AFRICA

  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 …

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 …

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 …

  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 …

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 …

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, …

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 …

Dakar, Senegal | AFP | Senegal’s parliament on Thursday passed a law setting a higher bar for presidential candidates after protests that saw police fire tear gas on demonstrators, with dozens arrested according to the main opposition party. The change to the electoral law, approved by 120 of the body’s 165 …

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari came under fire on Thursday for criticising youths who he said “do nothing” and want everything for “free” in the oil-rich country. Buhari, who declared earlier in April he is seeking re-election in 2019, made the remark on Wednesday at a …

Moroni, Comoros | AFP | The president of the Comoros has suspended the Constitutional Court, the highest court in the country, in a move immediately denounced by the opposition in the Indian Ocean island nation. President Azali Assoumani said the court was “disfunctional” due to the number of appointed judges being …