AFRICA

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda’s first information and communications technology manufacturing and assembling factory, Simi technologies has this morning sent the first batch of 18,000 locally made phones to Morocco. Located in Namanve industrial park, Simi technologies owned by Chinese Electronics firm ENGO Holdings Uganda Limited exported smartphones and …

    Juba, South Sudan | AFP | Press secretary James Gatdet Dak has denied reports that South Sudan’s first vice president, the former rebel leader Riek Machar, has been evacuated to the UK for treatment for COVID-19. “They (Machar and wife) are currently in their residence in Juba where they …

Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | A deadly upsurge in intercommunal violence in South Sudan has to stop and those responsible must be swiftly brought to justice, the UN human rights chief insisted Friday. Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations’ high commissioner for human rights, slammed the “appalling” attacks that have reportedly left hundreds dead in the …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Burundi’s main opposition leader has rejected early signs the ruling party is heading for victory in this week’s general election, describing the results from 12 percent of municipalities as “fantasy.” “Absolutely I reject these results. These results being declared are a fantasy. They do not reflect …

The Hague, Netherlands | AFP | Former Rwandan defence minister Augustin Bizimana, one of the top suspects wanted over the country’s 1994 genocide, has died, the UN tribunal said Friday. He is believed to have died around August 2000, “based on the conclusive identification of Bizimana’s remains in a grave site …

Kampala, Uganda | Isaac Khisa | Coronavirus pandemic currently ravaging the entire world presents an opportunity to reset the African continent so that the African population can be empowered to become more productive and self-reliant, according to the United Bank for Africa Plc. Chairman and Founder, Tony Elumelu. Elumelu, who spoke …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP |  An upsurge in bloody tribal clashes in Sudan has killed at least 59 people and wounded over 100 this month, heaping more pressure on the country’s fragile transitional government. More than a year since the fall of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir, who ruled over ethnically diverse …

Goma, DR Congo | AFP | Coronavirus has swiftly gained status as the world’s No. 1 threat but in eastern DR Congo, one of Africa’s most volatile regions, militia killings and ethnic violence are an older and — for now — far greater source of dread. Some 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) …

Conakry, Guinea | AFP |  Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has reopened its Ebola-era hospital in Guinea, only four years since that epidemic ended, as coronavirus cases soar in the West African state. The country is struggling to curb the virus, despite enacting imposing travel restrictions and a night-time curfew, raising fears …

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania | AFP | Tanzanian President John Magufuli said Thursday that universities and sports events would resume next month, after declaring that prayer had spared the country the worst of the coronavirus, even as critics say cases are soaring. Magufuli has repeatedly played down the gravity of the …