AFRICA

Kampala, Uganda | URN | Finance Ministers from Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda have agreed on the financing of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project.‎ ‎The ministers were meeting in Washington D.C. on the sidelines of the on-going IMF and World Bank 2026 Spring Meetings to discuss the progress of the …

NAIROBI, KENYA | Xinhua | At a busy bus stop on the outskirts of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, commuters wait in long queues as transport fares rise in response to surging fuel prices. “I paid 0.61 dollars this morning instead of the usual 0.38,” said Moses Kalondu, an office …

ANTANANARIVO | Xinhua | Madagascar’s presidency said at a press conference held on Wednesday that there had been an attempted assassination targeting the President of Madagascar Michael Randrianirina, following the overflight of his residence by thermal drones. According to the Director of Communication at the Presidency, Harry Laurent Rahajason, five …

Cape Town, South Africa | Xinhua | South African opposition politician Julius Malema was sentenced on Thursday to five years in prison for firearm-related offenses. Malema, the founding leader of the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), is one of the most prominent politicians in South Africa. The lengthy sentence was …

COMMENT | ANDREW PI BESI | When commenting on the 1980–1988 Iraq–Iran war, Henry Kissinger once remarked that it was “a pity both sides can’t lose”. It was a chilling distillation of a worldview in which distant conflicts are not tragedies to be resolved, but instruments to be managed. Alongside Zbigniew …

  From Kyankwanzi to the Moon and beyond: Another case for Regional Integration and Shared Ambition   COMMENT | ANDREW PI BESI | Sometime in 2023, I found myself on a panel at the Kampala Geopolitics Conference, convened by the French Embassy and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung–Uganda in partnership with Makerere University. …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | In one of Africa’s most epidemiologically sensitive ecosystems, the gap between detection and response remains a defining vulnerability. The Greater Virunga Landscape where humans, livestock, and wildlife interact daily has long been identified as a potential hotspot for zoonotic spillovers, with implications that extend …

  Johannesburg, South Africa | AGENCIES |  Uganda’s TWave Ltd , who have pioneered an automated, solar‑powered fish feeding system that optimizes aquaculture productivity, have been selected as one of 10 startups for the fourth year of the Qualcomm Make in Africa Mentorship Program. For this year’s edition of the one-of-a-kind …

  Cairo, Egypt | THE INDEPENDENT | African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) posted a 19% rise in net profit for 2025, driven by strong lending growth and continued financing of key sectors across Africa. The Cairo-based lender said net income reached $1.2 billion for the year ended Dec. 31, up from …

 Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Africa’s place in an increasingly contested global order will come under scrutiny at a two-day geopolitics conference set for April 15–16 at Makerere University, as policymakers and analysts debate whether the continent is shaping or being shaped by intensifying external interest. The conference to be …