REPRESENTATIVES of Cameroon's government held talks this week with the main leaders of an Anglophone separatist insurgency for the first time since the conflict began in 2017, a separatist leader and two security sources have said. Julius Ayuk Tabe, the most prominent separatist leader who is currently serving a life sentence in prison for charges including terrorism, said the meeting took place on Thursday to discuss the possibility of a ceasefire. Violence broke out in 2017 following a government crackdown on peaceful protests by Anglophone lawyers and teachers who complained of being marginalised by the French-speaking majority. The fighting has…

AN explosion shook parts of the Somali capital of Mogadishu early today as a suicide car bomber drove into a checkpoint just outside the port, witnesses said, but police made no immediate comment on casualties. "Metal debris fell all over us inside the port and we heard gunfire," said a port worker who sought anonymity for security reasons. "Security forces have surrounded the area." The blast shook the ground, said Mohammed Ali, a shopkeeper in the area. At the city's Madina hospital, a nurse, Halima Nur, said it had received five people injured in the blast for treatment. Somalia has…

BRIAN BENZA and ALEXANDER WINNING BOTSWANA’S top wildlife vet has dismissed accusations from some conservationists that the government had not moved quickly enough to investigate the unexplained deaths of at least 275 elephants. Authorities said they were still trying to find out what killed the elephants around two months after the first carcasses were spotted in the Okavango Panhandle region. Widely-published pictures of the bodies triggered an international outcry, and some campaign groups raised questions about why tests results had not come through. "A government investigating team has been on the ground since the first cases were reported," Mmadi Reuben,…

KIM HARRISBERG RESPONDING to outrage over South African police dragging a naked man from his shack to demolish it, a government watchdog said on Thursday that it will go to court to challenge such evictions. In a video that went viral, four policemen grappled with Bulelani Qholani and pushed him to the ground as they destroyed his tiny home while he was bathing on Wednesday in Cape Town's Khayelitsha township. The officers have been suspended. "We plan to act fast to take this matter to court and stop further evictions from taking place under lockdown," Tseliso Thipanyane, head of the…

DAWIT ENDESHAW and KUMERRA GUMECHU TWO people were killed on Thursday as Ethiopian security forces scuffled with mourners trying to attend the stadium funeral of a singer whose shooting this week sparked protests in which more than 80 people died, hospital officials said. Haacaaluu Hundeessaa, 36, a member of the Oromo, Ethiopia's largest ethnic group, was shot dead in Addis Ababa on Monday by unknown gunmen. He was buried on Thursday at a church in Ambo, his home town about 100 km (60 miles) west of the capital. Haacaaluu's songs were a soundtrack to a generation of Oromo protesters whose…

OWN CORRESPONDENT DUBAI police have arrested 47 seven Africans - 10 women and 37 men - for luring men to apartments in Dubai and then extorting money from them. The police said the 47 individuals belong to 20 different small gangs who appear to have used the same modus operandi to attract clients and then extort money from them.  Police allege that the gangs used females on social media to attract their clients. They rented flats under fake IDs so that they would not get caught. Brigadier Jamal Al Jallaf, Director of CID at Dubai Police, said Operation Shadow was…

ASTRON Energy's 100,000 barrel per day refinery in Cape Town, South Africa, was hit by an explosion in the early hours of today, the company said, which a source said had killed at least two people and injured several more before the fire was brought under control. The fire at South Africa's third-biggest crude oil refinery started at around 4 a.m,  said Astron Energy, which is majority owned by commodities trader Glencore. "The resultant fire has been contained and all work on the plant has been suspended," said a spokeswoman. The Milnerton plant, which had been in the process of…

DAVID ENDESHAW and KUMERRA GUMECHU ETHIOPIAN police today fired in the air to prevent mourners entering a stadium for the funeral of singer Haacaaluu Hundeessaa, whose killing earlier this week sparked two days of protests that killed more than 80 people, residents said. Members of the military, federal police and regional police were out in force, and two residents said police were firing in the air to deter mourners from entering the stadium in the town of Ambo. A live broadcast showed sparse numbers of people seated inside. One resident said large crowds had been turned away by police. The…