Abidjan, Ivory Coast | AFP | Economic growth in Africa picked up steam last year and is set to accelerate strongly in 2018, but “massive investments” are needed in infrastructure, the African Development Bank (ADB) said Wednesday. Growth in Africa rose from 2.2 percent in 2016 to 3.6 percent in …

  Brazzaville, Congo | AFP | Congo’s government met with members of a key rebel group on Wednesday for the first time since a landmark ceasefire was signed after months of renewed armed conflict in the oil-rich nation. Fighters loyal to ex-rebel chief Frederic Bintsamou — seen as having disbanded after …

Cotonou, Benin | AFP | Civil servants in Benin walked out on Wednesday, calling for the repeal of a new law banning them from taking industrial action. The three-day strike, called for by seven trade unions representing public sector workers in areas such as health and the justice system, began on …

United Nations, United States | AFP | UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday expressed concerns after Myanmar and Bangladesh reached a deal on the return of hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingyas that sidelined the UN refugee agency. “We believe it would be very important to have UNHCR fully involved in …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | As demand for batteries drives a surge in the price of cobalt, the Democratic Republic of Congo is gearing up to overhaul its mining regulations to harvest more profit from the coveted metal. The global boom for smartphones and electric cars has pushed up the …

Miami, United States | AFP | Women who breastfeed their babies for six months or more may be able to cut their risk of developing diabetes in the future by nearly half, according to a study Tuesday. The findings from a three-decade US study of more than 1,200 white and African-American …

Abidjan, Ivory Coast | AFP | There’s nothing covert about Roxy — a huge market in Abidjan selling counterfeit medicine, the scourge of Africa and the cause of around 100,000 deaths annually on the world’s poorest continent. Located in the bustling Adjame quarter of Ivory Coast’s main city and commercial hub, …

Why is country mortgaging her future by relying on external borrowing rather than tax revenue? COMMENT | MUSA MAYANJA LWANGA & FLORENCE NAKAZI | In the recent past, owing to Uganda’s many development needs including large infrastructure projects and expanding public administration costs, government expenditure has significantly exceeded revenue collection. This has …

Los Angeles, United States | AFP | Sony’s family film “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” had a lock on the top spot at the North American box office this holiday weekend, for the second straight week. “Jumanji,” starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, funnymen Jack Black and Kevin Hart, netted $35.2 million …

Maitland, South Africa | AFP | South Africa is fighting to revive its frayed clothing industry, once a crucial provider of jobs in a country suffering from high unemployment, as a flood of cheap imports forces local factories to shutter and lay off workers. Once the economic lifeblood of many small …