Africa Business

Senegal’s parliament on Wednesday will debate a proposed revision of a law granting amnesty for deadly political violence passed by the former president, in a move prompting fierce public debate.The amnesty was granted just before March 2024 elections as president Macky Sall sought to calm protests sparked by his last-minute postponement of the vote.Critics said …

Senegal MPs to examine fiercely debated amnesty law revision Read More »

The head of the junta in Burkina Faso has pardoned 21 soldiers convicted of involvement in a failed coup in 2015, according to an official decree seen by AFP on Monday.The troubled west African country has been run since September 2022 by military leaders following a coup headed by Captain Ibrahim Traore.Traore announced an “amnesty …

Burkina junta leader pardons 21 soldiers for 2015 failed coup Read More »

A long-running struggle in Nigeria against fake medicines has become even harder because widespread economic hardship is driving up demand, experts say.The scale of the problem was highlighted in March when authorities set ablaze $645 million worth of counterfeit medicines seized in six weeks of raids in Lagos and two southern states.”What we have found …

Cost of living woes fuelling fake medicine demand in Nigeria Read More »

Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embalo is confident he will easily win another term in office this year but faces claims he lacks legitimacy as his mandate has already expired.If Embalo remains in office until November, when the politically volatile nation is due to vote, he will be only the second leader since the introduction of …

Guinea-Bissau’s under-fire leader who dodged coups Read More »

Portuguese-speaking Guinea-Bissau — gripped for months by tensions over claims the president’s mandate has expired — is one of the most unstable and putsch-prone countries in the world. The poor west African nation’s chronic instability has made it vulnerable to corruption and South American drug cartels.- Four coups -The former Portuguese colony close to the tip …

Guinea-Bissau: coups, cashews, cocaine Read More »

For almost two years, Emad Mouawad had been repeatedly shuttled from one Sudanese paramilitary-run detention centre to another, terrified each day would be his last.The 44-year-old Egyptian merchant spent years selling home appliances in neighbouring Sudan before fighters from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) stormed his Khartoum home in June 2023, taking him and …

‘Waited for death’: Ex-detainees recount horrors of Sudan’s RSF prisons Read More »

The head of the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces admitted in a speech to fighters on Sunday that the group had withdrawn from the capital Khartoum which rival army forces have retaken.The comment from RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo came three days after the group said there would be “no retreat and no surrender” and …

Sudan paramilitary chief admits withdrawal from capital Read More »

The sand-covered notes outlining a migrant’s travel plan to a better life read like an itinerary of hope: from Ethiopia to Sudan, Libya, Italy, on to France and finally, England.The document had travelled thousands of kilometres by the time it was picked up on a beach in Gravelines on France’s North Sea coast by a …

Beachcomber in France hunts fragments of migrant lives Read More »

Watched by fellow students in colourful blazers, the cream of South African schools rugby talent gathered in the western Cape town of Stellenbosch this weekend to display their skills.Among the crowds were representatives from the major South African rugby franchises, trying to spot future stars and sign them.South Africa have won the Rugby World Cup …

Agents on alert as Springbok stars of tomorrow perform Read More »

Morocco is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on tapping northern rivers to supply water to parched cities farther south but experts question the sustainability of the project in the face of climate change.The North African kingdom has spent $728 million so far on what it dubs a “water highway” to redirect the surplus flow …

Morocco ‘water highway’ averts crisis in big cities but doubts over sustainability Read More »