Region

On March 14, 2019, heavily armed Ugandan police reportedly fired teargas and live ammunition at secondary school students participating in a protest at Kigezi High School in Kabale town and district. Students had allegedly attacked a teacher and threw stones at police. Two years earlier, on June 26, 2017, police…

Tackling the root causes behind Mozambique’s insurgency is the only way to provide a lasting solution, experts have said. Counterterrorism in Mozambique was one of the topics of discussion at the Sovereign Security Africa 2021 conference held in late August, which also brought together experts to look at cyber warfare…

Cuba has become the first country in the world to vaccinate children as young as two years old. However, the jabs given to the children are homegrown which has not been recognised by the World Health Organization (WHO). Clinical trials on minors were conducted on Friday and vaccines for the…

The reverberations from a scandal in which Kenya’s powerful deputy president William Ruto was blocked from travelling to Uganda, are growing by the day. This time, the target is Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni. The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party which leads the opposition block, has come out guns blazing. The…

The International Monetary Fund said Tuesday that though supply chains in Burundi’s neighbours and trading partners had been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Burundi itself had not experienced a heavy impact. The Burundian economy was moderately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, said the IMF in a statement following consultations with…

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has come out guns blazing against regional neighbors he accuses of helping to foment war in his country. Singling out Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta, the Sudanese leader said had back in 2013 betrayed his trust when Kenyatta backtracked on promise not to help suspects allegedly…

Government of Rwanda has dismissed fresh allegations raised by a UN panel that minerals from DR Congo continue to be smuggled through its territory. The UN Group of Experts on DR Congo in latest report released last week claimed that cross-border smuggling of untagged tantalum and tin into Rwanda continued…

The UN refugees agency is appealing for more help for tens of thousands of people displaced by a volcanic eruption last month.  An estimated 450,000 people have fled Goma, about 40% of the city’s population. Around 120,000 of those have arrived in the neighbouring town of Sake in the eastern…

Leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have reportedly expressed unease at a suggestion to have Rwandan troops deployed in Mozambique.  At Troika Summit on Thursday last week in Mozambique, President Filipe Jacinto Nyusi’s colleagues pushed back at the idea of having Rwanda attend SADC summits in preparation for…

He has operated on thousands of survivors of rape but now the powers that be want him dead Over the last two decades, Dr Denis Mukwege has seen his fair share of horrors. The Nobel laureate and his colleagues have treated tens of thousands of war rape survivors at Hospital…

Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu has announced that she will form a COVID-19 taskforce to guide her administration on the status of the pandemic in the country. In a move seen as a shift from the hardline position taken by her predecessor the late President John Magufuli, Suluhu said the country…

A bill seeking to amend the antigraft law and whose passage will see bribe-givers for the first time along with the bribe takers fined by law, has entered a crucial lawmaking process at the East African Legislative Assembly . The East African Community (EAC) Integrity and Anti-Corruption Bill, 2019 was…

Three online radio stations operated by exiled Burundian journalists have announced they are suspending broadcasts. The radios; Radio Publique Africaine (RPA), Télé Renaissance and Radio Inzamba – all released a joint statement this Wednesday announcing the decision to halt operations immediately. These media platforms were also operating highly popular YouTube…

More than ten presidents from across the globe are attending the burial of Tanzania’s fifth president John Maguli, whose body will be set up for mourning in the national capital Dodoma today, March 22. Among the leaders includes: Uhuru Kenyatta (Kenya), Filipe Nyusi (Mozambique) Lazarus Chakwera(Malawi), Azali Assoumani (Comoro), Emmerson…

In eastern Congo, militias killed more than 2,000 people in 2020. The many rebel groups in the volatile region have several women as members. Meet a female combatant who was a victim of violence before taking up arms. “They killed almost my entire family and raped me. There was no…

International Criminal Court (ICC) judges on Monday awarded $30 million (25.3 million euros) in reparations to victims of crimes for which a Congolese warlord was convicted including child soldiers and victims of rape and sexual slavery. Gen Bosco Ntaganda, known as “The Terminator,” was convicted in 2019 on 18 counts…

The UN has opted to implement deep cuts to food rations for refugees in Rwanda as donors appear more reluctant to support the programs here. While the cuts are in different countries including Uganda and Ethiopia, which also host significant refugee populations, the cuts in Rwanda a far higher. The…

Leaders of the East African Community (EAC) bloc have adopted French as one of the official languages – joining English and Kiswahili. At a virtual summit held Saturday, the six leaders confirmed the addition of French. It means, it will become a major subject in schools around the community. In…

In the border communities of the Great Lakes Region (GLR), small-scale cross border trade (SSCBT) is a source of income and livelihood. It provides access to goods and services that enable vulnerable households to increase their resilience against frequent shocks, including conflict, and escape extreme poverty. The COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic…

KAMPALA (Reuters) – Facebook has taken down a network in Uganda linked to the country’s ministry of information for using fake and duplicate accounts to post ahead of this week’s presidential election, the U.S. social media giant said on Monday. Ugandans vote on Thursday in a presidential election pitting long-time…

Twenty-two men convicted over the 2001 assassination of former Democratic Republic of the Congo President Laurent-Desire Kabila have been released from prison after receiving pardons from current leader Felix Tshisekedi. Among those released on Friday from the Makala prison in the capital Kinshasa was the slain president’s former aide-de-camp Colonel…

Pfizer offers to supply 50 million doses for health workers Moderna, AstraZeneca have no vaccines available for Africa Africa has few options to procure Covid-19 vaccines as the outbreak of the disease worsens across many parts of the continent, South Africa’s presidency said. Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE have offered to supply Africa…

The United States on Tuesday restored the Democratic Republic of Congo’s favored trading status, pointing to improvements one decade after it was suspended over human rights concerns. President Donald Trump said in a proclamation he was restoring the vast, impoverished nation’s ability to send exports duty-free “based on actions that…

President Evariste Ndayishimiye has dismissed a UN proposal for a third interlocutor to mediate between Burundi and Rwanda. UN special envoy for the great lakes region Huang Xia was in Burundi on Tuesday for meeting with President Ndayishimiye. A readout of the meeting issued by Burundi presidency says the UN…

President Paul Kagame is hopeful that Ethiopia can bring peace and stability back to its northernmost region of Tigray, in the shortest time possible. Village Urugwiro, Rwanda’s Presidency issued a statement, as the head of state received an Ethiopian delegation, headed by the Deputy Prime minister, and minister of foreign…

Tanzanian President John Magufuli said Friday that freedom and democracy have limits, after a disputed election which saw scores of opposition members arrested and his main rival leave the country. Magufuli was declared the victor of October 28 election with 84 percent of the vote, but the opposition and diplomats…

Pope Francis has appealed to Ethiopian authorities to choose the path of peace – days after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched military offensive on secessionist region. Pope Francis said he is following with concern the news regarding an escalation of violence in Ethiopia and appealed to authorities there to “reject…

Burundian global campaigner Marguerite Barankitse has cancelled the scholarships of over 100 Burundian refugee students that were funded through her organisation Maison Shalom. The affected students received email from Maison Shalom informing them that their scholarships had been cancelled, according to SOS Media Burundi, a news platform run by Burundian…

A New York court on Wednesday sentenced OZ Africa, a subsidiary of multi-billion-dollar hedge fund Och-Ziff, for corruption linked to mining projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It awarded $135 million in restitution to the former shareholders of Africo Resources Ltd, who lost their investment. The shareholders were recognised…

Provincial officials from western Rwanda and eastern DR Congo have agreed to partially open the Rubavu-Goma border – but the restrictions still remain in place. Rwanda’s western province governor Alphonse Munyentwari was across in Goma on Monday where he held discussions with North Kivu provincial counterpart Carly Nzanzu. According to…