JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The top United States diplomat to Africa says perhaps it's time to take the deadly separatist crisis in Cameroon to an "international forum."

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Boko Haram has killed at least 60 people in a "devastating" attack on the northeastern Nigeria border town of Rann, Amnesty International said Friday, calling it one of the deadliest assaults by the extremist group in its nearly decade-long insurgency.

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — The lawyer for Cameroon's arrested main opposition leader says he now faces eight charges including sedition, insurrection and inciting violence.

Christopher Ndong told The Associated Press Thursday that Maurice Kamto also faces charges that include hostility against the fatherland and disruption of peace. If he is found guilty, he could face five years to life in prison.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Ivory Coast has agreed to host the African Cup of Nations tournament in 2023 instead of 2021 after the head of the continent's soccer body met with Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara to broker a deal.

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — An international rights group says Cameroonian authorities have arrested a top opposition leader and four of his supporters after they called for nationwide protests.

Amnesty International on Tuesday said the arrests of Maurice Kamto and others on Monday signal an escalating government crackdown in Cameroon on opposition leaders, human rights defenders and activists. It called for their immediate and unconditional release.

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The United Nations refugee agency says more than 30,000 Nigerians fled the border town of Rann over the weekend to seek safety in Cameroon as attacks by Boko Haram extremists continue.

Spokesman Babar Baloch said Tuesday that thousands more have fled to neighboring Chad because of the violence in northeastern Nigeria.

Refugees began fleeing to Cameroon earlier this month when extremists attacked and seized Rann, in Borno state, on Jan. 14.

CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) — The Guinean soccer federation says the country will host the 2025 African Cup of Nations instead of the originally awarded 2023 edition.

The move helps clear a logjam of hosts — and likely appeals at the Court of Arbitration for Sport — in fallout from Cameroon being stripped of the 2019 tournament by the Confederation of African Football six weeks ago.

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — A regional governor in Cameroon says armed English-speaking separatists attacked a French-speaking town, killing one person, kidnapping 15 others and burning 86 homes in the country's restive North West region.

Governor Augustine Awah Fonka said the attack Sunday and Monday was the second on the town of Bangourain.

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — An international refugee agency says that more than 430,000 people have fled violence in Cameroon's restive English-speaking regions and are hiding in rural areas with few resources.

The Norwegian Refugee Council, one of several humanitarian organizations offering support, said Wednesday it is assisting the displaced by providing shelter and supplies to needy families. David Manan, the Norwegian group's country director for Cameroon, called for more international aid.

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — Cameroon's military says it has killed seven suspected English-speaking separatist rebels in Bamenda in the North West region.

Four soldiers were rushed to the local hospital, said a health worker, but the military has not reported any dead.

The region's army commander, Gen. Agha Robinson, said the military is finding it difficult to battle the rebels because they hide among civilians.

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — A Cameroon official says two female suicide bombers have died after detonating in a northern town near the Nigerian border.

The governor of the Far North region, Midjiyawa Bakari, says the attack in Kolofata town occurred Friday night and wounded a woman and a 12-year-old girl.

The governor says the attackers came from Nigeria, adding that "you know that the borders are very porous."

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States demanded an immediate end to violence in Cameroon on Thursday and a speedy start to talks between the government and Anglophone separatists without preconditions.

U.S. deputy ambassador Jonathan Cohen told the Security Council that security and humanitarian conditions in Cameroon's English-speaking North West and South West regions "have significantly deteriorated."

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — Cameroon's leader has ordered the country's military tribunal to stop legal proceedings against 289 people accused of taking part in the country's separatist movement in its English-speaking regions.

Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, secretary general at the presidency, did not say who would be freed in making the announcement late Thursday. He said President Paul Biya had "listened to the people" in making his decision to "maintain the country as a peace heaven."

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The top U.S. diplomat in Africa said Thursday the separatist crisis in Cameroon could get "much, much" worse, saying "the last thing we need" is growing radicalization in response to the actions of security forces.

Tibor Nagy, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Africa, said the situation in the Central African nation is worsening by the day and "worrying me greatly."

CAPE COAST, Ghana (AP) — Cameroon became the third and final African team to qualify for next year's Women's World Cup by beating Mali 4-2 on Friday in the third-place game at the African Cup of Nations.

Cameroon joins Nigeria and South Africa at the World Cup in France in June and July. Nigeria, the defending African champion, and South Africa will meet in the Cup of Nations final on Saturday.

ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — Cameroon stripped of hosting rights for 2019 African Cup of Nations.

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — Cameroon's military said Friday it has killed at least 43 armed separatists fighting for the creation of an English-speaking state in the Central African nation.

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — A military official says a Kenyan missionary has been killed in crossfire between the military and armed separatists in Cameroon's troubled South West region.

Moloka Ekwe, divisional officer for the Eyumojock administrative area, says the Rev. Cosmas Ondari was killed Wednesday in the Kembong village where he worked. Ekwe says there were other casualties.

In October, U.S. missionary Charles Trumann Wesco was shot dead in the restive town of Bamenda in the North West.

SEATTLE (AP) — Police say a man was attacked outside his Seattle apartment and that his mother was also assaulted in Cameroon after the man's house guest released intimate photos of him and his husband to members of the Cameroon community.

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — Cameroon's military has freed nine children and their teacher who had been kidnapped by gunmen Tuesday from a school in Kumba, in the country's restive English-speaking South West region, a military official said Wednesday.

Armed gunmen abducted the students from Lords Bilingual School Tuesday morning, according to Nto'ou Ndong Chamberlin, senior divisional officer for the Meme Division where Kumba is located.

Mauritania qualified for its first major soccer tournament on Sunday when it beat Botswana to claim a place at next year's African Cup of Nations.

It was the second major surprise of qualifying after Madagascar sealed a spot at the African Cup for the first time last month.

Mauritania, a country in northwest Africa covered almost completely by the Sahara desert, came from behind to beat Botswana 2-1 with two goals by forward Ismael Diakite.

Mohamed Salah scored in the last minute to give Egypt a 3-2 win over Tunisia in African Cup of Nations qualifying on Friday, taking the forward's tally to 10 goals in his last eight games for his country.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — The Kenyan soccer federation has lost its appeal to be reinstated into the African Women's Cup of Nations ahead of Equatorial Guinea, which had been excluded because of an ineligible player.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport says it has dismissed Kenya's request for an urgent interim ruling to join the eight-team tournament, which starts Saturday in Ghana.

It also ends Kenya's chance of qualifying for the 2019 Women's World Cup.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon is reducing its counterterrorism forces in Africa and studying whether to make similar moves elsewhere in the world as part of a broad effort to shift American military focus toward what it calls threats from Russia and China.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The operator of one of the largest private prison systems in the United States paid detained immigrants at a New Mexico prison as little as $1 per day as part of "volunteer" work programs, and refused to pay them minimum wages even though they were not convicted of any crimes, a new federal class-action lawsuit alleges.

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — Cameroon's military has killed at least 30 separatists in two days of intense fighting in the turbulent English-speaking North West region, a military spokesman said Wednesday.

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — All students and staff abducted more than a week ago from a school in Cameroon's restive North West region have been freed, a leader of the Presbyterian church said Tuesday.

Two students, the principal and a staff member of Presbyterian Secondary School in the English-speaking northwestern village of Nkwen were released in different intervals, said Fonki Samuel Forba, moderator of the country's Presbyterian Church.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The Kenyan soccer federation says it will appeal a decision to allow Equatorial Guinea back into the women's African Cup of Nations in a long-running saga over a player's eligibility.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is condemning the kidnapping of 79 pupils and three staff members from a Presbyterian school in a troubled English-speaking region of Cameroon and is calling for their immediate release.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric says Guterres stresses that "there can be no justification for these crimes against civilians, particularly minors."

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — Cameroonian authorities have arrested 20 people who were protesting an election they allege was stolen by long-serving President Paul Biya.

The protesters claim Maurice Kamto, the flag bearer of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement party, won the Oct. 7 presidential election.

Biya, who has led the country since 1982, is to be sworn into office Tuesday for a seventh term. Kamto's supporters say they plan to disrupt the event.

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — Separatist militants attacked workers on a state-run rubber plantation in restive southwestern Cameroon, chopping off their fingers because the men had defied an order to stay away from the farms, authorities said Friday.

The attack is the second of its kind in less than a week by the militants, who have responded violently to a government crackdown on separatist activities in the English-speaking parts of the country.

MISHAWAKA, Ind. (AP) — A missionary from northern Indiana has been fatally shot in the African nation of Cameroon.

Republican Rep. Tim Wesco of Osceola confirmed the death Tuesday morning of his older brother, Charles Wesco of Mishawaka.

Tim Wesco said of his brother, "He loved the Lord. He loved people. The Lord giveth. The Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — An official in Cameroon says anti-riot police have arrested at least two dozen people who staged peaceful protests Saturday against the re-election of President Paul Biya.

Territorial administration minister Paul Atanga Nji said among the arrested is a lawyer who represented opposition candidate Maurice Kamto who said he won the Oct. 7 election.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil will play its last friendly of the year against Cameroon in London on Nov. 20, its soccer confederation said on Thursday.

The last time the teams met was during the group stage of the 2014 World Cup when Brazil won 4-1 in Brasilia with a Neymar double.

On Nov. 16, Brazil will face Uruguay in London. Coach Tite will announce his squad for the two friendlies on Friday.