The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo a public health emergency of international concern. The agency said the outbreak in DR Congo’s eastern Ituri province, which has seen around 246 suspected cases and 80 deaths reported, does not meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency. But it warned it could potentially be “a much larger outbreak” than what is currently being detected and reported, with significant risk of local and regional spread. The current strain of Ebola is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, the health agency said, for which there are…
Author: Montage Africa
It takes Fatima Bio only a moment to respond when we ask what it was like to be an asylum seeker in London. “Better than being married to an old pervert,” she says deadpan, before laughing – a reference to her father’s plans to marry her off as a teenager. A lot has changed since then. In the years that followed, she became an actress, then met a man in London when she was interviewing him about influential Sierra Leoneans in the diaspora and married him. He was Julius Bio – and he is now Sierra Leone’s president. As the…
Thousands of Kenyan commuters have been stranded and businesses paralysed as public transport operators went on a nationwide strike to protest against recent increases in the cost fuel. Key roads in the capital Nairobi remained largely empty, forcing some commuters to walk to work, with other parts of the country also affected by the transport crisis. Businesses in parts of Nairobi remained shut and schools asked students to stay at home. Protesters have been barricading roads and lighting fires on the roads as the protests continue. The strike comes days after the authorities raised petroleum prices to record levels, with…
By Rédaction Africanews and AP Morocco and Syria have taken a major step toward restoring relations, as Syrian Foreign Minister Assaad al-Chaibani visited Rabat for talks with Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita. The visit marks the first by a senior Syrian official to Morocco since the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. Speaking during a joint press conference in Rabat, Bourita described the meeting as the beginning of “a new phase” in bilateral relations after nearly ten years of diplomatic freeze between the two countries. Al-Chaibani said the visit reflected Syria’s political commitment to rebuilding ties with Morocco. He…
By Rédaction Africanews with agencies Thousands gathered in the Iranian capital, Tehran, on Wednesday for a state send-off for the national football team due to take part in the FIFA World Cup next month. Participants, mostly government supporters, waved Iranian flags and held pictures of new supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, amid chants of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”. “This is the best farewell ceremony in the last four World Cups. The players stand alongside the people, and the people stand alongside the country’s dignity, honour and power,” the head of the Iranian Football Federation, Mehdi Taj, told…
By Rédaction Africanews and AP South Africa’s ruling African National Congress gathered for a key meeting as President Cyril Ramaphosa faces renewed impeachment pressure linked to the controversial Farmgate cash-heist scandal. The Constitutional Court revived impeachment proceedings last week, reopening scrutiny over the theft of roughly four million dollars in cash allegedly hidden at Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm. The ANC had previously blocked impeachment efforts against the president in 2022. Despite mounting political pressure, Ramaphosa has ruled out resigning. ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula said the president would challenge the Section 89 report through a legal review process following advice…
By Rédaction Africanews with AP Just hours after a South African judge said the long-running graft trial of Jacob Zuma, must proceed, the former president instructed his legal team to appeal the ruling. On Thursday, a KwaZulu-Natal High Court ordered that the so-called arms deal corruption case against Zuma and French defence giant, Thales, would go ahead on 1 February 2027. Judge Nkosinathi Chili accused Zuma and Thales of using “Stalingrad defence”, a legal term for a strategy to slow down proceeding through constant appeals, Chili said the “interests of justice” demanded that the case proceed. “Without this court’s intervention,…
By AFP Kenya’s commercial wildlife trade has expanded sharply over the past decade, with a tenfold rise in the number of captive-bred reptiles exported as exotic pets, a report by World Animal Protection said Thursday. Although the trade is legal, 77 percent of traded species have seen their populations decline in the wild, raising sustainability concerns. The trade in live reptiles rose sharply from 8,551 in 2013 to 86,330 in 2023, said the report, which analysed Kenya’s data from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The overall number of live animals traded…
By Rédaction Africanews and AP Political tension is rising in Madagascar, where a leading opposition lawmaker says he has asked the country’s top court to remove President Michael Randrianirina over alleged constitutional violations. The move comes just months after Randrianirina, a military colonel, took power in October following mass youth-led protests that forced former president Andry Rajoelina to flee the country amid anger over worsening water and electricity shortages. Since then, hopes for reform have begun to fade. Small but persistent protests have returned in recent weeks, led largely by young Madagascans frustrated with the slow pace of change. Opposition…
By Rédaction Africanews and AP The Community Violence Reduction Programme supported by the United Nations mission in the Central African Republic is helping vulnerable people rebuild their lives through vocational training and economic empowerment. In the town of Bimbo, Brice Nzambé, a man living with a disability, has become a symbol of that transformation. After receiving tailoring training through the programme in 2023, he opened his own workshop the following year and now employs five apprentices, including three women. Nzambé says the programme changed both his life and the way he sees himself. He explained that people with disabilities…