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Africa

Africa

The Botswana Democratic Party is no longer in power in Botswana for the first time since the country's independence in 1966 after challenger Duma Boko from the coalition Umbrella for Democratic Change won Wednesday's presidential election

The Muslim organization Boko Haram kills 40 troops of the Chadian military in the village of Ngouboua at Lake Chad on Sunday, President Mahama Idriss Deby launches Operation Haskanite with the aim of eliminating Boko Haram

Nigerian activist Leo Igwe with the organization Advocacy For Alleged Witches works to support those accused of witchcraft in several African countries, 33-year-old man Jude has received support after being accused of the disappearance of a 15-year-old boy's penis and thus lost his job at a bank

In order to operate in South Africa, Starlink needs to be 30 percent owned by "historically disadvantaged groups", which includes blacks, women, youth and disabled, the service can be accessed from most parts of the world but for the delivery of necessary products to customers, permission from the states is required

Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine seriously injured after being shot in the leg by police outside the capital Kampala on Tuesday, street confrontations between him and the police is not unusual and in this case police say he had to no avail been advised against holding a street procession when he left a private event

Germany ends its military presence in Niger in Africa as the last 60 soldiers and equipment leaving, but the countries write in a joint statement that their military cooperation will not end, since 2016, 3,200 German soldiers served on air bases in the region

More cases so far in 2024 of people infected with monkeypox in Africa compared to all of 2023 and the World Health Organization calls for a meeting of its Emergency Committee, a new deadlier and more infectious strain of the virus is said to have been discovered in April in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Burkina Faso's military government, which seized power in a military coup two years ago, has announced that military rule will be extended for another five years after first promising civil rule from July 1 this year, arguing that elections are not a priority as long as jihadists still control territory

Mahamat Idriss Deby is sworn in as president of Chad after winning elections with 61 percent of the vote after three years as a leader under military rule following the assassination of his father who ruled the country since a military coup in the early 90s, present at the installation was, among others, the minister of foreign trade of France and the international cooperation organization for French-speaking countries and areas, Francophonie

Congo-Kinshasa's army says the stopped failed coup attempt in capital Kinshasa following a shootout with three dead and says several foreigners among those arrested

Liberia's president Joseph Boakai decides to set up the country's first war crimes court more than 20 years after end of civil war that killed 250,000 people for which no one has been brought to justice in the country but former president Charles Taylor is serving a 50-year prison sentence in Britain for war crimes but that for his role in the conflict in neighboring Sierra Leone

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa says during speech in Cape Town, in regards to apartheid, that they still need to address high unemployment and to remove the barriers that kept black South Africans from full participation in the economy, that they must undo the effects of Bantu education, transform our schools completely, end illiteracy, and help people find decent work

Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi says in response to German authorities' proposal to limit the import of hunting trophies that they would like to offer 20,000 elephants to Germany and will not take no for an answer, says the number of elephants has increased explosively as a result of conservation efforts and that the country had to pay the price

Niger suspends, with immediate effect, its military cooperation with the United States which allowed US military and personnel to operate and maintain an airbase in the country, comes after US officials visited Niger to discuss so-called democratic transition

UN peacekeeping forces withdraw from Mali after ten years, operation Minusma was the UN's second deadliest operation with 310 dead soldiers, in September Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso created a defense pact called the Alliance of Sahel States

The muslim militia Boko Haram killed 20 people with a roadside bomb on their way back from the burial of former victims in Yobe state in Nigeria on Tuesday and on Monday the shot dead 17 people in the village of Gurokayeya who, according to the police, refused to pay a special tax

Egypt bans girls from wearing the niqab in school following Education Minister Reda Hegazy's statement that covering the hair is optional but not the face

Air attack by the country's military on Sudan's capital Khartoum, which the paramilitary group RSF controls, kills at least 20 people, the country's military and RSF have been fighting since April for control of the capital

Gabon military proclaims coup d'état immediately after President Ali bongo wins his third election and coup leader and ousted president's cousin, Brice Clothaire Oligui Nguema, who bought properties worth USD 1 million for cash, is now believed to be taking over the country

The coup plotters in Niger say they have reason to prosecute ousted president Mohamed Bazoum for high treason and the pan-African organization Ecowas is gathering forces to intervene if a peaceful solution cannot be achieved

The opposition leader in Senegal, Ousmane Sonko, who has been on hunger strike since his arrest in late July has been hospitalized, he has been in conflict with the authorities since 2021

France supports the pan-African organization ECOWAS in their ambition to find a solution in Niger after the coup d'état, according to French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna who believes that Niger's apparently ousted president Mohamed Bazoum is the only legitimate leader of the country

At least four murders of farmers in South Africa after communist leader Julius Malema sang about killing Boers in front of an audience of nearly 90,000, in 2023 farms have been attacked 96 times and 29 people have died

Senegal shuts down the internet after opposition leader Ousmane Sonko was arrested for planning a rebellion, according to Communications Minister Moussa Bocar Thiam, who justified the decision by saying hateful and subversive messages had been spread on social networks

The transitional governments of Burkina Faso and Mali say in a joint statement that a military intervention in Niger is a declaration of war against their countries and that they will withdraw from the economic cooperation between African countries, ECOWAS, unless the sanctions are lifted

Military leader Abdourahamane Tchiani proclaims himself on national television as the head of state in Niger after the coup d'état and says that they can no longer continue in the same way with the risk of witnessing the country's gradual and inevitable downfall and therefore they decided to intervene and take responsibility

George Orwell's book Animal Farm is translated into Shona, one of the local Bantu languages in Zimbabwe, by the author Petina Gappah who believes that there is something in the story that speak so much about the reality of the country, the book became popular in Zimbabwe two decades ago when it was published as a series in newspaper The Daily News which was later banned

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announces that his party ANC wishes to leave the International Criminal Court in Hague, which last month issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, which means that the African country had to arrest the Russian upon his arrival during the upcoming summit with Russia, Brazil, India and China

At least 56 killed in clashes in Sudan between the army and paramilitary RSF whose leader Mohamed Dagalo claims to have captured most of the capital Khartoum while the country's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan disagrees, both sides cooperated during the 2021 military coup but have since competed for power

Zambian opposition leader Brian Mundubile thanks Zambians for stopping US Vice President Kamala Harris from commenting on LGBTQ issues during visit which he believes is due to pressure from the opposition, the church and ordinary Zambians, also thanks visitors from the US for their respect since they made statements on the subject in other countries in the region

22 percent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa use mobile internet services by the end of 2021, the lowest usage in South Sudan at 6 percent and the highest in South Africa at 53, according to a report by the World Bank that believes it is important for Africa to increase the use of

Ruling party candidate Bola Tinubu wins Nigerian presidential election, runner-up Atiku Abubakar and third-place Peter Obi call for recount, first time a president takes office with less than 50 percent of the vote

The government declares a State of Disaster in South Africa due to power shortages and the US embassy warns that power outages could potentially increase crime and asks its citizens to prep, be aware of the surroundings and avoid demonstrations

African Union condemns Tunisia's Kais Saied’s comment that the undeclared goal of the successive waves of illegal immigration is to consider Tunisia a purely African country that has no affiliation to the Arab and Islamic nations, the AU expresses deep shock and reminds the country that all

Burkino Faso orders French troops to depart the country within a month, the decision comes five months after France left neighboring Mali after falling out with its authorities, analysts comment that the announcement adds to growing concerns over a rise in Islamist insurgency

Six state broadcaster journalists arrested over footage of 71-year-old South Sudan president Salva Kiir urinating on himself during the national anthem at an official event, debate in the country regarding the president's health as well as over the ethics of posting such footage on social

32 Cameroonian Under-17 football players disqualified from the national team in the last month due to failed MRI age tests, the scans ordered by Cameroonian Football Federation President Samuel Eto'o in an attempt to deal with the rising problem of age fraud in the country

Zimbabwe bans export of raw lithium, says batteries should be developed in the country and that it expects to meet 20% of the world's total lithium demand when all known resources are fully exploited, Chinese companies Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, Sinomine Resource Group and Chengxin Lithium Group

International Monetary Fund lends $3 billion to Ghana to bring the country's public debt under control as the country faces mounting debt and inflation of more than 40 percent, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta says he is praying this is the last support needed

About 300 killed in attacks on Congolese villages last week, five days after a ceasefire was reached between the M23 rebel group and government forces, the rebels who deny the charges were first blamed for killing 50, then more than 100 to now be around 300

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa faces threat of impeachment after undeclared cash is stolen from president's farm and the theft was not reported to police, independent panel appointed by parliament claims gross misconduct and a breach of the constitution

Ugandas first satellite will among other things carry out 3D printing of human tissue in space and investigate how weightlessness affects the function of the ovaries, PearlAfricaSat-1, which is a joint project with the Japanese university Kyushu Institute of Technology, was postponed on November 7th from NASA facility in Virginia, USA

Cameroon's President Paul Biya celebrates 40 years in power but has not appeared in public since July this year, the second longest-serving leader in Africa after Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo who has been in office since 1979

Ethiopian government forces have reached a ceasefire with regional forces from Tigray, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken praises the efforts of African Union mediators and the hosting of South Africa and US Special Envoy Mike Hammer, the conflict has been ongoing for two years

63-year-old man in Zambia stoned to death on suspicion of being a sorcerer, found partially burned in a pool of blood with deep wounds on his face, ten arrested, six of whom women

At least 100 people killed and 300 injured after twin car bombings in Mogadishu, death toll expected to rise, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud says Somalia's winning war with al-Shabaab remains, al-Shabaab says it is committed to fighting until the country is ruled by Islamic law and asks civilians to stay away from government areas

Misuzulu kaZwelithini, 48, crowned new king of the Zulu people, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa hands over formal certificate during ceremony at football stadium in Durban, has no formal power, first coronation in South Africa in more than 50 years

Peace talks between the Ethiopian government and regional forces from Tigray take place in South Africa, comes are after two years of war which has left thousands dead, the delegation from Tigray arrives in a US military plane along with the US special envoy to the Horn of Africa

At least 220 dead in two days of tribal fighting between the Hausa and Berta tribes in Sudan on the border with Ethiopia and South Sudan, fighting reignited earlier in October over a land dispute, the provincial government has declared a 30-day ban on gatherings

Cough syrup linked to 66 deaths among children in The Gambia, four different medicines produced in India contaminated and causing acute kidney damage according to WHO

More than 50 killed in airstrike in northern Ethiopia's Tigray region, school building sheltered by war-displaced people hit, one of the deadliest attacks in the two-year civil war

The people of Wuru Community, Ghana used to pay tax to the Tumu Municipal Assembly but had to stop because they saw no reason for the payment, Mr Harduna Atiah, a businessman and caretaker of the community say that there are no roads to link Wuru to other Ghanaian communities, no transportation, no health facilities, poor educational infrastructure and no means of modern technology for farming

For almost two years internet and phone has been shutdown in Tigray, the most northern region in Ethiopia, since fighting erupted between Tigrayan rebels and government forces in November 2020, the head of WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who hails from Tigray, said he had been unable to reach his relatives back home or send them money, the government, who last year said that they were developing a home-grown social media platform to replace Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, says shutdowns are needed to curb violence, but critics accuse authorities of using them as a weapon of war

Burkina Faso's President Paul-Henri Damiba deposed in the country's second coup in a year, new leader Ibrahim Traore says a group of officers decided to remove Damiba due to his inability to deal with a worsening armed islamist uprising, all borders closed indefinitely, all political and civil society activities suspended and a curfew from 9pm to 5am has been announced

Long-time spokesman Chris Anu elected president of Cameroon's self-declared Republic of Ambazonia, the separatist movement is said to currenty be losing support due to allegations of infighting, corruption and human rights abuses

Amnesty International calls for an investigation into the Ethiopian June 18th ethnic massacre where the Oromo Liberation Army killed more than 450 Amhara civilians, burned down buildings and looted, government forces arrived hours after the attack ended despite early emergency calls

Zimbabwe's central bank says that gold coins will be issued as legal tender in late July to act as a store of value and reduce the demand for US dollars, inflation rate in the country more than doubled last month to 191%, economist Prosper Chitambara says that the measure will not fix the inflation problem as that is caused by money supply growth

Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa says his ruling Zanu-PF will never surrender its authority to the opposition, comments that they already defeated whites after a protracted war of independence and that the remnants who want to ferment violence and chaos in the country will be dealt with, the comments follow a time of increasing politically motivated violence countrywide with four opposition supporters killed since March

At least 35 teenage girls rescued from baby factory hotel in south-eastern Nigeria where they were used as sex slaves and their babies sold on the black market, three suspects arrested accused of abducting the teenagers, engaging in sexual slavery and prostitution, and operating a baby factory

Nigeria bans bushmeat sales to stop the spread of monkeypox, six cases detected in the country this month of the infection that is endemic in the country

South Sudanese ram sentenced to three years at a military camp for killing a woman, the ram's owner is referred to as innocent by the major but a local court has ruled that he is to hand over five cows to the victim's family as compensation, the ram is also to be transferred to the victim's family after its three-year sentence according to local laws

24-hour curfew imposed with immediate effect in Nigerian state of Sokoto after hundreds protested to demand the release of suspects accused of stoning and burning the Christian student Deborah Samuel, Samuel was accused of making a social media post that blasphemed Prophet Muhammad, Kaduna state 500 kilometers from Sokoto bans protests related to religious activity citing moves to organize a similar demonstration

Ethiopia starts generating power from the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, the 84% finished dam is expected to double the nation's electricity output, Egypt and Sudan critical and vying for a deal with Ethiopia over the filling and operation of the dam as they fear for their Nile water

Nigeria declares a national emergency on ritual killings, bans movies on the popular theme, Deputy Minority Party leader Toby Okechukwu expresses concern that some youths in Nigeria seem stuck in the belief that sacrificing human blood is the surest route to wealth and safety

South African doctor Angelique Coetzee who was one of the first scientists to discover the Omicron strain criticizes the widespread attempts to pressure her into describing the virus as more dangerous than what she could observe, says she could not understand why politicians refused to listen to her first hand experience

White engineers and technicians leave South African electricity public utility Eskom due to affirmative action and a lack of career prospects, Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer said in October that he was absolutely horrified by the loss of experienced staff and particularly alarmed that employees resigned without having alternative employment to go to Europe or the Middle East, trade union Solidarity has highlighted the problem since 2008 blaming affirmative action for the skills shortage

Mali gives French ambassador Joël Meyer 72 hours to leave the country as the relation between the military junta and France worsens further due to French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian calling the junta illegitimate and irresponsible, relations between the countries deteriorated sharply this month when the junta went back on an agreement to organize elections in February and proposed holding power until 2025

Sierra Leone locals starving and feeling powerless due to illegal overfishing by mainly Chinese trawlers, fisheries employ 500,000 of the west African nation's nearly 8 million people, represent 12% of the economy and are the source of 80% of the population's protein consumption

Military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo sentences 51 militia members to death for their involvement in the murder of UN experts Zaida Catalán and Michael Sharp as well as their interpreter Betu Tshintela in the Kasai region in 2017, the sentences will likely end up as life imprisonment as the country has declared a moratorium on executions

Burkina Faso's President Roch Marc Christian Kabore held by mutinous soldiers, Ougadougou's roads empty during Sunday night except for the mutinous soldiers' checkpoints, many protests lately over the government's handling of the Islamic insurgency that started in 2016

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

Tigrayan forces withdraws from neighbouring Amhara and Afar regions in Ethiopia's north, hoping to put international pressure on Ethiopia and allies Eritrea to cease military operations in Tigray, accuses prime minister Abiy Ahmed of wanting to centralise power at the expense of the regions

Congolese rumba added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list, the application was sent in jointly by the Democratic Republic of Congo and Congo Brazzaville, joins Cuban rumba, the Central African Republic's polyphonic pygmy music and the drums of Burundi on the list

Zimbabwe tries to restore investor confidence shattered under Robert Mugabe, according to finance minister Mthuli Ncube, says fiscal policy will be prudent and government will not resort to financing deficit by printing money as happened under Mugabe

Ethiopia's PM Abiy Ahmed vows to immediately start leading the army from the battlefront, says that all who want to be hailed by history should join him, tens of thousands of people are estimated to have been killed since November last year when Ahmed ordered a military offensive against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, Awol Allo who nominated Ahmed for the Nobel Peace Prize that he won in 2019 says he is surprised to see the announcement replete with languages of martyrdom and sacrifice

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

Archaeologists unearth 5,000-year-old mass-production brewery that could produce about 22,400 litres of beer at a time in the ancient Egyptian city of Abydos, a mixture of grains and water was heated in the 40 earthenware pots in each of its eight sectors

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

At least 82 killed in ethnic protests in Ethiopia and military deployed in Addis Ababa after Oromo musician Haacaaluu Hundeessaa was shot dead in what police called a targeted killing and prominent Oromo opposition leader Bekele Gerba as well as media mogul Jawar Mohammed were arrested, the Oromo who make up the country's largest ethnic group have long complained of being excluded from power

Tourism minister of Ghana invites black Americans to return to Africa, suggests they should not stay where they are not wanted but instead build new life on ancestral continent

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

Chad's army says it has killed 1,000 Boko Haram terrorists and lost 52 soldiers in a 10-day old operation following an ambush by the jihadists where nearly 100 soldiers were killed

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

60% of Zimbabwe's water sources unsafe and 1.9 million people in urgent need of safe drinking water according to UNICEF, the UN body also says the situation is set to worsen in 2020 and that the hyperinflation projected at 481% in November 2019 along with the health worker strike from September to December has made it difficult for especially children and women to obtain basic foodstuffs and services

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