AFRICA

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | The World Health Organization on Thursday advised governments to clinically test a herbal drink touted by Madagascar’s President Andry Rajoelina as a remedy against coronavirus. The Covid-Organics infusion is derived from artemisia — a plant with proven anti-malarial properties — and other indigenous herbs. Rajoelina …

Paris, France | AFP | Africa is the only continent in the world where deforestation is accelerating, according to key findings of a five-year report released Thursday by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). In South America, where some countries have been blamed for rampant forest exploitation, the rate of forest loss was …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday sought to ease concerns by Tanzania that the country’s coronavirus test kits were faulty. President John Magufuli on Monday suspended top officials at the country’s national laboratory, after saying he had secretly had animals and fruits …

Paris, France | AFP | As COVID-19 deaths climb ever higher in Europe and the United States, millions of lives are at risk in developing nations where lockdowns and overwhelmed medical systems are disrupting vital testing, vaccination and treatment for other killer diseases. The pandemic has seen unprecedented social distancing measures, …

Blantyre, Malawi | AFP | Malawi’s two main opposition figures on Wednesday presented nomination papers for a re-run in July of elections that saw President Peter Mutharika controversially returned to office. The southern African country made history in February when its top court overturned last year’s vote and called for fresh …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP |  Hakam Ibrahim was seven when, like most Sudanese girls, she became a victim of female genital mutilation — an age-old practice decried as horrific that the post-revolution government is now banning. A mother-of-four in her 40s, Ibrahim vividly recalls the traumatic experience of what remains a …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | The DR Congo government warned Tuesday of a “large-scale” spread of the COVID-19 pandemic after around 100 inmates of a military prison tested positive for the virus. “Contamination at the prisons could be a vector of large-scale propagation in our society, especially if it involves the Makala prison because …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Kenya’s foreign ministry Tuesday called for a swift investigation after a humanitarian plane helping the fight against coronavirus crashed in Somalia in “unclear” circumstances, killing all six people onboard. The Kenyan private cargo plane was undertaking a humanitarian mission related to the pandemic when it crashed Monday afternoon in Bardale …

In too many countries, transmission and distribution remain the responsibility of badly managed state utilities. Gridworks CEO Simon Hodson explains to David Thomas how his organisation plans to invest to make the sector commercially sustainable In the barren, rocky wasteland at the southern edge of Kenya’s remote Lake Turkana sit the whirring turbines …

The third edition of IATF has also been postponed from 2022 to 2023 to be in line with the two-year intervals between IATF events. Kampala, Uganda | ISAAC KHISA | Owing to the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic, the African Export-Import Bank, the African Union and the Rwandan government have decided to …