African news : breaking news, features, analysis

ABUJA—PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan Thursday stormed the national secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, where he collected the expression of interest and nomination forms of the party to vie for the 2015 presidential election.

YOLA —Few hours after the commercial nerve centre and the second biggest town in Adamawa State fell into the hands of Islamic sect, Boko Haram, the insurgents, yesterday, overran Vimtim, the home town of the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh.

Burkina Faso's President Blaise Compaore has imposed a state of emergency to end violent protests against his 27-year rule.

Zambian Vice-President Guy Scott has been named acting leader following the death of President Michael Sata.

Zambian President Michael Sata has died after receiving treatment for an undisclosed illness, family sources and Zambian media say.

Residents of Onimaba, Lagos have been living in fear since last week Thursday when a letter purportedly written by armed robbers circulated their streets.

Niger has seen more than 1,300 cases of cholera since the beginning of the year, with 51 people dying of the disease, the United Nations has said.

For six months the world has waited for news of the fate of more than 200 girls abducted by Nigerian militant group Boko Haram.

Boko Haram gunmen kidnapped at least 30 boys and girls from a village in northeast Nigeria during the weekend.

The Mali government has confirmed the first case of Ebola in the country.

It said a two-year-old girl had tested positive for the haemorrhagic virus. She recently returned from the neighbouring Guinea.

A member of Tunisia's security forces has been killed in a shootout with an armed group at its hideout in a town near the capital.

A large explosion has rocked a bus station in a northern region of Nigeria previously targeted by Boko Haram, witnesses said, in what appeared to be the latest crack in the government's purported ceasefire with the armed group.

The number of people with Ebola has almost to hit 10,000 in West Africa, the World Health Organization said, as the scramble to find a cure gathered pace.

Reeva Steenkamp's parents said Tuesday they are "satisfied" with the sentence handed down to their daughter's killer, as Oscar Pistorious started his first full day in a South African prison.

A doctor from the Democratic Republic of Congo has won Europe's top human rights prize for helping thousands of gang rape victims in the country.

The World Health Organisation is set to hold emergency talks to discuss the Ebola epidemic.

All travelers flying into the United States from the West African countries most impacted by the Ebola virus can only enter the U.S. through five airports, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced Tuesday.

Serum made from the blood of recovered Ebola patients could be available within weeks in Liberia, one of the countries worst hit by the virus, says the World Health Organization.