January, 2017

• 30 January

  SPD nominates Schulz to take on Merkel for German Chancellor

    Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) have nominated Martin Schulz as their chairman and chancellor candidate for the country’s next elections. The former European Parliament president was unanimously chosen by the party’s executive committee on Sunday (29 January) to run against Chancellor Angela Merkel of the centre-right CDU at the next general polls on 24 September. Accepting the nomination in front …

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• 29 January

  Gambia no longer an Islamic republic, says new president at first press conference

    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 …

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• 29 January

  US court halts implementation of Trump’s order banning Muslim travellers

  A federal judge has blocked part of President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration, ruling that citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries who have already arrived in the US and those who are in transit and who hold valid visas, cannot be deported from the US. “There is imminent danger that, absent the stay of removal, there will be substantial and …

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• 28 January

  African drowns in Venice as onlookers film him, laugh and make racist comments

  Videos of a young African man who jumped into the waters of Venice’s Grand Canal in front of hundreds of people and drowned are currently trending on the Internet. The man, who has been identified as a Gambian, is suspected by the Italian authorities of throwing himself into the icy canal on Sunday, 22 January probably in a bid to …

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• 28 January

  Trump bans visitors from three African countries and four others to the US

  US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday, 27 January suspending refugee arrivals and imposing tough new controls on travellers from seven Muslim-majority countries. The order imposed a 120-day suspension of the entire US Refugee Admissions Program and a 90-day ban on all entry to the United States from countries with “terrorism concerns”. The State Department said the …

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• 27 January

  Gambian new president returns home to warm welcome but also many challenges

  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 …

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• 27 January

  Former Gambian interior minister and Jammeh’s top aide arrested in Switzerland

  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 …

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• 26 January

  African leaders give Germany’s Marshall Plan ‘thumbs up’ at Davos

  Germany’s ‘Marshall Plan’, which calls for an equal partnership to industrialize Africa, has received positive feedback among African business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, which took place from 17-20 January. But some are a bit wary, reports Martina Schwikowski. Germany’s Marshall Plan with Africa has received a lot of praise but also criticism. Some call the economic plan too …

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• 26 January

  Top minister in ex-Gambian leader Jammeh’s regime seeks asylum in Switzerland

  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 …

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• 25 January

  Nigeria, GE plan collaboration on railway development

  The Federal Government of Nigeria and General Electric (GE) are in talks over the planned concession of railway projects in the country on the basis of Public Private Partnership. “We are negotiating with GE to take over the narrow gauge from Lagos to Kano-Funtua-Yobe, and from Port Harcourt to Borno,” Nigeria’s Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, has said. He …

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