The leader of South Africa's biggest platinum mining union threatened on Friday to bring Africa's No. 1 economy "to a standstill" and demanded a meeting with President Jacob Zuma, ramping up the rhetoric in an 18-month labor crisis. The rand, which tumbled to a four-year low against the dollar on Thursday on fears of a strike at Anglo American Platinum, extended its slide on concerns about further disruptio ...

About 14,000 villagers from 20 communities in Niger took a public vow to end female genital mutilation (FGM) and forced under-age marriage as the West African country's government steps up its fight against such abuses. Though Niger outlawed the practice in 2003, FGM and other violent treatment of young women remain prevalent among some ethnic groups in the impoverished Sahel nation, which ranks bottom of t ...

More than 20 South African boys have died over the past week during coming of age rituals, police said on Thursday, and they blamed botched circumcisions as the likely cause of death. Northern Mpumalanga province's police department has opened 22 murder cases but no arrests have been made so far, spokesman Colonel Leonard Hlathi said. Every year in South Africa, boys aged 10 to 15 years from several of the ...

Miners at South Africa's Anglo American Platinum operations will stage a work stoppage from Thursday evening over proposed job cuts, a branch official for mineworkers union AMCU told Reuters. "The night shift today is not going underground and also the day shift tomorrow is not going to work," the official, who did not want to be identified, said. He could not say how long the stoppage might last. Amplats s ...

Swaziland has launched a crackdown on high-flying witches after banning them from hovering above 150metres. It has been a long time since witches were burnt at the stake in Europe but the accusation remains a serious one in the landlocked African country. Anyone caught flying their broomstick above the height limit faces arrest and a hefty R500,000 fine, the country’s Civil Aviation Authorities said this we ...

The UN envoy to the Central African Republic urged the Security Council on Wednesday to consider imposing sanctions on rebels accused of severe rights violations including rape, maiming, recruitment of child soldiers and forced marriages. Margaret Vogt also told the council that a neutral security force should be deployed to "contain the current state of anarchy" in the mineral-rich state, where the Seleka ...

At least 31 people were killed in violent clashes after Mai Mai rebels attacked army positions in Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern town of Beni, a military spokesman said on Wednesday. Gunmen launched the attack early on Wednesday at an army recruitment center near the North Kivu provincial town before being repelled after more than two hours of fighting, Colonel Olivier Hamuli told Reuters. "The prov ...

The European Union will pledge more than half a billion euros ($650 million) to help Mali rebuild after months of conflict, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Tuesday. "Tomorrow we will commit 520 million euros for Mali between 2013 and 2014," Barroso told reporters ahead of a conference of aid donors in Brussels on Wednesday. The Malian government is seeking roughly 2 billion euros i ...

Ghana's bourse is up more than 50 percent so far this year, but the reluctance of key companies to list in the West African market may be blunting its economic impact. The country is the world's second biggest cocoa producer and the continents number two gold miner after South Africa. It began producing oil in 2010 and investors have paid increasing attention. But only 34 companies are listed on the primary ...

South African workers of world number three platinum producer, Lonmin, launched a wildcat strike on Tuesday, halting all of the company's mine operations and reigniting fears of deadly unrest that rocked the industry last year. The platinum belt towns of Rustenburg and Marikana, which saw a bloody Lonmin strike last year, are volatile flashpoint of labour strife and tensions are running high with job cuts a ...