AFRICA

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP |  South African President Cyril Ramaphosa unveiled a limited cabinet reshuffle Thursday ahead of elections in May when the ruling ANC party will seek to turn around its decline in popularity. In the most significant of three appointments, Siyabonga Cwele, 60, was moved from the …

  Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Zimbabwe’s new finance minister Mthuli Ncube announced a five-percent cut to senior government officials’ salaries on Thursday in a bid to mend the shattered economy. Ncube’s budget also set out plans for the biometric registration of civil servants to weed out “ghost” workers who …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP |  Ugandan rebels on Thursday fired on a UN helicopter in an attack in the volatile east of DR Congo, though there were no victims, UN sources said. “One of our helicopters was fired on in Semuliki valley by rebels — we reacted in legitimate …

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | Ethiopia’s former opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa, who recently returned from exile, was on Thursday named as head of the country’s election body ahead of the 2020 polls. Birtukan’s appointment makes her the latest woman to be appointed to a high-profile role and the most …

Paris, France | AFP | African museum directors on Wednesday welcomed an expert report calling on France to allow the return of thousands of African treasures and artworks, a radical policy shift that could put pressure on other former colonial powers. Calls have been growing in Africa for restitution, but …

Yaoundé, Cameroon | AFP |  A Kenyan priest was killed in francophone Cameroon’s volatile English-speaking Southwest region where violence has surged after separatists declared an independent state, church sources told AFP on Thursday. “A Kenyan priest was shot dead in Kembong yesterday,” one source said. “There was no fighting, he …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | Ivory Coast and Chelsea great Didier Drogba announced his retirement on Wednesday after a 20-year career. The 40-year-old scored 164 goals in 381 appearances for Chelsea, winning four Premier League titles, four FA Cups and the 2012 Champions League, while he is also Ivory …

Niamey, Niger | AFP | Part of a group of a rare giraffes that has become a Niger tourist attraction is to be moved to a reserve 600 kilometres (400 miles) away owing to encroaching desert, farmland and increasing instances of them being struck by vehicles, officials said Wednesday. “It’s …

Bamako, Mali | AFP | An armed group of ethnic Dogon hunters have rejected a recent ceasefire with Fulani herders in central Mali, arguing they need to protect fellow tribe members after several were killed by Mali army troops, a military-wing spokesperson said Wednesday. The armed group, known as Dan …

Former Angolan president rejects he left state coffers ’empty’ Luanda, Angola | AFP |  Former Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos on Wednesday refuted allegations by his successor Joao Lourenco that he left the country’s finances “empty”. The row comes just over a year after Dos Santos stepped down in …