Author: Editorial Staff

AS Islamic extremists intensified their attacks in Burkina Faso earlier this year, coup leader Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba urged the West African nation’s people to give him until September to improve things as interim president. A group of junior officers held him to just that Friday evening: calling his time up in a new coup launched on the last day of the month. Concerns already were mounting Saturday, though, that the latest political volatility would further distract the military and allow the jihadis to strengthen their grip on growing swaths of the once peaceful country. Burkina Faso’s new…

THE Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Friday condemned the seizure of power by a group of soldiers in Burkina Faso. The regional bloc said the coup came at an inopportune time when Burkina Faso had made progress towards returning to constitutional rule following a January military takeover from a civilian government. Burkina Faso army Captain Ibrahim Traore ousted military leader Paul-Henri Damiba on Friday, he said in a statement read on national television, the second coup this year in the troubled West African nation. It marks the sixth military power grab in just over two years in…

FORMER Zambian President Edgar Lungu has again urged the current president, Hakainde Hichilema, to waive his constitutional immunity so that he can defend himself against corruption allegations against him, days after authorities carried out a search of one of his properties. ‘I urge the president to institute the lifting of my immunity by going to Parliament to present a case so that I can eventually prove what crimes I committed,’ Lungu has claimed, according to statements picked up by the BBC. ‘He who denounces, must prove it and we will defend ourselves,’ the former president assured a group of parliamentarians…

A TANZANIAN doctor working in Uganda who contracted Ebola has died, the first health worker killed by the disease in the latest outbreak in the country, Uganda’s health minister said on Saturday. ‘I regret to announce that we have lost our first doctor, Dr. Mohammed Ali, a Tanzanian national, 37-year-old male,’ the health minister, Jane Ruth Aceng, tweeted. She said Ali had tested positive for Ebola on September 26 and died while receiving treatment at a hospital in Fort Portal, a town about 300 kilometres west of the capital Kampala. Authorities in the east African nation announced the outbreak of…

A REPORT by the UN human rights office finds systemic racism against people of African descent is deep-rooted and says urgent measures are needed to dismantle discriminatory systems. It took the death of a Black man, George Floyd, 46, at the hands of a police officer in the United States in May 2020 to draw global attention to the problem of systemic racism. There was a groundswell of global support in the immediate aftermath of the event, which has since largely fizzled out. The United Nations reports some countries have taken steps to address racism. But those, for the most…

THE African soccer confederation has removed Guinea as host of the 2025 African Cup of Nations because of inadequate infrastructure, the latest in a series of switches and delays for the continental championship over the last 10 years. The decision was announced late Friday night and after Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Patrice Motsepe travelled to the country to meet with Col. Mamady Doumbouya, the head of the military junta in Guinea who took power in a coup in 2021. CAF said its executive committee would meet in Algeria on Saturday to discuss the details of re-opening the bidding…

HOW do you bring consistency and improve decision-making at an organisation where more than 50 factories each operate on their own disparate systems with little to no integration? For one of the largest tea-producing organisations in the world, the answer rested in a total transformation of its end-to-end systems. More than 600,000 smallholder tea farmers affiliated to the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) are reaping the harvest of a silent technological rollout that has streamlined the operations of their factories, making the tea business more efficient and technology driven. Boost to payment efficiency, analytical insights The deployment of SAP by…

HOW shipping can contribute to a more sustainable future for all is the focus of World Maritime Day, celebrated on Thursday. This year’s theme – ‘New technologies for greener shipping’ – promotes innovation and solutions that support a transition in the sector. Maritime transport represents more than 80 per cent of global trade, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in his message for the Day. Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine –and the Black Sea Grain Initiative – have highlighted the vital role shipping plays in feeding the world. Curb shipping emissions ‘As shipping continues to connect humanity, it must play an essential part…

AUSTRALIA-BASED Atlantic Lithium expects to begin production at what would be Ghana’s first lithium mine by the second half of 2024, the company’s interim chief executive told Reuters. Lennard Kolff said in an interview that a recent scoping study showed revenue could reach nearly $5bn over the mine’s lifetime. The Africa-focused exploration and development firm commenced trading shares on the Australian Securities Exchange on Monday, four years after discovering Ghana’s first commercially-viable lithium deposit less than a kilometre off its national highway. ‘This is really an exceptional project, not only from an economics point of view, but a social one…

HEAVY gunfire rang out from the main military camp and some residential areas of Burkina Faso’s capital on Friday and a large blast was heard near the presidential palace, Reuters reporters said. Armed soldiers took up positions along the avenue leading to the presidency and blocked access to administrative buildings and the national television, which had stopped broadcasting, the reporters said. Military vehicles were also along several streets that remained deserted as residents stayed indoors. A government spokesman could not be reached. It was not clear yet if this was a coup attempt but it bore the hallmarks of other…