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ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AFP) — Millions of lost jobs, mounting debt woes and plunging remittances are among the economic hardships African countries can expect because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the African Union said in a study published Monday. “Nearly 20 million jobs, both in the formal and informal sectors, are threatened with destruction on the continent if the situation continues,” said the study, which noted that countries relying heavily on tourism and oil production […]
CAIRO, Egypt (AFP) — Egypt’s main cancer institute has confirmed 15 cases of the novel coronavirus among its medical staff, the facility’s chief said Saturday, sparking fears of exposure among vulnerable patients. “Three doctors and 12 nurses were infected by the virus,” Hatem Abulkassem, the director of Cairo’s National Cancer Institute, told a private Egyptian TV channel, adding that the 15 had been isolated. The facility will be sterilised over three days and patients […]
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AFP) — South Africa on Friday announced two more coronavirus deaths and 43 new confirmed cases, bringing to tally in Africa’s worst-affected country up to 1,505 infections and seven deaths. Health Minister Zweli Mkhize, who released the latest figures, said the figure was likely to be underestimated due to testing limits. “I want to raise the point that this number is affected by… the limitations of the active testing that […]
BLANTYRE, Malawi (AFP) — Malawi on Thursday announced its first three coronavirus infections, one of the last African countries to report the potentially deadly disease. The southern African country was one of the few without any confirmed cases along with the Comoros, Lesotho, Sao Tome, and Principe and South Sudan. President Peter Mutharika said the infections were in the capital Lilongwe. The first was detected in an elderly woman who had recently traveled to India […]
MNILHA, Tunisia (AFP) — Several hundred Tunisians demonstrated in a working-class district of the capital Tuesday, demanding government support and protesting a week-old lockdown against the coronavirus pandemic that has disproportionately impacted the poor. “Nevermind coronavirus, we’re going to die anyway! Let us work!” shouted one protester. “Let me at least bring bread home for my children,” the bricklayer told AFP. In poor areas like Mnilha and Ettadhamen on the outskirts of the Tunisian capital, […]
by Camille LAFFONT Pictures by FLORENT VERGNES Agence France-Presse DZANGA-SANGHA NATIONAL PARK, Central African Republic (AFP) — The prehistoric shape is hard to make out as it moves slowly through the gloomy forest, so trackers listen for the rustle of scales against the leaves to pick up its trail. Their target is the long-tailed pangolin — a little mammal also called the scaly anteater, which will be lucky to survive to the end of this century. […]
by Ish MAFUNDIKWA HARARE, Zimbabwe (AFP) — Buckets and jerrycans in hand or in wheelbarrows, dozens of Zimbabweans stand close to each other in a long queue, patiently waiting at a borehole in Harare’s middle-class Mabelreign suburb to collect water. While this is a daily sight, this week things are different. The water-short southern African country is starting to enforce a 21-day lockdown to try contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus. People are supposed […]
by Abdellah CHEBALLAH ALGIERS, Algeria (AFP) — A year after the unexpected downfall of Algeria’s longtime president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the ailing octogenarian remains holed up in his plush and medically adopted home, with his detractors still demanding justice. Bouteflika assumed the presidency in 1999, reigning omnipresent over Algeria’s political life until a stroke rendered him largely invisible in 2013. Since he resigned under pressure from protesters and the military in April 2019, the public has […]
CONAKRY, Guinea (AFP) — Guinean President Alpha Conde has announced a night-time curfew and restrictions on movement out of the capital to help curb coronavirus, according to a decree read on national television. In addition to the 9pm-5am (2100-0500 GMT) lockdown, “the movement of people from Conakry to the interior of the country is forbidden” except for special exemptions, said the decree, issued late Monday. The impoverished West African state has officially recorded 20 cases […]
NAIROBI, Kenya (AFP) — Six of Africa’s 54 nations are among the last in the world yet to report cases of the new coronavirus. The global pandemic has been confirmed in almost every country, but for a handful of far-flung tiny island states, war-torn Yemen and isolated North Korea. In Africa authorities claim they are spared by god, or simply saved by low air traffic to their countries, however, some fear it is lack of […]
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) — South Africa, which has the highest numbers of confirmed coronavirus infections on the continent, will start mass door-to-door screening and testing for coronavirus, President Cyril Ramaphosa said Monday. The “unprecedented” exercise will be launched in the next few days, with at least 10,000 field workers deployed across the country of 57 million people, he said in an address to the nation. “We are now entering a new phase in the […]
TRIPOLI, Libya (AFP) — Libya’s justice ministry announced Sunday over 450 prisoners were being freed in a bid to protect against the spread of coronavirus in the wake of the war-torn country’s first declared infections. Judicial officials decided to “free 466 detainees from correctional facilities” in Tripoli, according to a statement by the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord’s justice ministry. The detainees were in pretrial detention or had qualified for conditional release, the statement added. […]
