AFRICA

Cotonou, Benin | AFP |  Benin gears up to hold local elections without key opposition parties Sunday as the authorities push ahead with the vote despite the coronavirus threat and calls for a delay. The West African nation of 11 million on Monday rolled back a raft of restrictions aimed at …

Tokyo, Japan | AFP | Thousands of years ago, a group of people took a walk in what is now Tanzania. The footprints they left behind are now offering insights into ancient human life. The group of more than 400 footprints was made sometime between 5,000 and 19,000 years ago at …

Abidjan, Ivory Coast | AFP | Three months ago, Africa recorded its first case of coronavirus, sparking fears that the world’s poorest and least-equipped continent faced a catastrophe. But so far, the virus has not come anywhere close to wreaking the same damage in Africa as in Europe and the US …

Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | UN investigators said Thursday they deeply regretted Burundi’s expulsion of World Health Organization experts who were supporting the country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Burundi booted out the experts as the country prepares to go to the polls on Wednesday to choose a new president, parliamentarians …

Paris, France | AFP | Telecoms and internet giants unveiled Thursday a mammoth project to lay a subsea cable around Africa to boost internet access to the underserved continent. The consortium, which includes China Mobile International, Facebook, Orange and Vodafone, said a cable 37,000 kilometres (23,000 miles) long will make landfall in 16 countries in …

  Libreville, Gabon | AFP | For years, African oil-exporting countries have vowed to wean themselves off crude — but for many, this uphill task may become mountainous after the coronavirus pandemic caused the energy market to collapse. Here is a snapshot of how sub-Saharan oil exporters are faring: – Who …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Burundi has ordered the expulsion of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) expert team backing the country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, just days before a presidential election. The foreign ministry, in a letter to WHO Africa headquarters and seen by AFP on Wednesday, said the …

  To overcome the current global public-health and economic crisis, rich countries must support Africa COMMENT | ABIY AHMED | The world will not be free of the COVID-19 pandemic until all countries are free of the coronavirus that causes it. This simple fact underscored the urgent need for the …

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP |  The collapse in oil prices linked to the coronavirus crisis has seen Nigeria’s revenues from crude dry up and left Africa’s largest economy more threatened than ever by its dependence on black gold. The crude market may have rebounded in recent days to more than $30 …

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania | AFP | Tanzania’s opposition on Wednesday demanded the truth about the country’s coronavirus infections two weeks after the last update, as the US embassy raised the alarm over “overwhelmed hospitals”. The government stopped giving daily updates after President John Magufuli complained last month they were causing panic, and went on …