Senegal partially reopens borders with Ebola-hit states

Dakar - Senegal has reopened air and sea borders with Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - the countries worst hit by the Ebola virus.

The frontiers had been closed since 21 August, but the restriction was lifted with immediate effect, Senegalese interior minister Abdoulaye Daouda Diallo said on Friday.

"Senegal has decided to partially open its borders with the Republic of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone as of this Friday... this measure applies only to air and maritime borders excluding the land border," Diallo said.

DRC declares itself Ebola-free

Kinshasa -The Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday declared itself Ebola-free, after a three-month outbreak of the killer disease claimed at least 49 lives.

The DRC outbreak, which began in August, involved a different strain of Ebola from the one that has claimed more than 5 100 lives in west Africa.

"The end of the epidemic... does not mean we are completely out of danger," said DRC Health Minister Felix Kabange Numbi.

Three dead in Nigeria air crash

Kano - Nigeria on Friday said three servicemen were killed in a military helicopter crash in the restive northeast, while Boko Haram rebels raided two more towns and vigilantes and hunters clawed back a key militant stronghold.

The second crash in a week happened late on Thursday in Yola, the capital of Adamawa, which is one of three states that has been under emergency rule since May last year.

The military said the aircraft involved was a ground attack helicopter on an armed patrol.

"The crew of three was lost in the ill-fated accident," a statement said, adding that an investigation will be carried out.

Boko Haram invades 2 towns in NE Nigeria

Kano - Scores of Boko Haram fighters on Thursday invaded two towns in northeast Nigeria's Adamawa state after hunters and civilian vigilantes reportedly ousted them from a key town, residents told AFP.

The Islamists raided Hong and Gombi, about 100km from the state capital, Yola, after they were pushed out of the commercial hub of Mubi, which they seized two weeks ago.

Boko Haram is thought to have captured more than two dozen towns in Yobe, Borno and Adamawa states in recent months, as part of its quest to establish a hardline caliphate in the region.

Military chopper crashes in northeast Nigeria

Yola - Witnesses and police say a military helicopter crashed in an explosion of fire near a college hostel in northeast Nigeria, where troops are fighting an Islamic insurgency. They saw no survivors.

Four days earlier, the military reported a helicopter safely crash-landed in the area. Two months ago, Islamic extremists said they shot down a fighter jet and published video showing the beheading of a man friends identified as a Nigerian Air Force pilot.