Tag Archives: politics

        Libreville, Gabon | AFP |  Gabon authorities said Saturday they have banned an opposition party from state media for three months over statements about the health of President Omar Bongo, who has been in a Saudi hospital for a month. Bongo, 59, was rushed to hospital …

  Zvimba, Zimbabwe | AFP |  Zimbabwe’s ex-leader Robert Mugabe is in Singapore for medical care and now unable to walk because of ill health and old age, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said on Saturday. Mnangagwa told his ZANU-PF party supporters at a rally that the 94-year-old Mugabe had been receiving …

Lisbon, Portugal | AFP |  Angolan President Joao Lourenco on Thursday compared the fight against corruption in his country to “touching a wasps nest”, a day after his predecessor Jose Eduardo dos Santos refuted allegations he emptied the state’s finances. Dos Santos, who stepped down in September 2017 following 38 …

Dubai, United Arab Emirates | AFP | Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman embarked Thursday on a regional tour starting with the United Arab Emirates, his first official trip abroad since critic Jamal Khashoggi’s murder tipped the kingdom into crisis. Prince Mohammed will visit a “number of brotherly” Arab states …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP |  South African President Cyril Ramaphosa unveiled a limited cabinet reshuffle Thursday ahead of elections in May when the ruling ANC party will seek to turn around its decline in popularity. In the most significant of three appointments, Siyabonga Cwele, 60, was moved from the …

  Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Zimbabwe’s new finance minister Mthuli Ncube announced a five-percent cut to senior government officials’ salaries on Thursday in a bid to mend the shattered economy. Ncube’s budget also set out plans for the biometric registration of civil servants to weed out “ghost” workers who …

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | Ethiopia’s former opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa, who recently returned from exile, was on Thursday named as head of the country’s election body ahead of the 2020 polls. Birtukan’s appointment makes her the latest woman to be appointed to a high-profile role and the most …

Moscow, Russia | AFP | The head of the Russian military intelligence agency linked to a series of notorious operations abroad has died after a long illness, the defence ministry said on Thursday. Igor Korobov, 62, had headed the military’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) since 2016 and was the target …

Washington, United States | AFP | US President Donald Trump on Wednesday ignored criticism that he gave Saudi Arabia a free pass on the murder of a dissident journalist, instead praising the Islamic kingdom for keeping oil prices low. Trump, on holiday at his Florida Mar-a-Lago Club, doubled down on …

Former Angolan president rejects he left state coffers ’empty’ Luanda, Angola | AFP |  Former Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos on Wednesday refuted allegations by his successor Joao Lourenco that he left the country’s finances “empty”. The row comes just over a year after Dos Santos stepped down in …