AFRICA

Beijing, China | AFP |  China will ban all domestic ivory trade and processing by the end of 2017, state media reported Friday, in a move hailed by activists as a “game changer” for African elephants. African ivory is highly sought after in China where it is seen as a …

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP |  Around 100 bags of “plastic rice” seized in Lagos have turned out to contain real but contaminated rice, authorities said Friday in Nigeria, where prices for the staple have rocketed. Tests on the rice have shown that the product is “not plastic but … contaminated …

Kasaija warns UNRA against delayed works as government signs a $151million loan for the construction of Busega-Mpigi highway Uganda has signed a sh545billion ($151 million) loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB) to help finance the construction of a four-lane 23.7 kilometer Busega-Mpigi expressway. The AfDB earlier this year approved $245 million …

Gambia president orders electoral commission reopened Banjul, Gambia | AFP | The Gambia’s electoral commission building reopened on Thursday as the president said it had been shut for safety reasons rather than because of the country’s disputed presidential vote result. President Yahya Jammeh’s political party has lodged a legal complaint …

Luanda, Angola | AFP |  Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos’s daughter, reportedly Africa’s richest woman, has been cleared to head the national oil company Sonangol, after a court rejected a legal challenge. Isabel dos Santos was put in charge of Sonangol in June in a move some analysts said …

Libreville, Gabon | AFP | Its lower cost has made it popular in commercial food production, but after being blamed for deforestation in Asia, palm oil plantations are now getting a similar rap in Africa. The sheer scale of land required is having an impact in Gabon, Cameroon and the …

The US Mission in Kampala has tripled US food aid contributions to Uganda in 2016 by announcing a new $40 million emergency humanitarian package. Through the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) and Office of Food for Peace (FFP), the aid provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will provide more than 44,000 …

Gambian president-elect tells Jammeh to transfer power like British Banjul, Gambia | AFP |  The Gambia’s president-elect Adama Barrow on Monday called on President Yahya Jammeh to step aside, saying that even colonial power Britain was able to hand over power peacefully. In a Christmas message, Barrow said Gambians should …

Beni, DR Congo | AFP | The official explanation for a two-year wave of massacres in a restive corner of DR Congo centres on a shadowy rebel group accused of having ties to the global jihadist underground. But some basic details about the alleged killers of more than 700 victims …

Abuja, Nigeria | AFP |  Nigeria has struck off 50,000 “ghost workers” from the state payrolls this year, saving nearly 630 million euros, the presidency said Tuesday. The office of President Muhammadu Buhari, who was voted into power last year vowing to stamp out endemic graft in Africa’s most populous …