Africa

The South African government has outlined its amended coronavirus immunisation plans. They were put on hold when a trial suggested that the AstraZeneca vaccines which were due to be distributed were less effective against a local variant of the virus. Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said a Johnson and Johnson vaccine …

Hundreds of migrants rescued off the Libyan coast in the past few days have arrived in Italy, where they disembarked on Monday. The NGO SOS Mediterranee said the 422 migrants were rescued by their ship, Ocean Viking, during several search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea between February the …

The ruling party in Tanzania has dismissed growing calls from its MPs for President John Magufuli to extend his term in office. The 61-year-old president, who won elections in October, is currently serving his second and final five-year term in office. Humphrey Polepole, the CCM party’s publicity secretary, has told …

Health officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo have started tracing those who came in contact with a patient who died from Ebola. The 42-year-old woman died last Wednesday in North-Kivu province just two days after developing symptoms of the disease. A team of epidemiologists are on the ground investigating …

Mozambican authorities have warned of an upcoming cyclone that will affect the central provinces of Zambézia and Sofala and the southern province of Inhambane. The National Meteorological Institute (Inam) predicts the cyclone will land on February 13. This will be Mozambique’s third cyclone in the current rainy season after Cyclones …

Ethiopia plans to close two camps in the northern state of Tigray that have been caught in the fighting between the state’s formers ruling party and the federal government, according to the country’s refugee agency. Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, head of the Ethiopian Agency for Refugees and Returnees Affairs …

On Monday, the Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok announced a new cabinet calling on seven former rebel leaders as ministers, following a peace deal in October aimed at ending decades of war. Veteran rebel leader and economist Gibril Ibrahim, of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) which played a major …

In a British military training camp in Kenya, the number of positive Covid-19 cases has risen from 4 to 11, amid concerns from locals about its spread. The British army says all soldiers who arrived at Nanyuki base last month were still in isolation. An army spokesman says 320 military …

Mozambique’s newly appointed head of the military, Eugénio Ussene Mussa, died on Monday after contracting Covid-19. He died while undergoing treatment at Mozambique’s biggest health facility, the Maputo Central Hospital. It is less than a month after he took office, as he was sworn in as chief of the general …

About 930 children living in opposition strongholds are not sitting for examinations because of insecurity in these areas. On Monday, 64,138 pupils in 10 states and three administrative areas started a national primary school-leaving certificate examination, which will end on Friday. But exams have been suspended in seven counties, including …