Africa
Africa
Nigeria lifts ban on Twitter after seven months For its 200 million people, the ban followed a censoring of a President Buhari post where he threatened to handle separatist rebels "in the language they will understand", Twitter reportedly to open an office in Nigeria, appoint a country head and meet its tax obligations according to the deal
Archbishop Desmond Tutu dies aged 90, won 1984 Nobel Peace Prize for his struggle against apartheid in South Africa, condemned President Jacob Zuma over corruption and in 2014 admitted he did not vote for the ANC on moral grounds
Scientists mystified that Africa make up just 3% of the global total Covid-19 deaths despite low vaccination rates and less resources to fight the virus, high rates of malaria exposure and low average age mentioned as possible reasons, Nigeria with 3000 deaths so far among its 200 million population begins campaign to inoculate half the population before February
FW de Klerk dead at 85 following a struggle against mesothelioma, was the president of South Africa between 1989 and 1994, shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela for helping to negotiate an end to apartheid
Addis Ababa city authorities ask residents to register their weapons and organise by blocks and neighbourhoods after Tigrayan forces indicated they might advance on the city, Tigreans claim to have captured the strategic towns of Dessie and Kombolcha including the highway linking the capital of the landlocked nation to the port of Djibouti in the last few days
South African cricket player Quinton de Kock out of the T20 World Cup game against West Indies after refusing to take a knee before the game, Cricket South Africa notes that de Kock refused the global gesture against racism despite it being mandatory and that they await a further report from team management before deciding on the next steps
Swaziland nurses refuse to treat police after colleagues shot during a pro-democracy rally, government spokesperson says that no live ammunition was used and that no nurses have been reported shot, demonstrations have been banned in the country and some internet services shut down
Guinea declared new Ebola outbreak on Sunday when tests came back positive after three people died and four fell ill in the southeast, in first resurgence there since the 2013-2016 outbreak which killed at least 11,300 people
More than 270 elephants have mysteriously collapsed and died in Botswana since early May, poaching has been ruled out while Covid-19 has not, the country is home to around 130,000 elephants which is a third of Africa’s total
Opposition activists in Zimbabwe say torture and sexual abuse is used by state security services to discourage protests, MDC members claim to have been arrested at roadblock and subjected to humiliating treatment for two days before being released
Libyan government forces retake eight cities west of Tripoli from militias loyal to warlord Khalifa Haftar, secure the road from the Tunisian border to the Abu Grein area, more than 1,000 government soldiers killed by Haftar's forces since last April
Democratic Republic of Congo records second Ebola death in days following seven weeks without a new case, WHO reports, had been due on Sunday to mark end to outbreak, a group of angry men threw stones at team attempting to decontaminate first victim's home and trace his contacts
Zimbabwe’s police use water cannon to disinfect markets and exterior of a block of residential flats in highly populated areas of Harare, the country has recorded one death from nine cases of Covid-19 and went into a 21-day lockdown on Monday
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni proclaims Ugandans and other Africans will stay poor if they keep splitting their time between sleeping and doing "things without mathematics", says he's very happy that Archbishop John Baptist Odama together with other church leaders have joined his campaign against sleeping
Dozens of Chinese factories produce thousands of tonnes of zombiefying metarhizium fungus to help fight locust swarms in East Africa, UN warns of worst situation in decades and that the swarms might result in famine affecting 13 million people, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization also works with the Somalian government to prepare a custom metarhizium species in what is described as the largest ever use of biopesticides against the insects
Joint operation by Nigerien and French troops kills 120 jihadists in southwest Niger region of Tillaberi, no losses among the coalition forces, security restrictions ramped up in the area after jihadist attacks killed 174 Nigerien forces over December and January, state of emergency in place in the region for the past two years
At least 22 killed of which at least 14 children killed in Anglophone region of Cameroon after security forces burn down the village of Ntumbo in search for Ambazonian separatists according to UN official James Nunan, Cameroon army spokesman disputes the figures and says only one woman and four children were killed in crossfire and that exploding fuel containers caused the blaze, more than 670,000 internally displaced and 60,000 fled to Nigeria due to the conflict that has been ongoing since 2016
6,032 bodies found in six mass graves in Burundi's Karusi Province, largest finding since nationwide excavation was launched in January, the country's government-run Truth and Reconciliation Commission has mapped more than 4,000 mass graves across the country since being set up in 2014
Worst locust plague in decades in East Africa where 20 million people already faced high levels of food insecurity before the outbreak, 70,000 hectares of Kenyan land infested, the insects that can cover 150km in a single day now heading toward South Sudan and Uganda, combatting the infestation made more difficult particularly in Somalia due to al-Shabaab control
Zimbabwe expropriates land from allies of former leader Robert Mugabe, Grace Mugabe and several ministers among those recently issued with eviction letters stating that the farms are underutilised – most of country's commercial farms lying fallow due to bad government policies and corruption, according to the European Union
Burkina Faso arms citizens after Islamist terrorists kill 36 civilians in attacks against two villages and burn one of the villages to the ground, calls for "frank collaboration" between civilians and security forces, militant attacks surging in recent months as Islamic insurgents spill across the borders from neighboring Mali and Niger
Former Zimbabwean Cabinet Minister Jonathan Mayo disappointed as his Mazowe farm is expropriated – Moyo who went into exile after Mugabe's ouster in 2017 calls the decision politically motivated, says he has invested USD 120,000 into the farm which was then valued to USD 723,000, that the farm is one of the country's most productive and that he acquired the farm from the State through a transparent process
Catholic Church in the Central African Republic celebrates 125 years since evangelisation, bishopric cautiously optimistic, clouds on the horizon include waxing influence of Freemasons and Rosicrucianism, no time for complacency
Lesotho police searches for Prime Minister Thomas Thabane's wife Maesaiah for questioning in 2017 killing of the PM's ex-wife, the couple got married two months after the murder
Senegalese artist Akon finalizes agreement for own "Akon City" to be built on 2,000-acre land gifted to him by President Macky Sall, the city that will be situated a five-minute from the country's new international airport is planned to trade only in the digital cash currency AKoin
More than 30 killed and at least 90 injured in car bombing at Ex-Control checkpoint in Somalian capital Mogadishu, children and university students among the casualties, Al Qaeda-linked Islamist group al Shabaab regularly carries out similar attacks
35 civilians including 31 women killed by Islamist terrorists in attack on military outpost in Burkina Faso, 80 jihadists and seven of the security forces also killed in clash
Zimbabwe's late former president Robert Mugabe left USD 10 million in foreign currency account at local bank, 10 cars, a two-hectare farming plot in Zvimba and two houses in posh suburbs of Harare, but left no will
Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Abiy Ahmed, prime minister of Ethiopia, for his efforts to end border conflict with Eritrea
Catholic priest David Tanko killed in Nigeria when his car was set ablaze, was traveling to a peace meeting of local clergymen to discuss a conflict between Tiv and Jukun ethic groups, Taraba State Council said Tiv militia carried out the attack
Tchad declares three months state of emergency in eastern provinces Sila and Ouaddaï where 50 people have been killed in ethnic violence between cattle herders and settled farmers since August 9, President Idriss Déby says military forces will be deployed and civilians disarmed
Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa says economic hardship will pass despite being compounded by natural disasters as the Transitional Stabilisation Programme lays foundation for economic turnaround – urges Church to feed the vulnerable and support government's food distribution exercise, blames greed by unscrupulous businesspeople as reason behind escalating prices of basic commodities
Politician breaking wind shuts down session of parliament in Kenya, speaker orders air fresheners brought to the chamber to tackle problem while members blames each other for offending smell
Nigerian state of Borno bans street begging, police spokesman says the command "will not fold its arms and watch unscrupulous elements jeopardise the hard-earned peace and security of the state"
More than 5 million Zimbabweans, about a third of the population, need food aid according to UN, 2.5 million people on cusp of starvation, severe drought and Cyclone Isai named as causes of crisis, UN's World Food Programme was already appealing for USD 294 million but says now an additional USD 331 million is needed
95-year-old former Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe hospitalised in Singapore since April, regularly travels to the country for medical check-ups but this time had to be kept under observation, President Emmerson Mnangagwa says Mugabe is making good progress and could be discharged soon
Half of Ebola cases remain undetected in Democratic Republic of the Congo and the epidemic could last up to three years, according to country's new Ebola response coordinator Jean-Jacques Muyembe
Namibia's land reform minister Utoni Nujoma says drought-affected farmers have themselves to blame for not fencing off and not avoiding overgrazing their land the way white farmers do, and that extending resettlement farm program risks turning the whole country into desert, lashes out at communities for "bedevilling mentality of entitlement"
One dead and 14 injured in clash between park rangers and Pygmies near Kahuzi Biega national park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – increased tensions lately as Pygmies dislike being denied access to the 6,000-square-kilometre gorilla haven, and rangers accuse the group of illegal entering and deforesting
Three jihadists sentenced to death for Isis-inspired murder and beheading of two Scandinavian women in Morocco last December, 21 other men accused of playing part in murders or being linked to ringleader Abdessamad Ejjoud awaiting verdict
Ebola confirmed in city of Goma, on eastern border of Democratic Republic of Congo, with a population of over two million, 1,600 have died by the disease since last year's outbreak, Rwanda on high alert
At least 26 people killed in attack on Asasey hotel in southern Somalia, suicide bomber rammed car containing explosives into hotel and followed by gunmen, Islamist terror group al-Shabab claims attack, local politician, three Kenyans, three Tanzanians, two Americans, one Briton and a journalist among dead
Tunisia bans wearing of the niqab in government buildings, citing security reasons, comes after three suicide bombings in Tunis in the space of a week
Two suicide bombers blows themselves up in two separate attacks in Tunisian capital Tunis, killing one police officer and wounding eight other people, as reports came in, President Beji Caid Essebsi was rushed to hospital after suffering "severe health crisis"
More than 100 dead after Sudanese military attacks protestors in capital Khartoum, demonstrators demand military council, which ousted president Omar al-Bashir in April, make way for a civilian-led interim body
Four shot dead in Burkina Faso church, islamist militants believed to be responsible, fourth deadly attack on Christians in the country since April
World's first malaria vaccine Mosquirix, with a 40% protection rate, rolled out in Malawi, Kenya and Ghana, 435,000 people die of malaria each year and children under 5 at greatest risk, mosquitoes become resistant to drugs and insecticides after 10 to 20 years
More than 130 people killed with guns and machetes in ethnic attack on Mopti village in Mali by Dogon hunters accusing the Fulani villagers of ties to jihadist groups
Algeria's president Abdelaziz Bouteflika will hand over power to a democratically elected successor after a new constitution is approved and a national conference is held
Angolan parliament decriminalizes homosexual relations and bans sex-oriented discrimination, first change to penal code since independence from Portugal in 1975
Kenya third African nation to start teaching Chinese to elementary school students from 2020, the place of China in the world economy has grown so strong Kenya stands to benefit, says head of country’s curriculum development institute
Former South African president Jacob Zuma to release music album, Twitter uproar after popular a capella group Ladysmith Black Mambazo agrees to back his struggle songs
China may be preparing to seize the largest and most lucrative port in Mombasa, as Kenya fails to repay massive debts on shady Chinese loan for underperforming railway
Egyptian security forces kill 40 suspected militants in three coordinated raids in North Sinai and Giza, a day after a bombing on a Vietnamese tourist bus in Giza killed four people, the first deadly attack against foreign tourists in Egypt for more than a year
Mozambique government finds 30,000 non-existent persons on payroll, the fraud represented nearly 10% of official public workforce and cost the state EUR 220 million, nearly 50% of government budget is devoted to payroll
Danish photographer sparks outrage in Egypt after posting image of woman in a sexual pose atop pyramid, Andreas Hvid claims he and the anonymous woman scaled the wonder after hours, Egyptian antiquities minister claims the act was a “violation of public morality”
Robert Mugabe has been receiving medical treatment in Singapore for last two months, is no longer able to walk but expected to return to Zimbabwe next week, according to president Emmerson Mnangagwa
France to return 26 royal statues taken by the French army in 1892 to Benin, not an isolated or symbolic case according to French president Macron who wants to define an international framework for returning artworks to African countries
Morocco finishes construction of the fastest rail line in Africa, Tangier-Casablanca line covers 350km in 2h10m at 320km/hr, France loaned the kingdom EUR 2 billion to finance half the project which took 7 years to complete
Fighting in Congo leaves 8 UN and 12 Congolese soldiers dead, an operation aimed at containing Allied Democratic Forces rebels is ongoing in an area experiencing ebola outbreak
Mass grave with 200 bodies discovered on Ethiopian border, former administrator of strife-torn Somali region Abdi Mohammed Omer recently arrested and accused of stoking ethnic tensions and violence
American Charles Wesco shot dead in English-speaking part of Cameroon during cross-fire between government forces and Ambazonian separatists, the missionary moved to the region two weeks earlier together with wife and eight children, both sides blame each other for the murder
Angolan government claims 380,000 illegal immigrants left country following "Operation Transparency", the crackdown focused on illegal diamond trade and most immigrants fled to neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo
London scientists intend to release 10,000 genetically modified mosquitoes in Burkina Faso to end malaria, only 40 species of 3,500 are able to carry malaria and the genetic modification targets female reproduction
Mnangagwa declared electoral victor in Zimbabwe presidential race as Constitutional Court denies election rigging, the successor to Robert Mugabe and member of ruling ZANU-PF claimed 50.8% of the votes, narrowly avoided runoff election against MDC leader Nelson Chamisa with 44.3% of the votes
Zimbabweans increasingly rely on mobile phone payment systems in a post-hyperinflation cash-less society, economic disaster plus scarce foreign currency supplies lead to 3 tier pricing system between USD, reserve bank bond notes and EcoCash mobile payments
ANC targets 139 farms to expropriate coming weeks, also considers tax for land owned by "absent landlords"
Zimbabwean soldiers patrol Harare streets day after security forces backed by armored vehicles and military helicopter killed six unarmed demonstrators protesting the election
South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa says constitution to be changed to more explicitly allow land expropriation without compensation, states reform "of critical importance" to economy – around 10% of land in white ownership expropriated from white farmers since 1994, a third of ANC's target
Ghana national football association dissolved after allegations of corruption against chairman Kwesi Nyantakyi
Pastor bitten to death by crocodile during baptism at Lake Abaya in Ethiopia
At least 29 killed under unclear circumstances in Menka in one of Cameroon's Anglophone regions, army spokeman says government troops surrounded hotel after tipped off to separatist rebels' presence and that "several terrorists were neutralized" after long firefight
Amnesty International accuses Nigerian army and militia group Civilian Joint Task Force of raping thousands of women and girls who escaped Boko Haram, brigadier general John Agim says report false and that credible intelligence report says organisation released cooked report to demoralize entire military system