Ab - Beware of the men with the hard faces. Look at them the wrong way and you might end up dead, residents of the besieged capital of Sudan's North Darfur state say.

N'djamena - Chad on Saturday dismissed as "defamatory and tendentious" UN accusations that its troops carried out an unprovoked attack when they opened fire in a crowded market in the Central African Republic's capital, killing at least 30 people.

N'djamena - The Banguis president awaited a verdict on his future Friday as regional leaders and his entire parliament gathered in Chad in a bid to end sectarian violence ripping his country apart.

Bangui - Thousands of residents of conflict-ravaged Central African Republic (CAR) attempted to flee inter-religious violence over the weekend, as the death toll from a month of fighting between Christian militias and Muslim separatist rebels passed 1,000.

New York - New, more gory details have emerged in what was reported first as the killing of 35 Muslim worshipers and the wounding of 14 last week in the town of Dumba village in Borno State, Nigeria.

Dakar - A former US-backed dictator of Chad has been arrested in Senegal and charged with crimes against humanity for severe human rights violations committed during his eight-year rule.

Boko Haram says it has launched a war against the Borno state authorities and a hunt for youths in Borno and Yobe states who recently formed vigilante groups to assist Nigerian forces identify and arrest insurgents in their local communities

Bamako - Chad has suffered the most casualties of any of Mali's allies fighting against insurgents in northern Mali. On Friday (March 12) 3 Chadian soldiers were killed by a suicide bomber in the northern Mali town of Kidal.

The situation in the Central African Republic becomes more dire as thousands flee the widespread lawlessness that has followed the recent rebel victory.

Bangui - The deposed president of the Central African Republic, who fled the capital Bangui as rebels seized control of the presidential palace on Saturday, has taken refuge in neighboring Cameroon.

A newly released Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, entitled "This Old Man Can Feed Us, You Will Marry Him:’ Child and Forced Marriage in South Sudan," calls on the government of South Sudan to adopt measures to protect girls from child marriage.

One of Al-Qaeda's senior commanders has been killed in fighting between Chadian soldiers and militants in Northern Mali.

Bamako - The Mali insurgency followed 10 years of US counter-terrorism programs. In spite of big goals to curb terrorism, and enhance regional cooperation and stability, Islamic groups were able to infiltrate Mali, threatening the existence of the democracy.

Bangui - South Africa has deployed 400 soldiers to the troubled Central African Republic, where a rebellion threatens to overthrow the elected government.

In its offensive against President Francois Bozize, the Seleka rebel coalition in the Central African Republic (CAR) has seized the key city of Bambari on Sunday, situated at a crossroads between diamond mining sites and routes to the east.

After decades of violence and on-and-off civil war Christian Sudanese in the south have successfully split from their Muslim neighbors in the north to form South Sudan, the world's newest country.

Paignton - Duchess, the much-loved and popular African elephant at Devon's Paignton Zoo in south west England, is being treated for the eye disease glaucoma.

Tripoli - Eastern Libya is now flying the flag of the old Libyan monarchy. Foreign mercenary fighters are reported massing to support Libya's leader Col Gaddafi in the face of widespread defections from the Libyan military.

France’s reputation for influence-peddling and widespread corruption in Africa is nobody’s secret, but Nicolas Sarkozy's reactions to the current electoral deadlock in the Ivory Coast indicate that France's shadowy African era may be coming to an end.

New York - People are the real wealth, reiterates the 20th anniversary edition of Human Development Report (HDR) 2010. It also comes up with three new measures for discussing poverty and inequality.