An Algiers court has sentenced an opposition figure to two years behind bars on charges including insulting the president, a prisoners' rights group said.

West African leaders will gather to discuss Mali's political crisis, with the military junta submitting a new timeframe for a transition back to civilian rule at the last minute after its first proposal was rejected.

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The United Nations has said it will launch talks to help Sudan find an end to the crisis following a military coup that stalled the country's transition to civilian rule.

Gunmen in northwest Nigeria's Kebbi state have freed 30 students and a teacher after seven months of captivity, according to a local official.

An estimated 200 people have been killed in attacks by armed bandits in the northwestern Nigerian state of Zamfara, residents say, following military air raids on their hideouts last week.

Mozambique's gas industry celebrates a critical milestone as the Coral South Floating LNG facility arrives in the Rovuma basin.

A Tunisian ex-justice minister who launched a hunger strike after his arrest a week ago is "stable" in hospital, a doctor said on Friday, as Human Rights Watch demanded his release.

The Danish navy has released three suspected Nigerian pirates who were picked up by a frigate in the Gulf of Guinea in November after it failed to find a country in the region to take them, the Danish Armed Forces said on Friday.

Three Eritrean refugees, including two children, were killed by an air strike that hit a refugee camp in Ethiopia's Tigray region, where the government has been waging a year-long war against rebels, the United Nations said Thursday.

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday rejected suggestions that Beijing was luring African countries into debt traps by offering them massive loans, dismissing the idea as a "narrative" pushed by opponents to poverty reduction.

Internet and mobile services appeared to be disrupted in Sudan on Thursday ahead of the latest round of planned protests against a military takeover that upended a transition towards elections.

Tunisian doctors on Wednesday expressed "grave fears" for the health of former justice minister Noureddine Bhiri, who has been refusing food or medication since his arrest last week, a rights body said.

Nigeria's government on Wednesday labelled criminal bandit gangs blamed for mass kidnappings as terrorist groups in an attempt to deter violence in the country's northwest.

France has discovered a new coronavirus variant, IHU, which was first detected in a Frenchman who travelled to Cameroon, but say it does not mean IHU originated in Cameroon.

Africa's top public health official said on Thursday that severe lockdowns were no longer the best way to contain Covid-19, praising South Africa for adopting that approach when responding to its latest infection wave driven by the Omicron variant.

A bill introduced in Senegal's parliament to toughen criminal penalties for homosexuals fell at the first hurdle on Wednesday, failing to progress to the assembly's main floor.

Amid mounting unrest, analysts expect military to co-opt new civilian figure to avoid missing out on foreign aid.

One of Zimbabwe's biggest wildlife reserves is to receive US$1 million annually from a brand-new fund to help sustain its operations and fight poaching, German conservationists said on Wednesday.

At least 11 Zimbabweans who attempted to cross the crocodile-infested Limpopo River into South Africa are feared dead after a boat carrying eight reportedly capsized, while the other three were swept away in different incidents.