An airstrike that hit a field hospital south of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, has killed at least four doctors and a paramedic, the country’s health authorities said on Sunday. Malek Merset, a spokesman for the health ministry of the United Nations-backed government, said the attack took place late Saturday in the Zawya District. Forces based […]

Libya has been beset by chaos since Nato-backed forces overthrew long-serving ruler Col Muammar Gaddafi in October 2011. The oil-rich country, a key departure point for some of the thousands of migrants travelling to Europe, once had one of the highest standards of living in Africa, with free healthcare and free education. But the stability […]

Eight senior military officers are to be charged in Sudan with crimes against humanity over their alleged part in the killing of protesters on 3 June. Government prosecutors announced the charges after investigating the massacre, when at least 87 people died in the capital, Khartoum. Opposition activists say the number of deaths was closer to […]

In our series of letters from African writers, journalist-turned-barrister Brian Hungwe says many people in Zimbabwe are struggling to cope with long power blackouts as the country’s financial crisis worsens and fears of hyperinflation grow. With both the government and families battling to pay electricity bills, many children now do their homework by candlelight. For […]

TUNIS — The death this week of Tunisia’s first democratically elected president accelerated the timetable for choosing his successor, placing new strain on a political system in which power is shared among several parties, many voters are disillusioned and leaders are confronting a struggling economy. But if the death on Thursday of President Béji Caïd […]

Kenya will for the first time collect data on intersex people in its national population census, in a major victory for rights activists. The August survey will determine the number of citizens who do not identify as either male or female. Intersex people often face violence and discrimination in the socially conservative country. There are […]

Five years ago a midwife in Kenya delivered a child with male and female sexual organs. The father told her to kill it, but instead she hid it and raised it as her own. Two years later, the same thing happened again – and before long she was forced to flee to save the children’s […]

President Béji Caïd Essebsi, Tunisia’s first popularly elected head of state, who steered the country through a democratic transition after an uprising that set in motion the Arab Spring of 2011, died Thursday morning in a military hospital in Tunis, the government announced in a statement. He was 92. In a political career of more […]

This is the second health crisis for the 92-year-old leader in a month as the country prepares for parliamentary polls. Tunisia’s President Beji Caid Essebsi was taken to a military hospital on Wednesday, the son of the president said, the second health crisis for the 92-year-old leader in a month. The presidency was not immediately available […]

A suicide bomber has seriously injured the mayor of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, killing at least six other people, officials told the BBC. The female bomber blew herself up inside the office of Mayor Abdirahman Omar Osman during a security meeting. Militant Islamist group al-Shabab says it carried out the attack, hoping to target the new […]