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File photo: A longstanding opponent of Museveni, Besigye has been frequently jailed and placed under house arrest [Ben Curtis/AP]

Uganda's opposition leader charged with treason

 Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye, who has been under virtual house arrest since a presidential election in February, was charged with treason after being whisked out of the capital, his lawyers said.

Besigye disputed veteran President Yoweri Museveni's victory in the election. Since polling day, his house has been ringed by police, spiked barriers placed on the road to it and visitors vetted.

The government insists Museveni's victory was valid and says Besigye is trying to hold illegal protests.

He was arrested in the capital Kampala on Wednesday after staging a ceremony at which he was mock sworn-in as president and taken to Moroto, a town about 400km away.

The "swearing-in" was filmed and racked up tens of thousands of views on YouTube.

"We have been informed by police today that Besigye appeared in court in Moroto and was charged with treason," lawyer Erias Lukwago told the AFP newswire.

Lukwago said his client was denied le

President Buhari is in London for a major anti-corruption summit

Nigerian President Buhari 'not demanding' Cameron apology

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari says he is not demanding "any apology from anybody" after UK Prime Minister David Cameron labelled his country "fantastically corrupt".

Nigeria's president finally signs long-delayed budget

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has finally signed into law a budget for 2016 after months of wrangling.

Kenya holds requiem mass for former First Lady Lucy Kibaki

A requiem Mass for former First Lady of Kenya, Lucy Kibaki was held Wednesday at the Consolata Shrine in Westlands, Nairobi.

Close members of the family, led by former President Mwai Kibaki, held prayers beside the casket that was draped in the Kenyan national flag at the Lee Funeral Home before it was driven to the church.

Malema vows to seize white-owned land

The leader of South Africa's opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party has launched his party's campaign for the upcoming local elections, promising to rescue citizens from poverty, unemployment and corrupt government.

Kenya set to destroy largest ever pile of illegal ivory

Preparations are virtually set in Kenya’s Nairobi National Park where a huge stockpile of illegal elephant and rhino tusks plus a small collection of ivory figurines are to be destroyed on Saturday.

The ivory were confiscated by Kenyan authorities.

The effort, a symbolic disapproval of the trade threatening elephants with extinction, according to an account by AFP, will see the 105 tonnes of ivory which represents thousands of dead elephants go up in flames on specially prepared pyres.

It is reported that rhino horns account for 1.35 tonnes of the lot from over 340 rhinos and estimated to value as much as $80 million on the black market while the quantity of ivory could sell for over $100 million.

 

Yves Michel Fotso

Former Cameroon airlines boss jailed for life for $56m graft

A court in Cameroon has jailed for life the former head of the defunct national carrier Camair, Yves Michel Fotso, on conviction of embezzling almost $56 million, legal sources said Tuesday. Fotso, already sentenced to 25 years behind bars in a separate graft case, “took the rap for life,” said a source close to the Special Criminal Tribunal, set up in the central African country to try major corruption cases.

An electoral poster for Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema in the capital, Malabo. (AFP/Getty Images)

Equatorial Guinea's leader wins a sixth term with 99% of the vote

Teodoro Obiang Nguema has never received less than 97 percent of the vote in an election. On Monday, with partial results indicating that 99.2 percent of the vote has gone in his favor, Equatorial Guinea's leader was surely all set for another seven years in a seat that has no doubt molded to his figure.

Nigeria's anti-corruption body has only secured a handful of convictions

Nigeria ex-MP sentenced to 154 years for corruption

A court in Nigeria has sentenced a former local MP to 154 years in jail for corruption and money laundering.

Julius Malema – Ready to Remove Zuma Government By Force

Malema: We will remove Zuma through barrel of a gun

South African politician Julius Malema says the opposition "will run out of patience very soon and we will remove this government through the barrel of a gun" if the ruling African National Congress (ANC) continues to respond violently to peaceful protests.

Fawaz Ould Ahmeida was reportedly detained in a suburb of Bamako

Mali arrests suspected Bamako hotel attacks mastermind

Authorities in Mali say they have arrested a Mauritanian man suspected of masterminding deadly attacks on hotels in the country last year.

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema seized power in a coup and remains Africa's longest-serving leader [Al Jazeera]

Africa's longest serving leader seeks new 7-year term

 Citizens of Equatorial Guinea are heading to the polls in a vote expected to hand the incumbent president, Africa's longest serving leader, another seven-year term in office.

Mr Lin Songtian

‘Frequent changes in govts cause of poor devt in Africa’

The frequent changes in governments and policies, coupled with the lack of long-term programmes by African governments, have been blamed for the poor development and low foreign direct investments in the continent.

The insufficiency in related laws and policies and the inadequate enforcement by the governments are also common problems for African countries.

The Director General of the Department of African Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, Mr Lin Songtian, made this observation when he addressed the opening ceremony of the 5th China Africa Think Tanks Forum which is underway in Yiwu, China. 

File Photo: Government said Ethiopian forces killed 60 of the assailants and may cross into neighbouring South Sudan to pursue them. [AP/Karel Prinsloo]

Ethiopia says South Sudanese gunmen kill 140 civilians

Gunmen from South Sudan have killed at least 140 civilians, including women and children, in a raid in Ethiopia's Gambela region, according to the Ethiopian government.

President Edgar Lungu of Zambia

Two journalists charged with defaming Zambian president

Zambian police have officially charged two journalists working for the privately-owned Post newspaper for defaming President Edgar Lungu.

Huge rise in child suicide bombers

Boko Haram's use of child bombers has increased over the last year with one in five suicide attacks now done by children, the UN's child agency says.

Niger delta militants

Pirates kidnap crew of Turkish cargo ship off Nigeria

Pirates have attacked a Turkish cargo ship off the coast of Nigeria kidnapping six of the crew, says the Nigerian navy.

Fati was kidnapped in Nigeria in 2014 and taken to a Boko Haram camp in the Sambisa Forest.

Kidnapped to kill: How Boko Haram is turning girls into weapons

The question was always the same, she says. So, too, was the answer. 

"They came to us to pick us," Fati recalls. "They would ask, 'Who wants to be a suicide bomber?' The girls would shout, 'me, me, me.' They were fighting to do the suicide bombings."

Young girls fighting to strap on a bomb, not because they were brainwashed by their captors' violent indoctrination methods but because the relentless hunger and sexual abuse -- coupled with the constant shelling -- became too much to bear. 

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