AFRICA

Kigali, Rwanda | AFP | Politicians and top civil servants in Rwanda will have their salaries this month redirected to welfare programmes to help the poor cope with the economic impact of the coronavirus. Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente said the salary sacrifice would show “solidarity” with the people, who have been under a tough lockdown …

United Nations, United States | AFP | UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has urged governments to include the protection of women in their response to the deadly novel coronavirus pandemic. Reports of domestic violence have surged globally in the wake of massive lockdowns imposed to contain the spread of the disease. …

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | Ethiopia on Sunday announced the first two deaths of patients suffering from COVID-19, as officials ramped up testing to get a clearer picture of the outbreak there. The first victim was a 60-year-old Ethiopian woman who had spent six days in intensive care, a health …

Blantyre, Malawi | AFP |  Malawi’s President Peter Mutharika said Saturday he was taking a wage cut to help fund the fight against the coronavirus, and ordered his government to the same. Mutharika said in a statement he had ordered the treasury to cut his own salary and the wages …

Tripoli, Libya | AFP |  Mahmud Jibril, the former head of the Libyan rebel government that overthrew dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, died Sunday of the coronavirus, his party said. Jibril, 68, died in Cairo where he had been hospitalised for two weeks, said Khaled al-Mrimi, secretary of the Alliance of …

Luanda, Angola | AFP |  It is a cry from the heart and the stomach that is reverberating across African towns and cities reeling under lockdowns and curfews to contain the spread of the coronavirus. “How can anyone stay home without anything to eat?” asked Garcia Landu, a motorcycle taxi driver …

Algiers, Algeria | AFP |  As adversity strikes in the form of the coronavirus pandemic, Algeria has found a helping hand in China, an old friend and the top exporter to Africa’s largest country. An Air Algerie plane arrived in the capital Algiers from Beijing on March 27 carrying a 13-member …

Algiers, Algeria | AFP | As adversity strikes in the form of the coronavirus pandemic, Algeria has found a helping hand in China, an old friend and the top exporter to Africa’s largest country. An Air Algerie plane arrived in the capital Algiers from Beijing on March 27 carrying a 13-member …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP |  South African public healthcare workers dispersed into the buzzing streets of Johannesburg’s Yeoville neighbourhood on Friday as Africa’s worst virus-hit country rolled out mass door-to-door testing for COVID-19. Armed with screening questionnaires and testing kits, medics and volunteers set up their testing station on the front …

Maiduguri, Nigeria | AFP |  Men and women cluster around plastic wash basins hastily set up outside one of northeast Nigeria’s sprawling displaced persons’ camps, lathering their hands with soap under the gaze of security personnel. The makeshift hygiene facilities are among urgent efforts aimed at warding off the spread of …