Africa

Gambia’s President Adama Barrow launched his National People’s Party (NPP) on Saturday evening to support his candidacy for the presidential election scheduled for December 4. In a televised broadcast of a meeting that saw a large crowd of delegates and supporters gathered at the Independence Stadium in Bakau, the 55-year-old …

South Africa, the most affected country by the coronavirus pandemic on the African continent, has received its first batch of Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines. The one million doses will be given to healthcare workers who have been battling the virus in the continent’s worst-hit country but no date has been set …

The British government has announced sanctions against four Zimbabwean security officials, accusing them of human rights abuses, including killing protesters. Owen Ncube, the Minister of State for National Security , as well as the head of the police, the intelligence agency and the former chief of the presidential guard, will …

South African ex-president Jacob Zuma said he will no longer appear before a commission investigating corruption during his presidency, defying last week’s order by the Constitutional Court. The scandal revolves around allegations that the wealthy Gupta family, who are close friends of the former president, used their relationship to unfairly …

Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine filed a supreme court challenge on Monday seeking cancellation of the results of a presidential election that handed victory to incumbent Yoweri Museveni. “We want the poll cancelled and repeated,” said George Musisi, lawyer for Wine’s National Unity Platform (NUP). Wine, 38, a pop star …

Seven orphans who were kidnapped from an orphanage on the outskirts of the Nigerian capital, Abuja, two weeks ago have been released. The orphanage was stormed by gunmen in Abaji area on 23 January and they kidnapped children aged between 10 and 13. Some adults who were abducted from their …

Algerian authorities have begun discussions to made Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine in the country. “The two parties agreed to start contacts between the relevant bodies with a view to build cooperation in the field of making the Sputnik V vaccine in Algeria,” said a statement from Prime Minister Abdelaziz …

Nine people died after al Qaeda-linked Islamist insurgents stormed a hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu, battling security forces until the early hours of Monday, a police spokesman said. A suicide car bombing on Sunday evening was followed by a shootout between al Shabaab militants and security forces at the …

Niger’s Constitutional Court confirmed in a ruling pronounced on Sunday that a second round of the presidential election is to be held on February 21. The court noted that no candidate had obtained an absolute majority of votes in the first round whose annulment, partial or total cancellation claimed by …

The Nigerian military says it does not have in its custody any of the schoolgirls abducted seven years ago in the northern town of Chibok, amid reports that some of the girls had escaped from their abductors. Those who managed to escape are believed to be in Maiduguri, the capital …