Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Scores of Zimbabwe nurses on Friday protested in Harare’s central city park after the government dismissed them for striking over low salaries and poor working conditions. The nurses, who wore their white uniforms, demanded the government reverse its decision to fire the majority of the …
Read More »S.Africa riots force new president to leave London summit
Mafikeng, South Africa | AFP | South African police on Friday fired rubber bullets at protesters after President Cyril Ramaphosa cut short a foreign trip to deal with violent riots over alleged government corruption and poor public services. Shops were looted, roads were blocked and vehicles set alight in North …
Read More »Liberia ex-warlord ‘Jungle Jabbah’ jailed for 30 years in US
New York, United States | AFP | A Liberian former warlord whose forces committed atrocities including murders and cannibalism during the country’s civil war was sentenced Thursday to 30 years in US prison — for immigration-related fraud and perjury. Nicknamed “Jungle Jabbah,” 51-year-old Mohammed Jabateh commanded the “United Liberation Movement …
Read More »Museveni meets Boris Johnson, Modi
London, UK | THE INDEPENDENT | President Yoweri Museveni has held meetings with several leaders at the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) including UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson with whom he held a productive meeting to discuss the Commonwealth. According to sources the two leaders talked …
Read More »Zimbabwe parliament summons Mugabe on May 9
Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | A Zimbabwe parliament committee has summoned former president Robert Mugabe to give evidence on May 9 over diamond corruption costing billions of dollars, underlining his fall from power after 37 years of autocratic rule. Mugabe, now 94, ruled Zimbabwe from 1980 until he was ousted …
Read More »Cabinet reshuffle ahead of Burundi referendum
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza reshuffled his cabinet Thursday, replacing the foreign minister but keeping officials in charge of next month’s constitutional referendum that could see him stay in power until 2034. High-profile foreign minister Alain-Aime Nyamitwe, the brother of press chief Willy Nyamitwe, was removed …
Read More »South Sudan army chief dies in Egypt
Juba, South Sudan | THE INDEPENDENT | South Sudan army chief, Gen James Ajong’a Mawut is dead, reports from Juba indicate. Eye Radio in Juba has reported the the South Sudan People’s Liberation Army SPLA Chief of Defense Force, Ajong’a Mawut, passed away this week. The death was confirmed by …
Read More »S. Africa leader curtails Britain trip over unrest at home
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has cut short his participation in the Commonwealth summit in Britain to tackle violent demonstrations at home, his office said, in one of the first major challenges of his new presidency. Ramaphosa, who took office in February with promises …
Read More »Bashir fires Sudan foreign minister: state media
Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | President Omar al-Bashir on Thursday fired Sudan’s Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour, state media reported, after he said that Sudanese diplomats abroad had been unpaid for months. In a speech to lawmakers on Wednesday, Ghandour, who negotiated the lifting of decades-old sanctions with Washington in October 2017, …
Read More »Angola passes law to attract foreign investment
Luanda, Angola | AFP | Angola on Thursday passed a law scrapping rules that previously forced foreign investors to partner with local firms, as President Joao Lourenco tries to revive the oil-dependant economy. Lourenco has vowed to pull in foreign investment after he succeeded Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who had ruled …
Read More »