Africa

Climate crises drove 27 mn children into hunger in 2022: charity

NAIROBI, Nov 28, 2023 (AFP) – Extreme weather events in countries vulnerable to climate change drove more than 27 million children into hunger last year, Save the Children said on Tuesday. The figure represented a sharp 135 percent increase over 2021, the UK-based charity said in an analysis ahead of the COP28 climate summit opening in Dubai on Thursday. It said children made up nearly half the 57 million people pushed into crisis levels of […]

S.Leone under curfew after military armoury attacked

By Saidu Bah FREETOWN, Nov 26, 2023 (AFP) – Armed clashes erupted in Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown on Sunday after what the government said was an attack on a military armoury, as it imposed an immediate national curfew. Sierra Leone, an English-speaking country in West Africa, has been going through a political crisis following presidential and general elections in June this year. Witnesses told AFP they heard gunshots and explosions in the city’s Wilberforce district, […]

Madagascar President Rajoelina’s re-election contested

ANTANANARIVO, Nov 25, 2023 (AFP) – Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina has won another term in office, the election commission said on Saturday, but his victory in a vote boycotted by most opposition candidates is already facing legal challenges. Rajoelina won 58.95 percent of the votes cast in the November 16 presidential election first round, according to the results presented by the poll body which need to be validated by the Constitutional Court. These results must […]

70 perish in Kenya flood ’emergency’: Ruto

NAIROBI, Nov 25, 2023 (AFP) – Seventy people have perished in widespread flooding in Kenya that has also driven tens of thousands of people from their homes, President William Ruto said on Saturday, describing it as an “emergency situation”. Kenya and neighbouring Somalia and Ethiopia, countries that are only just emerging from the worst drought in four decades, are now experiencing devastating flooding caused by rains linked to the El Nino weather pattern. Ruto said […]

Stampede kills 37 during army recruitment in Congo capital

BRAZZAVILLE, Nov 21, 2023 (AFP) – Thirty-seven youths were killed in a stampede overnight during an army recruitment drive in a stadium in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo, officials said on Tuesday. Last week, the army in the central African nation also known as Congo-Brazzaville, announced it was recruiting 1,500 people aged between 18 and 25. Prime Minister Anatole Collinet Makosso said 37 people had been killed in the “tragedy,” with an […]

Heavy rain in Kenya affects tens of thousands, disrupts cargo

NAIROBI, Nov 19, 2023 (AFP) – Kenya on Sunday said tens of thousands of people across the country had been impacted by heavy rainfall, flooding and landslides that had also interrupted cargo services at Mombasa port. The Horn of Africa has experienced intense rainfall linked to the El Nino weather phenomenon in recent weeks that has claimed dozens of lives, including at least 46 in various parts of Kenya. Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua said at […]

Sudan’s conflict spreads to new regions, UN warns of “humanitarian calamity”

UNITED NATIONS, United States, Nov 17, 2023 (AFP) – The conflict in Sudan, which has left thousands dead and seven million people displaced over seven months, is spreading to new regions of the nation, the UN said Thursday, warning of a mounting “humanitarian calamity.” The deadly unrest includes outbreaks of interethnic violence and attacks against women, according to the global body. The United Nations assistant secretary-general for Africa, Ghanaian diplomat Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, expressed […]

S.Sudan floods leave 1.6 million children at risk of hunger: UN

NAIROBI, Nov 6, 2023 (AFP) – More than 1.6 million children aged under five will suffer from malnutrition next year in South Sudan, following a surge in waterborne diseases due to flooding, the UN’s World Food Programme said Monday. The world’s newest nation has endured deadly conflict, natural disasters, economic malaise and relentless political infighting since it won independence from Sudan in 2011. As flooding becomes an annual affair in some parts of the country, […]

Sudan shelling kills 15, RSF claims gains in Darfur

WAD MADANI, Sudan, Nov 4, 2023 (AFP) – At least 15 civilians in Khartoum were killed on Saturday “when shells fell on their homes”, a medical source said, as paramilitary fighters battling Sudan’s army claimed gains in Darfur. The victims’ bodies were taken to Al-Nau hospital in Omdurman, a district of greater Khartoum, the medical source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. Fighting since April between the forces of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan […]

King Charles visits Kenya as colonial past looms large

By Hillary ORINDE, Tanya WILLMER NAIROBI, Oct 31, 2023 (AFP) – King Charles III begins a state visit to Kenya on Tuesday, where he will be confronted by widespread calls for an apology over Britain’s bloody colonial past. Although the four-day trip by Charles and Queen Camilla has been billed as an opportunity to look to the future and build on the strong ties between London and Nairobi, the legacy of decades of British colonial […]

China removes defence minister Li Shangfu, ousts ex-FM from cabinet

China on Tuesday removed defence minister Li Shangfu and ousted former foreign minister Qin Gang from its cabinet, state media reported, as part of a major reshuffle of its top leadership. The news comes after months of speculation about China’s cabinet, after Qin was abruptly removed from office without explanation in July, and with Li not having been seen in public for months. Both Qin and Li are believed by experts to have been personally […]

Niger military rulers say ousted president ‘tried to escape’

NIAMEY, Niger, Oct 20, 2023 (AFP) – Niger’s military rulers said they had foiled an attempt by Mohamed Bazoum, the former president they ousted in a coup in July, to escape their custody on Thursday. “At around three in the morning, the ousted president Mohamed Bazoum and his family, his two cooks and two security elements, tried to escape from his place of detention,” the regime’s spokesman Amadou Abdramane said on state television. The escape […]