Africa

Kenya confirms first COVID-19 case

Kenyan health officials have confirmed the country's first COVID-19 case. Kenya reported its first COVID-19 case on Friday. Minister of Health Mutahi Kagwe said a woman was diagnosed on March 12 after traveling…

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Africa’s low coronavirus rate puzzles health experts

Whether it's a matter of faulty detection, climatic factors or simple fluke, the remarkably low rate of coronavirus infection in African countries, with their fragile health systems, continues to puzzle…

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EU mobilises €10 million more to respond to severe Desert Locust outbreak in East Africa

The European Commission has announced today €10 million more to respond to one of the worst Desert Locust outbreak in decades in East Africa. The outbreak could have devastating consequences…

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Locust swarms in Africa ‘unprecedented in modern times’

Along with climate shocks, conflict and acute food insecurity, the East Africa region now faces a hunger threat from desert locusts, top UN relief officials warned on Tuesday, saying action…

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Huge locust outbreak reaches South Sudan

The worst locust outbreak that parts of East Africa have seen in 70 years has reached South Sudan, a country where roughly half the population already faces hunger after years…

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UN says 13 million people in East Africa could face food crisis due to locust swarms

The United Nations has warned if the locust swarms spreading across East Africa are not stopped now it could affect millions of people and cost more than $1bn (£766.5m). In…

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Pirates attack German container ship off West African coast

A vessel operated by Hamburg-based Bernhard Schulte Ship management was attacked by two speedboats in the Gulf of Guinea on Friday. The Maersk Tema was attacked by two speedboats off…

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East Africa to be hit by another massive locust swarm

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned that nymph (baby) desert locusts maturing in Somalia's rebel-held backcountry, where aerial spraying is next to unrealizable, will develop wings in the…

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Africa deemed unprepared for coronavirus outbreak

As the coronavirus spreads through much of China and various parts of the world, it has yet to be confirmed in Africa, but global health authorities are increasingly worried about…

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Spray planes combat the huge locust outbreak in East Africa

As locusts by the billions descend on parts of Kenya in the worst outbreak in 70 years, small planes are flying low over affected areas to spray pesticides in what…

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Isabel Dos Santos, Africa’s richest woman, accused of fraud

Africa's richest woman, Isabel Dos Santos, has been formally accused of embezzlement by prosecutors in Angola. Attorney General Helder Pitta Gros said the allegations related to her time as chairwoman…

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Documents reveal Maltese link to how ‘Africa’s richest woman’ stole fortune from her country

An award-winning investigative team from published a trove of files allegedly showing how Africa's richest woman, Isabel dos Santos, syphoned hundreds of millions of dollars of public money into…

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Massive locust outbreak hits East Africa

The most serious outbreak of locusts in 25 years is spreading across East Africa and posing an unprecedented threat to food security in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries,…

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Drought in southern Africa: EU releases over €22 million in humanitarian aid

The European Commission is mobilising a humanitarian aid package of €22.8 million to help address emergency food needs and support vulnerable people in Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The…

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UN warns of surge in terrorist attacks in Sahel and West Africa

The U.N. envoy for West Africa and the Sahel says the region has experienced "a devastating surge in terrorist attacks against civilian and military targets" in recent months. Mohamed Ibn…

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Concern on diplomats safety as US intelligence agencies face significant reductions through withdrawal of US military office in Africa

American intelligence agencies face a significant reduction in their counterterrorism collection efforts in Africa if a proposed withdrawal of United States military forces is carried out by the Pentagon, intelligence…

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Do They Know It’s Christmas widely criticised for perpetuating damaging stereotypes about Africa

Spotify’s song trivia feature has called out the controversial Band Aid track “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” for worsening the famine in Ethiopia. The 1984 charity single, written by Bob…

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West African states to halt use of CFA Franc and adopt single currency ECO

West Africa’s monetary union has agreed with France to rename its CFA franc the Eco and cut some of the financial links with Paris that have underpinned the region’s common…

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Africa-Europe Alliance: EU boosts pan-African Internet connectivity with €30 million

The EU has announced additional €30 million for the project “AfricaConnect”, that will provide affordable, high-capacity Internet for research and education networks across Africa. Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta…

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Pirates capture crew members of Hong Kong-flagged tanker

A Hong Kong-registered crude oil tanker was attacked, and its sailors kidnapped by pirates off the coast of Nigeria in the early hours of Wednesday, the South China Morning Post…

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ACP-EU : Agreement on climate change, migration and post-Cotonou

MEPs and African, Caribbean and Pacific MPs agreed on climate change, migration, sustainable growth and the post-Cotonou agreement. Carlos Zorrinho (S&D, PT) Co-President of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly said:…

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Pompeo: Anti-ISIS coalition should shift focus to Africa

There is growing concern about the ISIS threat outside of Iraq and Syria, and the coalition fighting the terrorist organization should focus on west Africa and the Sahel region, US Secretary of State Mike…

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Land migration in Africa twice as deadly as Mediterranean, says UNHCR

While the Mediterranean Sea remains a deadly route for migrants attempting to reach the European Union, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has warned that the African land journey to…

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Flooding in East Africa affects more than 1 million people

More than 1 million people in East Africa are affected by flooding after higher than normal rainfall, an aid group said Friday. Parts of the region are bracing for a…

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Severe food insecurity alert for 45 million people across Southern Africa

Forty-five million people in southern Africa are expected to face severe food insecurity in the next six months as the worst drought in decades continues to bite, the World…

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Harry and Meghan make 1st official tour as family in Africa

Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, along with their infant son, Archie, are making their first official tour as a family, starting Monday in a troubled South Africa. Empowering women…

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Pope Francis begins Apostolic journey to Africa

Pope Francis on Wednesday departed to Maputo, Mozambique for an Apostolic Journey will see him visiting Mozambique, Madagascar and Mauritius from 04 to 10 September 2019. He’s going to deliver…

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Poverty, Environment, Corruption and Exploitation to dominate Pope’s Africa visit’s agenda

Pope Francis leaves on Wednesday for Africa, where poverty, the environment, foreign exploitation of resources and corruption are expected to be high on his agenda as he visits the continent…

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Education under fire in Central and Western Africa warns UNICEF report

A surge in “deliberate” attacks against students, teachers and schools in West and Central Africa has led to a tripling in school closures in the last year and left almost…

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Rwanda dismisses Ebola threat

Authorities in Rwanda have refuted reports that the fishmmonger responsible for Uganda’s renewed Ebola crisis, had crossed into the border town of Gisenyi. Malic Kayumba, Head of Communications at Rwanda…

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Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the edge of spiralling out of control

Rory Stewart, the UK’s international development secretary, has said that the year-long Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is on the edge of spiralling out of…

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Don’t take African generosity towards refugees for granted, says UN refugee chief

The international community must not take the generosity of Africans for granted, UN refugee chief, Filippo Grandi, told an informal meeting of Security Council members at UN Headquarters in New…

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WHO considering declaring a global health emergency because of Ebola in Uganda and Congo

Dr. Mike Ryan, the World Health Organization’s emergencies chief, in comments to the Associated Press (AP) , said that it was a Congolese pastor who is thought to have…

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Two more Ebola cases diagnosed in Uganda as child dies from disease

The year-old Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is now spreading to neighboring countries, as a five-year-old boy in Uganda died from the disease and two of his…

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24 children among those massacred in weekend attack in Mali

Boubou Cisse , the prime minister of Mali said that from the bodies recovered of a massacre of scores of people by a Malian ethnic fighter group, these included at…

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Ebola case confirmed in Uganda

Uganda’s health ministry says a patient has tested positive for Ebola in what is the first cross-border case of the deadly virus since an outbreak started in neighbouring DR…

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Two Canadian aid workers kidnapped in Ghana

Two Canadian women working for a local aid agency in Ghana, the Youth Challenge International NGO, were kidnapped at a golf club. A police statement did not name the victims…

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Two French tourists kidnapped, local guide killed in Benin

Two French tourists were kidnapped and their local guide was killed in Benin on May 1, regional sources told FRANCE 24. The vehicle carrying them was burned and was found…

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Massive flooding in Mozambique

Serious flooding has wreaked havoc in parts of Mozambique, as houses collapsed in many areas. Rescue efforts are underway to help people trapped by rising floodwaters in the country's northern…

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World’s biggest anti-malaria vaccine campaign begins in Africa

Some 360,000 children a year in three African countries are to receive a powerful anti-malaria drug as part of a pilot project to help reduce the incidence of the…

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2,241 died in 2018 in their attempt to cross the Mediterranean

A total of 2,241 irregular migrants have died in the Mediterranean Sea since the beginning of the year, the non-profit Spanish Refugee Aid Commission (CEAR) said Thursday, reports Anadolu Agency. In a statement,…

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UK aims to be Africa’s biggest investor within four years

Theresa May said the UK aims to be Africa’s biggest foreign investor within four years as she began the first visit by a British prime minister to the continent in…

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Encouraged by the #MeToo, nuns express their stories of pain and abuse

CBC/AP: Revelations that a prominent U.S. cardinal sexually abused and harassed his adult seminarians have exposed an egregious abuse of power that has shocked Catholics on both sides of the Atlantic.…

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Africa and CONCACAF absent after first round of World Cup

AIPS: None of the five CAF nations made it beyond the first group stage for the first time since 1982 and Tunisia’s departing ‘achievement’ of a first win at the finals…

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