THE seizure by Somali pirates of the MV Sirius Star, an oil supertanker owned by Saudi company Aramco, some 450 nautical miles off the coast of Kenya, is a brazen act that represents a major threat to both the world’s energy security and the shipping lanes of the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.

WINTER reveals what was hidden all summer. Three nests in the garden, visible from my workroom window.

WEST AFRICAN gangs have developed a new cocaine trafficking route into Europe, according to a UN drugs watchdog.

A trial in Africa’s biggest mercenary case in decades has opened in Equatorial Guinea, with soldiers of fortune from Europe, Africa and Asia accused in an alleged plot to take control of oil-rich country.

Squeezed out of sanctuaries elsewhere in the world, Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terror group may be looking to the deserts and jungles of Africa as a haven to train recruits and plan new attacks, the deputy head of US forces in Europe says.

Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh has announced the discovery of “large quantities” of oil in his tiny West African nation, saying the offshore find would eliminate poverty and hunger.

Renegade troops toppled the government of Sao Tome and Principe, a potentially oil rich but impoverished island nation off west Africa, and installed a ruling junta today.

A ship at the centre of a frantic search in Africa’s Gulf of Guinea was involved in child trafficking, officials confirmed today.

Children taken from a ferry are resting while authorities try to determine if it is the vessel that sparked a hunt for a suspected child-slave ship in Africa's Gulf of Guinea.

Fears are growing for the welfare of more than 100 slave children on board a cargo ship in Africa's Gulf of Guinea.