Dozens of US Green Berets are in Mozambique to help counter a growing insurgency that Russian and South African mercenaries haven't been able to stop.

Africa is unlikely to have a common currency soon, but technology could help overcome the difficulties posed by the multiplicity of currencies when trading, a top official has said.

Birth control pills, that are freely distributed in Zimbabwe are being smuggled into, and sold in South Africa.

While African countries contribute relatively little to climate change in terms of carbon emissions, they are likely to be the hardest hit.

Mozambique is sending a medical team to identify the bodies of 12 people beheaded during an Islamic State attack last month on the northern gas exploration hub of Palma, an army spokesman said.

Southern Africa's regional bloc on Thursday vowed a "proportionate" response to jihadists who last month raided a key town in northern Mozambique in a sharp escalation of a three-year-old insurgency.

One army officer and 10 soldiers were killed in Nigeria's Benue state in what a spokesperson said was an unprovoked attack on Thursday.

Hama Amadou, a leading opposition figure in Niger, has been allowed out of prison to fly to France for medical care, a top aide said on Thursday.

?The capacity of some customs authorities in Africa is "is very, very low?", and this will hinder the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, its secretary general Wamkele Mene said

The African Union's disease control body said on Thursday it has dropped plans to secure AstraZeneca vaccines for its members.

Two officers were injured when police repelled an attack on their station in Nigeria's southeast, a spokesperson said on Thursday, in the latest assault on security forces in the restive region.

The violent escalation of an insurgency in northern Mozambique last month has whipped up fresh concerns about security in southern Africa, a region that has enjoyed relative stability in recent decades.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has arrived in Maputo ahead of a regional meeting on the attack by insurgents in Mozambique's northern Cabo Delgado province.

N'DJAMENA, April 8 - Chad's President Idriss Deby, an ally of Western nations in the fight against Islamist militants, is poised to extend his three-decade rule in Sunday's election despite mounting signs of popular discontent with his leadership.

Every Easter weekend, several millions of Zion Christian Church (ZCC) faithful from across southern Africa descend on “Moria city”, the church’s capital in the north of the country, for their annual pilgrimage.

Five of the dozens of students kidnapped from a college in northwest Nigeria were reunited with their families Wednesday, two days after having been found by the military.

Zimbabwe's tobacco output is expected to grow by around 9% to 200 000 tons this year, the industry regulator said Wednesday, providing a major source of foreign currency for the country's embattled economy.

Mozambique has told the international community what support it needs to deal with an Islamic State-linked insurgency.

Mozambique's president, Filipe Nyusi, on Wednesday said Islamic State-linked insurgents had been forced out of Palma, a key northern town that the rebels hit in a brazen raid last month.

Nigeria has directed its 36 states and federal capital territory to stop giving first doses of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines once they use half their current stock in order to safeguard supply for the second dose, its health minister said.