CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South African soldiers were deployed to gang-ridden Cape Town suburbs on Thursday to help quell escalating violence that has killed hundreds this year and that officials have likened to a war zone, a Reuters cameraman and community activists said.

ABIDJAN, July 18 (Reuters) - * Ivory Coast's Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC) has sold 1.6 million tonnes of cocoa export contracts by July 12 for the 2019/20 season, which begins in October, two sources at the industry regulator said on Thursday. * Forward sales will now be halted because of uncertainty about the size of the next crop, the source said. Ivory Coast had sold 1.7 million tonnes of cocoa by the end of September last year. * Ivory Coast is expected to produce 2.2 million tonnes of coc

CAIRO (Reuters) - A suicide bombing killed at least two people in Egypt's North Sinai region on Thursday, a day after four headless bodies were found there, security and medical sources said.

OSLO, July 18 (Reuters) - Norwegian investment firm Aker could launch its planned initial public offering (IPO) of Aker Energy in late 2019 or in 2020, depending on when Ghana approves the development plan of its Pecan oilfield, the CEO said.

HAWASSA/ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (Reuters) - A political party representing some of Ethiopia's ethnic Sidama people said on Thursday it would postpone plans to declare a new region in defiance of the federal government and would accept the offer of a referendum in five months' time.

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - The head of a political party representing some of Ethiopia's ethnic Sidama people said on Thursday it would postpone plans to declare a new region in defiance of the federal government and would accept the offer of a referendum in five months' time.

HAWASSA, Ethiopia (Reuters) - Protesters in the Ethiopian city of Hawassa blocked roads and burned tires on Thursday after security forces thwarted a meeting of activists to declare a new region for their Sidama ethnic group, witnesses said.

July 18 (Reuters) - "If football was a president we would have a peaceful and exciting country," - the words of a young South Africa fan speaking to Reuters while watching his team play in the Africa Cup of Nations perfectly capture the unifying force of the world's most popular sport.

MAROVATO, Madagascar (Reuters) - Rocketing vanilla prices bought Madagascan farmer Berlin Ranary a hot pink sofa, a motorbike - and a double-barrelled shotgun to protect his crop.

GENEVA (Reuters) - A woman who died of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo may have taken the deadly disease into Rwanda, according to a Ugandan Health Ministry report published by the World Health Organization on Thursday.

OSLO, July 18 (Reuters) - Norway's Aker expects a potential initial public offering (IPO) of its Aker Energy holding to be launched late in 2019 or in 2020, depending on when Ghanaian authorities approve the development plan of its Pecan field.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Experts have begun restoration work on the golden-plated coffin of Egypt's boy-king Tutankhamun for the first time since the discovery of the tomb in 1922, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities said on Wednesday.

HAWASSA, Ethiopia (Reuters) - Activists in Ethiopia were set to declare a new region for their Sidama ethnic group on Thursday in defiance of the central government, with some residents of the southern city of Hawassa worried that it could lead to violence.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization on Wednesday declared Congo's Ebola outbreak an international health emergency, sounding a rarely used global alarm after the virus threatened to spread to a major city and into neighbouring countries.