AFRICA

Arusha, Tanzania | Xinhua | The East African Community (EAC) on Wednesday officially launched the verification mission to assess Somalia’s readiness to join the regional bloc of seven member states. A statement by the EAC headquarters in Tanzania’s northern city of Arusha said the verification team comprised of experts from the …

Dodoma, Tanzania | Xinhua | Tanzania’s ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) on Tuesday warned underperforming leaders in public institutions to stop the malpractice and serve people accordingly. Daniel Chongolo, general secretary of the CCM, said the government will not tolerate public leaders that will be implicated in failing to serve …

Kinshasa, DRC | Xinhua | At least 20 people were injured late Wednesday during a bomb attack at a small market in the city of Beni of the North Kivu province in the northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), an army spokesman told Xinhua. Captain Anthony Mwalushayi, spokesman for …

  Yaounde, Cameroon | Xinhua | The Cameroonian government has not mandated “any foreign country or external entity” to mediate an armed separatist conflict in its English-speaking regions, the country’s Minister of Communication Rene Emmanuel Sadi said in a statement Monday night. The statement came barely four days after Canada’s foreign …

Juba, South Sudan | Xinhua | The World Food Programme (WFP) on Tuesday launched a school feeding program aimed at supporting 23,000 children over the next three years in highly food-insecure areas of South Sudan. Mary-Ellen McGroarty, country director for WFP in South Sudan, said during the launching ceremony in the …

Harare, Zimbabwe | Xinhua | Zimbabwe’s gold mining sector is targeting to raise production to 40 tonnes this year, up from 35.38 tonnes last year, an official said Tuesday. Last year’s output was a record high, spurred by new mining projects, timely payments, and incentives to miners. Out of the 35.38 …

COMMENT | Nkwazi Mhango | I was left puzzled when I heard that Kenya that failed miserably to pacify Somalia, has now sent its army to fight M23 rebels in the DRC.  A million questions have been generated by the decision. The first question is why Kenya alone? How did Kenya …

Kigali, Rwanda | Xinhua | Rwanda said a fighter jet from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) violated its airspace “for the third time” Tuesday afternoon and that “defensive measures were taken.” “Today at 5:03 pm, a Sukhoi-25 from the DR Congo violated Rwanda airspace for the third time,” …

The bank’s cautiously optimistic economic outlook is partly based on the expectation that China will continue to re-open after three years of strict Covid-19 policies Kampala, Uganda | Leo Komminoth | The African Development Bank predicts the continent’s growth will be a stronger-than-expected 4% this year, with China’s ending of strict Covid-19 …

Algiers, Algeria | Xinhua | Algeria and Italy agreed on Monday to build a new pipeline to carry Algeria’s gas and electricity to Europe. At a joint press conference with visiting Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said the project will make Italy “a key distributor of Algerian …