Maputo, Mozambique | AFP | Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi vowed on Monday to push ahead with national peace talks after he was overwhelmingly re-elected leader of the ruling Frelimo party at a five-yearly conference. Nyusi, who has ruled the country since 2015 and is likely to stand again in 2019 …
Read More »Nairobi university shut over protests ahead of Kenya presidential re-run
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Campuses at one of Kenya’s largest universities were closed on Tuesday after demonstrations broke out ahead of the country’s tense presidential election re-run, a university official said. Students at the University of Nairobi were ordered to vacate their dormitories on short notice after overnight protests …
Read More »Security tight in Cameroon anglophone region as toll rises
Buea, Cameroon | AFP | Police maintained a tight grip in English-speaking Cameroon on Monday a day after the anglophone minority declared symbolic independence, as the toll from weekend clashes rose to at least 17 dead, according to an unofficial tally. Highways in the anglophone Southwest Region remained blocked or filtered …
Read More »Kenya police use tear gas to disperse opposition protesters
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Police tear-gassed opposition supporters in two of Kenya’s biggest cities on Monday as they protested at the country’s election watchdog, which is due to referee a re-run presidential poll this month. Hundreds of opposition protesters in the capital Nairobi, the western city of Kisumu and the …
Read More »Ethiopia’s Oromo denounce govt on stampede anniversary
Bishoftu, Ethiopia | AFP | Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group on Sunday staged a peaceful anti-government protest at their biggest festival, where dozens were killed a year ago during a tear gas-induced stampede. Clad in traditional white, tens of thousands of Oromo people who gathered for the Irreecha festival, chanted “Down, down …
Read More »Madagascar plague kills 24, triggering WHO fears
Antananarivo, Madagascar | AFP | The World Health Organisation said Sunday it was boosting its response to a plague outbreak in Madagascar that has killed 24 people, as the government banned public meetings to reduce infections. In a televised address Saturday, Prime Minister Olivier Mahafaly Solonandrasana said no public meetings or …
Read More »Nigerian president denounces Biafran separatists, corruption
Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday railed against separatists seeking Nigeria’s “dismemberment” as it marked its 1960 independence from Britain and said corruption remained the African oil giant’s “number one enemy”. Buhari, who fought in the 1967-70 Biafran war, said those seeking to carve up the country …
Read More »Cameroon city deserted ahead of ‘independence’ declaration
Buea, Cameroon | AFP | The main city in a restive English-speaking region of Cameroon was a virtual ghost town Saturday, with armed police patrolled the streets on the eve of an expected — but symbolic — declaration of independence from the French-speaking country by anglophone separatists. In Buea, the …
Read More »Eleven killed in S.Africa township shootings
Cape Town, South Africa | AFP | Eleven people were killed in a series of overnight shootings in a Cape Town township, police said Saturday, including four victims shot dead when gunmen opened fire in a bar. Extra police officers were deployed to the Philipi district of Cape Town, a …
Read More »Turkey inaugurates military academy in Somalia
Mogadishu, Somalia | AFP | Turkey inaugurated on Saturday the largest foreign-run military training centre in Somalia, where local troops are due to take over the protection of a nation threatened by Shabaab Islamist attacks. Somalia’s fragile government and institutions, including its national army, are backed by the African Union’s …
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