AFRICA

Banjul, Gambia | AFP | The West African state of The Gambia on Monday launched an 11-member truth commission tasked with shedding light on summary executions, disappearances, torture, rape and other crimes under regime of ousted dictator Yahya Jammeh. “Today marks… the beginning of the much-anticipated mechanism that is expected …

Soweto, South Africa | AFP | In a classroom in the South African township of Soweto, girls listen carefully, knowing they need to learn how to avoid the threat of rape that hangs over their daily lives. “You are going to pretend that it is the rapist’s testicles,” says trainer …

Frankfurt am Main, Germany | AFP | Thirty years after her iconic debut novel, Zimbabwean author Tsitsi  Dangarembga is back with a final look at her heroine’s harrowing journey through the Mugabe years, hoping to spark debate about violence against women in her country. Often praised as a leading feminist voice, …

Empangeni, South Africa | AFP | President President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday symbolically handed back land to a community of black South Africans who were forcibly removed from it under apartheid and promised to accelerate land reform. “We are making history and celebrating the return of your land today. We are …

Bududa, Uganda | AFP |  Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni visited eastern Bududa Sunday after 43 people died when a landslide caused a river to burst its banks, sending water and boulders cascading downhill. Wearing military uniform and carrying a cleft stick Museveni looked across the Sume river at the remains …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | A second wave of the Ebola virus has been confirmed in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where an initial outbreak has already killed 125 people, a minister said Saturday. The latest wave is centred in Beni, a town in North Kivu near the border …

Bududa, Uganda | AFP – Michael O’HAGAN |  On a muddy outcrop on the banks of the Sume river, grief-stricken families gaze at enormous boulders that stand testimony to the force of the deluge which engulfed their homes. Hundreds of newly-deposited rocks, each the size of a van, litter the …

Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | Humanitarian workers are struggling to calm community fears in strife-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where 125 people have died of Ebola, and cases of the virus are spreading fast. The World Health Organization said Friday that 200 cases of the deadly virus have been …

Yerevan, Armenia | AFP | The world organisation of French-speaking nations on Friday elected Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo as its new head despite her country’s shift to English a decade ago and controversy over its rights record. Mushikiwabo was elected in a suspense-free vote on the last day of …

Abidjan, Ivory Coast | AFP | Nearly 400 tonnes of fake medicines have been seized over two years in Ivory Coast, whose main city Abidjan is a West African haven for counterfeit drugs, the health ministry said Tuesday. Counterfeit medicine is the scourge of Africa and the cause of around …