U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has begun a tour of four African countries, meeting with the leaders of Cape Verde and Ivory Coast and touting America as the continent’s key economic and security ally at times of regional and international crises.

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara has removed the country’s prime minister and dissolved the government, according to a senior public official.

Tensions are escalating between Niger’s new military regime and the West African regional bloc that has ordered troops deployed to restore Niger’s flailing democracy.

Forty six Ivorian soldiers who were detained for six months in Mali have returned home to cheers and celebrations.

Ivory Coast's former youth minister Charles Ble Goude has returned to his home country after more than a decade in exile.

Former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo says he plans to be involved in politics until the day he dies.

Many hoped that Guinea’s landmark 2010 election would finally give the West African country a democratic leader after decades of corrupt dictatorship.

The International Criminal Court has withdrawn its arrest warrant for the wife of former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo.

Former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo has attended Mass, one of his first public appearances since returning home after nearly a decade in exile.

Former President Laurent Gbagbo has returned home to Ivory Coast a decade after his refusal to concede defeat in an election sparked months of violence that left more than 3,000 people dead.

Former President Laurent Gbagbo is returning home to Ivory Coast for the first time in nearly a decade.

I thank all the people of Ivory Coast and Africa for their support,” he said. It was not clear what his next step will be or when he might seek to return to Ivory Coast. He wants to return after seven years.”More than 3,000 people were killed after Gbagbo refused to accept defeat by his rival, current Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara. AdGbagbo still has strong support in Ivory Coast and his followers say they have been left out the country’s reconciliation process in the years since his ouster. ___Associated Press writer Toussaint N'Gotta in Abidjan, Ivory Coast contributed.

Ivorian Prime Minister Hamed Bakayoko is photographed at a cabinet meeting in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Sept. 5, 2019. Bakayoko, 56, died Wednesday March 10, 2021 of cancer in Germany, marking the second time within a year that the country's premier has died in office due to illness. ABIDJAN – Ivorian Prime Minister Hamed Bakayoko died Wednesday of cancer in Germany, the presidency announced, marking the second time within a year that the country's premier has died in office due to illness. Bakayoko, 56, had been brought to Paris for medical treatment nearly a month ago, and had recently been moved to Germany. “The prime minister served Ivory Coast with dedication and selflessness," Ouattara said.

Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara is sworn in for a third term as President in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Monday Dec. 14, 2020. (Sia Kambu/Pool via AP)ABIDJAN – Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara was inaugurated Monday for a third term in office amid ongoing outcries from opposition parties. More than 300 people attended the swearing in ceremony at the Presidential Palace, including about 10 African heads of state, as the re-elected Ouattara called for national dialogue. “I renew my ambition to rebuild a more united Ivory Coast for a better future,” he said. On Sunday, the exiled opponent and former president of the National Assembly, Guillaume Soro, called on Ivorians to stand up against Ouattara, saying he risks sinking Ivory Coast into permanent disorder and instability.

(AP Photo/Leo Correa)ABIDJAN – Prominent dissident Guillaume Soro, a former prime minister who was blocked from running in Ivory Coast's presidential election, called Wednesday on the country's military to disobey President Alassane Ouattara after he was allowed to win a controversial third term. To the defense and security forces, I ask you to look in the mirror, in soul and conscience, and act to stop the killings. "Alassane Ouattara is no longer the President of the Republic of Ivory Coast. There have been widespread fears of post-election violence erupting in Ivory Coast, where more than 3,000 people were killed following a disputed vote a decade ago. “We must stand up and block the former president, Alassane Ouattara, who has taken the country hostage,” Soro said.

Ivory Coast's electoral commission said Tuesday that President Alassane Ouattara had overwhelmingly won a third term in office after his two main opponents boycotted the election and called his candidacy illegal. On Monday, they discounted Ouattara's victory, saying his mandate to lead Ivory Coast had expired. There have been widespread fears of post-election violence erupting in Ivory Coast, where more than 3,000 people were killed following a disputed vote a decade ago. “Ivory Coast must definitively turn the page on these electoral crises.”Ouattara has been in power for nearly a decade. Ouattara was the internationally recognized winner of a disputed 2010 election in which then-President Laurent Gbagbo refused to concede defeat.

By evening, the country's electoral commission had released provisional results from fewer than half of the country's 108 departments. It wasn't immediately clear when a final tally would be announced, but the opposition continued to attack the legitimacy of the vote itself. Pascal Affi N’Guessan, one of the top opposition candidates who later boycotted the vote, said late Monday that Henri Konan Bedie, the country's 86-year-old former president, would head up a council of transition. Only one of the three opposition candidates actively campaigned against Ouattara after the two others called for a boycott. The observer mission also said Monday that the exclusion of most candidates had compromised the integrity of Ivory Coast's election.

A woman sells her goods at a local market in Abobo neighborhood, suburbs of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2020. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)ABIDJAN – Ivory Coast residents braced for more unrest Sunday as election officials began releasing the first results from the country's presidential election and opponents of President Alassane Ouattara stepped up their criticism of his quest for a third term. Soro, a former prime minister and president of Ivory Coast's National Assembly, was disqualified earlier this year from running in Saturday's election. Soro's comments about his former mentor came as some Ivorians feared a possible return to the electoral violence that had engulfed the country nearly a decade ago. “Let them stop because Ivory Coast needs peace.”___Associated Press writer Toussaint N'Gotta contributed.

ABIDJAN – Tens of thousands of security forces deployed across Ivory Coast on Saturday as the leading opposition parties boycotted the election, calling President Alassane Ouattara’s bid for a third term illegal. In the Abobo neighborhood of Abidjan, voters lined up to cast ballots peacefully despite opposition threats to block polling stations from opening. “All Ivorians who want peace should vote today,” said Mamery Doumbia, standing outside the Abobo Sagbe voting center. The top two opposition candidates, Pascal Affi N’Guessan and Henri Konan Bedie, have pulled out of the race in a boycott. The president maintains the two-term limit does not apply to him because a new constitution was approved in a 2016 referendum.

“Don’t accept being prevented from voting, you are going to protect the polling stations,” he told them. “Ivory Coast wants peace, we don’t accept disorder," Ouattara said. There will be no elections on Oct. 31 in Ivory Coast," N’Guessan said in an interview this week with France 24 and Radio France Internationale. “Ivory Coast is not in crisis. Ivory Coast is at peace.

In a separate briefing Thursday, a World Health Organization official said just 51% of health facilities in sub-Saharan Africa have basic water services. Health experts say Africa has fared far better than the dire predictions made early in the pandemic. Spurred by this year's turmoil over racial injustice and inequality, African nations again demanded a permanent seat on the U.N.'s most powerful body, the Security Council — or even two. The council reflects a world order of 75 years ago that few people in Africa recognize, some said. “Unfortunately," he said, “less than two months later, a fifth horseman of the apocalypse, very destructive, the coronavirus, has appeared.”

“Corruption and tax avoidance are rampant,” said former Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaitė, a panel co-chair. “Our weakness in tackling corruption and financial crime has been further exposed by ... COVID-19,” said former Niger prime minister Ibrahim Mayaki, a panel co-chair. “Resources to stop the spread, keep people alive and put food on tables are instead lost to corruption and abuse. ___4:55 p.m.China, the United States and Russia have traded allegations at the United Nations about who mishandled and politicized the coronavirus pandemic. Sarraj delivered his prerecorded remarks to the world body’s first-ever virtual General Assembly from Tripoli, where his U.N.-backed government is based.

A number of elections are set to be held later this year involving incumbents, including in Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Niger. The two countries are both part of the G5 Sahel regional force along with Chad, Niger and Burkina Faso which is trying to battle extremists across the Sahel. Burkina Faso was long spared the kind of extremist violence seen across the border, but that has changed. Coupcast, a project of One Earth Future using historical data to predict the likelihood of a coup attempt, put Burkina Faso in the top 10 African countries likely to see a coup in last year's report. Coupcast also put Niger in the top 10 African countries likely to see a coup in their 2019 report.