Nigerian authorities have announced measures to correct lapses that resulted in the death of more than 140 people in an explosion as they were trying to scoop up fuel from an overturned fuel tanker on Wednesday.

Two men close to Benin’s president who were arrested last week on suspicions of plotting a coup in the small West African country have been remanded in custody ahead of their trial.

Interpol has announced the outcome of a global operation targeting West African organized crime groups across five continents in 21 countries.

Military junta leaders of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have ruled out returning their nations to the West Africa regional bloc whose division could further jeopardize efforts to undo coups and curb violence spreading across the region.

West Africa’s regional bloc known as ECOWAS has lifted travel, commercial and economic sanctions imposed on Niger which were aimed at reversing the coup staged in the country last year.

West Africa’s regional bloc says authorities in Senegal should hold the presidential election this month as scheduled instead of delaying it by 10 months.

Senegal’s parliament has voted to delay the West African nation’s presidential election until Dec. 15 in a chaotic voting process that took place after opposition lawmakers were forcefully removed from the legislative building.

An adviser says Niger's ousted president is running out of food and experiencing increasingly dire conditions, two weeks after he was ousted in a military coup and put under house arrest.

Thousands of people backing the coup in Niger marched through the streets of the capital denouncing France, the country’s former colonial power, waving Russian flags, and setting a door at the French Embassy ablaze on Sunday before the army broke up the crowd.

The Nigerian military says it has rescued two young women who were kidnapped nine years ago by the jihadi militant group Boko Haram.

Months after hundreds of French troops left Burkina Faso, ousted by the ruling military junta, speculation is mounting that the war-torn nation will fill the void with fighters from Russia’s shadowy mercenary outfit, the Wagner Group.

The goal of silencing the guns in Africa this decade is being challenged by climate change, terrorism, coups and the continent's history.

Experts raised concerns over a new policy announced by the Central Bank of Nigeria that heavily limits withdrawals of money in a push for a cashless economy.

In a story published November 23, 2022, about new Nigerian currency notes, The Associated Press erroneously reported that 200 Nigerian naira amount to 5 U.S. cents.

The head of Africa’s public health agency says he’s “really pleased” that the World Health Organization is renaming the strains of the monkeypox disease to remove references to African regions to reduce concerns of stigmatization.

Zimbabwe has opened an international conference to try to win international support for its campaign to be allowed to sell its stockpile of seized ivory.

Vibrant African clothes, both traditional and contemporary, enlivened the catwalk in Burkina Faso’s fashion week.

A local business in Detroit is working to make health and wellbeing more accessible.

At the World Wildlife Conference in Panama later this year, discussions are expected to center around African wildlife such as elephants, big cats and rosewood trees.

West Africa is grappling with a wave of military coups over the past 18 months that has some wondering which country could be next.

France is facing its toughest challenge in Africa in years: What to do about thousands of French troops stationed in junta-led Mali, the core of a major international anti-terrorism operation in the increasingly restive Sahel region.

The African Union has announced in a tweet that it has suspended Burkina Faso until constitutional order is restored in the West African country.

Mali's military leader is calling on West African leaders to reconsider new economic sanctions against the country.

West African regional leaders have imposed new sanctions on Mali that suspend most commerce and financial aid to the country.

The Biden administration’s competition with China for influence hasn't gotten off to a great start in Africa.

The International Organization for Migration says migrant deaths along the Atlantic route from West Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands reached a record high last month with 379 lives lost at sea.

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

A top officer says Mali's military has released the transitional president and prime minister from detention.

A representative of Mali's military says Mali’s transitional president and prime minister will be released from detention gradually after resigning in the presence of international arbitrators.

Macron joined by video from Paris a summit organized in N'Djamena, Chad with the leaders of Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger and Mauritania. It is made up of soldiers from Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger and Mauritania who operate in cooperation with French troops. “This was unexpected a year ago,” Armand Joseph Kabore, director of Labo Citoyennetes, a think tank in Burkina Faso told The Associated Press. ”(The G5 Sahel) force has to be more present, more of a deterrent, and capable of efficiently opposing forces of evil,” he said. ___Mednick reported from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Electoral commission officials count the ballots after polls closed in Accra, Ghana, Monday, Dec. 7, 2020. (AP Photo/Ofoe Amegavie)ACCRA – At least five people have been killed in Ghana and a dozen injured in violence related to the presidential and legislative elections held on Monday, said police. The election has tested the West African nation’s credentials as one of the continent’s most politically stable countries. Twenty-one violent outbreaks have been identified as election-related across the West African country, Ghana’s Police Service said Wednesday. There were 12 candidates for president, with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, 76, and former president John Dramani Mahama, 62, forecast as the frontrunners.

People line up to vote at a polling station in Accra, Ghana, Monday, Dec. 7, 2020. Ghana has held peaceful, free, fair, and transparent elections for nearly two decades — this will be the eighth consecutive election since the country's return to multi-party democracy in 1992. President Akufo-Addo voted in his constituency at Kyebi in the Eastern Region. Both Akufo-Addo and former president Mahama have campaigned on anti-corruption platforms, while trading accusations against each other. In his Sunday address, Akufo-Addo added: “The entire world is looking up to us to maintain our status as a beacon of democracy, peace, and stability.

WASHINGTON – An American citizen kidnapped in the West African nation of Niger this past week has been rescued in a U.S. military operation in neighboring Nigeria, U.S. officials said Saturday. The man was taken from his farm in Massalata in southern Niger early Tuesday morning by armed kidnappers who demanded a ransom from the man’s father. “This American citizen is safe and is now in the care of the U.S. Department of State. No U.S military personnel were injured during the operation,” the department said in a statement. The officials were not authorized to publicly discuss the operation and spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details .

As late as last week, the United Nations still listed the deposed president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, as an upcoming speaker. But the final countries addressed the U.N. gathering on Tuesday afternoon with no word from Mali. Before this latest coup, extremists were moving south into more densely populated areas, adding to the frustrations that fed massive protests in the weeks ahead of the coup. He delivered a prerecorded address Tuesday to the U.N. General Assembly’s annual meeting of global leaders, being held virtually this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Emirati foreign minister also warned against what he said were “the expansionist ambitions of some countries in the region."

Mali's transitional president Bah N'Daw on Sunday, Sept, 27, 2020 appointed former minister of foreign affairs, Moctar Ouane, as the West African nation's prime minister, with the appointment of a civilian prime minister being a major condition imposed by the West African regional economic bloc, ECOWAS, on Mali to lift sanctions that were imposed after an Aug. 18 coup. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)BAMAKO – Mali’s transitional president appointed former minister of foreign affairs, Moctar Ouane, on Sunday as the West African nation’s prime minister days after being sworn into office. The appointment of a civilian prime minister was a major condition imposed by the West African regional economic bloc, ECOWAS, on Mali to lift sanctions that were imposed after an Aug. 18 coup. He also served as Mali’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 1995 to 2002 and later as a diplomatic adviser to ECOWAS. The junta, which calls itself the National Committee for the Salvation of the People, deposed President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August, detaining him, the prime minister and other government officials.

BAMAKO – Mali’s former president Moussa Traore, who ruled the West Africa nation for more than 22 years, has died at age 83, according to his son Idrissa Traore. Traore seized power in a military coup in 1968, eight years after Mali gained independence from France, and amid growing discontent with then-president Modibo Keita, the country's first president. Traore and other officers set up the Military Committee for National Liberation, abolished the constitution and established a regime. Traore ruled the country as its military leader until 1979 when he installed himself as civilian president of a one-party state. On Tuesday, the military junta currently ruling Mali met with a group of West African leaders in Ghana to outline a transition to civilian rule.

Leaders of Mali's military junta who deposed the West African country's president last month are meeting with political parties and civil society groups to outline a transition to a civilian government and, ultimately, elections. (AP Photo)BAMAKO Leaders of Mali's military junta who deposed the West African country's president last month are meeting with political parties and civil society groups to outline a transition to a civilian government and, ultimately, elections. I would like to renew our willingness to participate in the establishment of the architecture of the transition, Col. Assimi Goita, the head of Mali's junta, said to open the meetings. The West African regional bloc, known as ECOWAS, has said that by Sept. 15 the junta should have installed transitional civilian leaders, a president and prime minister, who will lead the country to elections within one year. The military junta had previously proposed a three-year transition, saying that a new constitution should be written first.

West African leaders on Friday urged Mali's junta to take no more than one year to hand over power to a civilian government, as regional heads of state held another virtual summit after initial negotiations with the military coup leaders failed. (AP Photo/Baba Ahmed)BAMAKO West African leaders on Friday urged Mali's junta to take no more than one year to hand over power to a civilian government, as regional heads of state held another virtual summit after initial negotiations with the military coup leaders failed. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who participated in the summit, urged the junta to heed the bloc's calls. Neighboring countries have shut their borders and other sanctions have been threatened in a bid to force the junta leaders to capitulate. Nigeria's president said Mali's ruling junta must immediately release all other senior government officials still being detained.

(AP Photo)BAMAKO Former Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita returned home Thursday after being detained for 10 days by the ruling military junta that staged a coup last week, a family member said. It could be a signal that Malis ruling junta, which wants ECOWAS to lift sanctions, are trying to meet some of the bloc's demands. The ECOWAS negotiating team met with Keita during their visit to Malis capital last week. Malis junta has proposed staying in power for three years until Malis next election until 2023. On Thursday, Mali's military said four soldiers were killed and 12 others wounded in an ambush on an anti-poaching unit by insurgents in central Mali.

PARIS Mali has been suspended from a global body of French-speaking countries after a military junta overthrew the West African country's democratically elected president. The permanent council of the International Organization of Francophonie decided on the suspension after holding an emergency meeting to discuss the situation in Mali. The decision by the French-speaking body follows the suspension of Mali from the 15-nation West African regional bloc ECOWAS. It held unsuccessful talks with the military junta in an attempt to get it to agree to immediately return Mali to civilian rule. While the international community has been pressing for a quick return to civilian rule, the military junta now running Mali is seeking to prolong its rule until 2023.

(AP Photo)BAMAKO The military junta now in charge of Mali insisted Monday that former President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita had resigned of his own free will and was not overthrown, as the officers now running the country try to prolong their rule until 2023. The junta's spokesman, Ismael Wague, later said that no timeline had been established for elections to return to the country to civilian rule. President Keita told us that he has resigned, that he was not forced to do so and that he does not want to return," said former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday. The ECOWAS mediators initially had called for Keita to be reinstalled as president, but that prospect has become unlikely amid an outpouring of public support in Mali for the coup d'etat. He offered concessions and regional mediators intervened, but his opponents made it clear they would accept nothing short of his departure.

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.

DETROIT – Theodore Roosevelt is credited with most famously using a West African proverb "speak softly and carry a big stick. That is where the big stick comes in. In that case the emergency manager would recommend the governor pull the trigger on a Chapter 9 Municipal Bankruptcy. He knows he needs that big stick to show the mayor and council he is serious. If it doesn't he still has his big stick; an emergency manager and a Chapter 9.