A Greek oil tanker off Togo and a Norwegian bulk carrier are the latest targets of the buccaneers.

Four crew members had been kidnapped from the Greek tanker attacked off Togo. A security guard was shot and injured. 

Nine sailors  were abducted from the Norwegian bulk carrier off Benin.

Figures from the  International Maritime Bureau indicate these bring to 75 the number  seafarers seized this past year by pirates seeking ransom payments from the ship owners.

Millions of dollars have been paid by companies considering whether to send vessels into the Gulf of Guinea. 

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Aaron Motsoaledi was speaking at a World Health Organization conference at Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls where the host 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe frequently travels visits eye specialists in  Singapore.

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Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi says African leaders travel abroad for medical attention because they are not confident of receiving adequate treatment at home.

Because they can afford to do this, they are not motivated to provide the resources to improve domestic medical services and infrastructure.

He says Africa’s the only continent where leaders travel abroad for health reasons.

They should be ashamed of this and should be promoting their own hospitals, clinics and specialist doctors.

This year, Nigeria’s Muhamadu Buhari has spent no less than five months in British hospitals. He still has not revealed to his people what ails him.

Last year, Buhari rounded on wealthy compatriots  going to European, Asian or American hospitals, dismissing them as health tourists.

Outgoing Angola President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos has fallen into this category.

So have Presidents Patrice Talon of Benin and Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria.

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe officially opened the conference addressed by Motsoaledi.

He was not at the gathering at Victoria Falls when the South African minister spoke.

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The full extent of medication trafficking to Africa – which is 20 times more profitable that the narcotics trade – has not been determined.

Since 2012, the World Customs Authority , in conjunction with the Institute of Research against Counterfeit Medicine (IRACM), has intercepted more than 750 million illicit drugs in Africa’s ports.

The most significant seizures were made in Nigeria, Benin, Kenya and Togo, but it is the drugs’ countries of origin that is most startling.

97% of fraudulent pharmaceutical products are shipped from China or India.

Fake medications are ineffective, dangerous or, at worse, lethal.

They include treatments for serious illnesses like cancer.

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The victory by Nana Akufo-Addo’s centre New Patriotic party, after eight years of rule by the left-leaning National Democratic Congress, triggered wild celebrations across much of the country.

Akufo Addo thanked the incumbent  John Dramani Mahama for conceding defeat and for his  work for Ghana

His win follows the surprise electoral defeat last week of Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh, who had spent 23 years in office after seizing power in a coup.

The two results point to west Africa’s improving record for smooth democratic transitions after recent transfers of power in Nigeria, Cape Verde and Benin. However, Jammeh has  backtracked on his concession.

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He’ll visit Ebola for talks with Africa’s only woman president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and move to Madagascar for the summit of French speaking countries.

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Premier Justin Trudeau’s office is saying his safari is designed to strengthen relations with African countries and advance issues like the rights of women and girls, health, and peace and security.

Canada and Benin are co-sponsoring a resolution at the Francophonie summit against child brides and forced marriage.

Canada has given $24 million in development aid to Liberia and pitched in to the tune of $130 million to fight the Ebola outbreak two year ago that struck Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

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But peace and security on the continent is now threatened by African leaders clinging to power.

At their summit in Sandton next weekend African leaders have to consider whether to red card those who do.

In the last half of the previous century there were 89 successful coups in Africa.

Since 2000 there have been only six.

David Zounmenou of the Institute for Security Studies says the new African tyrants are those who tamper with our disregard their constitutions to stay at the helm.

The African Union ground law stipulates that they should be shunned like any leader who’s seized power unconstitutionally.

Will the African leaders gathered in Sandton on Sunday have the courage to do this?

President Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi is the latest example.

But there are at least four others in Rwanda, the two Congos and Benin.

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The 15-year-old tanker Kalamos was awaiting fresh cargo from an oil terminal in Nigeria’s south eastern region.

The Malta-flagged vessel’s operated by ExxonMobil. Most of the crew are Greek.

Pirates boarded it in the Gulf of Guinea, which has overtaken the Horn of Africa as Africa’s epicentre for buccaneers.

In the first nine months last year the area recorded at least 33 incidents of piracy and armed robbery, according to the International Maritime Bureau .

It said the pirates operating off the coast of Nigeria, Togo and Benin are heavily armed and violent, and often hold crews hostage for several days.

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The presidential statement from the world body’s powerhouse is its first response to the threat posed by the Nigerian jihadists.

The UN Security Council’s issued a 13-point statement strongly condemning attacks by Boko Haram, in particular those involving children used as suicide bombers, and demanded an end to the violence.

The 15-member body welcomes today’s meeting in Niger of regional leaders.

It urges Nigeria’s neighbours to step up plans for the deployment a multinational task force to drive out Boko Haram.

Chad is set to contribute a sizeable contingent to the force along with Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria and Benin.

They’ve been talking about a multinational force since last year, but can’t agree on the scale and scope of its operations.

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