AFRICA

Cairo, Egypt | AFP |  Rare small protests broke out on Friday in Cairo and other Egyptian cities calling for the removal of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi but police quickly dispersed them, AFP journalists reported. Dozens of people joined night-time demonstrations around Tahrir Square — the epicentre of the 2011 …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda has signed a hosting agreement and a memorandum of understanding with African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to host their East African regional office starting next month. The announcement was made after a meeting between leading officials of the bank and President Yoweri Museveni at State …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP |  A Zimbabwean doctors’ union leader whose suspected kidnapping sparked protests by medics in the capital Harare has been found alive, Human Rights Watch said Thursday. Peter Magombeyi had been missing since Saturday night, with his Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA) saying he was taken because …

Kampala, Uganda | AFP | When Ugandan Leah Namugerwa turned 15 last month, she decided to plant 200 trees rather than have a birthday party, in her latest effort to spotlight environmental damage in Uganda. Juggling school, protests, and giving speeches in regional capitals rallying for action to save the planet, …

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Major African tech start-up Andela sacked hundreds of its staff this week — the majority from Nigeria — in one of the largest layoffs in the continent’s budding tech industry. The start-up, backed by hundreds of millions of dollars from investors including Facebook and tennis …

Kigali, Rwanda | THE INDEPENDENT | Rwanda Police has cautioned teachers against administering corporal punishments to students in form of disciplining, saying that such acts amounts to “criminal actions.” The warning follows separate cases where teachers have been arrested for severely beating and injuring pupils. Among those arrested is a teacher …

Badagry, Nigeria | AFP | The days of heaping 50-kilo sacks of rice across the saddle of their motorbike and slipping a few notes to a customs officer are now gone. With Nigeria having snapped its borders shut, the legions of motorbike riders who used to satisfy the nation’s hunger for …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP |  A Rwandan Hutu rebel leader wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crime charges has been shot dead by the Congolese army, a DRC military spokesperson said on Wednesday. Sylvestre Mudacumura, commander of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), was …

Algiers, Algeria | AFP |  Algeria’s military has ordered police to block protesters from outside the capital from entering Algiers, the army chief said Wednesday, after months of mass rallies. “I have instructed the national gendarmerie to deal with these actions with firmness,” said General Ahmed Gaid Salah, the country’s …

Tunis, Tunisia | AFP |  Official results in Tunisia’s presidential election confirmed on Tuesday a duel in the second round of voting between law professor Kais Saied and imprisoned media mogul Nabil Karoui. Saied led the first round with 18.4 percent of the vote, and is set to challenge Karoui …