Africa - Page 23

Christian Atsu, the Ghana international forward who played for Premier League clubs Chelsea and Newcastle, has died in the earthquake in Turkey. He was 31.

South African Cardinal Wilfrid Napier has blasted the European bishops for focusing more on structures and the exercise of power than on Jesus Christ.

Recent years have seen these South Africa’s major cities diverge in their fortunes. Cape Town is getting even better; Johannesburg is becoming far worse.

Two members of the House subcommittee on Africa, Reps. Sara Jacobs (D-CA) and Chris Smith (R-NJ), on Wednesday asked President Joe Biden to halt a $1 billion arms sale to Nigeria due to humanitarian abuses, including the Nigerian military allegedly killing children and running a near-genocidal illegal abortion program.

Peter Obi, the only Christian among the four front-running candidates for president of Nigeria in the election that will be held on February 25, has been accused of bribing churches to mobilize turnout. Obi denounced the allegations as “cheap blackmail” spread by his adversaries to force him out of the race.

Load shedding,” the practice of controlled blackouts by the state-owned power company, Eskom, continues to plague South Africa, and was recorded in an early morning video on Wednesday.

One of South Africa’s hottest rap artists, Kiernan Forbes, known as AKA, has been shot dead outside a restaurant in the southeastern city of Durban, his family said Saturday.

U.N. Undersecretary-General for Counter-Terrorism Vladimir Voronkov said on Thursday that the Islamic State (ISIS) remains a serious threat, with a “particularly worrying” show of growing strength in Africa’s conflict zones.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa used his annual “State of the Nation” address to Parliament on Thursday evening to declare a “national state of disaster” regarding the country’s ongoing electricity shortages.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov continued his swing through Africa on Thursday by meeting with the ruling junta in Sudan immediately after pledging Russia’s support to the military coup that rules Mali.

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) reported this week that sub-Saharan Africa has become “the new global epicenter of violent extremism,” accounting for half of the world’s terrorism-related deaths last year. On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited Mali, one of the four African nations with the highest number of terrorism deaths, in a bid to extend Moscow’s influence over Africa by helping the ruling junta fight jihadi rebels.

The Joburg Film Festival in South Africa defied a decision by the country’s Film and Publications Board (FPB) to block the screening of Black Girl, a celebrated film by Senegalese director Ousmane Sembène, this week.

South Sudan reported 27 people were killed in battles between cattle herders and insurrectionist militia fighters on Thursday, just one day before the scheduled arrival of Pope Francis during his tour of Africa.

Pope Francis has denounced the “murderous, illegal exploitation” of the wealth of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where China has appropriated an ever-greater share of the nation’s resources.

Local media in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) reported on Wednesday, citing event organizers, that “about 2 million” people convened in the capital of Kinshasa that day to attend a Mass by Pope Francis.

Thapelo Amad, a member of the Islamic fundamentalist party Al Jamah-ah, was elected mayor of Johannesburg, South Africa, despite representing a tiny faction in the city council.

The Nigerian military announced on Thursday that its anti-piracy operation destroyed 39 illegal oil refineries over the past two weeks, recovering large quantities of stolen oil along with vehicles and weapons used by the thieves.

Ethiopia’s Addis Standard on Wednesday reported that dozens of civilians have been killed in clashes in the Oromo Special Zone of the Amhara region.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Tuesday held a commissioning ceremony for the first of four massive oil rigs operated by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).

Hundreds of people turned out in Lusaka, Zambia, on Tuesday to attend the funeral of Lemekani Nyirenda, a 23-year-old engineering student recruited by Russia’s infamous Wagner Group of mercenaries and killed while fighting for Russia in Ukraine.

France has 400 special forces soldiers stationed in junta-ruled Burkina to battle an Islamist insurgency, but relations have deteriorated.

Pope Francis offered condolences and prayers Tuesday to the victims and families of a lethal bombing by the Islamic State on a Christian church in eastern Congo that took the lives of at least 14 people and injured more than 60.

A group of unidentified “bandits” reportedly shouting “Allahu akbar!” shot and burned alive Father Isaac Achi on Sunday in Niger state, Nigeria – ending the life of a dedicated clergyman who had already survived a Boko Haram Christmas bombing, an abduction, and another shooting.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for a Sunday bomb attack on a Pentecostal church in the eastern Kasindi province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The DRC military confirmed 14 deaths and 63 injuries as of Monday morning.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has canceled his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, amid threats of a “national shutdown” to protest electricity price hikes amid widespread blackouts.

The government of Uganda on Thursday terminated a Chinese company’s contract to build a major railroad to Kenya and is now considering a replacement deal with a Turkish firm.

(AFP) – The French and German foreign ministers called on Africa to condemn Russian aggression in Ukraine on Friday, while pressing for deeper ties between the European Union and countries across the continent.

The Bishop of Dori, Burkina Faso, said this week that violent Muslim groups are trying to impose Islam on the whole country, destroying entire villages in the process.

A report by the Rand Corporation on the growing influence of China and Russia in Africa found that Beijing is not far behind Moscow in exporting weapons and private military contractors to African nations, especially those participating in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

A renowned charitable organization called the Ethiopian World Federation (EWF) is asking the government of Malawi to investigate another charity, Raising Malawi, for human trafficking, sexual exploitation, fraud, and exposing children to “homosexual and transgender” propaganda. Raising Malawi was founded by 80s pop star Madonna Louise Ciccone, better known as simply Madonna.

The EU defended a trip by its top diplomat to Morocco, which has been linked, along with Qatar, to a graft scandal in the European Parliament.

Cape Town’s annual minstrel carnival resumed Monday after a three-year hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, with large musical troupes — many in blackface — parading through the center of the city.

The government of Morocco on Sunday became the first country to ban travelers from China outright as a massive wave of Chinese coronavirus sweeps across that country.

The Freedom City Mall in Uganda’s capital city of Kampala hosted a New Year’s Eve party that went horribly wrong on Saturday night, as a stampede broke out after the fireworks display and killed at least nine people, including several children.

A Nigerian nun has denounced ongoing targeted attacks on Christians in her country as well as the Vatican’s silence on the matter.

Boat migrants deported from the UK can look forward to having a “dignified life” in Africa, a spokeswoman for the Rwandan government has said.