Mali’s opposition leader Soumaila Cisse is “doing well” a week after his kidnapping, his political movement said on Friday, as negotiations were under way with his captors for his release. A former finance minister and presidential contender, Cisse, 70, and members of his team were snatched in jihadist-ridden central Mali by unidentified gunmen who attacked […]
Kinshasa – Lack of resources, a muddle over confinement and incipient panic are hobbling the response to coronavirus in DR Congo, fuelling fears especially for Kinshasa, one of Africa’s largest and most chaotic cities. Almost all of the infections in the vast central African nation have occurred in the capital, along with a handful in […]
A Nigerian man has been shot dead for allegedly flouting a stay-at-home order aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus, police and a lawmaker said on Friday. Nigeria has introduced a raft of measures, including lockdowns of major cities, to try to contain the virus, which has infected 184 people, two of them fatally. Joseph […]
The coronavirus pandemic has done what the Algerian regime had failed to achieve for more than a year – clear the streets of massive anti-government protests. Now the “Hirak” citizens movement — which brought down geriatric autocrat Abdelaziz Bouteflika last April – has vowed to adapt and reinvent its struggle for full civil rights and […]
Tunis – Reporters Without Borders has accused Algeria’s government of taking advantage of the coronavirus epidemic to “settle scores” with independent journalists, including those covering long-running anti-government protests. In a statement co-signed with Algerian NGOs, the watchdog called on Thursday for the immediate release of its correspondent Khaled Drareni, who has been in pre-trial detention […]
Niger on Thursday recorded its first coronavirus case in a man returning to Niamey from Togo via Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso, the health minister said. The 36-year-old man from Niger was in a “stable” condition, health minister Illiassou Mainassara said in a statement read on national television, adding that measures had been taken to […]
Authorities in Zimbabwe and the United Nations on Thursday launched an emergency humanitarian plan worth $715 million to help a third of the country’s population, threatened by famine and at high risk of the coronavirus epidemic. Targeting 5.6 million people, the plan priorities food aid, water and sanitation, health, education and shelter among other life-saving […]
Despite loud appeals for caution, Africans are rushing to embrace chloroquine, the venerable anti-malaria drug touted as a possible treatment for coronavirus. From hospitals in Senegal to pharmaceutical companies in South Africa and street sellers in Cameroon, chloroquine has fired hopes of a medicinal fix against a virus that is set to scythe through Africa’s […]
Botswana has confirmed its first cases of Covid-19 coronavirus infections, which will see the country up its precautionary measures. A lockdown announcement is expected from President Mokgweetsi Masisi when he addresses the nation this morning. Botswana’s health minister, Dr Lemogang Kwape, took to the country’s national broadcaster BTV last night and announced that three people […]
The prehistoric shape is hard to make out as it moves slowly through the gloomy forest, so trackers listen for the rustle of scales against the leaves to pick up its trail. Their target is the long-tailed pangolin – a little mammal also called the scaly anteater, which will be lucky to survive to the […]
Kenyan police on Tuesday ordered a probe into the shooting of a 13-year-old boy on his balcony in Nairobi as officers allegedly opened fire to enforce a nighttime curfew. Residents of the slum where the shooting took place told AFP that a confrontation broke out shortly before 19:00 on Monday as police started forcing people […]
MTN on Friday announced a drop in the price of monthly data bundles and customers will now pay R99 for 1GB, 33% lower than previously. The changes will be effective from April 15, said MTN South Africa CEOGodfrey Motsa. The current price for 1G is R149, and Motsa said R99 is going to be the […]
More than 20 million Nigerians on Monday went into lockdown in sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest city Lagos and the capital Abuja, as the continent struggles to curb the spread of coronavirus. President Muhammadu Buhari ordered a two-week “cessation of all movements” in key cities to ward off an explosion of cases in Africa’s most populous country. […]
The main opposition figure in Niger, Hama Amadou, who has been in prison since last November for alleged baby smuggling, is among more than 1 500 inmates who are being released early because of the coronavirus pandemic. Amadou’s name is among those of 1 540 prisoners who have been pardoned by President Mahamadou Issoufou “for […]
Sierra Leone has overturned a ban on pregnant girls attending school, the government said on Monday, adding that it sought to build a state that embraced every citizen. In a statement, the education ministry said scrapping the ban “is the first step in building a radically inclusive Sierra Leone where all children… are able to […]
Zimbabwe will go on a 21-day total lockdown starting on Monday 30 March in a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus, President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced on Friday. He said the decision came after government was advised that the country faced “continued potential grave threats” despite having recorded only five confirmed cases of Covid-19 […]
A new video released by South African Tourism on Thursday evening sends out the message that, yes, we are all in this coronavirus crisis together as a global community. “It says, let us unite in fighting Covid-19 together. Don’t travel now, so you can travel later. We must make short term sacrifices today for long […]
Africa is two to three weeks away from the worst of the coronavirus storm and needs an emergency economic stimulus of $100 billion to bolster preventative measures and support its fragile healthcare systems, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. Almost half of the funds could come from waiving interest payments to multilateral […]
The South African Defence Force (SANDF has called up members of its Reserve Force to assist in the fight against the coronavirus. Spokesperson Siphiwe Dlamini in a statement on Saturday said these members would complement SANDF members already deployed and was in line with the National Disaster Management Act which provides that the defence force […]
Ghana has announced a two-week lockdown in the country’s two main regions from Monday to curb the spread of coronavirus. The move came as the authorities reported 137 confirmed cases, including four deaths. President Nana Akufo-Ado said there would be “restrictions on movement of persons in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area and the Greater Kumasi […]
The World Health Organisation’s regional director for Africa on Friday warned the continent faced a “dramatic evolution” of the coronavirus pandemic. Of the 47 countries in the WHO Africa region – which includes sub-Saharan Africa and Algeria – 39 nations are now affected, compared with only one a month ago, Matshidiso Rebecca Moeti told French […]
Morocco’s economy ministry said on Friday it had allocated two billion dirhams ($201 million to bolster medical equipment needed to fight the novel coronavirus, including the purchase of 100 000 testing kits. The money would also be used to buy medicine, provide 1 000 new intensive care beds and 550 ventilators, the ministry said in […]
At a seven-bed isolation centre in Mali’s capital Bamako, medical staff are scrambling to prepare for an outbreak of the new coronavirus. There, they have the West African country’s only respirator. Although no cases have yet been declared in the war-torn country, health authorities are bracing for an onslaught of patients with few resources to […]
Malians on vote Sunday in a long-delayed parliamentary election, despite a raging jihadist conflict, the recent kidnap of a leading opposition politician and the coronavirus pandemic. Experts see the vote as a key step towards leading the West African state out of its spiral of violence and closer to a political solution to stop the […]
Doctors in Zimbabwe’s public hospitals have gone on strike over lack of protective gear against the novel coronavirus, joining thousands of nurses who walked out of the wards this week, their association said Thursday. “We have made a call for safety, to say whilst we are sorting out some things, for now let’s… withdraw our […]