AFRICA

The ruling Patriotic Front’s expulsion of one of its founding members paves the way for President Lungu to be its presidential candidate. But they’d be wrong to think they’ve seen the end of Chishimba Kambwili. Lusaka, Zambia| AFRICAN ARGUMENTS | Last week, Chishimba Kambwili MP, an ambitious firebrand and possible presidential aspirant, was expelled …

Lome, Togo | AFP | Diplomatic talks and visits by experts are gathering pace in Togo as the former French colony looks to follow another Francophone nation and join the Commonwealth. Rwanda joined the 52-member bloc in 2009, 14 years after Portuguese-speaking Mozambique became the first member never to have had …

President Sall faces double challenge as Senegal elects MPs Dakar, Senegal | AFP | Senegal holds a legislative election on Sunday following a campaign gripped by tension between the rival coalitions of President Macky Sall, his predecessor Abdoulaye Wade and Dakar’s detained mayor. The election is seen as a crucial test …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | President Robert Mugabe’s wife Thursday urged her 93-year-old husband to name his chosen successor, fuelling renewed speculation about the race to take over from the world’s oldest national leader. Mugabe has always refused to publicly reveal his favoured heir, but Grace Mugabe — who is seen …

Adama Barrow: how do you solve a problem like The Gambia? Banjul, Gambia | AFP |  Six months ago, businessman and political novice Adama Barrow took power in Africa’s smallest mainland country after delivering a stunning defeat against ex-leader Yahya Jammeh, who had ruled brutally for 22 years. When Barrow …

Abidjan, Ivory Coast | AFP |  Authorities in Ivory Coast have seized a record haul of three tonnes of pangolin scales worth an estimated $82,000, in what officials on Thursday called a “massacre”. Eight men of various African nationalities were apprehended overnight on Tuesday as they prepared to sell their …

Benghazi, Libya | AFP |  Authorities in eastern Libya backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar on Thursday ordered the closure of a Sudanese consulate and the expulsion of 12 diplomats, a pro-Haftar news agency announced. It said the order to shut down the mission in Kufra, an oasis in southern …

Montevideo, Uruguay | AFP | The number of people registering to buy newly legalized marijuana in Uruguay jumped by almost 50 percent in the first week of sales, according to official figures released Wednesday. The small South American country is the first in the world to legalize pot from production to …

United Nations, United States | AFP | A new bout of violence in the Central African Republic that has killed nine peacekeepers this year risks derailing years of efforts to restore a fragile stability, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Wednesday. Guterres condemned the killing of two Moroccan peacekeepers who were …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP |  Congolese rebel warlord Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka, wanted for crimes against humanity including mass rape, surrendered to UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday. Sheka was arrested in Mutongo, in the country’s North Kivu region by UN peacekeepers and was “transferred to …