AFRICA

Lyon, France | AFP | Twenty-four suspected members of a sex trafficking ring accused of forcing Nigerian women into prostitution in France go on trial Wednesday, the latest case to highlight the growing use of Nigerian migrants as sex slaves in Europe. Nigeria was the main country of origin of the …

  Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT  | Security measures for staff helping to fight health emergencies need to be stepped up urgently, a World Health Organisation Official has said, after a frontline Ebola epidemic community worker was reportedly stabbed to death at his home in northeast Democratic Republic of the …

Port Louis, Mauritius | AFP |  Mauritians will vote Thursday in an election that will see Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth vie to win a popular mandate two years after he was handed the top job when his father stepped down. Nearly a million voters are registered for the parliamentary election in …

Bamako, Mali | AFP |  A digital war is unfolding in Mali alongside a jihadist conflict that has claimed thousands of lives: the battle to sway young minds is being waged on the mobile phone. “Jihadists today are recruiting on WhatsApp. We have to stop the bloodshed,” said Hama Cisse, a …

  What the Euro-Asian nation promised African countries at a historic summit in Sochi Kampala, Uganda | ISAAC KHISA AND JULIUS BUSINGE | One might have probably heard about Sochi, Russian city located on the Black Sea Coast near the border with Georgia, for co-hosting the 2018 FIFA World Cup. …

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday signed a measure to change the country’s agreements with multinational oil companies to significantly increase the share of offshore oil revenue it takes. “This afternoon I assented to the bill amending the Deep Offshore (and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contract) …

Juba, South Sudan | THE INDEPENDENT |  The Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) has confirmed that its leader Dr. Riek Machar will travel to Kampala for a planned meeting with South Sudan President Salva Kiir tomorrow. In an interview with Radio Tamazuj,  the deputy spokesman for the SPLM-IO Manawa …

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | First there was Tutu, the “African Mona Lisa” sold last year for 1.5 million dollars. Then a second portrait by revered Nigerian painter Ben Enwonwu, called Christine, sold in mid-October, for 1.4 million dollars. Both record sales of famous works by the late “father of African …

Benin City, Nigeria | AFP | Deep in the tropical forest in southern Nigeria, an evangelical pastor runs a sprawling camp billed as a refuge for thousands of children who fled the Boko Haram jihadist insurgency in the north. Solomon Folorunsho, known as Pastor Solomon, says he is on a self-proclaimed …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Four journalists and their driver are still being held in Burundi after being arrested for undermining national security while covering a rebel attack from neighbouring DR Congo, the attorney general said. The Burundian reporters were detained on Tuesday last week while reporting in Bubanza, in the …