AFRICA

Kigali, Rwanda | AFP & THE INDEPENDENT |  Rwanda has confirmed four additional coronavirus cases, one of them being a 22-year-old Ugandan national who arrived in Kigali from London on March 15. That brings to five the number positive cases in Rwanda, as the virus hits several East African countries. …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa may still have relatively few confirmed coronavirus cases but the flailing economy’s two major foreign exchange earners —  mining and tourism — are bracing to take a hit. China holds a special place in the economy of Africa’s most industrialised country which slid …

Polokwane, South Africa | AFP |  South Africa repatriated dozens of its citizens from China on Saturday over the coronavirus, the health ministry said, the first such move by a sub-Saharan country as cases across the region continue to rise. The 114 South Africans were working and studying in Wuhan city, …

Mopti, Mali | AFP |  After years of ethnic massacres and unrelenting jihadist attacks, central Mali has been left a harrowed area of deserted villages and displaced people. An Islamist insurgency erupted in the north of the vast west African state in 2012, claiming thousands of military and civilian lives since. …

Conakry, Guinea | AFP | Guinea’s President Alpha Conde has set March 22 for the constitutional referendum on his proposed reforms that opponents worry will allow him to bypass term limits and stay in power. The vote, originally set for March 1 but delayed over local and international concerns about its …

Museveni calls for equitable use of River Nile Entebbe, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | President Yoweri Museveni has said all the countries that share the Nile, the world’s longest river should use her waters for the benefit of all, not at the detriment of others. Museveni was on Friday speaking …

Juba, South Sudan | AFP | The cattle rustlers were asleep, resting ahead of a raid, when automatic gunfire tore through their camp. Ambushed by rival herdsmen, encircled and outgunned, they were cut down, one by one. Koba Ngacho was lucky. Shot three times and left for dead, the young rustler …

  Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Sudan’s economy has sunk into a deep crisis since the overthrow of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir almost a year ago, risking collapse and social unrest in a country in transition. Mass protests erupted in Sudan in late 2018 against a government decision to triple bread …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Kenya announced Friday the first confirmed case of coronavirus in East Africa, as the region so far unscathed by the global pandemic scaled up emergency measures to contain its spread. A 27-year-old Kenyan woman tested positive for the virus on March 12 in Nairobi, a week after returning from the …

Juba, South Sudan | THE INDEPENDENT | South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has named a new cabinet for the Transitional Government of National Unity (TGoNU), handing the ministry of defence to Angelina Teny, wife of Vice President Riek Machar. The main opposition SPLM-IO that nominated nine, took the prominent cabinet dockets …