Dozens of African migrants thrown overboard by smugglers and feared dead: IOM


At the beginning of the year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) set a target to vaccinate health workers and vulnerable groups against COVID-19 in 100 days.

Senegal's main opposition leader, Ousmane Sonko, was arrested on Wednesday after hundreds of his supporters clashed with police in the capital while protesting a rape accusation against him.

Kenya received over a million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, while Rwanda said it was the first in Africa to secure shots from Pfizer, as efforts to inoculate the world's poorest nations accelerated.

The first doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 shots - to be dispatched to Africa under the global COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme - are due to arrive in Rwanda on Wednesday.

Unicef says the World Health Organisation's (WHO) COVAX facility wants to deliver two billion COVID-19 vaccines in various countries this year.

US CDC adopts rules for DRC, Guinea travelers over Ebola concerns

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on Tuesday pressed Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to end hostilities in the northern Tigray region, citing a "growing number of credible reports of atrocities and human rights violations and abuses."

Islamic State insurgents left the town of Dikwa on Tuesday after seizing and overrunning the humanitarian hub and government stronghold in northeastern Nigeria, two aid workers there said.

Ghana began its coronavirus vaccination drive on Tuesday with 600 000 AstraZeneca doses it received from the global COVAX vaccine-sharing facility aimed at providing shots to developing nations to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gunmen have freed all 279 girls kidnapped from a boarding school in northwest Nigeria, officials said on Tuesday, as victims described how their abductors had beaten and threatened to shoot them.

Nigeria’s first COVID-19 vaccines, Oxford/AstraZeneca shots from the international COVAX scheme, landed in the capital city Abuja on Tuesday.

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has described as overwhelming news that kidnappers have released unharmed hundreds of schoolgirls in northwest Zamfara state.

Gunmen have released girls kidnapped from a boarding school in northwest Nigeria, the governor of Zamfara state said in a message posted on Twitter on Tuesday in which he shared pictures girls wearing Muslim veils.

Zimbabwe's second Vice President, Kembo Mohadi, has described the sexual misconduct allegations against him as a campaign to discredit him.

A South African private military firm will hire outside lawyers to look into its activities in Mozambique, it said, after Amnesty International accused it of firing indiscriminately on civilians while helping the government fight an insurgency.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will impose new public health requirements for US visitors who have recently been in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) or Guinea because of concerns about Ebola, the agency said on Monday.

Zimbabwe's second Vice President Kembo Mohadi has resigned amidst sexual misconduct allegations.

The World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) first female and first African director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala began work on Monday, vowing to unblock negotiations on rules to stop over-fishing.

Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo urged citizens of the West African state on Sunday to ignore conspiracy theories surrounding coronavirus vaccines ahead of the launch of its nationwide inoculation campaign against the virus on Tuesday.

Relatives of more than 300 girls abducted by gunmen from their boarding school in northwest Nigeria endured an agonising wait for news amid rumours that they had been released, while security forces continued their search on Sunday.

At least two people were killed after security forces went to arrest Chad's opposition candidate Yaya Dillo at his home on Sunday morning, Dillo and the government said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday called on the African Union and other international partners to help address a deepening crisis in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region as he condemned alleged atrocities in fighting there.

Nigeria’s central bank is seeking asset managers for a new $2.6 billion infrastructure investment company set up to develop the country’s crumbling transport networks and boost economic growth.

Gunmen in Nigeria on Saturday released 27 teenage boys who were kidnapped from their school last week in the north-central state of Niger, while security forces continued to search for more than 300 schoolgirls abducted in a nearby state.

Tunisia's biggest political party rallied an immense crowd of supporters in the capital on Saturday in a show of strength that could fuel a dispute between the president and prime minister that has paralysed the government.

Gunmen in Nigeria on Saturday released 42 people, including 27 students, who were kidnapped from a boarding school last week in the north-central state of Niger, the state’s governor said.

President Cyril Ramaphosa says the country's security forces are monitoring the developments in northern Mozambique to ensure there is no threat to surrounding countries including South Africa.

Nigeria is expecting its first 4 million doses of coronavirus vaccines next week from the global COVAX programme for poor and middle-income countries, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

The agency estimates that three million people will need emergency food assistance until late this year.

Unidentified gunmen seized 317 schoolgirls in northwest Nigeria on Friday, police said, the second such kidnapping in little over a week in a region increasingly targeted by militants.