The blast at a district headquarters in Somalia's capital comes less than a week after al-Shabab gunmen carried out an overnight siege on a popular restaurant in the Somali capital, killing at least 31 people.

Jihadis attacked a hotel resort Sunday in Mali's capital, taking hostages at a spot popular with foreigners on the weekends. More than 30 people managed to escape though at least two people were killed, authorities said.

Djibouti accused Eritrean troops of occupying the Dumeira mountain area shortly after 450 Qatari peacekeepers left last week and lodged a formal complaint with the African Union. Qatar, which is caught up in its own diplomatic clash with other Arab nations, had mediated a territorial dispute between Djibouti and Eritrea.

A military official says at least five people are dead after an attack on a Malian army post in the country's volatile north.

Eritrea's government says Qatar has not yet explained why it withdrew 450 peacekeeping troops from the East African nation's contested border area with Djibouti.

The United Nations is warning of a growing threat from an African rebel group led by one of the world's most wanted men after the United States and Uganda gave up their pursuit.

Djibouti has lodged a formal complaint with the African Union after accusing soldiers from neighboring Eritrea of occupying a contested mountainous area after Qatari peacekeepers left the region this week, an official said.

Egyptian police on Thursday stormed the homes of political opponents of a disputed 2016 agreement to transfer control of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, arresting dozens in raids in Cairo and at least 10 provinces across the country, according to two rights lawyers.

The United Nations migration agency said Thursday it was "deeply concerned" about some 260 Somali and Ethiopian migrants allegedly held and mistreated by criminal gangs in Libya, saying it believed that a harrowing video of them posted on social media was authentic.

Qatar said Wednesday it has pulled all of its troops from the border of Djibouti and Eritrea, east African nations that have a long-running territorial dispute which Doha had helped mediate.

Islamic extremists attacked a popular Somalia restaurant in an overnight siege and killed 31 people — many at point-blank range — before they were slain by security forces, police said Thursday.

In defiance of a court ruling, Egypt's parliament voted on Wednesday to ratify a disputed 2016 agreement that would transfer two strategic Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.

French President Emmanuel Macron is urging Qatar and its rival neighbors to talk directly, to defuse their tensions over alleged terrorism financing, and said Wednesday he will step up diplomatic discussions with Gulf leaders in the coming days.

Vice Adm. James Foggo has been director of Navy Staff at the Pentagon since November and was formerly commander of the Naples-based 6th Fleet.

The threat from the Lord's Resistance Army can't be underestimated following the departure of Ugandan and United States forces that were deployed to pursue the rebels, the U.N. envoy for central Africa warned Tuesday.

A Nigerian official says a top Boko Haram commander was among many insurgents killed Sunday as soldiers fought to rescue nine children being trained at a secret camp.

Over a hundred days in 1994, genocide devastated Rwanda, an East African country the size of Maryland. Rwanda's young people are now stepping into adulthood, coming to terms with an identity no parent could wish on a child.

A U.S. airstrike killed eight militants Sunday in Somalia, where in recent months an Islamic extremist group has intensified operations against U.S.-backed forces and “cemented its control of southern and central Somalia,” the military said.

The case could mark the first time a federal judge rules on the constitutionality of interrogation practices developed in recent years for terrorism suspects captured overseas.

The United States is opposing a French-drafted U.N. resolution that would authorize military action by five countries in Africa's vast Sahel region against extremist groups.

More than 30 people were killed in the northeastern Bouna region in Ivory Coast last year, the worst-ever outbreak of violence there between farmers and herders, while in Niger a November raid attributed to farmers left at least 20 people dead. Two separate clashes in Mali this year resulted in almost 50 deaths, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch.

Jihadis launched an attack on a United Nations camp in northern Mali, killing three peacekeepers from the West African nation of Guinea and wounding several others, officials said Friday.

Heavily armed al-Shabab extremists have stormed a military base in Somalia's semiautonomous state of Puntland, killing close to 70 people and wounding dozens more, officials said Thursday. Residents said civilians, including women, were beheaded during the rampage.

Fifteen children died and dozens more fell ill after vaccination workers ignored basic hygiene procedures during South Sudan’s national measles vaccination campaign last month.

At the beginning of this year, the United Nations made one of its boldest requests ever for funding. It needed billions of dollars to fund a humanitarian response, said Secretary General António Guterres, or as many as 20 million people might starve to death.

Officials say that French soldiers deployed to Mali to fight against Islamic extremists have killed at least 20 jihadis at the country's border with Burkina Faso.

Two girl suicide bombers attacked a camp for those displaced by Boko Haram extremist violence and left 11 people dead, authorities in northern Cameroon said Friday.

The U.S. imposed sanctions on a senior military adviser of Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila, raising pressure on the government for a peaceful transition of power.

U.S. soldiers training last week at Ghana’s “eye-opening" Jungle Warfare School learned jungle navigation, ambush offense and survival tactics. They also ate a python.

At least 44 migrants, including babies, have died of thirst after their vehicle broke down in the Sahara Desert as they were making their way to Libya, an official in Niger said Thursday.

GALLERY

The first group of soldiers has completed a U.S. Army-led effort to train Somalia’s fledgling military in logistics, a stepping stone toward building a force that can sustain itself in a fight against Islamic militants.

Egypt's military says that three officers and one soldier were killed when a suicide belt went off as forces were sweeping a militant hub in the Bahariya Oasis in Egypt's western desert.

The U.S. military faces a two-decade struggle to help bring stability to Africa, where the lack of an overall government strategy is complicating operations, according to the general in charge of special operations on the continent.

Near a dried-out reservoir on the edge of this village is a dilapidated mud hut. The family that lived there until last month went so far as to strip off its straw roof and feed the material to their emaciated cattle. When the animals died anyway, the family disappeared.

The Libya connection in the May 22 Manchester concert suicide bombing and Friday's attack on Christians in Egypt has shone a light on the threat posed by militant Islamic groups that have taken advantage of lawlessness in the troubled North African nation to put down roots, recruit fighters and export jihadists to cause death and carnage elsewhere.

The last batch of Ground Self-Defense Force troops departed South Sudan's capital of Juba on Thursday, where the about 350-member 11th Engineer Unit had been taking part in a U.N. peacekeeping operation.

Masked gunmen ambushed a bus carrying Coptic Christians to a monastery south of Cairo on Friday, killing at least 28 people, and Egypt responded by launching airstrikes against what it said were militant training bases in Libya.

A proposed United Arab Emirates base in semi-autonomous northern Somalia may add a naval facility to a military airport, extending the Arab nation's reach on the Horn of Africa coastline, a Somali official said.

A spokesman for the Libyan National Army says forces loyal to the LNA have seized control of an air base in the country's south that had been under control of western militiamen.

As the African Land Forces Summit ended recently in this southern African nation whose tiny military specializes in peacekeeping, plans were already being laid for next year’s meeting in a location at the center of some of the continent’s most pressing problems.