Tens of thousands of Moroccans thronged the capital on Tuesday to welcome home their national football team, the first Arab or African squad ever to reach the semi-final of a World Cup. The team and their coach Walid Regragui waved from an open-topped bus as they were driven from the airport and around central Rabat,…
Senegal’s interior minister has received his French counterpart in Dakar where they both discussed bilateral issues on immigration, and student visas. Also discussed was what they called “the burning issue of intense drug trafficking” between the two countries. French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said Tuesday in Dakar, in the presence of his Senegalese counterpart, that…
Ghana on Monday suspended payments on most of its external debt, effectively defaulting as the country struggles to plug its cavernous balance of payments deficit. Its finance ministry said it will not service debts including its Eurobonds, commercial loans and most bilateral loans, calling the decision an “interim emergency measure”, while some bondholders criticised a…
NAIROBI, Dec 20 (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) board has approved the disbursement of $447.39 million to Kenya after a review of its lending programme, the fund said on Tuesday. Kenya’s public debt had begun to “level off” due to fiscal consolidation progress, the fund said in a statement, adding it has allocated additional financing…
By Navin Singh Khadka Environment correspondent, BBC World Service Deepening restrictions on ivory trafficking have led to an increase of the trade in hippopotamus teeth, wildlife campaigners are warning, with potentially serious effects for a species already listed as “vulnerable to extinction”. When the UK last June announced a near-total ban on the trade in…
By Sofia Bettiza BBC World Service Little Haftom is nearly five years old. His name means “wealthy” in the Tigriyna language but he weighs just half what he should. As the doctor pulls up his jumper and tracksuit bottoms to show his spindly arms and legs, his mother looks on impassively. She does not want…
Commercial Bank of Ethiopia says it has reopened its branches in Shire, Alamata and Korem after more than year of shutdown. The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia said it has resumed financial services in some towns in the war-torn region of Tigray, enabling residents to access their funds after a shutdown lasting more than a year.…
Authorities in Rwanda have welcomed the British courts giving the green light to the deportation of migrants, who have arrived illegally in the United Kingdom, to the central African country. The Rwandan government spokesman Alain Mukuralinda called the ruling a “positive step” towards solving the global migration crisis. “And it is also a satisfying decision…
Ivory Coast on Monday commissioned the construction of two major infrastructure projects in the Ivorian economic capital Abidjan- that of a metro and the extension of the international airport. The launch of the construction was attended by the French Economy Minister Bruno le Maire who signed agreements including credit, for this project. “The purpose of my…
South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said plans for the government to take over part of the troubled state power utility’s debt remain on track, and the pending departure of its chief executive officer hasn’t affected negotiations with bondholders. Eskom, which supplies more than 90% of the country’s power, owes about R400 billion but isn’t…