The World Health Organisation declared Liberia free of the Ebola virus, after 42 days passed since the last reported new case in the country.

“The outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Liberia is over,” the WHO said in a statement, after 4,700 people had died from the illness in the country. Over 11,000 people are thought to have died in the region form the disease since last year, as Guinea and Sierra Leone continue to battle the virus.

Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf told the BBC,

The UN says nearly 100,000 people have fled clashes in South Sudan, between supporters of President Salva Kiir and those of his opponent, former deputy president Riek Machar.

The UN's aid chief in South Sudan, Toby Lanzer, said the conflict had resumed in the oil-rich Unity state, despite a ceasefire deal signed by the rivals in January.

The conflict, which began in 2013, has left over 10,000 dead and another 1.5mn displaced.

The US is prepared to impose sanctions on any actors involved in violence related to protests against the Burundi president’s attempt to run for a third term.

Speaking after a closed door meeting at the Un Security Council on Burundi, US Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power said,

“The United States is carefully monitoring the situation, and we are prepared to take targeted measures including visa bans or sanctions against those who plan and or participate in wide-spread violence of the kind that we all fear.”

Clashes with an armed group have left at least five police officers dead in Kumanovo, northern Macedonia.

The armed group, from an unidentified neighbouring state, was armed with bombs and automatic rifles, interior ministry spokesperson Ivo Kotevski said, adding that members of the group were sheltered by some residents in the Diva Naselba neighbourhood.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi militants in Yemen said it would step up attacks after offering a 5 day humanitarian ceasefire to the militants.

The spokesperson for the coalition, Ahmed Asseri, explaining the retractment of the ceasefire offer, said,

“The Houthis are now targeting the borders of the kingdom and the situation is that we will defend our citizens. Coalition forces will deliver a harsh response starting this moment, so that those who carried out this operation will pay the price.”

The Conservative party became the first majority Conservative government in almost 20 years, with the Conservatives reaching an unexpected majority of 331 seats in parliament, as the UK 2015 General Election vote count drew to a close on Friday.
 
The results shocked most political commentators as polls in the run up to the election suggested a hung parliament to be the most likely outcome.

A Pakistani army helicopter has crashed in northern Pakistan killing several foreign diplomats, including the ambassadors of Norway and the Philippines.

The Pakistani Taliban immediately claimed credit for the attack, but the government of Pakistan has said a technical fault caused the accident.

The US has launched an investigation into Baltimore’s police department, in order to determine whether it engages in routine bias or uses excessive force, the BBC reports.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake requested the inquiry by the justice department after the death of Freddy Gray, an unarmed black man who died after his arrest, which sparked days of protests.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, announced that a 5 day ceasefire would be put in place in Yemen, but warned that it was conditional.

The ceasefire, which is to come into force on May 12, could be extended “if it works out” said Mr Jubeir. “It is our hope that the Houthis will come to their senses,” Mr Jubeir said. “The ceasefire will be throughout Yemen, or nowhere in Yemen”.