AFRICA

Buea, Cameroon | AFP |  A solitary teacher has just two pupils in his class in west Cameroon, where thousands of schools have closed down altogether because of kidnappings and threats by radical separatists. Since a crisis erupted in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon late in 2016, schools have …

Cairo, Egypt | AFP |  Scattered protests broke out Friday in Egyptian cities against President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as his supporters also took to the streets in counter demonstrations a week after rare anti-Sisi rallies shook the country. Police blocked streets leading to Cairo’s iconic Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the …

Kigali, Rwanda | AFP | A group of 66 African refugees and asylum-seekers have arrived in Kigali from Libya, the UN said, the first in what could be thousands of people being helped to flee the conflict-torn country. The move follows a pledge by President Paul Kagame in 2017 to …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta on Friday hailed a decision by the International Automobile Federation (FIA) to include the country’s fabled Safari Rally in the world championships from next year. Kenya has worked hard to get its rally back onto the world circuit after it fell …

Casablanca, Morocco | AFP | In Morocco, the struggle against HIV has been so successful in recent years that campaigners worry about losing funding for combatting the virus, but for people living with the disease it remains a heavy stigma. In Casablanca, a group therapy workshop offers HIV patients a rare …

Buea, Cameroon | AFP |  Hi-tech promoters had big dreams for Silicon Mountain in Cameroon, where a broad plateau was seen as perfect for startup ventures, but their hopes have been shattered by a separatist struggle. Entrepreneurs in the tech village wanted to launch new technologies and make Cameroon a market …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Burundi’s senate president has come under fire over recorded remarks of him placing a price on the head of a man accused of training militias at the height of the country’s 2015 political crisis. In comments recorded earlier in September, verified by AFP Thursday, senate chief …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Zimbabwe announced on Thursday that ex-president Robert Mugabe would be buried at his home village in Zvimba as requested by his family. The government said the family of the former leader, who died in Singapore on September 6 aged 95, “has expressed its desire to …

Yagma, Burkina Faso | AFP |  “We have nothing,” says Belen Boureima, a 74-year-old farmer, as his weathered face contemplates the scrap of land in the remote village he and his family must now call home. “But it’s better to be alive here than to stay in Djibo and die.” …

Cairo, Egypt | AFP | Egyptian authorities have arrested more than 1,000 people, rights groups said Wednesday, broadening a crackdown that has seen prominent critics detained after rare protests calling for the ouster of general-turned-President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. The wave of arrests comes ahead of a “million-man march” Friday called for …