Sierra Leoneans will vote in tense elections on Saturday, with President Julius Maada Bio hoping to secure a second term despite a crippling economic crisis which helped spark deadly protests last year.The West African country, which never fully recovered economically from a 1991-2002 civil war and the Ebola epidemic a decade later, was further pummelled …

Sierra Leoneans to vote as economic crisis bitesTue, 20 Jun 2023 05:32:05 GMT Read More »

Key elections are looming in DR Congo, where political tensions combined with a security crisis and economic woes are creating a powerful and troubling brew.Sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest country votes on December 20 for the presidency, national legislature, provincial assemblies and local councils.The complex ballot will be a crucial test of stability in a sprawling nation …

Tensions high in DR Congo six months ahead of voteTue, 20 Jun 2023 05:26:33 GMT Read More »

Donors at a UN conference on Monday pledged close to $1.5 billion to combat the humanitarian crisis in Sudan and help its neighbours host refugees fleeing the fighting.Sudan is descending into death and destruction at unprecedented speed, UN chief Antonio Guterres warned as he urged donors to step in and curb the unfolding catastrophe.The conference …

$1.5 bn pledged to curb Sudan’s slide into ‘death and destruction’: UNMon, 19 Jun 2023 21:33:18 GMT Read More »

Ugandan police said Monday that 20 people had been arrested for suspected collaboration with the notorious militia group blamed for last week’s grisly attack on a school near the border with Democratic Republic of Congo.”Twenty arrests have been made of suspected collaborators, suspected ADF collaborators,” police spokesman Fred Enanga told a press conference, referring to …

Uganda arrests 20 ‘collaborators’ over horrific school massacreMon, 19 Jun 2023 18:12:41 GMT Read More »

France announced on Monday nearly 26 million euros (around $28 million) in aid to Tunisia to help curb the flow of irregular migrants across the Mediterranean.French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced the “bilateral aid of 25.8 million dedicated to migration issues” during a visit to Tunis.It would allow Tunisia to “acquire the necessary equipment and …

France pledges financial aid to Tunisia to curb migrant flowsMon, 19 Jun 2023 17:41:36 GMT Read More »

The world’s first international treaty to protect the high seas was adopted Monday at the United Nations, creating a landmark environmental accord designed to protect remote ecosystems vital to humanity.Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hailed as a “historic achievement” the treaty that will establish a legal framework to extend swathes of environmental protections to international waters, which …

UN adopts ‘historic’ high seas treatyMon, 19 Jun 2023 16:43:45 GMT Read More »

Sudan is descending into death and destruction at an unprecedented speed, UN chief Antonio Guterres said Monday as he urged donors to step in and curb the unfolding catastrophe.The pledging conference comes mid-way through a three-day ceasefire which appeared to have brought calm to the capital Khartoum, after the failure of earlier truces to ensure …

Sudan spiralling into destruction, says UN chiefMon, 19 Jun 2023 15:37:17 GMT Read More »

The United Nations sounded the alarm on Monday over “rampant violence and rising humanitarian needs” in the violence-plagued eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.Armed groups have terrorised civilians in the region for decades, forcing vast numbers to flee their homes.Leading relief officials have “triggered an immediate scale-up of humanitarian operations” in eastern DR Congo “following months …

UN raises alarm over ‘rampant’ violence in east DR CongoMon, 19 Jun 2023 14:32:36 GMT Read More »

An attacker fatally stabbed a security guard on Monday outside Brazil’s embassy in Tunis before being shot and arrested, the Tunisian Interior Ministry said.The guard “was wounded by a sharp object” wielded “by a person he was questioning over the reason for his presence in the perimeter of the embassy”, the ministry said in a …

Guard fatally stabbed outside Brazil embassy in TunisiaMon, 19 Jun 2023 13:19:14 GMT Read More »

Grief-stricken Ugandans were on Monday burying more victims of last week’s horrific school attack in the remote west of the country blamed on a notorious militia based in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.Other families were still desperately hunting for news of their loved ones or facing an agonising wait for DNA tests on some of …

Ugandans bury more victims of horrific school massacreMon, 19 Jun 2023 12:31:13 GMT Read More »