MOGADISHU, Somalia (AA) – The United Nations humanitarian partners in Somalia and its government have sought $2.6 billion to assist millions of people in the drought-hit Horn of Africa country. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) has estimated that 8.25 million people — nearly half of Somalia’s popul...
Bamako, Mali (AFP): Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has pledged assistance to West African states battling insurgency as Moscow seeks to expand its influence on a continent in a diplomatic tug-of-war between global powers. Lavrov hailed the alliance that has been forged between Moscow and Bamako in fighting “extremists” on h...
Geneva, Switzerland (AFP): Poverty and the prospect of better-paid work, rather than religious ideology, are what fuel recruitment to violent groups in Africa, the United Nations said Tuesday. The conclusion debunks the preconceived notion that religious doctrine is the main lure for joining groups like Boko Haram, al-Shabaab and the Al-Qaeda-...
Bamako, Mali (AFP): Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has arrived in Mali for talks with its junta leaders seeking Moscow’s help in battling an insurgency that remains alive despite years of fighting. Lavrov, who was in Iraq on Monday, was welcomed upon his arrival by his counterpart Abdoulaye Diop. The two men did not make [...
Lagos, Nigeria (AFP): Nigeria’s electoral commission has staged mock biometric accreditation for voters ahead of this month’s presidential and parliamentary elections. Nigerians go to the polls on February 25 in order to elect a successor to President Muhammadu Buhari who steps down after the maximum constitutionally-permissible tw...
Bamako, Mali (AFP): Mali’s ruling junta has said that it is expelling the head of the human rights division of MINUSMA, the UN mission for Mali. The decision comes after a Malian rights activist last month denounced the security situation in the country in a speech to a UN gathering, and accused the regime’s new […]
Bawku, Ghana (AFP): Standing near the dry riverbed that marks Ghana’s northern border, Alima can see her hamlet, lying in Burkina Faso less than two kilometres away. Even though her home is just a short walk away, she says she will never go back there to live. One night last year, gunmen arrived in the […]
ISTANBUL (AA) – Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority (SCA) has denied reports about contracting an Israeli company to manage its services. The denial came amid news circulated on social media platforms that Egypt had contracted an Israeli company to manage the waterway’s services through a 99-year concession contract. In a statement, SCA chief Osama R...
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (AFP): Burkina Faso’s military leader has said that there has been no break in diplomatic relations with France, and denied that Russian Wagner mercenaries were in the country. Former colonial power France had special forces based in Ouagadougou which came under intense scrutiny as anti-French sentiment in the ...
TUNIS, Tunisia (AA) – Tunisia’s president has resorted to intimidating the nation’s people, the head of a major labor union in the country said on Friday. “President Kais Saied chose the path of intimidating the people and calling them, directly or indirectly, to fight,” Secretary-General Noureddine Taboubi said a...
