Cairo, Egypt | AFP | A bomb blast at a church north of Cairo killed at least 22 people and wounded dozens who had gathered for Palm Sunday mass, officials said, in the latest apparent attack on Egypt’s Coptic Christians. Some 71 people were wounded in the blast, which struck …
Read More »Mourn, don’t criticise at memorials, Zuma warns colleagues
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma on Saturday hit out at critics within his own camp telling them not to use events such as funerals or memorial services to attack each other. Speaking himself, however, at the inauguration of a former minister’s tombstone, Zuma told colleagues …
Read More »Kabila names opposition leader as Prime Minister
DR Congo president names new PM under power-sharing deal Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | President Joseph Kabila on Friday named an opposition leader as prime minister for the Democratic Republic of Congo, honouring a pledge made as part of a stalled power-sharing deal agreed in December. Bruno Tshibala, a …
Read More »Another 6,000 flee ‘terrifying’ violence in South Sudan
Over 6,000 flee ‘terrifying’ violence in South Sudan town near Uganda: UN Juba, South Sudan | AFP | Fighting in the South Sudan town of Pajok sent over 6,000 people fleeing this week, with refugees recounting the slaughter of civilians by government forces, the UN refugee agency said Friday. Fighting …
Read More »World parliament assembly calls for action on famine, drought in Africa
The 136th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly chaired by Uganda’s Rebecca Kadaga, ended on Wednesday with the adoption of the Dhaka Declaration calling for urgent international action to save millions of people from famine and drought in parts of Africa and Yemen. The five-day assembly in Dhaka also took a resolution on …
Read More »Landmine kills 19 in Somalia as president vows war on Shabaab
Mogadishu, Somalia | AFP | A minibus hit a landmine in Somalia on Thursday, killing 19 people just hours after the new president of the troubled nation declared fresh war against Al-Shabaab militants. The minibus was travelling in the southern Lower Shebelle region when it hit the landmine near the …
Read More »Nigeria court unfreezes millions in ex-first lady Patience Jonathan’s fraud probe
Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | A judge in Lagos on Thursday ordered Nigeria’s anti-graft agency to release one of several bank accounts frozen as part of an inquiry into the wife of former president Goodluck Jonathan. Patience Jonathan had filed a complaint against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in …
Read More »Nigerian becomes first African to fly solo around the world
Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Nigerian airline pilot Ademola Odujinrin, known as “Lola”, has become the first African to fly solo around the world, his foundation Transcend said in a statement Thursday. The 38-year-old Nigerian left Washington in September last year abord a Cirrus SR22, a small, single engine airplane, …
Read More »COMMENT: Africa’s offer to Xi and Trump
It gives an opportunity to both Washington and Beijing to share information to avoid duplication and facilitate effectiveness By: John J Stremlau Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump will meet for the first time at Trump’s opulent Mar-a-Lago golf resort in Florida in early April. There’s no …
Read More »Drought shatters Turkana’s dreams of a better future
Lokamarinyang, Kenya | AFP | In just a few years water, oil and money would flow. Roads, schools and hospitals would follow. Turkana’s generations of poverty and neglect in Kenya’s arid north would end. But it was not to be: five years after the discovery of oil, and four since …
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