AFRICA

Antananarivo, Madagascar | AFP | At least 34 people died when a bus carrying young Christian worshippers plunged down a steep ravine in central Madagascar, police and hospital officials said Tuesday. Police said 12 badly burned bodies were counted at the site, 70 kilometres (45 miles) north of the capital Antananarivo. …

Juba, South Sudan | AFP |  At least four people were killed by unknown gunmen on the main road between South Sudan’s capital and the Uganda border on Wednesday, an army spokesman said. The deadly attack was the latest on the dangerous yet busy highway that ferries South Sudanese fleeing …

Hoedspruit, South Africa | AFP |  It was a hard-fought victory for South Africa’s black community seeking to reclaim land, and for the Moletele ethnic group it has become a surprising model of wider racial cooperation. After a 10-year legal battle, the Moletele have taken back the land from which …

Changes to higher education can empower youth to drive continent’s economic transformation  COMMENT |KIM KERR| When South African university students took to the streets in 2016 as part of the “Fees Must Fall” protest movement, the “decolonisation of the curriculum” was among the movement’s chief concerns. It was a pivotal …

President Museveni opens Commonwealth Youth Ministers’ meeting Kampala, Uganda | PPU |  President Yoweri Museveni has opened the 9th Commonwealth Youth Ministers’ meeting at the Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort Hotel in Kampala with a call for increased trade between the Commonwealth member countries. The theme of the 4-day meeting is ‘Resourcing and …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  The timing was perfect. Two months before Kenya’s August 8 vote, President Uhuru Kenyatta inaugurated the nation’s biggest infrastructure project: a railway connecting the capital Nairobi and the port of Mombasa. With pomp and ceremony Kenyatta touted the railway as proof of his campaign promises …

Pretoria, South Africa | AFP | A South African policeman present when an anti-apartheid operative plunged to his death more than 40 years ago insisted on Monday that the victim had jumped to his death. But the judge hearing the inquest into the death of Ahmed Timol warned him that he …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  Kenyan rights activists took to the streets Tuesday to protest the murder of a top election official, whose death stunned the nation ahead of an already tense vote on August 8. The body of Chris Msando, charged with overseeing the country’s crucial electronic voting system, …

Nairobi, KENYA | JUMUIYA |  The East African Community Election Observation Mission to Kenya’s 8th August 2017 General Elections has been launched in Nairobi, Kenya, with an appeal to all Kenyans to vote calmly and uphold peace and tranquillity for the betterment of all Kenyans and the East African region …

Beijing, China | AFP |  China has officially opened its first overseas naval base in Djibouti, state media said Tuesday, a major step for the country’s expansion of its military presence abroad. Chinese military personnel, officials and guests attended a flag-raising ceremony and military parade to mark the occasion, the …