AFRICA

Rabat, Morocco | AFP | Morocco’s King Mohammed VI on Tuesday warned US President Donald Trump against moving the American embassy to the contested holy city of Jerusalem. Trump informed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas by phone of his intention to move the embassy from Tel Aviv, Abbas’s office said Tuesday. In …

Conakry, Guinea | AFP | President Alpha Conde of Guinea has given the green light for local elections to be held on February 4, 2018, the first such vote for the country’s 342 voting districts since 2005. Conde signed a decree released late on Monday that notified the National Independent Electoral …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Zimbabwe’s new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, called for public unity to revive the country’s sickly economy as his new cabinet took office on Monday. “I have sworn in a new cabinet just to finish the term of the former president, which is a period of six to …

Abidjan, Ivory Coast | AFP | The head of the UN’s AIDS agency on Monday urged African countries to protect young women and children who are bearing the brunt of the continent’s AIDS epidemic. A sharp rise of people living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has now slowed, “but now …

Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | Around $321 million in public funds stolen by former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha will be returned to the African country, Switzerland said Monday. The money, originally deposited in Luxembourg, was confiscated by a Swiss court in late 2014 and in March last year the two …

Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | Sierra Leone’s opposition on Monday said it welcomed the replacement of the country’s police chief following his sacking amid accusations of institutional political bias and endemic corruption. Former Inspector General of Police Francis Munu was reassigned to an ambassadorial post in neighbouring Liberia after being …

Juba, South Sudan | AFP | Cash-strapped South Sudan has spent millions of dollars on Israeli surveillance drones and security cameras aimed at fighting rampant crime in the capital Juba, officials said Monday. The first two drones and 11 cameras will be deployed by Israeli company Global Group, President Salva …

Cotonou, Benin | AFP | French President Emmanuel Macron made a surprise announcement during his recent African tour, saying in Burkina Faso’s capital that one of his priorities was to restore African cultural treasures. African cultural heritage “should be highlighted in Paris, but also in Dakar, Lagos, Cotonou”, Macron told a …

Brussels, Belgium | AFP | Former militants were recruited by the Democratic Republic of Congo government for a bloody crackdown on protests against the president that left dozens of people dead last year, a rights group alleged Monday. Human Rights Watch said President Joseph Kabila’s regime had drafted in fighters previously …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Swiss food giant Nestle announced Sunday that it would close its factory in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a potential market of 80 million people but one beset by poverty and political instability. “We will close our factory and offices by the …