September, they announced in a joint statement on Sunday. The two countries had “reached a disengagement agreement to effect the withdrawal of U.S. forces, which has already begun”. The statement commended the …

An 8-year old boy has drown in River Adjei at Nurses Quarters near Domeabra in the Ga South Municipality of the Greater Accra Region, Ghana. According to reports, the boy went missing for a day. “The deceased went to the river together with his 12-year-old elder brother and friends to …

Five health workers have been arrested for the disappearance of a newborn baby’s umbilical cord and placenta at Government Cottage Hospital, Iloffa, in Oke-Ero Local Government Area of Nigeria State. “A woman gave birth to a baby while the umbilical cord and the placenta were yet to be given to …

Eight worshippers were killed and 16 others injured after a man attacked a mosque with a locally made explosive in northern Nigeria’s Kano state. The suspect attacked the mosque in Kano’s remote Gadan village “purely in hostility following prolonged family disagreement,” police spokesman Abdullahi Haruna said. “The worshippers were locked …

A Kaduna Chief Magistrates Court has ordered a man found guilty of stealing a woman’s purse to sweep the court grounds for three weeks in Ghana. “The accused had broken into the lady’s store pretending to buy a loaf of bread,” Inspector Chidi Leo, the police prosecutor, told the court. …

A Policeman has been shot dead by unknown assailants in the Bobiri Forest Reserve at Kubease near Ejisu, Ghana. A complaint was lodged by a certain Caleb Adu Agyemang, MP for the Kubease constituency, alleging that an adult male in his thirties was found dead in the forest reserve on …

A 22-year-old man has been arrested for killing his two-year-old son in Berekum-Koraso, in the Berekum West district of Ghana’s Bono region. “The suspect has tied the body in a sack and dumped it in a bush,” according to reports. However, luck eluded him as some community members spotted him …

Gambian former interior minister, Ousman Sonko has been sentenced to 20 years in prison by a court in Switzerland for crimes against humanity committed when President Yahya Jammeh was in power. Ousman Sonko fled to Switzerland in 2016 and claimed asylum, shortly before Mr Jammeh was voted out of office. …

A 43-year-old man has been sentenced to life imprisonment over a murder attempt on a woman by macheting her in the farm in Aramoko Ekiti, Nigeria. The suspect was arraigned before the court on a one-count charge bordering on an attempt to murder. The victim, in her testimony before the …