Niger’s putschists named an army general as the new leader of the unstable jihadist-hit nation on Friday, the third day since elected President Mohamed Bazoum was detained. Former colonial master France said hours earlier that it did not consider the coup “final”, adding there was time for plotters to heed international calls to leave democratically-elected […]

Zimbabwe’s leading opposition party on Thursday 27 July 2023 suffered a major blow ahead of national elections next month as a court disqualified all its candidates vying for seats in the nation’s second-largest city. The decision paves the way for the ruling ZANU-PF party to scoop up Bulawayo’s 12 constituencies in the August 23 vote, […]

Vladimir Putin gifted the president of Zimbabwe a helicopter, Harare said on Thursday 27 july 2023, as the Russian leader courts the backing of African leaders in Saint Petersburg. Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa is among those attending a two-day Russia-Africa summit that is being scrutinised as a test of Putin’s support in the continent after […]

Algerians in the fire-ravaged northeast were Thursday 27 July 2023 counting the cost of the wildfires that killed 34 people, destroyed homes and reduced vast forest areas to scorched wastelands. The wildfires raged for days, mainly through the mountain forests of the Kabylia region on the Mediterranean coast, fanned by winds during the blistering summer […]

Rockets pummelled the Sudanese capital on Thursday 27 July 2023, witnesses said, as paramilitaries attacked a key air force base north of Khartoum and claimed to have killed and wounded “dozens” of soldiers. Residents reported “heavy artillery shelling” and fighter jets overhead the northwest of the city, while drones belonging to the paramilitary Rapid Support […]

Scenes of looting, closed stores, blocked roads — the demonstrations organised by Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga since March threaten to make the East African nation’s already fragile economic situation even worse. Odinga’s Azimio coalition blames the government for a cost-of-living crisis and accuses it of adding to Kenyans’ misery by introducing hefty new taxes […]

Suspected Islamic State-affiliated jihadists have killed 32 people, including 25 herders, in two attacks in northeast Nigeria’s Borno state, anti-jihadist militia told AFP Thursday 27 July 2023. The attacks happened on Tuesday in the Lake Chad area, where the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) controls swathes of territory. In the first attack, ISWAP fighters riding in […]

African migrants pleaded to be saved from a desert zone between Libya and Tunisia on Wednesday 26 July 2023, weeks after Tunisian authorities allegedly dumped dozens of them there with nothing. “We are dying. We are dying by the minute,” a Nigerian who wanted to be identified only by his first name, George, told AFP. “Please, […]

Here are five things to know about Niger, where the country’s president was being detained by guards in what the African Union on Wednesday 27 July 2023 condemned as an “attempted coup”. Niger, a vast West African country that is two-thirds desert, is one of the world’s poorest nations. Half of its 26.2 million people […]

Barbie dolls are flying off the shelves in South Africa as “Barbie” movie mania has hit the country’s shores, with toy stores seeing a cotton candy-hued boom in sales. The iconic toy, known for its blonde mane, blue eyes, and pink clothing, has been a household name in the southern African nation for decades — but […]

Rwanda considers Belgium’s refusal to approve the appointment of its ambassador as “unfortunate”, a government spokesman said Wednesday 26 July 2023, adding that the move “does not bode well” for bilateral relations. Vincent Karega, Rwanda’s former ambassador to South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) — from where he was expelled last October […]

Sadly, Zanzibar’s ancient Mkumbuu ruins will face sea invasion if nothing is done to protect them from rising sea levels. MKUMBUU RUINS The Mkumbuu Ruins are located in the South Pemba Region. They lie at the end of a long narrow peninsula known as Ras Mkumbuu. The ruins mainly date from the 9th century CE and were […]

Soldiers claim to have overthrown Niger’s government following an apparent coup in the West African nation on Wednesday 26 July 2023 when members of the Presidential Guard detained President Mohamed Bazoum. Members of the elite guard sealed off access to the president’s residence and offices in the capital Niamey, and after talks broke down, “refused […]

Opposition leader Raila Odinga told AFP Wednesday 26 July 2023 that he would not hold talks with President William Ruto without a third-party mediator after months of anti-government protests. Since Odinga urged Kenyans to take to the streets in March, his Azimio alliance has held nine days of protests against the government, with the demonstrations sometimes spiralling […]

Twenty-three people died Wednesday when a bus crashed in northern Senegal, President Macky Sall announced on social media. ALSO READ: Tragic migrant boat capsize off Senegal’s coast claims 16 lives “I call for even more caution on the road”, Sall said in a message posted on Twitter. Earlier, a national fire brigade official and a first […]

At least five Moroccans drowned when their boat sank off Western Sahara, a rights group said on Tuesday, as crossing attempts by migrants hoping to reach Europe multiply from the area. ALSO READ: Eight dead after boat capsizes off Senegal On Saturday authorities said six migrants drowned off northern Morocco trying to reach Spain. Mohamed Zendour, […]

Air strikes and artillery barrages from Sudan’s warring generals killed at least 16 people in a Khartoum neighbourhood on Tuesday 24 July 2023, a neighbourhood group reported. After more than 100 days of war, the latest bombardments added to a toll of at least 3,900 killed nationwide. “Sixteen citizens died today in this senseless war” […]

Senegal on Tuesday announced one more death following a migrant boat capsize off the coast of the capital Dakar, taking the total to 16. ALSO READ: Senegalese boat sinks off Morocco coast leaving 13 migrants dead Officials had initially reported 15 people died when the wooden boat overturned overnight Sunday to Monday. ALSO READ: Civilian plane crash in […]

Algerian firefighters were Tuesday 24 July 2023 battling blazes that have killed 34 people across the tinder-dry north, destroyed homes and coastal resorts and turned vast forest areas into blackened wastelands. Witnesses described fleeing walls of flames that raged “like a blowtorch” as TV footage showed charred cars, burnt-out shops and smouldering fields and scrubland. […]

Kenyan President William Ruto said Tuesday he is ready to meet opposition leader Raila Odinga “anytime” after months of anti-government protests that have sparked international alarm and calls for dialogue. ALSO READ: Civilian plane crash in war-torn Sudan leaves nine dead “As you have always known, am available to meet one on one with you […]

A top envoy to Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on Monday said it was “time for peace” in Sudan and the Darfur region even as RSF’s war with Sudan’s regular army passed its 100th day. ALSO READ: Sudanese shocked as rockets, shells kill 20 civilians in Darfur RSF representative Youssef Ezzat made his remarks in the West […]

A court in Burkina Faso on Tuesday jailed a pro-junta activist for one year for defaming the police and added two more years from a previous suspended sentence for making death threats. ALSO READ: Mali’s junta chief new constitution fuels opponents protests The court in the capital Ouagadougou found Mohamed Sinon guilty after he accused the […]

Tensions ran high at the University of Cape Town on Monday evening as supporters of gay rights confronted members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) ahead of a lecture by Kenyan professor Patrick Lumumba. Lumumba, who has been reported as supporting the repression of gay people in Uganda, was invited by the EFF for the […]

In Kenya’s rural northeast, roadside bombs and beheadings that killed two dozen people last month appear to be part of a troubling escalation of violence by Al-Qaeda-linked Islamists, analysts say. ALSO READ: Civilian plane crash in war-torn Sudan leaves nine dead A regional economic powerhouse and a popular tourist draw, Kenya has not suffered a […]

A distraught Congolese soldier shot dead at least 13 civilians, most of them children, in a village in the northeast of the conflict-plagued country, military and local sources said Sunday 23 July 2023. The naval serviceman couldn’t bear the fact that his child had been buried in his absence the day before he arrived in […]