US denies failing to help Nigeria fight Boko Haram

Washington - The United States hit back on Wednesday at allegations by the Nigerian ambassador of failing to help fight Boko Haram militants, saying there had been "a great deal" of US aid to his country.

In the past six months since the Islamic militants snatched at least 200 schoolgirls in northern Nigeria, Washington has shared intelligence with the Nigerian army, begun training a new battalion and held high-level talks on the threat of Boko Haram, a US official said.

Abductions by Uganda's LRA rebels on the rise

Nairobi - Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army rebels have launched a string of attacks across central Africa with a "steady increase" in abductions, the United Nations said in a report seen on Thursday.

The elusive jungle insurgents, who raid villages and enslave residents, have abducted 432 people so far this year, a "steady increase" from last year and more than double the number in 2012, the report by the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) read.

Liberia says won’t extend state of emergency over Ebola

Monrovia - Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said on Thursday she would not seek an extension to a state of emergency imposed in August over the outbreak of Ebola that has killed at least 2 836 people in the country.

The announcement in an address on state radio is a sign of progress in the fight against the disease, which has hit Liberia harder than Guinea or Sierra Leone, the two other countries at the centre of the worst outbreak on record.

First Ebola treatment trials to start in west Africa

Geneva - Global aid agency Doctors Without Borders said on Thursday it would begin unprecedented trials within a month on Ebola drugs and blood from survivors using patients in west Africa.

The trials in Guinea and Liberia are aimed at rushing out an emergency therapy that can be used in a battle which has taken more than 5 000 lives since December.

Central African Republic rebels block highways

Bangui - Seleka rebels in Central African Republic blocked two highways through the capital Bangui on Thursday and exchanged gunfire with UN peacekeepers, witnesses said, in a further bout of the violent disorder plaguing the country.

The fighters, based at Camp Beal in Bangui since their leader ceded power to a transitional government in January, were protesting at a plan to relocate some of their ranks to a southern province to improve security in the capital.