Africa

Police in Mali March 8 hunted for the killers of two Europeans and three Malians in a jihadist attack on a nightclub, as a deadly assault on a UN barracks in the north heightened security concerns.
      

At least three people were killed when unknown attackers fired rockets at a UN base on the outskirts of the town of Kidal in northern Mali, international newswires reported.

The attack that took place before dawn on Sunday comes a day after assailants armed with machine guns and grenades attacked a nightclub in Mali's capital Bamako, killing five people.

The United Nations Security Council has strongly condemned an attack in Bamako that killed five people on Saturday.

The machine-gun and grenade attack in Mali's capital left a French citizen, a Belgian security officer and three Malians dead and nine others wounded, international newswires quoted witnesses as saying.

Despite months of embarrassment for Egypt over a series of alleged leaks of sensitive remarks including about Gulf allies, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi appears to have avoided a major diplomatic furore.
      

Three Europeans were shot dead at a nightclub in Mali's capital early March 7 in a suspected terror attack that came with the government at a key stage of peace talks with militants in the restive north.

A machine-gun and grenade attack in Mali's capital Bamako has left five people dead, local police say.

Three European nationals, including one French and one Belgian, are among the victims.

Eight other people have been left wounded.

Witnesses quoted by Euronews say attackers yelled "Allahu Akbar" (Arabic for meaning "God is Great").

Bulldozers push earth and dredgers spit mud round the clock at Egypt's Suez Canal in a race to quickly expand the strategic waterway for two-way traffic, a project trumpeted by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi to revive both the country's damaged economy and visions of nationalist glory.

A once-retired general leading a sweeping offensive against Islamists has been named head of the Libyan army loyal to the country's internationally recognised parliament, an official said March 2, in a move expected to deepen divisions in the conflict-riven nation.
      

Namibia's outgoing president, Hifikepunye Pohamba, has won the Mo Ibrahim Foundation's $5 million African leadership prize, an award meant to recognise good governance that has been presented only three times in eight years.
   

Egypt's electoral commission said on March 1 it was preparing a new timetable for parliamentary polls, delaying the March 21 vote after a court ruled parts of the election law unconstitutional.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered that the law be redrafted within a month and asked that "legal measures be undertaken to avoid delaying" the election, his office said.