The United States says it has decided to cancel an annual military exercise held in partnership with African nations, out of concerns stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. The announcement was made Monday by the U.S. Africa Command, based in Stuttgart, Germany. AFRICOM said the decision was taken in careful consideration…
The torch-lighting ceremony for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo was held last week, and the International Olympic Committee has consistently said the games are still planned despite the global coronavirus pandemic. That’s what Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says too, framing the Olympics as a chance to overcome the virus and…
The G7 nations completed a conference call on Monday to discuss the global health and economic risk caused by the coronavirus pandemic, as the European Union issued its set of proposals to deal with the COVID-19 crisis. Some of the G7 nations are now among the hardest-hit on the planet,…
Ethiopian officials announced new measures to control the COVID-19 outbreak on Monday, as the country’s ministry of health confirmed a new case and a number of African governments enacted more strict controls amid a rising case count. All large gatherings or events are forbidden for the next two weeks, and…
There are now at least 229 positive cases of the novel coronavirus on the African continent, according to health officials, with the first confirmed cases in Equatorial Guinea, Mauritania, Rwanda and Seychelles among them. The Department of Health on Seychelles said two of its citizens returned to the Indian Ocean…
The New York Times is reporting that two people, an Italian man and Canadian woman taken hostage in Burkina Faso in December 2018, have been released. Edith Blais, 35, and Luca Tacchetto, 31, were taken to Mali after their abductions, and now are believed to be in Bamako. They are…
New swarms of locusts are coming from Ethiopia and Somalia into Kenya, as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and its partners continue to fight back against crop destruction in a part of the world where it is least afforded. The FAO said Friday it was…
People in parts of Tanzania and neighboring Kenya experienced a light earthquake late Friday in a border region near the Indian Ocean coast. The magnitude-4.9 earthquake struck at 9:37 p.m. local time, about 19 kilometers from the mountain village of Maramba, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The…
There are now at least 159 positive cases of the novel coronavirus on the African continent, according to health officials, with the first confirmed cases in Ethiopia and Kenya among them. The Ethiopian case involves a 48-year-old Japanese citizen who traveled from Burkina Faso on March 4 but is isolated…
Another painting by Nigerian master Ben Enwonwu is headed for auction at Sotheby’s later this month, this time with an intriguing story believed to link the work to the Ebira people of central Kogi state. Painted in 1953, “Sefi” features a woman who until recently was known only as the…
By NJ Ayuk, African Energy Chamber Sometimes it is easy to forget how interconnected human lives across the globe have become. Perhaps we no longer talk as much about globalization as we used to in the 1990s because it is no longer an issue to be discussed or protested against,…
An investigation into the treatment of Sahrawi activists in Western Sahara, including an incident reportedly captured on video last year, has renewed attention to territorial and self-determination claims that have spanned decades in a North African region Morocco claims as its own. “The video shows more than a dozen policemen…
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in South Africa has risen to 17, with news that a 32-year-old man in Free State is the first person to become ill through known community contact. The man was in contact with a Chinese businessman, according to the South African ministry of health….
Egypt is advancing its goals in space, following approval last week of a 10-year development plan for the Egyptian Space Agency (EgSA) established in August. The agency launched its first communications satellite in November, as part of a plan to ensure mobile and Internet services for all of Egypt as…
Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok was back to work on Tuesday, joining with leaders of Sudan’s transitional government to review the country’s security situation and vowing to prevent terror attacks one day after a failed assassination attempt targeted Hamdok in Khartoum. Mohammed Al-Fakki, spokesman for the government, said the meeting focused…