AFRICA

Bamako, Mali | AFP |  A digital war is unfolding in Mali alongside a jihadist conflict that has claimed thousands of lives: the battle to sway young minds is being waged on the mobile phone. “Jihadists today are recruiting on WhatsApp. We have to stop the bloodshed,” said Hama Cisse, a …

  What the Euro-Asian nation promised African countries at a historic summit in Sochi Kampala, Uganda | ISAAC KHISA AND JULIUS BUSINGE | One might have probably heard about Sochi, Russian city located on the Black Sea Coast near the border with Georgia, for co-hosting the 2018 FIFA World Cup. …

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday signed a measure to change the country’s agreements with multinational oil companies to significantly increase the share of offshore oil revenue it takes. “This afternoon I assented to the bill amending the Deep Offshore (and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contract) …

Juba, South Sudan | THE INDEPENDENT |  The Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) has confirmed that its leader Dr. Riek Machar will travel to Kampala for a planned meeting with South Sudan President Salva Kiir tomorrow. In an interview with Radio Tamazuj,  the deputy spokesman for the SPLM-IO Manawa …

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | First there was Tutu, the “African Mona Lisa” sold last year for 1.5 million dollars. Then a second portrait by revered Nigerian painter Ben Enwonwu, called Christine, sold in mid-October, for 1.4 million dollars. Both record sales of famous works by the late “father of African …

Benin City, Nigeria | AFP | Deep in the tropical forest in southern Nigeria, an evangelical pastor runs a sprawling camp billed as a refuge for thousands of children who fled the Boko Haram jihadist insurgency in the north. Solomon Folorunsho, known as Pastor Solomon, says he is on a self-proclaimed …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Four journalists and their driver are still being held in Burundi after being arrested for undermining national security while covering a rebel attack from neighbouring DR Congo, the attorney general said. The Burundian reporters were detained on Tuesday last week while reporting in Bubanza, in the …

Phundundu, Zimbabwe | AFP | Chiyevedzo Mutero was one of dozens competing in the remote Zimbabwean bush to join the all-female anti-poaching Akashinga rangers when she broke her finger. She didn’t consider quitting — she even smiled as her finger was bandaged, before returning to the brutal military-style training. “I’m happy, …

Kericho, Kenya | AFP | Kibore Cheruiyot Ngasura was just a small boy when his family was violently expelled from their ancestral land in Kenya’s lush tea-growing western highlands by British colonizers, and banished never to return. Eighty-five years later he still bristles at the memory, recalling the fear and confusion …

The AfroChampions Initiative held its second conference on sustainable green growth and industrialisation in Kigali, Rwanda. Kigali, Rwanda | TOM COLLINS | The AfroChampions Initiative, a set of public-private partnerships designed to leverage resources and funds to create more multinational corporate champions in Africa, has proposed a $1trn investment framework …