“Civilians freed from the brutality of Daesh [IS] should not have to then fear their liberators. One form of violence cannot replace another.”

An air strike on a camp for people displaced by fighting in Yemen has killed at least 40 people on Monday, Reuters reports.

The attack near Haradh, which seemed to have been targeted at a nearby Houthi rebel base, was blamed on the rebels by Yemen’s foreign minister, Riyadh Yassin.

However Yemen's state news agency Saba, which is currently under the control of the Houthis, said the camp was hit by Saudi planes.

Saudi Arabia launched air strikes against Houthi rebels last week, after rebels increased the territory they held.

The capital Sanaa, held by the rebels since December, was hit by the Saudi air force throughout the day. Houthi fighters meanwhile are getting closer to the southern port city of Aden, the last major stronghold of the supporters of President Hadi.

The US and the UK have expressed concern about political interference in Nigeria’s elections as presidential challenger Muhammadu Buhari recorded huge victories in key northern states.

Mr Buhari, a northern Muslim is going up against incumbent Goodluck Jonathan, who is a Christian from the south of the country.

The challenger won 1.9 million votes in Kano against 216,000 for Jonathan and recorded victories in other northern states, however it is too early to forecast a result, in one of the most closely contested elections in years.

“He was a global thinker, who saw things ahead of others. He was an advocate of economic progress, but also made tireless efforts to advance peace and stability in our region.”

Talks with Iran on its nuclear programme are intensifying as the deadline for a deal at the end of the month draws close.

The talks, attended by Iran and the P5+1 group, the US, China, Russia, France, the UK and Germany, are intended to seek a deal to prevent Iran from seeking a nuclear agreement.

The US Secretary of State John Kerry and his German and French counterparts have cancelled their travel plans for the last few days of the talks, in order to push for a resolution ahead of the March 31 deadline.

Iran, which denies it is pursuing nuclear weapons, is hoping to achieve the lifting of international sanctions through a deal.

US officials said all parties, including Iran, had agreed "there needs to be a phased step by step reciprocal approach", so that Iran's steps to scale back its nuclear programme are met with a phased lifting of sanctions, the BBC said.

The Nigerian elections continued for a second day, after technical problems hit around 300 polling stations.

About 300 out of around 150,000 were affected by the glitch, which left voters, including President Goodluck Jonathan, unable to cast their vote.

"There should have been a test-run for a smaller election before deploying it for an election of this magnitude," said Mr Jonathan's presidential campaign spokesman Femi Fani-Kayode.

Polling stations were also hit by attacks from unknown gunmen.

A Somalian diplomat was among at least 20 people who died when Al Shabaab militants launched an attack on a hotel in Mogadishu.

The Maka al-Mukarama Hotel was targeted by a car bomb on Friday evening, before being stormed by armed suicide bombers, who all died in the attack.

Security forces retook the hotel on Saturday morning. Somalia's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva Yusuf Mohamed Bari Bari died in hospital, after being admitted with serious injuries.

Information Minister Mohamed Abdi Mareye led a government delegation to the scene on Saturday morning.