WORLD

After two terms under Buhari, Africa's most populous nation is grappling with widespread insecurity from different armed groups, high inflation and growing poverty.

More than 93 million Nigerians are registered to vote on Saturday in what has developed into a tense, competitive race among three presidential frontrunners for the first time since military rule ended in 1999.

On Friday, Zelensky will hold a news conference to mark the bitter milestone, while commemorations will be held across the country.

Biden arrived in the southern African country on Wednesday in the first stop of a two-nation tour aimed at deepening ties with the continent.

Blinken said that he understood the reasons for South Africa's ties with Russia while acknowledging regret for Washington's "sympathetic" approach to the apartheid-era regime in South Africa.

A senatorial candidate from Nigeria's opposition Labour Party was killed late on Wednesday by unknown gunmen in southeastern Enugu State, a local party official said on Thursday, the latest violent incident ahead of a momentous national election.

Garaad Jama Garaad Ali, a senior clan chief, had said on Wednesday that 150 people had been killed and 500 wounded.

An informal group of international bondholders has proposed to Ethiopia's government to extend the maturity of the country's $1 billion eurobond issue coming due in 2024, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Yevgeny Prigozhin's unprecedented call on Russians to take his side in a high-profile conflict with the defence ministry came ahead of the first anniversary of Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine.

Starting March 1, "businesses will be able to reduce their taxable income by 125 percent of the cost of an investment in renewables," Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said as he presented his annual budget to parliament.

In a short address to the tens of thousands gathered at Moscow's main Luzhniki stadium, Putin also praised Russian servicemen in Ukraine who are "fighting heroically, courageously, bravely: we are proud of them".

In a country where most people rely on cash for everything from taxi fares to buying food from markets, the shortages of naira bills has riled citizens, some of whom have attacked banks and burned cash-dispensing machines.

More than 70 women working in the plantations in Kenya's Rift Valley told an undercover investigation by the BBC that they had been sexually abused by their supervisors for years.

Ukraine has pushed for several months for the creation of the tribunal to hold responsible those behind Russia's invasion of the country one year ago.

Waving Russian flags, the crowd cheered as President Vladimir Putin made a hotly anticipated appearance on stage and delivered a short speech saying Russia was fighting for its "historical lands" in Ukraine.

In papers filed with a New York state court in Manhattan, James accused CoinEx of having "engaged in repeated and persistent fraudulent practices."

"It's a big mistake to do that. Not very responsible. But I don't read into that that he's thinking of using nuclear weapons or anything like that," Biden told ABC News in an interview.

After giving Buhari two chances, Abubakar said he has given up hope his ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party can deliver and will cast his ballot elsewhere in Saturday's presidential election.

In the Central African Republic, the world's second least developed country and ravaged by civil conflict since 2013, sexual violence against women, children and even men is constantly rising, says Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

Marking one year of war, Ukraine and Russia lobbied countries at the United Nations on Wednesday for backing ahead of a vote by the 193-member General Assembly that the United States declared will "go down in history."

Rates fell significantly between 2000 and 2015 but largely stagnated between 2016 and 2020 -- and in some regions have even reversed, the UN said.

The Washington-based development lender will begin accepting candidate nominations on Thursday, a process that will run until March 29.

All three candidates have made roughly similar promises to tackle these issues.

In January, UN chief Antonio Guterres said in a report that 165 peacekeepers had died and 687 were wounded in hostile acts since July 2013.

The deals will unlock "untapped potential to be uncovered and exploited," the EU ambassador to Kenya, Henriette Geiger, said at the start of a two-day business forum in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

Uganda's first oil is expected to flow in 2025 -- almost two decades after reserves were discovered in one of the world's most biodiverse regions.

Thousands of people gathered inside the Lagos Teslim Balogun sports complex in the city centre, providing a raucous climax to Tinubu's nationwide road tour four days before election day.

Jihadist insurgents in Mali began launching cross-border incursions on the landlocked Sahel state more than seven years ago.

Yevgeny Prigozhin's private fighting force, which has recruited from prisons across Russia to bolster its ranks, is playing a key role in the offensive for the city of Bakhmut in east Ukraine.