ISS AFRICA| Top of the agenda of the 28th African Union (AU) summit on Monday in Addis Ababa will be the election of a new chairperson of the AU Commission (AUC). There are five candidates for the position – two more than in the previous, inconclusive, round of voting in July …
Read More »Sudan on Trump list, summons US charge d’affaires to protest ban
Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Sudan on Sunday summoned US charge d’affaires Steven Koutsis to protest President Donald Trump’s visa ban which has already prevented some of its citizens from flying to the United States. The foreign ministry “expressed its displeasure” with Trump’s order to bar Sudanese and citizens from …
Read More »By picking fight with Mexico, Trump shocks key partner
Mexico City, Mexico | AFP | By picking a fight with Mexico, US President Donald Trump is needling a strategic partner that could retaliate with a trade war and less cooperation on immigration and the drug war, analysts say. The neighboring countries face the biggest diplomatic rift in decades over …
Read More »US-Mexico tensions rise as meeting scrapped, wall tax looms
Washington, United States | AFP | US-Mexican relations were rocked Thursday as Donald Trump’s administration suggested taxing imports from the southern neighbor to fund a border wall and Mexico’s president scrapped a meeting with the US leader. Trump had been scheduled to receive Pena Nieto at the White House on …
Read More »UN Security Council renews call for more troops in South Sudan
United Nations, United States | AFP | The UN Security Council stepped up calls Monday for regional troops in South Sudan, to help a UN contingent already there stem ongoing violence and stave off a brewing humanitarian crisis. Olof Skoog, UN ambassador from Sweden, which holds the rotating Security Council …
Read More »China’s Xi calls for world without nuclear weapons
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a world without nuclear weapons at the UN on Wednesday and urged a multilateral system based on equality among nations large and small. His speech at the United Nations in Geneva came at the end of a diplomatic tour …
Read More »Gambia’s president-elect to stay in ‘exile’ in Senegal until his inauguration
Dakar, Senegal | AFP | The inauguration of Gambia’s president-elect Adama Barrow will go ahead this week, his spokesman insisted Sunday, as he landed in neighbouring Senegal to wait out the final days of President Yahya Jammeh’s mandate. Jammeh has refused to cede power after disputing the result of a …
Read More »Obama eases Sudan sanctions, prompting anger
Washington, United States | AFP | US President Barack Obama on Friday took the controversial step of easing economic sanctions against Sudan, trying to improve relations with a country whose leader is accused of war crimes and links to terror. Obama informed Congress that he will lift trade and investment …
Read More »Jammeh refuses to leave, Barrow flies out of country
Gambia’s Barrow to meet west African leaders in Mali Banjul, Gambia | AFP | President-elect Adama Barrow flew out of The Gambia late Friday to meet west African leaders attending a summit in Bamako with hopes of ending the country’s political crisis, Nigeria’s foreign minister said. “The ECOWAS team has …
Read More »Obama eases Sudan sanctions
Washington, United States | AFP | US President Barack Obama took the controversial step of easing some economic sanctions against Sudan Friday, trying to improve relations with a country whose leader is accused of war crimes and past links to terror. Obama informed Congress that he will lift trade and …
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