AFRICA

Bank account owners who are yet to have a Bank Verification Number (BVN) run the risk of forfeiting their money to the federal government within the next two weeks unless they can justify their ownership of such accounts. A Federal High Court in Abuja has granted a temporary forfeiture order on such accounts. It also restrained commercial banks from operating …

Sierra Leoneans will go to the polls in 2018 to elect a new president. Incumbent Ernest Bai Koroma is not eligible to stand after serving two consecutive terms. Koroma came to power in 2007 under the aegis of the All People’s Congress (APC), he won a second term in November 2012. The two main candidates aiming for Bai Koroma’s seat …

Liberia’s National Elections Commission (NEC) on Thursday released the full results of the 10 October general election. The body further confirmed a run-off vote between the two top candidates for the presidency, which it has set for 7 November. Ex-football star George Weah of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) will face current vice-president, Joseph Boakai of the ruling Unity …

Thousands of Somalis led by President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed have staged a demonstration in Mogadishu following Saturday’s terror attack. Thousands of protesters flooded the streets of Mogadishu on Wednesday in defiance of Saturday’s blasts that claimed more than 300 lives. Somalia’s deadliest attacks to date reportedly came in retaliation for a joint raid by the country’s government and the US …

A senior official of Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has resigned from her job a week before a repeat presidential election, saying the election body was under siege and could not hold a credible election. “The commission in its current state can surely not guarantee a credible election on 26 October 2017,” Roselyn Akombe, an IEBC commissioner, said …

Democratic Republic of Congo was among 15 countries elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council for a three-year term on Monday, a moved criticized by Britain, the United States and rights groups after the vote by the 193-member General Assembly. While Congo was elected uncontested to the 47-member Geneva-based council, it still needed majority support. The country – beset …

Since October 2016, protests and strikes related to sectoral demands have escalated into a crisis over the economic and political marginalisation of Cameroon’s Anglophone minority. The crisis reached a new low at the weekend of 30 September-1 October when at least 17 people were shot dead by security forces and 50 wounded, according to Amnesty International. Mbom Sixtus, freelance journalist …

The bomb was as enormous as the flecks of torn skin smudging the ground are miniscule. Entire overcrowded buses were blown up, every passenger killed. No one in the vicinity was spared: shopkeepers at the side of the road selling khat; office managers; children fooling around or running errands for parents; a medical student about to graduate; mothers; fathers; sisters; …

It is not yet victory for former soccer star George Weah in the Liberian election as he would need to go for a run-off against incumbent Vice-President Joseph Boakai. Weah, who ran on the platform of the opposition CDC party, ended up with 39 per cent of the votes, 11 per cent less than the 50 per cent needed to …

In what has been described as the deadliest terror attack in Somalia since the Islamist al-Shabab group launched its insurgency in 2007, a massive bomb attack in a busy area of the capital Mogadishu on Saturday killed at least 230 people. Hundreds more were reportedly wounded when a lorry packed with explosives detonated near the entrance of a hotel. Police …

The withdrawal of NASA presidential candidate Raila Odinga from the upcoming election rerun raises major political and constitutional challenges for Kenya. The country has seen many opposition rallies against the electoral commission that threaten public peace and security leading to government banning demonstrations altogether in the centres of Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu. It is currently unclear if there will be …

More than 500 people have been swept up in mass arrests following violent demonstrations in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions earlier this month, Amnesty International has said. Troops and attack helicopters opened fire on protesters calling for independence at rallies on 1 October killing more than 20 people and escalating a long-simmering conflict with the Francophone-dominated central government. A central government spokesman …

Former international football star George Weah and Vice President Joseph Boakai held commanding leads in provisional presidential election results announced on Saturday, setting up a likely run-off next month between the two men. Weah and Boakai lead the 20-candidate field to succeed President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in what would be Liberia’s first democratic transfer of power in more than 70 …

A long-delayed election in Democratic Republic of Congo to replace President Joseph Kabila cannot take place until at least April 2019, the electoral commission has announced. This is certain to enrage opponents who say Kabila is clinging to power. The polls were originally scheduled for November 2016. The new schedule outlined by the electoral commission would torpedo an agreement between …

Former international football star George Weah has taken the lead in the early election results announced by Liberia’s electoral commission on Thursday evening. The National Elections Commission (NEC) Chairman Jerome Korkoya announced the results of 1,232 polling places out of the 5,390 in the 15 counties. Weah led in 11 counties including Grand Kru, Sinoe, River Gee and Grand Gedeh …

Vote counting is underway in Liberia where large number of voters turned out on Tuesday to vote for a new president and lawmakers. The National Elections Commission (NEC) in its last press statement at the close of polls said there was a high turnout in the largely peaceful process. Election officers and party agents stayed overnight to count ballots. NEC …

Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga said on Tuesday he would not stand in a court-ordered re-run of August’s presidential election that is scheduled for 26 October. Odinga has repeatedly said he would boycott the polls if the election board did not replace officials he blamed for irregularities in August. “In the interest of the people of Kenya, the region and …

Liberians head to the polls on Tuesday (10 October) to elect a successor to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who will step down after 12 years at the helm of Africa’s oldest republic. Over two million Liberian voters will participate at the general election to choose a president out of 20 candidates and 73 lawmakers out of the 986 aspirants. Among …

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a group advocating for a separate state for the Igbo people of southeastern Nigeria, has called for international intervention in the attacks on pro-Biafra activists. IPOB spokesman in a statement issued on Monday said the group denies all claims of violence as advanced by the army and the government. Whiles challenging the authorities to …

Soldiers shot dead at least eight people and wounded others in Cameroon’s restless English-speaking regions on Sunday during protests by activists calling for its independence from the majority Francophone nation, an official and witnesses said. The demonstrations – timed to take place on the anniversary of Anglophone Cameroon’s independence from Britain – came as a months-old movement against perceived marginalisation …