Browsing: African News

African News and Press Releases

Fighting escalated on Saturday in South Sudan, with a top commander in the country’s key oil-producing region defecting to the rebels and foreign governments scrambling to evacuate their nationals. A US military aircraft was shot at as it was engaged…

Battles between rival ethnic groups spread across South Sudan on Friday as foreign governments scrambled to get their nationals away from reported slaughters and a refugee buildup. African ministers pushed President Salva Kiir to start talks with his…

The family of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, the only person convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing which killed 270 people, on Friday told the BBC they hope to appeal against his conviction. Megrahi, who died from cancer in Tripoli last year after…

Scores of suspected Islamist gunmen stormed a military barracks in northeast Nigeria on Friday, spraying gunfire on the troops inside before torching the compound, the army and residents said. The military has reportedly deployed fighter jets and ground…

Uganda’s parliament on Friday adopted an anti-homosexuality bill that will see repeat offenders jailed for life, with lawmakers hailing it as a victory against “evil” for the deeply religious nation. Deputies voted overwhelmingly in favour of the text…

More than 1,000 Muslim couples tied the knot at a mass wedding Thursday in Nigeria’s second city of Kano, part of a government programme aimed at promoting stable families. The elaborate event at the city’s central mosque included 1,111 previously divorced…