Africa
Togo coronavirus cases surpass 1,000
Togo’s tally of COVID-19 cases reached 1,001 on Wednesday with 13 new cases reported in the last day, according to the latest report from the Health and Public Hygiene Ministry. The post Togo coronavirus cases surpass 1,000 appeared first on TODAY. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share of Internet revenue.
Heirs Holdings names new group executive director
Pan-African investment company, Heirs Holdings, has announced the appointment of Dan Okeke as Group Executive Director. The post Heirs Holdings names new group executive director appeared first on TODAY. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share of Internet revenue.
Arrested Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga freed
Zimbabwean top writer and Booker Prize nominee, Tsitsi Dangarembga, was freed on bail on Saturday following her arrest during anti-government protests a day earlier, an AFP journalist in court said. Dangarembga, 61, was charged with incitement to commit violence and breaching anti-coronavirus health regulations after staging a two-women demonstration in Harare which coincided with the second anniversary of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s disputed election. She was taken away from a street corner in the upmarket Harare suburb of Borrowdale alongside another protester and hauled into a truck full of police armed with AK-47 rifles and riot gear. Police had banned the protests called by opposition politician Jacob Ngarivhume, head of a small party called Transform Zimbabwe, against alleged stat...
Security forces head off anti-government protests in Zimbabwe
Streets were deserted and businesses shut in Zimbabwe’s two main cities on Friday after security forces were deployed to prevent anti-government marches called by activists over corruption and economic hardship. Protesters stayed away. Job Sikhala, an opposition lawmaker and one of the protest organisers, said the heavy security presence showed a state afraid of its citizens. He added: “Protracted demonstrations will be the way forward.” He is among more than a dozen activists who are in hiding and who police say they are seeking for promoting Friday’s protests. In Bulawayo and central Harare, the capital, businesses were shut as police and soldiers patrolled the streets. Shops also stayed shut in some Harare townships, including Mbare – a hotbed of past protests. President Emmerson Mnanga...
OECD: South Africa economy could contract 8.2% if second coronavirus wave hits
South Africa’s economy could contract 8.2% this year, and grow just 0.6% in 2021, if a second wave of COVID-19 cases hits the country and its main trading partners, the OECD said on Friday. If a second wave of infections is avoided, the economy will contract 7.5% in 2020 before rebounding 2.5% next year, the OECD said in a report on Africa’s most industrialised economy. South Africa was in recession before the pandemic struck, with recurring power cuts by struggling state utility Eskom and weak business confidence dampening economic activity. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government has promised to fast-track reforms to raise economic growth potential, but some investors are becoming restless about the pace of change. “South Africa cannot afford to delay reforms. It is essential to undertake...
Zimbabwean novelist Tsitsi Dangarembga arrested during banned protests
Police in Zimbabwe on Friday arrested internationally-acclaimed novelist Tsitsi Dangarembga as they enforced a ban on protests coinciding with the anniversary of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s election. Dangarembga, 61, was taken away in a police truck as she demonstrated in the upmarket Harare suburb of Borrowdale alongside another protester, an AFP photographer saw. Streets in the centre of the city were largely deserted as police and soldiers set up checkpoints to prevent entry. Opposition politician Jacob Ngarivhume, head of a small party called Transform Zimbabwe, had called for demonstrations against alleged state corruption and the country’s slumping economy The protests were timed to coincide with the second anniversary of Mnangagwa’s election, which the opposition says was a fraud...
Zimbabwean government agrees to pay $3.5 billion compensation to white farmers
The Zimbabwean government and former white commercial farmers on Wednesday signed a 3.5 billion United States dollars compensation agreement for the farmers. The money, which will be borrowed by the Zimbabwean government, is meant for improvements made by the white farmers on their farms that were acquired by government under the land reform program. President Emmerson Mnangagwa, speaking at the signing ceremony in Harare, said the agreement was a significant step towards bringing closure to the land reform program. Under the program which started in the early 2000s, government compulsorily acquired excess farm land from white farmers to resettle landless blacks. Government said this was meant to redress colonial land ownership imbalances that were skewed in favor of whites, and also to ec...
WHO: Hepatitis patients at higher risk of coronavirus
World Health Organization Dr Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Director for Africa says people with hepatitis-related complications are at a higher risk of developing severe cases of COVID-19. Moeti said this in her message to commemorate the World Hepatitis Day 2020, to increase awareness of this public health threat. World Hepatitis Day, observed on July 28 every year, aims to raise global awareness of hepatitis — a group of infectious diseases known as Hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E — and encourage prevention, diagnosis and treatment. According to her, people with hepatitis-related complications are at a higher risk of COVID-19 and must continue to receive essential hepatitis prevention and treatment services during the pandemic and beyond. “With political commitme...
Egypt female social media influencers get two-year jail terms
An Egyptian court Monday sentenced five female social media influencers to two years in jail each on charges of violating public morals, a judicial source said. The verdict against Haneen Hossam, Mowada al-Adham and three others came after they had posted footage on video-sharing app TikTok. “The Cairo economic court sentenced Hossam, Adham and three others to two years after they were convicted of violating society’s values,” the judicial source said. The ruling, which can be appealed, included a fine of 300,000 Egyptian pounds ($18,750) for each defendant, the source noted. SOCIAL DIVIDE Hossam was arrested in April after posting a three-minute clip telling her 1.3 million followers that girls could make money by working with her. In May, authorities arrested Adham who had posted satiric...
Gunmen kill 20 farmers in Sudan
File Photo Gunmen killed at least 20 people, including children, who were visiting their farms in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region for the first time in years, a tribal chief said Saturday. “Two months ago the government organised a meeting between the original landowners and those who took their fields” during the long-running war in Darfur, Ibrahim Ahmad, told AFP by telephone. “An agreement was reached whereby the landowners would return to their fields — but armed men came on Friday and opened fire, killing 20 people, including two women and children.” The killings took place in Aboudos, some 90 kilometres south of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur province, the tribal chief said. Around 20 people were wounded in the attack, he said. The death toll “could well increase, because some of ...
Nigerian government partially shuts Third Mainland Bridge after stakeholders meeting
Getty Images The Federal Government, on Saturday, partially closed the Third Mainland Bridge, Nigeria’s busiest bridge, for rehabilitation works after site inspections for traffic architecture assessments. The work began at midnight on July 24 as workmen use crash barriers to barricade the outbound mainland traffic on Adeniji Adele junction. They went on to line more barriers and signage on various other sections blocking off a section of the Oworonshoki bound carriageway. Supervising the closure, the Federal Controller of Works in Lagos, Mr. Olukayode Popoola, said that the traffic management and diversion architecture had been perfected at an earlier stakeholder meeting on Friday. Popoola explained that vehicles outbound the Lagos Island, at peak periods in the morning, would use alterna...
Chad army officers sentenced to prison for drug trafficking
Chadian army officers and intelligence officials were sentenced on Friday to up to 10 years in prison for drug trafficking, the state prosecutor and their lawyer told AFP. In January, a vehicle carrying 246 cartons of the opiate painkiller Tramadol, with an estimated value of 12.3 billion CFA francs (18.8 million euros, $21 million), was seized on its way to neighbouring Libya, a judicial source said. An army general, two colonels and a head of the National Security Agency were among 10 people sentenced in the capital N’Djamena. “Of the 11 defendants, six were sentenced to 10 years in prison and four to five years in prison, and one was released,” prosecutor Youssouf Tom told AFP. Those sentenced were also ordered to pay between $25,000 and $50,000, the prosecutor said. “The judge followed...
