Tag: Africa

At Least 30 Killed in Al-Shabaab Attack in Somalia: Security Official

MOGADISHU—An estimated 30 people died on Sunday when al Shabaab terrorist group launched an attack in a town in Somalia’s semi-autonomous state of Galmudug, a security official said. The insurgents used car bombs in the assault on a military base in Galmudug’s Wisil town, located in central Somalia, triggering a fight with government troops and…


Former State Department Official: As Violence Pulls Nigeria Apart, US Focuses on Climate Change

Nigeria, a key U.S. ally, celebrated “Democracy Day” on June 12, the very day a former high-ranking U.S. official warned the nation is spiraling into chaos. “The country is falling apart—if not already,” former Assistant Secretary of State Robert Destro told the online conference “Democracy in Peril” sponsored by The International Committee on Nigeria, about the massacres,…


Raab to Pledge £12.6 Million To Tackle Growing ISIS Threat in Africa

The threat of the ISIS terrorist group continues to grow in Africa, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab warned, as he is expected to pledge £12.6 million ($17.5 million) on Monday to support efforts to counter ISIS in West Africa. Raab is meeting with his counterparts from more than 45 countries in Rome, including co-hosts Italian Foreign Minister Luigi…


12 German Soldiers Wounded in Attack on UN Base in Mali

BERLIN—The United Nations said 12 German troops and a Belgian soldier serving in the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali were wounded Friday in an attack in the country’s restive north. The UN mission in the country, MINUSMA, had earlier said that 15 peacekeepers were wounded when a temporary operational base in the Gao region was…


Child Soldiers Carried out Burkina Faso Massacre, Says Government

OUAGADOUGOU—A massacre in northeast Burkina Faso in which more than 130 people were killed this month was carried out mostly by children between the ages of 12 and 14, the government said. Armed assailants raided the village of Solhan on the evening of June 4, opened fire on residents, and burned homes. It was the…


‘Living Fossil’ Fish the Coelacanth Can Live for Up to a Century—New Study Discovers

A prehistoric fish called the coelacanth was once thought to have gone extinct along with the dinosaurs 66 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous Period. That notion was famously shattered in 1938 when a live coelacanth was dredged up in a fishing net off the east coast of South Africa, which garnered…


At Least 64 Dead in Ethiopian Airstrike on Tigray

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia—Ethiopia’s military on Thursday said it was responsible for a deadly airstrike on a busy marketplace in the country’s Tigray region. Health workers said the attack killed at least 64 people, including children, but the military insisted only combatants were targeted. A military spokesman, Col. Getnet Adane, told journalists that fighters supporting the…


Medical Official: Air Strike Kills at Least 43 in Ethiopia’s Tigray

ADDIS ABABA—An air strike killed at least 43 people in the town of Togoga in Ethiopia’s Tigray region on Tuesday, a medical official told Reuters, after residents said new fighting had flared in recent days north of the regional capital Mekelle. Ethiopian military spokesman Colonel Getnet Adane did not confirm or deny the incident. He…


At Least 11 Police Killed in Burkina Faso Ambush

OUAGADOUGOU—Eleven police officers were killed and four are missing after their unit was ambushed in northern Burkina Faso late on Monday, the country’s security minister said on Tuesday. The ambush occurred while the unit was on a relief mission to the town of Yirgou, which has been hit by recent violence, Security Minister Ousseini Compaore…


South African ‘Diamond Rush’ Unearths Only Quartz Crystals, Officials Say

JOHANNESBURG—Unidentified stones that lured thousands of fortune seekers to a rural South African village to mine the land with picks and shovels were not diamonds as hoped, officials said on Sunday, but quartz stones with relatively low, if any, value. People from across South Africa travelled to KwaHlathi in the country’s eastern KwaZulu-Natal province where…