Yaoundé, Cameroon | AFP | Cameroon votes Sunday in polls overshadowed by separatist violence which has displaced hundreds of thousands of people, and a partial opposition boycott. Elections for the central African country’s legislature and local councils are taking place for the first time in seven years, after two postponements. Despite …
Read More »Fear grips Cameroon’s anglophone regions ahead of voting day
Buea, Cameroon | AFP | Long-delayed elections are due to take place in Cameroon on Sunday, but in the country’s violence-torn English-speaking areas, the fear is almost palpable. “Everyone is holed up at home,” a civil servant said in Buea, capital of the Southwest Region, one of two provinces gripped by …
Read More »Malawi’s Rastafarians win landmark dreadlock ruling
Blantyre, Malawi | AFP | Makeda Mbewe was just six years old when she was kicked out of her primary school in Malawi for wearing her hair in the dreadlocks of her Rastafarian religion. Two years later, she is back in the playground, thanks to a landmark court ruling in January forcing …
Read More »African leaders grapple with failure to ‘silence the guns’
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | Seven years ago, amid extravagant celebrations marking the African Union’s 50th anniversary, the continent’s heads of state declared they would “end all wars in Africa by 2020.” But as leaders travel to Addis Ababa this weekend for the latest summit of the 55-member bloc — …
Read More »Roadshow to help Rwandan businesses tap into AfCFTA
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has announced a roadshow in Kigali to show the Rwandan private sector how it can become a primary beneficiary of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) which will provide significant opportunities to access the largely untapped markets and …
Read More »Cameroon elections overshadowed by boycott and violence
Yaoundé, Cameroon | AFP | Voters in Cameroon will cast their ballots Sunday in a country where the mood has been darkened by separatist violence and calls for an election boycott. Elections to renew the central African country’s legislature and local councils are taking place for the first time in seven …
Read More »Botswana to start auctions of elephant hunting licences
Gaborone, Botswana | AFP | Botswana on Friday will hold its first major auction for trophy elephant hunting quotas since controversially scrapping a hunting ban last year, a wildlife official said. President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s government in May revoked a moratorium, just a year after he succeeded Ian Khama, an avid environmentalist, …
Read More »Kenya leader warns against US, China rivalry in Africa
Washington, United States | AFP | Kenya’s president said Wednesday that African nations should be free to cooperate with both the United States and China, warning that foreign powers were exacerbating the continent’s divisions. President Uhuru Kenyatta was speaking on a visit to Washington, where speculation has built that the United …
Read More »Libya a ‘den of mercenaries’, say war-weary citizens
Tripoli, Libya | AFP | After 10 months of fighting that has torn their country apart, exhausted Libyans voice deep fears and say their fate is no longer in their own hands. The oil-rich North African country has been mired in chaos since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising that killed longtime dictator …
Read More »Sudan army agrees Burhan-Netanyahu meeting will boost security
Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Sudan’s military said Wednesday it backed a surprise meeting between the country’s leader and Israel’s prime minister in Uganda this week, saying the opening would help boost national security. General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, chairman of Sudan’s ruling sovereign council, met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met …
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