Algiers, Algeria | AFP | As adversity strikes in the form of the coronavirus pandemic, Algeria has found a helping hand in China, an old friend and the top exporter to Africa’s largest country. An Air Algerie plane arrived in the capital Algiers from Beijing on March 27 carrying a 13-member …
Read More »South Africa rolls out mobile testing in virus lockdown
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South African public healthcare workers dispersed into the buzzing streets of Johannesburg’s Yeoville neighbourhood on Friday as Africa’s worst virus-hit country rolled out mass door-to-door testing for COVID-19. Armed with screening questionnaires and testing kits, medics and volunteers set up their testing station on the front …
Read More »Virus fear stalks Nigeria displaced camps
Maiduguri, Nigeria | AFP | Men and women cluster around plastic wash basins hastily set up outside one of northeast Nigeria’s sprawling displaced persons’ camps, lathering their hands with soap under the gaze of security personnel. The makeshift hygiene facilities are among urgent efforts aimed at warding off the spread of …
Read More »Panic, confusion in DRC amid fears of virus explosion in Kinshasa
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Lack of resources, a muddle over confinement and incipient panic are hobbling the response to coronavirus in DR Congo, fuelling fears especially for Kinshasa, one of Africa’s largest and most chaotic cities. Almost all of the infections in the vast central African nation have occurred …
Read More »Senegal says hydroxychloroquine virus treatment is promising
Dakar, Senegal | AFP | Senegal is set to continue administering hydroxychloroquine to coronavirus patients, a senior health official said Thursday, after encouraging results for those treated with the venerable anti-malarial drug. Both chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are drugs ordinarily used to treat malaria, but early small-scale studies suggest they reduce virus levels among people badly …
Read More »Morocco’s ‘$65-million’ real-estate swindle
Casablanca, Morocco | AFP | “Give us our money!”, demands a group of home buyers, standing on land that should by now be finished condos — one of many fictitious projects that together comprise what is described as Morocco’s biggest-ever property scam. Adverts on state television had promised dream homes at …
Read More »Libya: strongman’s offensive to seize the capital
Tripoli, Libya | AFP | A year ago, Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar began his offensive to seize the capital Tripoli from the UN-recognised government, a conflict which has left hundreds dead and over 150,000 displaced. Here is a recap. – Haftar orders advance – On April 4, 2019, Haftar orders his …
Read More »Libya marks year of fighting, fears worse to come
Tripoli, Libya | AFP | While the world is gripped by the coronavirus pandemic, war-shattered Libya marks one year Saturday of its latest bloody conflict that is plunging it ever deeper into chaos. Russia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and others have fuelled the fighting in the oil-rich but poverty-stricken North …
Read More »Kenya president sorry for coronavirus cop violence
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Kenya’s president on Wednesday apologised for violence meted out by police following the declaration of a nationwide curfew last week to curb the spread of coronavirus. “I want to apologise to all Kenyans for… some excesses that were conducted,” President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a live …
Read More »Africans rush for chloroquine as virus tsunami looms
Libreville, Gabon | AFP | Despite loud appeals for caution, Africans are rushing to embrace chloroquine, the venerable anti-malaria drug touted as a possible treatment for coronavirus. From hospitals in Senegal to pharmaceutical companies in South Africa and street sellers in Cameroon, chloroquine has fired hopes of a medicinal fix against …
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