AFRICA

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Nigeria’s presidential election that has been postponed, will feature more than 70 candidates but it is ultimately expected to be a head-to-head between just two men. – Muhammadu Buhari (All Progressives Congress) – Buhari’s landmark 2015 election victory over Goodluck Jonathan was the first time …

Daura, Nigeria | AFP | Boko Haram insurgents killed eight people in Nigeria during an attack on the northeastern city of Maiduguri, a civilian militia leader said on Saturday. “We recovered a total of eight bodies of residents killed in the Boko Haram attack,” late on Friday, Haram Abba Aji-Kalli of the Civilian JTF militia …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South African 800m Olympic champion Caster Semenya on Thursday said she was “unquestionably a woman”, after the IAAF denied reports that it would argue that she should be classified as a biological male. Semenya, 28, issued the statement ahead of a landmark hearing at …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Sudan on Thursday accused campaigners spearheading protests against President Omar al-Bashir’s rule of threatening national security and advocating violence, as hundreds of demonstrators staged more rallies. The country’s acting Information Minister Mamun Hassan warned of taking legal action against protest leaders after campaigners vowed to …

Maiduguri, Nigeria | AFP | Four people were killed and an unknown number of others were kidnapped in a Boko Haram attack on a convoy of vehicles carrying the governor of Borno state in northeast Nigeria, sources said on Wednesday. A civilian militia member travelling with Kashim Shettima said jihadist fighters staged an ambush near …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who has faced weeks of protests against his three-decade rule, pledged to promote peace in the country’s war zones in an address to paramilitary units on Wednesday. “I assure you that the year 2019 will be the year of peace in Sudan,” the president told members of …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  The family of a Kenyan activist who went missing for a week before turning up dead, have questioned police claims she died of a botched abortion, and demanded an autopsy. Caroline Mwatha went missing last Wednesday, prompting Amnesty International to raise the alarm over her …

Douala, Cameroon | AFP | Cameroon opposition leader Maurice Kamto, who says he was cheated out of the presidency in elections last year, has been charged with “rebellion” and “insurrection”, one of his lawyers said Wednesday. The former government minister was arrested in the economic capital Douala on January 28 after his MRC party organised …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa on Monday introduced its most severe electricity rationing in nearly five years, presenting President Cyril Ramaphosa with a major political challenge just months ahead of a May general election. The debt-laden state power utility Eskom is at the centre of the country’s …

Addis Ababa | THE INDEPENDENT | African Heads of State and Government, Ministers of Health and Finance, business leaders and global partners gathered yesterday ahead of the 32nd Summit of the African Union (AU), to launch a new initiative aimed at increasing commitments for health, improving the impact of spending and …