Author: Editorial Staff

THE world’s longest-standing leader, President Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea, will run for office again in November elections, his party announced on Friday, likely extending a 43-year tenure that began when he snatched power in a 1979 coup. The rule of Obiang, 80, has been marked by torture of political opponents, sham elections, and corruption, rights groups and foreign powers say. Obiang denies such charges. Under him, the West African country has become increasingly reclusive and reliant on oil and gas, which provide about three quarters of state revenues. The money lines the pockets of those close to the president…

SOUTH Africa’s state prosecutor decided against pressing charges of sexual assault against Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana. ‘The decision follows a thorough assessment of all available evidence and after consultations with the complainant who expressly did not wish to proceed with the case despite being offered all the necessary support,’ the National Prosecuting Authority said in a statement reported by Bloomberg on Friday. Godongwana was accused last month of sexual assault by an employee at the Kruger National Park who was offering massage services to guests in their rooms. The minister’s office issued a statement at the time denying the allegation.…

A CONSORTIUM led by Ethiopian Airlines is the preferred bidder for shares in new Nigerian airline Nigeria Air, the country’s aviation minister said on Friday. The airline was one of President Muhammadu Buhari’s 2015 election campaign promises. Ethiopian Airlines will own a 49 percent stake in the new airline, while the Nigerian Sovereign Fund will take 46 percent and the Nigerian federal government the remaining 5 percent. Aviation minister Hadi Sirika told reporters that Buhari’s cabinet was expected to sign off on the shareholding plan in the next few weeks. Nigeria Air would have an initial capital of $300 million…

AN air traffic control strike grounded flights in and out of West and Central Africa on Friday, causing chaos for passengers travelling to Europe, the United States and inside the continent. Staff at the Agency for Aerial Navigation Safety in Africa and Madagascar (ASECNA), which regulates air traffic control across 18 countries, stopped working on Friday during a dispute over working conditions and pay, defying court rulings and government bans barring them from doing so. On Friday night, a busy one for travel, flights to and from Europe and the United States were halted, said Reuters’ reporters at Senegal’s Blaise…

THE race to recycle is gaining momentum in Ghana. Throughout the country, informal workers known as waste pickers clean up communities and natural areas. Their work is vital, the country has big plans to modernise the industry and improve conditions of workers. The World Economic Forum’s (WEF’s) Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP) and SAP is creating a cohesive group of more than 2,000 waste pickers and using technology to measure the quantities and types of plastic that they collect. This data is then analysed alongside plastic prices that local and international buyers use in purchasing throughout the value chain. By…

NEW figures from Kenya’s National Bureau of Statistics show the United States has overtaken Uganda as the largest buyer of Kenyan goods. The numbers from Kenya’s National Bureau of Statistics show that between January and June 2022, Kenya’s exports to the United States totalled KSh38.8bn (about $321 million). Uganda’s imports from Kenya dipped to about $300 million. According to the report, the jump was caused mainly by increased sales of Kenyan clothing apparel to the US Economists such as Ken Gichinga say the figures are a sign of Kenya’s deepening bilateral relationship with the US, including increased direct flights to…

THERE was a festive mood with music, food and decorations at Zimbabwe’s State House last Friday as Chinese investors signed a deal to build a US$2.8bn battery metals industrial park. Zimbabwean authorities say the lithium, platinum and nickel production will be used to make solar batteries. President Emmerson Mnangagwa said the project, about an hour’s drive northwest of Harare, would help turn around the decline of Zimbabwe’s economy. ‘The mines-to-energy park will augment my government’s thrust of value addition and beneficiation of minerals, as well as bolster the crucial role that minerals’ value chain plays in the national industrialization agenda,’…

ZIMBABWE received 352,719 tourist arrivals in the first half of the year, up 115 percent from 164,062 tourist arrivals the country had during the same period last year, according to Environment Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu. He said tourism is on a growth trajectory following the relaxation of Covid-19-induced travel restrictions and lockdowns, with tourist receipts increasing by 121 percent in the first months of the year to US$337.5 million, compared to US$152.8 million during the same period last year. Ndlovu, whose portfolio also covers tourism, said domestic entries into national parks rose 90 percent from 90,909 in 2021 to 172,481 during…

THERE is a global demand for Tanzania’s thermal coal whose trade, until recently, was primarily regional, as the country traded coal to its neighboring countries. This rise in demand is a result of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. Europe, which is typically dependent on Russia for its thermal coal and natural gas has had to look elsewhere for this pollutant energy source. According to the Brussels-based think-tank Bruegel, Russia typically supplies about 70 percent and 40 percent of the bloc’s natural gas. The war has affected this supply chain, prompting an energy crisis all across Europe. The continent,…

GUINEA’s ruling military junta has accused the president of the West African regional bloc Ecowas of ‘lies’ over his call for sanctions on Conakry if it seeks a three-year transition back to civilian rule. Senior junta figure Colonel Amara Camara said Thursday: ‘Crude lies and intimidation are backward steps that dishonour [Economic Community of West African States chairman Umaro Sissoco Embalo] and at the same time tarnish Ecowas’s image.’ At the end of July, Embalo said he had convinced Guinea’s junta to hasten the return to democracy. However, speaking to RFI in New York on Wednesday, Emablo said three years in power…