Gambia’s Jammeh clings on as tourists flee, Vice President resigns Banjul, Gambia | AFP | Gambian President Yahya Jammeh looked determined to cling to power on Wednesday as his mandate came to an end, prompting neighbouring Senegal asking the UN to back regional actions against him. Jammeh has announced a …
Read More »No voter ID, no sex, urges Kenyan MP
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | A Kenyan opposition MP has urged fellow women to impose a sex boycott until their men register to vote in August’s general election. Mishi Mboko, who is married, said women should withhold sex until their menfolk present their credentials in the form of a valid …
Read More »Hundreds feared dead after air strike on displaced camp in Nigeria
Kano, Nigeria | AFP | Dozens of people were killed on Tuesday when an air force jet accidentally bombarded a camp in northeast Nigeria for those made homeless by Boko Haram Islamists. The incident happened at about 9:00 am (0800 GMT) in Rann, in the far north of Borno state, …
Read More »Gambian president declares state of emergency
Banjul, Gambia | AFP | Gambian President Yahya Jammeh on Tuesday declared a state of emergency, citing foreign interference in a presidential election he lost to opponent Adama Barrow last month. The declaration was necessary “due to the unprecedented and extraordinary amount of foreign inference in the December 1 presidential …
Read More »UGANDA: No M23 rebels have left camp
Uganda military denies Congolese rebels left camp Kampala, Uganda | AFP | Uganda’s military on Monday denied that armed Congolese rebels sheltering in the country had crossed back into the Democratic Republic of Congo, saying they were still in their camp. The DRC government said Sunday that at least 200 …
Read More »Big blow for Jammeh after Gambia’s top judge pulls out of challenge
Banjul, Gambia | AFP | The Gambia’s top judge on Monday pulled out of hearing a bid by President Yahya Jammeh to halt the inauguration of president-elect Adama Barrow later this week, in a blow to the incumbent head of state. The small west African country has been plunged in …
Read More »Gambia president-elect’s son ‘killed by dogs’
Banjul, Gambia | AFP | An eight-year-old son of The Gambia’s president-elect Adama Barrow has died after being bitten by dogs, a family source said Monday, days before his contested inauguration. Barrow, who is in Senegal, is scheduled to be sworn in on Thursday, but President Yahya Jammeh has declared …
Read More »Trial resumes of Ugandan LRA warlord
The Hague, Netherlands | AFP | Former child soldier-turned-warlord Dominic Ongwen was back in the dock Monday as the first witness appeared in the trial of the Ugandan ex-commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army due to last several years. Abducted as a child and pressed into the ranks of the …
Read More »Rwanda court blocked as UN judge caught in Turkey coup probe
Istanbul, Turkey | AFP | Aydin Sefa Akay is one of over 41,000 people arrested and awaiting trial in Turkey in the wake of the unsuccessful July 15 coup plot to unseat President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But Akay is no ordinary prisoner. A former Turkish ambassador, he is a top …
Read More »Ford recalls 4,500 cars in South Africa after fires
Pretoria, South Africa | AFP | US motor giant Ford on Monday recalled 4,500 1.6-litre Kuga cars in South Africa after nearly 40 incidents in which vehicles were reported to have burst into flames. Over recent years, the SUV model has been the focus of repeated accounts in South Africa …
Read More »