President Bashar al-Assad says his administration has genuine potentials to overcome US-led Western sanctions, reduce their impact and rebuild Syria's damaged infrastructure.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo orders the military to take over civil authorities in two eastern regions where dozens of armed groups operate and civilians have been subjected to horrifying abuses.

A female suicide bomber in northern Cameroon kills at least 13 people, including children, a UN report says.

At least one hundred people are killed in simultaneous attack on two villages in western Niger.

Boko Haram and a splinter group known as ISWAP have killed 36,000 people in northeastern Nigeria since 2009.

The election comes as militancy in Burkina Faso has claimed more than 1,200 lives over the past few years.

US occupation forces kidnap several civilians in Syria's oil-rich eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr.