AFRICA

Tripoli, Libya | AFP |  The smell of gunpowder still lingered in the battle-scarred south of Libya’s capital when Hicham Suleiman, a teacher in his 50s, cautiously returned to his home. He left his car some 400 metres (yards) from his house and continued on foot, anxious about booby traps hidden …

Bujumbura, Burundi | AFP | Burundi’s newly-elected president Evariste Ndayishimiye will be sworn in on Thursday, the foreign ministry announced, in a ceremony fast-tracked by the sudden death of the incumbent, Pierre Nkurunziza. Nkurunziza died on June 8 aged 55, of what authorities said was heart failure. His death came less than two weeks after …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Sudan’s public prosecutor announced Monday the discovery of a mass grave of conscripts killed in 1998 after trying to flee a military camp. The committee tasked with investigating the killings at Ailafoon military camp “found the mass grave in the past four days after hearing witness accounts”, said public prosecutor …

Amman, Jordan | AFP | UN agencies warned Monday that the coronavirus pandemic could lead to the deaths of an additional 51,000 under-fives in the Middle East and North Africa by the end of the year. The World Health Organisation and United Nations children’s agency UNICEF said the disruption of essential health and nutrition services …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday condemned as “acts of inhumanity” a surge of femicides since South Africa eased anti-coronavirus stay-at-home measures. Murders of women have spiralled since the start of June, when lockdown restrictions were loosened allowing for more movement of people, according to the police. “I have been …

Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | The UN’s top rights body Monday agreed to a request from African countries to urgently debate racism and police brutality this week following unrest in the US and beyond over George Floyd’s death. As the 43rd session of the UN Human Rights Council resumed after breaking …

Mogadishu, Somalia | AFP |  The leaders of Somalia and breakaway state Somaliland are meeting for talks Sunday in a renewed effort to mediate strained ties between the two, Mogadishu said in a statement. The talks are taking place in Djibouti, chaired by the country’s President Ismail Omar Guelleh, while Ethiopian Prime …

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP |  Plunging oil prices and collapsing state revenues have seen Nigerian authorities vow an end to a controversial fuel subsidy scheme long criticised as a graft-ridden drain on public finances. But there are major doubts that Africa’s most populous country is finally ready to wean itself off …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | A Zimbabwean opposition lawmaker and two activists have denied charges they lied to police about being abducted and tortured last month, their lawyer said, as the women were remanded in custody. Movement for Democratic Change Alliance MP Joana Mamombe and party youth assembly activists Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova were …

Mopti, Mali | AFP |  After a busy day juggling paperwork and meetings, Brehima Traore, deputy director of a hospital in war-torn Mali, may have hoped for some rest. Then his phone rang: he was needed in the operating room. Traore is one of the doctors who keeps the hospital in …