AFRICA

  Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP |  Zimbabwe on Friday imposed a “total shutdown” of the internet as international criticism mounted over a ruthless security crackdown after anti-government protests. Police and soldiers have been accused of indiscriminately dragging people from their homes and beating them. Hundreds of people have been arrested …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Five suspects, including a Canadian citizen, appeared in a Kenyan court Friday in connection with an Islamist attack on a Nairobi hotel complex that left 21 dead. A magistrate granted a request from the prosecution to detain the four men and one woman for 30 …

      Kampala, Uganda | ISAAC KHISA | Pan-African multilateral lender African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank ) has signed a facility agreement lending $170 million to Egypt-based conglomerate Orascom Investment Holding (OIH) to assist the company expand its pan-African activities in pursuit of its short and medium-term expansion strategy. The …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | DR Congo rebuked the African Union on Friday over its calls to suspend the announcement of final results from presidential elections, insisting that the Constitutional Court assessing the vote’s legality was impartial. The court is urgently hearing an appeal over the outcome of the December …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Several months of protests in Zimbabwe over shortages of basic goods, inflation and the depreciation of the local currency have escalated into riots after the government doubled the price of fuel. In power since the fall of Robert Mugabe in November 2017, President Emmerson Mnangagwa …

Abidjan, Ivory Coast | AFP | Africa’s strong growth will accelerate in 2019 but fail to roll back high unemployment and poverty, the African Development Bank (AfDB) said Thursday. The continent’s gross domestic product expanded by 3.5 percent in 2018 after 3.6 percent in 2017 and should reach 4.0 percent …

United Nations, United States | AFP | Sudan faced calls from Western powers at the UN Security Council on Thursday to respect the rights of anti-government demonstrators and investigate violence that has left at least 24 dead. The council was meeting to discuss the situation in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Zimbabwean activist Evan Mawarire appeared in court in Harare on Thursday to face subversion charges as authorities cracked down on anti-government protests in which doctors say 68 people suffered gunshot wounds. Nationwide demonstrations erupted on Monday after President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced that fuel prices were …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | A doctor and a child were killed Thursday during protests in Sudan’s capital, organisers of the anti-government demonstrations said, as police dispersed a crowd of hundreds marching towards the presidential palace. At least 26 people have died in protests that have rocked Sudan since they …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP |  Here are key dates in Sudan since Omar al-Bashir came to power almost three decades ago. – 1989: coup – In June 1989 army brigadier Bashir seizes power in a coup backed by Islamist ideologue Hassan al-Turabi. Sudan then hosts radical Islamists, including Al-Qaeda chief …