Conflict
Wednesday, August 14, 2013 - 08:31
Reports are circulating that militants killed dozens of people in northeastern Nigeria during the weekend, most of whom were praying at a mosque. Some analysts said the insurgent group Boko Haram could be trying to warn civilians not to cooperate with authorities.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013 - 08:30
What began as dawn prayers at a mosque in northeastern Nigeria ended in a gruesome massacre Sunday as militants brandishing automatic weapons killed 44 worshipers in the country's troubled Borno state.
It's not clear who's behind the attack, but many Nigerians will suspect that the militant group Boko Haram, which has wreaked havoc in the region for several years, are the perpetrators.
The Nigerian government is struggling to control the bloodshed between the mainly Muslim north and Christian south that has claimed at least 2,800 lives since Boko Haram came to prominence in 2009, according to Human Rights Watch.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013 - 07:56
More than 100,000 children in the Central African Republic are facing sexual abuse and recruitment into armed groups, Save the Children has warned.
The children have been forced to flee their homes following the overthrow of the government by a rebel alliance in March this year, the charity says.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013 - 07:45
The United Nations in Congo arrested more than 40 rebels in recent days and recovered scores of firearms, in a crackdown aimed at enforcing a security zone around the flashpoint city of Goma, officials said Monday.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013 - 07:15
Nigeria's interior minister has said the army is making progress in the war against Boko Haram militants, despite the killing of 44 people in a mosque.
Abba Moro dismissed the attack as "desperate" and "isolated".
"The security agencies of Nigeria have been able to push the Boko Haram sect from their major strongholds," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.
Nigeria has declared an emergency in three states after thousands of deaths in militant attacks in recent years.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - 09:02
Spokesperson Marie Harf addresses the Al Qaeda threat in the Middle East, U.S. cooperation with Yemen, Deputy Secretary Burns' Meetings in Egypt, the U.S. position on Israeli settlements, and Zimbabwe's elections.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - 08:21
The Islamic extremist from Minnesota smiles as he compares Somalia to Disneyland, urging other Muslims to come and "take pleasure in this fun."
But Troy Kastigar, one of three fighters featured in a nearly 40-minute Internet video recently released by the Somali extremist rebel group al-Shabab, was killed in 2009, not long after leaving Minneapolis to join the militants' bloody campaign to seize power in Somalia. At the time al-Shabab held sway in large parts of the capital, Mogadishu, and was fighting African Union troops sent to back the transitional government there.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - 07:43
There is little discernible economic infrastructure on the 635km drive from Mali’s capital, Bamako, to the central town of Mopti, except for speed bumps and checkpoints where local vendors congregate to target vehicles as they slow. Rusted signs and faded banners from international donors dot the scrubland, advertising development projects either long abandoned or never undertaken.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - 07:30
At least 44 worshippers have been shot dead at a mosque in northeastern Nigeria, officials in Borno state say.
The killings took place during dawn prayers on Sunday, although news only emerged on Monday, as communications are disrupted by a state of emergency.
The attack occurred in the town of Konduga, 35km (22 miles) from the state capital, Maiduguri.
Monday, August 12, 2013 - 11:48
Nigerian ironworker Ba Kaka initially felt sympathy for Boko Haram's violent uprising against a state he and many others saw as corrupt, un-Islamic and kowtowing to Western ideology.
But as deaths mounted in the Islamist sect's bloody campaign against state institutions, security services, Christians and even school children in northeast Nigeria, he began to see them as a threat to his life and livelihood.