Africa News Headlines

Victims of Chad's ex-dictator may finally have their day in court, as a tribunal set-up to try the former leader is due to become operational in Senegal soon, human rights experts said Monday.

Several hundred Congo army soldiers returned to the key eastern city of Goma, as rebels remained poised nearby and a possible fight loomed for the city of 1 million.

Rebels, who finally withdrew from this regional capital over the weekend, said they are waiting for a 48-hour deadline to expire on Monday afternoon, before deciding if they will take back the city.

Niger's president says his country is ready to help Mali regain its northern region which is occupied by Islamist rebels.

A security official says at least 10 people were killed in attacks in northeast Nigeria likely carried out by a radical Islamist sect.

Rebels believed to be backed by Rwanda said Sunday they would take back Congo's city of Goma if the government does not agree to negotiate with them by Monday.

Voters in Burkina Faso lined up for parliamentary and municipal elections on Sunday that come after clashes and army mutinies shook the president's regime and saw him dissolving the government and removing the country's security chiefs last year.

Two prominent Kenyans facing crimes against humanity charges at the International Criminal court have formed a political alliance to run for the presidential and vice presidential seats in the country's March election.

Rebels believed to be backed by Rwanda completed their retreat from Congo's eastern provincial capital on Saturday less than two weeks after taking control of the strategic city, a military official said.

The year was 1966 and a 7-year-old boy named John Dramani Mahama was standing by the door of his boarding school, wondering why his father wasn't there to fetch him. The Easter holiday was approaching, classes were done, and everyone else had left.

A Red Cross official says the death toll has risen to more than 25 people killed after an Ilyushin-76 cargo plane owned by a private Congolese company crashed near the airport in the Republic of Congo's capital.

Rebels started to retreat from Congo's eastern provincial capital on Saturday after an attempt to garner ammunition at the airport failed and their original pullout was postponed, a U.N. official said.

A cargo plane owned by a private company crashed Friday near the airport in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo, killing at least three people, officials said.

Rebels who are believed to be backed by Rwanda once again postponed their departure from Congo's key eastern city of Goma on Friday, defying an international ultimatum for the second time.

An Ilyushin-76 cargo plane owned by a private company crashed Friday near the airport in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo, killing at least one person, an aviation official said.

An official in the Republic of Congo's Air Force confirmed that an Ilyushin-76 cargo plane owned by a private Congolese company crashed on Friday in Brazzaville, the capital.

The spokesman for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo says the rebels now controlling the city of Goma attempted to take the airport, which is under U.N. control, and to seize arms stored there.

Rebels in Congo believed to be backed by Rwanda postponed their departure Friday from the key eastern city of Goma for at least 48 hours for "logistical reasons," defying for a second time an ultimatum set by neighboring African countries and backed by Western diplomats.

 Benin officials say that more than 60 graves were desecrated in the village of Dangbo, 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the capital, Porto-Novo.

Where do you go if you want to talk to a negotiator from Congo's newest rebel group? You can try their office headquarters in Uganda's capital city.

An independent Zimbabwean media rights group says journalists face increased intimidation, threats and assaults in their work as elections scheduled next year draw near.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC says it has lifted a six-week-long production warning on Forcados crude exports from Nigeria's oil-rich delta following pipeline repairs.

South Africa's Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, the man some have begun to nominate to take over the nation's governing African National Congress party, doesn't want to be called a politician. Let alone a candidate.