AFRICA

Blantyre, Malawi | AFP |  Malawi is being forced to confront child and forced labour practices after the US restricted tobacco imports from the impoverished southeastern African nation over allegations workers including children were being exploited. Although exports to the United States make up only a small part of Malawi’s total, …

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP |  A dozen officers are squeezed into the dimly lit Lagos State Police Gender Unit between worn desks and witnesses writing statements, as the force struggles to cope with an increasing number of reports of sex abuse in Nigeria. Recent figures are scarce but according to the …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Sudan’s new authorities have ordered that the party of ousted autocrat Omar al-Bashir be dissolved and his regime “dismantled”, heeding the call of protesters whose campaign led to the leader’s overthrow. Bashir and his Islamist National Congress Party (NCP) had ruled the northeast African country …

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP |  John Eromosele records the coordinates of a bustling canal on his smartphone from aboard a dug-out canoe navigating the floating slum of Makoko in Nigerian megacity Lagos. The waterway is “like a boulevard, there’s always traffic here,” the computer coding specialist laughed as other boats jostled …

Algiers, Algeria | AFP |  Algerians are due to elect a new president next month but a huge protest movement bitterly rejects the vote, fearing it will cement in power politicians close to the disgraced old guard. Candidates have been loudly heckled during rare and low-key campaign events and their posters …

Goma, DR Congo | AFP | Four Ebola workers in eastern DR Congo were killed and five injured, adding to the toll of people who have died fighting the nearly 16-month-old epidemic, the UN said Thursday. A member of the vaccination team and two drivers were killed at an Ebola …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Ahead of a key IGAD Assembly of Heads of State and Government meeting due Friday in Addis Ababa, United Nations (UN) monitors have warned of the failure of Kenya and Uganda to enforce sanctions on war-stricken South Sudan The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is today …

Africa’s late industrialisation, which put it at a significant disadvantage, can be its greatest asset | TARIYE ISOUN GBADEGESIN | Africa has contributed less to the climate crisis than any other continent, but it will suffer some of the worst consequences. It already is: this year, Cyclone Idai killed more …

Windhoek, Namibia | AFP |  Namibia voted in a general election on Wednesday with the ruling party facing a rare challenge to its dominance, after a recession and a corruption scandal fuelled popular discontent. President Hage Geingob’s bid for re-election has been hit by growing anger at his South West Africa …

Windhoek, Namibia | AFP |  Polls opened in Namibia on Wednesday for presidential and parliamentary elections in which resentment stoked by economic hardship and a corruption scandal could challenge the ruling party’s majority. The sparsely populated nation — where the Namib desert stretches along 1,500 kilometres (930 miles) of Atlantic coastline …