World News

Women make up over thirty percent of Burundi’s new cabinet according to a government release issued over the weekend. President Evariste Ndayishimiye in a decree nominated a sixteen-member cabinet to help run government business. The cabinet is also inclusive of the Prime Minister Alain-Guillaume Bunyoni and Vice President Prosper Bazombanza. Portfolios handed to women include Justice, Labour, Tourism and Communication. ...

A clean-up has begun in Ivory Coast’s main city of Abidjan after floods triggered by torrential rains left streets and houses underwater and at least three people dead. Local residents said three hours of heavy rain on Thursday caused waters to surge by one and half metres in the space of 30 minutes, forcing some to take refuge on the ...

Kano State Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), on Thursday, said it has arrested no fewer than 565 suspected illicit drug dealers in the state. The State Commander, Ibrahim Abdul who disclosed this while briefing newsmen in the state in commemoration of 2020 International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, said of the suspects arrested were ...

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Jeanette BuseLasi, a widowed mother of four, sits with her children inside a communal shelter in an IDP camp in Bunia. When countries begin building back from the COVID-19 pandemic they must also work towards dismantling laws that discriminate against women, UN Secretary-General AntónioGuterres said in his message for International Widow’s Day on Tuesday. “The ...

An Affirmative Action is the act of supporting or recommending a cause of action to remedy an imbalance.  An Affirmative Action is a temporary measure that is often instituted to redress the effects of past and current discrimination that is regarded as unfair and unjust. Affirmative Action is therefore used to correct issues regarding discrimination in the political, social, economic ...

Members of Gabon’s lower house of parliament have voted to decriminalise homosexuality, becoming one of the few countries in sub-Saharan Africa to reverse a law that punishes sexual relations between people of the same sex. Last year, the central African nation criminalised homosexuality and made gay sex punishable with six months in prison and a large fine. Forty-eight members of ...

The human rights campaign group Amnesty International has called for the end of impunity for rapists in Sierra Leone after the death of a five-year-old girl.The girl, known just as Khadija, died on 17 June from complications after she was raped.Subsequently, hundreds of protesters took to the streets to demand justice.The BBC’s Umaru Fofana reports that protesters dressed in black-headed ...

Niger’s state prosecutor says there is evidence that the country lost almost $50m (£40m) through a military procurement scandal. Referring to an audit by the defence ministry, Maman Sayabou Issa said there had been overcharging for items and military equipment that was paid for but never delivered. A preliminary audit had found more than twice as much money had been ...

Ivorian authorities on Monday announced the capture of a terrorist leader who led a deadly attack on a military post at Kafolo, on the northeastern border with Burkina Faso on June 11 following a large scale raid. According to defense minister Hamed Bakayoko, the raid resulted in the arrests of other people directly involved in the attack. “We traced it ...

A team charged with developing Nigeria’s economic recovery plan from the coronavirus pandemic says about 39.4 million people could be jobless by the end of 2020 if government fails to act. The Committee on Economic Sustainability Plan, led by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, said restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of coronavirus had mainly affected agriculture, manufacturing and tourism sectors. It ...