AFRICA

Paris, France | AFP | South Africa is set for a steep decline in wine production in 2018 as the country grapples with a water crisis ravaging Cape Town and surrounding areas, a Paris-based global organisation said Tuesday. Africa’s top wine producer is set to produce 8.6 million hectolitres of wine …

Mangochi, Malawi | AFP | Malawi’s former president Joyce Banda will arrive home this week after four years of self-imposed exile that saw an arrest warrant issued against her for alleged corruption, her party said on Monday. Nowa Chimpeni, a spokesman for Banda’s People’s Party (PP) told local media she …

Antananarivo, Madagascar | AFP | Hundreds of Madagascan opposition supporters returned to the streets on Monday to protest against the president and a deadly crackdown by security forces on an anti-government demonstration. Two people were killed and at least 16 people wounded at protests in the capital Antananarivo on Saturday that …

Paris, France | AFP | Detained Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, widely known as Shawkan, will be awarded UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Prize, the United Nations’ cultural body said Monday. Shawkan was arrested in August 2013 as he covered deadly clashes in Cairo between security forces and supporters of ousted …

Ouagadougou, BURKINA FASO | THE INDEPENDENT | The President of Burkina Faso Rock Marc Christian Kabore has called for closer bilateral cooperation between his country and Uganda. The President stated this while receiving letters of credence accrediting Amb. Nelson Ocheger as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Burkina …

Beirut, Lebanon | AFP | Egypt’s military operations against an affiliate of the Islamic State group in North Sinai is threatening to spark a humanitarian crisis, Human Rights Watch said on Monday. The offensive launched on February 9 “has left up to 420,000 residents in four northeastern cities in urgent …

Tripoli, Libya | AFP | At least eleven migrants died at sea and another 263 were rescued on Sunday in two separate operations off the coast of Libya, the country’s navy said. In the first operation, “a coastguard patrol… was able to rescue 83 illegal migrants and recovered 11 bodies …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Thousands of Zimbabwe nurses who were sacked after they went on strike for better wages have been told to return to work by their union, in a bid to allow fresh negotiations with the government. Some 15,000 nurses fighting for better work conditions walked out …

Kano, Nigeria | AFP | Two suicide bombers killed three Muslim worshippers in a mosque in a northeast Nigerian town still being rebuilt after virtual destruction by Boko Haram in 2014, sources told AFP Sunday. The bombers, a man and a woman, detonated their explosives inside the mosque during morning …

Kano, Nigeria | AFP | Muhammadu Buhari’s pledge to end Boko Haram’s Islamist insurgency in northeast Nigeria played a large part in his 2015 presidential election victory. With elections approaching next year and Buhari,75, having declared his intention to seek a second, four-year term, the extent to which he has …