Algeria, a gateway between Africa and Europe, has been battered by violence over the past half-century. There are conflicting reports about the death toll during the war against France for independence in the 1950s and early 60s. French historians estimate that up to 400,000 Algerians were killed, while the Algerian government says more than one […]
Children were abducted from school by about 50 armed men in the northern town of Dapchi last month. Nearly all of the 110 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria last month have been released by the armed group, according to the government. The government said on Wednesday that 101 of the 110 schoolgirls had […]
Storm Dumazile churns off the eastern coast, bringing prolonged and heavy rain. Flooding is gripping Madagascar as a tropical cyclone swirls close to the island. The storm, named Dumazile, formed two days ago and since then has been throwing torrential rain across Madagascar. The cyclone is moving painfully slowly, at only 17 kilometres per hour, […]
EPRDF picks Abiy Ahmed as its chairman, paving the way for the Oromo leader to become Ethiopia’s prime minister. Ethiopia’s ruling coalition has elected Abiy Ahmed as its new chairman, according to state media. The announcement on Tuesday by state broadcaster FANA means that Ahmed, who hails from the Oromo ethnic group, is now expected to succeed […]
Jose Filomeno dos Santos accused of the illegal transfer of $500m while head of the country’s sovereign wealth fund. The son of Angola’s former President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has been charged with fraud over an alleged illegal transfer of $500m while he was in charge of the country’s sovereign wealth fund, prosecutors said. Jose […]
After a building collapsed in the Nigerian city of Lagos, killing at least 11 people, including several schoolchildren attending a school on the building’s top floor, we look at some reasons why such tragedies seem to occur so often in some African countries. While investigations are still underway into the cause of this collapse, engineers […]
BBC Africa editor Fergal Keane visits South Africa’s conservative rural areas nearly 25 years after white-minority rule ended, and finds that racism is still deeply embedded but there are also symbols of racial reconciliation. It was a young boy who noticed us and ran to tell his father. Around 10 years old, blond-haired and barefoot, […]
South Africa has one of the continent’s biggest and most developed economies. Up until 1994 it was ruled by a white minority government, which enforced a separation of races with its policy called apartheid. The apartheid government eventually negotiated itself out of power after decades of international isolation, armed opposition and mass protests. The democratically-elected […]
DAKAR, Senegal — Emergency crews scrambled to rescue dozens of children Wednesday morning from the wreckage of a three-story building housing a nursery and primary school that collapsed in Lagos, Nigeria. Hundreds of people were gathered at the site, on Lagos Island, wailing as motionless children were removed from the rubble and spirited by ambulance […]
Families of those killed aboard Ethiopia Airlines flight 302 must wait at least five days to begin receiving some victims’ remains, the company said, though the identification of others is expected to take much longer. Trailing smoke and sparks, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 plunged into a field minutes after take-off on Sunday from the […]