Paris, France | AFP |Â Teodoro Obiang Nguema, president of Equatorial Guinea for 40 years on Saturday, is the world’s longest-serving living leader apart from Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, on the throne for 67 years. Africa’s longest-serving ruler was also a monarch: Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie reigned for 44 years …
Read More »COMESA, African Union holding climate change financing meeting
Kampala, Uganda | Julius Businge | The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa Secretariat in collaboration with the African Union Commission and the United Nations Development Programme’s Regional Service Centre for Africa are holding a training workshop for member states on green/climate financing. on August 1-2 in Harare, Zimbabwe. A media …
Read More »RWANDA: Border with DRC not closed
Kigali, Rwanda | THE INDEPENDENT & AFP | Rwanda’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo is not closed, the country’s ministry of health has clarified in a statement. The statement comes hours after DRC President Felix Tshisekedi’s office condemned what it said was the closure of the border, that affected …
Read More »Rwanda shuts DR Congo border after Ebola cases in frontier city
Goma, DR Congo | AFP |Â Rwanda has shuttered its frontier with Ebola-hit Democratic Republic of Congo after a third case of the deadly virus was detected in the border city of Goma, the Congolese presidency said Thursday. The announcement coincided with the first anniversary of an epidemic that has claimed …
Read More »Nigerian women struggle to raise children born of Libya rape
Benin City, Nigeria | AFP | She was only just 18 when she gave birth without a doctor in a Tripoli apartment, gripping the hand of her best friend who had come on a journey they hoped would lead from Nigeria to Europe. For Joy, who told her story to AFP on …
Read More »Equatorial Guinea’s president to mark 40 years in power
Libreville, Gabon | AFP |Â Â Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema will celebrate forty years in power on Saturday, highlighting his status as Africa’s longest-serving head of state. Since he seized control in a 1979 military coup, rights groups have described Obiang Nguema, 77, as one of the continent’s most brutal …
Read More »DR Congo Ebola epidemic widens on eve of first anniversary
Goma, DR Congo | AFP |Â An epidemic of Ebola in eastern DR Congo sharply widened on Wednesday, the eve of the first anniversary of the outbreak, with the announcement of a death in a major city and the quarantining of 15 people in a province that had previously escaped the …
Read More »Ugandan AMISOM Police Unit saluted for service to Somalia
Mogadishu, Somalia | THE INDEPENDENT |Â The Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission for Somalia (SRCC) Ambassador Francisco Madeira has commended AMISOM Police for their dedication to duty, commitment to the mission and selfless service to the people of Somalia. Ambassador Madeira was speaking in …
Read More »Ghana grapples with illegal fishing as stocks dive
Accra, Ghana | AFP |Â Â Fish vendor Mercy Allotey waits at the beachfront in Ghana’s capital Accra for customers to buy the freshest catch brought in by the brightly-coloured dugout canoes plying the coast. But she complains the local fishermen are now netting less and less as a combination of illegal …
Read More »A year after Mnangagwa’s election, old woes haunt Zimbabwe
Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP |Â Â Langton Chiwocha chose Emmerson Mnangagwa among 23 candidates in Zimbabwe’s presidential elections a year ago. Today he says he deeply regrets his choice. “We had high expectations as many promises were made, but things have turned worse since the elections,” Chiwocha told AFP. “I wish I …
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