Just 10 countries were responsible for three-quarters of a global surge in measles cases last year, the UN children 39;s agency said Friday, including one of the world 39;s richest nations, France. Ninety-eight countries reported more cases of measles in 2018 compared with 2017, and the world body warned that conflict, complacency and the ...

Jihadist attacks in the Sahel nations of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have disrupted schooling for more than 400,000 young people, the United Nations 39; children 39;s agency Unicef said Thursday. Nearly 2,000 schools have had to close, a doubling since 2017, it said in a statement. Direct attacks on schools, teachers and schoolchild ...

Eleven opposition candidates running in Comoros 39; upcoming presidential elections have issued a joint call for a transparent vote, fearing fraud by incumbent President Azali Assoumani, who is seeking re-election. Azali, who was elected in 2016, is tipped by observers to win the election, the first round of which is due to be held on Marc ...

Campaigners in Bordeaux are seeking new ways of teaching the history of slavery that illustrate the positive contribution of the black community to society, beyond stories of victimhood. In a dim-lit theatre in the centre of Bordeaux, a small crowd of spectators, many of them curious onlookers, settle into their seats. In the background, th ...

Algerian police arrested a dozen journalists participating in a rally Thursday against alleged censorship of coverage of protests against a fifth term for veteran President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, an AFP correspondent reported. Around 100 print and broadcast journalists, working for both state-owned and private outlets, joined the demonstrati ...

Traditional chiefs, religious leaders, surreal bureaucrats, the police... no aspect of Burkinabe society escapes mockery in Duga , a comedy screened Wednesday at Africa 39;s top film festival. The film -- unofficially titled The Scavengers in English -- uses a corpse that nobody wants to bury as the launch pad for a satire on hat ...

For years, insecticide-soaked mosquito nets have helped dramatically lower malaria infections, but insecticide resistance has driven a search for alternatives and a new study may have uncovered one option. The weapon is a familiar one: an anti-malarial drug already used by humans to prevent them contracting the disease, and researchers now ...

In Silence is My Mother Tongue , the latest novel by Eritrean-Ethiopian writer Sulaiman Addonia, teen Saba and her brother Hagos arrive at a refugee camp in Sudan, where she is determined to continue her studies, while he is content to take care of her. The Eritrean refugees bring their conservative views to the camp, especially when it co ...

While Mauritius celebrated the recommendations of the International Court of Justice over the fate of the Chagos archipelago, Britain claimed that it was a misuse of power to seek the opinion of the ICJ. The battle is not over yet and it is now up to the UN General Assembly to offer direction. The Prime minister of Mauritius described Febru ...

Exiled as children, people from the Chagos Islands celebrated on Tuesday the news that the United Nations 39; top court had told Britain to give up control of the Indian Ocean archipelago. The English would never have believed that one day, the people of Chagos would have overthrown them, said Emilienne Louis, describing how she arrived ...

A new film set during the 2010-11 post-election violence in Ivory Coast and centred around the courage of a 12-year-old girl, premiered Tuesday at Fespaco, Africa 39;s biggest film festival. Desrances is written and directed by Burkinabe film-maker Apolline Traore, whose 2017 film Frontieres also featured at Fespaco. Her new film f ...

Four opposition activists in Equatorial Guinea have been arrested, their parties said on Tuesday, on the anniversary of a crackdown by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema. The biggest opposition group, the outlawed Citizens for Innovation (CI) party, said three of its members were detained by security forces on Tuesday. Soldiers had come to ...

Human rights defenders and activists in Equatorial Guinea are facing arbitrary arrests, attacks and persecution for their work, Amnesty International said today. In a new report published today, while the country chairs until the end of the month the UN Security Council, and ahead of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in May, Amnesty Inter ...

An opposition activist in Equatorial Guinea has been arrested, his party said on Tuesday, on the anniversary of a crackdown by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema. The country 39;s second biggest opposition party, the Convergence for Social Democracy (CPDS), said that one of its members had been detained early Monday for criticising Obiang, wh ...

The International Court of Justice in The Hague found that the decolonisation of Mauritius by the United Kingdom was not lawfully completed and that the UK is under obligation to bring to an end its administration of the Chagos archipelago. ICJ President Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf read the advisory opinion of the court . Its conclusio ...

The European Union opened the door Monday to Britain postponing its exit from the 28-nation bloc beyond the March 29 deadline, saying it would be a rational solution given the political crisis in the UK. European Council President Donald Tusk said he had discussed the legal and procedural context of a potential extension when he met Sun ...

Leaders of 17 countries on the rim of the Sahel began talks on Monday on a nearly $400-billion plan to help the fragile region cope with climate change. The 2018-30 scheme, covering countries ranging from Mauritania to the Horn of Africa, aims at reducing carbon emissions and providing help in the fight against desertification and other cli ...

Britain should quickly give up control of the Chagos archipelago, the Indian Ocean islands that house the secretive US airbase at Diego Garcia but are claimed by Mauritius, the International Court of Justice said Monday. Judges in The Hague said in a legal advisory opinion on a decades-old dispute that Britain had illegally split the isla ...

South African Olympic 400-metre gold medallist and world record-holder Wayde van Niekerk made a winning return to competitive action at the weekend after a long injury lay-off. The 26-year-old suffered freak knee injuries during a celebrity touch rugby match in Cape Town two years ago and his rehabilitation included time in the United State ...

Judges at the International Court of Justice in The Hague are set to rule today on the legal dispute between Britain and its former colony Mauritius over the fate of the Chagos archipelago. The ruling, however, is not legally binding. The ICJ judges will rule on the legal consequences of the seperation of the Chagos Archipelago from ...