ALGIERS (Reuters) - At least 15 African migrants died on Sunday when their boat trying to reach Europe capsized off the Algerian coast, a coast guard official said.

BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - A Libyan transport plane crashed on Sunday at an airfield at El Sharara oilfield, killing three people, an oil engineer said.

ABUJA/MAIDUGURI (Reuters) - From the shores of Lake Chad, Islamic State's West African ally is on a mission: winning over the local people.

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabweans can now apply for licences to grow cannabis for medical and research purposes, the government has said in a legal notice, making the southern African nation the second country in Africa to legalise cultivation of the plant.

LILONGWE (Reuters) - Former Malawi president Joyce Banda returned home on Saturday to a rousing welcome by supporters and vowed to prove her innocence after more than three years in self-imposed exile amid graft allegations.

BAMAKO (Reuters) - Suspected jihadists killed 40 Tuaregs, mostly young men, in two attacks in northern Mali's Menaka region, which the local governor said seemed calculated to spark an ethnic conflict between Tuareg and Fulani herders.