Kenyans have reacted furiously to news that 20 MPs have travelled to watch the World Cup at the taxpayers’ expense. They are watching four games, including the final, in a two-week trip to Russia estimated to be costing hundreds of thousands of US dollars. The MPs caught the attention of…
Twenty-one people are missing, feared dead, after their boat capsized in northern Nigeria, emergency services and rescue workers said on Tuesday. The vessel, carrying 30 traders and their wares, overturned in high winds on a river in the Isa district of northwestern Sokoto state during a heavy downpour on Saturday.…
Almost 40 Nigerian opposition parties have agreed to field a joint candidate to prevent the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari next year. The alliance includes the main opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and a splinter group that broke away from Mr Buhari’s governing All Progressives Congress (APC) last…
Eritrea and Ethiopia are to re-establish diplomatic and trade ties after two decades of hostility. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki made the announcement during a landmark meeting in Eritrea’s capital Asmara. It is the first time the leaders from the two East African neighbours have…
A petrol tanker has caught fire in Nigeria’s biggest city, Lagos, killing at least nine people, officials say. More than 50 vehicles, including five buses, were set ablaze after the truck lost control and spilled its contents on a busy motorway during rush hour. The tanker is said to have…
Two people injured in Saturday’s explosion at a campaign rally in Zimbabwe’s second city of Bulawayo have died, a medical official has said. Solwayo Ngwenya, clinical director of the city’s Mpilo hospital in the city, told AFP other victims had life-threatening injuries. At least 49 people, including President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s…
The US State Department has imposed visa bans on a number of Congolese officials accused of corruption or electoral malpractice. It declined to name those targeted, but said the move was intended to send a strong signal that Washington was committed to fighting corruption and to supporting credible elections. The…
Malawi’s former President Joyce Banda, who returned home in April after four years of self-imposed exile, says she intends to contest next year’s election if chosen by the opposition People’s Party. In 2012, Mrs Banda became Malawi’s first female president and only the second woman to lead a country in…
Protesters have been out for a second day in northern Ethiopia to express their opposition to last week’s surprise announcement that the government would hand over disputed border territories to Eritrea. Reports say they were chanting slogans and carrying twigs to express their opposition to the decision. They say implementing…
Five people have died of Rift Valley Fever in Kenya in the past week, in the first re-emergence of the disease since an outbreak a decade ago which killed more than 200 people. The latest cases were in all the north-eastern county of Wajir. The viral disease is mainly spread…