Africa

More African countries received the long-awaited first deliveries of COVID-19 vaccines on Wednesday, with Kenya and Rwanda benefiting from the global COVAX initiative aimed at securing doses for the world's low- and middle-income countries. African and other health officials have been frustrated by the sight of a handful of rich countries rolling out vaccines after taking large quantities for themselves. "We will be known as the continent COVID" if Africa does not quickly reach its goal of vaccinating…

Four media workers recently arrested in Ethiopia's conflict-torn Tigray region were released on Wednesday, a translator working for the Agence France-Presse (AFP), which was part of the group held, reported. "All journalists and translators have been released without charge," Abebe Gebrehiwot Yihdego, deputy head of Tigray's interim administration, told Reuters. The BBC confirmed the release of its reporter Girmay Gebru, of the broadcaster's Tigrinya language service, in a tweet. "They released us…

Extremists, government forces and a "private militia" supporting authority have indiscriminately killed hundreds of civilians in Mozambique's troubled northeastern region, Amnesty International said in a report on Tuesday. Violence perpetrated by armed Islamists in the gas-rich province of Cabo Delgado has left at least 2,600 people dead since 2017, about half of them civilians, according to a non-governmental organization called Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), Agence France- Press (AFP)…

A British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) journalist was arrested by the Ethiopian military in the Tigray region, the British broadcaster said on Monday. The BBC quoted witnesses who saw Girmay Gebru imprisoned by soldiers in military uniform in the regional capital Mekelle. The public broadcaster said it had expressed concern about Ethiopian authorities. The Financial Times reported that a translator working for the newspaper and another working for the Agence France-Presse (AFP) were also arrested by…

Nearly 300 girls, who were abducted from a boarding school in the northwestern Nigerian state of Zamfara on Friday, have been released by gunmen, the governor said in a tweet on Tuesday. An armed gang had abducted the girls from the GGSS school (Government Girls Science Secondary) in the city of Jangebe. A rescue operation was underway to get the girls back to safety. A teacher at GGSS, who asked to remain anonymous, had said that the attack occurred around 1 o'clock (12 GMT) but did not provide…

Zambia's honorary consul in Istanbul on Sunday said that Zambia and Turkey have established mutually beneficial relations that have continued to grow in recent years. Bülent Göktuna said that Turkey considers Zambia as a strategic partner both in the region of southern Africa and the continent as a whole, according to a statement from the Zambian embassy in Ankara. He spoke at the Zambian Chancery in the Turkish capital before handing over a shipment of 12 computers and a laptop worth 166,000 TL ($…

Armed men abducted 317 students on Friday and a rescue operation is underway, police in northwestern Nigeria said of the country's latest mass kidnapping. "The Zamfara State Police Command, in cooperation with the military, has launched a joint rescue operation to rescue the 317 students abducted by the armed bandits of the Government Girls Science Secondary School in Jangebe," police spokesman Mohammed Shehu said in a statement. "Unknown armed men came shooting sporadically and abducted the girls,"…

The storm in February is unforgivable and violently shakes humanitarian rescue ships as they try to revive a faulty engine and rescue African migrants drifting in the Mediterranean after fleeing Libya on unsafe boats. Not only must the brave 70 km / h winds and 4 meter (13 foot) waves, but also win the race against the Libyan Coast Guard, which has been trained and equipped by Europe to keep migrants away from its shores. In recent days, Libyans had already countered eight rescue attempts by the Open…

Kenya is battling some of the worst grasshoppers in decades, but start The Bug Picture hopes to turn pests into profits and give "hope to the hopeless" who ...

South Africa, the country most affected by the coronavirus continent, crossed the million mark over the weekend since the epidemic began. The country is currently experiencing another wave with a variant of the virus appearing to be more contagious and responsible for most new cases. New restrictions were announced on Monday, December 28th.…