AFRICA

Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | Two upstart Sierra Leone political parties said Wednesday they had filed complaints over this month’s elections after failing to make the cut for the second round of the presidential ballot. The National Grand Coalition (NGC) took 6.9 percent of votes in the March 7 elections …

Tripoli, Libya | AFP | Libya has issued arrest warrants for more than 200 Libyans and foreigners suspected of involvement in a smuggling network for Europe-bound migrants, the attorney general’s office said on Thursday. “We have 205 arrest warrants for people (involved in) organising immigration operations, human trafficking, (cases) of torture, …

Port Louis, Mauritius | AFP | Mauritian President Ameenah Gurib-Fakim has refused to resign, vowing to fight allegations that saw her embroiled in a financial scandal, the presidency said in a statement Wednesday. Gurib-Fakim, Africa’s only female head of state, has been accused of using a bank card provided by an …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT & PPU | President Yoweri Museveni has stressed that the African continent that lacked unity in the past, has now woken up after the industrial revolution and will not miss out on the digital revolution. He said Africans will now be part of global trade …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South African police were on Wednesday probing one of their own officers who was accused of molesting young girls while investigating sexual assault of scores of primary school pupils. The forensic investigator allegedly molested two girls aged seven and eight on Monday when he …

Lagos, NIGERIA | AFP | Herders are believed to have killed 25 villagers in central Nigeria’s Plateau state, police said on Wednesday, in the latest violence linked to land, water and grazing rights. The killings happened on Monday in the Bassa area of Plateau state, just a few days after …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Three Tanzanian NGOs on Tuesday filed a complaint at the East Africa Court of Justice over a 2016 law that they argue violates press freedom. The Media Council of Tanzania (MCT), Legal and Human Rights Centre, and Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition said in their …

Windhoek, Namibia | AFP | Namibia on Tuesday reported its first case of listeriosis since an outbreak in neighbouring South Africa erupted at the beginning of last year, killing 183 people so far. A 41-year-old Namibian man was diagnosed with the disease on Monday and is being treated in a …

Bunia, DR Congo | AFP | Dozens of people were killed overnight in fresh clashes in DR Congo’s volatile northeastern Ituri province, sharpening an ethnic conflict that has already forced tens of thousands to flee, officials said Tuesday. At least 30 people were killed in the latest unrest, which came …

Irrua, Nigeria | AFP | Nigeria is battling on two fronts against an unprecedented outbreak of Lassa fever, a cousin of Ebola, that has already killed 110 people this year. Even as doctors are grappling to contain the threat, health watchdogs are struggling to understand why the deadly virus has …