AFRICA

Bamako, Mali | AFP | Mali could be thrown out of the 2018 World Cup qualifying competition after the government sacked the national football federation leaders. The bottom-of-the-table west Africans are scheduled to play Morocco twice, group leaders Ivory Coast and Gabon this year. Global football body FIFA does not permit …

Juba, South Sudan | AFP | International aid agencies on Saturday slammed South Sudan’s decision to raise foreign worker visa fees to as much as $10,000 (9,300 euros), warning it would worsen a humanitarian crisis in the famine-hit country. “The government and the army have largely contributed to the humanitarian situation,” …

  African legislators meeting in Midrand, South Africa this week have been tasked to lobby their governments to support the adoption of the Protocol on the Free Movement of Persons on the continent in the January 2018 African Union Summit. Speaking to parliamentarians in the Committee of Trade, Customs and …

Vatican City, Holy See | AFP |  African bishops have asked Radio Vatican, the official radio of the pope, to restore shortwave transmissions to the continent, the Catholic agency Fides reported on Friday. Catholics are estimated to number more than 150 million in Africa, the poorest of all continents, and …

Banjul, Gambia | AFP | Gambian coalition parties which united last year to deliver the first new president in 22 years are unlikely to run together for legislative elections next month, a senior government source told AFP. President Adama Barrow said in January his coalition government would “continue as a …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Sudan summoned on Thursday US charge d’affaires Steven Koutsis to protest President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban which bars its citizens from entering the United States. “The US charge d’affaires was informed of Sudan’s discontent over the decisions issued by the American adminstration on March 6,” …

Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday returned to Nigeria after nearly two months’ medical leave in Britain but did little to quell fears about the state of his health by saying he would not start work again immediately. The 74-year-old, who has been in London since …

Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | President Muhammadu Buhari arrived back in Nigeria on Friday after nearly two months in London receiving treatment for an undisclosed ailment. The 74-year-old landed at the airport in the northern city of Kaduna at about 7:40 am (0640 GMT) and was flown by helicopter to the …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  The International Olympic Committee on Thursday imposed a freeze on grants to the Kenyan Olympic committee in a move which would affect the running of national sports activities in the country. The IOC said in a statement that it was unhappy that the Kenyan National …

The Leader of the Opposition in Uganda’s Parliament Winnie Kiiza has said that opposition parties should not be viewed as enemies of the ruling government, but as an organ with an advisory role. Kiiza said that the opposition is a government in waiting’ and should not be classified as being against …