AFRICA

Dakar, Senegal | AFP | A Senegalese singer was granted provisional release Monday after 10 days of detention for “offending the head of state and spreading fake news”, her lawyer said. Amy Colle Dieng, a well-known singer of Senegal’s popular mbalakh form of dance music, had been arrested on August 3 …

Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | At least 312 people were killed and more than 2,000 left homeless on Monday when heavy flooding hit Sierra Leone’s capital of Freetown, leaving excavators to pull bodies from rubble and overwhelming the city’s morgues. An AFP journalist saw several homes submerged in Regent village, …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  Kenya’s general elections on August 8 saw President Uhuru Kenyatta re-elected, while his Jubilee Party and its allies also made big gains at the county level, resetting the political balance. – Jubilee gains, NASA losses – Jubilee and allied candidates won 27 of the 47 …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP |  Zimbabwe’s vice president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is seen as favourite to succeed President Robert Mugabe, has been flown to South Africa for emergency medical care, officials said Monday. Mnangagwa, 74, fell ill at a rally where Mugabe spoke on Saturday in the southern town of …

Lusaka, Zambia | AFP |  Zambia’s detained opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema pleaded not guilty to treason Monday, ahead of a trial set to fuel political tension in a country previously known for its relative stability. Hichilema, leader of the United Party for National Development (UPND), has been in custody since …

Moscow, Russia | AFP |  Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday backed the efforts of Libya’s military commander Khalifa Haftar and his rival UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj to reach a peace agreement in the conflict-ridden country. “We actively support the emerging trend to step up the process of …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday appealed to the opposition to hold legal demonstrations, not street protests, and allow Kenyans to get back to normal life after last week’s disputed vote. “To our friends who have yet to accept the outcome, we continue to appeal …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Nearly eight million people face acute hunger in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a result of conflict, especially in the central Kasai region, UN food agencies said Monday. “Food security and nutrition… are deteriorating in many parts of DRC, but nowhere is the situation …

Lusaka, Zambia | AFP | Zambia’s detained opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema is due to appear in court Monday on treason charges, four months after he was arrested and as political tensions rise in the country. Hichilema, who narrowly lost last year’s presidential elections, has been in custody since April over …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has been declared the winner of the country’s election, but his rival Raila Odinga insists he is the true winner, and the election was stolen from him. Odinga has said he will outline his strategy to contest the vote on Tuesday. Deadly …