ACCRA - Ghana's main opposition party has boycotted the swearing-in ceremony of President John Mahama following last month's disputed elections. The New Patriotic Party (NPP) said Mr Mahama won the election fraudulently. Official results gave Mr Mahama 50.7% of the vote,...

ACCRA - Ghanaian President John Mahama is due to be sworn into office following a disputed election victory last month. Mr Mahama, who became acting president in July, has called for unity ahead of the inauguration, appealing to rivals who contested...

ABIDJAN - A New Year’s Eve fireworks display in Ivory Coast turned from celebration to tragedy when 60 people most of them women and children were crushed to death in a stampede, officials said. Interior minister Hamed Bakayoko said another 40...

JOHANNESBURG - The South African government has sought to clarify remarks by President Jacob Zuma that angered dog lovers. Mr Zuma was quoted as saying at a rally on Wednesday that having pet dogs was part of white - not African...

CAIRO - Egypt's former President Hosni Mubarak has been treated in a military hospital after slipping and injuring his head, state media say. Mubarak fell in a prison toilet last Friday, injuring his head and bruising his chest, Mena news agency...

BLOEMFONTEIN - The ANC announced the results of its leadership elections at its national elective conference at the University of the Free State campus in Mangaung on Tuesday afternoon. President Jacob Zuma won an overwhelming majority of votes to retain his...

HARARE - The African National Congress (ANC) is set for a senior leadership tussle in Mangaung next week, with Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe taking on President Jacob Zuma for the party’s top position. Thabo Masebe, spokesman for Mr Motlanthe, confirmed on...

HARARE - Former South African President Nelson Mandela, who is 94 and has been in hospital since Saturday for tests, has suffered a recurrence of a lung infection but is responding to treatment, the government said on Tuesday. The revered anti-apartheid...

JOHANNESBURG - A military plane carrying 11 passengers has crashed in South Africa's mountainous east. The plane, which had been travelling from Pretoria to Mthatha, went missing on Wednesday but the initial search was abandoned due to poor weather. The wreckage...

HARARE - The Egyptian army has deployed tanks and armoured troop carriers outside the presidential palace in Cairo after clashes between supporters and opponents of President Mohammed Morsi. The streets of the capital are now reported to be calm following the...

JOHANNESBURG - The African National Congress (ANC) must emerge from its national conference in Mangaung as a restored party with a committed leadership, says the South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Blade Nzimande. “We believe that the Mangaung conference can...

CAIRO - Backers of Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi are to hold a mass rally to support his sweeping new powers and the drafting of a constitution opponents say is too Islamist. The demonstration in Cairo comes after days of rival protests...

THE HAGUE - The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Simone Gbagbo, the wife of Ivory Coast's ex-President Laurent Gbagbo. She is wanted for alleged crimes against humanity committed in the wake of disputed presidential elections in 2010....

CAIRO - More than 20 Egyptian rights groups have called on President Mohammed Mursi to withdraw the decree granting himself extensive new powers. The 22 groups signed an open letter saying the president "has dealt a lethal blow to the Egyptian...

FREETOWN - Sierra Leone's incumbent president won re-election and was sworn in for a second term, pledging to boost the economy of the nation scarred by years of civil war. President Ernest Koroma got nearly 59% of the vote, beating his...

KINSHASA - The UN Security Council has backed a resolution calling for sanctions against leaders of rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The resolution, adopted unanimously, came hours after the M23 rebels seized the strategic eastern city of Goma. The...

FREETOWN - Polls have opened in Sierra Leone in its third general election since the 1991-2002 civil war, which killed more than 50,000 people. More than 2.5 million of the country's six million citizens are expected to cast their vote for...

BANGUI - The president of Central African Republic is reported to have ordered the detention of his own son for refusing to pay a large hotel bill. Police detained Francois Bozize's son for several days after he ran up a bill...

HARARE - The first banknotes featuring the face of Nelson Mandela have gone into circulation in South Africa. They are the first South African notes to bear the image of a black person - they replace notes with wild animals and...

BLANTYRE - Malawi suspended laws against same-sex relationships on Monday and ordered police not to arrest gays pending a decision on whether to repeal the legislation, a source of friction with the impoverished southern African nation’s donors. Homosexuality is banned in...

LAGOS - Dozens of young men have been shot dead in Nigeria by the military in Maiduguri, residents in the north-eastern city have told the BBC. An imam told the BBC about 11 youths from his street alone were killed, including...

HARARE - South Africans should stop calling the ANC corrupt because that was simply not true, President Jacob Zuma said on Friday. Zuma was addressing a rally organised by the SA Unemployed Workers Union (Sauwu) in East London, the Weekend Post...

JOHANNESBURG - Police officers have been implicated  in the Johannesburg prison truck explosion in which three people died  and 15 were injured, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate  said yesterday. “Investigations are still under way, but we have  established that police officers...

ZAMFARA - Gunmen have killed 20 people, including a traditional leader, in an attack on a village in northern Nigeria's Zamfara state, a local official has said. The attackers stormed Kaboro village and began shooting indiscriminately. Their motive was robbery and...