AFRICA

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Global financial support for humanitarian work in conflict-riven Sudan is expected to drop this year despite improved aid access and the easing of US sanctions, the top UN aid official in the country said. “Sudan is taking some very positive steps which are recognised, and… …

Bakau, Gambia | AFP | Thousands celebrated Saturday as new Gambian President Adama Barrow retook his oath of office, a month after he was sworn in across the border in neighbouring Senegal during a tense power struggle. February 18 is also the anniversary of The Gambia’s independence from Britain, but …

Mogadishu, Somalia | AFP | At least 14 people were killed on Sunday when a car packed with explosives blew up near a busy intersection in Mogadishu, officials and witnesses said. “We have counted about 14 people killed and more than 30 others wounded… the area was a busy intersection …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  The mediator in Burundi’s nearly two-year political crisis on Sunday asked regional leaders to call an urgent summit as deep discord and a government boycott hamper peace talks. Former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa wrapped up four days of talks with some 30 Burundian representatives who …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who turns 93 on Tuesday, has no plans to give up power, saying he has no “acceptable” successor in place. “The call to step down must come from my party, my party at congress, my party at central committee,” Mugabe said …

Juba, South Sudan | AFP |  A third top South Sudanese military official has resigned, accusing President Salva Kiir’s regime of war crimes and ethnic cleansing, according to a letter seen by AFP Saturday. Brigadier Henry Oyay Nyago, advocate general and director of military justice, was the latest military official …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  Burundi’s government on Friday asked Tanzania to arrest several leaders of the main opposition attending peace talks in Arusha in a bid to resolve a nearly two-year political crisis. The talks are the latest effort by former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa to mediate the crisis …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP |  The wife of 92-year-old Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said Friday that he would be the voters’ choice even after he dies, as she addressed supporters from the ruling ZANU-PF party. Grace Mugabe, who is seen as a possible successor to her ailing husband, ratcheted up …

Juba, South Sudan | AFP |  South Sudan’s labour minister resigned Friday and declared allegiance to rebel leader Riek Machar, making him the second top official to quit in the war-torn country this week. Gabriel Duop Lam, who joined a unity government last year as a member of Machar’s opposition, …

Zziwa writes to the EALA Clerk to be re-instated as Speaker of the regional assembly Embattled former speaker of the 3rd East African Legislative Assembly Margaret Nantongo Zziwa has written to the body’s clerk in Arusha asking him to make necessary arrangements to have her reinstated. This follows a ruling by …