Zambians were voting in nationwide elections on Thursday after a tense campaign dominated by economic woes and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The pandemic not only limited campaigning, but laid bare the country’s deep economic challenges.

The Tanzanian government has suspended a local newspaper for running what it called a false story saying that President Samia Suluhu Hassan would not vie for office in 2025.

Three civilians have been killed in eastern DR Congo in a new attack blamed on the Allied Democratic Forces, an armed group linked to the so-called Islamic State, the authorities said.

Zimbabwe has signed a $1.3 billion joint venture agreement with British-based Coven Energy to develop a fuel pipeline from the Mozambican port city of Beira to the capital city Harare.

A prominent Ivorian political figure who has been sentenced to a 20-year jail term in absentia has been detained in Mali's capital Bamako.

Nigeria will soon lift its ban on Twitter after resolving some of its differences with the social media platform, Information Minister Lai Mohammed said.

Sudan will hand longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court along with other officials wanted over the Darfur conflict.

Forest fires in Algeria killed 42 people on Tuesday, including 25 soldiers deployed to help put out the blaze, the government said, as thick clouds of smoke covered much of the mountainous Kabylie region east of the capital.

The Guinea health authorities are tracing the close contacts of a man who died of the Marburg virus, which can be passed to humans from fruit bats.

Kenya will require all government workers to receive at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine before August 23 or face disciplinary action.

Warning: This story contains graphic content. Ethiopian and Eritrean troops have raped hundreds of women and girls during the Tigray war, subjecting some to sexual slavery and mutilation, Amnesty International said in a report Wednesday.

Algeria’s government said arsonists were responsible for dozens of forest fires that have killed 24 people, including 18 military men, and destroyed homes east of the capital.

Mogadishu and Nairobi have agreed to "reset" their frosty relations, following talks between Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble.

Zambians will decide Thursday whether to re-elect President Edgar Lungu after the country's worst economic performance in decades.

Nigeria will restart Covid-19 inoculations on 16 August after taking delivery of 4 million doses of Moderna vaccine, with shipments of Johnson & Johnson shots also due imminently.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has issued a call for all eligible civilians to join the armed forces as fighting raged in multiple regions of Africa's second most populous nation.

At least 12 people were killed and dozens wounded in an attack on civilians displaced by the widening war in northern Ethiopia, a medical official told AFP on Tuesday, signalling the rising humanitarian toll of the conflict.

Ivory Coast ex-president Laurent Gbagbo on Monday proposed setting up a new political party, his deeply divided Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) announced.

Moove plans to fund the first electric cars in these markets before the end of 2021.