NAIROBI, Kenya—Police in Kenya said Monday they have arrested the main suspect after nine dismembered bodies of women were found in a quarry in the capital, Nairobi. The head of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, Mohamed Amin, said Collins Jumaisi Khalusha, 33, had confessed to killing 42 women, including his wife, since 2022. They gave […]
ABUJA, Nigeria—A two-story school collapsed during morning classes Friday in north-central Nigeria, killing 22 students and sending rescuers on a frantic search for more than 100 people trapped in the rubble, authorities said. The Saints Academy college in Plateau state’s Busa Buji community collapsed shortly after students, many of whom were 15 years old or […]
The United States has completed the withdrawal of troops from a base in Niger’s capital of Niamey, a step closer to the full departure of U.S. forces at the request of the military junta ruling the West African country. Cargo aircraft carrying the last batch of American troops and equipment took off from Air Base […]
GOMA, Congo—A militia attack on a gold mine in northeastern Congo killed six Chinese miners and two Congolese soldiers, a civil society group said Thursday, the latest assault as violence worsens in the resource-rich region. The attack on Wednesday targeted the village of Gambala and the nearby “Camp Blanquette” gold mine in the Ituri province, […]
CAPE TOWN, South Africa—Scientists in South Africa have been stunned to discover that termite mounds that are still inhabited in an arid region of the country are more than 30,000 years old, meaning they are the oldest known active termite hills. Some of the mounds near the Buffels River in Namaqualand were estimated by radiocarbon […]
BAMAKO, Mali—An armed group attacked a wedding ceremony in central Mali and killed at least 21 people, residents said Wednesday, as the West African nation’s military rulers struggle to combat growing violence by extremists. The assailants rode on motorcycles into Djiguibombo village in the town of Bandiagara on Monday evening as residents celebrated the couple, […]
BLANTYRE, Malawi—Malawian Vice President Saulos Chilima and nine other people died when the small military plane they were traveling in crashed in bad weather in a mountainous region in the north of the country, the president said Tuesday. Mr. Chilima was 51. President Lazarus Chakwera announced in a live address on state television that the […]
WASHINGTON—African elephants call each other and respond to individual names—something that few wild animals do, according to new research published Monday. The names are one part of elephants’ low rumbles that they can hear over long distances across the savanna. Scientists believe that animals with complex social structures and family groups that separate and then […]
BLANTYRE, Malawi—A military plane carrying Malawi’s vice president and nine others went missing Monday and a search was underway, the president’s office said. The plane carrying 51-year-old Vice President Saulos Chilima left the capital, Lilongwe, but failed to make its scheduled landing at Mzuzu International Airport about 370 kilometers (230 miles) to the north around […]
BANGUI, Central African Republic—The government of the Central African Republic suspended a Chinese mining company’s operations in the country, accusing it of cooperating with armed militias, a government decree said. The country’s ministry of mines accused Daqing SARL, a Chinese gold and diamond mining company, of “intelligence with armed groups, illegal exploitation, illegal introduction of […]
JOHANNESBURG—President Cyril Ramaphosa called on South Africa’s political parties to work together for the good of the country as final results from last week’s election confirmed his African National Congress (ANC) had lost its majority for the first time. The result, announced on Sunday, is the worst election showing for the ANC—Africa’s oldest liberation movement, […]
WASHINGTON—President Joe Biden stepped out of his meeting with Kenyan President William Ruto on May 23 announcing several joint initiatives. These include promoting Kenya as a major non-NATO ally and a “vision” of debt reform that provides hundreds of billions of dollars in lending capacity to international financial institutions such as the World Bank and […]
NIAMEY/WASHINGTON—Niger and the United States have reached an agreement on the withdrawal of American troops from the West African country, a process that has already begun and will be finished by Sept. 15, they said in a joint statement. Niger’s ruling junta last month told the United States to withdraw its nearly 1,000 military personnel […]
A federal jury has found a U.S. Army major guilty of smuggling weapons to the West African country of Ghana. The jury, seated to hear the case in North Carolina’s Eastern District Court, concluded Maj. Kojo Owusu Dartey, 42, is guilty of dealing firearms without a license, delivering firearms without notice to the carrier, smuggling goods […]
MAI MAHIU, Kenya—Flash floods and a landslide in central Kenya killed at least 45 people and injured over 110 others on Monday as floodwaters swept away houses and cars in the town of Mai Mahiu, the government said. Police initially blamed the flooding on a burst dam, however the ministry of water later said it […]
The U.S. military is moving ahead with plans to pull troops out of the African countries of Chad and Niger, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder announced on Thursday. Chad and Niger have partnered with U.S. forces in the past to combat terrorism and insurgencies in the Sahel, a transitionary region between the Sahara […]
The United States is set to withdraw its forces from Niger, an African country in the Sahel where about 1,000 American troops are currently stationed. Kervin Aucoin, a former lead intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance coordinator for the U.S. Army and the host of the “This Week Explained” podcast, says this will create a security vacuum […]
CAIRO—Egypt welcomed home a 3,400-year-old statue depicting the head of King Ramses II after it was stolen and smuggled out of the country more than three decades ago, the country’s antiquities ministry said on Sunday. The statue is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo but not on display. The artefact will be restored, the […]
BANGUI, Central African Republic—At least 20 people have drowned in Central African Republic after a ferry sank while carrying passengers on a river, witnesses said Saturday. The wooden ferry was carrying more than 300 people to a funeral over the Mpoko River in the capital, Bangui, on Friday when it started to collapse, witnesses told […]
