AFP Africa

Police in Mozambique fired tear gas and rubber bullets on Saturday, as they dispersed protests in several cities over a disputed presidential election, according to local sources and AFP reporters.Unrest has rocked the southern African nation since an October 9 election, which was won by the ruling Frelimo party, in power since 1975, but denounced …

Clashes in Mozambique as police disperse election protestsSat, 02 Nov 2024 15:30:09 GMT Read More »

Botswana’s new government will have to hit the ground running after booting out a party in power for six decades on a tidal wave of supporters expecting change, analysts say.”End of an error,” quipped a headline in the independent Mmegi newspaper in its coverage of the whirlwind change of power in which lawyer Duma Boko …

New start for Botswana, now comes the hard partSat, 02 Nov 2024 09:30:26 GMT Read More »

Ahmed Othman’s farm has been spared from the deadly fighting that has spread across Sudan, but the war’s toll on the economy and labour market has still reached him.”I had to sell two vehicles” to afford to harvest this season’s crops, he told AFP from his large sesame farm in eastern Sudan’s Gedaref state.A year and …

War decimates harvest in famine-threatened SudanSat, 02 Nov 2024 02:40:03 GMT Read More »

Botswana’s new president took office Friday in a whirlwind transfer of power following elections that saw a historic defeat handed to the party that had governed the diamond-rich country for nearly 60 years.Human rights lawyer Duma Boko, 54, was sworn in during a closed session at the office of the chief justice three days after …

Botswana’s new president sworn in after historic election upsetFri, 01 Nov 2024 17:55:29 GMT Read More »

Kenya plans to reintroduce some of the tax hikes that sparked deadly protests earlier this year, the government announced Friday, while a new deputy president was sworn in after weeks of high political drama.President William Ruto scrapped an unpopular finance bill in June after the protests. Rights groups accused police of a brutal and illegal crackdown …

Kenya reintroduces tax reforms with new deputy presidentFri, 01 Nov 2024 16:24:32 GMT Read More »

Botswana’s president-elect Duma Boko is a human rights lawyer who spent three decades in opposition fighting to dislodge the party in power for nearly 60 years before clinching his surprise landslide victory.The 54-year-old Harvard graduate inspired voters in the arid southern African country to turn out in large numbers for Wednesday’s elections that ended the …

Duma Boko, Botswana rights lawyer elected presidentFri, 01 Nov 2024 16:01:13 GMT Read More »

President Emmanuel Macron on Friday acknowledged that Larbi Ben M’hidi, a key figure in Algeria’s War of Independence against France, had been killed by French soldiers after his arrest in 1957, the French presidency said.”He recognised today that Larbi Ben M’hidi, a national hero for Algeria… was killed by French soldiers,” the presidency said on …

Macron recognises French soldiers killed Algerian independence hero in 1957Fri, 01 Nov 2024 15:51:59 GMT Read More »

The Indian Ocean island of Mauritius blocked access to social media on Friday, just days ahead of a general election, as tensions mounted over a wire-tapping scandal.Mauritius has been gripped by the release of secret recordings of phone calls by politicians, journalists, members of civil society and even foreign diplomats that began to emerge online …

Mauritius blocks social media amid wire-tapping scandalFri, 01 Nov 2024 14:43:59 GMT Read More »

Botswana’s opposition Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) has won a majority in parliament and can form the next government, the electoral commission announced Friday, marking a historic defeat for the party that had governed the diamond-rich country for nearly six decades.Outgoing president Mokgweetsi Masisi conceded defeat in Wednesday’s general election and said his administration would …

Botswana opposition wins election in historic turnaroundFri, 01 Nov 2024 13:29:59 GMT Read More »

Kenya plans to re-introduce some of the tax hikes that sparked deadly protests earlier this year, the government announced Friday, while a new deputy president was sworn in after weeks of drama.President William Ruto scrapped an unpopular finance bill in June after the protests. Rights groups accused police of a brutal and illegal crackdown that led …

Kenya reintroduces tax reforms with new deputy presidentFri, 01 Nov 2024 10:37:26 GMT Read More »