KEY POINTS WHO official Maria Van Kerkhove said the omicron subvariant BA.2 is more transmissible than BA.1, currently the dominant version of omicron worldwide, and will likely become more common. Dr. Abdi Mahamud, the WHO’s Covid incident manager, said it’s unclear whether BA.2 can reinfect people who previously had BA.1. Van Kerkhove emphasized that there’s…
TAIPEI, Feb 9 (Reuters) – Somaliland has “huge” investment potential in untapped oil and gas reserves, the foreign minister of Somalia’s breakaway region told Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday, pitching investment opportunities on a high-profile visit. Somaliland broke away from Somalia in 1991 but has not gained widespread international recognition for its independence. The…
The heat is unbearable; the haze merges the sky, lake and land; kingfishers dive and rise as if playing with the wind coming off Uganda’s Lake Albert, near vast oil reserves. This section of the Rift Valley – a geological scar which runs through East Africa – is being transformed by a fledgling oil business.…
Funds urgently needed for ACT-Accelerator, a global initiative to provide poorer nations with the tests, treatments and vaccines they need. The World Health Organization (WHO) is urging wealthier countries to step up and end the COVID-19 pandemic as a global health emergency by helping low and middle-income nations obtain tests, treatments and vaccines. The appeal,…
The President of Senegal, Macky Sall, has awarded cash prizes and plots of land to members of the national team after after last weekend’s victory over Egypt in the African Cup of Nations. The Senegalese beat Egypt 4 – 2 on penalties to become Africa’s football champions for the first time. Speaking at a ceremony…
More than 1 000 people have been displaced by flooding in the Tshwane metro. Two people have died while four others are missing. Mop-up operations have begun in some parts of the metro. Two people died and more than 1 000 were displaced during heavy rain and flooding in the Tshwane metro over the last…
Tunisian police on Monday blocked access to the country’s top judicial watchdog in a move its chief slammed as “illegal”, two days after President Kais Saied dissolved the body. The United States, for its part, said it was “deeply concerned” by Saied’s action. Security forces blocked all roads to the Supreme Judicial Council (CSM) headquarters in Tunis.…
Mali’s prime minister on Monday accused France of having sought the partition of the west African country during its military mission there, the latest flare-up in relations between Paris and Bamako. In a 45-minute speech to diplomats gathered at his request, Choguel Kokalla Maiga denounced France, the former colonial power and a vocal critic of the military regime that…
A fire that raged for two days in Kenya’s Aberdare National Park has been extinguished after burning through hundreds of hectares of wilderness, a government forest official said on Monday. The blaze started Saturday and dozens of forest rangers, firefighters and volunteers had struggled to control the fire from spreading, as suspicions of arson emerged.…
Following military takeovers in five different African countries in the past year, some have suggested that democracy may not be the best form of government on the continent. But here, Leonard Mbulle-Nziege and Nic Cheeseman argue that – despite these set-backs – democracy is the way forward for Africa. Africa has been hit by a…