AFRICA

Paris, France | AFP | Telecoms and internet giants unveiled Thursday a mammoth project to lay a subsea cable around Africa to boost internet access to the underserved continent. The consortium, which includes China Mobile International, Facebook, Orange and Vodafone, said a cable 37,000 kilometres (23,000 miles) long will make landfall in 16 countries in …

  Libreville, Gabon | AFP | For years, African oil-exporting countries have vowed to wean themselves off crude — but for many, this uphill task may become mountainous after the coronavirus pandemic caused the energy market to collapse. Here is a snapshot of how sub-Saharan oil exporters are faring: – Who …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Burundi has ordered the expulsion of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) expert team backing the country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, just days before a presidential election. The foreign ministry, in a letter to WHO Africa headquarters and seen by AFP on Wednesday, said the …

  To overcome the current global public-health and economic crisis, rich countries must support Africa COMMENT | ABIY AHMED | The world will not be free of the COVID-19 pandemic until all countries are free of the coronavirus that causes it. This simple fact underscored the urgent need for the …

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP |  The collapse in oil prices linked to the coronavirus crisis has seen Nigeria’s revenues from crude dry up and left Africa’s largest economy more threatened than ever by its dependence on black gold. The crude market may have rebounded in recent days to more than $30 …

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania | AFP | Tanzania’s opposition on Wednesday demanded the truth about the country’s coronavirus infections two weeks after the last update, as the US embassy raised the alarm over “overwhelmed hospitals”. The government stopped giving daily updates after President John Magufuli complained last month they were causing panic, and went on …

UPDATE UGANDA 🔸 13 new cases (truck drivers) ✳ 65,275 tested ✳ 139 Confirmed cases ✳ 55 Recoveries ✳ 0 deaths SOURCE MOH Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Ministry of Health has just confirmed 13 new COVID-19 positive cases, the second time in a week that this high …

Blantyre, Malawi | AFP | Malawi’s presidential election re-run could be brought forward by a week to comply with a court order that a new leader be declared within 150 days of a ruling that quashed last year’s polls, the electoral commission has said. The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) had set July 2 for a …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Sudan on Tuesday rejected an Ethiopian proposal to sign an initial agreement greenlighting the filling of a controversial mega-dam it is building. “I cannot accept the signing of a draft agreement to the first phase (filling the dam) because it poses legal and technical problems that must be addressed,” Sudanese …

Bukavu, DR Congo | AFP | Fourteen boys were raped by a man posing as a pastor in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the Panzi Foundation said Tuesday. The Bukavu charity hospital founded by Denis Mukwege, the Nobel laureate and gynaecologist hailed for his work with rape victims, said the children were admitted last month …