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LAGOS, Nigeria (AFP) — US, European and other governments on Thursday urged Nigeria to ensure a peaceful presidential election this weekend as skirmishes broke out in a key city on the last day of campaigning. More than 93 million Nigerians are registered to vote on Saturday in what has developed into a tense, competitive race among three presidential frontrunners for the first time since military rule ended in 1999. After two terms under President Muhammadu […]
LAGOS, Nigeria (AFP) — Nigerians will vote for a successor to President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday in an unprecedented race between three frontrunners battling to govern Africa’s most populous democracy. After eight years under Buhari, Nigeria still faces huge challenges, from attacks by jihadists and separatists, a sluggish economy and growing poverty, leaving many Nigerians desperate for change. The February 25 election will be closely watched after coups in Mali and Burkina Faso knocked West […]
Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Thursday 2/16/2023 Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday defended a currency swap that sparked protests and cash shortages, but ordered old, small denomination 200 naira notes to remain in circulation to ease scarcities. Nigeria has been struggling with a shortage in physical cash since the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) began to swap old bills of the local naira currency for new, re-designed ones, leading to a shortfall in […]
by Nina LARSON Agence France-Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Poverty and the prospect of better-paid work, rather than ideology, are what fuel recruitment to jihadist and other violent groups in Africa, the United Nations said Tuesday. The conclusion casts doubt on conventional wisdom that religious doctrine is the main lure for joining groups like Boko Haram, al-Shabaab and the Al-Qaeda-linked Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM). The UN Development Programme (UNDP) in 2021 interviewed […]
by AFP eastern Congo correspondents Agence France-Presse GOMA, DR Congo (AFP) — Pope Francis made repeated appeals for peace during his landmark trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo this week, but there was no let-up in fighting in the east. Putting an end to violence was a dominant theme of the pontiff’s visit to Africa’s largest Catholic country, where he arrived on Tuesday and was to depart for South Sudan on Friday. Dozens of […]
K’ELAFO, Ethiopia (AFP) – From southern Ethiopia to northern Kenya and Somalia, around 22 million people are at risk of hunger as the worst drought in four decades grips the Horn of Africa. In the afflicted areas, inhabitants — who eke out a living mainly from herding and subsistence farming — are experiencing their fifth consecutive poor rainy season since the end of 2020. The United Nations says 12 million people in Ethiopia, 5.6 million in […]
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) — Gunmen opened fire on a group of people celebrating a birthday at the weekend in a township in South Africa, killing eight and wounding three others, police said Monday. The birthday celebrant was among those gunned down in the mass shooting in the southern port city of Gqeberha, formerly Port Elizabeth. “The owner of the house was celebrating his birthday when two unknown gunmen entered the yard” on Sunday evening […]
by Kaouthar Oudrhiri Agence France-Presse CASABLANCA, Morocco (AFP) — Oumar left home in Guinea five years ago in search of a better life in Europe, but today he inhabits a daily purgatory of hunger, cold and police violence in Morocco. “Just surviving every day is a battle,” said the 25-year-old. “It’s exhausting not eating enough, not sleeping under a roof, not feeling safe, experiencing racism.” He spends his nights camped out on the pavement outside […]
DAKAR, Senegal (AFP) — Twenty-two people died on Monday when a bus and a truck collided in northern Senegal, firefighters said, a week after a smash between two buses left 40 dead. Over 20 people were injured in the latest accident, which occurred near Sakal in the Louga region, Papa Ange Michel Diatta, a colonel with the national firefighting service, told AFP. Prime Minister Amadou Ba visited the crash site vowing to enforce new rules […]
Lagos, Nigeria (AFP) Gunmen attacked a train station in southern Nigeria, kidnapping around 30 people and wounding others, police and officials said, nearly a year after a bomb assault on a train travelling from the capital. Kidnapping for ransom is a major problem in Nigeria where gunmen have repeatedly attacked and abducted people in large groups, but mostly in the northwestern and central states. The train station attack in Edo state, 360 km (223 miles) […]
Kampala, Uganda (AFP) Uganda said on Monday it was expecting to declare an end to an Ebola virus outbreak that emerged late last year and has claimed the lives of at least 56 people. If no new case is reported by Tuesday, the health ministry said it would formally announce the end of the outbreak on Wednesday. According to the World Health Organization, an outbreak of the disease ends when there are no new […]
Outside of China, many experts have their attention on the US and Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5, which has been detected in 29 countries so far. Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, said it was “the most transmissible subvariant that has been detected yet.” However there is no indication as yet that XBB.1.5 — which has been spreading rapidly in the northeastern United States — causes more severe disease than other types of Covid. […]
