AFRICA

Tripoli, Libya | AFP | Italy and Libya will set up a joint commission in a bid to fight back against people traffickers and tackle the problem of illegal migration, the Tripoli government said Saturday. The announcement was made after talks in the Libyan capital between Italian Interior Minister Marco …

Casablanca, Morocco | AFP | Chinese electric car manufacturer BYD on Saturday signed an agreement to open a factory near the Moroccan city of Tangiers to build battery-powered vehicles, officials said. BYD will become the third car manufacturer, after Renault and Peugeot of French, to construct cars in the North …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a front-runner for the leadership of South Africa’s ruling ANC party, called during a campaign speech in Durban Saturday for a peaceful contest instead of a “fight amongst enemies”. Dlamini-Zuma made the call in what was likely to be her final major …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | A South African court on Friday overturned President Jacob Zuma’s appointment of the head of public prosecutions, dealing a sharp reprimand to the scandal-tainted leader. Shaun Abrahams, who was in 2015 named by Zuma as director of public prosecutions, has often been criticised for allegedly …

Dakar, Senegal | AFP | A lawyer for Dakar mayor Khalifa Sall, detained since March on corruption charges, on Friday said the prosecutor’s office had ordered his trial to begin next week, despite pending appeals. Sall is accused of misappropriating 1.83 billion CFA francs ($2.85 million, 2.7 million euros) of city …

Bangui, Central African Republic | AFP | Humanitarian groups in the Central African Republic (CAR) have suspended operations, the UN said Friday, after an aid worker was killed in the north of the restive, landlocked nation. “The humanitarian community in CAR continues to pay a heavy price from the rise in …

Goma, DR Congo | AFP | At least 14 United Nations peacekeepers were killed in the restive Democratic Republic of Congo, officials said Friday, in the deadliest attack in the organisation’s recent history. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the peacekeepers, who were from neighbouring Tanzania, were killed in the …

N’Djamena, Chad | AFP | Chad’s interior minister has said that a ban on some protests in the country is justified because of security risks. It comes after a coalition of activist groups earlier this week said they were planning to defy the ban and hold a major anti-government march. Interior …

Yaoundé, Cameroon | AFP | Nigeria called for an end to violence in neighbouring Cameroon, where a crisis sparked by a separatist drive in English-speaking areas has forced thousands of people to seek sanctuary across the border. “The Nigerian state by no means supports the secessionists,” Nigerian ambassador Lawan Abba Gashagar …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa’s deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa has said he believes the woman who accused President Jacob Zuma of rape, triggered an immediate riposte from the presidential office. Ramaphosa is a leading contender to take over from Zuma as head of the ANC ruling party later …