AFRICA

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | “Seeing myself on Netflix, I have to punch myself every day. Like, is that really me?” asked actress Tendaiishe Chitima, star of the first Zimbabwean feature film acquired by the streaming pioneer. “Cook Off” was shot in 2017, just months before the fall of Zimbabwe’s …

Blantyre, Malawi | AFP | President Peter Mutharika has accused Malawi’s judiciary of agitating for regime change after the courts nullified last year’s presidential vote and ordered fresh elections by July 3. Malawi’s top court rejected Mutharika’s bid to overturn the landmark ruling quashing his controversial re-election, paving the way for a re-run, scheduled for …

Cape Town, South Africa | AFP | A deadly virus was ravaging South Africa when Belgian doctor Eric Goemaere first set foot in Cape Town’s sprawling Khayelitsha township on a chilly southern hemisphere winter of 1999. By then HIV had infected more than 5.6 million South Africans, causing thousands of deaths …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Burundi’s first lady was in hospital in Nairobi on Friday, after being flown in on a late-night medical flight, according to sources at the airport and in the presidency. First lady Denise Bucumi was flown out of Burundi on a Pilatus plane by the AMREF air ambulance service, according to …

  Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | African governments will have to go slow on lifting some of the lockdown measures they instituted to control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, senior officials at the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and prevention have said. …

Dakar, Senegal | AFP |  Launching an airline in Africa is a notorious challenge in a continent and sector where opportunities are often crimped by regulations and national champions are dominant. Now, for plucky entrants, coronavirus has added to the checklist of problems, as a small Senegalese airline can attest. Transair, …

Abidjan, Ivory Coast | AFP | The African Development Bank (AfDB) on Thursday said “no decision” had been taken regarding a US push for an outside probe into its chief, accused by whistleblowers of ethics breaches. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says Washington is dissatisfied with the outcome of an internal …

Cairo, Egypt | THE INDEPENDENT | Africa soccer governing body CAF will distribute $200,000 to each of its members to support the management of football at the domestic levels hugely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. At its meeting on Thursday  via video-conference, the CAF Emergency Committee has approved the immediate distribution …

Bujumbura, Burundi | AFP | Burundi’s main opposition party on Thursday filed its submission to the Constitutional Court to contest the results of a presidential election it alleges was riddled with fraud and irregularities. On Monday the electoral commission announced that ruling party candidate Evariste Ndayishimiye had won the vote with …

Northern South Africa, South Africa | AFP | The charity pick-up truck rolled into a rural South African township laden with the usual boxes of bread loaves and assorted vegetables — and an unusual and especially prized gift: more than 50 kilogrammes (110 pounds) of fresh venison. The antelope had been …