Mali’s foreign minister called Friday for the UN Security Council to withdraw the peacekeeping mission in his country “without delay,” denouncing its “failure” to respond to security challenges.The country’s military rulers have increasingly imposed operational restrictions on peacekeepers and also broke Mali’s longstanding alliance with former colonial power France.”The government of Mali calls for the …

Mali calls for immediate end of UN missionFri, 16 Jun 2023 20:57:22 GMT Read More »

Congolese voters are hoping the government keeps its promise to produce new ID cards for the first time in decades after preparations for December elections finally offered them official documents.National ID cards were last issued in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1990s, when the country was called Zaire and ruled by longtime dictator …

DR Congo yearns for end to long wait for new ID cardsFri, 16 Jun 2023 20:01:45 GMT Read More »

Tens of thousands of supporters and opponents of a new Malian constitution held separate rallies in the capital Bamako on Friday before this weekend’s referendum, AFP journalists reported.Around 50,000 supporters of the “yes” campaign backed by the military government gathered in a stadium on Bamako’s outskirts, in a meeting attended by junta leader Assimi Goita.Goita …

Rallies grip Bamako before Mali constitutional referendumFri, 16 Jun 2023 19:49:34 GMT Read More »

The conflict in Sudan has displaced more than one million children, 270,000 of them in the Darfur region, the UN children’s agency (UNICEF) has said, warning more were at “grave risk”.Fighting has raged in Sudan since mid-April between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid …

Sudan war drives one million children from homes: UNFri, 16 Jun 2023 19:34:11 GMT Read More »

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday called on Ukraine and Russia to de-escalate their conflict, as he arrived in the war-torn country on a mission to broker peace. “This war must be settled and there should be peace through negotiations,” he told reporters after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.Ramaphosa was among a group of …

In Kyiv, South African leader urges Russia and Ukraine to de-escalateFri, 16 Jun 2023 17:02:26 GMT Read More »

A key critic of Tunisian President Kais Saied called in for questioning over allegations of conspiracy against the state accused the president Friday of “criminalising” all opposition.Saied won a landslide victory in a 2019 presidential election but assumed sweeping powers in a July 2021 power grab in a move labelled a coup by his opponents.Ahmed …

Tunisia’s Saied ‘criminalising’ opposition, key critic saysFri, 16 Jun 2023 16:05:02 GMT Read More »

A barrage of Russian missiles greeted a delegation of African leaders arriving in Kyiv on Friday as part of a mission aiming to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine. The high-level diplomatic team hopes to bring to the table the voice of a continent that has badly suffered from repercussion of the Ukraine war, including by …

Kyiv attacked as African peace mission visits UkraineFri, 16 Jun 2023 15:25:34 GMT Read More »

The classrooms are bright and clean, their shelves filled with textbooks and stationery. The pupils wear neatly ironed blue and grey uniforms, complete with bright red jerseys. The set-up could easily be mistaken for an expensive South African private school, yet all the pupils are from poor backgrounds. The school, funded by philanthropists, offers hope to children …

Free school aims to breaks poverty cycle in S.African townshipFri, 16 Jun 2023 13:44:23 GMT Read More »

Sitting on top of a yellow jerry can of fuel, Jeannine waits for customers on a sidewalk in Benin’s economic capital Cotonou, but business is slow. The motorbikes and cars she normally supplies are no longer stopping to stock up on her cheap gasoline, which is smuggled in from neighbouring Nigeria.Since Nigeria’s new president Bola Ahmed …

Benin feels the pinch as neighbouring Nigeria ends fuel subsidiesFri, 16 Jun 2023 09:53:11 GMT Read More »