Tag: africa

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States said on Friday it banned from visiting the country a Tanzanian official who announced a crackdown on homosexuality in Dar es Salaam in 2018. The U.S. State Department said it was taking the action against Paul Makonda, administrative chief of the Tanzania capital, “due to his involvement in gross violations of human rights, which… Read More

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya’s high court said the government could go ahead with a new digital ID scheme, as long as it brought in stronger regulations and did not use it to collect citizens’ DNA and geo-location data. Rights groups had argued the scheme violated privacy and asked the judges to outlaw the whole system – under which people will… Read More

NAIROBI (Reuters) – When dusk blankets Nairobi, small flames lick blackened cooking pots in poorer areas, as dinners simmer over charcoal fires. Charcoal is a major polluter and driver of deforestation. A new company may have part of the solution. Kenya’s M-Gas, launched in January, is breaking into the low-income market for clean cooking fuels, using gas tanks fitted with… Read More

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya will start talks with the United States next week on a potential free trade deal, the presidency said, ahead of the expiry of a deal which offers preferential terms to select African exports into the United States. Kyle McCarter, the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, said he expected a “win win” for both sides when officials from… Read More

LAGOS, Nigeria (Reuters) – Frustrated by one of the world’s highest rates of sexual assault, poor law enforcement and tribal taboos that keep people quiet about gender violence, some Nigerian women are breaking with tradition to take self-defence classes. A local rights group and boxing coach have joined to offer free training that is tearing the lid off the largely… Read More

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Militants torched a teacher training college run by a local charity in northern Mozambique, a director of the organisation and a security analyst said on Thursday, although it appeared that no one had been wounded. The attack took place in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, where a festering Islamist insurgency threatens security in a nation set… Read More

GOMA (Reuters) – Suspected Islamist militants killed at least 30 people overnight in attacks on villages in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, local officials and civil society leaders said on Wednesday. Four villages were raided by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan Islamist group, in the west of Beni territory, which has seen a surge of… Read More

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) – Tanzania’s national carrier said on Wednesday it will have to postpone its maiden flights from commercial capital Dar es Salaam to China, citing concerns over the spread of a coronavirus that has killed 133 people.     State-run Air Tanzania had planned to begin charter flights to China next month ahead of the expected launch… Read More

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – An auctioneer had been arrested on suspicion of violating a ban on selling animals from an area affected by foot and mouth disease in South Africa’s Limpopo province, the agricultural department said on Wednesday. The viral disease, which causes lesions and lameness in cattle and sheep, was detected for a second time in November after a previous… Read More

OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) – Thirty-nine people were killed in northern Burkina Faso on Saturday, in what the government called a terrorist attack on a village in Soum province. The weekend attack followed less than a week after militants killed 36 civilians in a neighbouring province, part of a surge in violence in the West African country that has killed hundreds, forced… Read More