Africa (except North Africa)

GABORONE, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- China and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on Thursday donated personal protective equipment to Botswana to assist the country in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The donation could not have come at a better time than now when the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic is higher, in the process stretching our healthcare facilities and resources to the limit. Our frontliners have never been this strained and overwhelmed," said Edwin Dikoloti, Botswana's minister of health and wellness, after the handover ceremony in Gaborone.

OUAGADOUGOU, Aug 5 (Reuters) - An armed group in northern Burkina Faso killed 30 civilians, army soldiers and pro-government militiamen in a series of attacks near the border with Niger, the defence ministry said on Thursday.

The unidentified assailants struck villages near the town of Markoye around midday on Wednesday and then attacked security forces responding to the raids later that afternoon, the ministry said in a statement.

LAGOS, Aug 3 (NNN-NAN) – Three people were killed in a road accident in Nigeria’s southwestern State of Ogun, yesterday.

Opeoluwa Adekoya, Ijebu Ode divisional commander of Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps, told reporters at the scene that, a truck loaded with granite lost control, due to over-speeding in the town of Ijebu Ode, hitting a motorcycle and crashing into a residential building.

Three dead bodies were retrieved and have been deposited at a hospital, said Adekoya, without giving further details, but warning of reckless driving and speeding.

JUBA, Aug 4 (NNN-SUNA) – South Sudan’s peace monitors, yesterday, welcomed the swearing-in of 595 legislators in both the Upper and Lower Houses, after several delays by the parties to the 2018 revitalised peace deal.

The Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC) said, in a statement issued in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, that, the swearing-in of the 503 members of the Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA) and 92 members of the Council of States, Monday, will help speed up the enactment of key legislations recommended in the peace deal.

04 Aug 2021; MEMO: Seven Arabic speaking countries told the African Union (AU) yesterday that they reject granting Israel observer status in the bloc, Anadolu reported.

Israeli Ambassador to Addis Ababa Aleli Admasu presented credentials to AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki on 22 July, and Israel was granted observer status to the body.

KIGALI, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Monday said cooperation agreements signed between his country and Tanzania earlier in the day will give new impetus to the implementation of joint projects like standard gauge railway.

KIGALI, Aug 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Tanzanian President Samia Suhulu arrive Monday in Kigali for her first visit to Rwanda.

During the two-day visit, she is expected to hold private talks with President Paul Kagame.

President Suluhu’s visit follows recent high-level meetings between top officials from the two countries.

ABUJA, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- At least seven people were killed and several others wounded following weekend attacks across six communities in Nigeria's north-central state of Plateau, local authorities said on Monday.

Up to 250 houses were also razed in the attack in the communities situated in the Miango chiefdom of Bassa local government area of Plateau on Saturday night, the police said.

"We are in search of the fleeing gunmen. I assure you that the police are on top of the situation," Ubah Ogaba, a police spokesman in Plateau, told Xinhua by telephone.

ANTANANARIVO, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Madagascar authorities have arrested 21 suspects over an assassination attempt on President Andry Rajoelina, local media reported on Monday.

Berthine Razafiarivony, general attorney of the court of appeal of Antananarivo, told a briefing on Sunday that based on tangible, material evidence in the hands of investigators, the main instigators of the plot have been identified, L'Express de Madagascar reported.

The suspects intended to eliminate five Malagasy political figures, including president Rajoelina, she said.

DORI, Burkina Faso (AP) — Awoken by gunshots in the middle of the night, Fatima Amadou was shocked by what she saw among the attackers: children.

Guns slung over their small frames, the children chanted “Allahu akbar,” as they surrounded her home in Solhan town in Burkina Faso’s Sahel region. Some were so young they couldn’t even pronounce the words, Arabic for “God is great,” said the 43-year-old mother.