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They Once Ruled Ethiopia. Now They Are Fighting Its Government.

NAIROBI, Kenya — When it comes to moun­tain war­fare, the peo­ple of Tigray — an ancient king­dom in the far north of Ethiopia, spread across jagged peaks and lush farm­land — have decades of hard-won expe­ri­ence.  Tigrayan fight­ers led a

Top A.N.C. Official Charged With Corruption in South Africa

JOHANNESBURG — A top mem­ber of South Africa’s gov­ern­ing African Nation­al Con­gress par­ty appeared in court on Fri­day, charged with cor­rup­tion, in a rare sign that pow­er­ful mem­bers of the par­ty could be held to account for endem­ic pil­fer­ing of

Nigeria Goes on Offensive Against Youth Protesting Police Brutality

LAGOS, Nige­ria — Nigeria’s lead­ers have made a show of respond­ing to the demands of a mas­sive youth-led upris­ing over police bru­tal­i­ty that recent­ly brought the coun­try to a stand­still and cap­tured glob­al atten­tion. The gov­ern­ment has com­mis­sioned pan­els of inquiry

A New Museum to Bring the Benin Bronzes Home

LONDON — In 1897, the British Army vio­lent­ly raid­ed Benin City in what is now Nige­ria, seiz­ing thou­sands of price­less arti­facts known as the Benin Bronzes. Ever since, there have been hopes of bring­ing them back from West­ern muse­ums. On Fri­day, hope

At Least 74 Drown in Wreck Off Libya, U.N. Agency Says

At least 74 peo­ple drowned on Thurs­day when a rub­ber raft car­ry­ing migrants sank off the coast of Libya, the lat­est in a series of dis­as­ters in the world’s dead­liest sea cross­ing, accord­ing to a Unit­ed Nations agency. The motor­ized raft,

Jerry Rawlings, From Coup-Plotter to Ghanaian Statesman, Dies at 73

Jer­ry Rawl­ings, a for­mer Ghana­ian Air Force offi­cer who led two mil­i­tary coups before steer­ing his coun­try toward democ­ra­cy with an author­i­tar­i­an hand, died on Thurs­day in the nation’s cap­i­tal, Accra. He was 73. Mr. Rawl­ings died in a hos­pi­tal “after

Sindika Dokolo, Crusader for Return of African Art, Dies at 48

Sindi­ka Doko­lo, a wealthy Con­golese art col­lec­tor who cru­sad­ed for the return of African art removed dur­ing the colo­nial era by West­ern muse­ums, art deal­ers and auc­tion hous­es, but who became embroiled this year in inves­ti­ga­tions into how his Angolan

The Afrobeats Star Davido, an Upbeat Voice in a Turbulent Time

Davi­do — the Amer­i­­can-born Niger­ian Afrobeats artist David Adede­ji Adeleke — has built an inter­na­tion­al career on songs about love and lust that have col­lec­tive­ly amassed more than a bil­lion streams. The album he is releas­ing on Fri­day, “A Better

Amadou Toumani Touré, Former Malian President, Dies at 72

Amadou Toumani Touré, a for­mer pres­i­dent of Mali who helped shape the country’s polit­i­cal land­scape over two decades before being top­pled in a mil­i­tary coup in 2012, died on Mon­day in Istan­bul. He was 72. Mr. Touré’s chief of staff, Seydou

Christopher Miller Named Acting Defense Secretary

WASHINGTON — A lit­­tle-known coun­tert­er­ror­ism offi­cial named Christo­pher C. Miller flew to the Mid­dle East last month to pur­sue a diplo­mat­ic idea: ask­ing Qatar to help devise plans to buy off or oth­er­wise mar­gin­al­ize some senior lead­ers of the Shabab,