The trial of 14 people accused of plotting the assassination of Burkina Faso’s former president Thomas Sankara started on Monday, 34 years after he was gunned down in one of the most infamous killings in modern African history. Sankara – a charismatic Marxist revolutionary widely known as “Africa’s Che Guevara” – was killed in 1987… Read More Murder trial of former Burkina Faso president Thomas Sankara begins
Pope Francis on Sunday launched a two-year worldwide consultative process that could change the way the Roman Catholic Church makes decisions and leave its mark long after his pontificate is over. Proponents see the initiative called “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission” as an opportunity to change the Church’s power dynamics and give… Read More Pope Francis launches two-year global process for deliberations on Catholic Church future
Five more students who were kidnapped by gunmen from a school in Nigeria three months ago have been released after ransoms were paid, the school administrator said. About 150 students went missing after armed men raided the school in Kaduna state in Nigeria’s northwest in July, the 10th mass school kidnapping since December. Such kidnappings… Read More Bandits release five more students abducted in northwest Nigeria following ransom payment
Seven people, including six foreign nationals, died when some gas cylinders exploded at the SAS gold mine in Zimbabwe’s Mazowe district on Thursday, police said. The six foreigners were Chinese, Mazowe lawmaker Fortune Chasi said. “When I got there, the police were collecting the bodies. Ministry of mines officials and other government officials were there… Read More Seven dead following gas explosion at gold mine in Zimbabwe
Nigerian security agents on Thursday rescued 187 people who had been abducted by armed gangs in the northwestern state of Zamfara, police said, after authorities launched a sweeping security operation against the kidnappers. Since December last year, Zamfara has been at the centre of often violent kidnappings by heavily armed bandits who have targeted schools,… Read More Nigerian security forces rescue 187 people abducted in northwest Nigeria
Morocco’s King Mohammed named a new government on Thursday after last month’s election, keeping the foreign and interior ministers in place but appointing Nadia Fettah Alaoui as finance minister, the state news agency reported. In a monarchy where the king has final say on all major decisions, the new government’s main task will be to… Read More Morocco’s King Mohammed names new government
Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee,” the award-giving body said on Thursday. Based in Britain and writing in English, Gurnah, 72, joins Nigeria’s Wole Soyinka as the only two non-white writers from sub-Saharan… Read More Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah wins 2021 Nobel prize in literature
Moderna plans to invest up to $500 million to build a factory in Africa to make up to 500 million doses of mRNA vaccines each year, including its COVID-19 shot, as pressure grows on the pharmaceutical industry to manufacture drugs on the continent. African countries and the World Health Organization (WHO) have been urging drugmakers… Read More Moderna to invest $500million to build vaccine factory in Africa
