A court in Mauritania has sentenced two slave owners to between 10 and 20 years in jail. Human rights activists have celebrated the ruling, which they say is the harshest anti-slavery decision in the country’s history. The two cases were brought by former slaves in the northwestern town of Nouadhibou, activists said Friday. A special court delivered its verdict on …

People seeking a US visa may soon be required to disclose their social media information so that five years’ worth of their online footprint can be scrutinized. It was previously reserved for people from terrorism-affected states. Nationals from countries where the US requires no visa, which include Germany, France and Britain, would be exempt from the social media checks. The proposal was …

According to the latest Africa Investment Index 2018 by Quantum Global Research Lab, an independent research arm of Quantum Global, Morocco has been named the most attractive investment destination in Africa, followed closely by Egypt and Algeria. ‘‘Morocco has been consistent in attracting an inward flow of foreign capital, specifically in banking, tourism and energy sectors and through the development …

Voters in Sierra Leone flocked to the polls on Saturday to elect new president in a hotly contested run-off vote between opposition leader Julius Maada Bio and ruling party candidate Samura Kamara. Bio, of the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) won a razor-thin victory in the first round of voting on March 7 with 43.3 per cent, while his …

Germany’s foreign minister, Heiko Maas, is in New York to pitch for a seat at the UN Security Council for 2019 and 2020. A UN vote is to be held on June 8. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas will try to convince UN member states of Germany’s credentials for a seat at the UN Security Council in New York. Maas made …

Germany recorded a bounce in the birth rate in 2016, official statistics show. The country hit a 43-year high helped along by large numbers of recently-arrived migrants. The latest figures are part of an upward trend for Germany, Europe’s biggest country by population, which has suffered from low birth rates since the 1970s. Some 792,131 children were born in Europe’s …

President Donald Trump has said that several thousand Liberians who have been living in the United States under a temporary immigrant status will have one year to return to their country or they will face deportation. The president said in a memo on Tuesday to the secretary of state that he was formally ending a program that has allowed Liberian …

Gerard Canals, operation officer at the NGO Proactiva Open Arms, is not afraid of jail. Earlier this month, the Spanish NGO helped save more than 200 people from drowning in the central Mediterranean. “I may go to prison but I am not really worried because we did nothing wrong,” he told EUobserver on Tuesday (27 March) in Brussels. Canals, along …

Ethiopia’s ruling coalition has elected a new leader in the person of Dr Abiy Ahmed. He will eventually become Prime Minister of the country, its first Muslim leader ever. The change in leadership follows the surprise resignation of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn last month. He was the first ruler in modern Ethiopian history to step down; previous leaders have died …

“We won’t be putting a check in anyone’s pocket,” Germany’s development minister has said. The new initiative follows a test program whereby Germany gave refugees extra money to return home. The German government announced on Wednesday a new initiative to make it more attractive for refugees in Germany to voluntarily return to their country of origin. Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development, …