The number of forest fires in the Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetlands, has nearly tripled in 2020 compared to the same period last year, according to satellite data released Thursday. Brazil’s national space agency identified 3,506 fires from January 1 to July 22 in the Pantanal.

Bandits riding motorbikes killed 20 villagers in a string of attacks in Niger's western region of Tillaberi, the governor there tells AFP.

The Nigerian president's chief of staff, Abba Kyari, died after contracting the new coronavirus, two presidency spokesmen says on Twitter.

South Africa on Friday reported its first two deaths from the novel coronavirus outbreak as the number of confirmed cases breached the 1,000 mark, the government says.

Nigeria reports the first new coronavirus case in sub-Saharan Africa, as global stock markets tank on deepening fears of a pandemic and the World Health Organization warn against the "fatal mistake" of complacency.

The death toll from Lassa fever in Nigeria since the beginning of January has risen to 41 as cases were confirmed in more regions, Nigeria’s disease control agency said.

At least four people were killed and 10 wounded when a car bomb exploded close to a checkpoint near Somalia’s parliament in the capital Mogadishu yesterday, police said.

At least 90 people were killed and dozens were wounded when a bomb-laden vehicle exploded at a bustling checkpoint in the Somali capital Mogadishu, an international organisation working in the country says, in one of the most deadly recent attacks.

South Sudan President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar yesterday agreed to form a unity government by a February deadline, as they face international censure over faltering peace talks.

Brazil’s negotiators already face a tough job at United Nations climate talks, given anger at President Jair Bolsonaro’s stance on the Amazon, but it has become doubly difficult as they are in the dark on their own government’s aims.

At least 27 people are killed, including some on the ground, when a small plane crashed into a densely populated neighbourhood in the city of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday, a rescue official says.

At least 55 elephants have died in a month in Zimbabwe due to a lack of food and water, its wildlife agency said Monday, as the country faces one of the worst droughts in its history.

Police in northern Nigeria have rescued 147 people from an Islamic boarding school where the students were being abused, the fourth such raid in a month, a local official told AFP.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed wins the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for his peacemaking efforts with Eritrea. Ethiopia and Eritrea, longtime foes who fought a border war from 1998 to 2000, restored relations in July 2018 after years of hostility.

Efforts to halt an Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo have made “significant progress”, with the virus now contained to a far smaller and mainly rural area, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday.

Portugal yesterday voted with Prime Minister Antonio Costa’s Socialists tipped to win a second straight term after presiding over a period of solid economic growth following years of austerity.

At least 25 Malian soldiers have been killed and about 60 are missing after jihadists attacked two military posts in the country’s fragile central region, the Malian government said yesterday.

The Al-Shabaab militant group claimed responsibility for an attack on a US base in Somalia yesterday, as the European Union confirmed a separate strike against a convoy of Italian advisers.

Eight people have died from cholera in Sudan including six in the war-torn state of Blue Nile, according to the World Health Organisation, amid a surge in the number of reported cases. A total of 184 cases of cholera have been reported in the northeast African country over the

Seven children died and scores were injured early yesterday when a school building collapsed in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, in an accident blamed on shoddy construction. “So far we can confirm that we have seven fatalities,” government spokesman Cyrus Oguna said