NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — With the help of French special forces, Niger's military on Friday killed the last two jihadists holed up inside a dormitory on the grounds of a military garrison in the desert town of Agadez, and freed at least two soldiers who had been held hostage by the extremists, accordin to French and Nigerien officials.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Patients at Kenya's only psychiatric hospital are often confined and immobilized using drugs that put them in a comatose-like state, factors that may have led to the recent escape of 40 male patients, an advocacy group said Friday.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Dozens of paintings, a silver tea set and other items belonging to Nelson Mandela's ex-wife Winnie will be auctioned to pay off debts she owes to a South African school.

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Mali is in the final stages of preparation for an assault on the northern provincial capital of Kidal, the last rebel-held town in the country's north, a military spokesman said on Wednesday.

GOMA, Congo (AP) — M23 rebels fired two rockets into the eastern Congo city of Goma, killing one person and wounding four, officials said, in an apparent spillover from three days of fighting raging north of the city.

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni fired his top military commander Friday, the ouster apparently linked to turmoil over Museveni's alleged plan to have his son succeed him as head of state.

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Suspected foreign fighters backing a rebel movement now in control of Central African Republic's government invaded a remote north-central village and killed six people, residents said.

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — A Nigerian federal judge has found an Iranian and a Nigerian guilty of attempting to smuggle a shipment of military-grade weapons seized at the country's main port.

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Residents in Nigeria's northeast accused the military of burning down civilian homes in a recent fight with Islamic extremists that left at least 187 people dead, the latest in a series of incidents which authorities have been blamed for the killing of bystanders.

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe's president signs into law a new constitution and vows to hold peaceful and clean elections later this year.