Tag: Africaglobalvillage

Ivory Coast withdrew from the African Human Rights and Peoples Court, a week after the tribunal ordered the West African nation to suspend an arrest warrant against presidential hopeful Guillaume Soro, who on Tuesday was sentenced to 20 years in jail. The decision to pull out was taken at a weekly cabinet meeting, government spokesman Sidi Toure told reporters on… Read More

Two guards and five inmates of a prison in Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown were killed on Wednesday in a riot described by authorities as an attempted escape, according to a new report released by police. The cause of the mutiny by the inmates of Pademba Road Prison, who set fire to part of the 100-year-old facility, remain unclear. Five inmates… Read More

Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi on Wednesday prolonged by a month the state of emergency ordered on April 1 to try to slow the spread of coronavirus infections. “We concluded that the reasons that led to the introduction of a state of emergency (still) prevail,” said the president. Under the state of emergency, movement of people within the country is restricted,… Read More

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday criticised South Africa and Qatar for accepting doctors from Cuba to battle the coronavirus, accusing the communist island of profiting from the pandemic. Cuba’s globe-trotting doctors have long been a source of diplomatic soft power and pride for Havana, but the US says the medical workers only benefit their government and has… Read More

The homeless in Johannesburg South Africa are the most affected by containment measures that have been in place in the country for more than a month. With these restrictive measures, this very disadvantaged section of the population can no longer count on the generosity of motorists, shopkeepers or pedestrians. Without any social safety net, the destitute, mostly migrants living on… Read More

Zimbabwe farmers started selling their tobacco crop on Wednesday after the coronavirus outbreak delayed the opening of auctions, which provide vital foreign currency inflows, by more than a month. Tobacco is the second biggest earner of foreign exchange after gold, and last year generated $747 million in exports mainly to China and Europe, according to central bank data. Industry regulator… Read More

Uganda has stepped up restrictions on trucks passing through its territory – limiting them to one driver and banning them from stopping over in hotels – in a bid to curb the spread of the new coronavirus. The landlocked country sits on some of east Africa’s busiest road cargo routes that funnel goods from ports in Kenya and Tanzania further… Read More

The implementation of a mammoth African free trade agreement will not begin on July 1 as planned due to disruptions caused by the coronavirus outbreak, a senior official said on Tuesday. “It is obviously not possible to commence trade as we had intended on 1 July under the current circumstances,” Wamkele Mene, Secretary-General of the African Continental Free Trade Area,… Read More

The Lesotho senate continues to pile pressure on Prime Minister Thomas Thabane to resign. On Tuesday, the senate imposed limits on Thabane’s powers to dissolve parliament and call for fresh elections. The senate adopted a constitutional amendment which will among others, require the Prime Minister to obtain an agreement of a majority of legislators and senators, before proposing to the… Read More

Malawi launches emergency cash transfer programme targeting about 1 million people and small businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic, President Arthur Peter Mutharika said on Tuesday. Eligible households will receive a 35,000 Malawi kwacha ($40) monthly payment, matching the country’s minimum wage, through mobile cash transfer starting in May, Mutharika said. “This will strengthen livelihoods,” Mutharika said in a nightly… Read More