Africa (except North Africa)

03 Feb 2019; AFP: The Central African Republic government and 14 armed groups struck a deal Saturday to end years of fighting that has killed thousands, the parties and a mediator said.

The deal, the seventh since 2012, was announced on Twitter by the government of President Faustin-Archange Touadera just a day after the African Union and UN-sponsored talks in Khartoum were suspended amid disagreements over amnesty.

"A peace agreement has been reached," said the tweet.

ABUJA, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Saturday survived a helicopter crash while on an official trip to the country's central state of Kogi, a presidential spokesman has confirmed.

The six-seater helicopter, conveying Osinbajo and some of his aides, crash-landed in Kabba area of Kogi, presidential spokesman Laolu Akande said in a statement.

It was badly damaged but all the passengers and crew members were unhurt, the presidential aide said.

Bengaluru, Feb 1 (PTI) Underworld don Ravi Pujari, arrested in Senegal on a red alert by Indian intelligence agencies, was living with a new identity, had got a Burkina Faso passport for himself and his family and ran a chain of restaurants in some West African nations, Karnataka police said Friday.

"Ravi Pujari had obtained a new identity as Antony Fernadez and got a Burkina Faso passport for himself, his wife and children.

ABUJA, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian government on Monday defended the president's suspension of the country's chief justice over alleged breach of asset-declaration rules.

Lai Mohammed, the minister of information and culture, told media in Abuja that the suspension of Walter Onnoghen was a consequence of his breach of the code of conduct for public officers, and has nothing to do with the forthcoming elections in February.

ABUJA, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian government on Monday defended the president's suspension of the country's chief justice over alleged breach of asset-declaration rules.

Lai Mohammed, the minister of information and culture, told media in Abuja that the suspension of Walter Onnoghen was a consequence of his breach of the code of conduct for public officers, and has nothing to do with the forthcoming elections in February.

KINSHASA, Jan 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) -- More than 50 mass graves were discovered by a joint UN and government fact-finding mission after ethnic violence in mid-December in a region of western Democratic Republic of Congo, the UN announced.

“There are more than 50 mass graves or mass graves and individual graves that we have identified” in Yumbi in the western province of Mai-Ndombe, Abdoul Aziz Thioye, director of the Joint UN Office for Human Rights in the DRC (UNJHRO), said on Friday.

26 Jan 2019; DW: Two Sri Lankan peacekeepers with the UN's force in Mali have been killed and six others injured when their vehicle hit an explosive device in the central Mopti region, the UN said Friday.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council condemned the attacks.

"The secretary-general recalls that attacks targeting United Nations peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law," his office said in a statement.

MASAITI, Zambia, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Construction works of a dam in Zambia's Masaiti district on the Copperbelt Province funded by the Chinese government was on course, the contractor said on Tuesday.

Construction works of the 450 million U.S. dollars Kafulafuta Dam was commissioned in October last year by President Edgar Lungu.

Bruce Zhu, a business manager with the China National Complete Engineering Corporation, said about 23 percent of works have so far been done and that everything was on schedule.

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa arrived in Harare late Monday after cutting short his fund-raising trip in order to address the country’s economic crisis and crackdown.

Mnangagwa was welcomed at Harare International Airport by Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, former army commander who was in charge during the president’s week-long absence and when the government launched a widespread clampdown in which 12 people were killed, more shot by troops and others dragged from their homes and beaten, according to human rights groups.

DAKAR, Senegal; 21 Jan 2019; AA: The death toll in the Democratic Republic of Congo from Ebola has risen to 370 since the start of an outbreak in late July last year, the country’s Health Ministry said on Monday. 636 cases confirmed since start of outbreak in late July, 2018.

Among 685 cases of reported hemorrhagic fever, 636 were confirmed to be Ebola cases, according to the ministry.

It has also been reported that 245 people have recovered from the virus in the Central African country.