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February 6 marked two years since Central African Republic’s government signed a peace deal with rebel groups in an attempt to end years of fighting, but the country faces growing violence that threatens to null the agreement. “Instead of celebrating the dividends of peace, we are celebrating the second anniversary in a context of war,” …
Life for civilians in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region has become “extremely alarming” as hunger grows and fighting remains an obstacle to reaching millions of people with aid, the United Nations said in a new report. And the U.N. special adviser on genocide prevention warned that without urgent measures the risk of atrocity crimes “remains high …
Tanzania’s President John Magufuli has dismissed the benefits of vaccines and said no lockdown is planned in his country as “God will protect” people from COVID-19. Speaking in western Tanzania on January 27, Magufuli claimed homespun precautions such as steam inhalation were better than vaccines. “Vaccines are not good,” he said, adding that if they …
Shipping containers have become overflow mortuaries for the dead from COVID-19 in South Africa, while some other African nations are now looking to China for the next wave of vaccine doses. South Africa is working to launch its vaccination campaign in mid-February after its first delivery of vaccines on February 1: 1 million doses of …
African countries scramble to get COVID-19 vaccines Read More »
Pierre Buyoya, the former president of Burundi who twice seized power in military coups and oversaw a prolonged ethnic civil war that killed 300,000 of his countrymen, has died at 71. Buyoya died just two months after being convicted in absentia by a court in Burundi of the 1993 murder of a successor, a killing …
Ghana’s opposition has rejected the presidential and parliamentary election results after President Nana Akufo-Addo was announced the winner with 51.59 percent of the vote. “Overwhelming evidence available makes it impossible for us to accept this spurious and hurried conclusion,” Haruna Iddrisu, a member of parliament for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) party said. NDC’s leader, …
Tanzania’s President John Magufuli has been re-elected for a second, five-year term, securing a huge victory in a contest that has been dismissed by the opposition as a “travesty” due to widespread irregularities. Magufuli got 12.5 million votes or 84% in the election held on October 28, more than 10 million more votes than his …
Africa’s governance performance worsened in 2019 for the first time in nearly a decade due to a broad deterioration in the areas of human rights, security and rule of law, according to a survey published in November. The Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) – the most comprehensive survey of its kind on the continent …
Burundi’s top court has sentenced a former president to life in prison for the 1993 murder of another president who had defeated him in elections, an attack that triggered a 10-year civil war in which about 300,000 people were killed. In an Oct. 19 ruling, the court sentenced Pierre Buyoya and 18 others for the …
Jerry Rawlings, who seized power twice in military coups but is now regarded as a driving force behind Ghana’s emergence as a stable democracy, died on November 12 at the age of 73. His takeovers in 1979 and 1981 were marked by authoritarian rule and the executions of senior military officers, including General Frederick Akuffo, …