Niger’s migrant smugglers use ever deadlier routes through the Sahara

Nigerian customs service, katsina area command has displayed seized items worth millions of naira, confiscated from smugglers.

With the number of African footballers playing for teams around the world at an all-time high, thousands of youngsters dream of following in their footsteps. According to the NGO Foot Solidaire, over 6,000 minors leave Africa every year in the hopes of being recruited abroad. Some hand over their savings to unscrupulous middlemen for the dubious promise of a trial with a foreign club. Today, both amateur and professional players are trying to prevent aspiring African footballers from falling victim to people smugglers. Our Ivory Coast correspondent Thaïs Brouck reports.

A gateway for drug smugglers. At the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula, a stone's throw from the Moroccan coast, the Strait of Gibraltar has become a gateway for the trafficking of drugs between Europe and Africa.

In Senegal, one man has created a lush oasis in the middle of the desert. Goran N'Diaye is a pioneer of permaculture. Following his own success, he's now training the next generation of young Senegalese farmers. In doing so, he hopes to change traditions and spread sustainable, ecologically friendly farming practices. Our colleagues from France 2 report, with FRANCE 24's Ellen Gainsford.

Archaeologists have discovered a giant cat figure etched into a slope at the Unesco world heritage site in southern Peru. The geoglyph measures 37 metres from head to tail and forms part of the Nazca Line — the hundreds of geoglyphs, including a hummingbird, a monkey and a pelican, carved into a coastal plain about 400km south of Lima.

Lagosians are now living in palpable fear as policemen, officials of Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), and Lagos State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA) have deserted Lagos roads and neighbourhoods for fear of attacks by miscreants.

Dubbed the "Manhattan of the desert" for its centuries-old skyscrapers, Yemen's ancient city of Shibam escaped damage in the civil war -- but faces collapse from disrepair amid rains and floods.

A mysterious metal monolith found in the remote desert of the western United States, sparking a national guessing game over how it got there, has apparently disappeared, officials say. The Bureau of Land Management in Utah Tweets, "We may not know if an extraterrestrial or earthling installed the 'monolith' structure, but we can confirm that it has been taken by an unknown party or parties."

Images released by the US Coast Guard of the rescue of three Cuban nationals who were stranded for more than a month on Anguilla Cay, a desert island in the Bahamas. A Coast Guard surveillance plane spotted the castaways during a routine patrol, noticing some unusual flags and some different colors. When they returned to the area to investigate, the aircrew noticed a makeshift shelter and three people signaling them. The group, who reportedly survived on coconuts and rats, had been living on the island after their boat capsized.

Tricycle operators desert Kano roads, protest against govt daily tax payment

The mythical Festival in the desert has returned to Mali... in a way. The Agna Festival near Bamako brings famous musicians together, as well as artists fleeing unrest in northern Mali.

Indian salt farmers work day in, day out for eight months a year to extract salt from handmade wells in a sparse corner of the western Gujarat state. A tonne of salt crystals fetches only 300 rupees ($4.00), but unpredictable rainfall, rising temperatures and frequent dust storms have slashed yields, and made it harder for salt farmers.