Latest West Africa News

Gunmen kill at least 20 in village in eastern Burkina Faso

Aug. 7, 2020 4:31 PM EDT

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — Gunmen stormed a cattle market and opened fire in an eastern Burkina Faso village Friday, killing at least 20 people and injuring many others, a local government official said. The attack in Namoungou village is being investigated, said Saidou Sanou, the governor of the...

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara, left, greets members of his government before a short ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the independence of Ivory Coast from France in Abidjan Friday Aug. 7, 2020. Ouattara announced earlier that he had accepted the ruling party's nomination and will run for a third presidential term in Octobre. (AP Photo/Diomande Ble Blonde)

Ivory Coast president to run for 3rd term amid objections

Aug. 7, 2020 11:12 AM EDT

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara says he has accepted the ruling party’s nomination and will run for a third term in October. Ouattara announced the decision Thursday night on the eve of Ivory Coast’s 60th anniversary of independence from France. The ruling...

27 dead after migrant boat capsizes off West African coast

Aug. 7, 2020 7:49 AM EDT

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — At least 27 people died when a boat carrying migrants capsized off the West African coast between Mauritania and Western Sahara, United Nations agencies said Friday. More than 40 were initially feared dead on Thursday, according to initial reports by the U.N. refugee agency. One...

This Aug. 19, 2019 photo photo provided by Soha Saade,, shows Soha and her husband Jihad with their children Gemma and Karl, in Miziara, north of Lebanon. Jihad died in his wife's hands while staying with their sick six-year-old daughter at a hospital in a massive explosion that devastated Beirut Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2020. (Soha Saade via AP)

'The world exploded': Beirut blast takes a husband, father

Aug. 7, 2020 7:27 AM EDT

BEIRUT (AP) — Soha Saade had not seen her husband since Christmas. The coronavirus pandemic had kept 44-year-old Jihad in Nigeria, where he worked far from his family in Beirut. Once travel restrictions eased, he flew home with a new sense of urgency: His 6-year old had been diagnosed with Hodgkin...

Recently filled graves are seen in the Olifantsveil Cemetery outside Johannesburg, South Africa, Wednesday Aug. 5, 2020. The frequency of burials in South Africa has significantly increased during the coronavirus pandemic, as the country became one of the top five worst-hit nation. New infection numbers around the world are a reminder that a return to normal life is still far from sight. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

Africa passes 1M confirmed virus cases; true number far more

Aug. 7, 2020 3:53 AM EDT

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Africa’s confirmed coronavirus cases have surpassed 1 million, but global health experts say the true toll is likely several times higher, reflecting the gaping lack of testing for the continent’s 1.3 billion people. While experts say infection tolls in richer nations can...

Cemetery workers bury 65-year-old Maria Joana Nascimento, whose family members, behind, suspect died of COVID-19, at Vila Formosa cemetery in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020. Brazil is nearing 3 million cases of COVID-19 and 100,000 deaths. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

The Latest: UN says cybercrime hindering pandemic response

Aug. 7, 2020 12:00 AM EDT

UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations’ counterterrorism chief says a 350% increase in phishing websites was reported in the first quarter of the year and many of them targeted hospitals and health care systems, hindering their response to the coronavirus pandemic. Vladimir Voronkov told the U.N....

An investigator stands in the doorway of a home in suburban Denver on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020, where five people were found dead after a fire. Three people escaped the fire by jumping from the home's second floor. Investigators believe the victims were a toddler, an older child and three adults. Authorities suspect was intentionally set. Witnesses told firefighters that three people on the second floor of the burning home jumped to safety. A fire department spokesman said the fire's heat pushed back a police officer trying to rescue the people who were on the home's first floor. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)

Senegal president offers condolences to Denver fire victims

Aug. 6, 2020 8:05 PM EDT

DENVER (AP) — The president of Senegal offered his condolences on Thursday after five people who immigrated to Colorado from the West African country were killed in a suburban Denver house fire that authorities say they suspect was intentionally set. President Macky Sall tweeted in French that he was also...

Dozens feared dead after boat capsizes off Mauritania coast

Aug. 6, 2020 11:48 AM EDT

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Dozens are feared dead after a boat carrying migrants sank off Mauritania’s coast, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency. Approximately 40 people were on board the vessel that sank off the coast of Nouadhibou, Mauritania, U.N. Refugee Agency Special Envoy for the Central...

In this photo distributed by Colombia's Attorney Generals Office, officials pose with their backs to the camera by a pool on a property allegedly belonging to Alex Saab in Barranquilla, Colombia, Wednesday, July 22, 2020. Authorities seized a luxury mansion allegedly belonging to the businessman detained in Cape Verde on U.S. corruption charges related to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. (Colombia's Attorney Generals Office via AP)

Court OKs extradition of man linked to Venezuela's Maduro

Aug. 4, 2020 10:24 AM EDT

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A court in the West African nation of Cape Verde has approved the extradition to the United States of a Colombian businessman wanted on suspicion of money laundering on behalf of Venezuela's socialist government, his lawyers said Tuesday. The court made the decision to extradite...

Muslim worshippers offer Eid al-Adha prayer at a park as mosques are limited for ten people following the government's measures to help stop the spread of the coronavirus, in the mixed Arab Jewish city of Jaffa, near Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, July 31, 2020. This is the first Feast of Sacrifice since the onset of the global coronavirus pandemic. The major Muslim holiday, at the end of the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, is observed around the world by believers and commemorates prophet Abraham's pledge to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Final days of hajj and Eid festival impacted by coronavirus

Jul. 31, 2020 7:01 PM EDT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Small groups of people performed one of the final rites of the Islamic hajj on Friday as Muslims worldwide marked the start of the Eid al-Adha holiday amid a global pandemic that has impacted nearly every aspect of this year's pilgrimage and celebrations. The last days...

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