Africa

Niger military rulers say ousted president ‘tried to escape’

NIAMEY, Niger, Oct 20, 2023 (AFP) – Niger’s military rulers said they had foiled an attempt by Mohamed Bazoum, the former president they ousted in a coup in July, to escape their custody on Thursday. “At around three in the morning, the ousted president Mohamed Bazoum and his family, his two cooks and two security elements, tried to escape from his place of detention,” the regime’s spokesman Amadou Abdramane said on state television. The escape […]

Landslide triggered by heavy rain kills 27 in Cameroon

By Romuald NKONLAK YAOUNDÉ, Oct 9, 2023 (AFP) – At least 27 people have been killed after heavy rains caused a section of a hillside covered in precariously built houses to collapse in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde. Rescuers were still searching for victims on Monday after the landslide happened in the district of Mbankolo, northwest of Yaounde, on Sunday evening. Landslides are frequent during the rainy season in the city of nearly three million people, where […]

Security Council to decide Monday on non-UN force for Haiti

UNITED NATIONS, United States, Oct 1, 2023 (AFP) – The UN Security Council will decide on Monday whether to endorse an international force to back Haiti’s police as they battle entrenched criminal gangs, according to a published agenda. For the past year, Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have called for such a force to address the country’s spiraling security crisis. But given the challenges faced by past peacekeeping efforts in […]

At least nine killed in Zimbabwe gold mine collapse

CHEGUTU, Zimbabwe, Sept 30, 2023 (AFP) – At least nine miners were killed after a shaft in a Zimbabwean gold mine collapsed, an engineer at the site and the miners federation said Saturday. “Four bodies have been recovered so far” and five others are still stuck under rubble, Henrietta Rushwaya, president of the Zimbabwe Miners Federation, told AFP. Mine engineer Hussein Phiri confirmed to AFP that rescuers had located the bodies of the five miners […]

Record number of children attacked and killed in DR Congo: UN

KINSHASA, Sept 30, 2023 (AFP) – The Democratic Republic of Congo is on track to see record numbers of children killed, maimed, kidnapped or sexually assaulted in 2023 for the third consecutive year, the UN said on Saturday. The number of “grave violations against children” in the conflict-racked country is estimated to be more than 1,700 for the first half of 2023, said UNICEF, the United Nations children’s agency — which marks a 41 percent […]

Tanzania faces power shortages, rationing due to drought

DAR ES SALAAM, Sept 28, 2023 (AFP) – Drought and maintenance issues have forced Tanzania to ration electricity, the national provider said, as power shortages roil the East African nation. The authorities imposed rationing measures last week, with the Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited (Tanesco) saying on Wednesday that the shortages would end by March next year. Tanzania currently has the capacity to generate about 1,900 megawatts, according to Gissima Nyamo-Hanga, the new managing director […]

Blaze kills 34 at illegal Benin fuel depot

COTONOU, Sept 23, 2023 (AFP) – At least 34 people died in Benin near Nigeria’s border on Saturday when a contraband fuel depot exploded into flames, sending up a black cloud of smoke into the sky and leaving dozens of charred bodies at the site, a government official and residents said. The blaze erupted at a warehouse for smuggled fuel in the southern Benin town of Seme Podji, where cars, motorbikes and tricycle taxis came […]

S.African chickens hit by ‘worst’ bird flu outbreak

JOHANNESBURG, Sept 22, 2023 (AFP) – South African poultry farmers have warned of possible chicken and egg shortages as they battle what the industry says is the worst bird flu outbreak ever to hit the country. Producer Quantum Foods said on Friday that this year it had lost almost two million chickens — worth a total of more than 100 million rand ($5.3 million) — because of the disease. “The bird flu outbreak is the […]

Ukraine says ship carrying wheat leaves port for Egypt

KYIV, Ukraine, Sept 22, 2023 (AFP) – A ship carrying wheat has left a Ukrainian port and was heading to Egypt, the second such trip since Russia reimposed its Black Sea blockade in July, a minister said Friday. The Palau-flagged Aroyat vessel left Chornomorsk after being loaded with 17,600 tonnes of grain, Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on social media. Ukraine is testing a new sea route that avoids international waters and follows those controlled […]

President Biden urges UN to authorize international security mission in Haiti

UNITED NATIONS, United States, Sept 19, 2023 (AFP) – US President Joe Biden urged the United Nations on Tuesday to authorize a multinational “security support mission” led by Kenya to deal with gangs in strife-torn Haiti. “I call on the Security Council to authorize this mission now. The people of Haiti cannot wait much longer,” Biden told the UN General Assembly in New York. Haitian authorities and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have been pleading for […]

Devastation unleashed: Libya’s Derna counts the dead as flood toll climbs

DERNA, Libya, Sept 13, 2023 (AFP) – Libya’s devastated eastern city of Derna was counting its dead on Wednesday with the toll from the floodwaters unleashed by Storm Daniel expected to rise even further. Two dams burst there on Sunday afternoon after the storm hit, releasing a surge of water that tore through the city, sweeping away buildings and the people inside them. By late Tuesday, the preliminary death toll from authorities in the politically […]

10,000 missing in Libya storm floods, death toll ‘huge’: Red Cross

GENEVA, Sept 12, 2023 (AFP) – The death toll from freak floods in eastern Libya is expected to soar dramatically, with 10,000 people reported missing, the Red Cross warned on Tuesday. Officials in Libya have said at least 150 people were killed in the sudden flooding on Sunday afternoon after storm Daniel swept the Mediterranean, lashing Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. But Tamer Ramadan of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) […]