Washington D.C., US (PANA) - The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has condemned the ongoing attacks and retaliations by Muslims and Christians in Nigeria’s violent, religiously and ethnically mixed Middle Belt, saying the incidents have left more than 100 dead and dozens of properties destroyed since March this year. Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - ECOWAS has announced plans to deploy 40 volunteers to Sierra Leone to support the country’s health and education sectors, according to a statement issued here Monday by the West African regional bloc. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The Nigerian military on Monday dismissed the threat by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) to bomb mosques and kill Muslim clerics in retaliation for the attacks against Christians in the northern part of the country by the Islamic sect Boko Haram. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - Amnesty International (AI) on Monday called on the UN Security Council and African Union (AU) to take immediate action to halt indiscriminate attacks in Sudan's Southern Kordofan region. Full text...

Tripoli, Libya (PANA) – The Libyan Telecommunications ministry has been empowered to cover the nation's air space by radar, according to the Libyan Chief of Air Staff, Colonel Jomaa al-Abani. Full text...

Accra, Ghana (PANA) – About 16 illegal miners, digging for gold in Ghana’s Central Region, are feared dead when the pit in which they were mining caved in on Monday morning, local radio stations reported. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - A four-day meeting of regional experts on education of girls and other vulnerable children is scheduled to start on Tuesday in Banjul, the capital of Gambia, under the auspices of the ECOWAS Girls’ education Programme. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres has called on the international community to increase its support for the alleviation of the Great Lakes region's humanitarian crisis. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigeria's umbrella group for oil militants has threatened to attack mosques, hajj camps, Islamic institutions, large Islamic congregations and Muslim clerics who propagate the doctrine of hate, in retaliation for the attacks against Christians in the predominantly-Muslim north by the Boko Haram Islamic sect. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The International Organization for Migration (IOM), in partnership with a group of 37 NGOs that make up the Libyan Consortium for Humanitarian and Legal Work, has begun targeted distribution of essential non-food relief items to displaced families (IDPs) living in camps around the country, particularly around the capital city of Tripoli. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said the adoption of a new media law by Burundi’s National Assembly on 3 April ''is an attempt to curtail free speech and independent journalism''. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Against renewed attacks in Nigeria's oil region by militants of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the Nigerian army has said it is ready to take on the militants. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The Nigerian Federal Government is beefing up security at the nation's land borders as a fallout from the rejection of its planned amnesty for the Islamist sect, Boko Haram, according to the local Nation newspaper. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Global anti-corruption organisation, Transparency International, has said it has no links with an organisation calling itself "Transparency in Nigeria (TIN)" and has written to the organisation demanding that it stops associating its work with Transparency International, its name and logo. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Friday said that more than 2,000 children had been recruited by forces in Central African Republic (CAR) since the latest wave of violence began in December. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The Geneva-based UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Friday that new tribal clashes in Sudan's Darfur region had driven about 50,000 refugees into Chad, describing the movement as "the largest number in years". Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) has opened a formal internal inquiry into allegations communicated by four individuals under the ICC’s protection programme that they had been subject to sexual abuse by a former ICC staff member working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a statement said on Friday. Full text...

Nouakchott, Mauritania (PANA) - The Italian government is to provide food aid worth 200,000 euros to Malian refugees at the M’Beri camp in East Mauritania, sources at the World Food Programme (WFP) office in Mauritania disclosed on Friday. Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) – Zambia’s former president Rupiah Banda, who on Tuesday was prevented from travelling to Kenya to attend President Uhuru Kenyatta’s inauguration, has expressed concern over the manner Zambian authorities defied a court order allowing him to travel to Kenya. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Gunmen suspected to be members of Nigeria's violent Islamic sect Boko Haram Thursday stormed a police station in Babangida village in northern Taraba state, killing four policemen, the state police commissioner said. Full text...

Luanda, Angola (PANA) - A replica of the Mama Muxima (Mother of the Heart) statute is being Full text...

Blantyre, Malawi (PANA) - The Malawi government has accused US pop diva Madonna of lying and blackmail following her controversial week-long tour to the southern African country. Full text...

Blantyre, Malawi (PANA) - The Malawi government has accused US pop diva Madonna of lying and blackmail following her controversial week-long tour to the southern African country. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) – The Gambia is playing host to the 53rd Ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) which started on Tuesday. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Full text...

Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) – A regional workshop on the programming strategies of the economic and social policies for intermediate countries with abundant natural resources opened Wednesday in Brazzaville. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - The African Union Commission (AUC) has condemned the killing of five UN peacekeepers and a number of civilians in an ambush by unknown gunmen in South Sudan, describing it as a cowardly attack. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, his Special Representative in South Sudan Hilde Johnson, and the UN Security Council on Tuesday strongly condemned the killing of at least 12 people working with the UN peacekeeping mission in Jonglei State. Full text...

Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) - Millions of South Africans were Wednesday marking the 20th anniversary of the assassinations of South African Communist Party leader Chris Hani, which dramatically reshaped the country’s history. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Pope Francis on Tuesday in Rome discussed what can be done to accelerate work to reduce poverty and advance economic development during a meeting in the Vatican. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The Geneva-based Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Tuesday called on the South Sudanese government to conduct an investigation into the violence that killed 85 people in Jonglei state. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - A man has been arrested in Nigeria for allegedly selling his baby son for 350,000 naira (US$2,258) so he could raise money to procure a visa to Greece, the local media reported Tuesday. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The main opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has condemned the arrest and detention of four journalists working for the private Leadership newspaper in the capital city of Abuja, and demanded their immediate and unconditional release. Full text...

Tripoli, Libya (PANA) – Assuring that his administration will address the current security challenges in the country, the Libyan Prime Minister, Ali Zeidan, said the government would put in place a strong security machinery for that purpose. Full text...

Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The Libyan Prime Minister, Ali Zeidan, declared Monday at a press conference here that the provisional government was bent on dealing with corruption, adding that "no concession will be made to perpetrators". Full text...

Brussels, Belgium (PANA) – The European Union (EU) has expressed its deep concern about the situation in Egypt in the wake of the religious violence in Cairo near the Saint-Marc Cathedral during the memorial service of two Christian members of the Coptic Church killed earlier. Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) - Zambia’s former president Rupiah Banda, currently on trial for his alleged involvement in an oil deal with Nigeria, was Tuesday forcefully prevented from boarding his flight to Kenya for the inauguration of Uhuru Kenyatta as President, despite a court order releasing his passport and an official notification to immigration authorities approving his trip, his lawyer said. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - US Millennium Challenge Corporation’s (MCC) Chief Executive Officer Daniel Yohannes Tuesday started a five-day on-site inspection tour of recently completed development projects under the MCC Compact with the Tanzanian government. Full text...

Port-Louis, Mauritius (PANA) – Some 30 demonstrators on Monday demanded the resignation of the Mauritian government, especially the Public Infrastructure minister, Anil Bachoo, following last weeks’ floods which claimed the lives of 11 people in Port Louis. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - Qatar has pledged to provide US$ 500 million for the rehabilitation of War-fatigued region of Darfur of western Sudan, out of the total sum of US$ 7.5 billion estimated to bring the area out of its current state of misery. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday condemned reports in the Kenyan media over the level of witness cooperation in cases relating to some public figures in the country. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) – The African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur has welcomed the peace agreement signed in Doha, Qatar, between the Government of the Sudan and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM-Sudan). Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - An ECOWAS delegation and officials of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and UNESCO have ended a three-day meeting in Dakar, Senegal, for the review of the regional Support to ECOWAS for Peace and Development Project (PADEP) funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB). Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The umbrella group for oil militants in Nigeria on Sunday claimed responsibility for the attack that killed 12 policemen at Azuzama in southern Ijaw, Nigeria's oil rich Bayelsa state, on Saturday. Full text...

Blantyre, Malawi (PANA) - Pop star Madonna left Malawi on Saturday night ending the most controversial tour in all the seven years she has been visiting the southern African country. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Gunmen killed 12 policemen in Nigeria's oil-rich state of Bayelsa on Friday night, the same day that the nation's oil militants said they would commence attacks in the oil region to protest the jailing of their leader, Henry Okah, by a South African court. Full text...

Accra, Ghana (PANA) - Ghanaian medical officers in government health facilities are poised to declare another strike as labour agitations continue to rock the West African country over demands for higher salaries and allowances. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The Deputy Governor of Nigeria's South-west Ekiti State, Mrs Funmilayo Olayinka, died on Saturday of breast cancer at the age of 52, her family sources said. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Eleven people were killed when gunmen attacked a remote village, Midlu, in Nigeria's northern Adamawa State early Saturday, the local media reported. Full text...

Banjul, Gambia (PANA) - The Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) Forum and 53rd Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights opened in Banjul, the Gambia, Saturday. Full text...