Shops and schools reopened Thursday 20 July 2023 as Kenya resumed normal life, despite an opposition call to join anti-government protests after earlier demonstrations prompted widespread closures and resulted in deadly clashes. ALSO READ: Social media access in Ethiopia resumes after 5-month blackout Veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga has staged several demonstrations since March against […]

About 50 Zimbabwean opposition activists clad in yellow T-shirts were knocking on doors and handing out election flyers in Harare when a dozen riot police arrived and told them to disperse. ALSO READ: Zimbabwe opposition launches election rallies after multiple bans For the campaigners, the intervention was one more sign of a strategy to wreck their […]

Air strikes, street battles and artillery fire shook Sudan’s capital Khartoum and the major southern city of El-Obeid on Thursday, witnesses told AFP. “Artillery fire targeted paramilitary bases of the Rapid Support Forces,” said a resident of El-Obeid, 350 kilometres (220 miles) southwest of Khartoum. ALSO READ: Saudi Arabia holds talks with Sudanese army representatives Fighting between […]

At least nine people have been killed and 16 injured after an explosive device accidentally detonated in a field in conflict-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, local sources said on Thursday. ALSO READ: DRC: ICC establishes a new way to tackle war crimes The blast occurred on Wednesday evening in Lubwe Sud in North Kivu province’s Rutshuru […]

A road crash in Algeria killed 34 people when a passenger bus collided head-on with a pickup truck carrying fuel cans and burst into flames Wednesday 19 July 2023, deep in the southern Sahara region, officials said. The North African country’s deadliest road crash in years also left 12 others injured, many with severe burns, […]

The view of Johannesburg from the Ponte City skyscraper is breathtaking, but the tower is struggling to shrug off its reputation as a symbol of a dilapidated inner city. At 173 metres (568 feet) high, the brutalist-styled cylindrical building completed in 1975 was the tallest residential building in Africa and a sought-after location. ALSO READ: WATCH: […]

The United States called on Egypt Wednesday 19 July 2023 to release rights researcher Patrick Zaki, a day after he was sentenced to three years in prison for “spreading false news”. “Concerned by 3-year sentence of Egyptian human rights defender Patrick Zaki,” the US State Department said on Twitter, urging the “immediate release of him […]

Social media networks like Facebook and Instagram were back online in Ethiopia on Wednesday 19 July 2023 after being blocked for five months, according to an internet advocacy organisation and an AFP journalist. A service run by the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI), an association that tracks online censorship, showed that access to social networks […]

Mahana Abdelrahman used to crisscross Sudan in his truck, delivering shipments across the vast country, but three months of brutal war have drastically reduced road transportation, grinding business to a halt. Now, the 45-year-old driver chain-smokes and sips coffee at a cafe on the outskirts of Wad Madani, a city that has welcomed him and […]

Several West African leaders met Tuesday in Nigeria to discuss how to manage security at the end of a UN peacekeeping mission in Mali and push for a return to democracy after a series of coups. ALSO READ: Mali security deteriorates as jihadists commit murder, rape The UN Security Council last month voted to end a decade-old peacekeeping […]

South Africa’s inflation dropped to the lowest level in 20 months in June, slipping back within the central bank’s target range, official data showed on Wednesday. Annual consumer price inflation slowed to 5.4 percent last month, down from 6.3 percent in May, national statistics agency StatsSA said in a statement. The drop was the steepest since […]

Burkina Faso’s junta leader on Tuesday lashed out at the “cowardice” of the country’s jihadist rebels after local and security sources reported at least 10 civilian deaths in two attacks. ALSO READ: Ghana accused of deporting 500 Burkina nationals: UN agency Residents of Nouna, local capital of Kossi province in the west, contacted by telephone, said […]

The Egyptian musicians’ syndicate announced Tuesday18 July 2023 it would not allow a planned concert at the Giza pyramids by US rapper Travis Scott, in a rare move citing offence to “traditions”. International music stars often perform at the feet of Egypt’s famed pyramids near the capital Cairo. The powerful musicians’ union rarely opposes such […]

Morocco’s navy has rescued more than 800 would-be migrants and recovered one body since early last week, state media reported Tuesday, as attempts to reach Spain increase. ALSO READ: Libya rescues migrants abandoned by Tunisian authorities in desert Morocco in northwest Africa is a transit country for many migrants trying to get to Europe via Spain’s mainland […]

The African Union expressed “regret” on Tuesday over Russia’s decision to suspend the Black Sea Grain Initiative allowing safe passage for grain cargo ships from Ukrainian Black Sea ports. ALSO READ: Ukraine retakes territory around Bakhmut from Russian forces “I regret the suspension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative for which the African Union had been an […]

The United Arab Emirates signed a $1.9-billion deal with a state mining company in DR Congo to develop at least four mines in the African country’s turbulent east, the Congolese presidency said Monday. ALSO READ: Helicopter crash claims three lives in DR Congo Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi’s office stated on Monday evening that an Emirati government […]

In an ode to Mandela Day and it’s namesake, the late Nelson Mandela, President Cyril Ramaphosa has penned a letter and urging citizens to advocate for peace as the former statesman did. ALSO READ: Commemorative spots to visit in Johannesburg this Mandela month UN RECOGNISES MANDELA DAY In 2009 the United Nations declared Mandela’s birthday 18 July […]

Chadian leader General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno has pardoned 110 more people sentenced to jail terms following deadly protests against the regime last October, according to a decree seen by AFP on Monday 17 July 2023. Demonstrations against the extension of Deby’s transitional rule broke out last October in the capital N’Djamena and several other towns. Deby […]

President Vladimir Putin on Monday vowed to retaliate after a Ukrainian attack on a bridge linking Moscow-annexed Crimea to Russia killed two civilians and left their child wounded. ALSO READ: WATCH: BRICS summit to be ‘physical’ amid Putin warrant [VIDEO] “Another terrorist attack was committed on the bridge last night,” Putin said in televised remarks. “Of course, […]

After the death toll in a Kenyan cult massacre in which members were believed to have starved crossed 400, we look at other notorious killer sects. READ MORE: Lebanon central bank governor’s properties seized 914 DEAD, GUYANA JUNGLE APOCALYPSE In one of the most dramatic mass murder-suicides of modern history, 914 adults and children from […]

Eight people including seven members of one family were killed in Cairo on Monday when a residential building in Egypt’s capital collapsed, the public prosecution and state media said. ALSO READ: Enyobeni: “Tavern owner watched as children collapsed and died” A statement from the public prosecution said the building in the city’s Hadayek al-Qubba district “completely […]

An Arab rights group called Monday 17 July 2023 for international help for 360 sub-Saharan migrants who Libyan authorities say were rescued after having been abandoned in the desert by Tunisian police on the border with Libya. The Cairo-based Arab Organisation for Human Rights (AOHR) said it welcomed Libya’s reception of the migrants who had […]

Separatist rebels have killed about 10 civilians and wounded two more in one of Cameroon’s restive anglophone regions, the defence ministry said Monday. READ MORE: Lebanon central bank governor’s properties seized The country’s primarily English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions have been gripped by conflict since separatists declared independence in 2017 after decades of grievances over […]

Hollywood A-listers have been walking red carpets in hot pink, glitter is back, and companies from The Gap to Burger King are doing rose-colored collaborations: “Barbie” mania is everywhere as the hotly anticipated film hits theaters worldwide. READ MORE: Nelson Mandela Bridge temporarily closed for maintenance Toy maker Mattel, who first unveiled the iconic doll in […]

Salvadoran officials on Monday announced the arrest of 110 members of an alleged international money laundering ring operating in the Central American country. Almost all member of the scheme were Colombian nationals, authorities in El Salvador said, alleging that they had failed to register as lenders and had offered residents loans with interest rates of 20 […]