Politics

  Tripoli / AFP More than 60,000 people have fled South Sudan since violence escalated in the oil-producing nation about four weeks ago, amid reports of gunmen killing civilians, looting villages and forcibly recruiting youths, the United Nations said. The number of refugees seeking shelter in Uganda has doubled in the past 10 days, with more than 52,000 arriving since ...

  Lagos / AFP Five rebels were killed as Nigerian troops thwarted a Boko Haram attack near the northeastern city of Maiduguri, the epicentre of the seven-year insurgency, the army said on Tuesday. “Troops of Operation LAFIYA DOLE accompanied by Civilian JTF successfully thwarted an attempt by Boko Haram terrorists on Yauri community at the outskirts of Maiduguri city, Borno ...

  Geneva / AFP Global migrant deaths have topped 4,000 in the first seven months of this year, a 26-percent increase in the fatality rate compared with the same period of 2015, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday. The total of 4,027 migrant deaths this year includes those who perished crossing the Mediterranean as well as others who ...

  Tripoli / AFP Forces loyal to Libya’s unity government have advanced inside the extremist stronghold of Sirte, they said on Tuesday, following the first US air strikes on IS group positions in the city. Fighters backing the Government of National Accord (GNA) seized the central district of Al-Dollar after clashes that killed five of their members and wounded 17, ...

  Pretoria / AFP The Syrian regime’s key ally Russia launched heavy air strikes overnight on the outskirts of divided Aleppo city, slowing a “last-chance” assault by rebels seeking to break a government siege. The assault began on Sunday and is intended to ease the encirclement of the opposition-held east of Aleppo city, where an estimated 250,000 residents have been ...

  Morelia/ AFP A Mexican mayor and four police officers were arrested in connection with the murder of 10 people whose bodies were burned, officials said, in the latest scandal involving the country’s security forces. The victims were found in a charred pickup truck in the western state of Michoacan on Saturday. The authorities initially believed the vehicle had exploded ...

  Beirut / AFP Five people on board a Russian military helicopter were killed on Monday when it was shot down over Syria, in the single deadliest incident for Moscow since it intervened in the war. The attack came as Syrian opposition fighters and their extremist allies battled government forces outside Aleppo in a bid to ease the regime’s siege ...

  Malé / AFP The Maldives brushed off warnings from Western governments on Monday that a new defamation bill risked undermining basic freedoms on the troubled honeymoon islands, accusing its critics of hypocrisy. After a joint statement from Western missions urging President Abdulla Yameen’s administration to “return to the path of democracy”, the government countered that the same countries had ...

  Baghdad / AFP One of the deadliest bombings to ever hit Iraq killed 323 people, two thirds of whom needed DNA testing to identify, the health minister said, raising an earlier toll from last month’s attack. A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-rigged minibus in a crowded shopping area in Baghdad’s Karrada district early on July 3, sparking infernos in ...

  Istanbul / AFP Turkey summoned a senior German diplomat on Monday, a day after a rally in Cologne in support of the Turkish president who was not permitted to address the crowd by video link. The coup aimed to unseat President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who has since launched a sweeping nationwide purge of suspected Gulen supporters, dismissing tens of ...