Politics

The Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), says it has suspended Gabon’s membership in response to last week’s coup. Earlier on Monday the coup leader, Gen Brice Oligui Nguema, was sworn in as transitional president. He seized power just after Ali Bongo was declared to have won a third …

Paying passengers have used the Lagos metro rail line for the first time on Monday, 20 years after construction began on the project. Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu was on board as the train began commercial operations months after it was launched at the beginning of the year with test rides. The …

Zimbabwe’s main opposition party has confirmed that it will not seek to overturn the presidential election result in court. Official results show that incumbent President Emmerson Mnangagwa won last month’s poll with close to 53% of the vote, which international observers said fell short of democratic standards. He is now …

The lawyers of Sylvia Bongo, Franco-Gabonese wife of deposed Gabonese president Ali Bongo, filed a complaint in France on Friday for arbitrary detention, Me François Zimeray and Jessica Finelle announced to AFP. Since the military seized power in Gabon last Wednesday, deposed President Ali Bongo and his wife Sylvia Bongo …

European Union foreign ministers ruled out a military solution as they met to discuss the political situation in Niger. As tensions between the putschists in Niger and Ecowas escalate, the European Union reiterates its support for the decisions taken by the sub-regional organization. For the head of European diplomacy, Josep …

Prisoners from six penitentiaries in Ecuador are holding 57 guards and police officers hostage in retaliation for operations by the state’s armed forces in the prisons, the organization in charge of the latter (SNAI) said on Thursday. In the middle of a day of violence caused by the explosion of …

The African Union announced the suspension of Gabon from all its activities, following Wednesday’s military takeover, which it strongly condemned. The decision followed a meeting on Thursday of the bloc’s Peace and Security Council. Earlier, the Gabonese junta said it would phase in what it is calling transitional institutions after …

Josep Borrell, the head of European diplomacy, insisted on Thursday on the difference between the coups in Niger and Gabon, declaring that the elections in Gabon were marred by irregularities. “Naturally, military coups are not the solution but we must not forget that in Gabon there were elections full of …

Russia, Bamako’s ally, vetoed on Wednesday a UN Security Council resolution extending sanctions against Malians threatening peace in the country, which the Malian junta was demanding be lifted. The resolution which planned to extend for one year the sanctions regime put in place in 2017 against individuals endangering the 2015 …

Gabon’s putschists have appointed the head of the Presidential Guard, General Oligui Ngema Brice, to lead the country after the overthrow of President Ali Bongo. “General Oligui Nguema Brice has been unanimously appointed as president of the Commission for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions (CTRI),” Colonel Ulrich Manfounbi, spokesman …