Tokyo, Japan | AFP | Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is to become the first Japanese leader to visit Pearl Harbor, announcing Monday a trip to the site of his country’s surprise attack that launched World War II in the Pacific. News of the journey comes just two days ahead of …
Read More »Uganda’s brutal Lord’s Resistance Army, past and present
Kampala, Uganda | AFP | One of Africa’s longest-surviving rebel groups, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has terrorised parts of central Africa for 30 years. Its leaders are violent pariahs and fugitives from international justice, hunted by US special forces and African armies. Founder Joseph Kony remains on the loose, …
Read More »Nigeria’s Soyinka hits back at ‘imbeciles’ in green card row
Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Nobel prize-winning author Wole Soyinka hit back Monday at critics from his native Nigeria, denouncing the “slugs, barbarians and imbeciles” who derided him for tearing up his US residency card after Donald Trump’s election win. “I don’t want people we fought for to have the …
Read More »Uganda rebel Ongwen: victim turned killer
Kampala, Uganda | AFP | Abducted by gunmen as a 10-year-old boy on his way to school, Dominic Ongwen rose to become one of the most feared commanders in Uganda’s brutal Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The former child soldier, now in his early 40s, goes on trial before the International …
Read More »President-elect Barrow to reverse ICC pull-out, opposition figures out on bail
Senior Gambia opposition figures freed on bail Banjul, Gambia | AFP | Gambian opposition leader Ousainou Darboe, who had been jailed for taking part in a protest, was freed on bail with 18 others Monday, days after a shock opposition election win. The head of his defence team said …
Read More »Sudamericana title given to Chapecoense plane crash team
Asuncion, Paraguay | AFP | South American football confederation CONMEBOL agreed Monday to award the Copa Sudamericana to Brazilian club Chapecoense, whose team was wiped out in a plane crash while heading to the final. “CONMEBOL awards the title for the 2016 Copa Sudamericana championship to Chapecoense,” including the $2.0 …
Read More »Why Jammeh lost: Gambian leader’s downfall in five points
Banjul, Gambia | AFP | President Yahya Jammeh scored only half his previous box office tally in last week’s election, handing victory to opposition coalition leader Adama Barrow. But why did Gambians turn against Jammeh after 22 years in power? Economic crisis A triple blow has been dealt to the …
Read More »AHF strengthens fight against HIV in Rwanda
By Susan Babijja AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) combines efforts with the ministry of health in the fight against HIV in Rwanda as well as controlling new infection that is becoming a challenge. Every 1st of December Rwanda joins the rest of the world in observing the World AIDS day. On …
Read More »Nana Akufo-Addo, Ghana’s veteran runner-up
Accra, Ghana | AFP | Ghana’s New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate Nana Akufo-Addo is hoping it’ll be third time lucky when the country votes for a new president on December 7. Akufo-Addo, an erudite rights lawyer and former government minister with round tortoiseshell glasses, narrowly lost the 2008 and …
Read More »Mass burial for victims of Uganda unrest
Kampala, Uganda | AFP | The bodies of 51 unidentified victims of fierce fighting in the Rwenzururu kingdom in Uganda’s restive Kasese region were buried in a mass ceremony on Sunday, officials said. They were among nearly 90 people killed in fighting last month between palace guardsand security forces in the …
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