Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | More than 50,000 supporters of DR Congo’s President Joseph Kabila turned out on Saturday to hear a speech by his favoured candidate in a long-delayed presidential election in December, AFP reporters said. Although campaigning has not started officially, the appearance of Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary …
Read More »Former S.Africa president FW de Klerk hospitalised: foundation
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa’s last apartheid era president FW de Klerk has been hospitalised with a lung condition, his foundation said Saturday, adding that the former leader had undergone successful treatment. The 82-year-old was admitted to a hospital in Cape Town, the FW de Klerk foundation …
Read More »Defiant Zimbabwe opposition leader says will not accept poll result
Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader Nelson Chamisa on Saturday vowed to continue his push to take power after disputed elections in which he lost to President Emmerson Mnangagwa in July. “We want to claim the victory of the people. We must lead this country. We won …
Read More »Cameroon police arrest 50 opposition demonstrators
Douala, Cameroon | AFP | Cameroon police on Saturday arrested around 50 supporters of opposition figure Maurice Kamto during an unauthorised march in Douala, his spokesman said. “Mass arrests of activists (Mrs Michele Ndoki and around 50 others) and of supporters demonstrating peacefully today,” the spokesman, Olivier Bibou-Nissack, said in …
Read More »Two UN peacekeepers killed in dual Mali attacks: UN
Bamako, Mali | AFP | Two UN peacekeepers were killed and “several others” wounded in two attacks in central and northern Mali on Saturday, the United Nations mission in the country said. In a statement the MINUSMA peacekeeping mission said Blue Helmets had “repelled a complex attack” at dawn at …
Read More »King of eSwatini names political novice as PM
Mbabane, eSwatini | AFP | King Mswati III of eSwatini on Saturday named a political novice as prime minister of the former Swaziland, to replace Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini who died last month. The new PM is Mandvulo Ambrose Dlamimi, national head of Africa’s leading mobile operator MTN. Mswati, one of …
Read More »DR Congo Ebola death toll rises to 164
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | The Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has claimed 164 lives, according to health authorities. In mid-October, Congolese authorities said they were facing a “second wave” of the outbreak centred on Beni, a town in North Kivu near the border with Uganda. …
Read More »18 killed as Ethiopian army truck collides with bus
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | Eighteen civilians were killed and others injured on Saturday when an army truck crashed into a minibus in northern Ethiopia, local media reported. The accident in Amhara state happened in the morning, the state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate said. Despite having one of the world’s …
Read More »Niger launches mass polio vaccination drive
Niamey, Niger | AFP | Niger has launched a mass polio vaccination campaign targeting more than three million children under five after new cases were detected, an official said Friday. The programme kicked off Thursday in the regions of Zinder, Maradi, Agadez and Diffa, said Rabi Souley, who is in …
Read More »Thousands rally in DR Congo against use of electronic machines in key polls
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Police on Friday fanned out across the DR Congo capital Kinshasa and other main cities as thousands of opposition supporters marched seeking the withdrawal of electronic voting machines in a long-delayed election due at the end of December. The regime of President Joseph Kabila …
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