The western African nation of The Gambia announced on Tuesday that it plans to leave the International Criminal Court, just days after South Africa notified the ICC in The Hague of its own intention to withdraw. In a televised statement, The Gambia’s Minister of Information, Communications and Infrastructure announced the…
Unusually severe storms that swept across southern Africa hit Mozambique hard on Monday evening, with local media outlet and NGO employees reporting injuries and fatalities in the city of Maputo. The storms arrived as Rwandan President Paul Kagame was in Mozambique for two-day meetings with President Filipe Nyusi, including a…
The International Criminal Court in The Hague acknowledged South Africa’s intent to withdraw from the Rome Statute on Saturday, while expressing its widely shared concern that other African nations will follow Pretoria’s lead and separate from their ICC treaty agreements. “Although withdrawing from a treaty is a sovereign act, I…
South African academic and author Achille Mbembe raised a storm of controversy after social media comments posted last week – comparing the student violence of the #feesmustfall movement to Boko Haram tactics – surfaced in the international media. Yet it’s likely that what Mbembe says next week in Senegal may…
Classes at the University of the Witwatersrand stayed in session Monday, despite weekend disruptions and ongoing protests at other South African campuses that continued to escalate into violent confrontation. The Wits campus was comparatively quiet, although students took to the streets in Parktown. Academic officials said they were looking at…
Ghanaian officials say they plan to remove a statue of Mahatma Gandhi that’s been at the center of protests at the University of Ghana. The statue will be moved “to ensure its safety and to avoid the controversy on the Legon Campus,” the government said in a statement issued by…
Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said soft infrastructure investment across Africa is a development and investment priority as the IMF encourages a more inclusive – and more vigorous – approach to global economic growth. “More can be done to raise growth now and make it more inclusive,”…
The University of Witwatersrand again canceled classes Wednesday amid ongoing student protests that have swept across South Africa’s universities. The protests escalated at the Johannesburg campus this week, with clashes between students and police armed with tear gas and rubber bullets. The university’s attempt to resume classes following negotiations with…
Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to fall to 1.6 percent in 2016, but despite reaching the lowest level in two decades is expected to make a modest recovery in 2017. Real GDP is forecast to grow 2.9 percent in 2017, then rise to 3.6 percent in 2018. That’s…
African leaders offered their condolences Wednesday on the news that Shimon Peres, former prime minister and president of Israel, has died. Peres was a 1994 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, following his work on the Oslo Peace Accords alongside the late Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. He…
Student protests in South Africa escalated on Monday as both the University of Pretoria and nearby Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) were forced to suspend classes and close their doors. The day began with tires burned on the main TUT campus as students continued protests over high tuition and fees,…
France and Africa have a long and intertwined history. As a former colonial ruler, France still possesses considerable influence and power in its former colonies to this very day, but the connections between Paris and its former colonial brethren are deeper than commonly assumed. The entanglement – a concept referred…
Arnaud is a French freelance writer with an African heart who has lived in 10 different Sub-Saharan countries in the past decade. He is currently based in Paris.
Under tight security, Somalia welcomes IGAD summit leaders Streets and markets in Mogadishu were closed Tuesday, as regional heads of state arrived at the Peace Hotel for the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) summit in the Somali capital. Security forces remained vigilant as Somalia, for the first time since IGAD…
Death toll rises from Tanzania’s 5.9 earthquake The death toll from a weekend earthquake in Tanzania continues to rise, with 16 fatalities and more than 250 injured. At least 800 buildings in Bukoba are damaged, according to news reports from AFP Africa and neighboring Uganda. The United States Geological Survey,…
The months and years ahead shall pose growing challenges for the African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU). Though vast differences exist in geography, economy, and governance, there is much the AU can stand to learn from the EU – both in achievement and shortcomings – as it progresses…
