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West Africa

France urges Mali to step up talks with rebels
France's president called Thursday for stepped-up talks between Mali's government and any leaders from its breakaway north "who reject terrorism," ...
Group: Nigeria lead poisoning crisis still ongoing
A group is warning that a lead poisoning crisis in northern Nigeria is still ongoing and affecting children, while government money has yet to be ...
Mali militants say they will not give up Shariah
One of the three al-Qaida-linked groups currently controlling northern Mali said Wednesday it would not give up its harsh form of Islamic law, ...
Ivory Coast president dissolves Cabinet
Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara dissolved his Cabinet on Wednesday over an apparent feud between member parties of his governing coalition, ...
African Union asks UN to authorize Mali deployment
The African Union is asking the United Nations Security Council to endorse a military intervention to free northern Mali from Islamist extremists ...
France rules out any use of air power in Mali
Neither France nor Europe will intervene militarily to oust al-Qaida and its allies from northern Mali — not even with air strikes, the French defense ...
US re-elected to UN Human Rights Council seat
The United States was re-elected Monday to another three-year term on the U.N. Human Rights Council in the only contested election for the ...
African leaders agree to send troops to north Mali
West African nations on Sunday agreed to send some 3,000 troops to help the country of Mali wrest back control of its northern half, which was seized ...
Royal Dutch Shell shuts down Nigeria oil pipeline
Royal Dutch Shell PLC says it has shut down a pipeline in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta after finding leaks it blamed on oil thieves. In a ...
Ghana: Rescuers still work in collapsed building
Workers had congregated for morning prayers on the ground floor of the Melcom retail store in northern Accra Wednesday morning at around 9:15 when ...
Official: Guinea treasury chief assassinated
The head of Guinea's treasury was gunned down as she was driving home in what her colleagues describe as a brazen assassination aimed at silencing an ...
Argentine crew prevents Ghana from moving ship
Sailors aboard an Argentina navy sailing ship seized in a billion-dollar international debt controversy brandished weapons to block Ghanaian officials ...
Algerian official warns against Mali intervention
An international military intervention into Mali at this time would be useless, a top advisor to Algeria's president said Saturday. The remarks by ...
Liberians launch campaign against gay marriage
A few hundred Liberians representing the Christian and Muslim faiths and civil society organizations gathered here Saturday to launch a campaign to ...
Nobel laureate Soyinka: Nigeria 'at war' with sect
Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka on Friday dismissed calls for peace negotiations with the radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram and said Nigerian ...
First French jihad suspect arrested in Mali
Mali's authorities have arrested a Frenchman in the west African country who allegedly was trying to join radical Islamists controlling the north.
Authorities detain official in Ghana disaster
Authorities in Ghana have detained a municipal works official accused of allowing a building that collapsed to be built without a construction permit.
France tries to ID suspect jihadist held in Mali
French authorities are trying to figure out whether a man arrested in the West African nation of Mali who was en route to Islamist combatants is the ...
Minister: War still inevitable in northern Mali
War in northern Mali is inevitable, even if some militants there are now disavowing extremism, the foreign affairs minister of neighboring Burkina ...
Morocco expels 19 foreigners from W Sahara
Morocco has expelled 19 foreigners from the annexed territory of the Western Sahara, saying they were journalists who entered without permission.
Gunmen kill 2 Chinese workers in northeast Nigeria
Gunmen have shot dead two Chinese construction workers in northeast Nigeria, a region under assault by a radical Islamist sect. Authorities initially ...
North Mali Islamist group says it rejects violence
An Islamist group carrying out public executions and amputations in northern Mali said Tuesday that it rejects "all forms of extremism and terrorism" ...
Nigeria newspaper editor shot in highway attack
The managing director and editor-in-chief of the Nigerian Compass daily newspaper has been shot during an attack in the country's southwest.
Officials: New mass graves found in Ivory Coast
Up to 10 new mass graves have been discovered near the site of a July attack on a camp for displaced people, officials said Tuesday, amid allegations ...
Cameroon's president marks 3 decades in power
Cameroon's 79-year-old President Paul Biya marked 30 years in office Tuesday with boisterous celebrations staged by the ruling party while police ...