AFRICA

Hundreds of people are feared dead in Sierra Leone’s capital city following a massive mudslide. Dozens of houses were submerged in mud after heavy rain caused a hillside to collapse in the mountain town of Regent on the outskirts of Freetown. Some reports put the death toll as high as 200. As many as 60 children are thought to be …

Kenyans largely ignored an opposition call to go on strike on Monday, re-opening shops and returning to work as they shrugged off demands for demonstrations against President Uhuru Kenyatta’s re-election and against the killing of protesters. Cars, buses and motorcycles returned to the streets of the capital, Nairobi, and the western town of Kisumu after days of quiet due to …

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has been declared winner of the 2017 presidential election, wining a second term in office. The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman Wafula Chebukati announced the final results on Friday in the capital Nairobi. “Uhuru Kenyatta garnered 8,203,290 votes representing 54.27 per cent of votes. He has attained 25 per cent in 35 counties,” Chebukati …

The head of the European Union’s election observer mission in Kenya said on Thursday it had seen no signs of “centralised or localised manipulation” of the voting process. Marietje Schaake said that the EU mission’s final report would evaluate the conduct of the tallying process, which opposition leader Raila Odinga said had been compromised by hackers. The EU said candidates …

Forty-one Nigerians deported from seven European countries for committing immigration-related offences arrived the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos on Thursday (10 August). The Nigerians were deported from Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, Netherlands, Germany, Norway and Denmark. The News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, learned that the aircraft with registration mark EC-120 which flew in the deportees, comprising 35 males and six …

Kenya’s main opposition coalition party National Super Alliance (NASA) has called on the electoral commission to declare its candidate Raila Odinga as president. In a press conference on Thursday afternoon, in the presence of Raila Odinga, NASA campaign chief Musalia Mudavadi said they had received data from unnamed IEBC sources that indicate that their candidate is in the lead. “The …

President Jacob Zuma of South Africa again survived a no-confidence vote in parliament on Tuesday in the most serious attempt yet to unseat him after months of growing anger over alleged corruption and a sinking economy. Zuma had survived six previous attempts to dislodge him in parliament, but this was the first to be held by secret ballot after parliamentary …

More than 50 migrants from Somalia and Ethiopia were “deliberately drowned” when a smuggler forced them into the sea off Yemen’s coast, the UN migration agency said Wednesday, calling the drownings “shocking and inhumane.” International Organization for Migration (IOM) staffers found the shallow graves of 29 of the migrants on a beach in Shabwa during a routine patrol, the agency’s …

With voting over and counting underway, a crisis is brewing in Kenya, which held a general election on Tuesday. Over 80% of the results have been announced and the opposition is trailing the incumbent by over 1.2 million votes. On Wednesday morning, the election commission website showed Kenyatta leading with 54.4 per cent of the votes against 44.8 per cent …

Head of the European Union Elections Observer Mission in Kenya, Marietje Schaake, says Augsut 8’s elections should not be a life and death affair. She stated that Kenyans have shown that all they want is a peaceful, credible and transparent process in the exercise of their democratic rights. She was speaking in an interview with Daniel Finnan of Radio France …

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has won a third term in office, garnering a whopping 98 per cent of votes counted, according to partial results released today. There had been little doubt that the 59-year-old would return to the helm of the east African nation which he has ruled with an iron fist since the end of the 1994 genocide. With …

Kenyans, Rwandans, and Angolans go to the polls in August to vote for president and members of parliament. The elections in Rwanda and Angola do not promise any surprises as the ruling parties in both countries are well entrenched in power. Kenya however is another matter. ———————— Kagame to continue The 4 August presidential election in Rwanda is seen as …

Exactly a week before Kenya goes to the polls to elect a new president, the official in charge of electronic voting was found dead on Monday after being missing for three days. The body of Chris Msando, who was the head of information, communication and technology at the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), was found in a bush by …

Google has officially launched its Street View of Nigeria’s commercial hub, Lagos, and the tech giant is looking to make the feature available across the country soon. The company launched the new service at the Google for Nigeria event which took place in Lagos last Thursday (27 July) in the presence of its CEO, Sundar Pichai. Street view is a …

“My message to the Gambians in the Diaspora is that we want them to come back home and contribute to nation building,” appeals President Adama Barrow as he hints of a possible trial of former leader Yahya Jammeh, currently in exile in Equatorial Guinea. In an exclusive interview with Omar Wally of Deutsche Welle (DW), Germany’s public international broadcaster, Barrow …

Nigeria is currently in a state of intense political agitation. An Igbo self-determination group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), is calling for a separate national state for the Igbo people of the country while other groups are advocating for a wide-ranging constitutional reform to devolve more powers to the federating states. Foreign governments are intervening in the debate. The …

Kenyans of Asian heritage have been granted official recognition as the 44th ethnic group in the country. The Kenyan government granted the status last week after years of petitioning by the Kenyan Asian community made up of about 46,782 people, according to the 2009 census figures. “All persons, bodies and authorities within the Republic of Kenya shall recognize the community …

The Nigerian Diaspora Day kicked off in Abuja today. The annual event brings together Nigerians resident abroad and representatives of the federal government and its agencies to discuss areas of partnership in national development. Addressing a press conference in Abuja on the eve of the Diaspora Day, leaders of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organization, NIDO, said that the issue corruption …

Senegalese singer, songwriter and businessman Akon has called on African youth to play an active role in rebuilding the continent and not depend on governments. The American-born music star was addressing over 2,800 youth from all over Africa on Friday (21 July) in Rwanda’s capital Kigali during the final day of the maiden YouthConnekt Africa Summit organised to shape the …

Radio France International’s Hausa service journalist Ahmed Abba, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison this year by a Cameroon military tribunal, has been named the 2017 International Press Freedom Award recipient. The annual prize is awarded by media rights body Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) to honour journalists who show courage in defending press freedom despite facing attacks, …