ABIDJAN, Aug 6 (Reuters) – Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara on Saturday said he had offered a presidential pardon to longtime rival Laurent Gbagbo, as part of a reconciliation drive with his predecessors ahead of elections in 2025. Gbagbo, president from 2000-2011, returned to Ivory Coast last year after being acquitted in 2019 by the Hague on…
The events in Kibera were part of a weekend full of initiatives to promote peace ahead of Kenya’s elections on Tuesday. By Anna Gordon and Eromo Egbejule Kibera, Kenya – Last Saturday in Kibera, Kenya’s largest slum, local artists organised a community-wide celebration of ethnic diversity. Situated on the outskirts of the capital, Nairobi, the neighbourhood which is home…
The winner of Kenya’s presidential election on 9 August will face a host of difficult political and economic issues when he takes office. Here, in charts, we explain some of the things on the minds of voters as they cast their ballots. The next president may have to come up with a way to help…
In Somalia, Sunday, a majority of members of parliament approved the country’s appointed cabinet by a show of hands. Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre’s 75-member government was confirmed moments after mortar shells struck residential neighborhoods near the presidential palace in Mogadishu. “The quorum is 237 MPs, seven MPs refused, one MP abstained while some 229…
The head of Chad’s military government, Mahamat Idriss Deby, is expected to sign Monday, a peace deal with rebel groups which took part in the Doha talks with the Chadian authorities. Ahead of the signing, the Chadian ruler met with his host Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who backs a “comprehensive national reconciliation in” the…
US top diplomat landed at Lanseria International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, Sunday. Secretary of State Antony Blinken began his three-nation tour of Africa. He visited the Hector Pieterson memorial in Soweto township, on the outskirts of Johannesburg. It is with Antoinette Sithole, the sister of the late Hector that the diplomat laid a wreath at…
A truck is packed with crushed granite at a mining plant in Zamfara, Nigeria. April 21, 2016. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde Nigeria’s government is considering suspending mining in the country because it is being used to finance attacks that have increased insecurity, the justice minister said on Thursday. An insurgency in the northeast that has festered for more…
Top officials of Kenya, Tanzania, DR Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda meet at East African Community summit. NAIROBI, Kenya Leaders of the East African Community (EAC) on Thursday stressed the need for closer ties between the seven-member regional bloc to bolster trade and collective economic growth. Top officials of Kenya, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of…
Official suggests at least a $10 levy per foreign tourist to fund conservation. KIGALI, Rwanda For African biodiversity conservation to be sustainable, there is a need for a “mindset change” to stop looking at it as a donor-funded project, African leaders said Thursday. Speaking at the Africa Protected Areas Congress (APAC) underway in Rwanda’s capital…
KEY POINTS Africa’s abundant solar and wind energy could make it a global hub for producing low-carbon hydrogen, the IEA says. Hydrogen is an energy-rich element that does not warm the atmosphere when it’s used as fuel. Africa could produce 5,000 megatonnes of hydrogen a year, equivalent to “global total energy supply today,” the IEA…