Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Security forces patrolled the tense streets of Kinshasa on Sunday after the suspension of last-ditch talks to find a peaceful way out of the nation’s political crisis sparked by the end of President Joseph Kabila’s mandate. Negotiations to agree a way forward for the …
Read More »KABILA: Young, enigmatic and still around
Joseph Kabila: DR Congo’s young, enigmatic leader Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Still relatively young after 16 years leading the Democratic Republic of Congo, Joseph Kabila is a secretive president at the centre of a political crisis in his vast, conflict-ravaged nation. Tuesday marks the end of the second …
Read More »Oulanyah opposes ACP, EU motion on Presidential term limits
Europe should not impose term limits on Uganda – Oulanyah tells EU Members of the European Parliament and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) parliamentary group will on Wednesday vote on a motion to impose presidential term limits on member states. The ongoing ACP-EU joint parliamentary assembly in Nairobi was preceded by …
Read More »Gambia’s Jammeh: from TV concession to courtroom drama
Banjul, Gambia | AFP | Longtime Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh, who initially conceded defeat in a December 1 presidential poll, has lodged a Supreme Court case to challenge the result, despite pressure from the international community for him to cede power peacefully. The opposition in the small West African country, …
Read More »UN cancels Gambia army chief’s Darfur visit
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | The UN has stopped The Gambia’s controversial army chief from visiting troops serving as peacekeepers in Darfur, as international pressure grows on the country’s top brass to accept incoming president-elect Adama Barrow. Gambian security forces seized the country’s Independent Electoral Commission on Tuesday, drawing international …
Read More »Kagame explains Africa’s anti-ICC stand
Rwanda President Paul Kagame has explained why many African countries are unhappy with the International Criminal Court (ICC), saying the Hague-based body has failed to offer international justice. He said the court was not serving justice but political interests disguised as international justice. “Rwanda did not become signatory to ICC because this …
Read More »Burundi summons EU envoys for skipping Nyamitwe meeting
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Burundi’s foreign minister on Thursday summoned envoys for the EU and several European nations to rap them over the knuckles for skipping a diplomatic meeting he had invited them to, government sources said. Ambassadors for the EU, France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands had been …
Read More »Tanzania charges editor of whistle-blowing website
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania | AFP | Tanzanian authorities on Friday charged the editor of a whistle-blowing website for failing to reveal the identity of contributors to the site, court documents revealed. Maxence Melo, who co-founded the website Jamii Forums, was charged with operating a website without a local domain, …
Read More »Exhumed bodies reveal South Africa’s deep apartheid wounds
Pretoria, South Africa | AFP | After 52 years, Mncedisi Tyopo finally stood beside his father’s grave, looking down at remains being exhumed as part of South Africa’s attempts to come to terms with its painful past. Tyopo’s father Bhonase Vulindlela was an anti-apartheid fighter who was hanged along with …
Read More »Traces from EgyptAir victims point to blast on plane
Cairo, Egypt | AFP | Traces of explosives have been found on victims’ remains from an EgyptAir plane that crashed into the Mediterranean in May killing all 66 people on board, Egypt’s aviation ministry said Thursday. An official investigative committee which made the discovery has referred the case to Egypt’s …
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