African news : breaking news, features, analysis

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara has taken a step towards drawing up a new constitution and scrapping a nationality clause which helped drag his West African nation into a decade-long crisis and bedevilled his own initial bids for the presidency.

The presidential office, in a statement late on Tuesday, announced the appointment of a 10-member experts panel, including Justice Minister Sansan Kambile along with legal experts and law professors, to draft a new national charter.

The leader of the attack on Garissa University in Kenya has been killed, officials in Somalia say.

Gunmen have stormed a hotel in the centre of the Somali capital Mogadishu, with reports of at least 10 dead and 50 wounded.

The Chief of Defence Staff, CDS, General Gabriel Olonisakin, yesterday in Lagos, raised the hope of Nigerians, particularly parents of the female students that were abducted from the Government Secondary School, in Chibok, Borno State, by terrorists two years ago, of their possible rescue, saying the troops were combing the Sambisa forest where most of the girls were suspected to be.

Muhammadu Buhari took office as Nigeria’s president a year ago on a wave of optimism that the ex-military ruler could revive a nation battered by falling oil prices and decades of corruption. 

For the third time in a week, an armed group has attacked a major pipeline in Nigeria's Delta region, two officials have said, hours after the Niger Delta Avengers group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Africa Day is the annual commemoration of the 1963 founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), presently recognised as the African Union (AU). 

A second girl who was among more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in a raid on a school in the northeastern Nigerian town of Chibok more than two years ago has been rescued, the Nigerian army said.

One of the more than 200 school girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014 has been found -- the first to be recovered since the time of the abduction, according to an activist with the Bring Back Our Girls movement in Nigeria.

The girl was found on the edge of Sambisa Forest, in the northeast of the country, where the girls have long been suspected to have been held since they were kidnapped from their school dormitory. 

She was identified by a local resident and taken to her mother, who confirmed her identity, the activist says. 

A major Nigerian trade union says it will press ahead with a general strike on Wednesday, despite a court injunction against the action.

The African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), winner of last legislative elections, has called for the formation of an inclusive government.

Punches were thrown in South Africa’s Parliament as parliamentary security guards forcibly ejected members of the ultra-left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party from the chamber.  This  is the second brawl in Parliament this month.

Nearly five million people in Zimbabwe - half of the country's rural population - will need assistance by next year as a result of the ongoing drought in southern Africa, the United Nations has said.

Zimbabwe is one of the worst affected countries by the driest year in decades facing southern Africa - including Malawi, Zambia and South Africa - which has placed more than 30 million people at risk.

Rainfall is not expected in the country in the near future and President Robert Mugabe has declared a "state of disaster".

Tanzania has removed more than 10,000 "ghost workers" from its public sector payroll in a crackdown on corruption.

Payments to the non-existent employees had been costing the government more than $2m a month, according to the prime minister's office. 

The authorities say they are continuing to audit the public payroll and expect to find more phantom workers. 

 Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye, who has been under virtual house arrest since a presidential election in February, was charged with treason after being whisked out of the capital, his lawyers said.

Besigye disputed veteran President Yoweri Museveni's victory in the election. Since polling day, his house has been ringed by police, spiked barriers placed on the road to it and visitors vetted.

The government insists Museveni's victory was valid and says Besigye is trying to hold illegal protests.

He was arrested in the capital Kampala on Wednesday after staging a ceremony at which he was mock sworn-in as president and taken to Moroto, a town about 400km away.

The "swearing-in" was filmed and racked up tens of thousands of views on YouTube.

"We have been informed by police today that Besigye appeared in court in Moroto and was charged with treason," lawyer Erias Lukwago told the AFP newswire.

Lukwago said his client was denied le

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari says he is not demanding "any apology from anybody" after UK Prime Minister David Cameron labelled his country "fantastically corrupt".

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has finally signed into law a budget for 2016 after months of wrangling.

A requiem Mass for former First Lady of Kenya, Lucy Kibaki was held Wednesday at the Consolata Shrine in Westlands, Nairobi.

Close members of the family, led by former President Mwai Kibaki, held prayers beside the casket that was draped in the Kenyan national flag at the Lee Funeral Home before it was driven to the church.