Mugabe succession battle intensifies ahead of key congress

Harare - Zimbabwe's ruling party has suspended two senior officials and expelled another as tensions over President Robert Mugabe's succession intensify ahead of a key congress next month, media reported on Friday.

The state-owned Herald newspaper said Zanu-PF politburo suspended spokesperson Rugare Gumbo and lawmaker Enoch Porusingazi for five years, while war veterans leader Jabulani Sibanda was expelled.

"I can confirm the suspensions," Psychology Maziwisa, the Zanu-PF party deputy party spokesperson told AFP declining to comment further.

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.