AFRICA

President Muhammadu Buhari has finally reacted to reports that he had been cloned. While addressing Nigerians in the Polish city of Krakow on Saturday, the Nigerian leader said some people had wished him dead when he was sick for many months. Responding to a question from a Nigerian resident in the country who wanted to know if he was real …

Nigeria’s campaign season was officially flagged off on Sunday by the country’s election commission and the two leading candidates for the presidential polls wasted no time to present their plans to the electorate. President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday asked Nigerians to re-elect him in 2019, primarily to keep fighting the corruption war his administration started in 2015. He also stated …

Over 2 million Unintended Pregnancies & 735,000 Unsafe Abortions Prevented Since July 2017 A groundbreaking international report released today (12 November) shows over 1.7 million additional users of modern contraception in Nigeria since 2012, as the government works to expand family planning services. The report shows modern methods of contraception have prevented over 2 million unintended pregnancies and 735,000 unsafe …

President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Abike Dabiri-Erewa as the first chairman and chief executive officer of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM). Ms Dabiri-Erewa, who is currently the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, was a member of the House of Representatives representing Ikorodu Federal Constituency in Lagos from 2003-2015. Nigeria Senate president, Bukola Saraki, …

The Mo Ibrahim Foundation has released its annual assessment of the quality of governance in African countries. The 2018 Ibrahim Index names Mauritius as the best-governed and Somalia the worst-governed among the 54 countries in the continent. The Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) ), which was launched in 2007, is generated by measuring Safety & Rule of Law, Participation …

Nigerians in the Diaspora are very concerned with the situation of their home country which is why it’s always the main topic whenever they gather. The time of talking seems to be nearing its end as some are now venturing into the political terrain at home to make their impact felt. One of the Diaspora Nigerians contesting at the country’s …

A newly launched advocacy organisation Part Worn Africa is calling for governments and regulatory bodies across the African continent to develop and enforce stronger regulations governing the sale of part-worn and second-hand tyres. Part Worn Africa will advocate that part-worn and second tyres be universally and stringently regulated according to rigorous standards and specifications in the same vein as those …

Ethiopia’s House of Peoples’ Representatives and the House of Federation, in a joint session held on Thursday (October 25) elected Ambassador Sahlework Zewde as the 4th President of Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. She is the first woman to occupy what is largely a ceremonial office. Zewde’s election followed the resignation of the outgoing President, Mulatu Teshome. In her first …

Cameroon’s President Paul Biya, who is sub-Saharan Africa’s oldest leader at 85, has easily won a seventh term, according to the Constitutional Council. Biya won 71.3 percent of the October 7 election, far ahead of opposition candidate Maurice Kamto’s 14.2 percent, council president Clement Atangana said, announcing the official results in a state television broadcast on Monday. The council, which …

The puzzle over the whereabouts of Nnamdi Kanu, who has not been since 14 September 2017 when soldiers invaded his home in south-eastern city of Aba, was solved in an unexpected manner last week. Videos suddenly emerged on social media on Thursday, showing the founder of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a group agitating for a separate country for …

The Tunisian parliament approved on Tuesday (16 October) the country’s first law on the elimination of all forms of racism in a provision that organisations advocating minorities’ rights considered as “historical.” Tunisians of sub-Saharan origin have long complained that racism and discrimination are everyday occurrences for them. Unofficial estimates say 15 percent of the 11.5 million population identify as Black. …

With the emergence of the presidential candidates of the political parties participating at the next general election in Nigeria, all is now set for the poll which analysts say will be tough. While it’s generally assumed that the ruling All Progressives Party, APC, would field President Muhammadu Buhari again at the February 2019 polls, the battle for the ticket of …

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2018 to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict. The Nobel Committee received more than 300 nominations for this year’s Peace Prize. The award, worth more than a million dollars, has been given …

South African schools will teach Swahili alongside other non-African languages such as Mandarin, French and German. Proponents hope it may one day become a lingua franca for the African continent. Thuso Khumalo of Deutsche Welle reports. One of Africa’s most widely recognized languages, Swahili — also known as Kiswahili — will soon be taught in South African classrooms, in a …

South Africa’s highest court has legalised the private use of marijuana, upholding a lower court’s ruling that found the criminalisation of cannabis was unconstitutional. In delivering the Constitutional Court’s unanimous verdict, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo on Tuesday declared the law banning marijuana use in private by adults “is unconstitutional and therefore invalid”. “It will not be a criminal offence …

Agreement reinstates rebel leader Riek Machar as vice-president, formally ending five years of bloody civil war. South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir signed a peace deal with main rebel leader Riek Machar on Wednesday, formally ending a five-year war that killed tens of thousands. The deal, mediated by Sudan and signed in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, reinstated Machar in his …

The family of former United Nations Secretary General have published a tribute to the man hailed as a reformer at the global diplomacy outfit.  It is published on the website of the Kofi Annan Foundation and produced here below. On 18 August, the world lost a leader and a statesman: Kofi Atta Annan. And we lost a brother, a husband, a …

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President Joseph Kabila will not stand for re-election in December, a government spokesman has announced. Kabila’s ruling coalition nominated former interior minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary as its presidential candidate, Lambert Mende, the government spokesman, said on Wednesday. The move put an end to years of speculation on whether Kabila would defy terms limits.  The government …

Former Gambian president, Yahya Jammeh, may have left office over a year now but news about him still command a lot of attention. Jammeh in a recently-leaked tape talks of staging a comeback to the country he ruled for over two decades until January 2017. His mothers’ death this week in exile and the subsequent repatriation of her remains to …

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has called on Zimbabweans to unite behind him after he was declared winner of national elections, but the opposition leader insisted he had won and said he would use all means necessary to challenge the result. Zimbabwe opposition leader Nelson Chamisa (40) said on Friday that he would pursue all legal and constitutional means of challenging last …