Residents of Unesco-listed town, 400 miles north of Addis Ababa, say Tigrayan fighters have seized control
Tigray rebels have recaptured the north Ethiopian town of Lalibela, home to a Unesco world heritage site, 11 days after Ethiopian forces said they had retaken control, local residents have said.
It marks another twist in the 13-month-old conflict that has killed thousands of people and triggered a humanitarian crisis in the north of Africa’s second most populous nation.
Continue reading...US ambassador says delay would put country at mercy of those who prefer ‘bullet power over ballot power’
The chances of Libya staging its first presidential elections on the long planned date of 24 December appeared close to collapse on Sunday after the body overseeing the vote said it was unable to announce the the approved candidates because of continued legal doubts.
With the elections less than a fortnight away and virtually no time for campaigning, a postponement would represent a bitter blow to the international community’s hopes of reuniting the deeply divided country.
Continue reading...Analysis: experts say weakened immune systems may give rise to new Covid variants – so HIV prevention could be key to stopping coronavirus
Where did Omicron come from? By all accounts it is a weird variant. Though highly mutated, it descended not from one of the other variants of concern, such as Alpha, Beta or Delta, but from coronavirus that was circulating maybe 18 months ago. So where has it been all this time? And why is it only wreaking havoc now?
Researchers are exploring a number of hunches. One is that Omicron arose in a remote region of southern Africa but failed to spread until now. Another is that it evolved in infected animals, such as rats, and then crossed back into humans. But a third explanation is gaining ground as more data come to light, that Omicron arose in a person with a weakened immune system: someone having cancer treatment perhaps, an organ transplant patient or someone with uncontrolled HIV.
Continue reading...Mark Huband, who has died aged 58 of pancreatitis and multiple organ failure, built a strong and lasting reputation over more than three decades as a foreign correspondent and business analyst, specialising in Africa and the Middle East.
He and I met when he arrived in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, in 1989 to take up the post of the Financial Times stringer and I was working for Reuters. He hit the ground running and, despite his youth, he soon became a well-known figure among the foreign journalists, diplomats and business representatives covering the west African region. He was sharp, engaged and committed to the story, and went on to work as Africa correspondent for the Guardian and the Observer before returning to London. He did not look at events from a distance but always saw something of himself in others.
Continue reading...Concerns over equipment shortages, bottlenecks and hesitancy on continent with 7.5% vaccine coverage
With 1bn doses of Covid vaccines expected to arrive in Africa in the coming months, concern has shifted to a global shortage of equipment required to deliver them, such as syringes, as well as insufficient planning in some countries that could create bottlenecks in the rollout.
After a troubled start to vaccination programmes on the continent, health officials are examining ways to encourage take-up as some countries have had to throw away doses.
Continue reading...Deadly clashes erupt in three separate areas with poor medical facilities as wider Darfur region slides into violence
Tribal fighting has killed dozens of people over the past three weeks in three separate areas of Sudan’s West Darfur region and thousands of people have fled the violence, local medics have said.
The West Darfur Doctors Committee said in statements on Wednesday and Thursday that attacks in the Kreinik area killed 88 and wounded 84, while renewed violence in the Jebel Moon area killed 25 and wounded four. Meanwhile, violence in the Sarba locality killed eight and wounded six.
Continue reading...Private healthcare provider says symptoms in country’s fourth wave are far milder than in previous waves
Covid cases in South Africa have surged by 255% in the past seven days but there is mounting anecdotal evidence that infections with the Omicron variant are provoking milder symptoms than in previous waves.
According to a South African private healthcare provider, the recent rise in infections – which includes the Omicron and Delta variants – has been accompanied by a much smaller increase in admissions to intensive care beds, echoing an earlier report from the country’s National Institute for Communicable Disease (NICD).
Continue reading...Sudan has had more military coups than any other country in Africa, having undergone three popular uprisings since its independence from British colonial rule. The most recent revolution in 2019 is still under way, with protesters calling for the military to hand over to a civilian government. On 25 October, the military responded to these calls with another crackdown. Internet access was shut down for more than three weeks and unarmed protesters were met with violence. Journalist Yousra Elbagir talks us through the timeline of events in Sudan's fight for democracy
Continue reading...As the sea claims more of the west African shoreline, those left homeless by floods are losing hope that the government will act
Waves have taken the landscape John Afedzie knew so well. “The waters came closer in the last few months, but now they have destroyed parts of schools and homes. The waves have taken the whole of the village. One needs to use a boat to commute now because of the rising sea levels,” he says.
Afedzie lives in Keta, one of Ghana’s coastal towns, where a month ago high tide brought seawater flooding into 1,027 houses, according to the government, leaving him among about 3,000 people made homeless overnight.
Continue reading...Friends of the Earth cites documents suggesting UK’s reputation could suffer if it pulled $1.15bn of promised support
The UK was “embarrassed” into funding a huge gas project in Mozambique while considering ending overseas support for fossil fuels, a court has heard.
During a three-day high court hearing, Friends of the Earth highlighted government documents that suggested there would be “obvious repercussions” if the government did not follow through on $1.15bn of support to an offshore pipeline and liquefied natural gas plant in Cabo Delgado province.
Continue reading...After demonstrations see police use teargas and the death of one man, work begins to clear waste in Sfax after decision to move site
Work has begun to clear 30,000 tonnes of household rubbish from the streets of Tunisia’s “second city” of Sfax after the government backed down in a long-running dispute over a landfill site.
Residents and activists in Agareb, where the current dump is located, said the site, opened in 2008 near the El Gonna national park, was a risk to human health. In recent weeks, unrest in the region has escalated, with access to the site blocked and police using teargas against demonstrators from the town. One man, Abderrazek Lacheb, has allegedly died after being caught up in the demonstrations, although the police have denied his death was due to teargas.
Continue reading...40,000 people in one of the largest slums in the Kenyan capital have had their homes demolished to make way for works for a Chinese-backed toll road, with some asking: ‘this is development for who?’
About 40,000 people have been made homeless by demolition works for a major Chinese-backed toll road in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.
Amnesty International Kenya says it believes the roadworks have created a humanitarian crisis, as schools, businesses and 13,000 homes spread across nearly 40 hectares (100 acres) of the Mukuru Kwa Njenga slum have been demolished since October, clearing land for a link to the Nairobi expressway.
A girl stands among the rubble of Mukuru Kwa Njenga slum, Nairobi, where 13,000 homes were razed to the ground
Continue reading...Niger state has been wracked by banditry for years. Now jihadists have moved in to communities just a few hundred miles from the capital, Abuja
“They ordered everyone to come around, saying if you run, if you cry, you will die,” said Bala Pada, recalling the moment in April when jihadists rounded up people at a market in his home town of Kaure to witness the execution of two alleged vigilantes.
Hundreds of jihadists have settled over the past year in Kaure and other remote communities in Niger state in Nigeria, according to displaced residents and local government officials. They began to arrive in November 2020, hoisting flags and declaring the communities under their control.
Continue reading...Analysis: After two decades of major financial aid, Beijing is rethinking its strategy on continent amid Covid crisis and fierce competition for power, analysts say
As debt concerns rise and a new coronavirus variant emerges, China appears to be adjusting its approach to Africa: cutting finance pledges while doubling down on vaccine diplomacy.
On Monday last week, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, opened a China-Africa forum with a pledge to supply 1bn vaccine doses to Africa, amid global concern over the emergence of the Omicron variant of Covid-19. He also pledged $40bn to the continent, ranging from credit lines to investments – a significant cut from the $60bn promised at the previous two summits.
Continue reading...Patrick Zaki was detained last year and still faces charges of ‘spreading false news’
An Egyptian court has ordered the release of researcher Patrick Zaki, whose detention in February last year sparked international condemnation, particularly in Italy where he had been studying, his family said.
“I’m jumping for joy!” his mother, Hala Sobhi, told AFP. “We’re now on our way to the police station in Mansoura,” a city in Egypt’s Nile Delta, where Zaki is from.
Continue reading...Inmate says police refused to open doors amid blaze that left 38 dead and 69 seriously hurt
A massive fire ripped through an overcrowded prison in Burundi before dawn on Tuesday, killing dozens of inmates and seriously injuring many more, the country’s vice-president said.
Many inmates were still sleeping at the time of the blaze that destroyed several parts of the facility in Burundi’s political capital, Gitega, witnesses said.
Continue reading...After 30 years in exile, it’s easy to doubt that it will ever be safe to live and work in Sudan. But the action being taken by young people shows democracy will rise again
“All the goodness and the heroisms will rise up again, then be cut down again and rise up,” John Steinbeck wrote to a friend in 1941, just before the US entered the second world war. “It isn’t that the evil thing wins – it never will – but that it doesn’t die.”
Growing up, I was always interested in politics, politics was the reason I had to leave Sudan at the age of 11. At school, we weren’t allowed to study or discuss it, and it was the same at home.For years, I lay in bed and listened to my father and his friends as they argued about politics and sang traditional songs during their weekend whisky rituals. They watched a new Arabic news channel, Al Jazeera, which aired from Qatar. All the journalism my father consumed about Sudan was from the London-based weekly opposition newspaper, Al Khartoum. The only time he turned on our dial-up internet was to visit Sudanese Online.
Continue reading...Industry body warns that some operators won’t last the winter after return of strict Covid travel rules
Travel firms have called on the government to provide urgent financial help as fresh Covid-19 restrictions come in to force on Tuesday, hitting holiday travel just before the peak booking period.
Turnover has been at just 22% of normal levels for tour operators, according to figures from the travel association Abta.
Continue reading...Amelie Osborn-Smith says she feels ‘very lucky’ in first interview after incident while rafting in Zambia
A British teenager who was mauled by a crocodile in southern Africa feared she would need to have her foot amputated, and said she felt “very lucky” during an interview from her hospital bed.
Amelie Osborn-Smith, 18, was left with her right foot “hanging loose” and a dislocated hip after the attack in the Zambezi River in Zambia while she was taking a break during a white water rafting expedition.
Continue reading...The recent coup dashed hopes raised by the end of the military regime but newly liberated artists refuse to submit quietly
In the new dawn of a heady post-revolutionary era, Suzannah Mirghani returned in 2019 to the country of her birth for the first time in years. Her mission was to shoot a short film on Sudanese soil. It proved unexpectedly straightforward.
“When the revolution happened, there was this exuberance,” she says, from her Qatari home. “When we came to make our film, we were given the green light. We were told: ‘Anything you want’.
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