AFRICA

Mogok, South Sudan | AFP | The villagers hear the distant roar of jet engines before a cargo plane makes a deafening pass over Mogok, dropping sacks of grain from its hold to the marooned dust bowl below. There is no other way to get food to this starving hamlet in …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Sudan’s post-uprising Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok escaped unharmed Monday as an assassination attempt using explosives targeted his convoy in the capital Khartoum, his top aide said. “An explosion hit as Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok’s car was driving by but thank God no one was hurt,” said …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Twenty two Europeans who arrived last night for the Uganda Europe Business Forum have returned home after discovering they would have to first self quarantine for 14 days. Uganda last week discouraged Europeans travelling from coronavirus hit countries from heading to Uganda, and if they …

Kokoti-Kouamekro, Ivory Coast | AFP |  In a poor farming village in Ivory Coast, women are celebrating a new development that is allowing them to send their children to school instead of working in the country’s cocoa plantations. Until now, many families earning less than a dollar (a euro) a day …

Conakry, Guinea | AFP |  In a dingy room reeking of blood and sweat in Guinea’s capital Conakry, a volunteer doctor treats a man with bullet wounds in his legs as he tries to suppress his groans. Hidden inside a gated compound a stone’s throw from the city centre, supporters of …

Conakry, Guinea | AFP |  Guinean security forces have arrested two prominent figures from the months-long protest movement against president Alpha Conde’s plans to seek a third term, their entourage said. Ibrahima Diallo and Sekou Koundouno had given a press conference earlier on Friday to condemn the arbitrary arrest of other …

Sevare, Mali | AFP | Two months ago, all 400 inhabitants of the Malian village Toou grabbed a few belongings and fled fighting between armed groups, leaving their homes behind among the ghosts of the country’s war. Today, they sleep in an abandoned school in Sevare near the regional capital Mopti, …

Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast | AFP | Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara said on Thursday he would not run in October’s election, ending months of speculation over whether he would seek a third term. October’s presidential election looms as a major challenge for the West African country after its 2010 vote …

Aswan, Egypt | AFP | Deep in the Nubia, a region along the Nile in southern Egypt, a baby crocodile sits on Mamdouh Hassan’s shoulder to wow tourists. The reptiles are a source of income for Egypt’s Nubian minority, with visitors paying to marvel at the tamed creatures. But beyond bringing …

West African political leaders recently announced that the CFA franc – a currency created by France in 1945 for its colonies and still used by 14 African countries – will be replaced this year by a new currency pegged to the euro called the eco. COMMENT |Célestin Monga | But …