AFRICA

Senegalese singer, songwriter and businessman Akon has called on African youth to play an active role in rebuilding the continent and not depend on governments. The American-born music star was addressing over 2,800 youth from all over Africa on Friday (21 July) in Rwanda’s capital Kigali during the final day of the maiden YouthConnekt Africa Summit organised to shape the …

Radio France International’s Hausa service journalist Ahmed Abba, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison this year by a Cameroon military tribunal, has been named the 2017 International Press Freedom Award recipient. The annual prize is awarded by media rights body Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) to honour journalists who show courage in defending press freedom despite facing attacks, …

A member of the Parliament of Ghana, Ras Mubarak, has described the launch of the country’s first satellite into space on 7 July as a challenge to change things in the country. In a speech he delivered in parliament on Wednesday (12 July), Mubarak complained that the news of the milestone was first carried by the BBC which he described …

The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, Muhammad Babandede, has said that plans are underway for the local production of the Nigerian e-passport. Mr Babandede disclosed this on Thursday (13 July) in Abuja when members of the House of Representatives Committee on Interior came on an oversight visit. He said that the NIS was working round the clock with …

The Governing Council of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation Worldwide (NIDOWW) has assured that the Nigerian Diaspora Day 2017 will take place as scheduled on 25-26 July in Abuja. The body issued a press statement yesterday where it confirmed that it’s taking up the full responsibility for staging the annual event this year following the difficulties encountered by Nigerian National …

People of African descent are reacting angrily to French President Emmanuel Macron’s controversial remarks about Africa during a press conference at the G20 summit in Hamburg on 8 July. Macron was asked by Philippe Kouhoun, an Ivorian journalist for Afrikipresse, how much the world’s leading economies were ready to spend to help Africa under Germany’s “Marshall Plan for Africa” The …

The president of Democratic Republic of Congo’s electoral commission has said that a vote to replace President Joseph Kabila will probably not be possible this year, violating a deal that let Kabila stay on past the end of his mandate. Kabila’s refusal to step down at the end of his second elected term in December 2016 sparked protests that killed …

Chief Justice David Maraga has warned President Uhuru Kenyatta not to undermine public confidence in the judiciary, in an unusually sharp exchange between the two men less than a month before national elections are due. Kenyatta had earlier responded to a court victory for the opposition against Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) by cautioning against any use of …

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has hailed the team that successfully launched Ghana’s first satellite into space on Friday ( 7 July). “Congratulations to the team from All Nations Uni., Koforidua, for the successful launch of Ghana’s 1st satellite, GhanaSat-1, into orbit,” the elated president twittert. The West African country celebrated the technological feat thanks to the efforts of a …

Acting President Yemi Osibanjo’s signing of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission Establishment Bill 2017 into law has been praised for giving teeth to the government’s self-professed desire to partner its citizens abroad. The Diaspora Commission Act establishes the commission under the supervisory jurisdiction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  “It has the responsibility to coordinate and organise Nigerians in and …

Algeria plans to grant residency rights and job permits to illegal African migrants, responding to a shortage of workers in farming and construction while also seeking to combat a surge in racist sentiment. Prime Minister Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s plan follows the launch of an anonymous online campaign that blames African migrants – whose numbers are unofficially estimated at 100,000 – for …

Five countries launched a new multinational military force in the Sahel on Sunday, which France’s President Emmanuel Macron told a regional summit should be fully operational by the autumn and some observers see as forming the basis of an exit strategy for French troops. Islamist militant groups, some with links to al Qaeda, seized control of Mali’s desert north in …

Nigerians from across the globe will converge on their country’s capital Abuja on 25-26 July for this year’s Nigerian Diaspora Day. The annual event brings together Nigerians resident abroad and representatives of the federal government and its agencies to discuss areas of partnership in national development. According to a communiqué issued after a recent meeting of the Diaspora Day 2017 …

BBC World News is focussing on Africa’s hidden history in a special television broadcast, ‘The History of Africa with Zeinab Badawi’. The series, made in partnership with UNESCO, tells African history from the beginning of mankind to the modern-era from an African perspective. The first episode of The History of Africa with Zeinab Badawi, aired on BBC World News this …

Archbishop of Bamako, Jean Zerbo, has been elevated to the position of cardinal by Pope Francis. He becomes the first ever Catholic cardinal from the Muslim-dominated West African country. The 73-year-old, who has been Archbishop since 1998, was at the Vatican on Wednesday (28 June) for the ceremony elevating him. He helped negotiate a peace agreement between the government and …

UN Secretary General António Guterres declares open the first World Solidarity Summit on Refugees on Thursday in Uganda’s capital, Kampala. Among the heads of state and about 500 dignitaries attending include Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, Guinean President and Chairman of the African Union, Alpha Condé, Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, Gabonese President Ali Bongo, Zambian President Edgar Lungu and Ethiopian Prime …

Kenyans will go to the polls on 8 August and the country is expectedly already agog with election campaign rallies. Joseph Wandera writes on the factors that will determine the outcome of the general election. After accepting his nomination as the presidential candidate of the main opposition coalition recently, Raila Odinga likened himself to Joshua, the Biblical figure who led …

Over 70 Ghanaian immigrants were deported from the United States on Wednesday for visa-related offences including staying illegally and over staying their visas. The all-male deportees arrived at Accra’s Kotoka International Airport in handcuffs, local media report. The deportees initially refused to disembark from the plane in protest over their inhumane treatment including shackling hands and legs before and during …

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi has been freed by an armed group in western Libya where he was being held following the 2011 revolt against his late father, former leader Muammar Gaddafi, one of his lawyers and the brigade involved said. He was released in the town of Zintan under an amnesty law passed by a parliament based in eastern Libya, lawyer …

    Indigenous Christians in the Muslim-dominated northern region of Nigeria are a besieged people. They’re being systematically driven off their ancestral land by violence. “Every week, there are more massacres, but nobody seems to mind – not even their own government,” writes Douglas Murray, Associate Director of the British think tank, the Henry Jackson Society. Murray who visited the …