AFRICA

Arua, Uganda | Michael O’Hagan | AFP |  The EU pledged 85 million euros ($95 million) to Uganda on Thursday as UN chief Antonio Guterres urged donors to give 20 times that amount to help the country deal with nearly one million refugees from South Sudan. Guterres visited a refugee …

Kampala, Uganda | AMY FALLON| devex.com|  As a former refugee in Kenya, Musa Francis Ecweru often reflects on the generosity of his once-host nation. Today, as Uganda’s state minister for relief, disaster preparedness and refugees, he sits on the other side of the table, managing his country’s reception in the world’s fastest …

Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is in Uganda for crucial talks on the use of the River Nile waters. Sisi jetted into Entebbe Thursday morning for the Nile Basin Heads of State summit, one of several leaders who flew in for discussions on sharing River Nile that has divided the region …

Warder, Ethiopia |Chris Stein, AFP | The Somali people of Ethiopia’s southeast have a name for the drought that has killed livestock, dried up wells and forced hundreds of thousands into camps: sima, which means “equalised”. It’s an appropriate name, they say, because this drought has left no person untouched, …

Juba, South Sudan | AFP | A famine that was declared in parts of South Sudan four months ago is over, UN aid agencies said Wednesday, but extreme hunger has increased to its highest levels ever across the war-torn country. “The accepted technical definition of famine no longer applies in …

Bangui, Central African Republic | AFP | The death toll from clashes in Central African Republic has surged to around 100, local officials said Wednesday of violence that erupted hours after the government signed a truce with rebel groups. The bloodshed, which left dozens more injured, dashed hopes of an …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP |Financially hamstrung Zimbabwe joined UN agencies and charities Wednesday in appealing for $10.9 million of aid for thousands of refugees in the country including families fleeing violence in neighbouring Mozambique. Zimbabwe, grappling an economic crisis including a cash crunch which has had a toll on social …

Rafah, Palestinian Territories | AFP |  Egypt began on Wednesday to deliver a million litres of fuel to Gaza, a Palestinian official said, in an attempt to ease the Palestinian enclave’s desperate electricity crisis. The fuel, trucked in through the Rafah border between Egypt and Gaza, will be routed to …

Vatican City, Holy See | AFP |  Pope Francis is supporting a series of aid projects in South Sudan, the Vatican said Wednesday, sending money in his place after a trip to the war-torn country was ruled out. The Vatican will donate 462,000 euros ($515,000), which will be divided among …

Geneva, Switzerland | AFP |  Devastating conflicts, violence and persecution in Syria, South Sudan and elsewhere left a record 65.6 million people uprooted from their homes by the end of 2016, the UN said Monday. That number marks a jump of just 300,000 from the end of 2015, but is …