BBC Zimbabwe’s late President Robert Mugabe left behind $10m (£7.7m)in the bank and several properties in the capital, Harare, the state-owned Herald newspaper has reported. Mugabe, who died in September at the age of 95, had failed to leave a will, prompting legal authorities to call a meeting this week to appoint an executor, it
BBC A UN official has painted a bleak picture of the availability of food in Zimbabwe. “The people of Zimbabwe are slowly getting to a point of suffering a man-made starvation,” Hilal Elver, the UN’s special rapporteur on the right to food, has said after a 10-day visit to the country. In a statement in
AFP At least 29 people were killed Sunday when a small plane crashed after takeoff into a densely populated area of the city of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. A survivor among the 19 people 17 passengers and two crew members who were aboard the plane was taken to hospital along with 16
AFP A court in Zimbabwe awarded a trans-gender activist the equivalent of $25 000 in compensation after she was arrested for using a ladies toilet, she said in a statement Monday. Ricky Nathanson, whose age was not given, was arrested and detained for 48 hours in 2014 and charged with criminal nuisance after she used
BBC Twenty-four soldiers have been killed in an attack by militants in eastern Mali, the country’s army has said. Another 29 were also injured during a joint operation between troops from Mali and Niger in the Gao border region. Mali’s army said 17 “terrorists” were killed and 100 suspects were being held in Tiloa, in
AP When her contractions became unbearably painful, 18-year-old Perseverance Kanyoza rushed to a maternity hospital in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. But the doors were closed amid a weekslong strike by public health workers. With no money for private care, panic set in. A hospital guard directed her to a tiny apartment in the poor suburb of
BBC Demonstrators thronged the streets of the Algerian capital on Friday to renew their opposition to a presidential election they say will keep in power a political elite rejected by the people. The protest came two days ahead of the start of campaigning for the December 12 vote. Demonstrations have gripped Algeria every week since
BBC Police in Mozambique are detaining a man in the northern Nampula province on suspicion of exhuming the bodies of his parents and an uncle to extract their bones. The suspect told police that he was enticed by a businessman who had promised him a motorcycle and over $300 (£234) in cash. The businessman is
AFP Sixty-seven people arrested by police in a Kampala bar popular with gays were charged with “common nuisance” on Tuesday, but rights activists said it was a bid to intimidate the LGBT community. The police raided the Ram Bar in the heart of the Ugandan capital on Sunday and arrested 125 people, 58 of whom
BBC In a major step in the fight against Ebola, the World Health Organization (WHO) has approved the world’s first ever vaccine against Ebola. The drug, called Ervebo and manufactured by MERCK pharmaceuticals, was being used in an experimental phase in the Democratic Republic of Congo. ‘ But now the WHO says there is sufficient
BBC Scores of Kenyan students and teachers have been hospitalised after a dangerous chemical was used during the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) Chemistry examination. One student suffered serious burns on his face during the practical examination while others were hospitalised after suffering dizziness. Apollo Otieno was heating the chemical xylene to observe its
Fin24 New bank notes and coins finally hit the streets of Zimbabwe on Tuesday after a false start the day before, with depositors forming long queues at banks and ATMs. The new notes are part of President Emerson Mnangagwa’s monetary reforms to have Zimbabwe revert to using its own currency in place of the US
Aljazeera Zimbabwe has suspended imports of livestock and meat from South Africa for the second time this year after an outbreak of foot and mouth in the north of its neighbouring country. In a statement on Friday, the agriculture ministry called the move “a precautionary measure designed to prevent the spread of the infection into
BBC Zimbabwe’s central bank is due to begin circulating new banknotes on Monday, which it says will help to ease a severe cash shortage as the country suffers a deepening economic crisis. The bank has played down fears that the move will fuel inflation, insisting that the new two- and five- dollar notes will not
BBC A seven-year-old albino girl in Zambia has had her hand chopped off by unknown people as she was sleeping. The incident happened on Wednesday in the northern mining town of Kitwe, local police chief Charity Katanga said. She said the assailants used a machete to chop off the girl’s hand. “Unknown criminals forced their
BBC At least 37 people have been killed and 60 wounded in an attack on a mining company convoy in Burkina Faso, authorities say. Five buses carrying staff of Canadian firm Semafo were ambushed on Wednesday about 40km (24 miles) from the eastern town of Boungou, reports say. A military escort vehicle was reportedly struck
BBC Police in Nigeria have opened investigations after they rescued 15 people detained in a prayer house in the main city of Lagos. The male and female victims, who were between ages of 19 and 50, were in chains, Bala Elkana, the police public relations officer in Lagos state, said in a statement on Thursday.
AP The World Health Organization says more than 7 million cases of malaria have been reported in Burundi this year. Officials blame the outbreak on factors including the lack of protective bed nets, problems with medicines and climate change. The U.N. health agency says malaria has killed nearly 2,700 people this year in the East
AFP More than two million Zambians are facing “severe” food insecurity after drought and flooding reduced harvests, the Red Cross said. Southern Africa is grappling with one of the worst droughts in decades after months of erratic rainfall and record-high temperatures. Zambia Red Cross warned the drought had left an estimated 2.3 million people facing
AFP Algeria’s election authority has registered 22 candidates for a December presidential election, including two former prime ministers under former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the official APS agency reported on Sunday. Former premiers Ali Benflis and Abdelmadjid Tebboune had submitted their candidacies for the December 12 vote before the deadline for nominations passed Saturday. Both are
