Authorities say travelers were kidnapped at gunpoint by unknown assailants. Africa's most populous country, Nigeria is plagued by terror, banditry and ethnic clashes as elections loom.

Gunmen killed at least 38 villagers in northwestern Nigeria's Kaduna state, residents and a local community group said on Tuesday, a region chronically marred by armed violence. Olivia Chan reports.

Nigeria's state railway company resumed a popular train service between the capital Abuja and the northern state of Kaduna that was suspended in March after gunmen killed passengers and kidnapped several dozens.

Kidnappings for ransom have become increasingly common in Imo state. Members of the clergy are frequent targets.

People in Soweto accuse authorities of not doing enough to protect them after 15 people are gunned down in an attack on a bar in the South African township. In Nigeria, the presidential candidate for the ruling party picks a Muslim senator as his running mate. Lastly, faced with surging global energy prices because of the war in Ukraine, more Tunisian entrepreneurs are looking for green energy alternatives.

Police are hunting for five attackers who burst into a bar in Soweto, South Africa and killed 15 customers in a hail of at least 137 bullets over the weekend, the police minister said on Monday.

Police in South Africa say 15 people were killed and another nine injured in a shooting at a tavern in Soweto, while four died in an apparently unrelated attack in another bar in Pietermaritzburg.

Eleven passengers seized by gunmen during an attack on a train in northern Nigeria have been freed, though dozens are thought to remain in captivity.

Gunmen attacked a Catholic church in Owo, Ondo State South-West Nigeria during mass on Sunday, killing at least 50 people including women and children. Here is what we know so far about the killings.

At least 50 people were killed and others injured after gunmen attacked a Catholic church in Nigeria's Ondo state during mass on Sunday, a doctor and local media reported. A doctor at a hospital in Owo, a town in the state in Nigeria's southwest, told Reuters that no fewer than 50 bodies had been moved to the FMC (Federal Medical Center) in Owo and to St. Louis Catholic Hospital.

The victims were attacked while trying to escape a blockade set up by extremists, survivors said. The area of eastern Burkina Faso has seen a recent surge in attacks.

Niger's President Mohamed Bazoum visited Banibangou on Saturday (November 6), an area where gunmen killed 69 people including a mayor earlier in the week, part of a wave of violence against civilians that has swept the country this year. A delegation led by the mayor of Banibangou was ambushed on Tuesday (November 2) about 50 km (30 miles) from the town, near the border with Mali. The area is overrun by militants associated with a local affiliate of Islamic State that has killed hundreds of civilians in rural communities this year. Fifteen people survived and a search operation was underway, Interior Minister Alkache Alhada said on state television. No group claimed responsibility for the attack.