AFP Africa

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara and his Ghanaian counterpart John Dramani Mahama on Wednesday called on Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger to rejoin ECOWAS, after they quit earlier this year.The military juntas who took over in Bamako, Ouagadougou and Niamey after coups between 2020 and 2023 left the West African bloc at the end of …

I. Coast, Ghana urge juntas to rejoin W. African blocWed, 05 Mar 2025 15:29:45 GMT Read More »

Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, who won elections last year after being propelled to power by a junta on his father’s death, has now cemented his rule with a landslide win in the senate.After heading a three-year interim period, Deby, who turns 41 next month and was recently promoted to the rank of field …

Chad’s leader seals authority with electoral grand slamWed, 05 Mar 2025 13:43:15 GMT Read More »

Lesotho’s main LGBTQ rights organisation, the People’s Matrix, on Wednesday said that it had not received eight million dollars in US funding as claimed by US President Donald Trump.In his address to the US Congress on Tuesday, Trump singled out a past US aid project of “eight million dollars to promote LGBTQI+ in the African …

Main Lesotho LGBTQ organisation says ‘not receiving grants from the US’Wed, 05 Mar 2025 11:30:48 GMT Read More »

Faith healer Julie Kaviavu threw a handful of grains into the fire and lit a cigarette as she prepared to ask the dead for advice — a common practice in the war-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.To help curry favour with the ancestor she claimed to be able to talk to AFP brought an offering …

Faith in power of the dead comforts living in DR Congo’s war-torn eastWed, 05 Mar 2025 09:19:07 GMT Read More »

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday mocked tiny Lesotho as a country “nobody has ever heard of” as he defended his sweeping cuts in aid.Trump highlighted the landlocked African constitutional monarchy during an address to Congress as he gave a long list of past US aid projects.”Eight million dollars to promote LGBTQI+ in the African …

Trump jokes ‘nobody has heard’ of LesothoWed, 05 Mar 2025 04:00:48 GMT Read More »

The retail price of petrol in Nigeria has dropped to 860 naira ($0.57) per litre, as a major local refinery drives down prices in a country long forced to import its gasoline.The 650,000 barrel-per-day capacity Dangote Refinery cut depot prices twice in February, helping knock down costs from a five-month high of 1,030 naira. The Nigerian …

Competition drives down Nigeria petrol pricesTue, 04 Mar 2025 19:17:03 GMT Read More »

The trial of several prominent Tunisian opposition figures accused of national security offences opened on Tuesday, with lawyers and relatives denouncing the case as politically motivated.The around 40 high-profile defendants include activists, politicians, lawyers and media figures, some of whom have been vocal critics of President Kais Saied.They face charges including “plotting against the state …

Tunisia puts opposition figures on mass trial decried as ‘absurdity’Tue, 04 Mar 2025 18:43:42 GMT Read More »

The DR Congo city of Bukavu on Tuesday mourned those killed in two explosions that followed a meeting of the Rwanda-backed M23, which has seized the city in the conflict-ridden eastern region.The death toll from the February 27 blasts — which sent spectators fleeing and left pools of blood across the scene — has now …

East DR Congo city buries blast victims as toll risesTue, 04 Mar 2025 15:30:19 GMT Read More »

The trial of several prominent Tunisian opposition figures accused of national security offences opened on Tuesday, with lawyers and relatives denouncing the case as politically motivated.The around 40 high-profile defendants include activists, politicians, lawyers and media figures, some of whom have been vocal critics of President Kais Saied.They face charges including “plotting against the state …

Tunisia opposition figures go on trial on state security chargesTue, 04 Mar 2025 15:17:40 GMT Read More »

Prayers at home and smaller gatherings to break the fast — Muslims in a city recently captured by Rwanda-backed fighters in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo face a more subdued holy month of Ramadan this year.The M23 captured Bukavu in South Kivu province in mid-February in a lightning offensive after resurfacing in late 2021 …

Ramadan in ‘climate of war’ for east DR Congo’s MuslimsTue, 04 Mar 2025 11:56:35 GMT Read More »