African news : breaking news, features, analysis

Osogbo—Former Head of state , General Yakubu Gowon (retd), yesterday, took a retrospective look at the situation in the country and asked President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that the country’s economy regain its strength to alleviate the suffering of the masses.

Gowon spoke at Ile-Ife at a programme, Health Caravan and Award ceremony for the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, who was conferred with the Royal Ambassador for Hepatitis Advocacy in Nigeria by the Seham Health Care Foundation as part of activities to commemorate the 2016 World Hepatitis Day. 

 The Kenyan authorities have deported one of Africa's biggest musicians, Koffi Olomide, after he was filmed apparently kicking a woman.

Up to 20 people have been killed and at least 40 others wounded, according to health workers, in two days of fighting in northern Mali threatening a shaky year-old peace deal.

Recent studies have suggested that condom use is on the decline in South Africa, which has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world.

Nigerian Muslims have welcomed a court ruling allowing girls to wear headscarves in government schools in Lagos state, hailing the decision as a victory for the rule of law.

Zambian police have fired tear gas and made 28 arrests during a raid on the home of opposition vice-presidential candidate Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba.

A Nigerian journalist has won the second BBC World News Komla Dumor Award.

Didi Akinyelure is a prime-time news anchor in Nigeria and presents business news for CNBC, which broadcasts across the continent.

She will start a three-month placement at the BBC in London in September.

 Governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC), yesterday, warned that Nigerians will resist any attempt to remove President Muhammadu Buhari from office. 

Morocco has sent a special envoy to lobby African leaders to rejoin the African Union 32 years after it left in a row over Western Sahara.

The Tanzanian government has annulled the registration of a total of 473 newspapers and magazines for being inactive for three consecutive years.

A Zimbabwean pastor who was briefly detained after organising a nationwide strike last week has called on people to keep protesting.

Egypt's security services have forcibly disappeared and tortured hundreds of people in the past year in an effort to wipe out dissent, a rights group says.

Students, political activists and protesters - some as young as 14 - have vanished without a trace, according to a new report by Amnesty International.

Many are alleged to have been held for months and often kept blindfolded and handcuffed for the entire period.

A Zimbabwean pastor leading a campaign against the government's handling of the economy has reportedly been charged with inciting public violence.

Four men who used a stray dog as "bait" to train dogs for fighting were sentenced to a total of two years’ imprisonment, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) disclosed on Monday in Pretoria, South Africa.

Police in Zimbabwe have fired tear gas and warning shots at demonstrators as a strike against the government's economic policies closed businesses and crippled public transport.  

The former head of Sierra Leone's army, Major-General Nelson Williams, has been kidnapped in Nigeria, reportedly in the northern Kaduna state.

The body of a Kenyan lawyer who was representing a client making a complaint against the police has been found.

Egyptian authorities have deported a popular British-Lebanese television talkshow host, Liliane Daoud.