Gambia’s newly elected president has vowed to free all political prisoners and urged exiles who fled the 22-year reign of Yahya Jammeh to return from abroad and help him reform the tiny West African country, writes Carley Petesch “A new Gambia is born,” Adama Barrow said in an interview with …
Read More »Strike over fuel subsidies quietens Khartoum streets
Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Sudan’s ruling party on Sunday criticised opposition groups over their strike call, as many public transport buses stayed off Khartoum streets and shops remained shut in a mixed response to the call. The three-day strike call was to protest a government decision to hike fuel …
Read More »DR Congo police fire tear gas to prevent banned rally
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Police fired tear gas and fanned out across the capital of DR Congo on Saturday to prevent a banned opposition rally seeking the exit of President Joseph Kabila this year. DR Congo has been going through political turmoil which deepened last month after the …
Read More »Sudan arrests opposition leader over fuel price speech
Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Sudanese security agents arrested a senior opposition politician on Friday for giving a speech that criticised a government decision to raise fuel prices, his party said. Agents from the all-powerful National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) arrested Khaled Omar, deputy chief of the Sudanese Congress …
Read More »Zambian opposition leader arrested on sedition charges
Lusaka, Zambia | AFP | Zambia’s opposition leader and defeated presidential candidate Hakainde Hichilema was arrested Wednesday on charges of sedition and unlawful assembly, police said. Hichilema, who disputed the result of August polls which re-elected President Edgar Lungu, was detained along with Geoffrey Mwamba, the vice-president of his United …
Read More »DRC opposition say over 100 killed in two-day violence
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Two days of violence in Kinshasa left over 100 people dead, the Democratic Republic of Congo opposition said Wednesday, their figure more than tripling the police toll. Police in DR Congo said earlier that 32 people had been killed during the clashes in the …
Read More »Besigye to know bail fate tomorrow
Kizza Besigye will know the fate of his bail application tomorrow. The political opposition figurehead, who faces treason charges, appeared at Kampala high court to hear his bail application Besigye argued that he was uncertain of when his treason trial would commence and asked to be granted bail. Appearing before …
Read More »Post-script: Why the big fish will not bite
The Independent has learnt that long before the February 2016 elections that renewed his grip on office, President Yoweri Museveni was toying with options of how to weaken the opposition even further after walloping it at the polls. Cooptation became his best option. It is an old and tested …
Read More »Museveni’s small fish
Museveni’s small fish: Which one will President grab next? Could the self-declared president of the opposition Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), Jimmy Akena, soon be appointed to a high government position – possibly among the deputy prime ministers? Sources close to State House tell The Independent that when choosing members of …
Read More »Catholic bishops in DRC call for elections
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | An influential grouping of Catholic bishops in the Democratic Republic of Congo called for elections to be held on schedule this year and for President Joseph Kabila to step down when his second term ends. Kabila, who has been in power since 2001, is …
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