Labour unions in Chad have reacted angrily to a government plan to slash civil servants' salaries, threatening widespread strikes.

If the decree is signed by the president, civil servants earning up to 60,000 CFA ($110; £81) a month will have a 5% pay cut, while higher earners will lose up to 45% of their salaries.

Somalian Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire has sacked his ministers for foreign affairs, the interior and commerce, replacing them with newcomers, the government said on Thursday, as it battles an Islamist insurgency.

Khaire, a former oil and gas executive, was appointed to the post by President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed last February. His government has been criticized for failing to stem attacks by al Shabaab militants.

Foreign affairs minister Yusuf Garaad Omar, interior minister Abdi Farah Said Juha and the commerce and labor minister Khadra Ahmed Duale had been relieved of their duties, the information ministry said in a statement.

The Office of Ethiopian Prime Minister says plans have been concluded to release political prisoners and shut an infamous prison in the capital, Addis Ababa, in a surprise move the government says aims to "foster national reconciliation". In an interview with AFP, the Ministry said all charges earlier preferred against political prisoners would be dropped while those already in detention would be pardoned.

A passenger train has caught fire in South Africa after colliding with a truck, killing at least 14 people and injuring 268, officials have said.

Video footage showed a fire blazing through at least one carriage, near a crushed car and an overturned truck.

Evacuated passengers were seen standing on the roadside with luggage.

Equatorial Guinea says it thwarted an attempted "coup" in late December against the government of Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, Africa's longest-serving leader. Nicolas Obama Nchama, the country's security minister, was quoted by Al Jazeera as saying that at least 30 armed mercenaries from Chad, Sudan and the Central African Republic with the support of Guinean opposition forces just before Christmas, attempted to oust Mbasogo.

The United States African Command on Wednesday said it conducted an airstrike on Al-Shabbaab hideouts in Somalia killing two in an attempt to rid the area of terrorist elements. According to CNN, the early morning strike occurred approximately 50 kilometers west of Mogadishu, the Somalian capital.