Tag: topNews

PARIS (Reuters) – French commandos rescued four foreign hostages including two French citizens from a militant group in Burkina Faso, France’s military said on Friday, adding that two of the elite soldiers were killed in the night-time operation. French special forces carried out the raid under cover of dark over the night of Thursday-Friday, supported by U.S. intelligence and troops… Read More

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – For Kwanja Edward, stirring a massive pot of porridge on a roadside in central Khartoum to feed protesters camping outside Sudan’s Defence Ministry is the best place to be during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Originally from South Sudan, the middle-aged nurse, who now lives in Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman on the opposite side of… Read More

ABUJA (Reuters) – A regional militia allied with Nigerian government forces freed on Friday almost 900 children it had used in the war against Islamist Boko Haram insurgents, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said. The move brought the total number of children freed to more than 1,700, a UNICEF statement said. Non-state armed groups embroiled in the decade-long conflict… Read More

PARIS (Reuters) – Two French soldiers were killed in an operation to rescue four hostages in the Sahel region of Africa, France said on Friday, adding that the hostages, including a U.S. woman, a South Korean citizen and two Frenchmen, were now safe. Two French tourists were kidnapped during a safari in Benin last week, and their local guide found… Read More

TRIPOLI/BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) – Libya’s internationally recognised government asked 40 foreign firms including French oil major Total to renew their licences or have their operations suspended, pressuring Europe to stop an eastern military offensive against Tripoli. The firms have three months to renew their licences, the economy and industry ministry said in a decree, after an official earlier said their… Read More

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Sudanese Rapid Support Forces seized 241 kilograms of gold from a plane that landed in Khartoum on Thursday in an investigation into possible smuggling. The plane had departed from Nile River state, the RSF said. General Othman Mohamed of the RSF said that only 93 of the 241 kilograms had been cleared for export. The status of… Read More

BENGHAZI/TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Three people were killed on Thursday in a suspected hit-and-run attack by Islamic State militants on a town in southern Libya, residents and a military official said, the second such attack within days. In the capital Tripoli, three rockets hit a western suburb overnight close to the heavily fortified U.N. compound but otherwise there was less fighting… Read More

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Sudanese protest and opposition leaders called on Wednesday for a campaign of civil disobedience in response to what one of them described as the military’s “disappointing” answer to their proposals for an interim government. This could put the protesters and the ruling Transitional Military Council (TMC) on a collision course following weeks of wrangling over how to… Read More

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – The former head of Ethiopia’s intelligence service was charged in absentia on Tuesday with misuse of power and corruption, part of a crackdown by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government on senior security officials suspected of rights abuses. Details of the two charges against Getachew Asefa, former head of the National Intelligence and Security Service, and 25… Read More

GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations human rights office called on Malta on Tuesday to drop terrorism charges against three African teenage migrants arrested for hijacking a small commercial tanker that rescued their vessel off the coast of Libya. The three, who have pleaded not guilty, were among 108 Africans rescued by the El Hiblu 1 tanker in late March.… Read More