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Search operations were underway for possible missing persons, said Houssem Eddine Jebabli, an official in the national guard.

MSS Mission spokesperson jack Ombaka noted that the mission has not yet met its personnel deployment targets and is still grappling with shortages in both equipment and manpower.

Tanzania’s Minister for Agriculture, Hussein Bashe, had announced earlier this week a suspension on the import of agricultural produce from South Africa and Malawi.

The plans would be the first known instance of Saudi Arabia providing financing for Syria since Islamist-led rebels toppled former leader Bashar al-Assad last year.

Israel resumed its offensive in Gaza on March 18 after a January ceasefire collapsed, saying it would keep up pressure on Hamas until it frees the remaining hostages.

In Kenya, data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) estimates the poverty rate at about 40 per cent.

State TV earlier reported that poor handling of flammable materials was a "contributing factor" to the explosion. A local crisis management official told state TV that the blast took place after several containers stored at the port exploded.

The accusations against Hengari relate to an incident that allegedly occurred five years ago, when the woman was still a minor.

Nigeria's Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) fined Meta last July for discriminatory and exploitative practices

Qatar brokered a truce between the government of DRC and the M23 on Wednesday as the US brokered another between Rwanda and DRC on Friday, breathing a sigh of relief to the region, where similar attempts to bring the parties together now seemed to have failed.

The FAO emphasises the need for continued surveys and control measures to prevent further development of the outbreaks.

The funeral service will be presided over by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the 91-year-old dean of the College of Cardinals.

Cardinals will pick Francis' successor at a conclave next month, deciding if the new pope should continue with the late pontiff's push for a more open Church or cede to conservatives who want to return to a more traditional papacy.

Bakeries have shut down due to the absence of flour and gas, food prices are surging, and social order is unravelling as people fight for what little remains.

Applause rang out as the coffin, inlaid with a large cross, was brought out of St. Peter's Basilica and into the sun-filled square by 14 white-gloved pallbearers.

Pattni himself signed the agreement on behalf of Suvarna. Despite Pattni's controversial reputation, which includes sanctions imposed by the United States and the United Kingdom, the Niger government welcomed him with full honours, presenting the project as a major step toward economic sovereignty

The relationship between Washington and Pretoria has frayed significantly since Trump resumed office in January.

The president noted that the Security Council’s post-World War II framework is no longer in line with today’s world, which is characterised by a multipolar order.

These discoveries suggest that humans were able to live in rainforest before they left Africa, the home of our species. Until now, though, the oldest firm evidence for people living in African rainforests dated to around 18,000 years ago.

“He loved Muslims and was dedicated to spreading peace. His final statements defended Palestine and the oppressed people of Gaza. His efforts helped advance Islamic-Christian dialogue, culminating in the historic signing of the Document on Human Fraternity in 2019."

A continent where religion permeates most aspects of private and public life, Africa is where the Roman Catholic Church is growing fastest, according to Vatican figures published last month.

The reforms of Pope Francis could be termed a movement – from a church of a few where priests and bishops, and the pope call the shots, to a church of the people of God where everyone’s voice matters and where everyone’s concerns and needs are catered to.

Today, Zimbabwe is better known for its young visual artists, who primarily work in painting, mixed media and collage. While stone sculpture was once the country’s dominant art form, its visibility has diminished – not in production, but in critical conversations about art.

The Vatican on Tuesday released photographs of Francis dressed in his vestments and lying in a wooden coffin in the chapel of the Santa Marta residence, where he lived during his 12-year papacy. Swiss Guards stand on either side of the casket.

He took the name Francis in honour of Saint Francis of Assisi, becoming the first uniquely named pope in over 1,000 years (the last being Pope Lando in 913). Many of his major teachings, known as “papal encyclicals”, echoed the wisdom of Saint Francis.

The international community is at a “critical inflexion point,” the UNODC said, urging that failure to address the problem would have “unprecedented consequences for Southeast Asia that reverberate globally”.

When Pope Francis was introduced in 2013, I was working as an African expert on global Catholicism for Canada Television. I went blank when the new pope was presented to the world on live TV because I had no biographical information on him. So, I ran off the list of what we African Catholics wanted from the new pope.

He also asked that the tomb be simple and set into the ground, bearing only a single inscription: Franciscus.

African nations have enjoyed duty-free access to the US market for over two decades under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), up for renewal in September.

Younish Al-Khatib, chairman of the Palestinian Red Crescent, said he did not consider the measures taken by the Israeli military, which reprimanded one officer and dismissed another from his position, as sufficient.

An old Italian saying warns against putting faith, or money, in any presumed front-runner ahead of the conclave, the closed-door gathering of cardinals that picks the pontiff.

His death marks the end of a transformative and often tumultuous papacy defined by a deep commitment to the poor, calls for peace and efforts to modernise the Roman Catholic Church.

The pope's camerlengo (chamberlain), Cardinal Kevin Farrell, officially confirms the death. He then seals the pope's private apartment and prepares the funeral.

Francis brought the Catholic Church's dialogue with Islam to new heights in 2019 by becoming the first pope to visit the Arabian Peninsula, but conservatives attacked him as a "heretic" for signing a joint document on inter-religious fraternity with Muslim leaders.

He was 88, and had recently survived a serious bout of double pneumonia.

Officially, the payment was meant to compensate French plantation owners for “lost property” following independence, but the amount far exceeded actual losses.

In Africa, fault lines stretching across the continent pose serious risks, yet preparedness remains low.

The paramedics and other rescue workers were shot dead on March 23 near the southern Gaza city of Rafah and buried in a shallow grave.

The robots, ranging in shape and height from under 1.2 meters to as tall as 1.8 meters, were designed to mimic human running movements. Some of the robots were equipped with human-like features, including the ability to wink and smile.

There are fears that the aftershocks may persist for months following such a major earthquake, given that Myanmar is in a highly tectonically active region, OCHA added.

Other protesters waved Palestinian flags while wearing keffiyeh scarves, chanting "free Palestine" and expressing solidarity with Palestinians killed in Israel's war in Gaza.

"The gangs have powerful automatic weapons that fire many rounds per minute as well as sniper rifles which some gang members have been trained on. People can be hit from a long distance, and you can imagine the terror that causes."

Rights groups say President Kais Saied has had full control over the judiciary since he dissolved parliament in 2021 and began ruling by decree.

In many African communities, there are widespread beliefs relating to the use of human body parts for traditional healing rituals. Human body parts and blood are said to enhance the potency of traditional medicines and rituals that supposedly guarantee wealth, business success, fertility, protection and longevity, among others.

It said the attack on the hospital forced the evacuation of dozens of wounded people and left Gaza critically short of emergency care.

The outbreak, detected in February on a farm in the Bong county, killed 18 birds out of a flock of 26,000, the Paris-based WOAH said, quoting information from Liberian authorities.

Guterres' assessment, contained in a letter to the council, notes that Haiti is still undergoing a fragile political transition, with the progress on completing the road map for elections and the restoration of democratic institutions by February next year, mixed.

This suggests the planet may be teeming with microbial life, the researchers said. They stressed, however, that they are not announcing the discovery of actual living organisms but rather a possible biosignature - an indicator of a biological process - and that the findings should be viewed cautiously, with more observations needed.

Most of the fermented foods are plants that grow on their own in the wild and are often considered weeds in cropped and cultivated land. These include amaranths, Bidens pilosa, cleome and Corchorus species. The increased availability of African indigenous foods could expand the range of commercially available fermented African foods.

Fatalities and injuries during the period more than doubled compared to the previous quarter, with over 1,300 deaths and more than 400 injuries reported. February was the deadliest month, with security personnel accounting for 58% of fatalities, civilians 41%, and aid workers 1%.

According to the United Nations, over the years, thousands of children, some as young as six years old, have been manipulated, indoctrinated and coerced into joining armed groups. Many of these children have fought against peacekeeping troops in Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo and US-led coalition soldiers in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia.

This win follows a dramatic stalemate in February during the AU Summit in Addis Ababa, where Morocco and Algeria locked horns in a contest that ended in mutual sabotage.

Africa's leading gold producer is shifting away from a system in which local and foreign companies with export licences can buy and export gold from artisanal or small-scale mining. Under the new system, the newly created gold board known as GoldBod is the only entity allowed to buy, sell, assay and export artisanal gold, Monday's statement said, and older licences have ceased to be valid.

The masterplan has been drawn up so that it aligns with South Africa’s existing national target of adding 3–5 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity each year to 2030.

African countries, which have contributed least to global climate change, are pressured to assume greater responsibility with little international support.

A week after seizing power in 2023, Nguema publicly dressed down the heads of public agencies, ordering them to return any stolen money within 48 hours.

Most farmers in central regions said they were worried as plantations had not yet received enough moisture in the crucial month of April to help beans reach market-ready size and quality.

The well-known maxim that “prevention is better than cure” holds not just for health outcomes but also for economic efficiency.

The sources said Hamas had stuck to its position that any agreement must lead to an end to the war in Gaza.

Jonas' new posting comes at a time when Pretoria and Washington have been drifting diplomatically, especially under Trump's renewed "America First" foreign policy stance.

Under a constitution approved last November, Nguema's election win gives him a seven-year term, renewable once.

The Palestinian foreign ministry and Hamas condemned the attack at Al-Ahli, and said in a statement that Israel was destroying Gaza's healthcare system.

The married singers, who met when she was 18 and he 21, took traditional Mali music and blended it with western rock and many other influences to shape a whole new sound that was both rich and playful.

South Africans have long been accustomed to viewing the world of politics, governance and bureaucracy through the lens of a top-down “strong” state – a vicious apartheid state, an East Asia style developmental state, or a collusive “predatory state”.

Last week, the Trump administration announced tariffs of 21%, the highest in West Africa, on the Ivory Coast as part of higher targeted duties on dozens of countries.

The conversations took place over separate video calls on Thursday in which China discussed strengthening bilateral economic and trade cooperation with Saudi Arabia and South Africa.

G20 members account for 85% of global GDP, 75% of international trade, and two-thirds of the world’s population.

There are between 25 million and 40 million Fulani people across 17 African countries, from the Atlantic shores of Senegal and Mauritania to Sudan.

Brice Oligui Nguema, now the transitional president, staged a coup against Ali Bongo in August 2023. Oligui Nguema and his military junta promised to return power to civilians at the end of a two-year military transition.

Following the August 30, 2023 coup, the PSC, during its 1172nd session, suspended Gabon from all AU activities until constitutional order is restored.

The UAE has repeatedly dismissed the filing of the case as a political game and have argued the ICJ, also known as the World Court, has no legal power to hear Sudan's claim and asked judges to throw out the case.

The deceased included a popular singer, a provincial governor, and former Major League Baseball pitcher Octavio Dotel, authorities said.

Even before the aid cuts led by the United States, things were backsliding in some countries, and progress has slowed globally since 2016, the report said.

"Collective action will be taken," it said, pointing to an emergency meeting of its Council of Ministers slated for June.

The New York Times exposé, published on April 4, exposed how some Kenyans working in the Gulf state were subjected to abuse, with embassy officials reportedly demanding sexual favors in exchange for assistance.

The UAE says it is cooperating with Washington and conducting its own probe into the entities and individuals involved.

Avraham Neguise, a former Likud lawmaker appointed as ambassador in August 2024, was asked to leave following protests from several AU member states.

Nguema, who initially promised to hand back power to civilians, declared himself head of the transitional government and last month announced his candidacy for Saturday's vote.

In contrast to Western rap, the mother figure is central in Tunisian rap.

The 15 paramedics and emergency responders were shot dead on March 23 and buried in a shallow grave where their bodies were found a week later by officials from the United Nations and the Palestinian Red Crescent. Another man is still missing.

Rwandan High Commissioner to Kenya Ambassador Martin Ngoga termed the day as a period of profound sorrow and deep reflection not just for Rwandans but for humanity as a whole.

Coventry shows how sport can temporarily transcend racial divides and how politics reframes those divides. Her whiteness was palatable only because it was non-threatening, even useful. For ordinary white Zimbabweans, especially farmers, no such reprieve existed.

Across all 17 countries, the proportion of MPs who are either Muslim or Christian closely resembles their electorates. They are also similar at the level of religious denomination (for example, Catholic, Methodist or Pentecostal).

Their 2004 album "Dimanche a Bamako" (Sunday in Bamako) put them on the international map and the 2008 release "Welcome To Mali" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album.

United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher spent Friday night in Myanmar's second-biggest city, Mandalay, near the epicentre of the quake, posting on X that humanitarian and community groups had led the response to the quake with "courage, skill and determination".

During a period from about 14,500 to 5,000 years ago, it was a lush green savannah rich in bodies of water and teeming with life.

East Africa’s projection is an upgrade from 4.4 per cent in the previous year, with the lender backing agriculture and services sectors as the main drivers of the growth.

Humanitarian workers have been targeted, and critical infrastructure, such as medical facilities and shelters, has been destroyed.

President Donald Trump's administration pulled out of the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change for the second time earlier this year and also withdrew from clean energy partnerships it had signed with countries like South Africa.

Despite significant efforts and progress over the years, the continent continues to face serious challenges in mine action, including the effects of IED attacks in the areas affected by terror incidents.