Africa

Chaos grips Haiti after airport attack, deadly unrest

PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 5, 2024 (AFP) – The police academy in Haiti’s capital came under attack by an armed gang Tuesday as the tiny Caribbean nation fell into deeper international isolation in the wake of an assault on the airport and a deadly prison breakout. The latest violence followed the evacuation of thousands of residents from the capital Port-au-Prince, with the United Nations and Washington reiterating their concerns over the crisis as armed groups announced a […]

Planes collide mid-air killing two in Kenya

NAIROBI, March 5, 2024 (AFP) – A student pilot and instructor died on Tuesday when their aircraft collided with a passenger plane over the Kenyan capital Nairobi, police said. The mid-air incident between local carrier Safarilink and the 99 Flying training school occurred Tuesday morning, Kenyan authorities said. Nairobi police Adamson Bungei confirmed the deaths to AFP via text message without providing further details. An earlier police report seen by AFP said the passenger plane […]

Violence rages in Haiti for second day

WASHINGTON, March 2, 2024 (AFP)  – Gangs aiming to oust Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry wreaked havoc in the capital Port-au-Prince Friday, as gun attacks near the city’s international airport and a prison marked a second day of extreme violence. At least four police officers were killed Thursday and dozens have been wounded since the latest spate of brutality began, with Henry meanwhile in Kenya mustering support for a UN-backed international police deployment. Armed gangs […]

Meningitis kills 20 Nigerian school students

KANO, Nigeria, Feb 28, 2024 (AFP) – A meningitis outbreak in Nigeria has killed at least 20 boarding school students and infected hundreds more, the education commissioner in northeastern Yobe state said on Wednesday. “We have recorded an outbreak of meningitis in six secondary schools in the state which led to the death of 20 students out of the 473 infected,” Mohammed Sani Idriss said. The epicentre of the outbreak is the city of Potiskum […]

Mauritius grounds flights as it braces for tropical storm Eleanor

PORT LOUIS, Mauritius, Feb 22, 2024 (AFP) – Mauritius grounded flights and shut schools as a strong tropical storm approached the Indian Ocean island on Thursday, the meteorological services said. Storm Eleanor was about 200 kilometres (125 miles) northeast of the nation at 4:00 am (0000 GMT) and was moving at a speed of 20 kilometres an hour, the weather service said. “The wind will initially blow from the south-east at a speed of around […]

S. Korea orders striking doctors back to work, threatens legal action

SEOUL, Feb 19, 2024 (AFP) – South Korea ordered trainee doctors back to work Monday after they resigned en masse to protest medical training reforms, with the government looking at using military medics to cope with shortfalls. South Korea says it has one of the lowest doctor-to-population ratios among developed countries, and the government is pushing hard to increase the number of doctors, partly to help a fast-ageing society. But doctors have voiced fierce opposition […]

Hungry Nigerians dig up anthills as food crisis grips the nation

By Aminu ABUBAKAR KANO, Nigeria, Feb 15, 2024 (AFP) Desperate Nigerians have been protesting against soaring food prices as an economic crisis forces people to skip meals and eat poor-grade rice used as fish food. To feed their children, women in northern Nigeria have even resorted to digging up anthills in search of grain stored by the insects, according to videos shown on social media. Since coming to office last year President Bola Ahmed Tinubu […]

Gunmen kill Nigerian traditional monarch, kidnap wife

ABUJA, Feb 2, 2024 (AFP) – Gunmen killed a Nigerian traditional monarch and kidnapped his wife after raiding his palace, police said, as outrage grows over a spate of abductions nationwide. The attackers stormed the palace of Oba Aremu Olusegun Cole in southwestern Kwara state, shot him dead and abducted his wife and another person on Thursday, according to police. State police said they had launched an investigation and beefed up security. Similar attacks regularly […]

Mali gold mine collapse kills more than 70

BAMAKO, Jan 24, 2024 (AFP) – More than 70 people have been killed after a tunnel collapsed at a Malian gold mining site last week, local sources told AFP Wednesday, the latest disaster in a region prone to mining accidents. Mali, which is among the world’s poorest countries, is one of Africa’s leading gold producers. Gold mining sites are regularly the scene of deadly landslides and authorities struggle to control artisanal mining of the precious […]

Cameroon launches historic large-scale malaria jab campaign

SOA, Cameroon, Jan 22, 2024 (AFP) – Cameroon on Monday launched the first malaria vaccination programme to be offered nationwide and as a matter of routine, AFP journalists saw, in a step the WHO has described as “historic”. The mosquito-borne disease kills more than 600,000 people a year, mainly in Africa, according to the World Health Organization. Children under five years old account for more than 80 percent of deaths on the continent. Following a […]

Kenya cult leader faces mental health tests before murder charges

MALINDI, Kenya, Jan 17, 2024 (AFP) – A Kenyan court on Wednesday gave prosecutors two weeks to conduct mental health assessments of a cult leader and suspected accomplices before charging them with murder over the deaths of more than 400 followers. Self-proclaimed pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie is alleged to have incited his acolytes to starve to death in order to “meet Jesus” in a case that shocked the world. Mackenzie was arrested last April after […]

One dead as storm hits French Indian Ocean island

By Mahdia BENHAMLA SAINT-DENIS DE LA REUNION, Jan 15, 2024 (AFP) – Hundreds of thousands of people on France’s Indian Ocean island of Reunion hunkered down in their homes under a strict lockdown on Monday as a devastating storm that has already left one dead started to rip along its north. Cyclone Belal hit Reunion, one of France’s overseas territories that span the globe from the Caribbean to the Pacific, moving in from the northwest […]