Africa (except North Africa)

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — On the verge of tears, Nathan Nkunzimana recalled watching a video of a child being molested and another of a woman being killed.

Eight hours a day, his job as a content moderator for a Facebook contractor required him to look at horrors so the world wouldn’t have to. Some overwhelmed colleagues would scream or cry, he said.

PRETORIA, June 28 (NNN-ALLAFRICA) — Germany’s top diplomat is in South Africa to discuss strengthening bilateral ties in fighting climate change, but the war in Ukraine remains a sticking point.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Tuesday that the short-lived uprising in Russia “makes it clear once again that Russia’s illegal war of aggression is not just an attack on Ukraine … but that President Putin is destroying his own country.”

MOGADISHU, June 28 (Xinhua) -- African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) said on Wednesday that its troops have handed over two more military bases, bringing to four the number of bases that have so far been taken over by the Somali security forces.

ATMIS said the bases handed over on Tuesday include Adale in Hirshabelle State which was occupied by the Burundi National Defence Forces (BNDF) and Albao in Southwest State, which was under the responsibility of the Uganda People's Defense Forces (UPDF).

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio has won a second term in office, receiving 56.17% of ballots cast and narrowly clearing the threshold for avoiding a runoff in the West African nation, electoral officials said Tuesday.

Main opposition candidate Samura Kamara immediately disputed the results showing he had received 41.16% of the vote in Saturday’s election.

NAIROBI/DAKAR, June 27 (Reuters) - The United Nations plans to end its decade-long peacekeeping mission in Mali on June 30 and will withdraw all personnel within six months, according to a draft Security Council resolution proposed by France and seen by Reuters.

The withdrawal of the 13,000-strong mission, known as MINUSMA, would come after years of tensions between the U.N. and Mali's military junta came to a head this month when Mali Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop asked the force to leave "without delay".

LAGOS, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria's anti-drug agency has seized more than 5000 kilograms of cannabis in two operations in the past week in Lagos, the country's economic hub, and arrested two suspects for alleged ties to a drug trafficking network.

The operations were carried out in the Lekki area of Lagos between Monday and Tuesday based on credible intelligence, according to a statement from the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on Sunday.

MOGADISHU, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) said it has wrapped up a two-week training of 55 Somali traffic police officers to enhance their capacity to manage traffic flow and ensure safety on public roads.

ATMIS said the intensive training of the trainer course which ended on Friday was held simultaneously in the Somali capital Mogadishu, Jowhar in Hirshabelle State, Baidoa in Southwest State and Kismayo in Jubaland State.

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Voters in Sierra Leone were deciding Saturday whether to give President Julius Maada Bio a second term amid high unemployment and growing concern about the state of the West African nation’s economy.

A dozen candidates hoped to unseat Bio, though experts predicted his main competition likely would be Samura Kamara, the head of the All People’s Congress Party.

KINSHASA, June 19 (Xinhua) -- About 2.8 million people have been forced from their homes since March 2022 in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri, the three conflict-plagued provinces in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Monday.

The central African country now has 6.3 million internally displaced people, the highest number in any African country, the OCHA said in a press release.

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Malian voters cast ballots on a new draft constitution Sunday in a referendum that the country’s coup leader says will pave the way toward holding new elections in 2024, but that critics have called a delaying tactic for him to extend his time in power.

In a message broadcast on state television on the eve of the vote, Col. Assimi Goita told Malians that the proposed draft constitution “provides for a better-organized executive power, while maintaining the necessary balance with the legislative power.”