Politics

Zoleka Mandela, granddaughter of South Africa’s first democratically elected president Nelson Mandela, has died of cancer at the age of 43, her family has announced. In a statement on Instagram, a spokesperson said that Zoleka passed away on Monday evening surrounded by friends and family. In recent years she had …

Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema has sacked his Information Minister Chushi Kasanda in a mini-cabinet reshuffle announced on Monday. Ms Kasanda was replaced with Cornelius Mweetwa, the ruling United Party for National Development spokesperson and Southern Province minister. President Hichilema also named Ron Mwambwa as the country’s auditor general. A statement …

Military leader in Mali announced this Monday the postponement of the presidential election scheduled for February 2024 and supposed to return power to civilians after the double military putsch of 2020 and 2021. “The dates initially set for February 4 and 18, 2024 for the two rounds will be slightly …

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced the return to Paris of the ambassador to Niamey and the withdrawal of French troops from Niger, but also the end of all military cooperation with the country. This comes as calls for the departure of the ambassador and French troops from this West …

Burundi President Évariste Ndayishimiye has condemned rumours of a coup against him while he was away for two weeks for meetings in Cuba and at the UN General Assembly in New York. Barely a week after the president left the country on 10 September, stories of a plot against him …

Zambia’s former President, Edgar Lungu, has been warned against his public jogging events, with police describing his workouts as “political activism”. The police in a statement said Mr Lungu’s exercise sessions while escorted by members of his Patriotic Front (PF) party and without his security officers amounted to “unlawful assembly”. …

The exiled former president of the Central African Republic (CAR), Francois Bozizé, has been sentenced to life in prison by a court in the country’s capital, Bangui. The 76-year-old, who now leads a rebel coalition, was convicted in his absence of charges including rebellion and undermining security. Handed down on …

The oldest American federal judge, Pauline Newman, 96, was suspended from her duties on Wednesday due to doubts about the deterioration of her mental capacities, a symbolic affair in a country sometimes presented as a gerontocracy because of the age of its leaders. Appointed in 1984 by then-President Ronald Reagan, …

Democratic Republic of Congo President Félix Tshisekedi has called for a faster withdrawal of the UN force in his country known by the acronym Monusco. He told the UN General Assembly on Wednesday that he had instructed his government to begin talks with the UN to bring forward “the start …

Morocco’s King Mohammed VI has said that the country will spend $12bn to rebuild the regions destroyed by the 8 September earthquake. The funds will also be used to support the more than 4.2 million people in the provinces most affceted by the earthquake. The palace said on Wednesday said …