In the news

A group of senior Gabonese army officers appeared on national television Wednesday morning and declared they had seized power. It comes minutes after the state electoral body announced that President Ali Bongo was elected for a third term. Appearing on the Gabon 24 television channel, the officers said they represented …

Algeria has proposed a six-month transition period to civilian rule, overseen by a non-military person, as a way to end the crisis created by the coup in Niger. Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf said most of the countries he spoke with were against the use of force as a means …

Zimbabwean main opposition party on Tuesday called for a rerun of last week’s elections, slamming irregularities and calling on other African countries to help mediate the standoff with the ruling party, Reuters reported. But the Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) party did not say how it would seek to force …

A man has died after he could not come out from a well where he entered to remove a faulty pumping machine in the Ijotun area of Lagos, Nigeria. “The deceased was invited by a neighbour to help him remove the pumping machine,” according to the deceased’s famly. “He drowned …

 A suspected thief has been electrocuted while attempting to steal from a mechanic shop at Fiapre in the Sunyani West Municipality, Ghana. “The thief went to the area in the night with three other colleagues to engage in the crime,” according to reports. “The deceased entered the shop and stole some electrical wires  but in trying to exit, …

Pope Francis deplored the “deeply reactionary attitude” of some Catholics in the United States during an exchange with a group of Jesuits published Monday by the magazine Civilta Cattolica. “In the United States, the situation is not easy: there is a deeply reactionary attitude,” said the 86-year-old Argentine pope during …

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has banned the import of used clothes and called for increased investment in local garment industries. “When a white man dies in Europe, all his clothes are thrown away, I don’t know who collects them and sends them to Africa. I thank our friends who invest …

A 39-year-old female tenant bit off the right ear of her neighbour during an argument on the electricity bill in the Igode area of the Ogun State, Ngeria. “The electricity distribution company servicing the area disconnected the house where both tenants live over a pending issue,” according to reports. To …

A 20-year-old Ugandan man could face the death penalty after he was charged with aggravated homosexuality, which is a capital offence under a law that was passed in May, local media reported. It is the first time that such a charge has been reported, though it is not clear if …

A pastor has committed suicide after he jumped down from a two-storey building in Nnewi, Anambra State, Nigeria, according to reports. “The 30-year-old man had trained his lover in the university, after which she declined his marriage proposal,” a relative of the deceased said. “The deceased jumped down from the …