Africa (except North Africa)

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A Kenyan police official said Tuesday that dead bodies were planted to accuse police officers of using excessive force during recent anti-government protests, which rights groups say left dozens of demonstrators dead.

Japhet Koome, the national police inspector general, told reporters that “people were hiring dead bodies and parading them to the media to taint the police’s image.”

He did not provide evidence or details to support the claim.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The United Nations World Food Program is slowly resuming food aid to Ethiopia nearly five months after taking the extraordinary measure of suspending aid to millions of people after the discovery of a massive scheme to steal donated grain. WFP said it’s testing small-scale distribution in some areas but acknowledges that the government still plays a role in the process.

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — Nigeriens awoke Tuesday to deepening uncertainty about whether a regional bloc will follow through on its threat to use military force to try to reinstall ousted President Mohamed Bazoum or if last-minute diplomacy will prevail, nearly two weeks after mutinous soldiers overthrew the country’s democratically elected leader.

The West African regional bloc ECOWAS had given the mutinous soldiers until Sunday to release and reinstall Bazoum or they threatened to use force.

JOHANNESBURG, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- South Africa is ready to host the much-anticipated 15th BRICS summit, said Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor on Monday.

"President Ramaphosa has confirmed South Africa's readiness to host the 15th BRICS summit in person, in Sandton, Johannesburg. The president has therefore invited 67 leaders from Africa and the Global South to attend the BRICS-Africa outreach and BRICS Plus dialogues," Pandor said while briefing the media about the country's preparations for the summit, which will be held on Aug. 22-24.

OUAGADOUGOU, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Mali and Burkina Faso will send a joint delegation to Niamey, the capital of Niger, on Monday in a show of solidarity amid a coup crisis, the Malian army said.

"Burkina Faso and Mali are sending a delegation to Niamey ... to show the solidarity of the two countries with the brotherly people of Niger," the army tweeted.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Two people were fatally shot on a fifth day of violent protests in the South African city of Cape Town on Monday sparked by a dispute last week between minibus taxi drivers and authorities.

A person was killed and three others were wounded in a shooting near the Cape Town International Airport after a group of protesters pelted a car with stones and the driver responded by firing shots at them, police said. The shooting happened while minubus taxis blockaded a road near the airport, police said.

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — West Africa’s regional bloc says heads of state will meet Thursday to discuss their next steps after Niger’s military junta defied the bloc’s deadline to reinstate the country’s ousted president while its mutinous soldiers closed the country’s airspace and accused foreign powers of preparing an attack.

State television reported the junta’s latest actions Sunday night, hours before the deadline set by regional bloc ECOWAS, which has warned of using military force if the democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum isn’t returned to power.

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Striking Nigerian doctors on Saturday said they will embark on a nationwide protest, accusing the country’s newly elected president of ignoring their demands for better pay, better work conditions and payment of owed earnings.

The protest, scheduled to start on Wednesday, adds to other challenges confronting Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu, who is leading efforts by the West Africa regional bloc of ECOWAS — which he chairs — to restore democracy in Niger after last week’s coup.

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Regional mediation efforts to reverse the coup in Niger and restore its democracy collapsed as soon as they started. Tensions have escalated as the Sunday deadline nears for possible military intervention by other West African countries.

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — Niger’s military junta says it is severing military agreements with France, its former colonial ruler, firing some of the previous government’s key ambassadors and warning citizens of the West African nation to watch for foreign armies and spies. A regional delegation’s efforts at negotiation quickly deadlocked.