AFRICA

Cape Town, South Africa | AFP | French energy giant Total unveiled Thursday a “significant” gas discovery off the coast of South Africa, an event that President Cyril Ramaphosa called a game-changer. The find could boost the nation’s struggling economy and reduce reliance on imports. “Total has made a significant …

N’Djamena, Chad | AFP | Chadian President Idriss Deby on Thursday said a column of rebels which had sought to cross into the country from Libya had been “destroyed” in a series of strikes carried out by French warplanes. The French military has said Mirage 2000 jets struck an armed convoy …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Hundreds of Sudanese protesters rallied Thursday in downtown Khartoum and other districts of the capital in support of fellow demonstrators detained in the weeks of rallies against President Omar al-Bashir’s iron-fisted rule, witnesses said. The latest protest came after Bashir acknowledged that Sudan’s controversial public order law and growing economic …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), the equity investment fund created recently by the African Export-Import Bank will catalyse foreign direct investment (FDI) flows into Africa’s trade and export sectors. Prof. Benedict Oramah, the bank’s president, said during the opening of the Financing …

Bangui, Central African Republic | AFP | “When I decided to come back, my friends took me for a fool,” recounts Clement Ndotizo, who spent a decade in France before returning to settle in his native Central African Republic, one of the world’s least-developed and most dangerous countries. But a “fool”, …

United Nations, United States | AFP | South Sudan’s rebel leader Riek Machar is planning to return to Juba in May under a power-sharing deal that a UN envoy said Tuesday offered the “best chance” of ending the war. UN envoy David Shearer met last week with Machar in his …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa has rejected reported criticism of its record on corruption by five Western countries, including the US and Britain, who insisted they were only drawing the government’s attention to a serious issue. The Sunday Times reported on its front page that the five countries — the US, Britain, …

Cairo, Egypt | AFP | Egyptian lawmakers on Sunday tabled proposed constitutional changes that would allow President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to extend his rule beyond 2022, legislators said. The bill submitted to speaker Ali Abdel Aal calls for several amendments to the constitution, including on the duration of presidential mandates currently …

Mogadishu, Somalia | AFP |  Somalia’s Al-Shabaab militants on Monday shot dead the Maltese manager of a port, while detonating a car bomb in the capital which killed nine people and wounded several others. In a deadly day for the restive nation, a gunman shot Maltese national Paul Anthony Formosa, …

Paris, France | AFP | A major deal allowing a company to drill for crude reserves in areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo bordering Africa’s largest protected rainforest may contravene the country’s own oil law, a watchdog said Friday. The transparency group Global Witness said that an agreement signed in …