Banjul, Gambia | AFP | Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, who was defeated in this week’s poll, seized power in a 1994 coup and clung to office for 22 years with a blend of severity, mysticism and iron-clad self-belief. “No matter what people say about me, I am not moved… I …
Read More »Who is Adama Barrow, presidential winner in Gambia?
Adama Barrow: Gambia’s estate agent of change Banjul, Gambia | AFP | He is quiet, understated and until recently unknown, but now presidential election winner Adama Barrow has become the flagbearer for a new era of change in The Gambia. A political novice whose lack of baggage has endeared him …
Read More »Gambia’s internet cut as ‘billion-year’ leader faces challenge
Banjul, Gambia | AFP | Gambian President Yahya Jammeh faced the strongest electoral challenge of his 22-year rule Thursday as voters went to the polls, braving an internet and phone blackout the government defended as a security measure. After an unprecedented two-week opposition campaign that has energised his rivals, Jammeh …
Read More »Men made a mess of Somalia, now women want to fix it
Mogadishu, Somalia | AFP | Raped, abused and subjected to genital mutilation, many women suffer terribly in Somalia, an unrepentantly patriarchal country shown by successive surveys as one of the worst places to be female. A quota reserving 30 percent of parliamentary seats for women in current elections is supposed …
Read More »‘Bye-Bye Kabila’ campaign launched in DR Congo
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Around a dozen opposition groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo united Tuesday in a campaign urging President Joseph Kabila to quit when his mandate officially ends on December 20. The “Bye-Bye Kabila” movement wants the president, who has been accused of delaying election …
Read More »CLINTON: The greatest country in the world is now divided
Clinton says election exposed deep divisions in US Washington, United States | AFP | In her first public appearance since conceding to Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton on Wednesday said the US presidential vote has exposed deep divisions, in the “greatest country in the world.” “Over the past week, a lot …
Read More »President-elect Trump back to tweeting with abandon
Washington, United States | AFP | Donald Trump during the presidential campaign tweeted with fierce abandon and at all hours. Would he feel restrained by last week’s presidential election victory to give his thumbs a rest? It seems not. The newly minted Republican president-elect let loose his latest Twitter barrage …
Read More »Giuliani: US law doesn’t bar Trump from business empire
Washington, United States | AFP | US law does not forbid Donald Trump from managing his corporate empire from the White House, according to one of his top advisors, who counseled nevertheless that the billionaire’s businesses be run by his adult children. Rudy Giuliani, a former mayor of New York …
Read More »Trump credits social media with election win
Washington, United States | AFP | President-elect Donald Trump credited his provocative use of Twitter and other social media with helping him win the US elections, saying it gave him a way of “fighting back.” In an interview that airs in full on Sunday on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” Trump said …
Read More »ANALYSIS: Africa waits and wonders on Trump’s foreign policy
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | Across Africa, the approaching presidency of Donald Trump has provoked deep uncertainty over how the United States will pursue policies ranging from counter-terrorism and trade, to aid and climate change. Many African countries had high hopes that Barack Obama would bring transformative benefits to …
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