AFRICA

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | A former Tanzanian president mediating talks to end Burundi’s deadly crisis will meet the opposition this weekend in a bid to end the deadlock, diplomatic and opposition sources said Tuesday. Benjamin Mkapa is to hold talks in Brussels with members of CNARED, which groups almost …

Algiers, Algeria | AFP | Dozens including education officials have been arrested in Algeria on suspicion of leaking final exam papers that led to more than 300,000 students needing to resit the tests, police said Tuesday. Managers, teachers and even the heads of national exam centres were detained for their …

The BBC is reporting that British troops have arrived in South Sudan where they will be part of a UN peacekeeping mission. Fighting broke out in South Sudan shortly after becoming the world’s newest nation in 2011 after vice president Riek Marchar was fired by President Salvar Kiir. Several lives …

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari will take the next 10 days off work to undergo treatment for an ear infection in London, an official statement from his office said Sunday. Speculation over the president’s health has been swirling for weeks after he cancelled three official engagements. “President Buhari will take 10 …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | At the sound of Muhammad Ali’s name Martino Kavuala, now a 63-year-old estate agent in Kinshasa, seems to light up as he recalls the “Rumble in the Jungle” back in 1974 which “held us spellbound”. Ali, who died on Friday aged 74, held the …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | South Sudan resumed talks with Sudan on Sunday on a raft of thorny issues, including borders and oil revenues, still outstanding from its 2011 secession. The south’s foreign affairs, defence, interior and oil ministers travelled to Khartoum for the talks, the first since a unity …

  The bodies of at least 104 migrants have washed up on a beach in the western Libyan town of Zwara, the navy said Friday, warning however that the toll could rise. “The number of bodies retrieved Thursday evening was 104 but the toll is expected to rise since an …

Mogadishu, Somalia | AFP | A jihadist leader who organised the April 2015 attack on Garissa University in eastern Kenya which left 148 people dead, has been killed in a raid in southwestern Somalia, a local official said Wednesday. “Sixteen armed men, four of them senior commanders including Mohamed Mohamud …

Two founding East African Community First Ladies have challenged the region’s leaders to ensure the future of integration is both guaranteed and realised. Kenya’s Mama Ngina Kenyatta and Uganda’s Mama Miria Obote Tuesday addressed a special session of the East African Legislative Assembly in Arusha. According to the EAC, Tanzania’s Mama …

Dissent is seldom aired publicly in Zimbabwe after Robert Mugabe’s 35 years of authoritarian rule but, against all the odds, individual voices are taking a stand and tapping into anger bubbling below the surface. President Mugabe, now aged 92, oversees a moribund economy, a food shortage crisis and a listless …