Africa - Page 14

Rwandan troops killed a soldier from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) who crossed the border on Saturday, the latest escalation in a complex military and political crisis that threatens to destabilize Central Africa.

Gunmen identified as “bandits” by Nigerian officials kidnapped over 100 people from four northeastern villages on Sunday, possibly for ransom or use as human shields against Nigerian military operations.

The global oppression or persecution of Christians has increased significantly over the past two years, Vatican News reported Monday.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) released a report with great fanfare on Tuesday that estimated the world’s population has passed 8 billion, with most of the growth occurring in low-income regions such as sub-Saharan Africa.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday announced sanctions against the network of smugglers who supply weapons to the Islamic State and al-Shabaab in Somalia.

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), the largest trade federation in that African nation, on Wednesday warned that government officials are covering up massive violations of workers’ rights by Chinese companies.

The socialist authoritarian regime governing Zimbabwe celebrated “Anti-Sanctions Day” on Tuesday — a day to condemn America and other free states for imposing human rights sanctions on Zimbabwean officials — with mandatory participation in a host of bizarre rallies and parades.

A provincial court has nullified an effort by South Africa’s ruling party to oust an opposition mayor from Johannesburg, the country’s largest city and the hub of its economy.

South Africa’s Julius Malema, leader of a radical opposition party called the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), exhorted a crowd at his party’s provincial conference in the Western Cape last week to be prepared to “kill” as part of the anticipated “revolution.”

A bizarre opinion column published by the New York Times on Monday lamented that the American government is currently not funding abortions in Ethiopia – a country ravaged by a genocidal civil war where basic health care is increasingly difficult to access, the World Health Organization (W.H.O) warned this week.

Civilians in Ethiopia — both within the blockaded northern region of Tigray and throughout the country — are facing rape, executions, torture, beatings, and the abduction of their children to be used as child soldiers, harrowing reports out of the country revealed this week.

Unidentified gunmen have kidnapped Father Joseph Igweagu of the Catholic Archdiocese of Onitsha, in southern Nigeria, local media reported Monday.

Uganda’s authoritarian president Yoweri Museveni on Saturday announced 21-day lockdowns on the Mubende and Kassanda districts in central Uganda to control an Ebola outbreak.

A new gas project off Africa’s western coast may only be 80% complete, but it has already drawn visits from the leaders of Poland and Germany.

The New York Times (NYT) reported on Saturday that the Biden administration secretly sent a team of diplomats to the Tigray region of Ethiopia last month in an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate a halt to a devastating civil war that threatens to destabilize the entire Horn of Africa.

Ukraine has urged African nations “not to stay neutral” in the ongoing Western-backed clash with the Russian Federation following “devastating” missile strikes across the country on Monday.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Thursday implemented Ebola testing for travelers who have visited Uganda within the past 21 days.

The Chinese government is so concerned about the potential for kidnappings of Chinese workers and businessmen in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that it sent a delegation of top criminal investigators to met with Congolese officials and shore up security in the African nation, according to a Thursday report from the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

Nigeria’s state oil company, NNPC Ltd, on Wednesday announced the discovery of a secret pipeline plugged into the Forcados export terminal.

Muhoozi Kainerugaba, son of Ugandan dictator Yoweri Museveni, was promoted to the rank of general on Tuesday. Kainerugaba caused a stir on the previous day with a saucy Twitter rant in which he offered a 100-cow dowry for the hand of newly elected Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and threatened to invade Italy if his offer was refused.

Burkina Faso President Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba resigned on Sunday, wiping out the government of the West African nation in the second coup of the year and bringing it closer to Russia’s dangerous orbit.

The city of Johannesburg, South Africa, which had been governed by an opposition coalition since municipal elections last year, saw its government collapse over the weekend, a sign that the country could be led by a racist left-wing party after the 2024 election.

Ethiopian Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen, who also serves as foreign minister, devoted very little of his address to the U.N. General Assembly on Saturday to discussing the brutal two-year civil war that heated up again over the past few weeks. He spent no time at all responding to the allegations of war crimes and human rights atrocities against both his government and its adversaries.

The Cabinet Ministry of Ukraine announced recently that it would reimburse the government of Ethiopia, and neighboring Somalia, for about $11.4 million worth of wheat, Mogadishu’s Shabelle Media reported on Tuesday.

Mohamed Yunus al-Menfi, head of the Presidency Council that administers the internationally-recognized LIbyan government, told the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday that his country remains fractured a decade after former U.S. President Barack Obama’s invasion, with constant threats of factional violence.

A spokesman for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) – the Marxist political party and armed militia that has been fighting an insurgency against the Ethiopian central government since November 2020 – claimed on Tuesday that neighboring Eritrea launched a “full-scale offensive” across the Ethiopian border into the Tigray region.

The once electricity-rich nation of South Africa is suffering its worst year of power outages yet, as the country plunges into its deepest energy crisis ever, with state utility Eskom declaring “Stage 6” load-shedding this week.

Armed men suspected to be Ambazonia fighters abducted five priests, a nun, and two parishioners in western Cameroon this weekend and burned their church to the ground.

William Ruto was sworn in as the fifth president of independent Kenya on Tuesday. Among the guests was his friend Yoweri Museveni, president of Uganda, whose immense convoy of vehicles included his own personal armored mobile toilet.

Ugandan pop star and former presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, known popularly as Bobi Wine, revealed an unannounced visit to Kyiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday in solidarity with the government there against Russia’s invasion of the country.

A CNN international correspondent claimed Friday that Queen Elizabeth II, who passed away Thursday, was “not universally loved in Africa.”

The United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, warned Monday that Somalia stands on the “brink of famine” due to the worst drought in four decades.

Ethiopia’s civil war between the federal government and the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) is not the only deadly ethnic conflict raging in that turbulent country. On Friday, residents of the Oromiya region reported digging mass graves for at least 42 villagers slaughtered by a rival tribal militia.

The Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), an Ethiopian insurgent militant group, claimed on Thursday that Ethiopian federal forces and allied Eritrean troops launched a “massive four-pronged offensive” against the northwestern part of the Tigray region.

If you’re hungry you’ll eat anything to survive. This basic premise is being tested in hunger-stricken African nations where UK aid agencies are trialling insect diets for those suffering starvation in countries once able to feed themselves.

Kenya’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a recount of ballots cast across 15 voting stations on August 9 during Kenya’s presidential election, Voice of America (VOA) reported.