UN human rights experts on Tuesday urged Uganda to immediately stop the brutal crackdown on the political opposition which began in the lead-up to January's general elections and intensified after the disputed vote.

Civilians are fleeing into Niger Republic after gunmen attacked Damasak town, Borno state in northeast Nigeria on Wednesday.

Some 20 children died Tuesday after several classrooms caught fire at a school in Niger's capital Niamey, the fire service said.

Seven years after hundreds of schoolgirls were abducted by Boko Haram jihadists in Chibok, northeast Nigeria, more than 100 are still missing, Amnesty International said Wednesday.

Coinciding with the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, Egypt fired on Tuesday the centuries-old Midfa Al-Iftar or Ramadan Cannon at Cairo's historic Salah El-Din citadel after 30 years of silence.

Beninese President Patrice Talon was re-elected with 86% of the vote, according to provisional results announced Tuesday evening by the Electoral Commission, in a poll where the head of state was facing virtually unknown opposition candidates.

South Africa suspended giving Johnson & Johnson vaccine shots Tuesday as a “precautionary measure” and the company delayed its European vaccine rollout following the FDA decision to pause using the jabs while blood clot cases are examined.

A rebel leader in northern Mali who was a signatory to a crucial 2015 peace accord was killed Tuesday in the capital Bamako, a killing quickly denounced by senior figures in the Sahel nation.

Egypt is demanding $ 900 million in compensation after the blockade of the Suez Canal at the end of March, and the container ship that caused it has been seized in the meantime, the government daily Al-Ahram reported on Tuesday.