South Africa's ruling African National Congress holds an election this weekend to replace Jacob Zuma as party leader in a closely fought contest whose winner is likely to emerge as the nation's next president. The front-runners are Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, a former trade union leader and one of South Africa's richest people, and Zuma's preferred candidate, his ex-wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a former minister and chairperson of the African Union Commission.

Death toll from inter-clan fighting in South Sudan’s Great Lakes region last week - a new source of violence in a country devastated by a four-year civil war - has reached at least 170, officials said on Tuesday.

The clashes in the province’s Malek county broke out after a group of young men from the Ruop ethnic group attacked rival youth from the Pakam group on Wednesday and Thursday.

Revenge attacks have since taken place.

Close to 6, 000 Africans who participated in the Middle East fights may return to Africa, African Union top security official, Smail Shergi, warned on Sunday and called on countries to prepare for the threat. Smail Chergui, the AU’s commissioner for peace and security, said African nations would need to work closely with each other and share intelligence to counter returning militants.

Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe has left the country for medical checks in Singapore, his first foreign travel since the army forced him from office last month, a state security official said on Tuesday.

The 93-year-old, who ruled the southern African nation for 37 years, resigned after the army and his ruling ZANU-PF party turned against him when it became clear that his 52-year-old wife, Grace, was being groomed as his successor.

Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli is under fire for pardoning persons convicted of raping school girls. According to a child rights activist who heads the Community for Children’s Rights located in the country’s north, the president’s action comes across as a punishment to young children.

Sudan Women Charged With Indecency For Wearing Trousers

Twenty-four women have been charged with indecency after being caught wearing trousers at a party near the Sudanese capital Khartoum. The gathering was raided by morality police on Wednesday.