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.

Liberia lifts Ebola emergency

Liberia lifts Ebola emergencyGeneva - Liberia lifted its state of emergency on Thursday, announcing huge gains in the fight with Ebola as Africa pinned its hopes on trials for a "miracle drug" to be tested on patients in Guinea.

The end of a raft of tough restrictions - the clearest sign yet that authorities in Monrovia believe they are beating the epidemic - follows a dramatic recent drop in new cases.

"I have informed the leadership of the national legislature that I will not seek an extension of the state of emergency," President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf announced on state-owned radio network ELBC.