Africa

It is a special parliamentary session that opened on Monday, March 15, the first in the era of "The Holy Union", the new parliamentary majority, which was constituted on the initiative of Head of State Felix Tshisekedi. It is also during this session that the new government will be invested after the appointment a month ago by Prime Minister Sama Lukonde.…

New Ivorian cotton has arrived. Two new cotton varieties have been developed to enhance cotton grown in Ivory Coast, a cotton that has fallen outside the standards in recent years. They are called CI 123 and CI 128 and carry all the hopes of the Ivorian cotton sector. These code names are those of two varieties developed by the National Center for Agricultural Research, and in recent years, researchers have been called to the rescue to correct a crop that has been avoided by some buyers. It was the association of cotton…

At a time of the resurgence of the Ebola epidemic, focus on the Institute of Applied Biological Research in Guinea (Irbag) in the Kindia region, 135 km from Conakry. It is located on the grounds of the former Institut Pasteur, which was founded in 1922 by Dr. Calmette, who mainly owed the tuberculosis vaccine. It is a jewel of colonial architecture, its archives are full of treasures for historians.…

The Congolese government has just faced debts from economic operators who have pre-financed the state's works. Although the requirements were revised, they were only partially settled. Operators believe it will be difficult to revive the national economy with the small domestic commercial debt paid to them. They call for arbitration by the head of state for a final solution to their problem.…

a minimum of 15 civilians massacred in Bulongo, not far. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Beni's territory was once again the target of an attack by an armed group. On the night of Sunday to Monday, March 15, at least 15 civilians were massacred in Bulongo, a neighboring municipality located in the eastern part of the country. ADF fighters are suspected of being behind this killing. In a subsequent demonstration, two protesters were killed by security forces. In the wake of the killing, young people from…

Three Nigerian academics kidnapped in third kidnapping. Gunmen on motorcycles stormed a primary school in the northwestern Nigerian state of Kaduna and kidnapped three teachers but no children, a government official said on Monday after the fifth school abduction in three months. It was the first attack on an elementary school in a wave of such attacks in which more than 700 people have been abducted since December, and it comes just four days after 39 students were abducted from the Federal College of Forestry…

Joseph Kignoumbi Kia Mboungou. Head to Congo-Brazzaville, and start on Monday, March 15, our series of interviews dedicated to the presidential candidates on March 21, that is, next Sunday. Seven candidates are underway and RFI is giving them the floor. We start with Joseph Kignoumbi Kia Mboungou, independent candidate. He has already presented himself in 2002, 2009 and 2016. He is thus trying his luck again for the fourth time, while expressing fear of "biased" choices. He answers Florence Morice's questions. “Politics…

Libya funding of the brand new authorities.Libyan Prime Minister Abdel Hamid Dbeibah and his government for national unity, which are to steer the transition until the elections scheduled for December 24, were sworn in on Monday, March 15. Abdel Hamid Dbeibah was appointed on charges of corruption more than a month ago, on February 5, as part of a UN-sponsored political process to lift Libya out of a decade of chaos and violence. Prime Minister Abdel Hamid Dbeibah, his 32 ministers and his two deputy prime ministers have…

Violence is rising.Elementary school students and teachers were abducted by gunmen on Monday in the Nigerian state of Kaduna, according to a government official.

Kenya and Somalia were to meet before the International Court of Justice in The Hague on Monday and for ten days. The demarcation of their maritime border is at stake when significant natural resources lie at sea, but Kenya ultimately decided it would not argue. In a two-page letter sent to the court register last Thursday, the Kenyan justice minister explains his last-minute retreat: technical limitations related to the health situation, delays in the preparation of hearings given the pandemic, but also the presence on…