AFRICA

Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | Sierra Leone’s electoral commission sounded the alarm on Saturday over a wave of violence between rival groups ahead of a run-off presidential vote later this month. Opposition leader Julius Maada Bio, from the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), took 43.3 percent of votes in …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | The United Nations on Saturday threw its support behind new elections in Zimbabwe set for July and urged the government to kickstart the African nation’s economy as an “urgent priority”. Achim Steiner, administrator for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), was in Harare as part …

Port Louis, Mauritius | AFP | Mauritius President Ameenah Gurib-Fakim resigned on Saturday after being embroiled in a scandal over her use of a credit card to buy luxury personal items, in an abrupt change of heart after vowing she would not stand down. Gurib-Fakim, Africa’s only female head of …

Ottawa, Canada | AFP | Canada will send peacekeepers backed by helicopters to the troubled west African nation of Mali before autumn, a government source said on Friday. Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan is to provide details of the number of troops on Monday, said the source, speaking on condition of …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Burundi on Friday freed 740 prisoners, most of whom had been imprisoned after taking part in protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza in 2015, the government announced. The detainees were released from Bujumbura’s Mpimba prison — the country’s largest — after a ceremony presided over by …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | Thirty-two African countries on Friday called on the European Union to stop its ivory trade at a conference in Botswana aimed at saving African elephants. Presidents Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Ali Bongo of Gabon and host Ian Khama of Botswana wrote a petition along …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | Former South African president Jacob Zuma will face prosecution on corruption charges that haunted much of his term in office, the country’s chief prosecutor said Friday. “After consideration of the matter there are reasonable prospects of a successful prosecution of Mr Zuma,” said National Director …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa said Friday that the country “has moved on” in response to claims by former president Robert Mugabe that he was ousted in an illegal “coup d’etat”. Mnangagwa added in a short statement that he “noted recent remarks made to the media” by …

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Nigeria was on Friday urged to re-open investigations into 89 oil spills in its southern delta region, after claims that Shell and ENI misreported the causes. Rights group Amnesty International said there were “reasonable doubts” about how the spills happened, suggesting corrosion rather than oil …

Cairo, Egypt | AFP | With Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on the cusp of winning a second term in this month’s election, what’s left of the opposition is reduced to praying he will step aside in four years. There is little else his critics can realistically hope for after …