World News

More than half a million people have been affected by severe flooding in Ethiopia, with some places recording the heaviest rains in a century, the minister for water and irrigation Seleshi Bekele has said. About 200,000 have been left homeless by the floods which have swept through at least five of Ethiopia’s 10 regions, he added. The floods have killed ...

Students in the Nigerian town of Chibok have been taking secondary school exams there for the first time since more than 200 girls were abducted by Boko Haram in 2014. Parents and staff in Chibok have told the BBC they were happy that their children could take their exams closer to home. For many years local students had to travel ...

Belgium will now return to his family the mortal remains of Patrice Lumumba, the DR Congo‘s first democratically elected prime minister who was slain in a Western-backed overthrow from power. Belgium’s federal prosecutor’s office announced on Thursday that Lumumba’s family will receive a tooth, obtained by police officer Gerard Soete because Lumumba’s burned body could not be identified and recovered ...

Sudan declared an economic state of emergency on Thursday after its currency fell sharply in recent weeks, setting up special courts to prosecute what officials called a “systematic operation” to vandalise the economy. The transitional government, in charge of the country since the ouster of Omar al-Bashir last year, will criminalise purchasing, selling, possessing or smuggling of raw gold or ...

Lawmakers in Nigeria’s Kaduna State have approved surgical castration as punishment for those convicted of raping children under the age of 14.State governor Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai needs to sign the bill for it to become law in the north-western state.He has previously supported castration to prevent rapists from re-offending.The move follows public outrage over a wave of rapes, which prompted ...

As trade and development between Africa and China expands, another layer of relations is growing into uncovered territory. Afro-Chinese children in both Africa and China are increasing in number as a product of various circumstances. The concerns around their status in society and the origin of their identity will need to be addressed sooner or later. African women and fatherless ...

Amid COVID-19, Mali has been in international news for months in a row. The issue is not an uptick in COVID cases, as most people would expect. Rather, popular protests against the Malian government, which started in May, kept growing until it culminated in a military coup on the 18th of August that deposed the incumbent President – Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. ...

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that once a COVID-19 vaccine is approved, Africa will get at least 220 million initial doses. The first batch will prioritise front-line healthcare workers and vulnerable groups, according to the WHO Africa Program Area Manager Richard Mihigo. He said distribution will be based on the population of each country. Mr Mihigo said all 54 countries ...

The jihadist group Islamic State West Africa Province (Iswap) has said its fighters killed at least 10 Nigerian soldiers in the town of Magumeri in the north-east. Security sources have confirmed the attack, but not the death toll. Reports suggest the militants arrived in several trucks fitted with machine-guns and overran the army’s positions. Iswap also said 10 Nigerian troops ...

The World Health Organization wants to secure an initial 230 million doses of any COVID-19 vaccine for Africa, officials said Thursday, while emphasising that any vaccine in development should also be tested on the continent. The global vaccine allocation plan, called COVAX, aims to help buy and fairly distribute deliver 2 billion doses of approved vaccines by the end of 2021. “This ...