AFRICA

Pretoria, South Africa | AFP |  Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Sunday asked South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa to intervene in a long-running dispute with Egypt over a massive dam being built on the Blue Nile River. Ethiopia’s ties to Egypt have soured since the east African country launched …

  Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | TP Mazembe of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa survived scares on Saturday to become the first qualifiers for the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. Five-time champions Mazembe fell behind after eight minutes against Primeiro Agosto of Angola in …

Banjul, Gambia | AFP |  Former Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh, forced into exile in 2017, has been heard in a leaked recording demanding that his right to return be respected by the authorities. Jammeh has hardly been heard from since fleeing to Equatorial Guinea. His comments were made public in a …

Benghazi, Libya | AFP |  Libyan strongman General Khalifa Haftar on Saturday announced a ceasefire in his months-long battle to control the capital Tripoli after calls for a truce from Russia and Turkey. The North African state has seen an escalation of the turmoil that erupted after a NATO-backed uprising killed …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP |  South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Saturday said the country’s debt-laden power utility Eskom would not be privatised and pledged to restore it to full capacity. Rolling blackouts were implemented several times last year to prevent the grid collapsing and resumed last weekend despite …

Hwange, Zimbabwe | AFP | Zimbabwean villager Dumisani Khumalo appeared to be in pain as he walked gingerly towards a chair under the shade of a tree near his one-room brick shack. The 45-year-old was attacked by a buffalo days earlier, and he was lucky to be on his feet. Wild …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Hundreds of people have been killed or raped in attacks on the Hema ethnic group in eastern DR Congo’s Ituri province, in what “may amount to crimes against humanity” or even genocide, the UN said on Friday. “At least 701 people have been killed and …

Porto-Novo, Benin | AFP | In his long life, voodoo priest Kpohinto Medji has seen his religion flourish and then go into decline, banned for years by the authorities and pressured by other faiths. Today, the ageing priest with mischievous eyes is somewhat happier. Benin is gearing for its annual voodoo …

Kafountine, Senegal | AFP |  Most Senegalese farmers sell peanuts and vegetables, but in one hamlet lost in a mangrove swamp in the West African country’s south, only one crop is commercially viable — cannabis. Kouba, a village deep in the mangroves of Casmance and inaccessible by road, teems with caiman …

Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | The UN refugee agency said Thursday it was investigating new allegations of fraud in its resettlement programme in Kenya and Uganda after a report in German magazine Stern alleging graft. “We can confirm that we have received allegations related to resettlement fraud in Uganda and Kenya,” …