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Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has been trying to cover up mass killings in the city of el-Fasher by burying and burning bodies, a research team from Yale University says. The RSF had drawn international condemnation amid reports of executions and crimes against humanity when its fighters captured the city in October. Now, analysis […]

A rebel leader in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo says his fighters will withdraw from a key city at the request of the US. Corneille Nangaa’s statement came days after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the capture of Uvira by rebel forces violated a peace deal, and the US would “take action to […]

Flash floods have killed at least 37 people in Morocco’s coastal Safi region, according to state-owned television. Cars and mounds of rubbish were seen sweeping through the main port city of Safi after torrential rain hit on Sunday. Dozens of people have been receiving treatment in hospital for their injuries, say local authorities, and at […]

There is a disturbing contrast along South Africa’s remote west coast. The 800km (500 mile)-journey north from Cape Town starts with views of outstanding natural beauty which as the long road rolls on, and the northern border approaches, dissolve into a pockmarked lunar-like landscape. And the scars left by a lucrative diamond-mining industry are not […]

The Ugandan military has confirmed it is holding a Catholic priest who went missing nearly two weeks ago, accusing him of involvement in “violent subversive activities”. In a brief statement, the military said Father Deusdedit Ssekabira had been arrested, was in “lawful custody” and would be charged in court. The Catholic Diocese in the city […]

Mahad Mohamud is slowly readjusting to the heat, chaos and tension of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, after being deported from the US city of Minneapolis last month just as winter was closing in there. Somalis know the 36-year-old as Garyaqaan – a word that can be translated as “judge”. This is the name he uses on […]

Two senior military officials taken hostage during Sunday’s attempted coup in Benin have been freed, a government source has told the BBC. It remains unclear how they were released or if other hostages are still being held. Security forces are continuing a manhunt for those involved in the plot, who remain at large. A group […]

The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has described an attack on a kindergarten and hospital in Sudan, which he said killed 114 people, as “senseless”. Drones were used to attack the facilities on Thursday in the town of Kalogi, in the South Kordofan region, with 63 children said by the UN […]

About 100 children who were abducted from a Catholic school in central Nigeria last month have been freed. They arrived in the Niger state capital, Minna, in a fleet of minibuses escorted by military vans and armoured vehicles, and were received by Governor Umar Bago. Details about their release remain unclear, including whether it was […]

David Kuloba’s mother warned him about going to Russia after he accepted a job as a security guard advertised by a recruitment agency in Kenya. At first the family, who live in the Kenyan capital’s crowded informal settlement of Kibera had been excited when he said he had found work abroad – it sounded like […]