Goma, DR Congo | AFP | At least 10 people were killed Sunday night in clashes between the army and suspected Ugandan rebels in east DR Congo, activists said, in an area that has suffered a string of massacres since 2014. “Suspected ADF (Allied Democratic Forces) attacked Beni from the …
Read More »Senior Mozambique opposition member shot dead
Maputo, Mozambique | AFP | A senior member of Mozambique’s main opposition party Renamo who was negotiating in key peace talks with the government has been shot dead by unidentified gunmen, his party said Sunday. Jeremias Pondeca was killed on Saturday as he was out jogging. The announcement of his …
Read More »ANALYSIS: Egypt military seen as expanding economic share
Cairo, Egypt | AFP | As Egypt braces for austerity reforms, the military has expanded its economic role, at times helping President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi assuage the impact of rising prices on the country’s poor. For decades, the military — which produced all but one president since 1952 — has …
Read More »Burundi wants to quit ICC to avoid possible charges
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Burundi announced plans Friday to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC), a week after the UN began an enquiry into human rights abuses committed since April 2015. “It is perfectly clear that this is a plot to do harm to Burundi,” said Gaston …
Read More »Ethiopia protesters target foreign investments
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | Anti-government protesters in Ethiopia have turned their anger on foreigners, torching tourist resorts and foreign-owned factories in the restive Oromia region, local media reported Friday. At least 11 companies, including textile and plastic factories, were torched in recent days in the town of Sebeta …
Read More »France reopens probe into 1994 assassination of Rwanda president Habyarimana
Paris, France | AFP | French investigators have reopened their probe into the 1994 genocide-triggering assassination of a Rwandan president to question a dissident general who has accused the country’s current head of state of orchestrating the killing, AFP learnt Friday. After a French-crewed plane carrying Juvenual Habyarimana was shot …
Read More »Kenya’s controversial election commission quits
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | The election commission that oversaw Kenya’s flawed 2013 polls and was tarnished by a corruption scandal will receive a $2 million pay-off in return for agreeing to leave office early, local media reported Thursday. The nine commissioners will share the pot of cash, according to …
Read More »Zimbabwe’s Mugabe in surprise visit to Malaysia, health back in focus
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | AFP | Zimbabwe’s 92-year-old strongman Robert Mugabe will pay a surprise one-day working visit to Malaysia on Friday, the Southeast Asian country said. Malaysia’s government said late Thursday Mugabe will have a meeting with Prime Minister Najib Razak but otherwise gave scant details on the purpose …
Read More »EU, US and Uganda blast Machar over South Sudan war talk
International community slams fresh call for war in S.Sudan Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | The international community on Thursday hit out at a call from South Sudan’s rebel leader Riek Machar for renewed war with the government, raising concerns about heavy fighting in recent weeks. Machar, the former vice president, …
Read More »Zambian opposition leader arrested on sedition charges
Lusaka, Zambia | AFP | Zambia’s opposition leader and defeated presidential candidate Hakainde Hichilema was arrested Wednesday on charges of sedition and unlawful assembly, police said. Hichilema, who disputed the result of August polls which re-elected President Edgar Lungu, was detained along with Geoffrey Mwamba, the vice-president of his United …
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