The U.S.-backed government of Somalia and its Kenyan allies have recruited hundreds of Somali refugees, including children, to fight in a war against al-Shabab, an Islamist militia linked to al-Qaeda, according to former recruits, their relatives and community leaders.

Several of Sudan’s biggest opposition parties announced Thursday that they were planning a full boycott of the national elections this month, casting a cloud of uncertainty over Sudan’s first multiparty vote in more than 20 years and complicating the landmark agreement that ended decades of civil war in the country.

Reporting from Maiduguri, Nigeria — Nigeria's "Taliban," named for its heroes in a far-off land, could provide willing recruits for attacks on American targets, one of the group's leaders boasted in a rare interview that had the trappings of a spy novel.

 It does not happen often: Christian lobbyists, the sort who favour prayer in American classrooms and crucifixes in Italian ones, lining up on the same side as secularists who battle to curb religion’s role in the public square.

Hundreds of enraged protesters marched through the streets of Mogadishu on Monday to protest against the Shabab, a militant Islamist insurgent group, in one of the largest demonstrations in recent years.

A donors' conference composed mainly of Islamic countries has pledged some $850 million in reconstruction aid to help ease the suffering for the people of Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region. But don’t expect that this money will mean a quick end to the seven-year-long conflict.

 A video posted on a militant Web site calls for Muslims in Nigeria to use "the sword and the spear" to rise up against Christians in Africa's most populous nation, according to a translation released Tuesday by a U.S. group that monitors militant sites.

The preliminary peace treaty signed Tuesday night between the most powerful rebel movement in Darfur and the Sudanese government is the culmination of a shift in regional politics that could help bring Darfur's sputtering conflict to an end, Sudan observers say.

A Ugandan pastor who screened same-sex pornography in a church to try to bolster support for proposed anti-homosexuality legislation has been condemned by gay rights groups.

What was supposed to be Kenya’s first gay wedding was cancelled yesterday, after a wave of protests from the country’s religious community.

Once a fortnight, 50 or so Nigerians furtively log on for an online Bible study class.

Christian leaders who are themselves divided over homosexuality have joined forces to oppose a proposed Ugandan law that calls for the death penalty for some homosexual behavior. "Our Christian faith recognizes violence, harassment and unjust trea...