Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | Skilled workers are leaving sub-Saharan Africa in rapidly increasingly numbers, producing a “brain drain” that causes long-term social damage, the International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday. The IMF said that the number of sub-Saharan migrants living in developed countries could increase from about seven million …
Read More »Kagame sparks debate at Yale
Rwanda’s President Kagame asserts Africa’s right to self-determination in Coca-Cola lecture at Yale A speech President Paul Kagame delivered during a public lecture at the Coca Cola World Fund Lecture at Yale University has sparked wide-ranging debate for its emphasis on the right of Africans to self-determination. Speaking before over …
Read More »PROTEST: 52 dead in Ethiopia festival stampede
Bishoftu, Ethiopia | AFP | Fifty-two people died on Sunday at a religious festival in Ethiopia to celebrate the end of the rainy season after police fired tear gas at protesters triggering a stampede. Violence broke out at the gathering in the town of Bishoftu near the capital Addis Ababa …
Read More »EU observers were wiretapped during Gabon vote
Paris, France | AFP | Gabonese intelligence wiretapped EU election observers who voiced grave doubts over the outcome of hotly disputed August 27 polls in the oil-rich central African nation, a French weekly reported Sunday. In what it dubbed Gabon’s “Watergate”, the Journal du Dimanche (JDD) did not say how …
Read More »DRC electoral commission seeks to delay vote to late 2017
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | The Democratic Republic of Congo’s electoral commission on Saturday said it would seek to delay calling voters to the polls until late 2017, though the opposition swiftly rejected the proposal. The announcement came amid opposition fears that President Joseph Kabila will not step …
Read More »Even darker days for Nigeria, as power supply gets worse
Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Balogun Shakirat woke up with a start at 3:00 am and put on the light in her workshop in a crowded working class district of Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos. In the following three hours, she was able to sew shirts, trousers and a jacket. Then …
Read More »Nigeria takes on oil giants Chevron, Total over ‘illegal exports’
Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Chevron and Total on Friday failed to have a court throw out a case implicating them in the alleged failure to declare billions of dollars of crude exports from Nigeria. The US and French companies are among up to 15 oil majors reportedly targeted …
Read More »UN launches high-level probe of Burundi rights abuses
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | The UN decided Friday to send a high-level team of investigators to Burundi to probe rights violations after a report warned of possible “crimes against humanity” and the risk of genocide. The UN Human Rights Council voiced “grave concern” at soaring violations seen in …
Read More »Kenya weighs cost of railway through Nairobi National Park
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Munching, the giraffe looks up towards the skyscrapers looming in the distance. But this picture-postcard image of Nairobi, one where wild animals graze in the shadow of the cityscape, is at risk from a railroad. A unique urban conservation site, the Nairobi National Park is …
Read More »Extradited from US, Rwandan genocide suspect arrives home
Kigali, Rwanda | AFP | A linguistics professor wanted for alleged involvement in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide has been extradited from the United States, the government announced Thursday. Leopold Munyakazi, 65, arrived in Kigali on Wednesday night aboard a charter flight from the US, said a statement posted on the website …
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