Africa

The Zambians made their ballots in crowded polling stations until the closing time of the country's general election. While the day of the vote was largely peaceful, President Edgar Lungu said at least two people were killed, including the chairman of his party in the northwestern province.…

Zambians flocked to vote for a president on Thursday in controversial polls by incumbent Edgar Lungu and longtime rival Hakainde Hichilema as the internet saw restrictions. After 12 hours of voting, the polls closed at 18.00 (1600 GMT) with several hundred left in queues waiting to vote.The closely fought presidential election is seen as a test of the country's…

Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina has fired all his ministers, his office said, days after he criticized some of their achievements, as in par and weeks after officials said they had opposed a plan to kill the former coup leader.…

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…

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…

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…

Nigerian security forces used excessive force and killed more than 115 people in a military attack on separatist agitators in the restless southeastern part of the country, the international human rights organization said on Thursday. Violence has flared up in Nigeria's southeastern states this year, claiming the lives of at least 127 police officers or members of the security services, according to police. About twenty police stations and election commission offices have been attacked, according to…

Pygmies, known for how unusually small they are, have maintained their way of life and continue to hunt in the rainforests of Central and West Africa as they have done for the past 5,000 years. Europeans referred to the local tribes as "pygmies" - a word meaning "dwarf" in Greek with a mythological reference - because humans had an average height of 120 centimeters (3.9 feet). There are currently about 120,000 pygmies in the world, most of them living in Cameroon's forest area near the Atlantic Ocean.…

On Tuesday, the East African country of Sudan took the first step towards joining the International Criminal Court. The country's cabinet's decision to join the Rome Statute is a step forward in the long-awaited trial of suspected war crimes and genocide suspects in the Darfur conflict, including former President Omar al-Bashir. However, the bill still needs to be ratified by a joint meeting of Sudan's sovereign council and cabinet. Together they function as an interim parliament. The Cabinet did not…