Maputo, Mozambique | AFP | Islamist insurgents have resumed attacks in northern Mozambique after a cyclone last month, killing nearly two dozen villagers and torching homes in a mounting political threat in the run-up to a general election. A shadowy jihadist group that has targeted Cabo Delgado province since October 2017 …
Read More »President calls for opposition to accept Malawi vote result.
Blantyre, Malawi | AFP | Malawi’s President Peter Mutharika on Tuesday urged opposition parties to accept the outcome of an election clouded by fraud allegations as he was sworn in for a second term. Thousands of supporters gathered at a sports stadium in Malawi’s commercial capital Blantyre to watch him take …
Read More »Malawi’s Mutharika: law professor turned graft-accused president
Blantyre, Malawi | AFP | Malawi’s President Peter Mutharika, 78, is a former Washington law professor with two successive election victories to his name and a political career clouded by claims of corruption, even treason. He won his first term in a closely-contested poll in 2014 — two years after …
Read More »Museveni’s GMO law dilemma
He’s damned if he signs law, and damned if he doesn’t Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | Six months since Parliament passed a revised Genetic Engineering Bill, 2018, that included demands by President Yoweri Museveni, he has not signed it into law. But he has also not written to Parliament …
Read More »Liverpool or Tottenham to finally reap rewards of Klopp, Pochettino’s good work
London, United Kingdom | AFP | The transformation of Liverpool and Tottenham’s fortunes under Jurgen Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino has so far been measured in progress rather than trophies. That will all change for the winner of Saturday’s Champions League final with one of the two claiming the biggest prize in …
Read More »Nigeria’s president signs ambitious 2019 budget
Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari signed an ambitious budget into law Monday, days ahead of the official start of his second term leading Africa’s largest oil producer. Buhari approved the spending plan worth 8.92 trillion naira — about $29 billion based on the official fixed exchange …
Read More »Behind the sugar zoning politics
Why the new proposal is bad for the country’s sugar industry Kampala, Uganda | ISAAC KHISA | Ugandan sugar millers, cane farmers and the government have for sometime been at loggerheads over a proposal to introduce zoning in the sugar cane growing areas. The proposed Sugar Bill, 2016, seeks to …
Read More »Britain’s Brexit Party triumph raises chances of no-deal
London, United Kingdom | AFP | Nigel Farage’s anti-EU Brexit party topped European Parliament polls in Britain, putting intense pressure on the ruling Conservatives who suffered a historic rout and raising the chances of a no-deal outcome. The populist party, founded just three months ago, capitalised on public anger over delays …
Read More »Museveni’s money fights with MTN
Details on deportations, licence talks Kampala, Uganda | HAGGAI MATSIKO | Money, policy and misinformation are at the centre of the long-running tension between Uganda’s leading telecom operator, MTN, and the government. That much was confirmed at a meeting last week between President Yoweri Museveni and MTN Group CEO Rob …
Read More »Malawi suspends updates of election results after disputes
Blantyre, Malawi | AFP | Malawi’s electoral board on Friday said it was suspending updates of results from this week’s elections in order to resolve complaints raised by some of the parties. A count of votes tallied in three-quarters of the country’s polling stations, released Thursday, found incumbent president Peter Mutharika …
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