UGANDA’S ban on social media days before presidential elections shows a rattled president flexing power over the Internet at the expense of free speech and citizen rights, digital campaigners have said....
AFRICA
The African Union (AU) has obtained 270 million vaccines against Covid-19 for the continent, as per a statement issued Wednesday evening by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa who also serves as the 15 nation bloc’s current head, "We have gone a step further to obtain vaccines independently using our own limited resources.”...
Long queues in Kampala Thursday morning where Ugandans began to cast their ballots in the presidential and parliamentary elections, as they contended with a half-hour delay at polling stations....
Combined forces of the Central African Republic military, Russian mercenaries and the United Nations MINUSCA peacekeepers repelled attacks on Wednesday from rebel group Coalitions of Patriots for Change (CPC) some 9-12 kilometres from the capital Bangui, with the scattered shots seeing residents of the affected PK9 and PK12 neighborhoods flee for their lives....
Trading under Africa’s flagship free trade agreement went into effect on January 1 and so far, Ghana leads a moderate, if underwhelming, highlight reel after a week. ...
Madagascar’s south is facing its worst drought in a decade, the World Food Program said Tuesday. It comes after 3 straight years of drought and deep recession brought forth by the pandemic....
Announcement comes as coronavirus infections spike again in parts of Africa, especially South Africa. The African Union has secured close to 300 million Covid-19 vaccine doses in the largest such agreement yet for Africa, a continental official said Tuesday....
Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine said the military raided his home Tuesday and beat one of his guards, two days before the presidential election. Reports said Uganda also ordered all social media blocked ahead of the election....
SENEGAL is rushing to provide more hospital beds for coronavirus patients as infections soar and a lack of capacity means doctors are only able to admit the most severe cases, health officials said....
The U.N. World Food Program warns five years of recurrent drought and the COVID-19 pandemic have brought southern Madagascar to its knees, with hundreds of thousands of its inhabitants struggling to find enough food to eat....
Two ministers in the cabinet of Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera died Tuesday from COVID-19. The southern African country is dealing with a steep rise in cases, and in a televised address the president urged Malawians to take protective measures....
South African police have arrested more than 7,000 people caught without face masks in public since the end of December, the government said on Wednesday....
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday completed the fourth review of Angola’s economic program supported by an extended arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF)...
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday extended recently imposed coronavirus restrictions and placed curbs on land border traffic, as the country grapples with an unprecedented surge in cases fueled by a new virus strain....
The World Health Organization (WHO) will change its policy to recommend using partial doses of the yellow fever vaccine in times of shortages during an outbreak, thanks to results of a recent study led by the Doctors Without Borders Epicentre in collaboration with the Kenya Medical Research Institute, Institut Pasteur de Dakar, and the WHO itself....
Ahead of Uganda's heated election on Thursday, the government's ordered internet service providers to block all social media platforms and messaging apps until further notice....
