In the news

The Gates Foundation will offer $4 million to address the looming shortage of syringes for Covid-19 vaccination in Africa. This comes amid warning from the World Health Organization (WHO) that the shortage of crucial commodities such as syringes was slowing the rollout of Covid-19 vaccination campaign in the continent. Kenyan …

Nigerian Borno state Governor Babagana Zulum has reopened a major road that was closed nine years ago over insecurity. The Bama-Banki road, in the north-east, connects the country to neighbouring Cameroon and extends to the Central African Republic. It was closed when insurgents attacked and destroyed the historical town of …

Police in Mozambique say they have detained two health workers for their alleged involvement in the forgery, issuing and sale of Covid-19 vaccine cards. The two, a government general medical practitioner and an intern, had been assigned to the Bagamoyo health centre in the capital, Maputo. Police seized the forged …

Ugandan Head of state, Yoweri Museveni has called for a meeting of East African leaders to discuss Ethiopia’s civil war, the Reuters news agency reports. “President Museveni is in touch with Prime Minister Abiy [Ahmed] on the ongoing situation in Ethiopia and has expressed concern at the refusal by the …

Eight new cases of the Ebola virus have been recorded in North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports on Wednesday. Of the eight cases, there have been six fatalities, the WHO’s regional office for Africa said on its Twitter account. Some 573 …

Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has directed the government to begin its transfer to a new capital city next month. A spokesman for Mr Sisi said the move would be part of a six-month trial period. The so-called New Administrative Capital is being built some 45km east of Cairo. Read …

The representative of the United States in Ethiopia, Geeta Pasi called on American citizens living in the country to leave it due to the deteriorating security situation in this country in the Horn of Africa. The US embassy in Addis Ababa said the security situation in the country had deteriorated …

According to the executive director of the United Nations AIDS agency, HIV infections could have a peak in the western and central regions of Africa due to the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic in health services. “We are seeing across countries, a decrease in people receiving prevention, a decrease in …

Algeria’s presidency has announced the deaths of three Algerians in an attack that it has blamed on Morocco, a local television station reports. Ennahar television says the statement from the presidency describes the incident as a “barbaric Moroccan bombardment”, which it says occurred on Monday on the border between Western …

South Africa’s scheduled power cuts have affected the pace of vote counting following the local elections that took place on Monday, local media report. The electoral body had hoped to have counted 90% of the votes by Tuesday night but only 58% had been counted by Wednesday morning. The state …