Former President Jacob Zuma of South Africa returned to prison early Friday morning to continue serving a sentence for contempt, but was released almost immediately under a program to relieve overcrowding in the country’s jails, the authorities said. With his release under the program, it is unlikely that Mr. Zuma will serve more time in […]

Hours after soldiers seized power in the West African nation of Niger, the country’s ousted president sounded a defiant note on Thursday morning, vowing to protect his “hard-won” democratic gains, even as he was being held by his own guards. The president, Mohamed Bazoum, appeared to be still in detention at the presidential palace in […]

Military officers in the West African nation of Niger ousted the country’s president on Wednesday, they said in an address on national television, throwing into uncertainty the future of one of the West’s few reliable partners in a region marred by coups and widespread insecurity. Army officials representing different branches of Niger’s military, which has […]

Kenya’s boisterous news outlets are normally fierce rivals. But on Thursday they set aside their competitive instincts to issue an urgent appeal for calm as Kenya plunged deeper into chaotic anti-government demonstrations that have left at least 29 people dead in recent weeks and present the gravest challenge yet to the nearly year-old rule of […]

The cargo plane flew in low over southeastern Nigeria, its lights out, its radio off, its pilot navigating by the glow of refinery flares along the coast. The runway, somewhere below, was dark. The pilot dropped his wheels and nosed the plane downward, seemingly into the void. On the ground, a team of boys suddenly […]

In South Africa, Nelson Mandela is everywhere. The country’s currency bears his smiling face, at least 32 streets are named for him and nearly two dozen statues in his image watch over a country in flux. Every year on July 18, his birthday, South Africans celebrate Mandela Day by volunteering for 67 minutes — painting schools, knitting blankets or cleaning up […]

Snow fell in Johannesburg this week for the first time in more than a decade, causing a flurry of activity among residents eager to see the rare winter wonderland. South Africa’s Weather Service confirmed on Monday that snow was falling in the province of Gauteng, which includes Johannesburg. Snow was also reported over the Eastern […]

JOHANNESBURG — At least 16 people were killed in a gas leak at an informal housing encampment on the outskirts of Johannesburg, the police said on Wednesday. An emergency official said the deaths resulted from a leak in a cylinder of gas at the encampment, called the Angelo informal settlement, near the South African city […]

Delirious from hunger, a believer who had brought his family to live with a Christian doomsday cult in a remote wilderness in southeastern Kenya sent a distraught text to his younger sister last week. While he begged her help to escape, he was still in the grip of the preacher who had lured him there, […]

More than 120 people were killed in devastating floods and landslides caused by heavy rains in Rwanda, the government said on Wednesday, the highest death toll from a flood reported in a single day in the country’s recent history. Entire families were killed, injured or left homeless and in desperate need of assistance. “I wanted […]