The West African bloc ECOWAS will likely decide on Friday whether to lift potentially crippling sanctions imposed on Mali after last month’s coup, its mediator said. The mediator, Nigerian former president Goodluck Jonathan, called the 15-nation bloc’s sanctions “unfortunate” during a visit to Mali’s capital Bamako on Wednesday. West African leaders have heaped pressure on […]

Mali faces mountainous economic and political challenges more than a month after the military coup that toppled president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, analysts say. Plagued by graft and poverty, the Sahel state was already battling a severe downturn, aggravated by a jihadist insurgency and ethnic violence, when the military seized control on August 18. Mali is […]

The trial of ousted Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir and others for a 1989 military coup was adjourned on Tuesday to October 6, the presiding judge said. Proceedings have been repeatedly delayed, with Tuesday’s hearing the fifth since the trial opened in July. The case involves a total of 28 defendants who stand accused of plotting […]

Cameroon’s opposition leader, Maurice Kamto, has been confined at home for planning Tuesday’s anti-government protests. A video showing police vehicles outside the leader’s house has been shared online. The leader of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM) told Voice of America that he was neither beaten nor detained, but feared that he would be arrested if […]

Germany does not recognise Alexander Lukashenko as the president of Belarus, a government spokesman said Wednesday, saying his disputed re-election lacked “democratic legitimacy”. “The minimum requirements for democratic elections were by no means met. They were neither fair nor free. One can therefore not recognise the result of this vote,” said Steffen Seibert after Lukashenko […]