Who holds capital and political leverage — and how that power is exercised.
The president of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, has continued what he terms a cleanup of his cabinet by sacking his Press Secretary Ateny Wek Ateny. Before the sudden news of his sack, Ateny Wek Ateny had worked with President Kiir as press secretary for nine years. News of the sacking
A former al-Shabab leader, Mukhtar Robow, has been appointed as a Somali cabinet minister. Robow was a co-founder and former spokesperson of the deadly militant group but defected in 2015. In a move that has created a divide amongst critics, Mukhtar Robow has been appointed as the religious affairs minister
Ghana’s president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has called for slavery reparations to Africa. According to Mr. Akufo-Addo, slavery reparations to Africa are long overdue and needs to be intensified. The African leader made the demands during his speech at the Reparations and Racial Healing Summit yesterday. He questioned doubled
On Thursday, Mozambique’s former Labour Minister Maria Helena Taipo was sentenced to 16 years in prison on charges of corruption, including diverting $1.7 million (113 million meticals) from public funds. The funds were allegedly used to attend to personal expenses such as building a house, 50 bicycles, end-of-year
Lesotho’s prosecuting authority has dropped murder charges against the kingdom’s former prime minister Tom Thabane and his wife Maesiah, over the killing of the former’s estranged wife Lipolelo Thabane. “We have been unable to trace an important witness in this matter and the director of public prosecutions
A Dubai-based billionaire businessman, Nawab Shaji Ul Mulk, was recently in Zimbabwe for the launching of Zim Cyber City, a cutting-edge complex in Mt. Hampden, a few kilometers north of the capital, Harare. Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa commissioned Mulk International, a United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based industrial group to build
Police in Kenya have arrested three contractors working for the electoral commission when they landed at the country’s main airport in Nairobi. The arrests could add to tensions in the run-up to the August 9 general election, as previous votes have been marred by allegations of fraud. The electoral
Former South African president Thabo Mbeki has criticized the Cyril Ramaphosa-led government, saying it has failed. The former leader accused Mr. Ramaphosa of not addressing the issues of poverty and corruption in government as promised. He also warned that if drastic measures were not taken to address the current situations
Seven teenagers have been killed in a blast at Margba, a village in Tone Prefecture, in Savanna, the northernmost region of Togo, which has been under a state of emergency since last June. “The decision to take action was taken after the two terrorist attacks perpetrated in this northern part
Zimbabwean president Emmerson Mnangagwa recently declared at a gathering in Gweru that the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) would never surrender power to the opposition. He made a statement reminiscent of those made by the military in the early and middle 2000s, when the opposition Movement for
The origins of the current violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo lie in the massive refugee crisis and the spread of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. After Hutu genocidaires fled to eastern DRC and formed armed groups, opposing Tutsi and other opportunist rebel groups rose. The Congolese government
From the onset of the Russia-Ukraine hostility, the African regional bloc has generally taken a neutral stance. When the United Nations resolution calling upon Russia to withdraw its aggression towards Ukraine was tabled, African countries settled for a more neutralist approach, opting for either not voting or absenteeism. This indifferent
Peter Gregory Obi is a politician and businessman from Nigeria who served as the previous governor of the state of Anambra. Additionally, the People's Democratic Party's vice-presidential contender for the 2019 Nigerian general election (PDP).After fighting in court for three years to assert that Dr
According to reports from Malawi, President Lazarus Chakwera has stripped the country's vice-president, Saulos Chilima, of his duties and powers. The development is coming a few days after documents linking Mr. Chilima to a $150million corruption scandal involving government contracts. The document was released by the Anti-Corruption Bureau
Violence broke out between youths and police in the capital of Senegal, Dakar, over the weekend. Officers blocked off access to the home of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko. Three opposition figures were also arrested, and the city's mayor was also prevented from leaving his home, Sonko's
Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s president, is facing the most serious personal test of his four years in office, following allegations that he attempted to cover up the theft of millions of dollars from his game farm. The controversy, dubbed "Farmgate" by the South African media, has the
