Africa

Attack on Khartoum market kills 18 after army abandons talks

KHARTOUM, June 1, 2023 (AFP) – Shelling and aerial bombardments killed 18 civilians at a Khartoum market as fighting showed no signs of abating Thursday and the US warned it could act against Sudan’s rival leaders. For more than six weeks, Khartoum and other parts of the country have been gripped by bloody warfare between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Fighting continued Thursday, with witnesses reporting “heavy artillery” in the capital’s north. […]

Sudan truce extension brings renewed fighting, little aid

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AFP) — Fighting flared again in Sudan on Tuesday despite the latest ceasefire pledges of the two warring generals, meant to allow desperately needed aid to reach besieged civilians. US and Saudi mediators said late Monday that the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) had agreed to extend by five days the humanitarian truce they frequently violated over the past week. Since the announcement, residents reported “clashes with various kinds of […]

Crime-ridden S.Africa records three murders per hour

JOHANNESBURG, May 30, 2023 (AFP) – Almost three people were murdered every hour in South Africa during the first three months of the year, according to police statistics released on Tuesday. Some 6,289 people were killed in the country — which has one of the world’s highest murder rates — between January and March, up 3.4 percent on the same period last year. Yet, Police Minister Bheki Cele, who has long been under fire over […]

S.Africa faces legal bid to force Putin’s arrest

JOHANNESBURG, May 30, 2023 (AFP) – South Africa’s leading opposition party said on Tuesday it had taken legal action to force the government to arrest Vladimir Putin if the Russian President were to attend a planned summit in the country. Pretoria has been faced with a diplomatic dilemma since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against Putin, who is supposed to visit the nation for a BRICS meeting in August. On Tuesday, […]

Libya court sentences 23 jihadists to death

MISRATAH, Libya, May 29, 2023 (AFP) — A Libyan court on Monday condemned to death 23 jihadists convicted of fighting with the Islamic State group in the north African country during chaos that followed dictator Moamer Kadhafi’s fall, the prosecutor’s office said. This was the first group of 320 alleged IS jihadists to be tried and sentenced. IS had captured the central coast city of Sirte in 2015, setting up a stronghold before being driven […]

UN issues hunger alert for Haiti, Sahel and Sudan

ROME, May 29, 2023 (AFP) – Haiti, the Sahel and Sudan now rank among the UN’s highest alert areas for food insecurity, requiring “urgent” action from the international community, food agencies warned Monday. The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) said Afghanistan, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen remain at the highest alert level. And now Haiti, the Sahel — Burkina Faso and Mali — and the Sudan join them, […]

Nigeria’s Tinubu to take office at a time of crisis

By Louise Dewast Agence France-Presse ABUJA, Nigeria, May 29, 2023 (AFP) — Long-time political kingmaker Bola Tinubu is set to be sworn in as Nigeria’s new president on Monday, as Africa’s most populous nation navigates a sea of economic troubles and grave insecurity. The 71-year-old southerner is from the same party as outgoing Muhammadu Buhari, the 80-year-old northerner and former army general stepping down after two terms in office. Tinubu was declared winner of the […]

In Sudan’s capital, risking death in search of water

KHARTOUM, Sudan, May 26, 2023 (AFP) — Fighting in Sudan has left hundreds of thousands of Khartoum residents without running water, with some forced to risk their lives and seek it out during brief lulls in violence. After nearly six weeks of street battles between forces loyal to rival generals and with temperatures regularly topping 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), many inhabitants of the capital’s northern suburbs are in desperate need of drinking water. […]

One of last four Rwanda genocide fugitives arrested in S.Africa

THE HAGUE, May 25, 2023 (AFP) – Fulgence Kayishema, one of four remaining fugitives sought for their role in the 1994 Rwanda genocide, has been arrested in South Africa, UN investigators said on Thursday. “Yesterday afternoon, Fulgence Kayishema — one of the world’s most wanted genocide fugitives — was arrested in Paarl, South Africa in a joint operation,” the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (MICT) said in a statement. Around 800,000 Rwandans, most of […]

Four ‘Bulgarians’ shot dead in upmarket Cape Town area

JOHANNESBURG, May 25, 2023 (AFP) – South African police said on Thursday four people believed to be of “Bulgarian descent” were shot dead in a upmarket Cape Town district. Police did not identify the victims, but one of the deceased was believed to be Krasimir Kamenov, a high-profile Bulgarian organised crime figure, according to judicial and government sources in Sofia. The bodies of two women and two men aged between 40 and 50 were discovered […]

Nigerian surfers brave oil pipelines, tankers to catch waves

  By Yasmine CANGA-VALLES and Camille MALPLAT Agence France-Presse TARKWA BAY, Nigeria, May 25, 2023 (AFP) — Surfing aficionados Michael Gabriel and his friends are undeterred by the coming and going of oil tankers, too focused on catching the next wave as they paddle through the polluted waters of Lagos. Tarkwa Bay, in Nigeria’s economic hub, has become a hotspot for young people seeking an escape from their daily grind. Taking part in one of […]

South Africa presses for recognition of its high-end olive oil

By Julie BOURDIN Agence France-Presse STELLENBOSCH, South Africa, May 24, 2023 (AFP) — South Africa is famous for its wines but not necessarily for olive oil, where Greece, Italy and Spain are the undisputed kings. But the country’s farmers are undeterred, eyeing a potential share of the lucrative market for top-quality extra virgin oils. At Tokara, a farm about an hour’s drive from Cape Town, workers pull rakes through branches to make the ripening olives […]