AFP Africa

French authorities Wednesday searched for survivors and raced to supply aid as they sought to work out the full scale of the devastation wrought by Cyclone Chido on the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte.French President Emmanuel Macron will be in Mayotte on Thursday, his office announced, as officials warned of a death toll reaching hundreds …

France counts cyclone cost as aid reaches MayotteWed, 18 Dec 2024 18:08:17 GMT Read More »

The district of La Vigie on the French overseas territory of Mayotte was until last week a bustling hub of life. Now it no longer exists.All that remains after Cyclone Chido rammed into Mayotte at the weekend, leaving devastation unprecedented in the last century in its wake, are ravaged hills, piles of tangled sheet metal …

Devastated Mayotte battles to recover from cyclone ‘steamroller’Wed, 18 Dec 2024 12:54:07 GMT Read More »

French authorities Wednesday searched for survivors and raced to supply aid as they sought to assess the full scale of devastation wrought by Cyclone Chido on the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte, after the French overseas territory emerged from a first night under curfew. French President Emmanuel Macron “will be in Mayotte on Thursday”, his office …

France assesses scale of Mayotte ‘disaster’ as aid arrivesWed, 18 Dec 2024 10:17:48 GMT Read More »

From his humble Windhoek workshop, Namibia’s leading fashion designer is keeping alive the love for the Herero people’s traditional dress with horned headgear, a full-length skirt and a link to German colonisers accused of genocide.McBright Kavari’s sewing room is piled high with seemingly ordinary fabric that he transforms with labour and skill into elegant and …

Floor-length and horns: Namibia’s Herero dress enduresWed, 18 Dec 2024 06:57:24 GMT Read More »

Somalia took the ambitious step of banning single-use plastic bags this year, but in a country with many economic challenges, it has proved hard to implement. It follows similar plastic bans in other east African countries including Kenya and Tanzania.But brightly-coloured polythene still dominates in the markets and shops of Somalia’s capital Mogadishu.Long bedevilled by conflict, …

Somalia struggles to rid itself of plastic despite banWed, 18 Dec 2024 06:51:21 GMT Read More »

Shouting “Boycott!”, women in T-shirts emblazoned with the red cross logo of a Chadian opposition coalition urged shoppers in the capital’s markets to snub this month’s parliamentary and local elections.”Don’t take part in this masquerade!” the campaigners for the Political Actors’ Consultation Group (GCAP) called out ahead of the December 29 polls, the first since 2011 …

Vote or boycott? Rival campaigns hit Chad’s streets ahead of pollsWed, 18 Dec 2024 06:49:14 GMT Read More »

The dusty concrete floor, worn gloves and battered punching bags at Ghana’s Attoh Quarshie “Home of the Sweet Science” gym might not look like much.But the modest boxing club is one of a network of gyms teaching the noble art in just one small Accra district that has become known internationally as an epicentre for …

Hitting hard in Ghana’s boxing hotspotWed, 18 Dec 2024 06:29:17 GMT Read More »

Rescuers searched desperately for survivors as they sought to assess the full scale of devastation wrought by Cyclone Chido on the French overseas territory of Mayotte, which emerged on Wednesday from a first night spent under curfew. French President Emmanuel Macron “will be in Mayotte on Thursday”, his office announced late on Tuesday, as authorities anticipate …

Mayotte reels from cyclone devastation, France’s Macron to arrive ThursdayWed, 18 Dec 2024 06:26:05 GMT Read More »

In southern Morocco, women are the guardians of the age-old craft of carpet weaving, an intricate art form that often leaves them with meagre earnings.Women like Ijja Benchri, who creates carpets on a wooden weaving loom outside her small home in the village of Taznakht, follows traditions going back many generations.”I started when I was …

Morocco’s women rug weavers battle to save age-old craftWed, 18 Dec 2024 01:37:38 GMT Read More »

Sudanese doctor Mohamed Moussa has grown so accustomed to the constant sound of gunfire and shelling near his hospital that it no longer startles him. Instead, he simply continues attending to his patients.”The bombing has numbed us,” the 30-year-old general practitioner told AFP by phone from Al-Nao hospital, one of the last functioning medical facilities …

Sudan’s doctors bear brunt of war as healthcare falls apartWed, 18 Dec 2024 01:35:39 GMT Read More »