AFRICA

Cape Town, South Africa | AFP | South Africa braces for a tough budget speech Wednesday amid renewed optimism spurred by the country’s new reformist president who has promised to drive the economy out of the doldrums. Cyril Ramaphosa took over last week from the scandal-plagued Jacob Zuma, raising hope …

Paris, France | AFP | Liberia’s new President George Weah on Tuesday pledged to fight endemic corruption as he spoke about conditions in his “broke country” on the first day of an official visit to Paris. The former international football star who, took office on January 22, is faced with …

Buhera, Zimbabwe | AFP | Thousands of Zimbabweans gathered Tuesday to bid a final farewell to opposition veteran Morgan Tsvangirai who was one of Africa’s most globally admired politicians and lived to see the fall of his political nemesis Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai, the country’s fiercest opponent of former president Mugabe’s …

Cape Town, South Africa | AFP | South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said Tuesday he wanted “healing and atonement” following the 2012 massacre of 34 striking workers at a mine run by Lonmin where he was a director. Ramaphosa has been dogged by allegations that he was partly responsible for …

Juba, South Sudan | AFP | Two Kenyan pilots held for over a month after crash-landing their plane in rebel-held South Sudan have been released, a rebel spokesman said Tuesday. The two men were flying South Sudanese aid workers close to Akobo in the east of the country early last …

US warns Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda on used clothes imports ban Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The US has warned East African Community (EAC) leaders that will converge in Kampala this week that their planned ban of the importation of used clothes by 2019 violates conditions set to expand trade …

Jerusalem, Undefined | AFP | Israel has struck an “historic” contract to supply natural gas to Egypt, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Monday, in a deal one firm said was worth $15 billion over 10 years. “This will bring billions of dollars to state coffers,” Netanyahu said in a statement …

Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | Nigeria has freed another 51 Boko Haram suspects in the latest round of dropped cases for lack of evidence, the justice ministry said Monday. Over the course of last week, hundreds of suspected Boko Haram extremists appeared before a court at the Kainji military base …

Migrants are held captive, fed just enough to keep them alive, and subjected to various forms of inhuman treatment in a bid to extort money Kampala, Uganda | KWAKU BOTWE | Thirty-year-old Nazir Mohammed sits on one of the two sofas in his single room in Kwame Danso, a small town about …

United Nations, United States | AFP | Two aid workers employed by a French charity that helps provide water were killed in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and a third is still missing, the United Nations said Monday. The two Hydraulique Sans Frontieres (HYFRO) employees were killed Saturday near Mushikiri …