Africa - Page 12

Nigerian voters on Monday complained about slow vote counts, voting machine malfunctions, and violence at some polling places as the outcome of Saturday’s presidential election remained in doubt.

Actor-comedian Kevin Hart’s show in Cairo was canceled after he made a joke about ancient Egyptian kings being black.

ROME (AP) – The Italian coast guard and firefighters have recovered more than 30 bodies after a wooden migrant boat broke apart in rough seas Sunday near the southern coast of Italy´s mainland, authorities reported.

The German government has announced a new migration scheme in Africa to recruit supposedly qualified migrants to do jobs in Germany – despite its Turkish “guest worker” programme being a historic disaster. 

Latin American and African nations made up the bulk of the small resistance on Thursday against condemning Russia on the anniversary of its “special operation” against Ukraine during a vote at the United Nations General Assembly.

Less than 24 hours before polls open in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy is facing an unprecedented four-way race to the presidency marred by rampant Whatsapp conspiracy theories, fears of vote-buying, threats of violence against would-be voters, and at least one candidate assassination.

Tunisian President Kais Saied has been criticised for stating illegal immigration is directed toward changing demographics.

Nigeria’s presidential election is scheduled for Saturday, pending a last-minute suspension, which is not unheard-of. The frontrunner remains upstart third-party Christian candidate Peter Obi, the runaway favorite with young Nigerian voters. The final round of polling revealed a huge number of undecided voters, presenting plausible roads to victory for the candidate of the incumbent ruling party, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and his rival from the traditional Nigerian two-party political see-saw, Atiku Abubakar.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) will reportedly enjoy a taxpayer-funded safari with five Senate Democrats during a trip in Africa which includes the nations of Zambia, South Africa, Botswana, and Morocco.

A soccer referee in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) found himself under attack over the weekend after more than a dozen members of a women’s soccer team chased and beat him following a controversial call.

A group of hackers linked to Sudan took credit for denial of service (DDoS) attacks on the websites of Swedish rail companies in revenge for burnings of the Islamic Qur’an.

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.

Pastor Francisco Barajah has died in Mozambique after attempting to go without food for 40 days in imitation of Jesus’ 40-day fast as recounted in the Bible.

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.

South Africa is due to hold joint naval exercises beginning Friday with Russia and China on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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.

Sudan’s ruling military concluded a review of an agreement with Russia to build a navy base on the Red Sea in the African country, two Sudanese officials 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.