By Rédaction Africanews with AP As Uganda’s 81-year-old president, Yoweri Museveni, is sworn in to a seventh consecutive term, specuation is already growing about who will replace him. His son, army chief General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has made no secret of his wish to take over, despite the improbability of an electoral win. Forty years. That’s how long Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has been in power. The 81-year-old was sworn in Tuesday to extend his presidency over a further five-year term that may well be his last — although not necessarily the last for the Museveni family. The president’s son and presumptive…
Author: Montage Africa
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says he will legally challenge a report that has paved the way for parliament to consider impeachment proceedings against him over the theft of large sums of cash from his private farm. A Constitutional Court ruling last week found that parliament acted unconstitutionally when it voted against establishing an impeachment inquiry against Ramaphosa regarding the Phala Phala report in 2022. “I remain here and am not resigning,” Ramaphosa said on Monday, ending days of speculation over whether he would step down. The controversy stems from the so-called Phala Phala scandal, in which thousands of dollars…
Eighty million hectares of arable land. Less than ten percent currently cultivated. The Democratic Republic of Congo imports food it should be exporting. On the morning of 27 August, the DRC Investment Forum will dedicate a half-day to answering one question: how do you turn the world’s last great agricultural frontier into a working breadbasket? The Agriculture Half-Day is built around a recognition that the DRC’s farming gap is not geological. The soil is good. The water is abundant. The problem is logistical, financial, and structural. No cold chain. No processing facilities. No reliable power for irrigation or storage. Limited…
By Africanews with Joel Kouam, AP An international advocacy group Saturday condemned Niger’s suspension of nine French media outlets accused of “threatening public order and national security.” Reporters Without Borders called the charges “fabricated” in a post on X. It condemned a “coordinated strategy to repress press freedom” and called for the decision’s reversal. But the ban appeared popular with some Nigeriens. According to Hima Yayé Ismaël, an activist,some French broadcasters are participants in ‘the media war on Niger’ waged by ‘imperialists’, he told Africanews without specifying. “We are now truly seeing a significant number of pan-African media outlets that…
By Africanews with AFP A new coalition of major Togolese opposition parties and civil society groups held their first meeting Saturday, to relaunch protests against constitutional changes they say allow Faure Gnassingbe to consolidate power. Public opposition meetings have been rare in Togo in recent years, the last one taking place more than a year ago. Four opposition parties and civil society groups have formed a coalition called the National Consultation Framework for Change in Togo (CNCC). Several hundred people gathered for the first meeting in the capital, Lome, Saturday. “It was important for the Togolese people to show that…
A new study suggests malaria played a major role in shaping where prehistoric humans settled across sub-Saharan Africa, challenging long-held beliefs that migration patterns were driven mainly by agriculture and climate. Published in Science Advances, the research found that early humans avoided malaria-prone regions more than 70,000 years ago—long before farming spread across the continent between 3000 and 1000 BC. Researchers reconstructed ancient climate conditions and compared them with maps of early settlements, using data tied to habitats of Anopheles mosquitoes, which transmit the malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium falciparum. The findings indicate that disease influenced population distribution at least 13,000 years before agriculture…
By Rédaction Africanews with Agencies French President Emmanuel Macron kicked off a visit to Kenya on Sunday ahead of the Africa Forward Summit, a gathering meant to showcase France’s new policy for the continent — a shift from a former colonial power seen as dominating to what Paris describes as a partnership of equals. Held for the first time in an Anglophone country, the summit is expected to draw reactions to the withdrawal of French troops from West Africa that was completed last year amid France’s waning regional influence in recent years. Since the independence of France’s former African colonies,…
By Rédaction Africanews with AFP United States President Donald Trump branded Iran’s terms for ending the Middle East war “totally unacceptable,” raising the possibility of fresh conflict and sending oil prices sharply higher in early Asia trade on Monday. Iran had on Sunday responded to Washington’s latest peace proposal and warned it would not hold back from retaliating against any new US strikes or permit more foreign warships in the Strait of Hormuz. Trump made clear in a post on his Truth Social platform that he would reject Tehran’s counter-proposal, though he did not offer details on its contents. “I…
By Africanews with AP Three Israeli drone strikes on vehicles just south of Beirut on Saturday killed four people while a series of airstrikes on southern Lebanon killed at least 13, including a man and his 12-year-old daughter, state media and the Health Ministry said. The three drone strikes south of Beirut marked another escalation since a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect on April 17. Both Israel and Hezbollah have continued their daily attacks despite the truce. On Wednesday night, Israel’s air force carried out an airstrike on a southern suburb in which Israel said it killed…
A woman has given birth to rare quintuplets in Ethiopia’s Harari Regional state after 12 years of trying for a baby. Bedriya Adem said she and her husband were “overjoyed” to be “blessed with five children at once”. The 35-year-old delivered four boys and a girl, all of whom are in “full health”, at the Hiwot Fana Specialised Hospital, the hospital said. “I cannot express my happiness in words,” she told the BBC, recalling how she was “filled with depression and pain” until her prayers were answered. Hospital medical director Dr Mohammed Nur Abdulahi said the mother and babies remained…