At least 80 migrants are feared dead after a boat capsized off the coast of Tunisia. Four people were rescued from the inflatable vessel – which sank in waters near the town of Zarzis – but one died later in hospital, reports said. The three Malians who were rescued said that they had set out […]

An underwater archaeologist has told the BBC of the extraordinary lengths he went to to access a pharaoh’s tomb underneath a pyramid. Pearce Paul Creasman and his team were the first people to go into the tomb for 100 years and, in that time, it has become harder to access because of the rising water […]

The UN says it has received reports that guards fired on migrants who tried to flee air strikes on a detention centre near Libya’s capital Tripoli on Tuesday. The UN says it believes at least 53 migrants died and 130 were hurt in the air strikes on the Tajoura centre. UN High Commissioner for Human […]

The kingdom of Eswatini is one of the world’s last remaining absolute monarchies. The king rules by decree over his million subjects, most of whom live in the countryside and follow traditional ways of life. In 2018 the king announced that the country, hitherto known as Swaziland, would henceforth be called Eswatini, a move critics […]

The stowaway who fell from a Kenya Airways plane in London is likely to have been an employee at Nairobi’s main airport, a Kenyan official has said. The plane was flying from the airport in Kenya’s capital to Heathrow when a body fell into a garden on Sunday. The man most probably had legal access […]

The pomp and ceremony of Muhammadu Buhari’s inauguration will not mask the huge challenges the 76-year-old Nigerian president faces during his second term in office – in particular the booming business of kidnapping for ransom. Even one of the president’s relations – a traditional ruler in Daura in northern Nigeria – is currently being held […]

The man aiming to wrest the Nigerian presidency from Muhammadu Buhari has built a career circling the summits of public life. Atiku Abubakar has been a top civil servant, a vice-president, and a prominent businessman and philanthropist, making his fortune in the oil sector and giving some of it away to charity. The highest office […]

Sudan’s ousted President Omar al-Bashir’s career has been defined by war. He came to power in a military coup in 1989 and ruled what was until 2011 Africa’s largest country with an iron fist. When he seized power, Sudan was in the midst of a 21-year civil war between north and south. Although his government […]

At least 18 soldiers have been killed in western Niger in an attack by suspected Islamist militants on a military base. The attack began with the detonation of two car bombs, officials said, before gunmen on motorbikes joined the raid. Air strikes by US and French forces helped to drive the insurgents back, the government […]

Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza has controversially renamed the country’s national landmarks to reflect the historical contribution of the majority Hutu ethnic group. Renaming the national stadium, the presidential palace and main airport was meant to “remind Burundians of their history,” he said in his independence-day speech. Critics, however, say the move was meant to erase […]