Africa (except North Africa)

(Reuters) --- Kidnappers killed one person and took an unknown number of students from a university in northwest Nigeria's restive Kaduna state, police said on Wednesday, in the latest in a series of abductions at educational institutes.

Armed groups have repeatedly struck northern Nigerian schools and universities since December, abducting more than 700 students for ransom.

DAR ES SALAAM, April 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan will address parliament on Thursday, Speaker Job Ndugai said.

He told the House during the morning session on Monday that all Members of Parliament (MPs) – who have been planning to travel out of Dodoma – must put their plans on hold until after the President’s address.

“The President will address the Parliament on Thursday from 4pm….Those MPs who are making arrangements to leave the Capital City, must postpone such plans until that day passes,” he said.

(Reuters) --- Chad's President Idriss Deby, who ruled his country for more than 30 years and was an important Western ally in the fight against Islamist militants in Africa, has been killed on the frontline against rebels in the north.

Deby's son, Mahamat Kaka, was named interim president by a transitional council of military officers, spokesman Azem Bermendao Agouna said in a broadcast on state television.

18 Apr 2021; MEMO: Chad's President Idriss Deby has died while visiting troops on the frontline of a fight against northern rebels, Reuters reported an army spokesman saying today, the day after Deby was declared the winner of a presidential election.

Deby, 68, came to power in a rebellion in 1990 and was one of Africa's longest-ruling leaders.

18 Apr 2021; MEMO: Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Sunday that the 2nd filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) would be conducted in July and August, Anadolu Agency reported.

18 Apr 2021; MEMO: At least two people, including a top national army commander, were killed when a roadside bomb targeted a military vehicle outside Bal'ad, Middle Shabelle region, an official said on Saturday, Anadolu Agency reported.

The attack occurred near Gololey on the outskirts of Bal'ad, an agricultural town 40 kilometers (24 miles) from the capital, Mogadishu.

(Reuters) --- Eritrea told the United Nations Security Council on Friday that it has agreed to start withdrawing its troops from Ethiopia's Tigray region, acknowledging publicly for the first time the country's involvement in the conflict.

The admission in a letter to the 15-member council - and posted online by Eritrea's Ministry of Information - comes a day after U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock said the world body had not seen any proof that Eritrean soldiers have withdrawn.

KIGALI, April 16 (Xinhua) -- A Rwandan woman charged with crimes against humanity during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi arrived in Rwanda on Friday following her deportation from the United States.

Beatrice Munyenyezi, a genocide suspect who was arrested in 2013 in the United States and sentenced to 10 years there for lying about her role in the Rwandan genocide to obtain U.S. citizenship, arrived at Kigali International Airport at 7:04 p.m. local time (1704 GMT).

DAR ES SALAAM, Apr 16 (NNN-IRIN) – At least 100 elephants raided five villages in Tanzania’s southern highlands, over the past two weeks, destroying over 400 hectares of crops, officials said yesterday.

The elephants, from the nearby Ruaha National Park, destroyed farms planted with maize, padi and round potatoes in five villages, in Igava ward of Mbarali district in Mbeya region, said, Gaitan Madindo, Igava ward executive officer.

DAR ES SALAAM, April 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The government of Tanzania said it has completed payments for the purchase of three new planes.

This was said by the Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa while addressing Parliament on the estimates and expenditure of the Office of the Prime Minister and its institutions for the financial year 2021/2022.

Majaliwa said the aeroplanes are expected to arrive in the 2021/22 financial year therefore bringing the number of government owned fleet to 12.