AFRICA

Davos, Switzerland | AFP | South Africa’s likely next president promised pro-business reforms and tough justice for those guilty of state corruption, as he wooed investors on Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. Cyril Ramaphosa, who could replace Jacob Zuma as president within weeks, told investors in Davos …

United Nations, United States | AFP | The United States on Wednesday called for an international arms embargo to be imposed on South Sudan following the failure of the latest ceasefire aimed at ending the four-year war. US Ambassador Nikki Haley told the Security Council that President Salva Kiir’s government …

Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | Nigeria’s anti-graft squad said on Thursday it had placed David Babachir Lawal, once a senior official under President Muhammadu Buhari, in custody for alleged corruption. “He was invited to our office yesterday (Wednesday) and since then he has been in our custody,” the acting spokesman …

Cairo, Egypt | AFP | A rights lawyer seen as the last real challenger to Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Wednesday quit the race to be president, the latest in a string of potential candidates to withdraw or be jailed. Sisi, who has ruled the North African country with an iron …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | A cholera outbreak in the DR Congo capital Kinshasa is stabilising and moving in a downward trend, the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said on Wednesday. The latest outbreak has affected 23 of the 26 provinces in the vast central African country since 2017, with “55,000 …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | The UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday reported a surge in summary “executions” in the country, notably in the southern Kasai region. In 2017, “state agents” carried out 1,176 extra-judicial killings, “including at least 89 women and 213 children,” the United …

Davos, Switzerland | AFP | Donald Trump rappels into the snowy Swiss Alps on Thursday to address Davos summiteers anxious to see whether they will get a pitch from a capitalist kindred spirit or a lecture from a populist president. Trump is due to deliver the closing address at the …

Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | Nigeria’s government on Wednesday hit back at claims that President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure had been a failure but refused to say if he would seek re-election. Former president Olusegun Obasanjo on Tuesday called for Buhari to step down as he had a poor grasp of economics, …

Institutions, policies, and champions COMMENT | Paul Kagame | Despite the myriad challenges we still face, over the past two generations our world has become more prosperous and equitable, and also safer. Cooperation among nations has been a foundation of that progress, as well as the best mechanism for sustaining …

Davos, Switzerland | AFP | Zimbabwe’s new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, said Wednesday that the country would go to the polls before July, in the first elections since Robert Mugabe was ousted after 37 years in power. Mnangagwa, who took office in November after a shock military takeover led to Mugabe’s ousting, …