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.

Sudan warplanes bomb South Sudan border zones

Juba - Sudanese warplanes have bombed South Sudan, wounding six civilians in areas bordering war zone regions where Khartoum is trying to crush rebel fighters, reports said on Friday.

Claims of fresh bombing raids raises tensions between the former civil war foes, but also comes as Sudan's government holds peace talks with rebels.

South Sudan army spokesman Philip Aguer told the independent Radio Tamazuj that bombs were dropped on Wednesday in the Maban district of Upper Nile state, which hosts over 125 000 refugees who fled from fighting in neighbouring Sudan's Blue Nile state.

UN halves food aid to Kenya

Nairobi - Food rations vital for half a million refugees in Kenya will be slashed in half due to an aid shortfall, the United Nations said on Friday in an appeal to donors.

"Cutting rations is the last resort", UN World Food Programme (WFP) deputy chief for Kenya Paul Turnbull said, calling for $38m more in cash, including an immediate $15.5m to feed refugees until January.

Most of the refugees in impoverished camps in northern Kenya come from neighbouring war-torn South Sudan and Somalia.