AFRICA

A digital overhaul of Africa’s tax system is needed to boost revenue collection, regional coordination and financing, Adam Elhiraika, Director of Macroeconomic Policy at the Economic Commission for Africa says in conversation with Shoshana Kedem during the recently Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development in Marrakech, …

Kigali, Rwanda | AFP | President Paul Kagame said Sunday that Rwandans had become a family again, 25 years after more than 800,000 people were slaughtered in a genocide that shocked the world. Kagame lit a remembrance flame at the Kigali Genocide Memorial, where more than 250,000 mainly Tutsi victims …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP |  Sudanese security forces on Monday fired tear gas at thousands of protesters who had massed outside the army headquarters in Khartoum for a second night demanding that President Omar al-Bashir resign, witnesses said. Several vehicles carrying security personnel arrived in the early hours of the …

Kigali, Rwanda | AFP | Rwanda on Sunday commemorates the 25th anniversary of the genocide in which at least 800,000 mainly Tutsi people were beaten, hacked or shot to death in 100 days of slaughter. A quarter of a century on, the east African nation has recovered economically, but the …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Sudan’s top opposition leader on Friday urged President Omar al-Bashir to end a state of emergency and resign, calling for widespread rallies the next day against Bashir’s 30-year rule. Sadiq al-Mahdi, former prime minister and chief of Sudan’s main opposition National Umma Party, called on Bashir …

Algiers, Algeria | AFP | Algerians were gathering Friday for the first mass protests since the resignation of ailing president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in a key test of whether the momentum for reform can be maintained. Activists took to social media calling for “joyful demonstrations” to “peacefully bring down a dictatorial regime”. …

Paris, France | AFP | French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday appointed a panel of experts to investigate France’s actions in Rwanda during the country’s genocide 25 years ago, a subject that has dogged Franco-Rwandan relations since the 1994 massacres. The commission of eight researchers and historians “will be tasked with …

Paris, France | AFP | When a smattering of leaders gather this weekend in Kigali to mark the 25th anniversary of Rwanda’s genocide there will be one conspicuous absence: French President Emmanuel Macron. Several African leaders and Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel are expected at events commemorating the 1994 massacre of …

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | The crew of the Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed last month killing 157 people, repeatedly followed procedures recommended by Boeing, but were unable to regain control of the jet, the Ethiopian transport minister said Thursday. “The crew performed all the procedures repeatedly provided by …

Developing economies across Africa are in a unique position to invest in cleaner sources of power at a lower cost COMMENT | BHAVTIK VALLABHJEE | Africa is a continent blessed with an abundance of natural resources – water, wind, thermal coal, natural gas, and of course plenty of sunshine – …