Eye on Africa

The death toll rose to at least 69 as firefighters, soldiers and civilian volunteers fought fires in forests across northern Algeria on Wednesday, in the latest forest fires to cover the Mediterranean. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune declared three days of national mourning starting on Thursday, and authorities say they…

Zambia goes to the polls on Thursday to vote for a new president and member of the National Assembly. The vote comes at a challenging time for the copper-rich nation, which is currently struggling with a serious economic crisis on top of political tensions and severe coronavirus restrictions. There are 16 names on the ballot papers for the president, but the race is expected to be a close head-to-head between incumbent Edgar Lungu of the Patriotic Front (PF) and main opposition candidate Hakainde…

Another nine bodies were found in a new mass grave on Wednesday in Libya's Tarhuna province, which was liberated from forces loyal to Putist general Khalifa Haftar. The General Authority for Research and Identification of Missed Persons said in a statement that the mass grave was discovered in an agricultural area in Tarhuna. Tarhuna, a strategic city about 65 kilometers (41 miles) southeast of the Libyan capital Tripoli, was under the control of the al-Kaniyat militia, which gained a reputation for…

Fifteen people have been killed in an attack in western Niger less than two weeks after 33 people were killed by suspected jihadists in the same area, officials said on Wednesday. The Interior Ministry said in a…

Amnesty International says women and girls in Tigray were raped and sexually abused by Ethiopian soldiers and their allies in an attempt to inflict lasting physical and mental harm. In a new report, the rights group says that stories of gang rape, sexual slavery and sexual mutilation amount…

Firefighters, troops and civilian volunteers fought fires in forests in northern Algeria on Wednesday when the country killed at least 65 people in the latest forest fires that hit the Mediterranean. Soldiers deployed to support the overcrowded rescue services are fighting the outbreak of more than 50 fires that broke out on Tuesday and accounted for 28 of those killed, state television reported. Authorities say they suspect widespread arson after so many fires broke out in such a short time. They…

Sudan will hand over longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court along with other officials called for the Darfur conflict, Foreign Minister Mariam al-Mahdi said on Wednesday. "The Cabinet decided to hand over wanted officials to the ICC," Mahdi was quoted as saying by state media. Bashir, who ruled Sudan with an iron fist for three decades before being ousted from popular protests in 2019, is charged with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. The UN says 300,000 people…

A tablet provided by a mercenary for the Russian Wagner group in Libya provides evidence of the mercenaries' involvement in mining and booby trapping of civilian areas and other possible war crimes, BBC News reported on Wednesday. The investigation, mostly conducted through evidence from the tablet's contents, has revealed the extent of operations by the shadowy Russian mercenary group in Libya's civil war, which include links to war crimes and the Russian military. As the BBC reported, they also managed to gain rare…

Kenya's beekeeping industry gained momentum from the Turkish Co-operation and Coordination Office (TIKA), Turkey's leading aid agency. The country is among the best honey producers in Africa and has close ties with Turkey. On Tuesday, Kenya's National Beekeeping Institute received a supply of equipment from Turkey to increase the quality of honey produced in the East African country. "Today we are very happy to have the support of the Turkish government. This is really important to us because our…

In a celebration marking the 81st anniversary of the establishment of the Libyan army, with an unmistakable reference to an unsuccessful attack from April 2019 on the capital Tripoli by the Putis general Khalifa Haftar's militia, Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Mohammed Dbeibah said on Tuesday that national armies are to protect their capitals, not storm them. "Capitals are precious pearls, and armies were founded to protect them, not to storm them, terrorize their people and destroy their property,…