Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | A local leader of the main Tanzanian opposition party has been found beaten to death after men bundled him into a car, party chairman Freeman Mbowe said Wednesday. Daniel John was responsible for the Chadema party in the Hananasif district of the economic capital Dar …
Read More »S.Africa police raid house of Zuma’s allies in graft probe
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South African police Wednesday raided the Johannesburg home of the business family accused of overseeing government corruption under President Jacob Zuma, who has been ordered to resign by his party. Zuma is expected to respond to the ANC party’s order later Wednesday, hours after …
Read More »Remembering Hugh Masekela
The horn player with a shrewd ear for music of the day Johannesburg, South Africa | GWEN ANSELL | Trumpeter, flugelhorn-player, singer, composer and activist Hugh Ramapolo Masekela has passed away after a long battle with prostate cancer. When he cancelled his appearance last year at the Johannesburg Joy of Jazz …
Read More »Oxfam faces South Sudan abuse claim as sex scandal widens
London, United Kingdom | AFP | Scandal-hit British charity Oxfam was reeling Tuesday after fresh claims of sexual assault and cover-up in South Sudan, as Haiti’s president condemned the behaviour of some of its staff in his country as “undignified and dishonest”. The latest revelations by Helen Evans, former global head …
Read More »Chibok girls’ kidnapper jailed for 15 years
Kainji, Nigeria | AFP | A man involved in the 2014 kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls from Chibok in northeast Nigeria has been jailed for 15 years, the government confirmed on Tuesday. The conviction of Haruna Yahaya, 35, is the first in relation to the mass abduction, which triggered global …
Read More »ANALYSIS: Africa’s new man at IMF
Top job for South African Lesetja Kganyago gives African countries sway Kampala, Uganda | DANNY BRADLOW | South Africa’s Reserve Bank Governor, Lesetja Kganyago, has been selected as the first sub-Saharan African to serve as chair of the International Monetary and Finance Committee. The chair is appointed by consensus. The three-year …
Read More »South Africa on tenterhooks as Zuma to respond to ouster push
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africans were on tenterhooks Wednesday as their scandal-tainted President Jacob Zuma was expected to respond to his party’s decision to “recall” him from office in an atmosphere of growing political turmoil. The embattled president, who could be ousted in a parliamentary vote of …
Read More »South Africa: a giant of Africa
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa is the continent’s most industrialised economy and among its most developed, but marked by gaping inequalities rooted in years of racist white-minority rule that ended in 1994. – Apartheid – Black South Africans, around 80 percent of the population, voted for the …
Read More »No December election without voting machines: DRCongo poll chief
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | DR Congo’s long-delayed election due on December 23 to choose a successor to long-serving ruler Joseph Kabila will not take place without electronic voting machines, the poll chief said Tuesday “Without voting machines, there will be no elections on December 23, 2018,” election commission …
Read More »200,000 displaced by ethnic clashes in DR Congo: sources
Bunia, DR Congo | AFP | About 200,000 people have been displaced in ethnic clashes since mid-December in the northeastern Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a humanitarian source told AFP Tuesday, as escapees spoke of burnt villages and victims being hacked to death. Hema herders and Lendu …
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