Gunmen riding motorcycles roared up to a Turkish restaurant in the capital of the West African nation of Burkina Faso and opened fire, killing at least 18 people and battling security forces in a hostage-taking standoff that ended early Monday.

Unidentified gunmen attacked the headquarters of the U.N. peacekeeping force in the northern Mali city of Timbuktu on Monday, killing seven people and injuring seven others in what the mission's chief called a "terrorist" attack.

Gallery

In an escalation of Kenya's deadly election violence, police on Saturday fired live ammunition at rioters and used tear gas on vehicles carrying opposition officials trying to enter a Nairobi slum where they have strong support.

Al-Shabab last year was named the deadliest Islamic extremist group in Africa, with more than 4,200 people killed in 2016.

Somalia's president says a joint operation with the U.S. military against al-Shabab extremists in Somalia killed a high-level leader of the group. A U.S. statement says the airstrikes were carried out Thursday in southern Somalia.

A dispute over Kenya's presidential election intensified Thursday when supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga said an unofficial tally showed that he won — a claim that conflicted with a provisional official result that put incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta in the lead.

Two men released from al-Qaida captivity after six years in northern Mali made their first public appearances Thursday, recounting their ordeals and saying they were not clear whether any ransom was paid for their freedom.

A Rwandan refugee has been kidnapped by unknown people in Uganda, the victim's wife and Ugandan officials said Thursday.

Up to 50 migrants from Somalia and Ethiopia were "deliberately drowned" when a smuggler forced them into the sea off Yemen's coast, the U.N. migration agency said Wednesday, calling the incident "shocking and inhumane."

The council said in a presidential statement Wednesday that it "deplores" that some unnamed parties have blocked vital food and humanitarian aid getting to people in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and northeast Nigeria.

At least two people were killed in an apparent car bomb blast in Somalia's capital Friday evening, just hours after the U.S. military confirmed that a recent airstrike had killed a high-level al-Shabab militant commander.

U.N. human rights investigators warned Friday of ethnic cleansing in central Congo, documenting the recent killings of more than 250 people, including 62 children, in violence with "no good guys and bad guys."

The Trump administration is greenlighting a nearly $600 million sale of high-tech attack planes to Nigeria, officials said Thursday. The goal is to shore up the West African nation's ability to fight Boko Haram and other militants.

The commander of Libya's self-styled national army in the country's east has ordered naval and air forces to confront any vessel entering the country's territorial waters without permission, after Italy began a naval mission to help stem a popular migration route.

An official in Djibouti says a pilot and two female military trainees died when their small aircraft crashed on Wednesday.

Islamic militants from Somalia killed a Kenyan policeman Thursday when they attacked a police station in northern Mandera County, raising security concerns over next week's national elections.

Six years after the revolution that toppled dictator Moammar Gadhafi, the mood in this volatile capital is a meld of hopelessness and gloom.

The U.S. military said Monday it carried out a drone strike in Somalia that killed a member of the al-Shabab extremist group, while Somalia's government said it believes the strike killed a high-level al-Shabab commander responsible for several deadly bombings in the capital.

A man from the Ivory Coast who faced expulsion from Italy for previous aggressive behavior stabbed a public transit bus driver Saturday in the Tuscan city of Siena, causing a serious injury, police said.

Authorities in northeastern Nigeria say at least 14 people are dead after a suicide bombing blamed on the Boko Haram extremist group.

U.S. Africa Command has ordered an investigation into whether U.S. forces had any knowledge about allegations that Cameroonian forces abused prisoners on a military base where Americans have had a presence.

A peacekeeping exercise with U.S. and South African troops headed into its final week as the troops practiced U.N. peacekeeping procedures, trained in detecting roadside bombs and learned “bush craft.”.