Africa (except North Africa)

BENI, Democratic Republic of Congo, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Suspected Islamist militants killed at least 19 people in a raid on a village in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local authorities said.

The attackers looted houses and started fires in Kasanzi-Kithovo near Virunga National Park in North Kivu province overnight between Friday and Saturday, they said.

"I don't know where to go with my two children," villager Kahindo Lembula, who lost four of her relatives in the attack, told Reuters by phone. "Only God will help us."

BAMAKO, Aug 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Former Malian interim President Bah Ndaw and his prime minister, Moctar Ouane, have been freed from house arrest by the authorities who deposed them in May, a committee monitoring the post-coup transition has said.

Their detention by military officers in May marked Mali’s second coup since the overthrow of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita the previous August.

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Authorities in northern Nigeria announced three separate groups of kidnapped students were freed within a 24-hour period, prompting speculation late Friday that large ransoms had been paid to the gunmen blamed for a spate of recent abductions.

Among those now free are some of the youngest children ever taken hostage in Nigeria, a group of 90 pupils who had spent three months in captivity. Hours after those youngsters were brought to the Niger state capital, police in Zamfara state said that 15 older students also had been freed there.

PORT LOUIS, Aug 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Mauritius has hailed a decision by the UN postal agency to ban British stamps from being used on the Chagos archipelago in the Indian Ocean. It marks a further step in the decades-long struggle to get back sovereignty of the islands from the UK.

The vote by the Universal Postal Union (UPU), a United Nations agency focusing on the mail sector, follows a longstanding dispute between Mauritius and Britain over the Chagos Islands, where London and Washington operate a joint military base.

LUANDA, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Angola has received over 1 billion U.S. dollars from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with immediate access as part of the efforts to combat effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the country's Finance Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

The assistance is IMF's response to the call made by the international community on May 18 at the Paris Summit to mobilize a massive aid package to help countries, particularly African countries, address the sanitary crisis, the ministry said.

DAR ES SALAAM, Aug 25 (Reuters) - An attacker wielding an assault rifle was shot dead after killing three police officers and an employee of a private security company near the French embassy in Tanzania on Wednesday, President Samia Suluhu Hassan said.

Hassan said on Twitter that the attacker had been "neutralised" and "calm has returned".

NIAMEY, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Boko Haram militants attacked a military post in southern Niger overnight, killing 16 soldiers and wounding nine more, the defence ministry said on Wednesday.

About 50 of the Islamist militants were killed in the resulting combat in the West African country's Diffa region and significant quantities of weapons were recovered, the ministry said in a statement.

The Boko Haram insurgency broke out in northeastern Nigeria in 2009, but violence frequently spills over into neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon in the Lake Chad Basin.

DAKAR, Aug 23 (NNN-AFRICANEWS) — Flash floods affected the area of Keur Massar in the outskirts of the Senegalese capital, Dakar in the past week. A heavy downpour has led overflow of tributaries affecting local families.

Hundreds of families have abandoned their homes following a heavy downpour. Malang Sambou is one of the affected people who have lost almost everything.

KAMPALA, Aug 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Starting Sept 3, all travellers arriving in Uganda, including citizens, will be subjected to a mandatory PCR Covid test before they are cleared to enter the country.

The Ministry of Health has revised travel guidelines, tightening Covid rules in the face of fake Covid-19 certificates, mutations of the virus and threats of a looming third wave in the country.

Previously, travellers were required to show negative coronavirus test results done 72 hours prior to travel before departure or entering the country.

ACCRA, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- At least 10 people died and dozens were injured in a road accident in southern Ghana on Sunday, an official confirmed.

Winneba Municipal Fire Officer Henry Asiedu said the accident happened when two buses traveling in opposite directions collided at Gomoa Mampong, a fishing community near the Accra-Cape Coast highway.

"It was fatal, and we had to take our time to collect the bodies. About 10 people have died, while the rest are receiving treatment at the Winneba Trauma and Specialist Hospital," Asiedu said.