DOUALA, Cameroon (AFP) — A major fire broke out at a whisky distillery in Douala, spreading to and damaging surrounding buildings, including a school.
Tag: Africa
Macron announces billion-strong fund for African SMEs
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AFP) — France is setting up a billion-euro ($1.2 billion) fund for small- and medium-sized African businesses, President Emmanuel Macron announced Tuesday. Macron, visiting Burkina Faso at the start of his first African tour, said the money could be used to help firms maximise value from agriculture, but also the digital sector. The money will be provided by the France’s Public Investment Bank, which offers firms tailored funding, and the French Development Agency. Macron […]
E.Guinea leader’s son gets suspended jail term in Paris graft trial
by Juliette MONTESSE and Clare BYRNE Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) – A French court handed down a three-year suspended jail term on Friday to the son of Equatorial Guinea’s leader, Teodorin Obiang, after convicting him of using public money to fund a jet-set lifestyle in Paris. The 48-year-old vice president of the small west African state, who was tried in absentia, was also given a suspended fine of 30 million euros (35 million dollars) by judges […]
Pentagon looks at stepped-up Africa role to counter IS
by Sylvie Lanteaume Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – The United States is considering a stepped-up military presence in Africa to pursue Islamic State group jihadists looking for new havens after the fall of their “caliphate,” American officials say. After IS lost its de facto capital Raqa in Syria this month, and its Iraqi stronghold of Mosul earlier, the group “has aspirations to establish a larger presence” in Africa, the US military’s top officer General Joseph […]
Up to 250 feared dead in DRCongo mudslide
by Marthe Bosuandole Agence France-Presse BUNIA, DR Congo – As many as 250 people are feared dead after a massive mudslide swept over a fishing village in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as the government came under fire for its slow response. The search for survivors has been called off after last week’s disaster, which devastated Tara, a fishing village on the shores of Lake Albert on the country’s northeastern border with Uganda. Pacifique Keta, deputy head of […]
Idle spiders’ epic sea journey from Africa to Australia: study
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — A species of spider that usually travels no further than a few feet from where it was hatched, likely made an epic sea journey on a “land raft” from South Africa to call Australia home, a study said Thursday. The Australian trapdoor spider, known scientifically as Moggridgea rainbow, is only found on Kangaroo Island off the south Australian coast and lives a sedentary land-based lifestyle, rarely moving far. Research in the […]
Eight killed in Nigeria suicide bombing: authorities
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AFP) – Eight people were killed on Monday when a female suicide bomber detonated her explosives at a mosque in northeast Nigeria, in the latest attack in the restive region. The head of the Borno state emergency management agency, Ahmed Satomi, said the blast happened at about 5:30 am (0430 GMT) in the London Ciki area of Maiduguri, which has been at the epicentre of Boko Haram violence since 2009. “She killed eight […]
Cash incentives help entrepreneur persuade Nigerians to recycle
LAGOS, Nigeria (Reuters) — Olamide Babajide goes out on the streets of Lagos to shop for old tires, a key component for her furniture products. Babajide is the founder of Pearl Recycling, a company that transforms recyclables like car tires, magazines, straws, plastics and wood among other things into household items. The company also offers money in exchange for recyclable garbage. Pearl Recycling was set up in 2014 with 5,000 U.S dollars that Babajide won […]
Diabetes taking growing toll on Africa: report
PARIS, France (AFP) — The costs of diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa could double to almost $60 billion annually just 13 years from now, as obesity fuels an explosion of the disease, a report said Thursday. In 2015, the overall diabetes cost in the region was nearly $20 billion (18 billion euros), or 1.2 percent of total economic production, according to research published by The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology. This included medication and hospital stays, and […]
Meningitis caused almost 180 deaths in Niger since January: UN
NIAMEY, Niger (AFP) — At least 179 people, almost half of them children, have died of meningitis since January in Niger, where some 3,000 suspected cases have been reported, the United Nations said Wednesday. “From January 2 to May 7 2017, a total of 3,037 suspected cases of meningitis, including 179 deaths, was reported in the country,” said the UN’s humanitarian agency, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. “The fatality rate is 5.9 percent.” […]
Black rhinos to come back home to Rwanda
by Cyril BELAUD Agence France-Presse KIGALI, Rwanda – Around 20 of Africa’s endangered Eastern black rhinos are returning in an “extraordinary homecoming” to Rwanda after the species disappeared there 10 years ago, the African Parks organisation said Tuesday. The rhinos are being moved from South Africa to the Akagera national park in eastern Rwanda, according to the non-profit group that manages protected areas for African governments. “This extraordinary homecoming will take place over the first […]
S.Sudan’s leaders force famine on their people: analysts
by Tristan MCCONNELL Agence France-Presse NAIROBI, Kenya – South Sudan’s famine is a disaster created by its leaders, say analysts who argue that while food may save some lives now it is only peace that can bring lasting relief. But peace is as distant as ever with an international community that appears paralysed, while the men ruling over the country’s misery are unmoved by pleas for them to lay down their weapons. There is no […]
