AFRICA

Sipopo, Equatorial Guinea | AFP | Gleaming but eerily empty, the luxurious Sipopo resort with its five-star hotel and exclusive facilities rises from a tropical beach, symbolising the dilemma of Equatorial Guinea — a notoriously closed country that has turned to tourism to help fill its coffers. The purpose-built town was …

Kampala, Uganda | AFP | A President Yoweri Museveni  and Rwanda President Paul Kagame  tete-a-tete as Cyril Ramaphosa was sworn in as president of South Africa early on Saturday, has been overshadowed by accusations after two men at their border. Analysts had hoped the surprise ‘meeting’ in Pretoria, would signal a thaw in relations …

  Pretoria, South Africa | AFP |  Newly-elected South African President Cyril Ramaphosa faces herculean tasks after he gets down to work after Saturday’s inauguration. They include: – Fixing the economy – South Africa has the most advanced infrastructure in the continent, but its commodities-dependent economy has been in a …

Pretoria, South Africa | AFP |  Cyril Ramaphosa takes the oath of office today Saturday as president of South Africa, facing a brew of expectations and scepticism after vowing to reform the country and revive its economy. Foreign heads of state will be among 36,000 people expected to witness the ceremony …

Butembo, DR Congo | AFP | People in Ebola-hit eastern DR Congo are struggling to come to terms with high-security burials that are part of a hard-pressed strategy to roll back the disease. Anyone who dies of the highly infectious haemorrhagic fever has to be buried in carefully-controlled conditions designed …

Malabo, Equatorial Guinea | AFP | In a country awash with oil, the poorest survive in shantytowns a stone’s throw from smart modern apartments and family homes supposedly built to help those most in need. The government of Equatorial Guinea had billed the rows of state-subsidised housing as never-to-be-missed home-owning opportunities for the poor. But …

Cape Town, South Africa | AFP | South African lawmakers on Wednesday re-elected Cyril Ramaphosa as the nation’s president, two weeks after the ruling ANC party returned to power in legislative elections. Ramaphosa was “duly elected president of the Republic of South Africa,” chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng told parliament. Ramaphosa …

Algiers, Algeria | AFP |  Algeria’s army chief said Wednesday he has “no political ambition”, days after the key powerbroker urged anti-government protesters to take part in presidential polls set for July. “I have personally committed myself repeatedly… to support the Algerian people” who are protesting “as well as the efforts …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Algeria has been officially recognized as malaria-free, becoming the third country in Africa to be officially declared malaria-free, after Mauritius, which was certified in 1973 and Morocco in 2010. The certification by the World Health Organisation is granted when a country proves beyond a reasonable doubt, …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP |  Over the course of his 66 years, Cyril Ramaphosa has experienced the poverty of Soweto, jail for fighting apartheid, trade union activism, fabulous wealth — and now elected leadership of his country. Ramaphosa, who became president last year through internal ANC politics, won a …