Africa risks being overrun by coronavirus infections if urgent measures are not taken to avert a similar disaster to the "very concerning" crisis in India, the continent's disease control body said on Thursday.

A leading Algerian opposition activist was detained late on Wednesday night, according to his lawyer.

Mauritanian's former president, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, on Thursday said he was being persecuted in an inquiry for alleged corruption, but ruled out fleeing abroad.

Kidnapping for ransom has become an industry in restive northern Nigerian states where over 700 people have been abducted at education institutions since December.

Gunmen have killed two police officers in Nigeria's southern Akwa Ibom state, a spokesperson has said, in the latest attack targeting security operatives in the region.

South African mobile operators MTN and Vodacom are both in the running for Ethiopia’s new nationwide telecommunications licence.

The World Bank on Wednesday granted $100 million for an emergency recovery project in northern Mozambique, where hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by a jihadist insurgency.

Malawi's highest court on Wednesday outlawed the death penalty and ordered the re-sentencing of all convicts facing execution.

Zimbabwe's High Court on Wednesday quashed charges of communicating false information levelled against journalist and government critic Hopewell Chin’ono, saying the law used by police to arrest him in January no longer existed.

Three European journalists -- two Spanish and one Irish -- have been killed in an attack on an anti-poaching patrol in Burkina Faso, officials said Tuesday.

A Chinese-owned mining company denied on Tuesday it had drilled holes in a burial site in Zimbabwe, after local people complained about what they viewed as the desecration of graves.

Southern African heads of state will be asked to consider the deployment of almost 3 000 personnel to help the Mozambican military "combat threat of terrorism and acts of violent extremism" in the northern Cabo Delgado province.

Two more students were killed after being kidnapped with others last week by gunmen in northwest Nigeria, local authorities have said, bringing the death toll from the attack to six.

Egypt has toughened penalties for female genital mutilation, imposing prison terms of up to 20 years in a push to end the ancient practice.

Zimbabwe is selling rights to shoot up to 500 elephants this year to generate public revenue, the country's wildlife agency said Monday, weeks after the animals were listed as endangered.

Chad's new military rulers named a civilian politician, Albert Pahimi Padacke, as prime minister of a transitional government on Monday.

For years, Zimbabwean single mother Spiwe Tembo would sell buns on the streets of central Harare, earning enough to feed her three children. But her fortunes have dived.

At least 31 Nigerian soldiers were killed when IS-aligned jihadists ambushed a military convoy escorting weapons and overran a base in northeast Nigeria's Borno state, military sources told AFP on Monday.

Somali opposition fighters took up positions in parts of the tense capital on Monday, a day after clashes with government troops erupted over the president's bid to extend his mandate.

French engergy company Total confirmed on Monday that it has withdrawn all personnel from its northern Mozambique liquefied natural gas project's Afungi site.