In the news

Justice Abiola Sholadoye of the Ikeja Special Offences and Domestic Volence Court has sentenced a 32-year-old street sweeper to life imprisonment for defiling a 14-year-old girl in Lagos State, Nigeria. The man was convicted on one count of defilement of the girl, whom he claimed was his girlfriend. The convict …

A Zimbabwe opposition activist who was abducted at the weekend while campaigning ahead of key by-elections has been found dead. Tapfumanei Masaya’s body was found in a decomposed state on the outskirts of the capital Harare, his party, the Citizens Coalition for Change, said. “We demand the police to investigate …

Mauritanian authorities said the bodies of 16 people thought to be migrants have been found on the country’s northern coast. The discovery on the beaches of Lagouera comes a week after 13 corpses were found in boats in the same area, near the city of Nouadhibou. This latest incident appears …

A young woman allegedly poisoned her 11-month-old baby to death in Logo Local Government Area, Benue State, Nigeria. “The woman has fed the baby witht a substance suspected to be a chemical,” according to reports. “She was impregnated by her boyfriend and after she gave birth to a baby girl, …

Nigerian authorities have announced they will withdraw police officers from VIP security duties in line with a presidential directive. State Minister of Police Affairs Hajia Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim said the police force was currently struggling following decades of neglect that had hampered its ability to fulfil its constitutional mandate. She said …

The government in Kenya declared Monday a public holiday to encourage residents to plant 100 million trees across the country. President William Ruto has pledged that 15 billion trees will be planted by 2032 to boost Kenya’s forest cover following the Horn of Africa region’s worst drought in 40 years. …

Islamist militants tied up at least 19 villagers and killed them with machetes and other weapons in a raid in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo late on Sunday, Reuters reported, citinig a civil society leader. Other villagers fled but may have drowned as they tried to cross the Lamia river …

Former Ivorian Prime Minister Soro Kigbafori Guillaume announced that he had landed in Niamey, the capital of Niger, after five years of exile. Guillaume Soro, who took himself into exile in 2019, says he plans to return home despite having two criminal convictions. He said on Sunday that he wanted …

U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo on Thursday said he hoped Congress would extend a trade program that grants exports from qualifying African countries duty-free access to the U.S. market, hailing the strategic opportunities in the region. Adeyemo told the Reuters agency that the two-decade-old African Growth and Opportunity Act …

Five soldiers died in the accident of an American helicopter which crashed in the Mediterranean during an exercise, the European command of the American army (Eucom) and the Pentagon announced on Sunday. Eucom did not specify the model of the aircraft concerned or its origin, but the United States recently …