Africa

$1.5 bn pledged to curb Sudan’s slide into ‘death and destruction’: UN

By Robin MILLARD Agence France-Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Donors at a UN conference on Monday pledged close to $1.5 billion to combat the humanitarian crisis in Sudan and help its neighbors host refugees fleeing the fighting. Sudan is descending into death and destruction at unprecedented speed, UN chief Antonio Guterres warned as he urged donors to step in and curb the unfolding catastrophe. The conference comes midway through a three-day ceasefire which appeared to […]

Sudan donors to meet in Geneva as 72-hour truce enters second day

  KHARTOUM, June 19, 2023 (AFP) – An international donors’ conference for Sudan was set to kick off in Geneva on Monday, one day into a 72-hour ceasefire between the country’s warring generals aimed at allowing for the delivery of desperately needed aid. The army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has since April 15 been battling paramilitary forces commanded by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, after the two fell out in a bitter power […]

Sudan warring generals agree new truce after fighting intensifies

KHARTOUM, June 18, 2023 (AFP) – Sudan’s warring generals agreed a new 72-hour ceasefire from Sunday, US and Saudi mediators said, after fighting intensified with deadly air strikes in Khartoum and an exodus of wounded from Darfur over the border into Chad. Air strikes killed 17 civilians, including five children, in the capital Saturday, a citizens’ group said, as medics in Chad reported hundreds of wounded from Darfur seeking treatment. Multiple truces have been agreed […]

South Africa’s Ramaphosa tells Putin Ukraine ‘war must be settled’

MOSCOW, June 17, 2023 (AFP) – South Africa’s president, in Russia as part of a delegation pushing for peace between Kyiv and Moscow, told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Saturday that the fighting had to stop. His delegation put forward a set of principles that the Kremlin deemed “very difficult to implement”, a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ruled out talks with Moscow. The delegation brought the voice of a continent that has […]

No respite for Sudan civilians two months into brutal war

KHARTOUM, June 14, 2023 (AFP) – Army warplanes bombed the Sudanese city of El Obeid Wednesday, as the country prepared to mark two months of suffering since a power struggle between rival generals plunged the country into a devastating war. Since April 15, the regular army headed by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces commanded by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo have been locked in urban combat that has left whole […]

South Africa clinic hopes to save penguins’ future

By Claire DOYEN Agence France-Presse GQEBERHA, South Africa, June 14, 2023 (AFP) – A small fish is dangled under the beak of an emaciated penguin at a South African clinic, to whet the bird’s appetite. The sickly animal is among dozens undergoing treatment in the coastal town of Gqeberha, where a dedicated rehabilitation center is on a mission to bring African penguins back from the brink of extinction. “We are trying to reverse some of […]

With millions in need, Saudi announces Sudan aid funding conference

KHARTOUM, Sudan — Saudi Arabia on Tuesday announced an international conference next week to gather aid pledges for war-ravaged Sudan, where the United Nations says more than half the population urgently needs assistance and protection. Many of them are in Sudan’s Darfur region, where attacks against civilians could amount to crimes against humanity, the UN’s head of mission said. The pledging conference will be held on June 19, the official Saudi Press Agency said. It […]

South Africa in the spotlight over terror funding

JOHANNESBURG, June 13, 2023 (AFP) – South Africa has never been touched by Islamist attacks. Its three-decade-old democracy is solid, and its financial system is respected. Yet experts say the continent’s most industrialised nation is now a nerve centre for jihadist financing in Africa. “South Africa is open hunting ground,” Pretoria-based counter-terrorism expert Jasmine Opperman told AFP. Islamist financiers gather money in the country and transfer it into “the hands of terrorism,” she said, adding […]

Cult followers repatriated from Ethiopia to Uganda: ministry

KAMPALA, June 13, 2023 (AFP) – Ugandan authorities said Tuesday that 80 followers of a religious cult from the country’s east had been deported from Ethiopia where they travelled believing they would find salvation through starving. The followers of Church Christ Disciples from Soroti travelled to Ethiopia in February after their pastor claimed they would find Jesus there after 40 days of fasting, said a spokesman for Uganda’s internal affairs ministry. “Working with the Ethiopian […]

Dogs die as South Africa snake antivenom shortage bites

By Umberto BACCHI Agence France-Presse JOHANNESBURG, June 12, 2023 (AFP) — Zarza, a much-loved Staffordshire terrier, ended up at a South African animal hospital with a bite from a Mozambique spitting cobra on her snout. The snake’s powerful venom can stop the breathing muscles from working, but normally the bites are treatable with an antidote. The problem, say South African veterinarians, is that they currently have virtually no vials of the antiserum left. “We’ve been […]

Sahara salt diggers struggle to maintain centuries-old trade

By Camille LAFFONT Agence France-Presse BILMA, Niger, June 9, 2023 (AFP) — At the edge of an oasis almost engulfed by the dunes, where the rare caravan still passes, is a desert landscape punctured by holes. The salt pans of Kalala, near Bilma in northeastern Niger, were once an essential stop for traders with their swaying lines of camels. Salt digging, carried on from generation to generation, was a thriving business, involving a commodity so […]

Sudan declares UN envoy Volker Perthes ‘persona non grata’

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AFP) — The Sudanese government has declared United Nations envoy Volker Perthes “persona non grata”, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced. “The Government of the Republic of Sudan has notified the Secretary-General of the United Nations that it has declared Mr. Volker Perthes … persona non grata as of today,” the ministry said in a statement on Thursday, just weeks after army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan accused Perthes of stoking the country’s conflict […]