Reuters - Iran said the missile attack it launched in Syria on Monday had killed 40 “top leaders” of Islamic State, and that intelligence for the operation had been provided by its elite Quds Force.

APRNEWS - In the Central African Republic, the government has rejected talks of amnesty for rebels of the civil war that wracked.

REUTERS - South Sudanese authorities have arrested a prominent economist and critic of both the government and rebels, his wife said on Tuesday, the latest activist to be rounded up in the war-torn state.

APRNEWS - The government of South Sudan has defended a controversial decision to give parliamentarians car loans of $40,000 each, saying ‘they have a right to mobility’.

APRNEWS - The warring sides in South Sudan accused each other of launching attacks that killed 18 civilians and violated the latest peace deal aimed at ending the nearly five-year-old conflict.

Lul Ruai Koang, spokesman for the government military SPLA said rebels attacked Maban in Upper Nile state in the far northeast near the border with Sudan on Sunday.

AFRICANEWS - Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara said he is free to stand for a third term in the 2020 presidential election under the country’s new constitution, according to an interview in this week’s edition of French magazine Jeune Afrique.

AFRICANEWS - The call for dialogue as a way out of the security crisis in Cameroon’s Anglophone region has been reiterated by the country’s Catholic Bishops.

In an interview with the BBC Focus on Africa, Bishop of Mamfe in the southwest region, Andrew Nkea, stressed that urgent dialogue was required to pull the country back from a “useless and senseless” civil war.

GUARDIAN - Russian President Vladimir Putin held a rare meeting with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad on Thursday and said the situation in Syria is now favourable for the beginning of a “political process” which would lead to the withdrawal of foreign forces.

REUTERS - At least 15 people were killed and six were raped during a referendum campaign in Burundi that could let President Pierre Nkurunziza hold power until 2034, Human Rights Watch said on Friday.

REUTERS - Burundians stood in long lines on Thursday to vote in a referendum that could let President Pierre Nkurunziza stay in power to 2034, deepening fears of political repression and ethnic conflict in the heart of Africa’s Great Lakes.