South Africa’s crippling blackouts have shrunk from up to 12 hours a day to just over two hours daily in recent weeks, after inflicting a massive hit on the economy. The improvement has surprised many citizens who had become hardened to the rolling outages, imposed by state utility Eskom to safeguard the grid whenever demand outstrips …

What’s behind the sudden easing of S.Africa power cuts?Thu, 06 Jul 2023 15:02:25 GMT Read More »

At least 17 people, including three children, died in a slum near Johannesburg from a leak of toxic gas apparently used for scavenging gold at an abandoned mine, rescue services said Thursday.Emergency teams received a call at around 8:00 pm (1800 GMT) on Wednesday about a blast in the slum of Angelo, near the middle-class …

17 dead in gas leak at South African slumThu, 06 Jul 2023 11:58:47 GMT Read More »

A mountain of copper and cobalt worth up to $2 billion is piled up in DR Congo, symbolising the wildly volatile market for metals touted as crucial to the green energy revolution.As many as 13,000 tonnes of cobalt powder are thought to be hoarded in the Chinese-owned Tenke Fungurume mine — equivalent to seven percent …

Mountain of strategic metals stranded in DR Congo begins to shiftThu, 06 Jul 2023 05:45:38 GMT Read More »

Racial tensions in the Tunisian coastal city of Sfax flared into violence targeting migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, dozens of whom were forcibly evicted from the city or fled, witnesses said Wednesday.Amid the disturbances late Tuesday, police detained some migrants and deported them as far as the Libyan border more than 300 kilometres (over 200 miles) …

Tunisians target African migrants, dozens expelled: witnessesWed, 05 Jul 2023 19:55:16 GMT Read More »

Around 18 million doses of the first malaria vaccine will be delivered to 12 African countries by 2025, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the Vaccine Alliance said Wednesday.”Malaria remains one of Africa’s deadliest diseases, killing nearly half a million children under the age of five every year,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a …

WHO announces 18 mn malaria jab doses for 12 African nationsWed, 05 Jul 2023 17:28:10 GMT Read More »

Hong Kong-born American pop singer Coco Lee, beloved in Asia for her diva riffs and as the voice of Disney’s “Mulan” in Mandarin, died Wednesday, according to an announcement from her family. The 48-year-old had suffered from depression in recent years, “but her condition deteriorated drastically over the last few months”, sisters Carol Lee and Nancy …

Hong Kong-American pop singer Coco Lee dies aged 48Wed, 05 Jul 2023 17:27:39 GMT Read More »

At least eight people, including five women and two children, died on Wednesday in a new attack in DR Congo’s troubled east, local people told AFP on Wednesday.Armed men attacked the village of Bungushu in North Kivu province overnight, killing eight people, a worker with the local Red Cross said.At least four of them were …

At least 8 dead in village attack in eastern DR CongoWed, 05 Jul 2023 16:21:15 GMT Read More »

Racial tensions in the Tunisian coastal city of Sfax flared into violence targeting migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, dozens of whom were forcibly evicted from the city, witnesses said Wednesday.Amid the disturbances late Tuesday, police detained some and deported them as far away as the Libyan border more than 300 kilometres (over 200 miles), according to …

Tunisians target African migrants, dozens expelled: witnessesWed, 05 Jul 2023 11:40:56 GMT Read More »

Your country is one of the poorest in the world, battered by a bloody jihadist insurgency and last year underwent two military coups.So, if you are a citizen of Burkina Faso, what can you do?Well, instead of plunging into despair, you can turn to the safety valve of laughter — making light of some of …

TV satire series is safety valve in troubled BurkinaWed, 05 Jul 2023 05:53:17 GMT Read More »

Schools across rural South Africa have perilous and degrading pit latrines — a heritage of the apartheid era that campaigners say symbolises inequality and government ineptitude.Successive governments going back to president Nelson Mandela have promised to eradicate the scourge.The last few years alone have seen President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration promise more than twice to replace …

Dangerous and degrading: pit toilets blight S.Africa schoolsWed, 05 Jul 2023 05:38:02 GMT Read More »