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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has rejected advice to cancel the second Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, over fears of the spread of the Ebola virus. Erdoğan has insisted on going ahead with the scheduled summit in order to display solidarity with the host country, Foreign Ministry officials told the Hürriyet Daily News. The Turkish president will attend the summit in Malabo on Nov. 20-21. Following the launch of Turkey’s “opening up to Africa" strategy, the country has transited to the phase of “partnership with Africa” since 2013, according to officials. Around 200 business leaders and...

The border region between Chad and Sudan has become the focus of numerous wars and is the site of one of the world's most serious humanitarian crises. Cross-border fighting, as well as internal civil wars in both countries, have caused some 2.4m people to flee their homes in recent years. The two countries have become "brother enemies" and they are neighbours with many common traits. Both regimes came to power in military coups; both oppress their civilian opponents and both have recently discovered and exploited significant quantities of oil which have made their elites rich. About two million people have...

PALE, Bosnia (Reuters) - European Union peacekeepers raided the homes on Thursday of relatives of Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic, a genocide suspect on the run from the U.N. war crimes court. Some 20 vehicles of the EUFOR peacekeeping force surrounded the house where Karadzic's wife Ljiljana Zelen-Karadzic lives in Pale, his stronghold in the 1992-95 Bosnia war, lying about 16 km (10 miles) southeast of the capital Sarajevo. Italian carabinieri also searched the homes of Karadzic's daughter Sonja and suspected Karadzic supporter Smiljka Popov in the centre of the mountain town, said EUFOR spokesman Philip Treloar. "The aim...

Members of the Dutch parliament's lower house have expressed serious concerns over joining the EU's military mission in Chad, over fears that France may affect the neutrality of the mission. The 3,700 strong EU force was officially deployed this week (17 March) to protect refugees on the border of the Sudanese region of Darfur. The Dutch are concerned that France may affect the neutrality of the mission. France is the former colonial power in Chad and is providing half the troops for the EU force, which is also being commanded on the ground by French General Jean-Philippe Ganascia. The Dutch...

Sudanese forces have clashed with troops from the European Union Force in Chad after they crossed the border into the Darfur region, Sudan says. A Sudanese soldier and a civilian were killed during the exchange of fire, the Sudanese army says. The EU Force (Eufor) says it was trying to recover one of its vehicles which had accidentally strayed into Sudan. A French soldier who was in the vehicle is still missing, and France has asked for Sudan's help to find him. The French soldier's disappearance is the first serious incident experienced by the force. Another soldier was injured -...

BRUSSELS, May 22 (Reuters) - Turkey is blocking plans to enhance cooperation between NATO troops and a future European Union police mission in Kosovo in protest at its treatment by the EU, diplomats said on Tuesday. The 27-nation bloc will take over policing of the breakaway Serbian province from the United Nations later this year if a U.N. plan granting Kosovo effective independence is passed. Some 1,500 EU staff will work alongside NATO's 16,000-plus peacekeepers and the two bodies want to avoid potential for conflict by setting out clear guidelines for how the two forces will cooperate. But NATO-member Turkey,...

The wife of Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Dragomir Abazovic was shot to death in a gun battle as EU troops stormed the couple? house in Bosnia on Thursday (5 January). Her husband, wanted for war crimes during the 1992-95 Balkan war, and his 12 year-old son were badly injured when the soldiers stormed the house - the raid was carried out by European Union peacekeeping troops (EUfor) in Mr Abazovic's home village Kozoci, some 60 km east of Sarajevo. A spokesperson for the EUfor troops in the vicinity confirmed on Thursday that the shooting incident had taken place. "EUfor...

EU begins first military foray in Balkans BRUSSELS, Belgium, March 31 (UPI) -- The European Union launched its first military mission Monday, taking over peacekeeping duties in Macedonia from NATO. More than 350 EU troops are to be deployed in the former Yugoslav republic over the next six months in what is seen as a litmus test for the bloc's fledgling foreign policy. The 15-member club plans to set up a 60,000-person rapid reaction force by the end of the year, capable of carrying out peacekeeping and peace-enforcing operations anywhere in the world within 60 days. The EU has also...

EU makes military debut in shadow of Iraq war SKOPJE, Macedonia (Reuters) - The European Union launched its first military operation Monday, taking over NATO's small peacekeeping mission in Macedonia in a ground-breaking venture overshadowed by the U.S.-led war in Iraq. EU officials have hailed the operation in the ex-Yugoslav republic, where government forces fought Albanian rebels in 2001, as a bright spot in the development of the bloc's common foreign and security policy, at a time of division over Iraq. But the launch of Operation Concordia may draw little international attention because of the massive military action in the...