AFRICA

Lower Omo Valley, Ethiopia | AFP | For decades, herders in Ethiopia’s Lower Omo Valley have relied on guns to fend off rivals as well as hyenas and lions roaming the forests and plains. But over the past month, security forces have embarked on a campaign of forced disarmament that pastoralist …

Igbo-Ora, Nigeria | AFP | The sign greeting visitors at the entrance of Igbo-Ora in southwest Nigeria welcomes people to a place unlike anywhere on the planet: “TWINS CAPITAL OF THE WORLD”. The rather sleepy-looking town boasts of having the highest concentration of multiple births of any place on the globe. …

Tunis, Tunisia | AFP | Tunisia’s president-elect Kais Saied has won a clear mandate to fight corruption and promote social justice, even though his role focuses on security and diplomacy. Here is an overview of key policy challenges facing the conservative newcomer: – Change in foreign policy? – A constitutional law …

Pietermaritzburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa’s embattled former president Jacob Zuma will appeal a court ruling that he stand trial on corruption charges, his lawyer said Tuesday, in a last-minute move delaying a case over bribery allegations dating back to a 1990s arms deal. The trial would have been …

Pietermaritzburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa’s embattled former president Jacob Zuma is expected in court on corruption charges on Tuesday, in what would be the first time he faces trial for graft despite multiple accusations. Zuma stands accused of taking kickbacks before he became president from a 51-billion-rand ($3.4-billion) …

Maputo, Mozambique | AFP |  Mozambique votes in a general election on Tuesday that some fear could test the country’s fragile peace, after a heated campaign marred by violence and allegations of electoral fraud. The Frelimo party, which has ruled the impoverished southern African nation since independence from Portugal in 1975, is …

Juba, South Sudan | THE INDEPENDENT |  President Yoweri Museveni has strongly urged political leaders in Africa to work for peace and prosperity of their people and stop wasting time on retrogressive sectarian  issues like identity of tribe or religion The President who started his remarks using Arabic words Tatawir (Prosperity), …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP |  Hundreds of supporters of a key rebel leader from Darfur protested Monday against peace talks being held in Juba between Khartoum and other Sudanese rebel groups. Juba is hosting talks between Sudan’s new Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and representatives of three rebel groups that fought …

Tunis, Tunisia | AFP | Conservative academic Kais Saied, a political outsider, was headed for a landslide victory Sunday in Tunisia’s presidential runoff, sweeping aside his rival, media magnate Nabil Karoui, exit polls said. In a contest that reflected Tunisia’s shifting post-revolution political landscape, Saied, an independent, scooped 72.5 percent …

Scientists trying to understand what role sex plays Four scientists: Professors Andrew L. Webb, Brayden G. Schindell,   Jason Kindrachuk, and    Jia B. Kangbai have noted one area in the spread of the Ebola hemorrhagic fever that requires further study. It is the Ebola virus’ persistence in the reproductive systems of …