AFP Africa

Firefighters installed the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel on Friday which will emit white smoke to signal the election of a new pope as preparations proceed just five days before cardinals gather for the conclave.Some 133 Catholic cardinals will gather below Michelangelo’s famed frescoes in the 15th-century chapel, situated inside the Apostolic Palace at the …

Vatican chimney installed ahead of papal conclaveFri, 02 May 2025 13:36:50 GMT Read More »

A South African court found a woman guilty Friday of trafficking her six-year-old daughter who has been missing for more than a year, in a case that has outraged the nation.The two-month trial heard statements from various witnesses that Racquel “Kelly” Smith had revealed to them that she had sold her daughter Joshlin in February …

S.African mother found guilty of selling young daughterFri, 02 May 2025 12:26:24 GMT Read More »

Uganda’s main opposition leader, Bobi Wine, said on Friday the army had raided his party’s headquarters, hours after the head of the army claimed to have abducted Wine’s bodyguard and was torturing him “in his basement”.There has been a mounting crackdown on the opposition ahead of the general election in January and the moves come …

Ugandan army chief says torturing opposition aide ‘in his basement’Fri, 02 May 2025 12:13:07 GMT Read More »

Tunisian environmentalist Semia Labidi Gharbi, awarded a global prize for her role exposing a major waste scandal, has a message for wealthy nations: developing countries are “no dumping ground”.Gharbi was among the first to speak out when Italy shipped more than 280 containers of waste to the North African country in 2020.The cargo was initially …

‘No dumping ground’: Tunisia activist wins award over waste scandalFri, 02 May 2025 10:11:16 GMT Read More »

Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Ibrahim Traore, the military leader of Burkina Faso.”Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He’s doing well for his country,” Sanni said.His admiration is shaped …

Disinformation fuels support for Burkina junta leader in NigeriaFri, 02 May 2025 06:09:41 GMT Read More »

In war-ravaged Khartoum donkey carts clatter over worn asphalt, the smell of tomatoes wafts from newly reopened stalls and pedestrians dodge burnt-out cars left by two years of war.Life is slowly, cautiously returning to the Sudanese capital, weeks after the army recaptured the city from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) who had held it …

Sudan capital tiptoes back to life after recapture by armyFri, 02 May 2025 04:19:46 GMT Read More »

Malian political parties, fearing their dissolution by the ruling junta, are raising their voices despite a crackdown on dissent and a shrinking civic space.The military announced on Wednesday the repeal of a charter which sets out the creation and function of political parties, in what legal experts said could be another move towards scrapping them …

Mali’s political parties speak out against dissolution threatThu, 01 May 2025 22:08:37 GMT Read More »

Hundreds of Tunisians took to the streets of the capital Thursday to mark Labour Day, to protest against President Kais Saied and to demand the release of jailed political figures.The rally, attended by members of different political factions, was called by Tunisia’s powerful UGTT trade union confederation and relatives of detained opposition figures.”We’re not happy …

Tunisia protesters demand freedom for jailed oppositionThu, 01 May 2025 18:19:54 GMT Read More »

Kenyan police said the murder of a politician in the capital Nairobi appears to have been premeditated and targeted, with the president promising on Thursday that those responsible would be caught.Charles Ong’ondo Were, an MP for the Kasipul area in the country’s west, was shot when his car stopped at a red light on a …

Kenya police say MP killing looks ‘premeditated’Thu, 01 May 2025 10:33:18 GMT Read More »

The killing of a Kenyan member of parliament, Charles Ong’ondo Were, in the capital Nairobi, appeared to have been targeted, police said.The MP was shot by a passenger on a motorbike late Wednesday as he was in a car on the major Ngong Road which runs through the capital, according to eyewitnesses cited in the …

Kenya police say MP killing appears ‘premeditated’Thu, 01 May 2025 08:20:16 GMT Read More »