Africa

The recent release of hostages in Mali raises hopes that more hostages will be released. Several Malians and six Westerners are still in the hands of the jihadists in the Sahel. Among them is the Colombian nun Gloria Cecilia Argoti, known as "Sister Gloria". The Colombian nun was abducted on February 7, 2017 in Karangasso, in the Sikasso region of southern Mali. She then appears in two videos, including one with French-Swiss Sophie Pétronin, who was released Thursday night. That was in September 2018. Since then, there is…

Thousands of opposition activists and sympathizers gathered on Saturday, October 10, at the Félix-Houphouët-Boigny Stadium in Abidjan for a large rally against Alassane Ouattara's candidacy for a third term and for environmental reform. elections before the October 31 presidential election. as reported from Abidjan, Henri Konan Bédié once again condemned the "violation of the Constitution" and accused Alassane Ouattara in particular of "high treason" and the Constitutional Council of "perjury." "The RHDP's dictatorship…

Gorée, the historic island off Dakar, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, had banned the arrival of non-residents to protect against the coronavirus pandemic. A closure that had stifled the island's economy. This Saturday, October 10, eight boats out of twelve of the Dakar-Gorée line will be restored to the great delight of the people. as reported from Dakar, Camera around their necks, Congolese students stroll through the shady alleys of the island of Gorée. They have been waiting for this…

The International Monetary Fund held a virtual meeting on Friday, October 9, on the impact of coronavirus in Africa in the presence of its CEO Kristalina Georgieva. According to the latter, economic support released in recent months is significant, but it remains insufficient to help the continent emerge from the crisis. According to the IMF chief executive, the institution has already released nearly $ 26 billion this year. This is ten times more than what the IMF releases on average each year for loans. But the needs…

"Pink October" is the month in which the campaign against breast cancer is the first cancer to spread in Senegal. As every year, the Senegalese anti-cancer league organizes free consultations in Dakar for early detection of breast cancer. By the first week, more than 1,000 women had walked in front of the volunteer doctors. as reported from Dakar, In front of a medical truck, a dozen women are sitting in a tent, the chairs well separated from each other. Khady Gueye, 24, is waiting his turn to take advantage of the…

Marshal Khalifa Haftar's private plane landed in Istanbul twice in July last year. The Falcon 900 also landed during the same period in Abu Dhabi and then at the private Emirati airport Al Batine, reserved for business people. This private jet attracts the attention of "flight tracking" enthusiasts who monitor flights in real time and track their movements. Usually this plane is used by Marshal Khalifa Haftar, but more often and more it is used by his relatives for human trafficking and money laundering. This episode in…

Available! Finally free! Soumaïla Cissé, Sophie Pétronin and the other hostages are reunited with their families. Also the senior figures from the IBK regime who were arrested during the coup regain freedom while the Malays regain a government and Mali, its rights and powers within ECOWAS. Can we therefore consider that everything is in order and that this country can now resume a normal life?No alas! No! But before we…

Switzerland's foreign ministry said on Friday that a Swiss woman held hostage in Mali had been killed by an Islamist group. The ministry said it had been informed by French authorities that the hostages had been "killed by kidnappers from the Islamist terrorist organization Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam Muslimeen about a month…

Author of a corpus of thirty books in which fiction co-exists with poetry and essays, the Congolese Alain Mabanckou is also a professor of literature in California. In the fall, the author publishes "Rumors of America," a collection of essays, halfway between sociological reflections and journalistic chronicles that tell American life and its turbulences. “I came to literature from excessive loneliness and lived in Africa as the only child who carried amazement in his dreams. And then there was this kind of fear of…

The release on Thursday night of the four hostages in Mali, Soumaïla Cissé, Sophie Pétronin and the two Italians, Nicola Chiacchio and father Pier Luigi Maccalli, came after long and difficult negotiations with a long uncertain outcome. A ransom would have been paid and many jihadists were released by the Malian authorities. A look back at what we know about the negotiations and the compensation required. with our correspondent in Bamako, On April 5, a few days after the kidnapping of Soumaïla Cissé, the then Prime…