Region

The East African Legislative Assembly holds a virtual sitting on September 3, at which they approved a Vote on Account of USD 19,697,574.88 Million to support the normal operations and to cater for expenses of the EAC in the first quarter of the Financial Year 2020/2021. As the situation stands…

President Kagame listens in as Israeli Prime Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the virtual session of the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) Presidential Panel, on September 11, 2020 Rwanda’s foreign affairs ministry has informed the DR Congo government that a physical meeting of regional leaders in Goma is not a good…

Council of Councils global perspectives roundups gather opinions from experts on major international developments. In this edition, members of six leading global think tanks reflect on what reforms are the most important for the United Nations as it looks toward its next seventy-five years. The United Nations Security Council meets…

DR Congo President Felix Tshisekedi had hoped to establish himself as the new regional power-broker with the Goma summit DR Congo indicated Sunday that the regional quadripartite summit scheduled this Sunday September 13 has been suspended indefinitely. The foreign affairs ministry in Kinshasa said the summit that was due in…

Burundi President Evariste Ndayishimiye The Government of Burundi has declined to take part in the heads of state summit being organized by DR Congo due for September 13 in the border town of Goma. DRC President Felix Tshisekedi had been scheduled to host Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, Burundi’s…

The Mahama camp had turned into a permanent settlement for the Burundian refugees The more than 72,000 Burundian refugees in Rwanda have been given freeway to start going back home beginning August 27. A tripartite videoconference meeting held Thursday involving Rwandan, Burundi and UN refugees agency officials agreed to begin…

DR Congo delegation to the talks is led by Tanganyika Province Governor Zoe Kabila, the young brother of ex-president Joseph Kabila Talks to resolve a deadly border dispute between Zambia and DR Congo collapsed on Thursday – three days into the five day talks. High-level delegations from both sides have…

Singer and MP Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine is a first-time lawmaker and new entrant into politics but has caused so much excitement In a shock announcement, two most powerful parties currently in Uganda’s political arena may have settled on new entrant to be the flag bearer in the January…

Over the weekend, Burundi President Gen Evariste Ndayishimiye (in hat) with First Lady led nation in celebrations to mark Communal Day, a calendar event meant for all elites to return to their villages A group of Burgundian refugees in Rwanda have written letter to Burundi President Gen Evariste Ndayishimiye asking…

At the time, the white farmers lost everything overnight and became beggars in a country they had called home for ages Zimbabwe’s government signed an agreement Wednesday worth $3.5 billion to compensate white farmers who were evicted from their land during a controversial and often violent land redistribution program in…

Dr Akinwumi Adesina, AfDB President from Nigeria U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday welcomed the African Development Bank’s decision to appoint former Irish President Mary Robinson to lead an independent probe of a report that cleared the bank’s chief of wrongdoing. Mnuchin said undertaking an independent review was fully…

The EAC bloc includes Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan Arusha: The East African Community (EAC) may grind to a halt due to unprecedented financial woes. Already members of the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) and staff have complained about not being paid their allowances and other emoluments…

DRC President Felix Tshisekedi meets Belgian King Phillipe last year For the first time in Belgium’s history, a reigning king has expressed regret for the violence carried out by the former colonial power when it ruled over what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In a letter to…

Decades of oil drilling in West Kordofan province was linked to water contamination, environmental changes and health effects for citizens. The oil story in Sudan is one of controversy, a messy tale of money, conflict and power enmeshed in the country’s decades-long conflict.  A new investigation by InfoNile reveals the…

Newly elected Burundi President Gen Evariste Ndayishimiye stands next Tanzania Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa (R) as the latter spoke at funeral of late leader Pierre Nkurunziza Burundi’s accession into the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has received rare backing from the bloc’s major member, Tanzania. The country’s Prime Minister Kassim…

The African Union (AU) has suspended South Sudan from the continental body after Juba failed to pay its annual contributions amounting to over 9 million U.S. dollars. South Sudan’s mission to Ethiopia wrote to the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs last week informing its government that the east African country…

Ethiopia’s military has intervened in a simmering dispute with Egypt over the controversial Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Nile, which Egypt says could deprive its people of life-giving water. In an interview with the state-owned Ethiopian newspaper Addis Zemen on Friday, Deputy Army Chief General Birhanu Jula said…

Jean-Claude Gafishi was arrested in 2018 by Congolese security personnel and released In September 2018, a Rwandan national and three Congolese were arrested carrying 100kg of Coltan at a place called Rubaya, in eastern DR Congo. The Rwandan national in the intercepted group was identified as Jean-Claude Gafishi and was…

With basic testing resources in most of the continent, it will be a huge challenge to test more than 7m people in next months The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention or Africa CDC on Thursday rolled out a new initiative to ramp up the COVID-19 response across the…

Kigoma region neighbors Burundi down a large part of Lake Tanganyika The Tanzanian government says it will no longer accept any more Burundian refugees, as a new government prepares to take office in Bujumbura. Emmanuel Maganga, Kigoma regional commissioner, told a news conference that the Burundian refugees already in the…

South Kivu Provincial Governor Théo Ngwabidje speaking on Wednesday An entire neighborhood in Bukavu, the capital of DR Congo’s South Kivu province, also bordering Rwanda, has been placed under total lockdown to control spread of the COVID-19 virus. On Tuesday, 12 cases were identified in a single day in the…

Monseigneur Joachim Ntahondereye Bujumbura – The Episcopal Conference of Burundi has said the elections results announced on Monday are cooked up, as the polls were mired with fraud. Monseigneur Joachim Ntahondereye said on Tuesday in Bujumbura that the Catholic Church had 2,700 observers, which was a small number, but sufficient…

Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina says his country’s herbal remedy for COVID-19 has gained the support of the World Health Organization, WHO. Rajoelina made this known on Twitter where he revealed that WHO will be signing a “confidentiality clause” concerning the formulation of the drug. What this means is that Madagascar…

Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke Monday made during of the opening of the 73rd session of the World Health Assembly (WHA) via video link Despite fierce opposition from the United States, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Monday his country will “accelerate” the construction of the Africa Centres for Disease Control…

The Kagitumba One Stop Border Post, known as Mirama Hills in Uganda, where the said COVID-19 positive patient was intercepted Ugandan security and medical staff trampled on truck driver immediately he crossed from Rwanda into Uganda on Sunday evening. All dressed up in heavy personal protective equipment, the team stopped…

Tanzania President John Pombe Magufuli Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli has this Sunday issued more bombshell announcements at a church service – the latest place for his addresses – some of which are causing shivers across the region and globally. Magufuli speaking at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania at…

Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli and Burundi’s Pierre Nkurunziza did not attend a virtual summit of the East African Community (EAC) this Tuesday. Hosted by Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame as current EAC chair, the other leaders Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, Salva Kiir of South Sudan and Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, were…

Tanzania President John Pombe Magufuli has publicly questioned the tests and also fired the head of national laboratory The UK Government will look for a refund for millions of coronavirus tests ordered from China after scientists found they were too unreliable to be used by the public. Ministers will attempt…

President John Pombe Magufuli Coronavirus test kits used in Tanzania were dismissed as faulty by President John Magufuli on Sunday, because he said they had returned positive results on samples taken from a goat and a pawpaw. Magufuli, whose government has already drawn criticism for being secretive about the coronavirus…

United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the Regional Bureau for Africa of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Ahunna Eziakonwa, talks to Africa Renewal’s Kingsley Ighobor on COVID-19, its impact on African economies and how the UN is assisting. Here are excerpts: What is the impact of COVID-19 on…