AFRICA

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa said Friday that a landmark minimum wage bill to bridge the country’s notorious inequality will become law from January 1 as he eyes elections due in 2019. The bill legislates that the lowest paid workers receive a minimum of …

Kananga, DR Congo | AFP | A DR Congo army officer suspected of involvement in the 2017 murder of two UN experts has been arrested by a military tribunal trying the case, the prosecutor said Friday. “Colonel Jean de Dieu Mambweni was arrested Thursday on suspicion of having prepared the …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | In Democratic Republic of Congo, they call him “Doctor Miracle” for his surgical skill and dedication in helping women overcome the injuries and trauma of sexual abuse and rape. Denis Mukwege is a crusading gynaecologist who has spent more than two decades treating appalling …

Marrakesh, Morocco | AFP | Representatives from around the globe are gearing up for a major conference in Morocco to endorse a United Nations migration pact, despite a string of countries shunning the accord. The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration was finalised at the UN in July …

Mogadishu, Somalia | AFP |  A mine blast killed two generals and five other soldiers near the Somali capital Mogadishu on Thursday, military sources said, in an attack claimed by the jihadist Al-Shabaab movement. General Omar Adan Hassan, head of the army’s 12th brigade, and the brigade’s operational commander, General …

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | The main challenger to President Muhammadu Buhari in next year’s election has advised Nigerians against selling their votes as concerns persist over possible electoral fraud at the landmark polls. Atiku Abubakar, from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), claimed Buhari’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had …

Nouakchott, Mauritania | AFP | Western donors said Thursday they have pledged 2.4 billion euros ($2.7 billion) in funding aimed at preventing terrorism and lawlessness along the southern rim of the Sahara. The updated pledge total was announced in a final statement from a donors conference held in the Mauritanian …

Bangui, Central African Republic | AFP | The line of parents waiting to see doctors stretches back outside the hospital into the dusty courtyard. Mums and dads carrying weak, starving children. Many hanging limply in their arms like half empty sacks of rice. The scene at the paediatric complex in …

Integration is essential to scale and connect markets where lack of electricity is holding back progress GLOBAL COMMENT | Tony Blair | African countries are increasingly coming together. A landmark free-trade agreement was concluded earlier this year. East Africa has made great progress on free movement of people. And a commitment to …

Accra, Ghana | AFP | Respect Ruvimbo Topodzi was 15 and walking home from school in her native Zimbabwe when a 22-year-old man asked her out. She turned him down but it was too late. Her father saw them and assumed they were already together. He told her she had …