AFRICA

  Lagos, Nigeria | AFP |  Nigeria on Friday announced the first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus in sub-Saharan Africa. The case is an Italian citizen who works in Nigeria and returned from Milan earlier this week, Health Minister Osagie Ehanire said in a statement on Twitter. “The patient …

Luanda, Angola | AFP | Entrepreneur Antonio Almeida has learned to navigate around the potholes of doing business in Angola. Since launching his business two decades ago, the 44-year-old has opened seven luxury clothing stores, a customs brokerage firm and a suburban shopping centre in the capital Luanda. Along the way …

Au Cap, Seychelles | AFP | It is the world’s largest seed, and with a shape suggestive of a woman’s hips and myths of love-making powers, the coco de mer is an icon of the Seychelles. With a 10-kilogramme (22-pound) coconut wedged between his feet, experienced nut cutter Christophe Bristol uses …

Takpapieni, Togo | AFP |  Not so long ago, whenever he wanted to watch a football match or recharge his phone, Ousmane Kantcho had to go “into town” — a 15-kilometre ride by bicycle on poor roads in the savannah. His village, Tababou, lies more than 600 kilometres (375 miles) from …

Cape Town, South Africa | AFP |  South Africa’s finance minister is expected to walk a tightrope during the annual budget presentation to parliament on Wednesday, as the economy teeters on the edge of a fiscal cliff. The continent’s most industrialised economy has in recent years lurched from one economic woe …

  Can the African Continental Free Trade Area succeed where previous free-trade initiatives have failed? Dianna Games weighs up the issues. Africa heads into a historic year in which the long-awaited African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) finally becomes a reality, with trading under the scheme scheduled to begin on 1 …

  Cairo, Egypt | AFP | Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak, who ruled for three decades before he was ousted amid the Arab Spring protests in 2011, died Tuesday at age 91. The once burly autocrat with the trademark sunglasses, who became frail after multiple surgeries towards the end of …

Maseru, Lesotho | AFP |  Pressure mounted on Lesotho Prime Minister Thomas Thabane to step down Monday as he appeared in court over the murder of his estranged wife after failing to turn up for a hearing last week. The latest twist in a saga that has gripped the southern African …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | A South African inquiry into the forced sterilisation of dozens of HIV-positive pregnant women said Monday that their rights had been breached and called for government action. The investigation was launched in 2015, when two women’s rights organisations approached South Africa’s Gender Equality Commission …

Bangassou, Central African Republic | AFP | In Bangassou, splendid trees overlook elegant buildings slowly crumbling to ruin. Time here seems to have stood still, and Bangassou’s trauma too. The quiet little town in southeastern Central African Republic was relatively spared by a civil war which erupted in 2013 and mutated …