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,…
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…
Ethiopia’s withdrawal from United States-led negotiations over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam project have led to much speculation over what happens next if a deal falls through, and some are fearing the worst now that talks appear to have completely collapsed. “Ethiopia has a general election later this year, which…
President Alassane Ouattara of Côte d’Ivoire announced Thursday he will not seek a third term, ending speculation in the uneasy West African nation as it moves toward October 2020 elections. The 78-year-old Ouattara, who has been in power for a decade, added that he wants to see a transfer of…
Scientists from Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania, working alongside dozens of global colleagues, warn that the earth’s tropical forests are losing their ability to serve as “carbon sinks” and remove global emissions from the atmosphere. Their study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, looked at data from 300,000…
Officials in Kenya say they have no confirmed coronavirus cases to date, but they’re addressing a different kind of contagion – the spread of COVID-19 disinformation – with some hefty fines. “The fake news is alarmist, inciteful and its sole purpose is to cause fear and spread panic to the…
China says it will maintain focus on the African continent, as it assumes leadership of the United Nations Security Council for the month of March. Zhao Lijian, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Tuesday that Somalia and Sudan’s Darfur region are top priorities as China leads discussion on…
The European Union (EU) announced it is committing €100 million to support the democratic transition in Sudan, a three-year process that is expected to lead to free and fair elections in 2022. “Besides political support, financial assistance to Sudan remains crucial, given the severity of the economic crisis in the…
As the United Nations Human Rights Council holds its annual meeting in Geneva, High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet of OHCHR, the UN human rights agency, provided an overview on Thursday of concerns in various African nations beginning with the Democratic Republic of Congo. Bachelet, a former president of Chile who was…
There’s a new online database from Airwars, a not-for-profit project based at the University of London that tracks international military actions and assesses harm to civilian populations in Libya, Iraq, Yemen and Syria. The organization is now tracking incidents in Somalia, with an emphasis on how United States drone strikes…
Lawmakers in Spain have approved a motion that supports a “firm position in defense of the integrity of the land and maritime territory” of the Canary Islands, as Morocco moves to redefine its territorial waters in a way that creates overlap with Spain’s maritime border there. This week’s decision is…
President Nana Akufo Addo of Ghana was on hand Tuesday as the Svalbard Global Seed Vault – a gene bank that protects the world’s seeds, on an Arctic Ocean island governed by Norway – received a huge deposit of seeds from plant species across the world. They came from Mali,…
President Faure Gnassingbé of Togo is celebrating his victory in the weekend presidential election, after preliminary results showed him with 72 percent of the vote. “To my unlucky adversaries, I would like to tell them, this is the game of democracy,” Gnassingbé said in an address to his supporters. “Let’s…
Election authorities in Togo say final results are not expected until Monday evening, and they’ve urged candidates opposing President Faure Gnassingbé to wait for official numbers following Saturday’s voting. Tchambakou Ayassor, head of the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI), reminded the nation that only his agency can release results, even…
South Sudanese President Salva Kiir announced on Friday that rival Riek Machar will again serve as vice president in a national unity government, just one day ahead of a deadline for establishing the agreement. Kiir read the decision to the nation days after he agreed to limit the number of…