This past week in the African country of Cameroon has been rather turbulent, as the process to elect their new president has gone underway. Incumbent President Paul Biya, who has been in power for 35 years, faced off against a coalition between two other stride-making political parties, the People’s Development Front (FDP) and the Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon (MRC)…. Read more »
Two Cameroonian opposition parties agreed a coalition on Friday to jointly contest this weekend’s presidential polls, a spokesman said, in an effort to dislodge six-term President Paul Biya. The announcement confirms rumours of an opposition manoeuver to try to defeat 85-year-old Biya at Sunday’s polls, but the new union will not include the main opposition Social Democratic Front’s hopeful Joshua Osih.
Maurice Kamto, a leading opposition challenger to President Paul Biya, claimed victory on Monday in Cameroon’s presidential election despite a government warning not to announce unofficial results. The dramatic announcement by the candidate of the Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon (MRC) follows Sunday polls marked by violence in restive anglophone regions, low turnout and difficulties staging the ballot in the conflict-torn… Read more »
Cameroon voted on Sunday in a presidential election marked by deadly violence in the country’s English-speaking regions and the cancellation of voting in at least one affected area over security fears. Cameroon has been rocked by a separatist insurgency from within its anglophone minority, who number around five million, since last October. They accuse likely election winner President Paul Biya, 85, of oppression and… Read more »
Cameroonians head to the polls on Sunday with octogenarian President Paul Biya seeking a seventh term against a backdrop of unprecedented violence in the country’s English-speaking regions. The vote follows a last-minute opposition unity bid to dislodge the 85-year-old incumbent. Two leading opponents have formed the first electoral union since 1992, but talks between the wider opposition field to create a “super-coalition” to… Read more »
Last week, a ferry on the waters of Lake Victoria in northern Tanzania. 136 deaths were confirmed on sight, and the toll kept rising out of the approximately 300 passengers on board. While this is a terrible tragedy, an event like this could have been easily avoided if Tanzania had access to more proper aquatic and computer technology. The author… Read more »
Election officials in Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday released an official list of candidates for December’s presidential election, formally excluding two heavyweight opposition figures. “Now we have finished with the candidacy stage, we are in the home stretch for the December 23 elections,” said electoral commission chief Corneille Nangaa as he unveiled the list.
Ugandan security forces on Thursday whisked Bobi Wine away from the airport, where his supporters were not allowed to greet the ragga star-cum-opposition lawmaker, after his arrival from the US where he underwent medical treatment. The singer, who has emerged as a popular voice against Uganda’s longtime President Yoweri Museveni, one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, was “unlawfully detained by military officers”,… Read more »
At least 136 bodies were retrieved Friday, a day after a ferry capsized near Lake Victoria’s Tanzanian shore, according to local officials. The MV Nyerere ferry sank with an unknown number of passengers aboard on Thursday afternoon near Ukara, the lake’s biggest island, which is part of Tanzania.
A gang of pirates took hostage 12 crew members from a Swiss cargo ship they attacked in Nigerian waters, the vessel’s operator has said. Massoel Shipping said its bulk carrier MV Glarus, with 19 crew, came under attack early Saturday morning as it transported bulk wheat from Nigeria‘s commercial capital Lagos to the southern oil hub of Port Harcourt.