AFRICA

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | The flashy governor of Nairobi was arrested Friday shortly after Kenya’s chief prosecutor ordered he be detained to face charges of economic crimes. Governor Mike Sonko is the latest in a string of top officials — including Finance Minister Henry Rotch — to be hauled in …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | The United Nations on Thursday called for some $200 million in extra funding to help four million Zimbabweans unable to buy food due to drought and triple-digit inflation. The southern African country has been hit by a poor harvest and an entrenched economic crisis that has …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT  | Rwanda has added another European club to promote its tourism and products like coffee by announcing a partnership with French club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG). The club announced today that Visit Rwanda will also be displayed at the Parc des Princes Stadium where fans of …

Washington, United States | AFP | The United States said Wednesday it would name an ambassador to Sudan for the first time in 23 years, during a visit to Washington by the country’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. The two nations will proceed with an exchange of ambassadors, Secretary of State …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP |  The floor is dusty, the walls filthy and the furniture decrepit, but for two weeks last month a tiny flat in a Harare township was transformed into a maternity clinic where scores of babies were born. Its owner, 69-year-old Esther Gwena, says she helped to deliver …

Abuja, Nigeria | AFP |  Early each morning, a crowd gathers outside Ahmad Isah’s radio studio in Nigeria’s capital Abuja hoping to share their problems over the airwaves. For those waiting — men and women, young and old — Isah’s Brekete (very big in Pidgin English) Family show offers a rare …

  Paris, France | AFP | Ethiopia’s construction of a massive power dam on the Blue Nile is raising tensions with Egypt, which depends on the river for 90 percent of its water supply. As the neighbours and Sudan met in Cairo for talks Monday and Tuesday on the potential …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP |  Talal Afifi has worked for years to revive Sudanese cinema which has languished through decades of authoritarian rule. With the fall of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir, he sees new hope. Bashir’s Islamist-backed rule of 30 years had seen cinemas shuttered and US sanctions prevent imports of …

Cairo, Egypt | AFP |  Under the shade of a tree, Mohamed Omar joined other farmers bickering over who would water their crops first as supply from the Nile to a nearby canal dwindled. “My plot has been thirsty for days. I need the water to nourish the soil before it …

Libreville, Gabon | AFP | The oil-rich central African state of Gabon has carried out a string of top-level arrests and reassignments as it ramps up a drive against corruption. Nearly two dozen people, some of them in the inner circle of power, have been ousted from office, arrested or …