Africa

UN says ‘race against time’ as new storm nears Madagascar

The UN warned Tuesday that authorities and aid workers were racing against the clock to protect people as Madagascar braces for its fourth tropical storm in as many weeks. Cyclone Emnati is expected to make landfall on southern Madagascar Tuesday evening — just weeks after the island was lashed by Cyclone Batsirai on February 5, affecting some 270,000 people and claiming 120 lives. At the same time, some 21,000 people still remain displaced from when […]

School’s out in Zimbabwe after 135,000 teachers suspended

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AFP) — A strike by Zimbabwean teachers that has crippled learning entered a second week on Monday, with no resolution on sight after the government suspended 135,000 teachers for failing to report for work. Many teachers did not report for work when schools opened for the first term of the new year last week, saying they could no longer afford the commute from their home to the classroom. An AFP correspondent who toured […]

Saudi secures 2,450 wells after Moroccan boy’s death

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) – Saudi Arabia has said it filled and fortified thousands of abandoned wells across the country, after the tragic death of a boy in Morocco following failed rescue efforts. Five-year-old Rayan, who spent five days trapped down a well, was laid to rest on Monday in his village of Ighrane in Morocco’s Rif mountains. Following last week’s tragic incident, Saudi Arabia’s ministry of environment, water and agriculture said on Sunday: “To […]

Humanitarian crisis feared as cyclone kills 21 in Madagascar

  by Adele Dhayer Agence France Presse ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (AFP) — Cyclone Batsirai swept out of Madagascar on Monday after killing 21 people, displacing 70,000 and devastating the drought-hit island’s agricultural heartland, leading the UN to warn of a worsening humanitarian crisis. Madagascar was already reeling from a tropical storm which killed 55 people late last month, and the latest extreme weather event came as South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the continent is “bearing […]

Cyclone Batsirai kills six, displaces tens of thousands in Madagascar

by Adele Dhayer Cyclone Batsirai killed at least six people and displaced nearly 48,000 when it struck Madagascar overnight, the national disaster management agency said on Sunday. Cyclone Batsirai weakened overnight but not before wreaking havoc in the poor Indian Ocean island nation which is still reeling from a deadly tropical storm earlier this year. The eastern district of Mananjary was lashed with heavy rains and wind before the cyclone made landfall, forcing local residents […]

Morocco in shock after tragic death of ‘little Rayan’

IGHRANE, Maroc, Feb 6, 2022 (AFP) – Morocco was in shock Sunday after emergency crews found a five-year-old boy dead at the bottom of a well in a tragic end to a painstaking five-day rescue operation that gripped the nation and the world. The ordeal of “little Rayan” since he fell down the well on Tuesday afternoon gained global attention and sparked an outpouring of sympathy online, with the Arabic hashtag #SaveRayan trending. Throughout the […]

Cyclone Batsirai closes in on eastern Madagascar

As powerful Cyclone Batsirai closed in on eastern Madagascar on Saturday people sought shelter in more secure concrete buildings while others reinforced their roofs with large sandbags. Batsirai is expected to lash the eastern parts of the cyclone-prone Indian ocean island with powerful winds and torrential rains on Saturday. The Meteo-France weather service warned of winds of up to 260 kilometres per hour (162 miles per hour) and waves as high as 15 metres (50 […]

Rescuers enter tunnel to free Moroccan boy trapped in well

Morocco held its breath as rescue workers on Saturday entered a tunnel leading to a pocket where a five-year-old boy has been trapped for days after falling into a well, AFP correspondents said. For five days the complex and risky earth-moving operation has gripped residents of the North African kingdom and beyond, also sparking sympathy in neighbouring Algeria, a regional rival. A medical team was with the rescuers, who still hope to find young Rayan […]

Morocco rescuers dig to save boy trapped in well for days

BAB BERRED, Morocco (AFP) – Moroccan rescuers raced against the clock on Friday to save a young boy trapped in a deep well for almost three days, in an operation that has gripped the kingdom with hundreds of thousands anxiously glued to live broadcasts. Relief operations intensified for five-year-old Rayan, who fell down a 32-metre (100-foot) deep well on Tuesday, as darkness fell with diggers clawing out dirt under floodlights to create a hole next […]

Africa’s Covid jab rate must ‘increase six times’: WHO

BRAZZAVILLE, Congo (AFP) — Africa must boost the vaccination rate against Covid-19 “six times” to reach the target of 70 percent vaccine coverage set for the end of the first half of 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday. Africa has received “more than 587 million vaccine doses” but it “is still struggling to expand rollout, with only 11 percent of the population fully vaccinated”, explained the WHO regional office for Africa. “The world […]

Deadly storm Ana strands tens of thousands in southern Africa

by Jack McBrams with Aunicio DA SILVA in Nampula Agence France-Presse LILONGWE, Malawi (AFP) – Torrential rains from deadly Tropical Storm Ana subsided on Friday leaving tens of thousands of people across three countries in southern Africa cut off by flood damage, without power and living in shelters. The death toll stood at 86 across Madagascar, Mozambique and Malawi, as rescue crews battled on to access regions where roads and bridges had washed away. In […]

Nearly 40 percent of Tigrayans face ‘extreme lack of food’: UN

  by Robbie COREY-BOULET Agence France Presse ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AFP) — Nearly 40 percent of people in Ethiopia’s Tigray are suffering “an extreme lack of food” in the face of an extended de-facto blockade of the war-hit region, a UN agency said Friday. The dire assessment published by the World Food Programme (WFP) comes as humanitarian groups are forced to increasingly curtail activities because of fuel and supply shortages, with aid having to be […]