A resurgence of coronavirus cases in West Africa is hitting the region hard, inundating cemeteries where funeral numbers are rising and hospitals where beds are becoming scarce. Those visible shifts are also pushing a reluctant population to seek out the vaccines in larger numbers at a time when shipments of doses are arriving from multiple…
WASHINGTON, July 15 (Reuters) – The World Bank said that leaders of 23 African countries on Thursday called for a largest-ever $100 billion replenishment of the International Development Association (IDA), the global lender’s fund for the world’s poorest countries. The leaders set the goal in a joint declaration after a summit meeting in Abidjan, Ivory…
Armed residents in Phoenix, northwest of South Africa’s coastal city of Durban have placed roadblocks around their neighborhoods. They warm themselves by fires as they stand guard to prevent looting. At least 20 people have died in Phoenix after a week of violent unrest. Across the country, the death toll has passed 100 since protests…
Senegal’s Covid committee has advised against travel during the upcoming Eid al-Adha holiday as virus cases in the country increase. The country has in recent days recorded the highest number of cases since the start of the pandemic. Health Minister Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr has urged people to wear masks, avoid mass gatherings and get vaccinated.…
As unrest spreads in South Africa following the jailing of former President Jacob Zuma, some social media users have been sharing misleading videos and pictures. The current president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has urged South Africans to “refrain from posting and circulating inflammatory messages on social media, and from spreading rumours or false reports…”. We have investigated…
Almost every night, a handful of young men slip across the well-guarded border, swimming across a fast-flowing brown river and trudging into Sudan to escape what they say is a sudden upsurge in ethnic violence in the far western corner of Ethiopia’s Tigray region. This fertile area, still held by soldiers and militias loyal to…
Former Namibian football star Marley Ngarizemo has lost 15 relatives including his father, brother, sister-in-law and an aunt since the third wave of Covid hit the southern African nation last month. Another six currently are in hospital. “You do not know whether the world is ending,” says the 42-year-old, who played for Namibia at the…
The Rwandan government has announced a 10-day lockdown in the capital Kigali and eight districts amid a rising number of Covid cases and deaths. People have been ordered not to leave their homes from this Saturday to 26 July to try to halt the virus spread. Businesses, public works and transport, schools, sports and entertainment…
More than 100 developing countries have set out their key negotiating demands ahead of the COP26 climate meeting in Glasgow. These include funding for poorer nations to fight and adapt to climate change and compensation for the impacts they will be subjected to. Those backing the plan represent more than half of the world’s countries.…
Leading a comfortable life in South Africa’s coastal city of Durban, John – not his real name – risks running out of food for the first time ever following the mass looting and burning of supermarkets and shops after protests over the imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma spiralled out of control. “Middle-class people like…