AFRICA

Sir Ketumile Masire  ?? Born: July 23, 1925, Kanye, Botswana ?? Died: June 22, 2017 Sir Ketumile Masire, who was Botswana’s second President, has died aged 91. He had been hospitalised in critical condition at the Intensive Care Unit at Bokomoso Hospital since June 18. The Board of Trustees of the Sir …

  Accra, Ghana | AFP |  Ghana’s Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the transfer of two former Guantanamo Bay detainees to the country was unconstitutional without parliamentary approval. Ghana had signed an agreement with the US government in January 2016 allowing the two ex-Guantanamo prisoners to live in the country. …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP |  The animals won’t travel two-by-two, but thousands of safari stalwarts will soon begin their journeys from Zimbabwe to Mozambique in one of Africa’s largest ever wildlife transfers. Fifty elephants, 100 giraffes, 200 zebras and 200 buffaloes will be among the several thousand animals that will …

Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi  has revealed that Egypt is suffering from a water deficit of about 21.5 billion cubic metres per year, and is cautious of any agreements related to the River Nile that could affect this supply. According to AharamOnline, this was the main thrust of President Sisi’s speech Thursday …

Kampala, Uganda | PPU| Prosperity for Nile Basin countries is the best way to protect River Nile and other water systems in Africa, President Museveni has said. The President made the remarks at a plenary session of the first ever Nile Basin Heads of State summit held at State House, Entebbe. The …

Arua, Uganda | Michael O’Hagan | AFP |  The EU pledged 85 million euros ($95 million) to Uganda on Thursday as UN chief Antonio Guterres urged donors to give 20 times that amount to help the country deal with nearly one million refugees from South Sudan. Guterres visited a refugee …

Kampala, Uganda | AMY FALLON| devex.com|  As a former refugee in Kenya, Musa Francis Ecweru often reflects on the generosity of his once-host nation. Today, as Uganda’s state minister for relief, disaster preparedness and refugees, he sits on the other side of the table, managing his country’s reception in the world’s fastest …

Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is in Uganda for crucial talks on the use of the River Nile waters. Sisi jetted into Entebbe Thursday morning for the Nile Basin Heads of State summit, one of several leaders who flew in for discussions on sharing River Nile that has divided the region …

Warder, Ethiopia |Chris Stein, AFP | The Somali people of Ethiopia’s southeast have a name for the drought that has killed livestock, dried up wells and forced hundreds of thousands into camps: sima, which means “equalised”. It’s an appropriate name, they say, because this drought has left no person untouched, …

Juba, South Sudan | AFP | A famine that was declared in parts of South Sudan four months ago is over, UN aid agencies said Wednesday, but extreme hunger has increased to its highest levels ever across the war-torn country. “The accepted technical definition of famine no longer applies in …