Africa News

Somali pirates said on Wednesday they had hijacked a fishing vessel and another ship in the Indian Ocean believed to be carrying oil.

South Africans will have a four months to hand in illegal firearms under an amnesty in 2010, the police ministry said today.

A New Jersey man alleged in a lawsuit today that U.S. officials were responsible for falsely imprisoning him for several months in Africa on suspicion of having ties to al-Qaida. Amir Meshal of Tinton Falls, Monmouth County, says that in December 2006 he fled Mogadishu, Somalia, where he had gone to study Islam, and was accused by U.S. officials ...

In this lonely corner of the world, the first sign of distress is the luggage. When one of the few international flights that are still operating here touched down one recent afternoon, the returning passengers emerged from baggage claim as if from a big shopping trip.

Brandon Huntley's lawyers have slammed a Canadian government bid to overturn his crime refugee status as driven by pressure from South Africa and "based on misguided politically correct notions", the Star reported on Tuesday.

The BBC has raised the issue of the growing crime of sex-abuse of children in Zimbabwe.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao discussed bilateral ties and cooperation with several African leaders on the sidelines of the fourth ministerial meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, which opened on Sunday at the Egyptian tourist resort.

Somali pirates have seized a United Arab Emirates-flagged cargo ship loaded with weapons bound for the anarchic Horn of Africa nation in contravention of a UN arms embargo, maritime experts said on Monday.

Two Swiss businessmen detained by Libya over a spat involving leader Moammar Gadhafi's son have been handed over to their embassy in Tripoli, Switzerland's Foreign Ministry said Monday.

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor ended 13 weeks on the witness stand Monday by rejecting allegations that he commanded and controlled rebels who murdered and mutilated thousands of civilians during Sierra Leone's 1991-2002 civil war.

By Mohamed Ahmed Mogadishu - Somalia's government expects a settlement in about three weeks with pirates holding hostage 36 crew of a Spanish fishing vessel, a source close to the Somalian prime minister said on Sunday.

Sudan's political parties accused each other of widespread fraud and intimidation as voters began to register for the oil-producing state's first multi-party elections in 24 years due in April 2010.

Security forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo have arrested about 100 armed men blamed for killing dozens of policemen in an attack in the country's isolated north last month, the government said today.

London, Nov 8 : Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher's son became a spy for South Africa in a bid to avoid being prosecuted for his alleged involvement in a failed coup in Equatorial Guinea, a newspaper reported Sunday.

ZIMBABWE Prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai has appealed to President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party to treat him as equal partner in the power sharing government.

CHINA'S premier on Sunday pledged US$10 billion in concessional loans to African nations over the next three years and said Beijing would cancel the government debts of some of the poorest of those countries, as the Asian powerhouse looked to deflect criticism that its investments in the continent were motivated purely by greed.

The medical charity was vaccinating thousands of children against measles on October 17 at seven sites in the rebel-held Masisi district in eastern DR Congo when the national army launched attacks Nov 6, 2009 7:59 PM By Sapa-AFP Doctors Without Borders today said it was "used as bait" by the Democratic Republic of Congo's army in attacks on rebels ...

The African Union has implemented sanctions on Guinea's military rulers, AU Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra said Saturday.

The Old Etonian and ex-SAS soldier was pardoned from his 34-year sentence for his part in a bungled coup in Equatorial Guinea and returned to Britain on Wednesday.

An international body charged with stopping the illicit trade in diamonds that fuel conflict has decided not to suspend Zimbabwe, officials said Friday, though its investigators had concluded that Zimbabwe's military had organized smuggling syndicates with the government's permission and used "extreme violence" against illegal miners.