Maiduguri, Nigeria | AFP | In 2013, thousands of young men formed a rag-tag militia and rounded up Boko Haram members in Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria, then handed them over to the military. The Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), as it later became known, was instrumental in driving the Islamist militants …

Beijing, China | AFP |  Flamboyant former NBA star Dennis Rodman landed in Beijing Saturday after a visit to North Korea, describing the escapade as a “real good trip”. Sporting a baseball cap, sunglasses, green nail polish and a black t-shirt emblazoned with the logo of sponsor PotCoin — a …

Trump announces he’s being investigated Washington, United States | AFP |  US President Donald Trump announced Friday he is under investigation in connection with a probe into alleged Russian election meddling that is gnawing away at his administration — and gathering pace. The Republican leader also lashed out at the …

Berlin, Germany | AFP |  Germany’s longest serving post-war leader Helmut Kohl, the father of national reunification and an architect of European integration, died Friday at the age of 87. Kohl helped a Germany that was split during the Cold War between a capitalist west and a communist east make …

Pretoria, South Africa| BY PETER FABRICIUS| ISS TODAY| Later this month South Africa’s ruling party begins its five-yearly policy conference to determine the direction to be taken by the new African National Congress (ANC) president who will be elected in December. This is assuming that that person also becomes South Africa’s …

For the past two decades, the phenomenon of the opposition coalition has gained growing traction and interest across Africa. Johannesburg, South Africa| AFRICAN ARGUMENTS| BY NICOLE BEARDSWORTH | For the past two decades, the phenomenon of the opposition coalition has gained growing traction and interest across Africa. In 2000, a group of …

Luanda, Angola | AFP |  Angola’s government is preparing a golden parachute for the country’s president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, complete with first-class air travel and a chauffeur-driven car. And after 38 years in power, he will retire on a pension not far short of his current salary. A bill …

  Three top Chief Executive Officers from three different sectors  have called on government and the private sector to think big about transforming Uganda’s current peasantry and subsistence agriculture, to a new commercial level Jimmy Mugerwa, the General Manager at Tullow Oil Uganda, William Sekabembe, the Executive Director at dfcu …

Tanzanian newspaper suspended for pointing finger at Mkapa, Kikwete Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  Tanzanian weekly, Mawio, has been ordered to suspend publication for two years after pointing the finger at two former presidents in connection with huge revenue losses, the country’s interior ministry said Friday. The weekly, regularly critical of …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  Four people were killed and 11 injured when a passenger bus struck a roadside bomb in northeast Kenya on Friday, officials said, the most recent in a string of such attacks. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, but in recent weeks …