NEWS ANALYSIS

Dandong, CHINA | AFP | Traders from North Korea visit Yuan Huan’s shop in the Chinese border city of Dandong several times a month to place orders, bringing their own translators and wads of cash. Yuan, manager of Sangle Solar Power, said sales to North Koreans have soared in the past …

Washington, United States | AFP | Traffic through the White House exit door has been astonishingly high since Donald Trump became president on January 20. On Friday chief strategist Steve Bannon became the latest casualty of seven months of bedlam in the executive offices of the world’s most powerful country. Here …

Istanbul, Turkey | AFP | Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Friday urged ethnic Turks in Germany to reject its main parties in upcoming elections, prompting a sharp warning from Berlin to stop the “unprecedented” meddling. Erdogan called on ethnic Turks to ignore Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and their …

Nairobi, Kenya | ISS AFRICA | Two cheers for democracy. That would probably be a fair verdict on last week’s general elections in Kenya. It was free-ish and fair-ish. Over 15 million Kenyans stood in lines, often long, to elect a president, senate, national assembly, governors and members of assemblies for 47 counties, and women’s representatives. President Uhuru …

Bujumbura, Burundi | AFRICAN ARGUMENTS |  Two years since Burundi was plunged into violent political crisis, there are two diametrically opposing narratives being told about the current situation. If you listen to the government, the country has recovered from the clashes and mass displacements that engulfed it from 2015. Things are now secure …

  Luanda, Angola | AFRICAN ARGUMENTS |  After 38 years in power, Angola’s José Eduardo dos Santos finally looks set to step down from office. The president has stated his intention to relinquish power before, but as the 23 August elections approach, everything is pointing in the direction of his imminent departure following the polls. …

Washington, United States | AFP | After days of fiery talk of possible military intervention in the North Korea nuclear stand-off, Pentagon officials late last week suddenly found themselves digesting a surprising piece of breaking news. President Donald Trump, in the middle of a working vacation, stood before cameras and said …

Marikana, South Africa | AFP | At the site of the 2012 Marikana massacre where police shot dead 34 strikers, thousands of South African miners sang remembrance songs Wednesday as campaigners demanded prosecutions and compensation. The 34 miners were gunned down after police were deployed to break up a wildcat strike …

Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | Sierra Leone began a week of mourning Wednesday as it emerged that 105 children were among more than 300 people who perished in mudslides and torrential flooding, in one of the country’s worst natural disasters. With 600 people still missing in Freetown, President Ernest Bai …

Lusaka, Zambia | AFP |  Hakainde Hichilema, who was released from custody after treason charges against him were dropped, is a self-made entrepreneur who has made five unsuccessful attempts to become the Zambian president. He alleges that the 2016 election was rigged and, as leader of the opposition United Party …