The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 letter word DAKAR
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
D
A
K
A
R
More clues leading to the result DAKAR
- A dark, poor place in Africa
- Naturalist without success tours a capital in Khartoum, an African city
- Capital of Denmark, initially also known as capital of Russia
- Legal officer leads Karnataka in the capital
- Rallying point for a dark novel
- Doctor assumes another name in the capital
- Democraticworld capital
- Doctor assumes alias in African city
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "an African city" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case an african city = dakar.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.