In This Issue:

- Leading the News

- United States – Africa Relations

- North Africa

- East Africa

- West Africa

- Sub - Saharan Africa

- General Africa News

- Excerpt from Leading the News:

Nigeria -

On April 9th, the United Nations (U.N.) refugee agency (UNHCR) issued an urgent funding appeal for $174.4 million to provide assistance and protection to roughly 192,000 refugees fleeing violence perpetrated by Boko Haram in Nigeria’s Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe states. According to UNHCR, since 2009, more than 15,000 people have been killed, abducted, recruited, or abused by Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria.

On April 10th, as Nigeria prepared for gubernatorial and State Assembly elections, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon again congratulated the country’s people and government on the peaceful manner in which the recent presidential and parliamentary elections were held and expressed hope that similar conditions would prevail during the new polls. Secretary-General Ban called on all political leaders to continue to uphold their commitments under the Abuja Accords to refrain from and immediately condemn any inflammatory statements that amount to an incitement to violence.