The president of Uganda has created this new sort of task force to help crime. Crime rates have been out of control in the city of Kampala. The people have murdered High profiles such as State prosecutor Joan Kagezi, Former police spokesman Andrew Felix Kaweesi, Politician Ibrahim Abiriga ,and Police officer Mohammad Kirumira, who was outspoken about corruption in the… Read more »
In our series of letters from African journalists, Lamin Cham, editor of The Gambia’s Standard newspaper and a former BBC reporter, explains why he wants to testify at the new truth and reconciliation commission. Our former President Yahya Jammeh went into exile more than 18 months ago, but many Gambians are still haunted by the legacy of his brutal two-decade… Read more »
Uganda’s government is a creating a new security force to combat soaring levels of crime, but critics fear it could become a law unto itself, writes the BBC’s Patience Atuhaire from the capital Kampala. Zarake Maria Goretti sits on the grass after giving her blood samples for her medical check-up. The 22-year-old is one of thousands who turned up at… Read more »
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa has defended his economic policy, saying “painful reforms” are necessary to get the southern African country out of economic stagnation. “Yes, the medicine is harsh, but the patient requires it in order to live,” Mr Mnangagwa said, quoting former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, in an article in the Financial Times. He said that his administration… Read more »
It is not clear what the aims of the conference in the Italian city of Palermo are, other than to keep Libya on the international agenda. The country’s stability – however it may come – remains crucial to Europe’s continued policy to reduce illegal migration from there. Europe is not united over how to move forward on Libya. In the… Read more »
A spectacular $130m (£100m) “heist” at a bank in South Africa has provoked a furious political storm, revealing how deeply corruption is now entrenched in local government and beyond, and showing how hard it may be for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government to root out the graft and mismanagement that flourished under his predecessor Jacob Zuma. The losses at VBS are… Read more »
Tanzanian authorities have deployed the military to buy cashew nuts from farmers to solve a row over prices. President John Magufuli had given traders a Monday deadline to buy the crops at government-approved rates. Farmers had halted sales of their harvests for weeks, saying offers from private traders were too low. Critics have accused the president of trying to use… Read more »
Pressure is growing on Germany and the UK to return to Africa skulls taken as trophies and for discredited racial research more than a century ago, writes the BBC’s Damian Zane. A Tanzanian based in Germany, Mnyaka Sururu Mboro, has been searching for the lost skull of Mangi Meli for 40 years. Mangi Meli, a chief from the north of… Read more »
Rwanda has pardoned more than 2,000 prisoners, including a top opposition figure. Victoire Ingabire, of the FDU-Inkingi party, has been serving a 15-year jail term for threatening state security and “belittling” the 1994 genocide. She has been a leading critic of President Paul Kagame and says her trial was politically motivated. Mr Kagame has won praise for reforming Rwanda’s economy… Read more »
Amnesty International said in a report that the suspects, including women and children, were beaten, water-boarded and forced into stress positions. The cases allegedly happened between 2013 and 2017, and dozens of detainees died as a result, it added. Cameroon has denied the allegations, saying Amnesty was being used as a Boko Haram “propaganda tool”. Information Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary… Read more »