JOHANNESBURG — South African mining sector says it has lost 213 employees in 2020 and 162 in the first quarter of 2021 due to COVID-19. The Minerals Council of South Africa said this on Wednesday. The Minerals Council said that of the industry’s 473,750 employees, to date there had been 32,908 positive COVID-19 cases. Even though the levels of the pandemic had declined, people need to exercise extreme caution. “COVID-19 will not take a break...
President Muhammad Buhari said the shrinking of the Lake Chad has adversely affected the lives of more than 30 million people. President Buhari, who spoke at the State House in Abuja, while hosting the President of the Republic of Chad, Marshal Idris Deby Itno, on a one-day official visit, also pointed out that the lake had lost more than 90% of its original size to the shrinking. According to a statement issued by his Special...
ADDIS ABABA — The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa has reached 4,154,938 as of Friday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said. The Africa CDC, the specialised healthcare agency of the African Union (AU), said the death toll related to the pandemic stood at 111,318, while 3,723,621 patients across the continent have recovered from the disease. South Africa has lost 52,535 lives to COVID-19, the most among African countries,...
By John Campbell Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou, set to step down after two terms in office, was last week awarded the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership. The chair of the Mo Ibrahim Prize Committee, Festus Mogae, a former president of Botswana and himself a recipient of the prize, said that Issoufou had “led his people on a path of progress.” The committee noted that Issoufou had faced “severe political and economic issues.” Niger in the best of times...
By Nolan Quinn ____ President John Magufuli’s death at sixty-one years of age followed a familiar pattern among Africa’s putative strongmen: denials that he was sick followed by secrecy as to the circumstances of his dying and where it happened. Magufuli, like other African heads of state, apparently sought treatment outside his own country, rumor had it either in Kenya or India—perhaps both. Vice President Samia Suluhu, announcing the president’s death yesterday, said the president died from a heart...
Tanzanian President, John Magufuli has died at the age of 61 from a heart condition. The Vice President, Samia Suluhu Hassan, said this in an address on state television on Wednesday. The news of his death broke out after days of uncertainty over his health and whereabout. According to the Vice President, “It is with deep regret that I inform you that today on the 17th of March, 2021 at 6 pm we lost our...
ABUJA — Nigerian Comedienne Emmanuella has won Nickelodeon’s Kids Choice Award 2021, for Favourite African Social Media Star. She posted this on her Instagram handle and thanked her family and fans for their massive support. She wrote: “Congratulations to me as I won the Favourite African Social Media Star category at the Nickelodeon’s Kids’ Choice Awards 2021. I am so happy to be a winner, thank you! To all my fans out there, I say...
By Michelle Gavin _____ As the crisis persists in Ethiopia, the government in Addis Ababa aims to draw clear lines for the international community, positioning itself as a cooperative partner (after months of obstruction) in addressing the humanitarian crisis in Tigray, but also deeming any mention of Amhara forces in Tigray inappropriate interference in its internal affairs while continuing to largely ignore the issue of Eritrean troops in Ethiopian territory. These delineations are unpersuasive, but for now it appears...
Addis Ababa — The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa has reached 3.91 million as of Wednesday afternoon, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said. The Africa CDC, the specialised healthcare agency of the 55-member African Union (AU), said the death toll related to the pandemic stood at 104,382, while some 3.50 million patients across the continent have recovered from the disease. The Africa CDC noted that the most affected countries...
Fourteen people were brutally murdered on Feb. 16 in an apparent attack on a religious site in a Central African Republic town, a human rights group said on Thursday. “Testimonies, satellite imagery and photographic analysis confirm the killing of 14 people last week in a religious site in Bambari,” Amnesty International said in a statement. Violence escalated ahead of the Dec. 27 elections after a coalition of six militant groups, which control two-thirds of the...
