Abidjan, Ivory Coast | AFP | There’s nothing covert about Roxy — a huge market in Abidjan selling counterfeit medicine, the scourge of Africa and the cause of around 100,000 deaths annually on the world’s poorest continent. Located in the bustling Adjame quarter of Ivory Coast’s main city and commercial hub, …
Read More »S.Africa aims to patch-up threadbare clothing industry
Maitland, South Africa | AFP | South Africa is fighting to revive its frayed clothing industry, once a crucial provider of jobs in a country suffering from high unemployment, as a flood of cheap imports forces local factories to shutter and lay off workers. Once the economic lifeblood of many small …
Read More »Tripoli flights still suspended after fighting
Tripoli, Libya | AFP | The Libyan capital’s only working international airport remained closed to flights on Tuesday, the airport said, a day after fighting killed at least 20 people and damaged several planes. Mitiga airport said in a statement that all scheduled flights had been rerouted through the western …
Read More »India to buy guns worth $553 mn for border troops
New Delhi, India | AFP | India will buy more than 160,000 guns worth $553 million for troops on its disputed, high-altitude borders, the defence ministry said Tuesday. The defence acquisition council cleared the purchase of 72,400 assault rifles and 93,895 carbines for 35 billion rupees ($553 million) in a …
Read More »S.Africa seeks cash from firms linked to Zuma graft scandal
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South African prosecutors said Tuesday they are seeking $130 million from global consultancy McKinsey and a local firm linked to a graft scandal that has engulfed President Jacob Zuma. The announcement was the first move against the Gupta family that is accused of corrupt …
Read More »Algeria gas plant marks five years since bloody hostage siege
In Amenas, Algeria | AFP | Workers at Algeria’s In Amenas gas plant gathered Tuesday around a black marble memorial to mark five years since a deadly raid by Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists left 40 hostages dead. All trace of the four-day siege — which saw workers from Japan, the Philipines, Britain, …
Read More »Morocco sentences man to death over MP killing
Rabat, Morocco | AFP | A Moroccan court sentenced to death a man over the murder of a member of parliament and jailed his widow, in a case involving sex and money, the government said Tuesday. Abdellatif Merdas, who was a member of the liberal Constitutional Union party, was gunned …
Read More »Former DR Congo army chief accused of coup bid held in Gabon
Libreville, Gabon | AFP | Democratic Republic of Congo’s former military chief, who has been accused by Kinshasa of an attempted coup against President Joseph Kabila in 2011, has been arrested in Gabon, sources told AFP. “General Faustin Munene has been arrested since Wednesday, January 10… in Gabon,” said a …
Read More »Three killed in Boko Haram raid in Nigeria
Kano, Nigeria | AFP | Three people were killed and two others were critically injured in a Boko Haram attack in northeast Nigeria, a community leader and a resident said on Tuesday. Gunmen riding motorcycles and bicycles arrived in large numbers in Pallam village, in the Madagali area of Adamawa …
Read More »Sudan police beat protesters at demo against rising prices
Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Anti-riot police fired tear gas and beat protesters with batons Tuesday as hundreds of Sudanese demonstrated against soaring bread prices near a presidential palace in Khartoum, an AFP correspondent said. Bread prices have more than doubled after a jump in the cost of flour due …
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