Forces are 'disrupting' insurgency in Mozambique - but fight is not over, says SANDF chief

South Africa's military chief said Wednesday that multinational forces had been able to "disrupt" jihadist rebels in northern Mozambique since their deployment there last year.
#southafrica #mozambique

Seven police officers, 4 soldiers die in Niger attacks

Seven Niger police officers and four soldiers were killed on Tuesday in two separate attacks near the country's borders with Burkina Faso and Libya, the government said Wednesday.
#niger #libya #burkinafaso

Egyptian activist takes British nationality in campaign against detention

The family of one of Egypt's most prominent human rights activists, Alaa Abd el-Fattah, said on Monday he had obtained British citizenship as part of a campaign to win his release from prison and spotlight the plight of fellow detainees.
#abdelfattah #egyptianactivist

Millions of Somalis at risk of famine: UN agencies

Millions of people in Somalia are at risk of famine, with young children the most vulnerable to the worsening drought in the troubled Horn of Africa nation, UN agencies warned on Tuesday.
#somalis #famine

Dozens dead after gunmen ransack central Nigerian villages

Gunmen have killed over 100 people after ransacking a group of villages in central Nigeria, local sources said, in one of worst attacks this year blamed on heavily armed criminal gangs who terrorise parts of the country.
#gunmen #nigeria

Egypt prosecution says no criminal suspicion in economist’s death

Egypt's state-appointed human rights council has urged prosecutors to investigate whether an economic researcher, who authorities say died in a state mental health facility last month, was a victim of forced disappearance. The country’s public prosecution said there was no criminal suspicion in the death.
#egypt

SA developer quit his job to fold origami, and landed deals with Dior, RedBull, and Pixar

South African website developer Ross Symons quit his ad agency job in 2014 and started folding origami animals that he posted daily on Instagram. But one year later, French fashion house Christian Dior commissioned him to create origami for a campaign that paid double his old salary. Since then he's secured deals folding origami art for global brands such as Red Bull, Investec, Samsung, Adidas, McDonald's, Disney, and Nordstrom.
#rosssymons #nordstrom

Gunmen in Nigeria train attack show more hostages

Gunmen who carried out a high-profile attack on a train in northwest Nigeria last month have released a video showing about two dozen of the hostages they kidnapped in the assault.
#gunmen #nigeriantrain

Food aid starts to flow into northern Ethiopia after 'mini-truce'

The World Food Programme (WFP) in Ethiopia says, by Friday last week, an estimated 200 000 people in parts of Amhara had received food aid since the mini-truce was put in place. Amhara is one of the hardest-hit areas by the conflict in the north, and the Ethiopian government says repairing infrastructural damage could take up to 30 years.
#foodaid #worldfoodprogramme

Sudanese protesters mark third anniversary of Bashir’s removal

Crowds of Sudanese protesters gathered in parts of the capital, Khartoum, and other cities on Monday to mark the third anniversary of former leader Omar al-Bashir’s removal and to protest the prospect of renewed military rule.
#sudan #bashir #sudanese