AFRICA

The death of veteran opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi at a critical moment in the DR Congo’s history is an irreparable loss for a country trying to navigate a constitutional crisis without descending into bloodshed. The best way to honour Tshisekedi is to continue the fight for democracy in the country, argues Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja. Etienne Tshisekedi wa Mulumba, the historic leader …

The European Union announced aid worth 225 million euros for The Gambia on Thursday (Feb 9) as President Adama Barrow warned that the nation was “virtually bankrupt” due to economic mismanagement by the former regime. The EU froze assistance to The Gambia in December 2014 over the dire human rights record of ex-president Yahya Jammeh, whose security services were accused …

Kwesé TV, Africa’s newest satellite network has launched. The Kwesé Network’s Pay-TV satellite service started broadcasting on 30 January 2017, beaming Kwesé’s full suite of entertainment and sports programming to households in Ghana, Rwanda and Zambia, which make up the first phase of the Kwesé TV rollout across Africa – other countries will be announced in due course. Having already …

One of the commanders of the ECOWAS Military Intervention in the Gambia (ECOMIG) force has revealed the reason why ex-leader Yahya Jammeh finally decided to leave the country after weeks of obstinacy, which allowed the newly-elected president, Adama Barrow, to take office. The commander of the Nigerian Air Force’s contingent deployed in The Gambia to secure the nation’s presidential transition …

Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode on Wednesday (1 February) signed into law the anti-kidnapping bill recently passed by the State House of Assembly, with a pledge to ensure its full implementation to eradicate kidnapping once and for all in the State. The Prohibition of the Act of Kidnapping Law imposes a penalty of life imprisonment on kidnapping for ransom. …

No fewer than 41 Nigerians, which included 33 males and 8 females,  deported from the United Kingdom to Nigeria arrived Lagos today (1 February). The deportees arrived at the cargo terminal of Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja in an unmarked Airbus aircraft which touched ground at exactly 7:40 a.m. According to the correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria …

Efforts by the West African force deployed in The Gambia to secure the nation’s presidential transition have yielded a big success. General Francois Ndiaye, who leads the force of the Economic Community of West African States Military Intervention in Gambia (ECOMIG), said on Monday (30 January) that it had recovered arms and ammunition stored in ex-President Yahya Jammeh’s private residence …

After cutting off the English-speaking regions from the Internet, targeting media outlets and stripping Cameroon’s beauty queen of her crown for speaking her mind, the government has now set its sights on journalists, reports Cristina Krippahl. The Cameroonian government seems especially worried that word gets out into the world about the situation in Anglophone regions. Journalists working for the international …

African Union (AU) leaders, attending the ongoing 28th Summit of the organization in Addis Ababa, have elected Chad’s Foreign Minister Moussa Faki Mahamat as the new chairman of the AU Commission, succeeding South Africa’s Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. The 56-year-old seasoned diplomat beat his Kenyan counterpart, Amina Mohamed, after seven rounds, an indication of how keen the race was. Five candidates vied …

The Libyan camps where traffickers hold would-be migrants resemble concentration camps, German diplomats say. Their report comes as the EU considers a migration deal with the North African country. Would-be migrants and refugees in Libya are being subjected to torture, rape and even execution by the human traffickers who are holding them, a newspaper report said on Sunday (30 January), …

  President Adama Barrow of The Gambia has promised to run a transparent government with zero tolerance for corruption. Addressing his first world press conference on Saturday (28 January) in Banjul, Barrow vowed that he would demand “complete financial transparency” from members of his government. He said his ministers would have to declare their assets before assuming office. The president …

Jubilant Gambians on Thursday, 26 January welcomed home their new president, who was elected almost two months ago but forced to flee to Senegal when his predecessor, Yahya Jammeh, refused to step aside. Dressed in flowing white robes and cap, Adama Barrow stepped off the plane at the Banjul International Airport with heavily-armed troops from Senegal and Nigeria standing by …

Following the revelations of his active role in the repressive regime of ousted president, Yahya Jammeh, former Gambian interior minister, Ousman Sonko, has been arrested by the Swiss authorities. Sonko was arrested yesterday, 26 January in an asylum centre in Berlin following a case of crimes against humanity filed against him by the human rights organisation TRIAL International. The Geneva-based …

Ousman Sonko, a top member of the repressive Gambian regime of ousted president, Yahya Jammeh, has applied for refugee protection in Switzerland, Bern’s police chief confirmed on Wednesday, 25 January. Sonko, a former long-serving interior minister, has been staying in an asylum centre in Bern since November 2016, police chief Hans-Juerg Kaeser said. The ex-minister, who fled Gambia after Jammeh …

There are no facts yet to back the widely circulated claims that Gambia’s ex-ruler Yahya Jammeh looted millions of dollars from the country’s treasury before leaving for exile, a spokesman of President Adama Barrow has revealed. Speaking on BBC Newsday late night programme on Sunday from Banjul, Halifa Sallah, the chief spokesman for Gambia’s new government, said no government institution …

It has not been the most positive of times in Nigeria considering the current economic climate, but every now and then a story will pop up and lift the spirits of the country. Tomisin Ogunnubi from Lagos has provided such a story for her nation in Answers Africa. The 12-year-old girl from Lagos has developed an app to solve a …

Gambia’s former president, Yahya Jammeh, finally left Banjul, the country’s capital, Saturday (21 January) night into a new life in exile in Equatorial Guinea. Before agreeing to step down and leave the country to allow the new president, Adama Barrow, to take over, Jammeh signed a Joint Agreement with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), African Union (AU) …

After a military standoff and a flurry of diplomatic activities following last month’s presidential election, former President Yahya Jammeh finally left The Gambia late Saturday for a new life in exile. To avoid military confrontation with Senegalese-led ECOWAS troops, he had agreed on Friday to step down and leave the country after two days of marathon negotiations with Presidents Alpha …

Fellow Gambians, my first preoccupation, as president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces and a patriot and the most sacred at that is to preserve at every instance and in every circumstance the lives of Gambians and this is a duty I hold sacrosanct. I have always pride for peace and security of our nation and Africa. During this entire …

“I have decided today in good conscience to relinquish the mantle of leadership of this great nation with infinite gratitude to all Gambians,” Yahya Jammeh said in a late night address on state television yesterday [Friday, 20 January]. The man who has ruled The Gambia for the past 22 years has finally agreed to give up power and leave the …