World News

North Korea has said it will cut off all inter-Korean communication lines with the South, including a hotline between the two nations’ leaders. The North said this was the first in a series of actions, describing South Korea as “the enemy”. Daily calls, which have been made to a liaison office located in the North Korean border city of Kaesong, ...

US Democrats in Congress have proposed sweeping legislation to reform American police, following weeks of protests against police brutality and racism. The bill would make it easier to prosecute police for misconduct, ban chokeholds, and addresses racism. It comes as Minneapolis lawmakers vowed to disband the city’s police force. The death of George Floyd at the hands of a white ...

There has been a spike in child abuse in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, apparently caused by the restrictions introduced in mid-March to slow the spread of Coronavirus. Data from hospitals suggest more than 100 children have been raped – including some by family members. In addition, 50 women reported being assaulted. Sexual abuse of children has long been a serious ...

The UN refugee agency says more than 7,000 have fled their homes after a deadly militant attack on an area housing 35,000 Malian refugees and internally displaced people in western Niger. Most of those who fled were Malian refugees. A spokesperson for the UNHCR in Niger, Jean Sebastien Josset, told the BBC that those who fled the attack are now ...

A lawyer for the family of George Floyd, whose death sparked unrest across the US, has accused a police officer of “premeditated murder”. Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder, but lawyer Benjamin Crump told CBS news it was a case of first-degree murder. “We think that he had intent… almost nine minutes he kept his knee ...

Some 30 people have been killed in eastern Burkina Faso in a gun attack on a cattle market, reports say. Gunmen on motorbikes fired into the crowded market in Kompienga town around lunchtime on Saturday, eyewitnesses and residents said. It is unclear who was behind the attack, but Burkina Faso has seen a recent sharp rise in jihadist violence and ...

A Rwandan court on Thursday handed a life sentence to a former politician found guilty of orchestrating the killing of tens of thousands of people during the 1994 genocide, a court spokesman said. Ladislas Ntaganzwa, head of the commune of Nyakizu in southern Rwanda, was indicted in 1996 by the Arusha, Tanzania-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda on charges of ...

Armed men on motorcycles killed 27 civilians in central Mali in three attacks on ethnic Dogon farming villages in less than 24 hours, local officials said on Thursday. Central Mali has been ravaged in recent years by ethnic reprisal killings, as recriminations between herding and farming communities over jihadist violence compound longstanding grievances. Local officials told Reuters they believed the ...

The UN refugee agency has said it is working closely with partners and governments in eastern Africa to find solutions for urban refugees in these challenging times sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic. The UNHCR said urban refugees are struggling to survive as economic impact of COVID-19 worsens in East, Horn and Great Lakes of Africa. “Refugees in urban areas across the East, Horn and ...

Nigeria must urgently address its failure to protect and provide education to an entire generation of children in the Northeast, a region devastated by years of Boko Haram atrocities and gross violations by the military, Amnesty International warned today in a chilling new report. The 91-page report, ‘We dried our tears’: Addressing the toll on children of Northeast Nigeria’s conflict, ...