Voters in Burundi have overwhelmingly approved a new constitution, the electoral commission said on Monday, ushering in changes that could let the president stay in power to 2034.

Seventy-three percent voted in last week’s referendum in favor of amendments extending the presidential term from five to seven years and allowing President Pierre Nkurunziza to seek two more terms, beginning in 2020.

An officer of the Congolese army, General Norbert Dabira was on Saturday sentenced to five years in prison for threatening state security. “The court finds Norbert Dabira guilty based on the facts against him (…) sentences him to five years in prison with a ban on exercising civil and civil rights,” said the president of the criminal court Christian Oba, at the end of the trial

The United States has formally accused the Cameroonian army of carrying out targeted attacks in the country’s Anglophone region, where there is an ongoing armed confrontation between the army and separatists. According to the U.S. Embassy in Yaounde, the security crisis had seen rights infractions on the part of the government and separatists in the northwest and southwest regions.

Zimbabwe has applied to rejoin the Commonwealth,15 years after they left the group.

Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland said she was delighted to receive a letter from Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa, dated 15 May.

However, she added they would only return "when the conditions are right".

The United States has given Cameroon two military aircraft to assist in the fight against Boko Haram militants. It adds to armoured vehicles, U.S.-led training on landmine detection and the presence of U.S. Marines in the country. The donated planes took off from the military air base in Yaounde on a reconnaissance flight. On board are Cameroon defense minister Joseph Beti Assomo and the U.S. Ambassador to Cameroon Peter Henry Barlerin.

A UN agency is warning of an emerging crisis along the Niger border after Algeria began dumping migrants in the Sahara Desert.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says it has dealt with almost 10,000 migrants abandoned in the desert since September.

Some have been left by traffickers, but others were deported by Algerian authorities - left in the desert and told to walk to the nearest border town.