The Pentagon will trim the number of US troops deployed across Africa as it concentrates more on countering threats from Great Power competitors Russia and China, officials said Thursday. Currently, about 7,200 US military personnel are based in dozens of African nations, with notable footprints in places like Somalia, Nigeria and Libya. Pe ...

The United Nations on Thursday launched what it called a global first to harness private-sector funding and expertise to help tackle humanitarian crises around the world. The Nigeria Humanitarian Fund Private Sector Initiative (NHF PSI) has been set up to strengthen the response to the effects of Boko Haram's Islamist insurgency in the country ...

Two former presidents of Madagascar look set to compete in a hotly-contested run-off election in December after partial results Thursday showed they were frontrunners in the first-round vote. With 80 percent of the ballots counted from last week's vote, Andry Rajoelina was on 39.63 percent and Marc Ravalomanana was on 35.42 percent -- pointing t ...

The lifting of UN sanctions on Eritrea is an unconditional win for the Red Sea state but no guarantee of change to domestic policies that have led to isolation and a refugee crisis. The UN on Wednesday lifted an arms embargo as well as travel bans, asset freezes and targeted sanctions imposed nine years ago to punish Eritrea for its alleged supp ...

African swine fever has spread rapidly to more than half of China's provinces despite measures to contain it, the government said, warning that a situation previously described as under control had become very serious. The disease has already caused a spike in pork prices in China since first emerging in August, and fuelled growing fears of a ...

African leaders are set to gather this weekend for a special summit aimed at pushing through long-debated reforms to their pan-continental body. The changes seek to streamline and empower the African Union -- an ambitious call for an organisation often seen as toothless and donor-dependent, and analysts say time for forging a deal is short. E ...

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is renewing his call for UN financing to shore up a regional force fighting an insurgency in the Sahel, despite opposition from the United States. Guterres said in a report to the Security Council seen by AFP on Wednesday that security had deteriorated rapidly over the last six months in the area between B ...