Animal Rights campaigners have expressed outrage and “heartbreak” at the news that today more than 30 wild-caught baby elephants – held captive for nearly a year in Hwange National Park – have been flown out of Zimbabwe, via Victoria Falls Airport, to Chinese zoos. Army trucks allegedly moved in despite campaigners’ legal effort. Humane Society […]

GABORONE – More than 100 elephants have died in Botswana in the past two months partly because of a suspected anthrax outbreak, the government said on Tuesday. “Preliminary investigations suggest the elephants are dying from anthrax whilst some died from drought effects,” a Department of Wildlife and National Parks statement said. “Due to the severe […]

HARARE – At least 55 elephants have died in a game park in western Zimbabwe since September from starvation caused by a severe drought, the wildlife agency said on Monday. Zimparks spokesman Tinashe Farawo said the animals had died near water holes dotted around the Hwange National Park, a sign that they had traveled long […]

Senegalese professional football player, Sadio Mané, who plays for legendary club Liverpool, is making Africa incredibly proud this week with his attitude to fame and fortune. Quotes from the interview are being published around the world and going viral on social media. While so many football stars are notorious for showing off their glamorous jet-set […]

Two of Africa’s largest economies and its two biggest tourist destinations, South Africa and Morocco, put the official stamp on the re-establishment of diplomatic relations this week, when ambassador Youssef Amrani presented his credentials to President Cyril Ramaphosa. Amrani called it a “watershed.” Morocco’s last ambassador left 15 years ago, and relations have been icy, […]

South Africa won the 2019 Rugby Africa Women’s Sevens tournament, beating Kenya 15-14 in the final match on Sunday in Tunisia. South Africa and Kenya are both now entitled to participate in a qualification tournament for the World Rugby Sevens Series. The day started at 09:30 with South Africa beating Morocco 42-00. South Africa next […]

MOGADISHU, SOMALIA – At least three mortar bombs were fired on Sunday at Mogadishu’s international airport, injuring at least six people in the compound where several embassies are located, a diplomatic source said. The missions of the United Nations and African Union, as well as several embassies, are based inside the perimeter fence. The Horn […]

President Cyril Ramaphosa has extended his warmest congratulations to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali of Ethiopia on being awarded the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize. Prime Minister Ahmed has been recognised by the Nobel Committee “for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict […]

Since Zimbabwe’s land reform of 2000 – when around 8 million hectares of formerly large-scale commercial farmland was distributed to about 175,000 households – debates about the consequences for food security have raged. A standard narrative has been that Zimbabwe has turned from “food basket” to “basket case”. This year, following the devastating El Niño […]

Since the end of apartheid in South Africa in 1994, South Africa and Nigeria have never had an easy relationship. Over the years, as different presidents have come and gone, the two countries have often been at loggerheads for different reasons. But this was predated by Nigeria’s strong solidarity with black people when South Africa […]

OSLO – Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his peacemaking efforts with Eritrea. Ethiopia and Eritrea, longtime foes who fought a border war from 1998 to 2000, restored relations in July 2018 after years of hostility. The prize, worth nine million Swedish crowns, or around $900,000, will […]

An elephant that had a tyre around its neck is walking free this week thanks to the brave heroics of a team of conservationists at Victoria Falls. The incident took place at Matetsi Game Reserve in Zimbabwe which was this week voted as one of the Top 30 Resorts in Africa, in the Condé Nast […]

LIWONDE, Malawi – Britain’s Prince Harry appealed on Monday for increased global efforts to protect the environment against human “greed, apathy and selfishness” during a visit to a national park in Malawi. Harry, whose tour of southern Africa has taken him to four countries, observed a simulation of an anti-poaching drill by Malawian rangers and […]

JOHANNESBURG – At a splashy wedding over the weekend, Idols SA judge Somizi Mhlongo and his partner Mohale Tebogo Motaung tied the knot at a traditional wedding, wearing a number of eye-catching outfits by Gert-Johan Coetzee that they changed into throughout the day. The grooms’ outfits ranged from Basotho blankets to bold red floral print […]

JOHANNESBURG – Britain’s Prince Harry followed in his late mother’s footsteps on Friday, wearing a protective vest and visor during a visit to a de-mining project in Angola that echoed a famous series of images taken of Princess Diana more than 20 years ago. Queen Elizabeth’s grandson and sixth in line to the British throne […]

GENEVA – At least 1,500 foreigners in South Africa were forced to flee their homes during the recent xenophobic attacks in Gauteng and some 800 have chosen to return to their home countries, according to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, which said it was deeply concerned about recurring violence against foreigners. The agency’s […]

After visiting 9 other countries in a four-week trip through East and Southern Africa, Bruce Marais was blown away by our next-door neighbour, Mozambique. So much so that we will be running more than one series of his photographs of the magical place. “The Portuguese who settled here in the 1500s brought along with them […]

HARARE – Foreign leaders, including South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa and former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma, supporters and ordinary citizens gathered at a national stadium on Saturday to bid farewell to Zimbabwe’s founder Robert Mugabe, after a week of disputes over his burial that have threatened to undermine President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Mugabe, who ruled Zimbabwe […]

Tanzania has seized ivory tusks equivalent to killing at least 117 elephants, its tourism minister said, part of its drive to stamp out organised criminal networks involved in years of industrial-scale poaching. The elephant population in Tanzania, famed for its wildlife reserves, shrank from 110,000 in 2009 to barely 43,000 in 2014, according to a 2015 census, […]

Arrest warrants have been issued by the National Prosecuting Authority for two Rwandan men suspected of involvement in the death of former Rwandan intelligence, Patrick Karegeya, in a Johannesburg hotel almost six years ago. The NPA was also in the process of asking Rwanda for the extradition of the two men, Ismael Garafanga and Alex […]

LONDON – Britain’s Prince Harry will make a poignant visit to Angola this month to visit the landmine clearance project that featured in some of the most famous photographs of his late mother Princess Diana. The pictures of Diana wearing protective gear as she walked among red skull-and-crossbone signs in 1997 won vital publicity for […]

KIRINDY FOREST, Madagascar – As a shocked world watches fires ravage the Amazon, slash-and-burn farmers are wreaking proportionally worse destruction half a world away in Madagascar, driving humanity’s smallest relative – the Madame Berthe’s mouse lemur – to extinction. Frustrated conservationists hope Friday’s arrival of the environmentally-conscious Pope Francis will spotlight the island that lost […]

Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe was feted as an African liberation hero and champion of racial reconciliation when he first came to power in a nation divided by nearly a century of white colonial rule. Nearly four decades later, many at home and abroad denounced him as a power-obsessed autocrat willing to unleash death squads, rig elections […]

The man who led Zimbabwe to independence in 1980 after a long and bloody civil war but then clung to power as his country slipped into economic decay under his command, Robert Mugabe has died at age 95 in Singapore. The announcement was made by the president of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, early on Friday. Mnangagwa […]

The South African embassy in Lagos, Nigeria, remains temporarily closed after threats led to fears for staff safety, International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor told Reuters. The threats came after attacks this week on foreign-owned businesses in South Afria caused a diplomatic spat. She said South Africa was in constant contact with Nigerian authorities to try […]