AFRICA

    Gaborone, Botswana | AFP | Incumbent president Mokgweetsi Masisi on Friday won a five-year term in Botswana’s elections which saw his ruling party secure more than 51 percent of parliamentary votes, the chief justice said. “Dr. Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi is elected President of the Republic of Botswana,” …

Goma, DR Congo | AFP | Senior military officers from five African Great Lakes countries met on Thursday to discuss violence which plagues part of their region, sources said. A military official said senior officers from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda gathered in the eastern town …

  Sochi, Russia | AFP | Aboubakary Guiro, a financial expert from Ivory Coast, is full of hope after attending the first ever Russia-Africa summit this week in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. “We forget about Russians when we talk business,” said Guiro, the co-partner of a financial advisory …

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda’s Sister Gladyce Kachope of Immaculate Heart Girls Rukungiri, is one of three winners of the first Continental Teacher Prize. Kachope, Eric Ademba  of Kenya and Augusta Lartey-Young  from Ghana each win a prize of $10,000 for secondary school teachers. The African Union (AU) on …

Nairobi, Kenya | THE INDEPENDENT | The Safaricom PLC Board of Directors has appointed  Peter Ndegwa as the company’s Chief Executive Officer effective April 1, 2020. He joins Safaricom from Diageo PLC where he is the Managing Director of Diageo Continental Europe. “Ndegwa brings a wealth of experience in General …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  “We would collect dead, dumped bodies. Some were decomposing… others were fresh,” said John Chege of his early days policing Nairobi’s Karura Forest, back when thieves and murderers outnumbered joggers and dog walkers in the woods. Karura then was the stuff of urban legend, a fearsome …

Gaborone, Botswana | AFP | Botswana voted Wednesday in a cliffhanger election set to test the decades-long dominance of the ruling party and challenge the country’s image of stability. The southern African nation’s 2,200 polling stations started closing at 1700 GMT as many were still waiting in queues to cast their …

  Nanterre, France | AFP |  Six NGOs said Wednesday that they had filed a lawsuit against the French energy giant Total over an oil field project in Uganda, accusing it of failing to avert “disastrous impacts” for local residents and biodiversity. The groups hope the court in Nanterre, outside …

Egypt says accepts US invite to meet on Nile dam dispute Cairo, Egypt | AFP |  Egypt has accepted a US invitation for a meeting with Sudan and Ethiopia over a protracted Nile dam dispute, the foreign ministry said. The meeting, to be held in Washington, would bring together foreign …

Bangui, Central African Republic | AFP | The Central African Republic is an important plank in Russia’s strategy of boosting its presence in Africa by offering security for fragile regimes in resource-rich countries, analysts say. President Vladimir Putin last year surprised the West by a string of high-profile moves that …