Africa

Preliminary results in Uganda’s January 14 presidential election showed 35-year dictator Yoweri Museveni with 61.31 percent of votes counted as of Friday morning, according to the Ugandan state electoral commission.

(AFP) — Five judges at Scotland’s highest court of criminal appeal on Friday upheld the conviction of the only man found guilty of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing after a posthumous legal challenge.

The Ugandan military’s “heavy” presence in the national capital, Kampala, ahead of the country’s general election on Thursday evoked a tense, war-like atmosphere, Ugandan human rights lawyer Nicholas Opiyo told Deutsche Welle (DW) on Wednesday.

Opposition leader and presidential candidate Bobi Wine of Uganda accused soldiers of having “raided” his home and arrested his security guards on Monday morning during a live radio interview for a Kenyan radio station, Deutsche Welle (DW) reported on Tuesday.

Nigeria has the gruesome honor of being the country with the most murders of Christians for their faith in 2020, Open Doors’ Watch List 2021 revealed Wednesday.

Yoweri Museveni, who has been “president” of Uganda for nearly 35 years, accused foreign social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook of attempting to “come and play around with our country” amid a presidential election campaign in remarks Tuesday following his ban on the sites.

A young woman reportedly of the Boko Haram terror group blew herself up in northern Cameroon last Friday, killing at least 13 people, the Barnabas Fund reported Tuesday.

More than 250 foreign workers, mostly Chinese, have fled violence in the Central African Republic (CAR) for the Cameroon border town of Garoua Boulay over the past week, Cameroon government authorities said on Monday.

Twitter has spoken out in favor of free speech, and against the shutdown of the Internet — in Uganda.

Zimbabwe’s government on Monday banned families from transporting the bodies of people who recently died to their city of origin for burial — a local custom in the southern African nation — as part of an effort to control the spread of the Chinese coronavirus.

Opposition lawmakers clashed on the floor of Ghana’s parliament in Accra on Wednesday night, prompting a military intervention by at least 20 Ghanaian soldiers, Africa News reported on Thursday.

Authorities in Zimbabwe suspended four police officers for failing to enforce a ban on New Year’s Eve parties on December 31 in the capital, Harare, allowing 2,000 people to gather for a music performance “right next to the local police station,” according to Zimbabwe’s the Herald on Tuesday.

Militant jihadists killed at least 24 people, abducted 20 more, and torched a church in two Christmas Eve attacks in northeast Nigeria, the Barnabas Fund reported Tuesday.

Nigerian politicians are demanding their country’s government intervene in the police shooting of George Nkencho, who has been presented as a something of an Irish George Floyd in recent days, near Dublin.

Algerian authorities sentenced a man to three years in prison on Monday for his satirical social media posts mocking Algeria’s government and state religion, Islam, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported on Monday.

Leaked documents reveal that the federal government gave nearly 80 million dollars of taxpayer money to overseas abortion provider EngenderHealth over six years ending in 2019.

Nigerian Archbishop Alfred Adewale Martins has urged the Nigerian government to address the “burning” issue of insecurity in the land following the recent abduction of Bishop Moses Chikwe of Owerri.

(AP) — Two French soldiers were killed when their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device in north-eastern Mali on Saturday, just days after three others died in similar fashion, the French presidency announced.

Nigerian Bishop Moses Chikwe and his driver, who were abducted by gunmen on December 27, were released by their kidnappers late Friday, church officials report.

Pope Francis called for prayers Friday for the safe return of Nigerian Bishop Moses Chikwe, who was abducted last Sunday with his driver.

Less than a month away from the presumed inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, Americans are departing a year in which their presidential election largely eclipsed campaigns around the world.

Three French soldiers were killed in Mali on Monday after their armored vehicle struck an improvised explosive device (IED) during a counterterrorism operation in the West African country, the French government said.

The New York Times (NYT) on Monday cited testimony from numerous international aid workers, diplomats, U.N. officials, and Ethiopian refugees who said soldiers from Eritrea are fighting alongside Ethiopian government troops to subdue insurgents in the restless Tigray region of Ethiopia.

ROYAL AIR FORCE STATION MILDENHALL, United Kingdom — Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller on Monday visited American troops stationed in the United Kingdom, including the U.S. Air Force air wing who took part in the rescue of an American hostage from Nigeria in October.

Pope Francis sent a Christmas message to South Sudan’s political leaders this week, inviting them to greater generosity and service of their people.

At least 20 African migrants drowned Thursday when a dinghy carrying about 45 people sank off the coast of Tunisia.

Eyewitness reports suggest that artillery strikes have killed “hundreds of civilians” in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region amid an ongoing military conflict there, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Tuesday.

Interpol, a global organization linking the world’s law enforcement entities, warned in a report announced Tuesday that global terrorist organizations and “non-state actors” were attempting to take advantage of the chaos surrounding the Chinese coronavirus pandemic to become more influential.

Police in the southern African nation of Eswatini “used whips, batons and teargas” to disperse crowds gathered in violation of new coronavirus lockdown mandates on December 18, Swazi Media reported on Tuesday.

The Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union (KMPDU) announced a nationwide general strike to begin Monday in the face of mounting Chinese coronavirus infections and deaths, which doctors say are the product of government incompetence in issuing proper protective gear.