NEWS ANALYSIS

Marikana, South Africa | AFP | At the site of the 2012 Marikana massacre where police shot dead 34 strikers, thousands of South African miners sang remembrance songs Wednesday as campaigners demanded prosecutions and compensation. The 34 miners were gunned down after police were deployed to break up a wildcat strike …

Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | Sierra Leone began a week of mourning Wednesday as it emerged that 105 children were among more than 300 people who perished in mudslides and torrential flooding, in one of the country’s worst natural disasters. With 600 people still missing in Freetown, President Ernest Bai …

Lusaka, Zambia | AFP |  Hakainde Hichilema, who was released from custody after treason charges against him were dropped, is a self-made entrepreneur who has made five unsuccessful attempts to become the Zambian president. He alleges that the 2016 election was rigged and, as leader of the opposition United Party …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s wife was once dismissed as a lightweight shopping addict with no political interests, but Grace Mugabe has recently emerged as a potential challenger for power. Aged 52, the first lady has become increasingly active in public life and in 2014 became the …

Sydney, Australia | AFP | Soaring temperatures driven by climate change are whipping up ever-more intense storms inundating cities with flash floods but leaving the countryside and crucial agricultural land parched, an Australian study has found. Researchers at Australia’s University of New South Wales (UNSW) found that while hotter weather sparked …

Imvepi settlement on the Uganda-South Sudanese border puts UNHCR to the test Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | In the mid-morning of July 30, Col. Lam Paul Gabriel, the deputy Spokesperson of the SPLA-IO, one of the rebel movements wedging war against Salva Kiir’s government in South Sudan, sat under the …

Paris, France | AFP | The attack on a Turkish restaurant in Burkina Faso’s capital on Sunday was the latest in a series of assaults in Africa targeting spots popular with foreigners and locals alike. Here is an overview of the worst such attacks in recent years, most of which have …

Paris, France | AFP | The doctrine of nuclear deterrence, put to the test in the standoff between Washington and Pyongyang, dates to the Cold War when the world’s two superpowers seemed hellbent on “mutually assured destruction”. The arms race between United States and the then Soviet Union saw a proliferation …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has been declared the winner of the country’s election, but his rival Raila Odinga insists he is the true winner, and the election was stolen from him. Odinga has said he will outline his strategy to contest the vote on Tuesday. Deadly …

London, United Kingdom | AFP |  Jamaican Usain Bolt said Sunday he was sad but also excited to bow out of athletics, adding that his disappointing world campaign in London would not change his career achievements. Bolt brought down the curtain on his glittering career in dramatic fashion when he …