U.S. Africa Command said Sunday that a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All-Terrain Vehicle activated the bomb while four servicemembers were entering a firing range in the vicinity of Ouallam, Niger.

For the past year, Gen. Stephen J. Townsend has been the commander in charge of Army training. If confirmed, he will replace Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, who has commanded AFRICOM since 2016.

A U.S. mine-resistant vehicle was damaged Saturday in Niger, and the military is investigating whether the incident was the result of hostile intent, U.S. Africa Command said.

U.S. Africa Command is aiding the buildup of a specialized commando brigade in Somalia that has emerged as a key force in the fight to reclaim territory held by al-Qaida-aligned insurgents.

A 5-year-old boy vomiting blood became the first cross-border victim of Ebola in the current outbreak on Wednesday, while two more people in Uganda tested positive for the highly contagious disease that has killed nearly 1,400 in Congo.

The U.S. military has finally completed runway work at a new air base in Agadez, Niger, but Air Force officials said Wednesday it will still be several months before flight operations can begin at what is anticipated to be a major intelligence gathering hub in western Africa.

ISIS-West Africa, which broke away from the militant group Boko Haram three years ago, continues to launch high profile attacks that have placed the Nigerian military “under tremendous strain,” according to U.S. Africa Command.

As the Catholic Church goes through a global crisis brought on in part by the revelation of widespread sexual misconduct by its clergy, self-proclaimed Bishop Njogu believes he has figured out how to save Christianity's largest church from its own sins: Let priests marry and raise families.

Navy SEAL Chief Petty Officer Adam Matthews will spend the next year in a military prison after pleading guilty Thursday for his actions in the 2017 strangulation death of a Green Beret in Mali.

Lt. Gen. Jamaleddine Omar, from the ruling military council, says that by closing of roads and setting up barricades, the protesters committed a crime.

A child in Uganda has tested positive for Ebola in the first cross-border case of the deadly virus since an outbreak started in neighboring Congo last year, Uganda's health ministry said late Tuesday.

A coup attempt in the central African nation hasn’t yet changed the mission of U.S. troops deployed there last week in response to potential violence in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo, U.S. Africa Command said Monday.

Organizers of the pro-democracy protests in Sudan say the death toll across the country since the violent dispersal of their sit-in camp in Khartoum earlier this week has increased to 100. Sudan's deadly crackdown has evoked Arab Spring bloodshed from earlier this decade. Here's a look at military crackdowns across the Arab world since 2011:

Sudanese security forces have continued to commit "war crimes and other serious human rights violations" in the Darfur region, Amnesty International said Tuesday, as the African country has been rocked by political turmoil following the military's ouster of autocrat Omar al-Bashir in April.

Pentagon officials also announced they would award nine valor medals for heroic actions undertaken during the six-hour firefight following the Oct. 4 ambush in a remote area of southwest Niger.

Pvt. Nicholas Minue, a World War II Medal of Honor recipient honored for his bravery posthumously, is buried at the North Africa American Cemetery in Tunisia, where a Memorial Day ceremony Monday paid tribute to him and the many others who died in Africa fighting fascism.

The U.S. military said it killed two Islamic State fighters Wednesday in Somalia, where there has been an uptick in airstrikes against the militant group in the past month.

Unknown assailants killed at least 95 people in a central Mali village overnight, government officials said Monday, the latest massacre in a growing ethnic conflict driven by fear and suspicion over alleged ties to extremist groups once limited to the West African country's north.

The case has brought the issue of sexual violence against children to the forefront in Sierra Leone, where such crimes are often dealt with between families in private. In February, President Julius Maada Bio declared sexual violence a national emergency and he has vowed to help the 5-year-old get medical treatment abroad.

Paramilitary troops surrounded the sit-in protest site that had been the heart of a pro-democracy uprising in Sudan's capital Tuesday, a day after an explosion of violence thrust the country's political future into even greater turmoil.

Pro-democracy protest leaders on Saturday called on Sudanese to take part in acts of civil disobedience in a bid to pressure the military to hand over power after the deadly break-up of their main sit-in in the capital of Khartoum earlier this week.

The U.S. Embassy in Sudan called on Sudanese security forces to stop what it said were "attacks against protesters and other civilians."

Libya became a major conduit for African migrants and refugees fleeing to Europe after the 2011 uprising that ousted and later killed longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi.

At least 38 migrants including nine children have been rescued and returned to Libyan shores.

Nearly 900 children who were recruited to military forces fighting against Boko Haram in Nigeria were released Friday, UNICEF announced.

“Stipulations of fact” submitted by men linked to the death of Green Beret Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar in Mali on June 4, 2017, remove a veil of secrecy from a culture in which womanizing and heavy drinking were said to be commonplace despite alcohol restrictions and warnings about kidnappings and terrorist threats.

The economy is in its most dire state since 2008, when inflation surged to an estimated 500 billion percent.

U.S. forces in Libya have been evacuated for their safety in connection with the deteriorating security situation in the country, which now has U.S. Africa Command conducting “prudent military planning” as it assesses the situation, the military said Sunday.

Since Kenya joined the war in Somalia in 2011, the United States has given its government more than half a billion dollars in security assistance. It comes with no stipulation that any of it is spent on mental health care for soldiers, but the U.S. military trains KDF doctors in mental health care.

Gunmen killed at least six people at a Catholic church in the West African nation of Burkina Faso on Sunday and then torched the worship space, town officials told local reporters.

When the leaders of the Islamic State declared their caliphate in Iraq and Syria, no nationality from outside those countries heeded the call to come fight for it like the Tunisians did. Now, weeks after the caliphate's defeat, Tunisia is confronting that legacy.

By the time Cédric De Jesus reached Mexico's southern border, he had already traveled 9,000 miles from his home in the Congo. He had crossed the Atlantic Ocean by boat and come up through South America on foot and by bus.

A U.S.-led exercise designed to improve protection of vital shipping lanes in the Mediterranean Sea and thwart seaborne crimes in North Africa wraps up this weekend, amid growing tensions in the region.

Air Force Gen. Tod Wolters and Army Gen. Stephen J. Townsend faced questioning Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee, following their nominations to head the European Command and Africa Command respectively.

About 1,800 workers are trapped at a Sibanye Gold platinum mine in South Africa after an accident halted operation of a shaft used to transport workers.

Opinion

In Algeria and Sudan, where popular protests have recently toppled long-reigning tyrants, military cabals are re-emerging from the shadows to bid for power. In Libya, eight unstable years since the fall of a dictator, another aspiring caudillo is trying to seize control by force of arms.

The Democratic Republic of Congo will join the global fight against Islamic State, which President Felix Tshisekedi said poses a threat to his country.