AFP Africa

Activity in Juba’s main market area appeared normal on Friday — but tight faces and anxious looks revealed the fear under the surface that South Sudan’s civil war could re-ignite.The crowd picking through stands and shops at the city’s Customs market might have been the same as on regular days, but the prices were steeply higher, …

Market bustle belies rising fears in S.Sudan capitalFri, 28 Mar 2025 20:24:20 GMT Read More »

The South Sudan government said on Friday that First Vice President Riek Machar was “under house arrest,” two days after he was detained, as a former Kenyan premier arrived in Juba to mediate the crisis threatening to end the fragile peace deal between rival factions.Machar’s arrest by forces loyal to President Salva Kiir prompted UN Chief …

S.Sudan govt says Vice President Machar ‘under house arrest’Fri, 28 Mar 2025 18:15:24 GMT Read More »

For the second time in a row, police have banned the colourful Durbar festivities that mark Eid celebrations in Kano, northern Nigeria’s largest city, as two traditional royals struggle for the throne.Authorities on Friday announced the suspension of the massive horse procession by the traditional emir and his courtiers that celebrates Eid al-Fitr, when Muslims …

Nigerian police ban Kano Eid parade as rival emirs dispute throneFri, 28 Mar 2025 17:55:14 GMT Read More »

Kenya’s former prime minister Raila Odinga arrived in Juba on Friday to mediate the escalating crisis in South Sudan, which threatens to end the fragile peace deal between rival factions.First Vice President Riek Machar’s arrest on Wednesday evening by forces loyal to President Salva Kiir prompted UN chief Antonio Guterres to warn that the country …

Kenyan mediator in S.Sudan after arrest of vice presidentFri, 28 Mar 2025 12:29:28 GMT Read More »

Two women, put onto canvas through paint and collage, hold the world in their hands — and cast a spell on Nancy Keshinro.”I’m in love,” the art collector and gallery owner said, as the work — nearly as tall as she is — stopped her in her tracks at +234Art Fair in Lagos.She can’t stay …

Nigerian youth in the spotlight at Lagos contemporary art festFri, 28 Mar 2025 10:12:52 GMT Read More »

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa faces the most intense challenge to his authority since taking power in a coup eight years ago, with infighting in his ruling party and public anger over a failing economy.In outright defiance of the 82-year-old leader, a one-time veteran of his ZANU-PF party has called for nationwide demonstrations on March 31.”The …

Infighting, discontent challenge Zimbabwe presidentFri, 28 Mar 2025 09:54:03 GMT Read More »

Wally Faye hoped his life would take off when Senegal’s youngest president swept to power promising radical change, but a year on, the 29-year-old still has no job and is unable to help his parents or get married.Unemployed since 2019 despite having a master’s in geography, Faye was among the many young Senegalese who voted …

Young Senegalese still await promised changeFri, 28 Mar 2025 07:26:06 GMT Read More »

Machines stand inert at a unit of construction firm CSE in Senegal’s capital, Dakar, due to plummeting orders and unpaid government bills that have almost halved its workforce.A year after the west African country’s new president took power promising economic and political sovereignty and sweeping reforms, his ambitious pledges have not helped the sector.A worker …

Senegal’s key construction sector flounders despite govt reform pledgesFri, 28 Mar 2025 07:21:00 GMT Read More »

Hectares upon hectares of luxuriant orchards cover the land from which Bernard Shabangu’s ancestors were once brutally evicted by South Africa’s apartheid government.Thousands of families lived on these green hills near the Kruger National Park, 400 kilometres (250 miles) east of Johannesburg, until the early 1900s when colonial and subsequent apartheid regimes eroded the rights …

S. Africa’s land reform rises from ‘the ashes of dispossession’Fri, 28 Mar 2025 06:38:41 GMT Read More »

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces vowed on Thursday there would be “no retreat and no surrender” after rival troops of the regular army retook nearly all of central Khartoum.From inside the recaptured presidential palace, Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, at war with his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo since April 2023, had …

Sudan paramilitaries vow ‘no surrender’ after Khartoum setbackThu, 27 Mar 2025 20:33:38 GMT Read More »