World News

The deaths recorded from the Lassa fever outbreak in Nigeria has reached 118, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has disclosed. From January 1 to February 23, 2633 suspected cases, with 689 confirmed cases and 118 deaths have been recorded in the country. The number of cases has significantly increased compared to what was reported for the same period ...

As the threat of coronavirus disease looms over the continent, the World Health Organization (WHO) has promised to support African Union Member States on a common preparedness and response strategy. WHO joined Health Ministers in an Emergency Meeting on the Coronavirus Disease Outbreak, which was convened on 22 February by the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Dr Matshidiso ...

Resource-backed loans have contributed to crippling debt levels in Africa and are shrouded in secrecy, according to a new report. These loans to governments, collateralized with oil or minerals, have been hidden from scrutiny for far too long and that must change, say the report’s authors. A resource-backed loan is a borrowing mechanism by which a country accesses finance in exchange ...

Africa is both the world’s least electrified continent and the most vulnerable to climate change. And as the continent with the world’s fastest growing population, the decisions that African politicians make to boost power supplies could have an impact both locally and globally. The conundrum is how to meet the demand for energy without making the climate situation worse. There ...

Germany will deploy extra police to protect mosques, railway stations, airports and other sensitive sites because of a “very high” far-right threat following the Hanau killings, the interior minister says. Horst Seehofer said he had agreed the measures with regional leaders, to prevent any copycat attacks. Prosecutors say the suspected gunman, now dead, was “deeply racist”. Nine people were killed ...

Despite sitting down as she shells bright-pink beans, Margaret Tindimutuma’s swollen feet are in pain. The Ugandan matriarch has a rare type of elephantiasis that has caused her family untold suffering. “I have always had allergies since I was young. So when my legs started to develop little swellings, like boils, I didn’t think much of it,” the octogenarian says ...

The report provides an assessment of the progress and performance of Africa’s development between 2013 and 2019 The African Development Bank, the United Nations, and the African Union has acknowledged the significant progress made in implementing Agenda 2063 and urged African countries to go further to fast-track economic transformation. The call was made on Saturday at the launch of the ...

It was only when Abi Blake was nearly killed by her abusive husband that she decided to break up with him and press charges. A new policing pilot in Cheshire encourages women not to leave it so late, reports the BBC’s Sue Mitchell. They were introduced by friends just after Valentine’s Day in 2014. She was an operations manager at ...

There has been widespread disruption in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos on the first working day of a ban on motorbike- and tricycle-taxis. There were long queues at bus stations even though extra transport was laid on, while some walked for miles. Commercial motorbikes are the most common form of public transport in the city of at least 20 million people, ...

The new coronavirus has been declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization, as the outbreak continues to spread outside China. “The main reason for this declaration is not what is happening in China but what is happening in other countries,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The concern is that it could spread to countries with weaker health ...