AFRICA

Blantyre, Malawi | AFP | Malawi’s two main opposition figures on Wednesday presented nomination papers for a re-run in July of elections that saw President Peter Mutharika controversially returned to office. The southern African country made history in February when its top court overturned last year’s vote and called for fresh …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP |  Hakam Ibrahim was seven when, like most Sudanese girls, she became a victim of female genital mutilation — an age-old practice decried as horrific that the post-revolution government is now banning. A mother-of-four in her 40s, Ibrahim vividly recalls the traumatic experience of what remains a …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | The DR Congo government warned Tuesday of a “large-scale” spread of the COVID-19 pandemic after around 100 inmates of a military prison tested positive for the virus. “Contamination at the prisons could be a vector of large-scale propagation in our society, especially if it involves the Makala prison because …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Kenya’s foreign ministry Tuesday called for a swift investigation after a humanitarian plane helping the fight against coronavirus crashed in Somalia in “unclear” circumstances, killing all six people onboard. The Kenyan private cargo plane was undertaking a humanitarian mission related to the pandemic when it crashed Monday afternoon in Bardale …

In too many countries, transmission and distribution remain the responsibility of badly managed state utilities. Gridworks CEO Simon Hodson explains to David Thomas how his organisation plans to invest to make the sector commercially sustainable In the barren, rocky wasteland at the southern edge of Kenya’s remote Lake Turkana sit the whirring turbines …

The third edition of IATF has also been postponed from 2022 to 2023 to be in line with the two-year intervals between IATF events. Kampala, Uganda | ISAAC KHISA | Owing to the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic, the African Export-Import Bank, the African Union and the Rwandan government have decided to …

Kano, Nigeria | AFP | Mass deaths in a northern Nigerian state were caused by coronavirus, the authorities said after a preliminary investigation into the phenomenon. Gravediggers in the state of Kano have reported burying dozens of corpses per day, in what the authorities had called “mysterious deaths”. But a local COVID-19 team, after carrying …

What the sector requires to manage blow from coronavirus | ISSAHAKU ADAM AND ALBERT N. KIMBU | Tourism has become an important economic sector for most African countries in the last two decades. There has been increased investments in product development and enhancement, aggressive marketing, coupled with appropriate business-friendly socio-political …

Bissau, Guinea-Bissau | AFP |  Madagascar on Saturday delivered to Guinea-Bissau a shipment of a herbal tea that President Andry Rajoelina has touted as a powerful remedy against the novel coronavirus and hopes to distribute across West Africa and beyond. Baptised Covid-Organics, the drink is derived from artemisia — a …

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania | AFP | Tanzanian President John Magufuli on Sunday questioned his country’s coronavirus numbers, and called on the authorities to investigate “sabotage” at the national laboratory. The East African country had recorded 480 cases of the virus and 16 deaths at its last update on Wednesday. The …