By Rédaction Africanews with AFP Two female opposition lawmakers in Mauritania were sentenced Monday to four years in prison after insulting the president and making claims of racial bias, their lawyers told The Associated Press. The two women, Mariem Cheikh and Ghamou Achour, were accused of describing President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani on social media as the mentor of “apartheid in Mauritania.” The two are members of the human rights group, the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement. They were charged last month with “attacking the symbols of the state” and “calling for gatherings with a view to undermine…
Author: Montage Africa
By Rédaction Africanews with AP World Health Organization Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on Sunday attended the opening of a new Ebola treatment centre in the eastern Congolese city of Bunia. The provincial capital of Ituri is the epicentre of the current outbreak of a rare strain of the virus, which is spreading faster than the response despite better-organised health facilities and aid arrivals. Speaking at the opening, Tedros hailed five recoveries from the deadly haemorrhagic virus, the first of which was documented on Friday. “I think four people will be discharged today. And there was one that was discharged…
By Rédaction Africanews and AFP Counting is underway in Guinea after Sunday’s legislative and municipal elections. The vote marks a new step towards the return of democratic rule after the 2021 coup that brought President Mamadi Doumbouya to power. Seven million voters were eligible to elect 147 members of parliament. But turnout was reportedly low in the capital Conakry and the central city of Labe. Most candidates were drawn from the presidential camp after the government dissolved the main opposition parties in March. “I don’t even know who to vote for,” Mariatou Diallo, 18, told AFP as she cast her…
By Rédaction Africanews and AFP As the Democratic Republic of the Congo continues its fight against Ebola, women are on the front line. In the last outbreak, women accounted for two-thirds of cases due to their traditional role in many communities. According to a statement published by UN Women last week, women have been overrepresented in Ebola deaths for the last 50 years. “This was evident during the 2018–2019 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where women and girls accounted for around two thirds of reported cases,” UN Women warned in its statement. Health workers say…
By AFP Ethiopians went to the polls on Monday with the Prosperity Party (PP) of incumbent Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed set for a landslide win. In power since 2018, Abiy is criticised for growing authoritarianism and a crackdown on dissent, in contrast to his early years in power when he won the Nobel Peace Prize for mending relations with neighbouring Eritrea. Opposition parties and analysts fear this election will be even less open than previous votes with the opposition in disarray and the country facing multiple internal conflicts and ethnic divisions. The election is “likely to be among the least competitive of the seven national…
Meji Alabi has directed some of the biggest selling music artists on the planet: Beyoncé, Burna Boy, Davido and Stormzy. But nothing prepared the Grammy Award-winning director for his new documentary on Nigeria’s civil war. Warning: This article contains details some readers may find disturbing. Surviving Biafra: Voices from the Nigerian Civil War, produced by BBC Africa Eye, includes previously unseen footage taken on the front line of the devastating war that lasted from 1967 until 1970 when ethnic tensions threatened to tear apart the young West African nation. “It was very much an eye opener for me. I just…
South Africa’s sports minister has said his nation was “being made to look like fools” after its football team was delayed travelling to Mexico ahead of the World Cup due to visa issues. Gayton McKenzie demanded an explanation from South Africa’s football association (Safa) as to why this had happened, adding: “Action must be taken against those responsible for this mess.” Safa admitted the team had “experienced challenges regarding visas for some players and officials” but did not give further details. McKenzie later confirmed all the players had received permission to travel and would be leaving for the international tournament…
Makuochi Okafor A retired senior Nigerian military officer and his wife have been kidnapped by armed men in north-west Nigeria, the army has confirmed. Maj Gen Rabe Abubakar, who had a high-profile job as military spokesman between 2015 and 2017, was abducted from his car on Saturday while travelling in Katsina state. Efforts are now under way to rescue the couple and track down their captors, military spokesman Gen Michael Onoja told the BBC. The kidnapping highlights the continuing security challenges facing parts of north-west Nigeria, where criminal gangs known locally as “bandits” frequently carry out kidnappings for ransom, as…
Health authorities in Brazil are monitoring two patients for possible Ebola infection in the country’s two biggest cities, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. A man, 37, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) “exhibited symptoms such as fever”, São Paulo’s state government said. In Rio state, the health department said it had activated safety protocols after a Belgian man who arrived from Uganda showed “viral symptoms such as cough, chills and diarrhoea”. The test results for both patients should become available next week. If confirmed, they would be the first infection cases outside Africa since the outbreak…
By Rédaction Africanews with AFP Thousands of people paid tribute to Mali’s slain defence minister, Sadio Camara, in a ceremony held under tight security in the capital, Bamako, on Thursday. Camara was killed as a result of a car bomb blast at his home in Kati on Saturday, which also killed his wife and two granddaughters. The attack was part of two-days of coordinated strikes by jihadist militants and their Tuareg separatist allies on military positions across the country. Dressed in combat fatigues, junta leader Assimi Goita paid tribute to Camara by bowing before his coffin. Camara’s relatives and friends…