PICS: Panic grips northern Mozambique following 'terrorist incident at local supermarket'
Panic reportedly gripped northern Mozambique after reports of terrorists storming a supermarket emerged on social media.
According to BBC, a group of armed men – possibly with links to an Islamist jihadist group currently terrorising the province – had taken hostages at the supermarket.
Schools and business were forced to shut down, as they feared being next on the list of the armed group, the report said.
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Donkeys stolen, skinned in Africa to feed Chinese demand
Dawn was just beginning to break when Joseph Kamonjo Kariuki woke to find his donkeys missing. The villager searched the bush frantically for the animals he depends on to deliver water for a living, but they were nowhere to be found.
It was the village's children who led Kariuki to the ghastly remains: three bloody, severed donkey heads lying on the ground.
"I was in shock," said Kariuki, 37, who is known in his Kenyan village of Naivasha as "Jose wa Mapunda" — "Joseph of the Donkeys" in Swahili.
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Tanzania's Magufuli expresses 'deep sadness' as 10 army reservists killed in bus crash
At least ten Tanzanian army reservists were killed on Thursday when their overcrowded and dilapidated bus overturned in the south of the country, police and witnesses said.
The army had rented the bus to transport 210 reservists to a training camp when it crashed in Igodima in Mbeya region.
Regional police commander Mussa Taibu blamed the accident on both speeding and the run-down state of the bus.
"We regret that for now ten of the 210 people on board have died, the 200 others were wounded," the commander said.
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'Beware of the Mugabe, Grace-backed party,' MDC Alliance warned
Zimbabwe's new political outfit, the National Patriotic Front (NPF), is reportedly likely set to divide the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Alliance, after it maintained this week that it was in discussions with the alliance so that the two parties can work together - ahead of the forthcoming elections.
NPF was reportedly linked to former president Robert Mugabe and his wife, Grace.
According to the privately-owned Daily News, the two parties recently held secret talks in Cape Town where it reportedly emerged that Grace remained resolute that she wanted to be the MDC Alliance's deputy president.
The sensational claim was made by Jim Kunaka of the NFP.
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Zimbabwean 2-year-old killed in 'senseless, horrific act' ahead of elections
The United States on Thursday condemned the killing of a 2-year-old boy in Zimbabwe as a "senseless and horrific act" and warned that if the murder was politically motivated it would call into question the country's commitment to a free and fair election next month.
The US embassy statement came as Zimbabwe's military-backed president and a youthful opposition leader registered for the July 30 elections, the first without former leader Robert Mugabe's participation.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the 75-year-old former Mugabe ally who took power with the military's help in November, faces a strong challenge from Nelson Chamisa, a 40-year-old who has energized the main opposition party.
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Zim presidential race breaks record as 23 vie for the highest office
A record 23 presidential candidates were cleared on Thursday to run in Zimbabwe's elections due on July 30, including incumbent Emmerson Mnangagwa and young opposition leader Nelson Chamisa, the country's electoral commission announced.
It is the first election in Zimbabwe since veteran leader Robert Mugabe was ousted following a brief military takeover in November last year, after 37 years in power.
The July election will be a key test for Mnangagwa, nicknamed the 'Crocodile', who succeeded the long-serving autocrat Mugabe seven months ago, and remains untested at the ballot box.
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