Africa

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) launched a $ 12 million humanitarian appeal late Thursday to improve deteriorating health and safety conditions for women and girls in northeastern Mozambique. In a statement, the UN authority said it was urgent to provide life-saving sexual and reproductive health services to 330,000 women, girls and young people affected by the humanitarian crisis in the province of Cabo Delgado, as well as by the secondary effects of the coronavirus pandemic . An armed…

Authorities in Nigeria's Zamfara state have declared a curfew and closed markets after violence joked hundreds of abducted schoolgirls to their families, a state spokesman said on Thursday. Late on Wednesday, shots and chaos erupted during what should have been the happy return of 279 schoolgirls abducted by armed men from their boarding school last week. The government secured the release of the girls on Tuesday, but they had undergone medical check-ups and treatment. At least three people were shot,…

The Russian security company Wagner Group is known for its heavy presence in war-torn Libya and is reportedly expanding across the African continent, interfering in conflicts and working for the Kremlin's interests. The Wagner Group was formed in 2014 in Ukraine and is owned by businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, and is intensely involved in several conflicts, not only in Ukraine but also around the world, from the Middle East to Latin America. However, the group's most famous presence has taken place in…

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,"…