AFP news

UNICEF says child marriages, which are illegal in Ethiopia, have more than doubled in the country's four hardest-hit regions in the first six months of 2022 compared to the previous year.

At least 25,000 people have been reported missing in northeastern Nigeria since the bloody conflict with jihadist groups began -- more than half of them children -- according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The record outages have piled misery on a population of 60 million already battling high unemployment, poverty, rampant crime and rising cost of living.

London used the announcement of the visit to say that it would offer fighter jet training to Ukraine as Western allies debate how much military aid to give Kyiv amid warnings of an impending Russian offensive in the east.

Young men from Sierra Leone, Guinea and even distant Nigeria have flocked to Diamniadio, lured by the vision of a decent job and pay in a stable currency.

The devastation is overwhelming. Eight apartment buildings more than 10 storeys high in one area of the city centre collapsed during the first quake that hit before dawn.

France and Germany are among world powers that have rushed to pledge help after the massive 7.8-magnitude quake on early Monday.

The German, Dutch and Danish defence ministries also said training and support would be sent for the Leopard 1 tanks, ahead of the delivery of more advanced tanks in the future.

Former Newcastle midfielder Atsu, 31, joined Turkish Super Lig side Hatayspor in September, based in the southern province of Hatay near the epicentre of Monday's massive quake.

The violence broke out on Monday between government forces and armed militias in the contested town of Las Anod in the self-declared republic.

Lavrov, who was in Iraq on Monday, was welcomed upon his arrival by his counterpart Abdoulaye Diop. The two men did not make any statements to journalists.

The visit of less than 24 hours will be Lavrov's third trip to Africa since July, part of a bid to expand Russia's presence on the continent amid broad international isolation since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine last year.

ChatGPT, created by San Francisco company OpenAI, has caused a sensation for its ability to write essays, poems or programming code on demand within seconds, sparking widespread fears of cheating or of entire professions becoming obsolete.

Meta sought to have the case struck down, arguing that the local employment and labour relations court had no jurisdiction over it because it is neither based in nor trades in Kenya.

So far Ghana has escaped a direct attack, but it is already tackling the economic and social fallout from the conflict to its north.

Plans for the sponsorship, said to be worth almost one-billion-rand ($58 million), were first reported by South African newspaper the Daily Maverick.

Candidates have traded accusations of blame over the shortages with the ruling party hopeful even suggesting his enemies had manufactured the crisis to undermine his election chances.

Nicknamed Africa's Che Guevara, Thomas Sankara was a fiery Marxist-Leninist who blasted the West for neo-colonialism and hypocrisy.

Abiy's national security adviser Redwan Hussein said on Twitter that the prime minister and other officials met a TPLF delegation "regarding the progress of the peace process".

Paris confirmed last month that the special forces troops, deployed to help fight a years-long jihadist insurgency, would leave within a month.

Officials meanwhile recovered the bodies of two British volunteers, killed trying to help evacuate people from the eastern warzone.

In eyewitness video posted to social media, the balloon appeared to disintegrate in a white puff before its remnants dropped vertically into the ocean below.

The talks were hosted in Burundi by the seven-nation East Africa Community (EAC), which is leading mediation efforts to end the fighting in the vast central African nation.

Large crowds of ecstatic worshippers had gathered in the capital Juba to see the 86-year-old pontiff.

The killings sparked international condemnation and accusations of war crimes, which Moscow has repeatedly denied.

"An Oryx helicopter came under fire in Goma, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Sunday February 5, 2023," the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) said in a statement.

The decision comes after a Malian rights activist last month denounced the security situation in the country in a speech to a UN gathering, and accused the regime's new Russian military partners of serious rights violations.

Peace has eluded South Sudan in statehood too, with a five-year civil war leaving 380,000 people dead, four million displaced, and the young country deeply impoverished.

Weeks ahead of a presidential election in Africa's most populous country, frustrations are growing among Nigerians who are struggling to get hold of cash after a redesign of the local naira currency.