Bloc has ‘serious doubts’ over vote, for which declared runner up has called a recount
The African Union has issued a surprise last-minute demand for the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s government to suspend the announcement of final results of the deeply disputed presidential election.
DRC’s constitutional court is poised to rule as early as Friday on a challenge filed by the election’s declared runner-up. Martin Fayulu has requested a recount, alleging fraud.
Continue reading...Activists say a child and doctor killed in demonstrations against Omar al-Bashir
Thousands of people have taken to the streets in cities across Sudan, including the capital, where activists said a child and a doctor were killed in clashes between police and protesters calling for the end of Omar al-Bashir’s 30-year-old rule.
Thursday’s protests marked some of the most widespread disturbances since unrest began on 19 December.
Continue reading...Exposés by Ahmed Husein, who died in Accra, had also lifted lid on corruption in judicial system
A Ghanaian journalist who helped expose corruption in African football has been shot dead in Accra.
Ahmed Husein was part of a team led by award-winning journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas, whose investigation led to the resignation of the head of the Ghana Football Association.
Continue reading...More than 8,000 refugees cross border into Cameroon after Nigerian town of Rann is burned to the ground
Thousands of people have fled into Cameroon from north-east Nigeria following violent attacks by a faction of the militant group Boko Haram, which looted and destroyed large parts of a major town.
More than 8,000 refugees have crossed the border into Bodo after the attacks on the Nigerian town of Rann on Monday, in which at least 10 people are thought to have been killed. Homes and humanitarian organisations’ buildings were burned down.
Continue reading...With the country in crisis and public discontent mounting, is the endgame nearing for Omar al-Bashir?
Surrounded by brown hills close to the Ethiopian border, the town of El-Gadarif is an unremarkable place. A centre for the trade in sorghum and sesame, it is dominated by its huge Russian-built grain silos.
Four weeks ago, however, the eastern Sudanese town was thrust into the spotlight when it became a centre for protests against the regime of President Omar al-Bashir.
Continue reading...Former president remains in ICC custody after acquittal on charges of crimes against humanity
The International Criminal Court has dashed Laurent Gbagbo’s hopes of a swift release following the acquittal of the Ivory Coast’s former president on charges of crimes against humanity.
Trial judges had earlier ordered Gbagbo and his right-hand man Charles Ble Goude to be immediately freed after clearing them of any role in a wave of post-electoral violence in 2010-2011 that killed 3,000 people.
Continue reading...The centre of Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, is deserted after the third day of a nationwide strike. Demonstrators are frustrated by the huge rise in living costs that has resulted in food and fuel shortages across the impoverished country
Soldier, who was reportedly in Kenya to train special forces, took part in operation against attackers
A member of the SAS helped secure a luxury hotel complex in Nairobi after 14 people, including a Briton, were killed in a militant attack.
Another Briton was wounded as gunmen stormed the dusitD2 complex in the Westlands district of the Kenyan capital on Tuesday afternoon, setting off explosions and shooting people.
Continue reading...Activists tell of abductions and beatings during unrest linked to food and fuel shortages
Police and military have launched a massive crackdown in Zimbabwe after what appears to be have been a widespread breakdown of public order linked to food and fuel shortages in the impoverished country.
Access to the internet and social media was shut off for most of Wednesday, and armed soldiers were patrolling the streets of major cities as unidentified men were reported to be sweeping through poor neighbourhoods of Harare, the capital, and beating people “at random”.
Continue reading...President says planners of assault claimed by al-Shabaab will be relentlessly pursued
Kenya’s president has vowed to relentlessly pursue anyone involved in the Nairobi hotel complex attack, as new details of the 16-hour siege emerged and investigators tried to trace 50 people who are still missing.
Twenty-one people have so far been confirmed dead, including 11 Kenyans, a Briton and an American, as well as five attackers. The figure is expected to rise.
Continue reading...Armed Zimbabwean police arrested Evan Mawarire at his home on Wednesday, his lawyer said, on the third day of protests against fuel price rises. Businesses and schools remained closed as the government imposed an internet 'shutdown'
Continue reading...Lawyer claims prominent dissident Patrick Karegeya was assassinated in South Africa
A South African inquest into the killing of the prominent Rwandan dissident Patrick Karegeya has opened in the suburbs of Johannesburg with a lawyer telling the court the former intelligence chief’s death was a political assassination.
“We are dealing with an assassination of a Rwandan citizen in this country,” said Gerrie Nel, the lawyer for AfriForum, a South African NGO representing minority interests and a group of local Rwandan exiles in the case. “We will be arguing that this assassination is intrinsically linked to the political situation in Rwanda.”
Continue reading...Western officials frustrated by lack of response ahead of assault that killed 14 in Nairobi
Intelligence services in Kenya were warned that al-Shabaab was planning terrorist attacks on high-profile targets in the east African country around Christmas and the new year, western and regional security officials have said.
Officials and other sources told the Guardian the warnings had been passed on several times in recent months, adding that they had been frustrated not to see a greater response from Kenyan authorities.
Continue reading...In a country where myths about albinism can have deadly consequences, an organisation set up to battle discrimination is having a profound impact
Paschal Merumba has suffered prejudice from the day he was born.
His mother refused to breastfeed her “cursed” baby, the second child in the family born with albinism; the first had already died of neglect. Merumba was thought to have contaminated the community. He was made to eat apart and sleep on the floor.
Continue reading...US citizen confirmed among those killed in assault claimed by militant Islamist organisation al-Shabaab
Police and anti-terrorist forces have regained control of a Nairobi hotel and office complex, hours after Islamist extremist gunmen launched an attack that is thought to have killed at least 15 people, including a US citizen.
The assault on the dusitD2 compound in the Kenyan capital, which includes a luxury hotel, restaurants, a spa and several office buildings housing international companies, was the most outrageous by terrorists in the country for many years.
Continue reading...Kenya’s president has said security forces have killed all four militants who stormed a hotel and office complex in Nairobi, confirming earlier reports that 14 civilians had died.
Continue reading...Amateur footage captured people escaping a terror attack in the Kenyan capital. At least seven people had been reported killed and one suspect detained. At least 10 more were wounded. Militant Islamist organization al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the armed assault
Continue reading...Namibian-German artist Max Siedentopf has set up a solar-powered sound installation in the coastal Namib Desert to play the soft-rock classic on a loop. He has chosen an undisclosed spot in the desert to set up six speakers attached to an MP3 player with the single track on it and promises that it will run 'for all eternity'.
'I … wanted to pay the song the ultimate homage and physically exhibit 'Africa' in Africa,' Siedentopf told NPR. 'The Namibian desert — which is, with 55 million years, the oldest desert in the world — seemed to be the perfect spot for this.'
Continue reading...Filippo Grandi calls on rich countries to give proper funding for developing nations that host people fleeing conflict
The head of the UN refugee agency has said he too would do “anything” to escape if he was stuck in a squalid refugee camp, as he called on the world’s wealthy nations to properly fund services in developing countries.
Speaking to reporters after meeting the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, Filippo Grandi, the high commissioner for refugees, said countries are not getting enough recognition for hosting refugees, and that he would campaign for Cairo to receive more bilateral development aid to support its efforts.
Continue reading...The Nigerian author’s darkly comic debut novel, My Sister, the Serial Killer, has become a literary sensation. She explains her struggle with the moral ambiguity of her writing
When Oyinkan Braithwaite sent an early draft of her debut novel to a few friends, one of them told her it was the best thing she had ever written. “I was offended,” Braithwaite says, her voice heavy with irony. “I knew how I had written it.” She might not have thought much of it at the time, but this quick draft ended up unlocking deals with publishers in the UK and the US, as well as an option from the film company Working Title.
My Sister, the Serial Killer arrived in a feverish month, from a writer in a hurry and never looking back as she poured out a novel in an attempt to break a block. She shakes her head at the memory: “I was a bit mad during that period.”
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