Africa - Page 15

Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio declared a national emergency on Friday over surging abuse of kush, an addictive drug that can be manufactured from powdered human bones. Addicts have been digging up graves to get the bones they need, prompting the police to station guards around cemeteries in the capital city of Freetown.

Senegal’s outspoken and combative opposition leader Ousmane Sonko was disqualified from running for president in the March 24 presidential election, but he had the last laugh on Thursday when his former lieutenant Bassirou Diomaye Faye appointed him as prime minister. Faye ran in Sonko’s place and won a resounding victory with over 54 percent of the vote.

Nigeria’s police chief on Thursday ordered around-the-clock enhanced security at public venues across the country throughout the Easter weekend, fearing religious violence in a country where Christians are under almost constant attack.

A bus with 46 Christians on board veered off a bridge in the mountains of South Africa, killing all passengers except an 8-year-old girl.

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Assimi Goita, the interim president of Mali, to talk about building a closer relationship.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for a deadly ambush on a military convoy in Niger, in which 23 soldiers were killed and 17 wounded.

“Open immigration will be vital to maintain population size and economic growth”, a Bill Gates funded study published in The Lancet claims.

The Pentagon told reporters on Monday that “ongoing discussions” remain underway with the coup regime in Niger, expressing hope to maintain America’s military presence in the country after the regime announced this weekend it was ending its military cooperation with the U.S.

Johannesburg and the large township of Soweto nearby have been forced to endure several days without water as electricity problems have knocked out pumping stations and a late summer heat wave has strained reservoirs.

South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor says citizens who fight on Israel’s behalf in the Gaza war will be arrested.

The leader of Yemen’s Ansar Allah terrorist organization, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, announced on Thursday that his jihadists would expand their attacks on random commercial ships beyond the greater Red Sea region in an attempt to disrupt shipping routes around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa.

Gunmen who kidnapped 286 students and staff from a school in Nigeria are threatening to kill the hostages unless a ransom is paid.

South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), has fallen below 40% in a new poll, with just over two months to go before the country’s next general election on May 29.

The government of Kenya temporarily backed out of sending its police officers to Haiti to help quell out-of-control gang violence in the country, stating on Tuesday that the lack of a coherent government to approve the deployment in Port-au-Prince gives the plan “no anchor.”

Egypt is selling real estate to the United Arab Emirates for $24 billion to make up for the Suez Canal shortfall from Houthi terrorism.

Cases of female genital mutilation (FGM) top 230 million worldwide and show no sign of slowing down, UNICEF said in a report released Friday, citing a dramatic increase of 15 percent since 2016 with most cases being reported in Africa.

Kenyan opposition leader Ekuru Aukot said he will file a court challenge against President William Ruto’s plan to send hundreds of police to Haiti.

Nigeria’s Boko Haram jihadis are once more accused of kidnapping dozens of women from a refugee camp in northeastern Nigeria.

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry resurfaced in Puerto Rico on Tuesday, having disappeared from public view after a meeting in Kenya.

Haiti’s neighbors scrambled to increase patrols, build border fences, and recall their diplomatic missions as violence escalated on Monday.

ROME — Pope Francis has sent a telegram to the victims of Sunday’s slaughter of 15 Christians during worship services in Burkina Faso, expressing his sorrow over the assault.

Saudi Arabia never finalized its membership in the BRICS economic and political coalition, a South African diplomat confirmed.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) announced it will lift sanctions against the Niger junta.

Armed jihadists killed at least 15 Christians during Sunday morning worship in a Burkina Faso village church, Vatican News reported.

The Pentagon’s Africa Command said on Tuesday that it was investigating claims by the jihadist terrorist organization al-Shabaab that an American drone strike targeting its members killed two Cuban slave doctors whom the jihadists had abducted in 2019.

A South African member of Parliament, Ahmed Munzoor Shaik Emam of the National Freedom Party, delivered a speech on February 14 in which he warned Jews there would be a “bloodbath” if the “Zionists” tried to make Cape Town a “Jewish state.”

Riots between two groups of Eritrean migrants broke out in The Hague on Saturday, leaving police officers injured and cars burnt to a crisp.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations’ judicial body for handling disputes among countries, declined Friday to block Israel from undertaking military operations in Rafah, Gaza, against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

Residents of Ethiopia’s Amhara region say government troops went door-to-door in the town of Merawi and murdered dozens of civilians.

South Africa urgent filing Monday with the International Court of Justice to stop an impending Israeli attack on Hamas in Rafah complains about an “assault” on the evening of February 11 without noting that the successful operation rescued Israeli hostages.

The government of the Central African Republic (CAR) reported on Monday that some 10,000 children remain under the control of militant groups, who use them as soldiers, spies, servants, and sex slaves.

South Africa has asked the International Court of Justice to issue a judicial opinion barring Israel from attacking the last Hamas battalions in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, saying that such an attack, which would win the war, violates Palestinians’ rights.

One of Nigeria’s most prominent bankers, Herbert Wigwe, was killed along with his wife, son, and two others in a Friday night helicopter crash in the California desert.

The parliament of Senegal voted on Tuesday to delay the February 25 presidential election until December 15, sparking violent protests across the country.

A Kenyan court charged the leader of a starvation cult and dozens of suspected accomplices with murdering nearly 200 children.

A Los Angeles couple is suing Google Maps for negligence after the app directed them into a notoriously dangerous area of Cape Town, South Africa, where they were violently attacked and robbed at gunpoint last year.