Former president of Malawi Joyce Banda is hosting talks this weekend that are expected to forge a political coalition to support a viable opposition candidate in the country’s May 2019 elections. Whether or not it will be her remains to be seen. Banda left Malawi in 2014 after incumbent President…
From flooding to drought, countries across the African continent experience climate change in environmentally and economically diverse settings – but what do its citizens really think about it? The Ghana-based Afrobarometer research organization checked in with five different countries for their 2018 reports, from West Africa to the south, and…
What’s caused a river to turn red in Malawi? There’s been no official word from government sources since women discovered the Linthipe River at Dedza, near the border with Mozambique and along the M1 route, had turned blood-red when they arrived about 2 p.m. on Wednesday. Photos of the phenomenon were…
The United States isn’t the only nation with leaders making a high-profile visit to the African continent this week. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also has made Africa a priority, stepping up his own visits on trade and cooperation, as well as those of President Ram Nath Kovind and Foreign Minister Sushma…
First Lady Melania Trump of the United States continued a four-nation tour of Africa with a visit to Malawi on Thursday, where she was greeted by Gertrude Mutharika, wife of Malawi’s President Peter Mutharika, at the airport in Lilongwe. Trump, married to controversial U.S. President Donald Trump, is making her…
With an investigation now complete, the United Nations representative in Malawi, Maria Jose Torres, is calling on the government to promptly prosecute 12 people connected to the death of an albino man earlier this year. The dismembered body of 22-year-old MacDonald Masambuka was found in April after he went missing in…
Amnesty International has called on authorities in Malawi to ensure justice for victims targeted because they are albinos, a practice that has claimed the lives of 21 people since 2014 and amounts to nearly 150 total cases. The attacks against people with albinism are fueled by stereotypical beliefs that their…
Former president of Malawi Joyce Banda plans another run at the office in the 2019 elections, if she’s elected as chairwoman of her opposition People’s Party (PP). Banda made the announcement during a political rally Sunday in Blantyre, one of more than a dozen she has held since returning to…
Former president of Malawi Joyce Banda, returning this weekend to the nation after four years in exile, says she has documentation from Interpol to prove she is not under investigation in the country’s “Cashgate” scandal. Banda made the comment during a rally Sunday in Zomba attended by thousands of People’s…
Authorities in Namibia confirmed that a magnitude 5.0 earthquake struck the country Wednesday morning in the northern part of the southwestern African nation. The Geological Survey of Namibia, part of the Ministry of Mines and Energy, confirmed the shaking was a quake, with seismic data picked up by three network…
Malawi launched its new five-year development plan on Tuesday during a ceremony at Kamuzu Palace, the State House in Lilongwe. The Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) III emphasizes climate priorities, alongside agriculture and water resources, in a vision that runs through 2022 and builds on the previous version. It…
About 160 people die of rabies infection each day, according to 2015 data – almost all of them from dog bites, and almost all of them children in Africa and Asia. The United Nations considers rabies a neglected tropical disease, and its eradication is a health priority of the UN…
There is good news on the business front for some African nations: The Doing Business 2018 report from World Bank Group lists Djibouti, Malawi, Nigeria and Zambia among the world’s 10 most improved economies when it comes to regulatory reforms that make it easier to do business. Malawi, at No….
The Assemblies of God denomination is getting a lot of media attention in Malawi because the faithful there don’t want to be the butt of a bad joke anymore. The Christian denomination’s leadership issued a September 19 memo to all congregations asking them to stop using “Ass of God” as…
As African leaders gather in New York City for the United Nations General Assembly, the Government of Malawi announced the arrival of President Peter Mutharika at the annual session – but it wasn’t the only thing at the UN that Malawian officials wanted to call attention to. The government’s Malawi…