Reuters Africa Top

By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) – New infections and deaths from HIV/AIDS may increase as the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted prevention measures, said UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima in an interview airing on Wednesday at the Reuters Next conference. Byanyima, who is also United Nations under-secretary-general, said that during the first pandemic phase in particular, …

COVID-19 took toll on AIDS fight, UNAIDS chief says Read More »

By Libby George LONDON (Reuters) – Nigeria’s Lagos State rejected findings by a judicial panel that security forces carried out a “massacre” of unarmed protesters last year, maintaining that only one person suffered a gunshot wound, according to a paper issued by the government this week. The judicial panel, which submitted its full report last …

Nigeria’s Lagos State rejects findings of ‘massacre’ of protesters last year Read More »

By Seun Sanni ENUGU, Nigeria (Reuters) – A Roman Catholic priest is collecting and saving hundreds of traditional pre-Christian religious artefacts in southeast Nigeria that new converts to Christianity had planned to burn. The collection includes carvings of pagan deities and masks, some of them more than a century old and considered central to the …

Nigerian priest saves traditional artefacts from Christian converts Read More »

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said his foes had been defeated and promised to recapture territory in the region of Amhara from rebellious Tigrayan forces after praising military victories against the Tigrayans in the region of Afar. Footage from the front that aired on state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting on Tuesday showed Abiy wearing …

Ethiopia’s PM, on frontline, urges troops to ‘destroy’ enemy Read More »

By Pap Saine and Edward McAllister BANJUL (Reuters) – At a pre-election rally last month, supporters of Gambia’s main opposition coalition cheered the opening of the star attraction – a speech by former President Yahya Jammeh delivered over a crackly phone line from exile 2,000 miles away. “(President) Adama Barrow destroyed everything good I left …

Disgraced ex-president Jammeh looms over Gambia election Read More »

OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) – Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Togo have carried out a joint military operation to counter increased attacks by Islamist insurgent groups in parts of West Africa, Burkinabe Security Minister Maxime Kone said on Tuesday. Over 5,700 troops were deployed in the borderlands between Burkina Faso and the other three countries under …

Four West African states mount operation against Islamist insurgents Read More »

By Tim Cocks JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – On Friday Nov. 19, Raquel Viana, Head of Science at one of South Africa’s biggest private testing labs, sequenced the genes on eight coronavirus samples – and got the shock of her life. The samples, tested in the Lancet laboratory, all bore a large number of mutations, especially on …

How South African scientists spotted the Omicron COVID variant Read More »