The United States has vowed to support Mozambique after a prolonged deadly assault on the northern town of Palma by Islamic State-linked militants waging an escalating insurgency.

Russian officials capitalized on the canal's blockage to tout the Northern Sea Route, which Moscow wants to develop into a major shipping corridor.

Portugal will send soldiers to Mozambique to help train the armed forces in its former colony, where authorities battling an Islamist insurgency searched for tens of thousands of civilians who fled an onslaught on the northern coastal gas town of Pal...

Tanzanian police have announced that 45 people had died during a stampede in Dar es Salaam on 21 March as mourners paid their last respects to the late president John Magufuli.

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 2 792 586 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP.

Portugal is set to send around 60 troops to its former colony Mozambique following an attack by Islamic State-linked jihadists on a key northern town, Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva has said.

An attack on the northern Mozambique town of Palma, where dozens were killed and thousands displaced, may show the increasing 'brazenness' of the Islamic State (ISIS) in the country, a US official has said.

The United States has vowed to support Mozambique after a prolonged deadly assault on the key northern town of Palma by Islamic State-linked militants waging an escalating insurgency.

Dozens of people were said to have been killed in a raid by Islamist militants in Mozambique, as an upsurge of violence threatens billions of dollars worth of energy projects in one of Africa’s poorest nations.

Islamic State said on Monday its fighters had carried out an attack on the Mozambique town of Palma, where dozens were killed, thousands displaced and some remain missing.

The key northern Mozambique town of Palma was all but deserted on Monday, its residents fleeing by road, boat or on foot as the Islamic State group claimed control after a prolonged onslaught.

Coronavirus restrictions have exacerbated hunger in urban Zimbabwe, where at least 2.4 million people are now struggling to meet basic food needs, the United Nations said Monday.

Islamic State on Monday formally claimed an attack on the northern Mozambique gas town of Palma, the SITE intelligence group said on Monday.

Thousands of survivors of coordinated jihadist attacks in northern Mozambique's Palma town were arriving on boats in the provincial capital Pemba on Monday, according to sources in the city.

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 2 784 276 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP.

International aid agency sources say between 6 000 and 10 000 people are waiting to be evacuated to safety.

Sarah Obama, the grandmother of former US president Barack Obama, has died aged 99 in western Kenya, her daughter has told AFP.

Nothing had prepared South African mother Meryl Knox or her family for the "numbing" news following a deadly attack in neighbouring Mozambique.

More than 1 000 people were ferried to safety via boats.

Militants who seized the northern Mozambique town of Palma this week, murdering residents and forcing energy giant Total to suspend work on a nearby gas project, have wreaked havoc in the area for more than three years.