Banjul, Gambia | AFP | Ten members of Gambia’s former spy agency have been detained on suspicion of murdering a political activist who led a protest during ousted strongman Yahya Jammeh’s rule, police said Tuesday. Solo Sandeng, organising secretary of the United Democratic Party, was arrested in April 2016 for fronting …
Read More »Chad public sector back to work after seven-week strike
N’Djamena, Chad | AFP | Civil servants in Chad returned to work on Tuesday after a strike over austerity measures paralysed the impoverished country’s public sector for seven weeks. Trade unions had called the strike in late January after the government slashed civil servants’ pay, and the whole public sector …
Read More »DR Congo weeds out unqualified magistrates
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have exposed more than 200 unqualified magistrates, an official source said Tuesday. A commission of enquiry formed in October to probe the qualifications and recruitment conditions of more than 3,000 magistrates found that hundreds “should not be …
Read More »Nigeria was warned before Boko Haram abduction: Amnesty
Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Nigeria’s military was on Tuesday accused of ignoring repeated warnings about the movements of Boko Haram fighters before they kidnapped 110 schoolgirls in the country’s restive northeast. The students — the youngest of whom is aged just 10 — were seized from the town of …
Read More »Year of anti-Kabila protests in DR Congo leaves 47 dead: UN
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | A government crackdown on demonstrations against President Joseph Kabila in Democratic Republic of Congo has led to the killing of 47 people in just over a year, a UN report seen by AFP said Monday. “Between 1 January 2017 and 31 January 2018, at …
Read More »Chad mulls presidential terms but opposition sceptical
N’Djamena, Chad | AFP | Chad on Monday was due to start discussing sweeping constitutional reforms including presidential term limits in a country ruled with an iron fist by Idriss Deby since a 1996 coup. A so-called “national forum” comprising some 700 participants, including ruling party figures, members of civil society …
Read More »Zimbabwe’s president threatens to prosecute forex culprits
Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Monday named hundreds of mines, Chinese businesses and individuals who had illegally transferred foreign currency abroad during Robert Mugabe’s rule and warned they would be prosecuted. The announcement came after the expiry of a three month amnesty for the return of …
Read More »S.African court orders grounding of Gupta jet
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | A private jet used by a business family at the heart of corruption allegations against former South African president Jacob Zuma was grounded Monday by a court order, according to court documents. The whereabouts of the Bombadier Global 6000 jet is unknown, but the …
Read More »AU launches ambitious bid for world’s largest free trade area
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | Africa’s leaders will gather in Rwanda Wednesday to launch what they say will be the world’s largest free trade area but Nigeria has already pulled out, highlighting the challenge in getting the continent to sign up. Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) with …
Read More »Living across the front lines in South Sudan
Leer, South Sudan | AFP | Nyakol was 15, healthy and strong when South Sudanese soldiers attacked her hometown of Leer, forcing her to flee with her mother into the surrounding swamps. Not for the first time, government troops tore through the northern rebel stronghold, killing, kidnapping and raping, so …
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