Africa

Two stabbed to death in South Africa mosque, assailant killed: police

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AFP)- A man stabbed to death two people in an attack at a mosque in South Africa early Thursday, before being shot dead by police, police said. Several people were also wounded in the attack in the town of Malmesbury near the southwestern city of Cape Town. “Malmesbury police were called out to a local mosque and found two people dead with stab wounds and several injured,” Noliyoso Rwexana, spokesperson for the […]

Plane with 10 aboard goes missing in Kenya

NAIROBI, Kenya (AFP) — Rescue teams on Wednesday were looking for a small plane with 10 people on board that went missing north of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, the aircraft owners and the national disaster agency said. The plane, operated by East African Safari Air Express, took off from the western town of Kitale in the late afternoon Tuesday. It disappeared off the radar screens at Nairobi international airport, its final destination, around 80 minutes […]

ICC to rule in war crimes appeal by ex-Congolese VP

  by Jo Biddle © Agence France-Presse THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AFP) — International judges will Friday hand down a verdict in the appeal of disgraced former Congolese vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba, fighting his conviction for war crimes and an 18-year jail term. Bemba, 55, appealed after judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) unanimously found him guilty in June 2016 on five charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Central African Republic (CAR). In […]

Death toll from Tunisia migrant shipwreck rises to 52

KERKENNAH, Tunisia (AFP) — The Tunisian navy has recovered four more corpses from a deadly shipwreck of migrants over the weekend, bringing the official number of victims to 52, the interior ministry said Tuesday. “The toll is now at 52 corpses recovered, 48 of which have been identified,” ministry spokesman Khalifa Chibani told AFP. Chibani said the identified bodies belonged to “36 Tunisians and 12 foreigners”, referring to migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. A total of […]

50 dead in boat accident in northwest DR Congo

  MBANDAKA, DR Congo (AFP) — Fifty people died in a boat accident on a river in remote northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), officials said on Friday. The accident happened on the Momboyo river Wednesday night, Richard Mboyo Iluka, vice governor of Tshuapa province, told AFP, saying: “We found 49 bodies on Thursday and another one this morning.” The boat had been transporting passengers and a large amount of goods from the town of […]

Catholic priest ‘infected with Ebola’ in DR Congo

  MBANDAKA, DR Congo (AFP) — A Catholic priest has been quarantined after being infected with the Ebola virus in the town of Mbandaka in the Democratic Republic of Congo, medical sources said Thursday. “We have quarantined a priest from the diocese of Mbandaka-Bikoro who tested positive” for the Ebola virus, a medical source told AFP on condition of anonymity. Religious authorities could not be immediately contacted. DRC health officials launched a small, targeted vaccination […]

Death toll in DR Congo Ebola outbreak now at 27; authorities start administering prototype vaccine

  KINSHASA, DR Congo (AFP) — The death toll from Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has risen to 27, the health ministry said on Tuesday, after a fatality was recorded in a city on the front line of the outbreak. The death, which involved a person confirmed by lab tests as having the viral disease, occurred in Wangata, a district of Mbandaka, the ministry said in a press release. So far, there […]

Ebola death toll hits 26 in DR Congo as vaccinations start

MBANDAKA, DR Congo (AFP) — The death toll in an outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) rose to 26 on Monday after a person died in the northwest city of Mbandaka, the government said, as it began vaccinating first responders against the dreaded disease. “A death was recorded (on Sunday), while two people who had been confirmed as ill with the Ebola virus were cured on Saturday,” Health Minister Oly Ilunga […]

25 people dead due to Ebola in DR Congo as disease spreads

  The number of suspected, probable and confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo has risen to 45, with 25 people dead, the World Health Organization said Friday. WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic, who gave the figures to reporters in Geneva, said that 14 of the cases had been confirmed as the deadly Ebola virus following laboratory tests. This came about after WHO warned Friday that the Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of the […]

WHO reports new Ebola case in DR Congo, vaccine this week

  KINSHASA, DR Congo (AFP) — The head of the World Health Organization said Sunday there has been another reported case of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo and that an experimental vaccine to fight the disease is expected to become available in the country this week. Doctor Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on a two-visit to DR Congo, said the suspected new case was in Bikoro, at the centre of the latest Ebola outbreak in the […]

Search for survivors as Kenya burst dam toll reaches 44

NAIROBI, Kenya (AFP) — The search for survivors after a dam burst its banks in central Kenya resumed Friday with 44 confirmed dead and a further 40 still missing, the region’s governor said. Weeks of heavy rains have caused flooding and mudslides across the country that have left 175 dead. On Wednesday evening, the earthen wall of a privately owned irrigation dam in Solai, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Nakuru town in Kenya’s […]

At least 5 killed in Mali violence

  BAMAKO, Mali (AFP) — Gunmen killed at least five people near Mali’s troubled northeastern border with Niger, several sources said Thursday. A vehicle traveling from Indelimane to a market in Menaka on Wednesday “was attacked by armed men,” a local elected official told AFP on the condition of anonymity. Five civilian passengers were killed by “assassins who then went to a camp to kill other Tuareg civilians,” he added. Other sources reported a higher toll. […]